Dell Studio 1557

That memory option is not for overclock though. It only work if you want to downclock it. It also not for power saving since the memory still consume the same voltage which is 1.5V if I'm not mistaken.

If you're feeling adventurous, try get DDR3-1600 & see whether it does work on 1600 or not.

 

Yeah figured it would just up the CL when set to 1600 like the old desktop overclocking days.

Im guessing the ram needs to be designed for it. (running 1600) before it would do that.

Or maybe its a motherboard limitation.


Sure is fun getting to mess around with it though

 

Regarding Win 7 Service Pack 1 for X64 based Systems (KB976932)
I keep getting nagged via Win update to install this but has anyone encountered any problems when installing this on their 1557.
I know it should be OK but any comments (bad or otherwise) would be appreciated before I go ahead with the install.

 

I have it installed without any issues.

I installed it after I upgraded to a ssd.Installed Win7 then SP1.

I dont know about installing over an existing windows 7 install though.

I would think it would be fine.

 

Anyone here run 3dmark Vantage on their 1557 yet?


Sure is a nice slide show :laugh:

Result


The new version 1.1.0 just came out and they opened the basic to free instead of $6.95

download here Download Futuremark 3DMark Vantage v1.1.0 | techPowerUp

 

Hi Kiz,
I have an overheating problem, especially with multiple servers running (db, application servers) and developing and monitoring servers in between. I have reinstalled my Win7, applied all the recommended drivers, but sometimes my laptop still hangs. Do you you think that your new BIOS can help me and if yes which parameters should I set and how? I have nothing to loose, because my warranty has expired and I am decided to go for another laptop if I do not solve this annoying freezing. Thanks.

 

The modified BIOS won't be able to fix the overheating & freezing problem.

What you MUST do are:-

• Reapply the thermal paste on both CPU & GPU
• Make sure the fan & inside of the notebook casing are clean from dust

What I recommend you to do:-

• Apply copper shims mod on the heatsink.

You also can buy 1558's motherboard to replace the current motherboard. It seems 1558's owner happy with their notebook.

 

And contact the seller before you buy.Hopefully they have one with a AMD 5470 graphics system.

 

I installed HW monitor and left it in one corner of the screen, to be able to check the temperature when the system freezes. In the last 3 days my laptop froze 3 times and it was quite surprising to see that the temperature was at its normal. CPU temp of all cores was always between 48 and 61, GPU was between 53 and 58, and SSD drive temperature was between 38 and 40 degrees of Celsius. Do you have any ideas, what it can be?

 

hello fedoo,
i also was having a lot of freezing problem, i didn't know what was causing it, everything seemed normal. i contacted dell support and they told me to format the entire hard disk and do a clean install of windows 7. I did so and now (for 4 months) there was no noticeable flaws at all. everything is stable, cool even with low level over clocking of gfx card.

 

This is what I actually did 2 months ago. I did not format the HDD, but I did a clean installation of Win 7 in another partition, installed all required drivers specified in this thread and everything looked fine for a couple of weeks when I was not using my laptop heavily. But when I started to use it daily for work, where I need to use a couple of applications together the freezing appeared again. It is not as bad as on my other partition where the system would freeze a couple of times per day, however it is still pretty annoying. I do not think that the freezing is related to any particular application, because this morning the system froze when I was using only MS word, outlook and chrome. But I cannot determine what is causing it, because there is nothing in the logs and I cannot reproduce it. A couple of days the system works fine and then it freezes 3 days in a row.

 

hello fedo,
ur issue is very much same as mine.. my system also use to freeze without any warning (regardless of what program was running). Try the way which i did.. back up ur data and format the entire drive.. and do a clean install if possible.. (tht worked for me. Note: i did a reinstall without formatting the hdd which resulted in the same issue. then i did the entire formating. the dell service guy also advised not to partition the hdd.. (i don't know the reason).
U using an ssd??
just curious,. hows the performance of the studio with the ssd in it ?

 

Its awesome.

I dont have the capacity that i had but man is it FAST.

I just took the WD Scorpio Black and put it in a USB 3.0 enclosure bought a flush mount pci express 3.0 adapter and all is good

 

I have bought an SSD a while ago and the performance is great. Win 7 start up is unbelievable fast and all applications that often touch HDD are much faster than before. The SSD which I bought was formatted and I only transformed existing system to the new SSD. I admit that it was not a fresh install, but a kind of image transformation using a special tool delivered with the SSD, but I do not see why and how it could cause the freezing. If there were bad sector on the hdd, then yes it could be the casue, but I had the same freezing on the old hdd as well as on the new sdd, and at the end also on a freshly installed win 7. I partition my hdd, but I use logical partitioning, what should not cause this freezing. Anyway, I have already wasted so much time with this laptop and its instability and I am determined to go for a different one from different producer. It is a big disappointment for me.

 

Hi, this may have been asked before, but I do not know how to search inside a thread.

Does the studio 1557 supports SATA 3.0? I want to upgrade my drive to the new SSD Vertex 3, and would like to know if I can take full advantage of the increased speed.

 

No its only SATA 2

 

Thanks for the fast answer! Guess I'll be going for the 180gb Agility 2. It's the same price, but 60gb larger.

 

Here's what I'm buying, in case anyone is interested:

Amazon.com: OCZ Technology Agility 2 Series 180 GB SATA II 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-2AGTE180G: Electronics

 

My experience with other systems and DELL's, is that DELL is very often the least bothersome. Still, unless one is somehow determined/bound to use a brand OEM installment, I'd recomend wipe (format) the sucker clean, and install a fresh installment of wanted OS. 'Secret' partitions can and will (ref: Murphys law) screw your PC and mind beyond any rational state.
If you've got a computer that freezes without no particular reason, I'll bet'ya there is a 'preinstall'-issue behind it.

Wipe the sucker clean, I say, and do NOT, DO NOT! Activate those 'free 30-day' trials of any 'OEM'-antivirii-programs and alike.
You will bathe in sulphur and acid if you do. Repent, and the Lords will forgive You.

 

i completely agree to your comment..
feddooo could try tht rather than the image transformation utility.

 

New BIOS, A09 is available.

Fixes and Enhancements

• Fix Lojack malfunction issue.

Coincidentally new BIOS for Studio 1557, SXPS 1645 & SXPS 1647 are released/available almost at the same time after this thread surfaced & it's just partially fixed their problem. I wonder if the same problem also occurred on our Studio notebook.

 

what is lojack malfunction.. ??

 

The Lojack was referring to Computrace option in BIOS. It's notebook tracking system. The service is only available in the US, UK, Canada & Australia.

 

New modified BIOS image, based on BIOS A09 is available at post #1711. Use at your own risk!

 

Thank you for your effort.

Could you describe or show the post where described main options please?

I can't find the GPU O/C options if any; what are the default core/memory speeds?

Thank you

 

The " Item Specific Help" in BIOS menu should explain what the option in question is for. You just need to navigate to the option & read the help text in " Item Specific Help" box. If the help text is vague, you can google it.

The modified BIOS A09 doesn't contain GPU overclocked ROM (VBIOS). This is because it makes the external monitor flickered. The default clocks for ATI Radeon HD4570 are 500MHz & 800MHz for Core & Memory Clock respectively (when PowerPlay disabled). When PowerPlay enabled, the default highest clocks are 680MHz & 800MHz for Core & Memory Clock repectively.

 

Anyone know how to test Stream? Someone just asked me about it which make me curious when it was used, which application used it.

 

The first (and only) time I have ever used Stream was with Cyberlink's video encoding.
It was something like PowerEditor or PowerDirector.

It would use the GPU in conjunction with the CPU to help render HD video.

This was on a desktop a couple of years ago and if I remember right it didnt help that much then.Maybe things have changed.

 

I noticed the Stream is missing (in AIDA64) with ATI Catalyst 11.3 & 11.4. I got it back with 10.11. In HD4500 series, only HD4570 has dual stream hardware decode. I wonder how good it is. Going to try it later.

BTW, I ordered Arctic MX-4. I don't know how I want to apply it on the GPU since it use thermal pad.

 

Did you get the shims for too?

Cause your going to need them because of the gap between the GPU and heatsink

 

Not yet. I'm having a problem to get it.

 

Try Isopropyl Alcohol. In the U.S., the strongest over the counter is 91%. You want the 91% as it will also evaporate faster. It's generally not sold in grocery stores but available at places like Walgreen's. It's going to take a lot of patience to clean it. You may want to make sure it's very warm and then remove it and clean it. Don't use paper towels as there are too many fibers and it catches and tears. Use a lint free cloth if you have one or an old T-shirt or even paper coffee filters if you don't. Don't use anything with any oil in it. You can apply a small dab of alcohol to a Q-tip, let it sit and gently scrape it off with a plastic credit card followed by more alcohol to clean it up. Make sure to air dry in case some came in contact with pins, etc.

 

@OneCool,

I have a couple of questions for you.

1. For copper shims, everyone are using 0.9mm for the GPU & 0.7mm for the video RAM. Can I use 0.8mm for both including CPU? Can I just adjust the gap using thermal paste?
2. OR the alternative is I just put copper shims on the GPU only? For the video RAM, I just keep using current thermal pad.
3. So, both sides of the copper shims; one to the heatsink & one to the GPU/CPU; I just "glued" them using thermal paste right? The copper shims won't move around after I secured the heatsink?

@MoInSTL,

Thank you very much for the tips.

 

Theres no need to shim the CPU just put new thermal compound on it.

If you want you can cut the one you have for the CPU in half and put them on the GPU memory to make up for the gap you get when you shim the GPU.

Just clean everything,apply paste to one side of shim and press it on gpu heatsink then apply paste to memory chips place shim on them,apply paste to gpu core,cpu core and place your thermal pads on gpu mem shim and put heatsink back on....your done

 

This copper shims are perfect right?

 

@OneCool, does the price too expensive?

 

It would be for me! Thats dam near $20 US for 2 little pieces of copper not to mention the shipping....

I made mine

 

I assume you bought 0.7mm & 0.9mm copper sheets/plates & cut it yourself. Can you suggest where can I get it?

 

No I cut mine out of some old desk top CPU cooler.The fin's on one of my old AMD coolers was perfect thickness.
I did have to polish them though.Used a metal polish called Blue Magic (I think thats the name)
Kiz if you cant get copper you can also use aluminum.It will work good too

 

I think I can use this. Cut the fin.

 

I has finished aluminum shims the heatsink (GPU & video ram). Using the (desktop) heatsink fin. The shims thickness is around 0.9mm to 1.0mm. I also applied Arctic MX-4 thermal compound. This is what I got while browsing (the current value, not the max):-


I did stress test the GPU using FurMark & I got 95 Celsius after 15 minutes. Huge difference than before; less than 5 minutes already 100 Celsius.

Is this OK? OR I need to get copper instead?

 

Are you saying its worse than before?

It was 95c after 15min.

And now its

100c after 5 minutes

 

No.

Before shims, GPU temp >100C in 5 minutes.

Now, after 15 minutes GPU stress test, GPU temp is 95C. I played shift (9-10 races), the temp not too bad but still high (9XC). Idle & light usages temps are not stable though.

Today I re-shims the heatsink with thinner aluminum. The idle & light usages temps are much better (stable). Room temperatures are 32C to 34C without air conditioner.

 

Thats not bad then

 

I'm satisfied with Arctic MX-4. The temps reduced in 5C to 10C. I didn't test any brand to compare but based on the result, I think I can recommend it. Easy to apply too.

 

Id say get the copper shim kit of ebay or whereever you can , then use ICD 7 compound and you should get even better results

 

I think both thermal compound perform the same. Remember, my room is warm, the environment is warm. I probably will try ICD7 on another notebook & compare both. I will get copper shims when I found suitable seller. Right now I'm satisfied with the aluminum shims.

 

BTW, I'm just guessing the cpu heatsink is aluminum. It's probably copper. How to know for sure?

 

Im sure its aluminum.

copper


aluminum



Two very different metals.Aluminum is a silverish white color and brittle, is refined to the state you see it.It is mined from a ore called boxsite.
Copper is very orangish red in color in its natural state and can patina to green over many years,very dense and soft.The density is where it gets it heat conducting ability.
Gold is actually the best because of its density and its make up of molecules but we all know why we cant use that

kiz unless your heatsink was coated in something im sure its aluminum .Did you sand down your shims to be flat?I noticed in your pic that the fins on that heatsink are tapered.

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I was confident it was aluminum until I read an article showing copper is silverish white color. Anyway, now I'm confident again it is aluminum.

I use sand paper to make it flat. The thick end was 1mm. The first batch one I didn't sand down properly. For the second batch I'm able to make it thinner. It's fit properly.