Inspiron 1520 owners lounge

I just had my 1520 delivered a little while ago and I am surprised how big it is.

I have a problem though, I just cannot get online! I may need to make a thread for this, but it is so annoying. can anyone help? I am connecting wirelessly, with the main laptop being XP. My m1330 connects no problem while the 1520 connects for a bit, disconnects and won't connect again!

 

How is your wireless configured? Are you using an open connection or do you have security on it?

 

I have it as WPA/WPA2 and there is a password. I am not sure what wireless card is in the laptop. I just found this and I am downloading it now, though I am not sure if it will work on this laptop, I am installing blindly.

Thing is, I was connecting fine, but the connection dropped the local network and the internet - I was trying to drag a large file from my XP computer to my vista machine. Now, the Vista machine isn't even seeing the network and I am tired rebooting machines.

 

Has anyone found any secret key functions?
I've found some on accident/working off of those accidents, and I'm starting to wonder how many secret functions there are.

Here's the thread, if you're interested:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=176331

 

My 1520 takes ages to connect to my Netgear Rangemax Wireless Router when its first starting up. I have updated the driver from the Dell website but that now it won't connect at all the first time but at least its fast when I restart the laptop. Are there any better drivers out there or is there anything else I could do?

 

I'm kinda in the same boat but I know performance isn't going to be an issue just quality of the build, my F20 is great, I really don't need to up grade but I also play games a lot. In fact to much the music aspect is suffering As for talking sound for these machines, since you mentioned studio you already know to get a quality sound card, my M Audio Firewire will be going to the new laptop if it ever shows up.

 

When you graduate

 

I called the other day and they said they were low on excuses!

 

Received my 1520 last night. Way ahead of schedule!! Ordered the morning of October 11th, shipping confirmation on Saturday the 13th, delivered on Monday the 15th. That's with standard (free) ground shipping too. The scheduled build date was Oct 22nd.

So far, it's excellent. Zero complaints. The 1440x900 display is absolutely stunning. One of the best I've ever seen. I checked, and it's the LG screen.

My only regret is that Dell issued new coupons yesterday that increased the instant rebate by $100 over the one I used. I've been watching these coupons for months and figured that $300-$350 off was about as high as the instant-off coupons went. I thought the $325 off brought the price down to a great deal, now it's $425 off! Just my luck. That's a screamin' deal! Oh well, I'm still quite pleased.

 

Just ordered this off the dell outlet page. refurbished but 809 bucks. Im going to buy 2 gigs of ram for about 70 bucks off of newegg. I wont care about the 120 gig harddrive for now. I got plenty of usb drives. But anyway, it wont get here til friday or monday.


Inspiron 1520 Notebook: Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache)
15.4 inch WSXGA+ Notebook Screen with TrueLife
9 Cell Primary Battery
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
MEDIADIRECT 3.3 Software
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
Jet Black
3945 802.11a/g Wireless Mini Card
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
120 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz (2 DIMMs)

 

I've had my Inspiron for about a month now. I've been happy with it until just yesterday the backlight started shutting off unexpectedly. When I sleep,and restart a session the screen is ok until it goes out again. Anyone have the same problem, or any suggestions.

 

guys, i'll be ording mines next month but i need to know, if dell is still have these long waiting times to ship it out? how long is the average wait? where can i find coupons? thanks

 

OK
I just ordered mine, got the confirm email Total Charges: $941.81

Alright lets see what I got....
223-0551 Inspiron 1520, Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, 1.5GHz, 667Mhz 2M L2 Cache $869.00
1 313-5395 Jet Black Color with Matte Finish $0.00
1 311-7213 1GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm $0.00
1 320-5461 High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1440x900) $0.00
1 320-5639 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT $0.00


and I am going to order another stick from newegg 1GB. is the 1gb in the 1520, 2 512MB sticks or 1, 1gb stick? THANKS

Order Date: 10/17/2007
Order Status: In Production

 

Wait times? What wait times?

I ordered my 1520 on 10/11. Estimated build date was 10/22. I received the shipping confirmation at 5:30 pm on 10/13 (Saturday). DHL delivered the laptop on Monday afternoon, 10/15, and that was with the free ground shipping.

Keep an eye on xpbargains.com for coupons.

 

With the 1GB option, you'll get two 512MB sticks.

 

Hey Zigby, I just ordered mine you see and I am going to order a 1gb stick from newegg. wtf am i going to do now? how many ram sockets does the 1520 have?

 

>_> sadly there are only 2 ram slots. I guess you'll have to go for 1.5gb ram w/o dual channel, or just return the 1gb stick when it arrives.

 

OMG, Then, dual channel it just would be like really slow then.... Will it effect any of the game performance at all? Would it be worth it if I just call dell tomorrow and tell them to install a 1gb stick in there instead of 2 512mb? or Will it be worth it if I call dell and tell them to install a 2GB stick in there... will they charge me the same price, or give me a little discount.

 

There are a couple of large threads around here discussing 'mismatched' RAM sticks. The verdict seems to be that even if they are of mismatched size, with the Intel chipset it will still operate in a dual channel mode. It's slightly different than a 'true' matched pair, but the performance hit is academic and has very litte, if any, affect on real world performance. Do some searches and read up on it.

My 1520 is running right now (typing this reply) with just the 'stock' 1GB, and it's fine. Tried a little Supreme Commander earlier tonight and it handled it beautifully. That said, I have 2,1GB sticks arriving from NewEgg on Friday. I'll stick these 512's in a desk drawer or give them away to a friend. Wasn't going to pay Dell $125 for no-name lowest-cost-supplier RAM when I can buy quality Corsair or Crucial memory from NewEgg for $60. I say those are 'quality' brands from my own personal experiences.

Vista is ok with 1GB. It will be better with 1.5GB, and better still with 2GB. I'm not a Vista expert by any means, but I have read a lot of discussions that seem to point to 2GB being the price/performance sweet spot for Vista. You can keep going all the way up to 2x2GB sticks in the 1520, but Vista (32) will only recognize about 3.5GB due to the limit of 32-bit addressing. It just gets more costly to do so (2x1GB = ~$60, 2x2GB=~$200).

I wouldn't bother calling Dell. Even if they could change your order mid-production, it's almost certain that they will charge you more than simply ordering another stick yourself.

My advice? Just spend another $30 with Newegg to order another matching 1GB stick and call it a day.

 

Purchased an HP 6500 the other day... wow... a nice computer, although, it is harder to get xp on it than dells. In addition, the darn thing gets hot. I took the temp and it registered at 107 under the left side... my leg was burning. Plus, it only has the 8400 GS.

Saw the dell deal and decided to pull the trigger and sent the HP back.

I went with the 2 gb ram since it was basically free ($125), without it, I would not have been over the $1399 for the $425 off, only $325 for orders $1299 and over.

I have another hard drive on order, a 200 gb 7200. Decision between the hd and ram, I picked the ram since a 160 gb 7200 at dell was $175. I paid $190 for a 200 gb drive.

I also have a copy of vista ultimate, so I picked vista basic for this computer (basically, I don't need another copy). Plus, I'll load xp on this, so I still won't use the ultimate until next year sometime (I like vista, but some of my business apps/hardware do not have drivers or updates yet).

So for $1298, everything shipped, I have a fairly decent computer that should last me a couple of years. I could not be happier!

Purchase date: 10/18/2007
Est ship date: 10/26/2007

Intel(r) CoreTM 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache)

Jet Black

2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz

High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1440x900)

256MB NVIDIA(r) GeForce(r) 8600M GT

Hard Drive: 80GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

Genuine Windows Vista(r) Home Basic Edition

Network Card and Modem: Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem

Combo or DVD+RW Drive: CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)

Sound Card: Integrated Sound Blaster(r) AudigyTMHD Software Edition

Wireless Networking Cards: Intel(r) 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card

Battery Options: 85Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)

Bluetooth and Wireless USB: Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)

Total: $1,108.97 (with tax)

 

Hello all,
glad to join the Inspiron 1520 lounge...i hope the receive it soon!
I went almost crazy choosing between it and the Asus G1S..
still not sure of my choice, i cant wait to see if i was right...

here what i choose:
Jet black
T7500
2Go RAM
160 Go 7200RPM
8600M GT
1440x900
9-cell battery...

hope i wont report any problems

 

does anyone have any info on how much of a beating these things will take? im curious as i want to take mine cross-country from australia to the uk and all through europe on the back of a motorbike in a pelican case. does anyone subject theirs to more vigorous transport and usage than taking it between work and home?

 

I recommend you always have it powered completely off when traveling on a very high shock vehicle like a motorcycle. Reason being is your weakest link with shock is your HD and you want to be sure no power is going to it so you get the highest shock resistance.

Other than that, backup your data due to the possible failure of the HD from high shock (though unlikely if you do as i said above)...

It should be fine otherwise if in a nice case (don't know what a pelican case is).

 

As a fellow motorcyclist, that sounds like an awesome trip. Have you ever seen the documentary, "Long Way 'Round" with Ewan McGreggor? You might enjoy it.

I'd think that vibration, dust, and moisture will be your biggest problems. Theft might be an issue too. So long as that pelican case can keep out the dust and moisture, follow the advice of the other poster. Make sure to shut it completely down so that the hard drive heads are guaranteed to be parked. This will be a torture test for that laptop. If it were my trip, I'd think about getting something designed for a more rugged environment like a Panasonic Toughbook. However, with a few precautions, I suspect it will hold up ok. I would take a few USB flash drives for backups. That notebook will be subjected to a lot of extremes. I don't know if Dell does any testing like this, but I would imagine that you will be pushing the limit.

When you're done with your trip, I'd love to hear about how it held up.

 

Alrights guys, I reordered my new 1520 and its much better than I taught it would be and cost. Came out to 1071$ from the 420$ coupon.
Specs are as follows
223-3191
1 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
313-5395
1 Jet Black
311-7215
1 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz

1 High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1440x900)

1 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M G
SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

 

my hard drive is noticably loud. I can hear it over my fans and can always here it clicking away. i tried to set it to max performance and quiet and dont tell a difference. should i call dell?

 

Try disabling search indexing.

Is your 1520 brand new? My 1520's hard drive was constantly busy and loud for about the first hour of up-time. I assume it was indexing. Now it's quieted back down and only seems to be active when I'm actually doing something.

Edit: Search is your friend. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=168425&highlight=hard+drive+clicking

 

i have windows xp and i already tried that fix

 

hmm, windows xp also has indexing, you should disable it in the services page.

 

yeah ive got the long way round on dvd and watch it religiously about once every 2 months. just hanging out for their new one, 'the long way down' in december. getting a few 8GB flash drives is a great idea. ive looked a the toughbooks but cant justify the cost for what i would consider such a basic system, i want something with a bit more power.

this is a pelican case:
http://en.peli.com/cases_detail.php?Case=1520

lockable, waterproof, crush proof and an unconditional guarantee. should do the trick.

 

any anyone else hear there hard drive? on my 700m it was pretty much silent except the fan. on this one i can hear it working pretty loudly. is this normal

 

Hey, I got a question for you - what resolution are you running on the 1520? I'm at 1680 by 1050, as it shipped. I am really trying to get used to it and it is weird seeing websites with all this space. Should I change the resolution?

 

well i'm using 1680 x 1050 and i love it.... my friends keep complaining they cant read a thing but i have no such issues... i love it

 

Can't wait to get mine, possibly tomorrow? I ordered on Oct 15th. Awesome to not have any delays.
Also, Dell hasn't charged my card yet? Is this normal?

 

Can anyone help me with this? I am trying to install a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook for the ExpressCard54 Slot under Vista, but it won't work... any ideas?

 

Hi people...I'm going to order the 1520 as I totally fell in love with it

however I have one major dilemma...

what colour should I get it in?

I really would like you to help me... I want it for professional use at university and later when I graduate to use it as a teacher
brown/white/yellow are out though - I don't like them

 

red, black or blue should do it... personally i'm a ferrari fan so thats y i got the red.

 

I ordered a 1520 earlier this week. I thought I was getting a good deal with the coupon with even though I would have rather had Win XP rather than Vista. Today I look at the website and you can configure the 1520 with XP! It had already shipped, so it looks like I'll be replacing Vista myself.

I just wanted to say that all the information helped me to make up my mind and thanks to all of you.

I've crossed my fingers for the several issues, screen, headphone, etc.

 

That is the best news I've heard all day! I guess that is why Dell was expanding the xp drivers over the past couple of months... good news... good news....

 

It's pretty stupid though. You don't any discount choosing Windows XP Home over Vista Home Premium, and you have to pay $125 if you want to upgrade to XP Pro.

Also...

 

At newegg even the OEM xp pro cost over $130... not sure what you are getting at here...

The fact that dell offers xp should be good enough for everyone. This means dell will ensure xp driver support for the 1520. That alone is great news...

Plus, now when we call with our xp 1520s the tech won't say, "We don't support XP. Sorry! Bye!" < click >

 

Now if only they'd do the same with the 1720 and 1420.

 

has anyone tried using a larger external monitor with their 1520? I'd like to buy one to use but I'm kind of unsure with the video output...would 1920 resolution be too much?

 

I'm considering ordering the 1520. I've been eying the Macbook for a while but the price to value ratio is kind of absurd for what Apple is asking. This is what I'm interested in then I'll post questions.

Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz
Vista Basic
Jet Black
2GB RAM
Glossy 15.4" display (1680x1050)
NVIDIA 8600M GT 256MB
250GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
CD/DVD Writer
Dell Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card
Bluetooth card
Integrated Webcam
6 cell battery

And I'm going to use my Logitech G5 Wired USB mouse

Questions...

1. I have a copy of Vista Ultimate. Would it be smart to just format the hard drive of the laptop when I get it and install my OS?

2. Are there any problems with the 1680x1050 screen? This thread is too big to search for an answer.

3. I'm opting for the 5400RPM hard drive, the 7200RPM is loud right? Is there a considerable performance boost with the 7200RPM hard drive?

4. Anyone with a system similar to this, what games does it run at how many fps?

5. I'm mostly using the laptop for basic use; Firefox, AIM, iTunes, MS Word. As well as watching movies and TV shows stored on the hard drive that are in standard 640x480 as well as in HD 1280x720. And some occasional gaming; Orange Box, CoD4, Gears of War, etc. I'll be fine right?

 

do you have the $450 off coupon?

I asked the same question regarding screen size, but I really think it depends on the person

you have basically the system i have, except you have twice the hard drive size

 

Yeah.

I just reconfigured with XP home and Midnight Blue shell case. I subtracted the N-wireless card and picked the a/g card.

 

My order date was 10/17/2007... estimated shipping date was 10/26/2007.

I figured I'd get the "your order is delayed email" so I've been looking for emails from "Dell."

An email came on 10/20/2007... your order has shipped! I'm like, wow... DHL has an est delivery time as 10/23/2007.

I've never ordered a personal computer from dell before, so I'm really surprised at how fast they had the computer built.... (I have ordered for a company, but that was orders of 20 to 50 Dells at a time). Now if dhl will deliver early, I'll be in business on monday. lol

 

Yeah jtmat, i ordered mines a day after yours (18th)
and mine is in the boxing stage, i called dell today and told them to hurry the **** up! lol and they said they would expedite the order. i choice the 2 business day shipping and i hope i can get it around this week.... I CAN'T WAIT!

 

Actually, I'm screwed... I ordered a HITACHI Travelstar 200GB SATA 7200 RPM hard drive from zipzoomfly.com... it won't be here until Thurs. I should have spent that extra $3 on 2 day shipping... but I had no idea the notebook would be built and shipped this fast. I just built my slipstream disk to install xp and downloaded the drivers to a cd... then thought of the hard drive I had on order... that killed the joy for me. lol

I never checked when mine went into boxing... I figured I'd give them until tues or wed and check back then. Dell is alright...

 

Ordered 18th, says estimated shipping the 29th lol ouchzors. Estimated delivery 11/5. Dell needs to DL some cheatcodes