Dell Studio 1557

That is why most beautiful girl are hot. If your Studio 1557 occasionally shutdown for no reason, the motherboard must be faulty. Usually computer only behave like this if the CPU and/or GPU temperature are too high (reached the critical temperature).

I'm more to playstation than xbox. You should get your motherboard replaced since it clearly faulty. Change (again) the heatsink too. You have to fight if you want to get it replaced with new system but I'm afraid Dell will only replaced it with the same model which is 1557.

The only solution which already proved to fix the overheating problem is modded the heatsink with copper shim but this will void the warranty.

 

When it shuts down on a table surface, it's probably due to heat as well. The laptop would be warm to touch and the fan(s) would be on quite loud. Usually, a 'trigger' action would cause it to suddenly shut off say for example if the power cable is disconnected for whatever reason.

So I should ask them for a new motherboard and (another!) new fan and heatsink?!

 

Yes. Actually just explain to them about the problem (sudden shutdown). They should replace the motherboard & the heatsink. Or you can just ask for it. Since it shutdown by just disconnecting the power cable which is weird. Looks like ACPI problem. (I'm assuming you didn't disconnect the battery while using the external power) While your notebook have warranty, use it.

 

I'll do that (ask for new heatsink assembly and motherboard).

Before I ring them tomorrow, any more/other solutions I could/should try..?

Thanks for your help.

 

There is no other solution I can think of right now. If you have extra money, get 9-cell battery. Beside extra hour with battery, it will raise the notebook a little bit at the back hence providing good air flow. Good luck.

 

The heat from my laptop is literally scalding, and earlier it cut out while on a flat table surface...

My one year warranty isn't up, if I ring Dell and insist, am I entitled to a FULL refund??

And they say once bitten, twice shy, but did they solve the cooling issue with the Studio 1558?

Cos it's a shame, I do like this laptop - both functionally and aesthetically - but it's getting to be unusable. I can hear the fan spinning, but it doesn't seem to have any effect whatsoever anymore...

 

Did they replace the motherboard after our last conversation? If it is still cut out, ring them again. You can try to get full refund. I doubt it will easy though but at least they maybe offer notebook replacement instead. Anyway, just try ask for full refund & see how they react. At least if they offer notebook replacement, you can ask different model but similar specification, if it is possible.

I haven't visit 1558 thread in this forum for a long time but I don't found any 1558 have serious problem like 1557. 1558 is equipped with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 series GPU which is known to have low power consumption unlike our ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 series. That is why 1558 doesn't have overheating problem. As you can see the CPU temp on my 1557 when playing games is not too high. Just the GPU temp is high.

Yeah, it is a shame though. Fortunately, my 1557 don't have any problem since I bought it (except the high GPU temp when playing games). Yes I did change the motherboard one time but even with the old motherboard, it doesn't crash or BSOD suddenly for no reason. The reason why the motherboard is replaced last time is because when I reboot it, it produced beeps sound during POST (actually before POST, the screen just blank). Funny, because it only happen on that day only but I don't want to take any chances.

 

I will ring them first thing tomorrow and ask for 1) new fan and heatsink assembly and 2) new motherboard

And I will STRESS that if it starts overheating again, they WILL give me a refund or a BRAND NEW and LATEST Dell Studio 15!!

 

@ kizwan

I rang Dell and they will replace my fan & heatsink and motherboard.

I'm just wondering, should I have asked for a new GPU as well? Would that make much of a difference? My laptop often seems to overheat on when playing video...

 

You'll get new gpu when they change the motherboard. The GPU itself is embedded on the motherboard.

 

Excellent! Thanks. Fingers crossed this fixes the problem...

 

Don't forget to let us know how it goes. Good luck.

 

The offending parts have been replaced, and now my laptop is running (relatively) cool...

I'll see how long this lasts, because it ran fine for a while when I bought it, before gradually getting worse and worse, same again when I had the fan and heatsink replaced the first time.

Out of interest, what happens inside the machine that causes its cooling abilities to degrade so sharply over time???

 

I don't know but I bet poor heatsink design & low quality of thermal paste. I found the heatsink in our Studio is much "smaller" compared to my other notebook.

 

I think it's good-old fashioned dirt. I've had mine since January-ish....worked fine initially, the odd blue screen, but that's normal in my world. I had pretty much a fully-spec'ced lappie with the HD swapped out for an Intel SSD, 6gbs's of RAM, I had even put in the broadband card.

Around June it got horrible - I couldn't work for more than a couple of hours without it crashing....I used one of those cans of compressed air, some dirt came out, but all in all there wasn't much improvement. I was about to call Dell (something I resist usually due to the irritation levels introduced), but thought to try with the comp air one last time...for some reason a heckuva lot more crap and dust came out the second time, and since then, it's all been good. Note : I also removed the 5530 as I wasn't using it - so maybe that had something to do with it as well.

It's gone through that cycle once again in the last few weeks, and again it solved it...so maybe it wasn't the broadband card.

For the record, I work generally from home on a clean desk(!), and the house is clean...I think most of the problem comes from when I travel.

Anyway - just relaying my experience.

Cheers,

Digit100100

 

Yes, you're right. My old Acer Aspire 9420 also had overheating problem. I just disassembled it. I found the fan, motherboard & other parts covered with dust. I just clean it. The overheating problem doesn't occur anymore since then.

CPU temperature on my Dell is normal but I found the ATI GPU is a bit high. It is easily increased to 60 celcius. I think when the warranty is over, I'm going to re-apply the thermal paste with good one. Fortunately, it doesn't crash or BSOD for no reason. I use it for VMware simulation & other work. For gaming I use Asus notebook.

 

ok guys, quick question, i wann get a SSD in mine, but still need a 2nd data drive, anyone see a way i can add a second drive? i see you can get optical bay sata caddies but, with it slot loading is that gonna be possible?

 

I think it is possible. Yeah, 99% sure, I think so.

 

tell me more, i left my lappy at work, but its slot loading space is it not built into the frame?

 

To be sure, you need to open the notebook casing. The slot-load DVD drive should have the same size like normal laptop DVD drive. So the caddy should fit. If I remember correctly (from watching the Dell engineer working on my laptop earlier this year), the DVD drive can be detached just like normal laptop. However, I'm not 100% sure.

 

OK i just purchased a new SSD and will be doing a clean install of windows7 64bit. what drivers should i leave for windows to add and what should i install from the dell site?

 

Intel INF first = http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18494&ProdId=3172&lang=eng

Latest AMD (Video) driver = ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

Let Windows 7 load your sound driver.

Get your network,card reader,Free Fall etc.. drivers from Dells site = Drivers & Downloads

 

ok thanks mate, i was gonna grab the ati driver from the dell site, but this is better and later i presume?

 

Use the ATI driver from AMD/ATI website. Try Catalyst 10.10 (Mobility version) first. If you didn't experience any problem with it, stick with Catalyst 10.10. If you have problem with Catalyst 10.10, for example color down to 16bit instead of 32bit, install Catalyst 10.8 (Mobility version).

You maybe want to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver. It is recommended for HDD & SSD on AHCI mode.

Also, if you want to get full performance of your SSD, visit this thread for more information:-
Laptops w. Intel Series 5 chipset can not take full advantage of fast SSDs

 

thanks mate, on that link which file should i download, i cant seem to see a difference

 

Both are the same except the first one for multi-language while the second one is for english only.

There is a tip at my previous post about SSD with Intel 5 series chipset.

 

nice one, so i presume mine is a series 5 chipset and i need to read that whole thread

 

I'd go along with this. Sent my 1557 back for overheating about 3 months ago and it came back with new motherboard and heatsink. Idle temp then was about 45 degrees. Have been watching it creep up to around 62 degrees since, but yesterday cleaned out the fan area and its back to 45 degrees. I didn't do any disassembly, just put the vacuum cleaner nozzle against the grille on the bottom (laptop switched off) and sucked at full blast! No ill effects and temperature back to "normal" (for this model, anyway).

 

i have a Patriot Inferno SSD 120gb coming today, what would suggest is the best fix to get the faster speeds, i see there are a few work arounds

 

Why you assume yours have 5 series chipset? Mine have PM55 chipset which is in 5 series chipset. HM55 chipset also 5 series chipset. No need to read the whole thread. Just check whether your SSD brand is effected or not. I gave you the link earlier in case you want to check it if you have problem with your SSD. Anyway, just forget about it.

 

sorry if im sounding a dummy, but im skills are not great, looking under control panel i can see it states under system devices 'intel 5 series/3400 chipset family' & 'PM55 express chipset'. will look at the thread to see if the 'Patriot Inferno SSD' is effected. I do appreciate your help good sir!

edit. sorry again not seeing a list of effected SSD's

 

It is not a list actually. It just a discussion thread about people experience with SSD on Intel 5 series chipset. At the bottom of the first post, there is a link to Patriot Inferno SSD experience thread.

I just installed Intel Rapid Storage Technology on my Dell. Just want to share my experience. After installation, you'll need to restart your computer. After restart, at welcome screen (if you set password or use FastAccess), you will get "Free Fall" (this is related to HDD protection - ST Micro Accelerometer) messages regarding secondary drive is detected. Just click cancel because it just detect the DVD drive (to install new driver). This version come with control panel. It display the HDD status. I'm not sure what the driver does but should increase the HDD & SSD performance on AHCI mode, at least that is what I read.

 

nice one thanks for your findings,

 

hello 1557 users.., just wanna know how much is the battery back up u r getting.. mine is 6 cell and with high performance mode will give approx 90mins max..

 

I just installed Catalyst 10.11. As usual, whenever I updated to new version, I will run 3DMark06 benchmark to see whether the update increase the performance of the ATI Mobility graphic card or not.


Compared to Catalyst 10.8 score (4323), it just increased a little bit.

 

cant read that link?

 

Sorry, I just noticed HTML is off.

@altoster, on the battery usage, I got between 90 to 120 minutes.

 

I just corrected my previous post. HTML code is Off in this thread. Usually I use HTML code like this for pictures:-

HTML:

[URL='http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=57530&d=1288062109']
[img]http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=57530&d=1288062109[/img]
[/URL]

 

hello all ...
a small issue here (but very irritating), some times when i go to my computer or a particular drive, its icons are not displayed.. and the address bar on top is taking too long to load. i searched in google didnt find a solid solution.. but there are some guys with same issue.
this issue is not always observed ..
i have done a sfc/scannow in cmd and got a message like "windows resource protection found corrupt files, but was unable to fix some of them"
i am attaching the CBS.log which was generated as part of it.. i couldnt get anythng from tht.. hope u guys can..

note: when i switch off the thumbnail option in folder option, this issue is not noticed.
guys please help
thank you..

 

I don't experience this kind of problem. Maybe needs to rebuild the thumbs.db file. I'm not sure myself how to do it but deleting the file will trigger the OS to re-build the file. Scan your HDD with chkdsk also is a good idea.

 

chkdsk come up with nothing... any other ideas .. any utilities for disk check ?

 

Have you tried doing a repair from your Windows 7 disk?

 

hello all ,
i installed the new 10.11 ati catalyst drivers recently . i just overclocked my gfx card to 800/880 hz and got a whooping 3dmark score of 4815 which is the best score my system had ever produced.. max temp was around 78 degrees c.
i havent pushed my card above 800/880( saw kizwan clocks). how can we understand the absolute best clockrates.. and what will be the limmiting temp to watch.. ?

ty

 

i didnt observed the problem after tht.. will check ..

 

The only way to know what is the best clock is to increase it a little bit & test until your computer crashed, BSOD or you see a lot of artifacts on the screen. The highest clock the graphic card can go is different on each computer, even though it is the same model.

What is the highest GPU temperature when you played games such as NFS Shift? I really concern with mine. It reached 102 degrees celsius. I do hope the software which read the temperature is inaccurate. I just reported it to dell support. They want me to update BIOS & install their latest graphic card driver. I'm still using BIOS A05.

 

These drivers are really slow for 3Dmark2006



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With the 10.3 drivers I was breaking 5000 with the same clocks.

 

My ATI is now detected as ATI Mobility Radeon HD 545v. I don't know which caused it; the latest BIOS A08 or the Dell latest driver for video card. With ATI official driver 10.11 before the BIOS update, it still recognized as 4500 series.

 

hey guys question about updating the bios, im currently on a03 should i update right to a08 or do i have to update them in order. i only ask because a04 is an urgent update and is 7mb but a08 is only 2mb. why is it smaller if it has all the previous updates?

 

ya mine is also 545v now.. thats coz of the dell drivers.. it actually runs faster than 10.11 for me! performs really well..

 

also what other drivers will i need to install for video card etc