New Dell Studio 1749

Finally got my 1749 to the point where I can do this post from it...
What an awesome machine! I am still missing a few parts like speakers and USB ports that I may not be able to steal on eBay but time will tell.
I don't even notice the fan on mine unless I stick my ear right next to it. There is quite a bit of ambient noise here in the kitchen where I usually connect. I haven't done anything to really stress this rig yet either.
I also think there is at least a possibility that the Intel version video runs cooler and needs less fan action than the ATI version. This is based mainly on the Studio 153xs where I have both video versions and the heatsink seems to be designed for a lot more heat with the ATI video versions.

 

Has anyone replaced the wireless card with a DW 1520 (Wireless N) card?

 

Dell has the driver for the 1520 listed in the 1749 section so it shouldn't be a problem. Check out 180515133158 on eBay..........ships worldwide. I have one coming but probably won't see a difference in performance on my household connection relative to the 1397 or 1501 I am using which are available on eBay for about a buck each.

 

This post is from a new (to me) DW 1520. Driver took longer to download (before ) than the install. I had forgotten I had one in my parts collection from awhile ago. 290495314582 I love eBay!

 

I'm also looking to upgrade the wireless card in my studio 1749.

Browsing the Dell forums it appears a few people have been having problems with the 1520 wireless card, experiencing both range and speed issues...

So would the Intel 5300 be a better option to go for, even though dell dont support it on their drivers and downloads for the 1749??

 

If you have the Intel 5300 you could try it but I wouldn't buy one to find out. The BIOS needs to recognize your wireless card and I don't think there will be too many that work that Dell doesn't provide the drivers for: what they list is
DW 1397, 1501 and 1520 and the Intel 6200 and 6250
Either of these Intel cards would be a safe choice
I seem to be having a range issue with the 1520 and may go back to the 1397 I had before or try the 1501 I also have.

 

Well, I've ordered the 1520 card - £15 from ebay which seemed pretty good - hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow, but before i install it i've got a couple of questions.

Being a bit of a newbie to things like this, i'm guessing it would be best to uninstall the 1397 drivers first??
Also will I need to download and install the 1520 drivers from Dell, or will they automatically get detected and downloaded/installed when I plug it in and boot the laptop up?
Thanks

 

Hi RM. You don't need to uninstall the 1397 driver.

I took the precaution of downloading the 1520 driver R239087 before installing the card. Windows 7 looks to see if it has a driver in its database and I presume will load the driver if it has it. I don't know whether your Dell factory install has it but I would guess it probably does. My version of W7 which I loaded myself was not for a Studio 1749 and it did not have the 1520 driver.
Be careful handling the card as they are sensitive to static discharges from your hands that you might not even notice. I use the throwaway type kitchen latex gloves for handling these cards and memory and have never had a problem.

 

Cheers for the help on that SJL!

As soon as I got the laptop the first thing I did was clean install W7 from the DVD Dell supplied to get rid of all the crap they originally put on there, so i'll give the new card a go first without the drivers and see what happens...when it arrives that is!

Thanks for the heads up on the gloves aswell, will certainly make sure I pop a pair on before I replace it!

 

Hey Murph!
Maybe you can explain something for me....your rep power suddenly went from "0" to "8". Any idea why? Friends in high places?

 

To be truely honest... I really dont have a clue! I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't told me either haha!
I'm still an 'unknown quantity' though whatever that means

Anyway, a bit more on topic - cheers for the help again for the wireless card, much appreciated
I did give you +1 rep (well at least I think I did...)

 

Well DW1520 wireless N card arrived from Dell today, cost £30. Not installed yet though.

On a side note, just got a 50mb internet connection with a new wireless N router in hall downstairs provided by ISP. In desktop upstairs I installed a Linksys by Cisco WMP600N wireless N card, 3 bar connection between 270mbps/130mbps. Connected via wireless N getting around 15-20mbs when using speedtest.net. Connected via ethernet full 50mbps on speedtest and ping dropping from ~30ms to ~15ms.

The dell laptop using 1397 card from same location as desktop (2 bar connection) would average around 25mbps on speedtest.

 

Well that's what the little weigh scale thingy does...who knew...I wasn't one of your original admirers murph...it took my vote but did nothing....I wonder if this voting machine is from Diebold or whatever their latest incarnation is..
you guys make me drool with your connection speeds....here on the Finca I am lucky to have .5mbps or any connection at all

 

Having switched from 1397 to 1520 wireless internet card speedtest in same location has gone up from ~25mb to ~42mb. If in same room I get the full 50mb over wireless. So for me buying the 1520 was a good purchase.

 

Just switched back to the 1397 from the 1520. Both cards are actually made by Broadcom and the 1520 is not only faster but apparently can be customized more. None of this matters to me.

My laptop was getting a weak signal with either card due to being a long way from the router which is not easy to change. The 1397 seems to hold onto a poor signal better. Speed was never a consideration for me.

I have an Intel 6200 I may try later as well.

 

Well... the DW1520 arrived today and got it plugged in/drivers installed etc.

Unfortuantly for me this card is not what I expected. I'm getting about the same range as the DW1397 (one or two bars), but my connection speed has dropped! (5.5Mbps compared to the 18Mbps I was getting with the DW1397).

I placed my brothers laptop; hp pavillion using an intel 5100 bgn card in the same place as my Studio 1749 and his laptop's getting full 5 bar signal, with a constant speed of 65Mbps! so I think something is not quite right with these DW1520 cards.

I'll be sticking the DW1397 back in this evening and returning the DW1520 tomorrow.

I'm still considering the Intel 5300 as an option as I've searched round and found a few 1749 owners that have them listed in their forum Signatures, and I also noticed whilst I had the laptop apart that there was a 3rd antenna lead in there, or which the 5300 would accommodate...

Soooo, are there any other Studio 1749 owners out there using a different card other than the 1397 or 1520??

 

Drivers and Downloads

It may help to confirm you are running the latest unified Broadcom WLAN driver backwards compatible w/Dell Wireless 13xx,14xx,15xx, ect.

 

Thanks for the link to the driver somms, it wasnt the one I originally tried. However when trying to install it, it just displays the error message 'No compatible hardware found' and fails to install it

If it helps the driver I was using was from Dells drivers and download section for the Studio 1749:

Driver Provider: Broadcom
Driver date: 1/10/2008
Driver version: 5.30.21.0

 

Thats odd. Was able to install for both the Dell Wireless 1520 & 1397 on two diff notebooks and thats how I got the driver screenshots above... Was anybody else having an issue installing the v5.100.82.15 driver dated 10/29/2010?

 

Now running an Intel 6200 agn.

This is faster with a much better signal than either the DW 1397 or 1520 for my application and components.

I will try and find some speed testing software that can put numbers to the feeling

 

Well, the DW1520 has been returned, and I recieved the Intel 6200 card aswell today.

WOW!! what can I say; hugeeeee improvement. Getting full signal anywhere in the house with a minimum transfer speed of 72Mbps! and more importantly, no connection cut out!!

Definalty a happy chappy now!

 

Damn, might order Intel 6200 card from dell now.

 

I tried PRTG network monitor ( PRTG Network Monitor - intuitive network monitoring software) and wasn't able to get it to do anything useful.

I also tried speedtest.net (thx Jaze22) and got what I expected, pathetic internet connection speed for mid-day.

Can I use speedtest separately for my 6200 link to the router and my linksys/vonage router link to my ISP provider? I know my provider is the major problem with my links.

 

I have just changed the screen from multi touch 1600x900 to the AUO B173HW01 V.4.

When I press the up or down brightness keys nothing happens. For those who have changed screen, how did you get the brightness keys to work again?

 

Jaze if your screen is under warranty, check with the supplier....I think it is most likely defective....
There was one for sale on eBay recently where the backlight works intermittently

 

I can change brightness with catalyst. I think it is the LCD cable, my part number is for HD+ 1600x900, I have bought the correct part number FHD 1920x1080 LCD cable off ebay but not fitted it yet.

For those wanting multi touch and full hd:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ps-17-l701x-screen-thread-16.html#post7153983

 

received my studio 1749 in august 2010 as a replacement for i9300....went ahead and purchase warranty through december 2015 and now i am having temperature issues

dell has already had me replace the motherboard, heatsinks and fan; now they want to do it again....

here is a summary of my dell dance http://dellfail.blogspot.com/

studio 1749 (A07 bios)
win 7 ultimate
intel centrino 6250
tv tuner
4gb ram
2x500gb (only using one currently 2nd makes temperature much worse)
i5 420m
ati 5650
1920x1080 lcd

 

Now dell wants to send a replacement after I contacted them on twitter....of course they are going to have a hard time finding a replacement with a 1080p screen....

 

dell offered me an XPS 17 L701X

* Processor: Intel Core i5-560M Dual Core (2.66GHz 3MB for M6500)
* Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
* XPS L701X
* 640 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
* 6 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHZ
* Blu-ray Disc Combo (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM)
* NVIDIA GeForce GT 435M 1GB graphics with Optimus

but with 900p screen and not 1080p which i have....i don't know what to do

 

new bios is out since march 30th

no idea what it does

 

thanks for the heads up.....odd they came out with another bios after all this time....definitely clear there are issues....

of course dell doesn't tell you what they fix....

 

dell tech support is useless....they can't give me any information on the A08 BIOS because it is a new update and no information is provided yet....

i thought dell made their own bios files but according to the tech bios is third-party software

 

Just got one of these for £450 on ebay, 430M i5, blu ray, 900p, 5650m, 500gb hdd, Win 7 Ultimate.
What a steal! It has a stuck pixel, but they're easy enough to sort out, just got to tap the thing!
Any idea if this has a backlit keyboard? The seller didn't say...

 

Doing this post from my second 1749 (not quite finished, this one if for my wife) which is running very cool with an I3 and the intel video chip. I put an 0F939P keyboard in this which is the non-backlit US version. It is an easy upgrade to switch to the backlit keyboard which my other one has.

Dell isn't going to explain to customers that the faster the CPU you have in any particular model laptop the hotter it is going to run and/or the more work the cooling fan is going to have to do. Intel addresses this same issue in terms of power consumption, not heat directly, (i.e. power consumption 35w) but it's the same thing when the chips are the same size and all else is equal. Also, I am convinced that the higher performance graphics with the ATI video comes at the price of more heat and faster fan speed required. The 3-pin fan design in the 1749 is noisier than the 4-pin fan of many current laptops.
If this sounds like criticism, it isn't. I love the 1749. Maybe it isn't perfect but it's close.

 

Hey everyone,

I picked up a 1749 just over a year ago with the help of this sweet forum. It's the best laptop I've had and some of my friends got one as a result

I'm looking to get some upgrades which include a Bluetooth card. I could do with some help and advice if anyone is able.

My problem is I can't find anywhere in plain english which Bluetooth cards will fit my laptop. Will any do or does it have to be a Dell sold card? I've found these which appear to be the ones originally for sale with the laptop. However neither actually say they are compatible with the 1749 and I don't see the difference between the two?

Any help would be appreciated! Since I'm unsure if other cards will fit my laptop I've only found those two as an option. I've been doing this for days and keep just giving up as I'm paranoid about buying the wrong thing haha (student budget and all!)

Edit: l'm also adding in a second HDD. The drive caddys seem to be around £26 ($42), which seems expensive for a bit of metal, anyone know if this is to be expected or know of a cheaper caddy for the 1749? Caddys from the USA are cheaper, but when shipping is factored in they end up being the same price as from the UK. Thanks!

 

Caddies are not really necessary for the 1749, but you need the right angle connector for the 2nd hard drive. Make sure who ever is selling you the caddy includes the connector.
Here's a thought for the 1749 blue tooth. Check the drivers section of the 1749 on the Dell website and it has a model number for the blue tooth card. The 365 is listed. This is also the one Dell has for sale at the site you mention. It's the safe choice.

 

When I bought the laptop it didn't come with the CD/DVD with the software, any ideas how to get my webcam working?

 

I bought an aftermarket (non-Dell) 1749 driver disk off of eBay and it had the webcam driver and software on it. There is a lot of crap for sale in this category though. If your system has an asset tag you may be able to download the software or otherwise get help from Dell. They don't make it easy if you don't have an asset tag.
Both my 1749s were build-ups from new motherboards w/o asset tags.

 

I just received Dell P/N 0PHXVH (from eBay) which is Dell Webcam Central for business and used it to install the webcam software on my 1558. The motherboard and camera configuration is similar to the 1749. It worked well when none of the downloads from Dell did.