Just got Studio 1737, my impression

Picked up one at Futureshop in Toronto. Originally I wanted to go directly through Dell so I can upgrade to the 7200rpm sata harddrive, and possibly WLED display. In the end I couldn't want to wait x weeks for it to arrive (for work reasons).

Overall impression, very happy!

-I chose this mainly for the keyboard. Very simple english-only keyboard, with hardly any multi-functions on one key. No crazy labels and colors, just plain jane. Loved how all needed working keys are included like pgup/pgdn/home/end/del/backspace/etc... I find it infuriating on other laptops when any of these keys are missing, combined, too small, etc. Love the seperate numpad.

-Yes, the keyboard is 'flexy' but I don't think it warrants the amount heat ppl are giving it. I kind of like it flexy actually. Maybe they are on to something in terms of tactility or useability.

-Biggest disappointment: no backlit keyboard included !!!!! Was a shocker to me which I only discovered 5 hours later at night. If you order directly from Dell in Canada, do you get a backlit keyboard? Is there anyway this can be added or upgraded?

-Yes, it does have an eSata port! Some people have said only the 15" Studio version does does.

-Love the power and find-network buttons on either side of the display hinges. They got a rubbery touch and the placement makes sense.

-I am pretty sure I got a regular CCFL LCD with this, as Futureshop doesn't have the option to upgrade to WLED or RGB LED backlighting. I'll say I'm very happy with it, and my at home I am going to connect to a CRT anyways, which I can do colour correcting work on when I need to. I think I spent too much time worrying about upgrading the display when the regular CCFL LCD is fine.

 

Okaaay got my first bluescreen of death (during reboot). I suppose this is a Vista issue, not Dell.

System recovery happened, it restored me to a prior restore point. Now it boots fine.

But WHY did it happen at all... beyond me. I am prepared to stick with Vista for awhile because I don't have time to do a re-format and setup another OS.

 

yea, dont forget to unstall idt sound driver, it makes the speakers run at monotone mode.

 

The backlit keyboard can be added pretty easily if yours didn't come with one. You just need to find one on eBay or an online parts reseller and order it, which should cost around $50 US, not sure about Canadian dollars.

The process of replacing the keyboard couldn't possibly be any simpler than it is, luckily. I replaced my 1535's standard keyboard with a backlit model not too long ago.

Blue screens are most commonly attributed to graphics drivers. If you haven't already, go to support.dell.com, and go to Product Support. Click Drivers and Downloads, and either enter your service tag or select Laptop > Studio > 1737 from the list, and download the graphics driver you need.

 

I've dug out this thread which has the appropriate title, rather than start a new one.

I've just got a Studio 1737 for one of the family. It came from Dell UK Outlet via a reseller. The key specs are: T3400 CPU, 3GB RAM, 250GB HDD and WXGA+ screen.

My dominant impression is that the fan is unnecessarily active. I would have expected such a big chassis to contain a big, but quiet, cooling system. The fan responds very quickly to any CPU activity and blows relatively cool air (when the CPU temperature is at 60C then the fan exhaust is less than 40C). The service manual indicates that Dell use a thermal pad between the CPU and the heatsink. This will never be as effective as proper thermal paste. Have any other 1737 owners noticed the fan noise and tried any fixes?

In other respects the 1737 seems to be very solid and well put together. The display hinges feel as if they could support a door! I'm surprised to see that there is no latch to hold the screen closed, but it seems to work OK.

The main reason I opted for the 1737 instead of something newer is the 1440 x 900 display. And £460 including a 3 year on site warranty is attractive pricing.

John

 

Been about 6 months since the original post...

My top annoyance: the discrepancy between the speaker and headphone jack volumes. For example: I watch a DVD at near-maximum volume on the speakers, but then later on if I plug in my headphones, the volume is extremely high for the headphones and you have to reduce the level to 15% to be normal. I would like some way for the volume level to be adjusted (equalized?) so that I don't have to change my volume setting when switching between speakers and headphone jacks. This is a daily annoyance.

2nd biggest annoyance: The labels of the touch-sensitive media control buttons hard very hard to see in dim conditions. I've had to put small pieces of tape to show me where to touch to activate the button. There is nothing tactile to indicate the buttons either. The slow fading glow is a nice effect but you can never find the buttons easily and you miss half the tiny glow anyways because your finger is covering the button as you press it.

Other than these issues, this laptop has hardly anything to complain about. There's no serious issues and no performance issues that I've come up against.

 

How is your fan noise and how much of the time does it run?

John

 

I hardly ever notice the fan, but I don't live in ultra-silent conditions anyhow. I have a refrigerator in the computer area at home, or if I use the laptop at the local public library there's enough ambient noise anyhow that rises above any potential fan noise (of any laptop).

In generally I don't hear the fan spin up much at all, maybe because enough heat is dissipated to not warrant spinning the fan up higher. The unit doesn't get that hot in my opinion, though my usage is 80% web, 20% dvd movies. I hardly do much heavy gpu/cpu/harddrive processing.

This is my first laptop although I have put in +100 hours on different friends' laptops, so I'm confident in my opinion of fan noise/heat.

 

Thanks.

Then it seems that my 1737 is being unnecessarily noisy. Perhaps that is why it ended up in Dell Outlet. I may consider testing out Dell's on site repair service.

John

 

Cablestein: In regards to the difference in volume, that is an issue with the IDT HD Audio drivers that are installed. My recommendation is to uninstall the IDT drivers, which will provide you with two benefits:

- Jack detection will work properly, you can set volume independantly for headphones and speakers
- The onboard speakers should become louder and clearer.

 

What sort of temperatures are you getting? You might want to try removing the stock thermal pads and putting on some good thermal paste on the CPU; this should lower your temperatures by at least a few degrees C.

Also consider undervolting if you haven't yet.

Download HWMonitor and run it for a while, and let us know what your average idle temperatures are. For reference, my 1555 with a modded heatsink and undervolting idles at 35C for the CPU.

 

The first thing I did was to look at the temperatures. Out of the box (1.25V @ 2.16GHz) the CPU peaked at around 70C although HWmonitor detects a TZ00 sensor which is even hotter.

I've now got it running at 1.075V peak and it survived a 24 hours Prime95 torture test with the CPU not exceeding 60C. However, that still causes the fan to run at full speed.

And yesterday I noticed, while playing a DVD, that the fan was running with a CPU temperature of 33C. In fact, it seems that when the fan is running at full speed, it doesn't slow down until the CPU temperature drops below 40C. If this observation is correct, this is very conservative.

My first thought was to remove the heatsink and thermal pad and use some proper thermal paste. However, the heatsink covers both the CPU and another chip (Northbridge with GPU?) and the thermal pads provide an easy way of getting a thermal connection to both.

I'll install I8kfanGUI and see if that helps in the understanding of what is happening. It's possible that everyone gets the same fan activity but I've got an unusually noisy fan. It's big enough that it should be able to run slowly and shift a lot of air.

John