Just another 9100 review.....

Ok I see many others have commented so this may be very repetitive but here it is.

First let me say, after some thought, I decided that the best reviews (at least in my humble opinion) are the ones from people that try many models of a certain product. Cause the reality is, Ive only had one laptop. A powerhouse Gateway from 98 that was fairly large and heavy but a good machine that despite some problems that have occured, is still running. Now I have the beautiful 9100. Not much experience to compare it to. So I guess that though I can tell you why I like or dont like this machine, I cant really tell you why you should buy this laptop over all the other laptops currently available. I think people should keep this in mind when reading these personal reviews whether they are bad or good. I could hate this laptop for reasons that may be common among laptops that other people dont think about and accept.Ok Im getting really philosophical here. sorry. Ive been busy lately and havent had a lot of moments to ponder the universe in recent days.

Ok.

I was going to make this long and I erased it and decided to make this in summary form for easier reading. Your welcome.

Size:Used to it, dont mind it. Its a big laptop. Gets lots of comments from everybody at work about it being too big. I work around all Mac people so what do they know. [ ] I carry it to and from work and feel that its what it is cause of what it offers for the most part.

Weight: Fine but power adapter is quite large. And heavy. I just need to find a backpack that fits it. Im kind of outdoorsy/punk guy so finding one that fits it and isnt lame looking to me will be a challenge. The laptop doesnt FEEL as heavy as it LOOKS. I nice
surprise. And due to the power adap. weight, my left arm has bulked up from repeated lifting as I surf with my right. [ ] Now I just need to even it out.

Temp : Very cool machine. Power adapter gets warm and so far has been very cool.

KeyB/controls: Keyboard is fine. Theyre all a bit different. Now Im used to this one. Mouse pad took some getting used to but now I like it. BUT.... I miss having the side scrolling option on the pad. Im told I can get this back through utilities??? I liked that feature and miss it. I like the layout except for 1 thing. -see audio (next)

Audio: Im an audio guy. I DONT like buttons for volume NOR do I like volume to be in increments such as this I like a smooth knob .My Gateway had a smooth volume knob on the side that I miss ALOT. I like the button mute but NOT the button volume. That said, the sound of this laptop is just awesome (for a laptop that is). The sub (as Ive said here before), isnt gonna thump, but it really gives the small speakers the ability to handle the high end without the low end interfering in the same piece of speaker cone. Thats what a sub is designed to do. Add bass independently. Im tossing my crappy little computer speakers cause these sound better and nothing to plug in. Very happy with the sound. Now this IS a laptop so for all of you taking this to mean its going to sound like your boom box or car stereo, it never will. But by laptop standards, this is great. Did I mention I miss the rotary volume pot that could be adjusted SEPARATELY from what the software is doing? This may be my biggest gripe.

Video: Screen is just great (SVGA). Better than my last. Im getting used to the smaller font. Dont know if Id like the UVGA but its not as big of a jump so it may be fine. But Im quite happy with the SVGA. Ive watched DVDs and played games and its great! I have an issue with a couple games of the 6 or so Ive loaded where the screen switches resolution and then after a second minimizes the game or keeps switching back and forth in a cycle. These are NOT the biggest games Ive tried. Im still working on a solution that doesnt take keystrokes but so far if I just change the res before I start the game, its fine. Ive tried setting the game to run in different colors or different res in the properties for those specific games (if you right click on them in the start menu) but that hasnt helped. I have tried to update drivers from dell but theres a problem with that (see DEll below)

Layout: I just want to say that Im quite happy with the layout of connection locations and drive locations. I like the bottom as it seems very user accessible and friendly. I like that everything connects in the back or left side. Then you dont have things sticking out or drives opening all over. Good thought on this.

Performance: I cant say much here cause I dont know other machines But I can say that its fast and hasnt crashed once apart from when I try to get it to read bad CDRs. Ive loaded a lot of software and Im still getting used to XP but Ive used this a LOT and its just been fast and great. Theres the issue thats been mentioned about some text being blocky on the web and sites like this forum loading slow. There are settings you can change or you can edit the registry as has been said to solve this problem.

Dell: For the most part Ive been happy. I have run into an issue with their drivers that while trying to update the video driver and the video bios (both say they are newer versions on their download site than what my computer says they are), the video bios updates but the driver still says its the old one. I have been over this with Dell support and they are trying to find out the problem. They think the actuall file on site is the wrong one but who knows. But I have no problems other than 2 games I run, and they are simpler games, dont want to stay maximized unless I change the res before I start them. But Dell has been good to me so far. They sent me an offer to extend the service warranty but I think theres a bunch of typos cause it doesnt make sense. I have to call them about it but the offer has no phone number. And yes it took a month and 6 days to receive this but it was worth it and they are shipping fast now.Well thats all I have time for right now. I am sure I am forgettingthings I wanted to say but Im tired and have to go to bed now. If there are any questions, feel free.Oh, power button could be a little harder to hit. I havent accidentally hit it but it SEEMS like its easy to do.But its nice and shiny!

I love this laptop. I really have no complaints except the volume buttons (grrrrrr)

Things I would have liked to see:
-side scroll on mouse pad
-card reader (but hey, I love it anyway)
-volume knob!!!! (this is WORTH mentioning 3 times)
-A light up lid emblem like all the stupid macs that surround me at work but instead of it saying "Dell" it would say "Mac sucks" Or "Apples ROT!" You wouldnt believe the grief I get for being a PC guy.
Goodnight!

 

okay Sequoia, I think it looks better now, I fixed some of the line breaks so it didn't wrap as much.

 

oops, I apologize for any problems the bulletin board software is giving you with the format. It's okay though, content is still the same and it's great, thanks for the review and all the time you spent...looks like a stylized poem in the format now though [ ]

I'll take a look and see if I can fix anything as far as format goes.

 

Hey Thanks. It wasnt a big deal but where I went back and inserted new text, it didnt work too well.
I didnt say much about performance details cause I dont have much to compare it to.
And frankly, theres been NO problems other than the resolution switching problem I mentioned and that is quite minimal on 2 games of the 15 or so things Ive installed so far on it.
It runs fast and clean and great.
S

 

heh, just went to thirdkind.com, sequoia. good ol'warhammer. i use to play that back in the day. I have my best painted models right beside me in my room, matter of fact.

so far ive only installed cs 1.6, splinter cell demo and call of duty single player. cs runs incredibly, but thats a given, its not top notch in graphics anymore, but its the first time ive ever been able to run it to its full potential. call of duty runs fine.. except for afew freezes but the driver fix will fix that. splinter cell works fine, single player atleast. multiplayer demo says i have the wrong drivers and it gives me a bad res size and not the best graphics.. but it also says that there are updated drivers for my video card on the splinter cell cd.. but i assume thats just cat's 4.4.. ill try the omegas again soon probabbly.

uhmmm i have sql server 2000 on here, no problems.. what else.. actualy thats pretty much it. Gona put some other crap on here soon too.. gfx apps, macromedia stuff, andddddddd coldfusion stuff. we'll see how that goes.

 

If you need to take out your anger at mac fanboys go to www.techtv.com and the "call for help" forum.

Lots of apple fans to slam some truth into, I have macs and pcs and those mac fanboys really piss me off.

Go to the forum and tell them macs suck!

Thanks

miamijjs

 

Here's a better link.

http://cgi.techtv.com/messageboards?action=active_thread_view&board_id=12&topic_id=96&per_page=50

look for the users with names like NON_PC and give them HELL!

 

Ha HA Thanks guys.
I must come clean here though and say that I DO own a mac. Its for my music stuff. Whereas 98% or something like that in the world are PC users, the music business (and television where I now work) is 98% Mac. So I have it to run Pro Tools (the music indus standard)
and I have to run it at work too. But my Dell goes to work and sits in a studio full of mac users and let me tell you, its fierce.
The comments that is. These people are like religious fundamentalists.
I just dont get it. Needless to say, the macs crash all the time.

You guys are bigger gamers and probably PC users as Ive been out of the gaming loop for years as my desktop got old and my laptop that I just retired from 6 years couldnt really play the games. It was a bummer cause Im a Star Wars buff and my brother worked at lucasarts at the time and got me all the free games but I couldnt play most of them.
Anyway, Im getting back into it with this laptop. Slowly.
What do you guys all do for the number keypad game use. Do you buy a separate number pad?? I seem to remember that games use them a lot.

Briggs:
Whats thridkind.com?
Im not sure what youre referring to.
I will check it out.
Whats "coldfusion" stuff??

Dell is sending me a new driver CD as of today cause the video drivers from their download site wouldnt update mine. Well see what happens.
I mentioned the blocky text and slow loading of some pages like this forum as some of us have discussed here to them and they didnt know how to fix it. It seems strange to me that it should take a registry edit to fix that but I guess it just has to do with these hi res monitors.

By the way, how do you all carry this beast?
Im looking for a good backpack that fits a 15.4" screen......

.....

 

Hey Briggs_CA,

You mentioned you had the updated drivers from the Dell site.

I tried installing both of them without and then with Dells support.
The video bios seemed to install cause when I tried it again it said I already have it.
BUT,
the newer driver seems like it installs but then under the ATI driver in Device Manager/Display adapters, it says the version I have is 6.14.10.6396 and a date of Dec 2003.
Can you check yours under Device Manager/Display adapters and tell me what version it says you have after youve updated the drivers??
They are sending me a CD cause they cant figure out why it says that when the website says a newer version number.
Let me know what yours says.
thanks.
Sequoia

 

#1 - I swear I saw some email address somewhere releated to your name.. with a url of @thirdkind.com.. but i cant find it now.. i am confused lol

#2 - ColdFusion stuff.. as in the ColdFusion server. Or do you mean what ColdFusion is? If you are asking that.. it's just a tag based programming language to make web apps

#3 - I have that same driver version. I updated the drivers and bios.
I used this thread and got the link. Ha, look at that, there is the thirdkind.com address. For some reason I thought that was you. My bad
http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1370

Anyways, I went to update my bios and it said I allready had it installed.

.:Inspiron 9100:.
-:2.8 P4:-
-:1GB 400 MHz RAM:-
-:60GIG 7200 RPM HDD:-
-:128MB ATI Radeon 9700:-
-:800MHz FSB:-

 

See Im concerned. It seems we updated the video bios fine but Im concerned with the driver. If you go to Dell support and then to downloads and pick the video drivers. Theres a driver file and a video bios file.

My driver number on my machine (the version I stated above 6.14.xx.xx). It has said that before and after I updated the driver. The date for the driver is Dec 2003.
If Im not mistaken, the driver on dells site says its a higher version number and a newer date. But when I update, it doesnt change. The help at Dell seems a bit confused but they are sending me a CD of updated drivers. I should get it in a few days.
Do you know for sure that your driver updated???
Not the video bios but the driver file??

 

"Gets lots of comments from everybody at work about it being too big. I work around all Mac people so what do they know."


I have pacs and macs too but you brought it up.

PS. I like the PCs with Media Center 2004 MUCH better than macs for music.