Inspiron 1520 owners lounge

My 1520 shipped today!

 

Has anyone had any problems with the 1520?

 

Shipped to DHL Monday morning, Recieved by DHL at 5:56a.m. and has Shipped 8/28/07 and expected to be in my Arms by 8/28/07 by 3:00 p.m. the latest! now just need to reorganize room, buy surround sound stands, extra long stereo chords and then go Ape **** cuz I finally get my comp.!

 

I did and there is interference coming from the headphone jack. It's not severe, but definitely annoying when I have no music or anything playing. If I listen to music or play a game, I don't notice it.

Ironically, the only problem I had came from McAfee that was preinstalled with my laptop. I upgraded to the Plus-Care Warranty Package and it included a 36 month subscription for McAfee Security Center, which I had no intention of keeping. So moving along, I turned on my laptop for the first time, set up Vista, proceeded to log on, and then I received a BSOD and the computer promptly restarted. I was upset and somewhat scared that my laptop wouldn't work and I'd have to return it. However, after the restart it made me set up Vista again and create a different account. I did so and logged in no problem. Then Vista sent the error report to Microsoft and came back with a response. "Your antivirus software caused this error". Great.

I uninstalled McAfee and installed my firewall/antivirus software and haven't had any problems since

 

I JUST GOT IT!!!
i am finally a 1520 owner ..that was a fast shipment lol only 5 days!!


ill post some pics soon
i am soooo happy

 

I finally got it!
I thought it would ship in 3-5 days but I got it in only 2.

 

bahhh
i want mine already!!

 

Got mine today!! Bummer I have to work longer tonight otherwise I would be playing with it all night.

 

i am in the process of reinstalling vista .... i hate all the bloatware
also i would like to add that this machine has a hell of a cooling system..hasnt been nearly as warm as this gateway i am on...and it has been on alll day

 

well after browsing through 71 pages of this thread. I guess im going to get myself one..

 

can 1520 owners with 1440 resolutions who just received or are about to receive their comp keep all of us updated on the screen issue? I have my fingers crossed that the new batch will be okay.

 

Well I received mine on Friday and the screen is perfect.

 

I got mine from Dell's outlet yesterday. Spent all last night getting everything moved over and this morning getting it working
The screen is great. My old Inspiron 8100 looks dim and washed out now. Once the 1520 is setup properly I'll reformat the 8100, clean it up and fix a few things and my wife will get it for writing.'
I'm very pleased with my purchase.

 

How do you get the media buttons to control i tunes?

 

they control itunes automatically. or at least for me

 

I can finally join this thread! DHL just left my driveway, and I have the box sitting on my table. I'm almost afraid to open it......

I'll be back when it's set up and running. I hope that won't be too long, but I know nothing about Vista. Where's the go button????

 

*lurks in thread for 3-5 days*

 

after a day of playing around with it, i have no grainy screen that i can tell and it is an LG/Phillips Anti-glare 1280x800. i do however have some bleed from the bottom. overall, i am completely happy. also, no CPU whine or headphone jack noise

 

He he. Mine arrive via FedEx. It was very hard to put the unopened box in the truck and head to work before opening it. But I HAD to get my billing out before playing, er, working on the new computer.

BTW, I used PCMover software by Laplink to transfer over all my data and programs to the new lappy. Worked great and saved me many hours of toil.

This morning however was a different story. I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with Sprint support trying to change ESD's from my old Sprint wireless broadband PCCard to the new integrated broadband modem. What a hassle.

 

Well I ordered a 1520, in green and when I ordered they had nothing about delays... Well mine is delayed about 1 month Dell should be up front when placing the order. Any ways I called the 800 number to ask why it was delayed and they said the color issue. Any ways I got a free up grade to over night shipping.... so that kind of cool, but damn I want my lap top. BTW this laptop replaces my 1999 Dell 5000e 300MHz 256 ram 16MEG graphix card, 9 gig hard drive that I paid $2500 that finally died about a month or two ago.

 

well I stepped aside for a while from this thread because it became more of a future owner issues thread than a current owner issues... but I have few tips and tricks for interested gamers though

install the new Microsoft Vista patch for games and then install the newest BioShock Nvidia drivers for Vista32 from here.

enjoy Oblivion and Company of Heroes at 1280x800 with all settings maxed out (except AA off) at about 30-35 FPS !

 

Thanks for the M$ fix dude

 

So people, I got my 1520 today. Maybe I'll do a review of it sometime, but right now I just wanted to cry on your shoulders a little bit. Please keep in mind that I'm quite a noob when it comes to laptops, and it's my first ever laptop, so I don't really know what is normal and what is not.

There are many good things about this machine, like a lovely keyboard, wonderful paint finish and all, but I'm really saddened by a couple of "bad things".

My biggest disappointment is the high pitch sound - yes, I have it. After reading so many horror stories about this issue and having my fingers crossed, I wasn't very lucky after all Don't know what to do with it now - changing a motherboard might be a little complicated, so I decided to simply see if I can live with it. If not, well...hmm.

Another very unexpected thing came up when I tried to play a DVD. I popped the disc into the laptop, it spinned for a while and then just went silent. Nothing happened, it didn't start to play and "My Computer" showed no disc in the drive! Other than that, I couldn't get the DVD out, which was quite scary. The button just didn't work. I had to push restart, and only then finally got out my DVD. Any idea of what was that all about? Not to mention that simple video cd didn't play too - I got just the sound of it (my guess is that probably it is because some codecs are missing?)

The famous grainy screen is also an issue, but only when I view Vista wallpapers. Not sure how it will look with my own photos and other stuff.

I'm also missing User's manual for some reason and headphones

So...It definitely could have been just a little better.

 

The high pitch sound has nothing to do with luck or crossing fingers...
All C2D processors have it... it only seems that some people have bad hearing for the high frequencies.
So with my 33 years I might be "lucky" and not hear it that much...

 

Frida maybe you should send that one back. Mine has awful squealing in the headphone jack but otherwise it's totally silent. And the DVD problem does not sound right. But the default vista wallpaper is grainy. When I first booted it up I thought to myself, "awwww crap a grainy screen!" but other photos look great.

 

You should send it back for sure. Not being able to read DVD's results in not being able to reinstall your Windows and other crap. Talk about it with the Techsupport from Dell, I hear their pretty stupid so maybe you can get some money out of it

 

Where are all of the reviews we've been promised from certain members that have already received their 1520's??? I will be buying mine through EPP through my job and want to hear the latest about these lappies. Does the Xi-Fi sound card take care of the headphone problem? Do bluetooth headphones help in any way? I want pics, I want reviews, come on people!!!

 

Just got my Inspiron 1520 on Friday and love it! I got it for college (convinced Dad I needed all the extra bells and whistles for school....right) and Dell got it here in time.

I got the midnight blue and really like the color, however, it looks a bit different than what they show on the website. Fingerprints on the blue and all that, wondering what the best way to get them off is. Anyway, no grainy screen for me, pictures and DVD's have looked great so far. Really the only negative I can think of is the whining from the headphone jack. But when you're listening to music or watching a movie the whine kind of dies out. figure it's best to let it be and not call Dell....I doubt there's and easy solution at this point.

I haven't done any gaming on it yet, but it sounds like it should fare pretty well with the latest games. Suffice to say I'm very pleased with my laptop. Another fine product from Dell. For those of you still waiting you'll be very pleased when you get your laptop!

 

Woohoo! Got my 1520 today and so far I am loving it! I may do a review later, right now I'm getting all my games and what not installed on it. My screen looks awesome and I don't have any noise in the headphone jack! I can't wait to try out some new games and also some older ones w/ everything turned up!

 

yay, i got mine today. I got it on the day of estimated ship day.
The Malaysian workers stuck the "Intel Centrino duo" sticker on crooked. so was the Vista sticker. ya i'm complaining about that.

I wish they didn't install so many programs on the laptop though.. I don't even think I'll use them. Norton trial, bunch of Dell support, etc.

I think after I organize the desktop and uninstall some programs, I'll be very happy with my new 1520!!!!

Jet Black
Core 2 Duo T7300
1GB RAM(manually upgraded to 2 GB)
GeForce 8600M GT

 

I have a question about my CPU, it's probably a stupid one but whatever.

I was running CPU-Z a minute ago and it says my T7100 is a Merom processor, I thought it was an Santa Rosa?
Please help me out

 

Santa Rosa is the platform that the processor runs on, not the processor itself. Merom is the code name Intel assigned the processor, like Penryn is the code name for the die shrink of the processors slated to come out next year for the Santa Rosa platform

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrino#Santa_Rosa_platform_.282007.29

 

Allright thanks for the info!

 

Seems they updated the bios to A03, here are the fixes.

 

Can someone post a photo of a grainy screen?

 

I'll learn to post images as soon as you learn to use search...

 

Hello! I was wondering how big difference is it in performance between:

4GB DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 800Mhz (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
4GB DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667Mhz (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit

I see the my Santa Rosa CPU has 800Mhz FSB. Does it mean that it runs best with a DDR2 800Mhz RAM?

Laptop is: Inspiron 1520 with T7500 CPU

Thanks in advance!

 

Why should you use memory with 667 FSB if your computer can handle 800 FSB? The only thing of (real) concern is the financial part, are you willing to pay more, if yes I see no problems....

 

I heard rumours that the Santa Rosa CPU has only 800FSB on paper and that it doesnt make any sense to buy 800Mhz (pc6400) RAM for this CPU.
Anyone know anything about this?

 

Unfortunately, Santa Rosa does not support 800Mhz Ram.

the memory controller only supports 667.

maybe if somehow you overclocked it....

the fsb, however, is 800Mhz. probably the only place that benefits from this is the system bus speed, especially with communicating with the graphics card.

 

I should've joined this lounge awhile ago...

 

lambchops468 ---> Thank you for the answer!

Then its more reasonable to buy pc5300 ram then pc6400 ram?

Did I get it right?

 

Thinking about the FSB RAM ratio for 667 Mhz FSB C2D processors and 800 Mhz FSB C2D processors running on a 667 Mhz DRAM are 1:2 and 3:5 and eventually the only way to safely obtain a 1:1 ratio is by underclocking the DRAM frequency..... Having non 1:1 ratios only wastes up clock cycles....

And amdxp yes it is reasonable to buy pc5300 ram as it is much cheaper and anything higher you go wont be supported and eventually would end up running slower than the rated speed....

 

As you said, Santa Rosa does not support 800Mhz ... but is the FSB not supported and not the DDR. You can safely use PC6400 but will only work at 667MHz. This issue is happening because there is no 800MHz communication between the CPU and the North and South bridges which are communicating at 667MHz between them (DDR, GPU, etc.). The only component working at 800MHz is the processor.. unfortunately !

There's no way to overclock a chipset or the FSB

 

I am planning to buy a inspiron 1520 notebook shortly, but have a few questions that I hope someone here can answer:

1) How do I determine whether to get this laptop brand new or refurbished?

2) Which battery is a better choice, the 6 cell or 9 cell?

3) Typically, what price range should I aim for (I am moderately budget minded).? Also, if there any features y'all reccommend in particular, please let me know, thanks.

 

1) ur wallet will determine
2) 9 cell sticks out a little, not too much, doesn't bother me + u get more time with it
3) right now, i'd say if u wanna game - around 1500 if not more...

in particular for what? games, internet, office, what exactly r u looking for?

 

I'm a college student and need it a lot for internet and apps, perhaps some gaming on the side. I have a general idea of what I want, just want to make sure I get what is necessary.

 

then, get at least 1.5ghz core 2 duo, 1gb of ram(u can always get some ram later for a lot cheaper from newegg or any other place, dell is a big no no), and a 8400 or 8600 nvidia video card, depending on how much and how well u want ur games to run. also, the screen size: i have 1280*800 and absolutely love it

 

Guys, I am thinking about buying a 1520 also, but in the holiday times... Is the shipping and ESD still very slow? How long is the average wait? I remember when I ordered my desktop it took only a week and a half. How long on the average does it take for a 1520 to be the shippers hand? And I configured mine to my taste, (gaming) and it comes out to well $1300. Is there any discounts or coupons just like the $325 OFF over $1299 coupon? Will there be any during the holiday season? I am thinking around November.

 

Hi 1520ers,

I have just ditched an Alienware M5550 on account of a fried go7600 and there is no AW service here in New Zealand, so I have ordered (yesterday) a 1520, which will come from Dell Australia.

This is a retrograde question since it is already on order, but I haven't been able to find what 1520s have in the way of usb2, firewire, and other sockets available. These don't seem to be mentioned in the data about the computer.

If anybody can spell it out for me, I would be grateful.

Colin D.

Jet black case, no camera
Intel duo 1.8 GHz
Windows XP Professional SP2 (no Vista!!!)
3 GB 667 MHz ram
Wireless 355 Bluetooth module
WSXGA Ultrasharp 1680x1050 screen
160GB 7200 rpm SATA drive
Dual layer CD/DVD drive
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics
Intel/PRO Wireless 3945 dual band 802.11a/g mini card
9-cell 85W/hr battery
90W ac adapter

New Zealand price $NZ 2046 (+ GST at 12.5%) - about $US 1534.