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    Inspiron 1420 impressions

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by stuckinasquare3, Aug 14, 2007.

  1. stuckinasquare3

    stuckinasquare3 Notebook Guru

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    Just got mine a few days ago after having it been delayed for about two weeks. The thing is pretty and very light. Granted I'm coming from an XPS M1710.

    My initial concern was the battery seemed to be a little flimsy. I got the 9 cell and it doesn't seem like its on their too tightly. Another thing that will take some getting used to is, there's no snap on the lid so when you open and close it, no latch is keeping it there.

    The audio ports on the front of the laptop REALLY bug me. I have my external speaker cable going underneath my laptop and coming out of the front which looks stupid I think. Also I disagree with the usb placement. I don't like having my usb ports on the left front. I like them out of sight for the most part

    Batterylife is excellent, I think. I took it on battery once and just read what Vista reported as my remaining battery life and it jumped around from 3 hrs to 10hrs. I have an integrated card so I think around 10 hrs is about right.

    Numero uno concern was having Vista installed. I just don't like it. It just feels slow and not stable. Could be just me but it's got to go. There are practically NO drivers though for the 1420 for xp on dells site. I found most of the ones I need except for the audio driver and then found this forum and figured out how to install the audio driver. I'm still a little nervous about doing it because of some things that may still go wrong (memory card bsods, hidden partitions). I guess I'll just wipe it with dban though, and start completely fresh with the XP home cd from my m1710 and pray it has the sata drivers.
     
    stuckinasquare3, Aug 14, 2007
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  2. j-dogg

    j-dogg Notebook Evangelist

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    i love having the earphone ports in the front remember its a laptop not a desktop its meant to take on travels. when im on the road id rather have my headphones plug right in front of me rrather then have to run the wire to the side of the laptop
     
    j-dogg, Aug 14, 2007
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  3. stuckinasquare3

    stuckinasquare3 Notebook Guru

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    Right, however, when I go to school I have my laptop sitting at my desk attached to my external monitor, external hard drive, external keyboard, external speakers etc. It spends most of its time there except for when I take the thing to class or the library.
     
    stuckinasquare3, Aug 14, 2007
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  4. crystalsunrise

    crystalsunrise Notebook Enthusiast

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    You can install XP, there are a couple guides floating around on here to help you do that.
     
    crystalsunrise, Aug 14, 2007
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  5. stuckinasquare3

    stuckinasquare3 Notebook Guru

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    Yes I've read them, I'm planning on doing it as soon as I get a few of my questions answered concerning memory cards causing bsods, etc.
     
    stuckinasquare3, Aug 14, 2007
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