New Inspiron 11 3000 (11.6" Haswell Celeron Touchscreen)

Yeah, that's the card that does 802.11ac, that's what I put into mine. I doubt though that most hot spots have 802.11ac and even if they did their internet connection probably isn't fast enough anyway. You're probably not going to notice any difference to the card this laptop came with, except that you gain access to 5ghz networks. If you had a local network with a file server and did a lot of file transfers, you probably would notice a difference. I don't quite see that it's worth it just for public hotspots and only internet use.

If you're not satisfied with the speed/performance of this laptop, you probably would rather want to swap out the hard drive and replace it with an SSD drive and re-install Win 8.1. That would probably also help with internet browsing, as your browser also accesses the disk for various things like caching.

 

I just thought being able to use the 5GHZ band might speed things up when I download Windows updates,etc,and with the AC part,I wouldn't have to change it again in the future. I don,t really want to invest the money required for a SSD. James

 

Yeah you're going to be future "proof" with that card. I spent $70 for a 120gb ssd (not a high end one) and it makes a huge difference. Boots in a matter of seconds and everything is considerably "snappier". I wouldn't want to run this machine with a regular hdd anymore. An SSD upgrade makes this little machine pretty awesome.

 

Did I imagine it, or did some of the older models have a VGA port?

 

None of the models so far has a VGA port, only HDMI.

Well, after almost 3 months of use, here are some updated impressions. The stock HDD is SLOW, like, stupidly so. Added to the fact that my machine still has the stock 2 gb of RAM, whenever I use a lot of programs, it slows down quite a bit. The other thing that concerns me is that the outer shell of the computer gets scratched very easily. The bottom cover is very scratched on mine and the upper cover is starting to show a few marks (although admittedly, all of my laptops have to endure heavy use, since I take them with me everywhere). Any suggestions as to how to avoid that?

Other than those complains, I'm pretty happy with how things have been with it. I can even play quite a few recent games (the exceptions are those that are limited by RAM, like NFSMW2012) with very good framerates (low resolution is the only caveat) and all my normal programs run in it.

Mentioning about the HDD and the RAM, I'll try to update those in the near future, especially the RAM. I want to get an SSD, too, but I remember reading that with the stock configuration, the restoration program refuses to install on an HDD with less than 500 gb. Is that the case, or I can get a 128 gb SSD (for example) and everything will go smoothly? Anything I should now about updating it? Thanks in advance

 

Marche90, the Dell backup utility lets you create a fresh image onto a 16GB flash drive. You can then reformat the stock image onto any hard drive or SSD.

Does anyone get the beeping alarm when turning on or returning from sleep mode? Mine starts ringing like a car alarm and I have to hold and press the power button for several seconds to stop the beeping. This happens <10% of the time. Does the beeping mean there is some malfunction or defect with my Inspiron?

 

It's not stupidly slow. The problem is rather simple: 2 GB of ram for a 64bit Win8 is simply insufficient, even if you don't run anything big on it... I spent less than $70 on a cheap 120 GB SSD, and it is unbelievable how much faster this little machine is. Worth every penny to upgrade the HDD. I went with a pretty cheap SSD because I don't see the point of splurging on a faster drive when the overall system is on the low end anyway.

Contact Dell support, they will send you a Win8 DVD or Win8.1 USB stick for free, then install it from scratch. Don't use the restore garbage because it'll also restore all the bloatware. Plus since you're going from HDD->SDD you'll want to re-install from scratch to make sure the OS aligns sectors/clusters/... optimally to ensure you get the maximum lifetime out of your SSD.

I would say, if you're annoyed with how slow this thing is, spend some money on a cheap SSD and upgrade your RAM to 4GB. You'll be shocked how much faster your system is going to be, trust me.

 

Hm, I've never run into this issue. Is your battery almost completely drained, maybe? Have you tried to upgrade the firmware/bios?

 

Just saw this and bought at an impulse! Is this OK celeron?

Inspiron 3138, Windows 8.1 (64Bit) English
1 $399.99
Inspiron 11 3000 Series price includes $100 instant discount.

- $100.00
Dell Advantage members earn 10% back in rewards* on Dell Preferred Account™ purchases.*

It comes out to US$325 TAX and shipping included. My question is what is the "10% back in rewards" and how one would benefit from it?

 

I have both, the 3137 with the Pentium (Haswell) and the 3138 with the Celeron, I like both and they perform similar for most simple tasks. Supposedly the Pentium is up to 60% faster, according to a post earlier in this thread. I haven't really noticed a difference worth mentioning, but I'm not doing anything CPU intensive anyway.

Maybe read your credit (card) contract that you signed? I would GUESS, as a "reward" you probably will get 10% as a credit to another dell purchase. That "credit" probably also expires at some point.

 

members earn 10% back in rewards* on Dell Preferred Account™ purchases.*

It comes out to US$325 TAX and shipping included. My question is what is the "10% back in rewards" and how one would benefit from it?[/QUOTE]

Within 30 days after your purchase,Dell will send you an email showing your "reward" which would be 10% of your purchase in the form of an electronic gift card type credit good for 90 days on the purchase of something else from Dell.com. After I bought my 11 3138,I used my credit(5% at that time),toward the purchase of the Targus CityGear Atlanta messenger bag for my 11 3138.

 

I am using hdmi out to full hd monitor. The resolution shown in the intel properties is 1920x1080 but it does not look like that at all. The quality is not good and it seems like 720 scaled to 1080p.
Also the screen does not fit correctly. The top bar and the bottom are hidden.
Any ideas? Solution?

 

Just to let you know guys, if it bothers you, that you don't have a Windows 8 installation disk bundled with your Inspiron 11, just call Dell technical support - they will send you Windows 8 installer on a USB flash drive free of charge.

 

Wish Dell were selling this in the UK.

 

Awesome! Mine gets delivered Thursday and I ordered a 1600MHz 8GB RAM for it off Crucial (for Mac but should work)

I am excited- I have an SSD for it in my trusty 3 year old Gateway LT2104 netbook I have loved but broke the screen recently. I can fix the screen for $40 but want to play HD, move up to 1366x768 for Quicken and PS, HDMI, etc.

I love Win8 works great and I use ClassicShell to make it look and behave like Windows 7.

O

 

I just got my Windows 8 installation disc delivered by Dell yesterday. I did a complete reinstallation on ADATA Premier Pro SP600 128GB SSD (not the fastest out there, but enough for this little laptop and it was affordable), updated to Windows 8.1 and then 8.1 update 1. My laptop has only 4GB of RAM, yet with an SSD it is VERY responsive (for a system with a dual-core Celeron). With 8GB of RAM yours should perform even better.

 

So I got my 3138 and I like it a lot. I installed the 8GB RAM from Crucial and it works fine.

PROBLEM-
I simply cannot get a successful clone of the HD to a Crucial M500 SSD.
I have tried ATA/ACHI in BIOS, secure boot off, installed the SSD and cloned from HD as USB, booted to EZGig flash drive and cloned that way.
No matter what I do the computer shows "checking media" then no boot drive or it goes to error or sys repair etc.

I have done over 30 SSD clones on Mac and PC but this is stumping me.

Any help appreciated.

O

 

EDIT:
Spoke w Crucial- swapped SATA driver for MS instead of Intel (replace driver on SATA controller, browse, choose the basic SATA driver listed- will be MS and from 2006)
Reboot few times make sure driver sticks
turn off secure boot
update firmware of M500 to MU05
I am doing a clone now with bootable EZGig and will report back- fingers crossed.

Also, my Dell USB restore media arrived via FedEx today- free and fast, so I have that option now as well which is great.

 

Has anyone tried to pair the Celeron 2955U with DDR3 RAM faster than 1600MHz (1866, 2133 etc.) in this laptop?

 

Not me, I got 1600MHz ( CT8G3S160BM - 8GB, 204-pin SODIMM , DDR3 PC3-12800 from Crucial.com)

 

Anyone having the problem where, for example:

-you are browsing in Chrome and you CANNOT use the keyboard to scroll the page or to close a tab (CTRL + W) unless you first click in the page? This problem has been driving me nuts. I am on the latest touchpad driver and latest Chrome update. Have never had this problem before with any previous laptop. If anyone can help me figure this out, I would be so grateful!!!

(-Also the audio in Youtube videos do studder when an image intensive page is loading in another tab. I have upgraded my machine to 8 gigs of ram and still have this problem. I think it is probably the slow hard drive's fault.)

 

Quick heads up guys - there's an updated touch pad driver available to download at Dell's website. It fixes the touch pad's erratic behavior.

Product Support | Dell Australia

 

I don't know why but after I upgrade to an SSD the laptop take forever to restart. I have to shut it down and turn it on again manually. Is there anyone experience this problem?

btw, anyone know how to optimize power setting? The balance one get really bad performance so I switch to high per for faster. Now it faster but not much battery life.

 

Hm, so there is a new driver for the 3137 (17.0.9.1,A02 that was released on 4/1/2014), but for the 3138 there is only 17.0.9.1,A00 which was released on 2/19/2014. I wonder what the difference is, provided that the supplier's version is the same but Dell's version is different...

 

I have this "problem" even with having the hdd replaced by an ssd. I think it's just the slow CPU. Remember, this is not exactly a high end machine!

 

Has anyone observed that the touchscreen on occasion (rarely) just stops working. I think this has happened on my 3138 maybe 3-4 times in the last 4-5 months or so. If I put the computer to sleep (e.g. by closing the lid, I disabled hibernate mode due to ssd) and resurrect it, it starts working again. It's almost as if I somehow accidentally disabled it with a hotkey or something?

 

I just upgraded the crappy Dell Wireless 1705 to Intel Advanced-N 6235 and the difference is tremendous. Signal strength (while the laptop is on my desk) grew from ~50% to 83% (measured using Network Meter gadget). Awesome!

 

Where did you get the driver, from Dell or Intel? Thanks

 

I installed it with Intel drivers then MS updated them after in Windows Update. Win8.1
I do not notice the big improvements noted earlier I think the OEM card is decent. I had the card in the netbook I replaced so can't hurt I suppose!
O

 

I installed Intel driver as well, and right after a reboot Windows Update updated it.

I noticed huge improvements, not only in signal strength, but also in file transfer speeds between the Inspiron 11 and my Clevo laptop over the local network - they doubled, going from ~1.4MB/s to ~2.7MB/s (my local Wifi is G only ).
As Om_Audio pointed out, he sees no improvements of such kind, which may indicate that my stock Dell Wireless 1705 was either faulty or one antenna was not connected properly to it.

 

Hey guys,
I cannot get a 120GB Crucial M500 w FWvmu05 to install on my 3138. I have done over 40 SSD swaps on Mac/PC, desktops/laptops, cloning, fresh installs etc. I have tried everything- clean install from USB that Dell sent me (thanks to this thread), adjusted BIOS secure boot, SATA mode, replaced SATA driver in Windows to MS ver from 2006. The laptop either recognizes the drive then errors and tries to repair on boot or it does not recognize it from the start. I have a 256GB M550 on order which I will try.
Dell has amazingly dropped the ball 4 TIMES on support which in my experience is unlike them and VERY frustrating.
Does anyone here have the -exact- same M500 in their 3138?
I know the drive works as I had it installed in other laptops prior no prob.
I have used Apricorn USB 3.0 cable and EZGig software booted from a USB to do any cloning attempts. I have tried the adjust partitions setting on and off.
Thanks for any info.

SHORT IMPRESSIONS:

Pros:
battery life, no fans so dead silent, touch screen (when it is not frozen or stopped working), HDMI, ease of acess to components.

Cons: case shows wear easily, keys awful- wish it had full size keys that were flush to each other like my old netbook, SCREEN IS AWFUL IN DAYLIGHT/SUNLIGHT way too dim- but great in lower light/night (I ordered an anti glare screen maybe it helps), CPU is bottleneck- I got the Celeron for lower power and longer battery but it hits 100% often which is a disappointment. Audio jack is noisy I do lots of audio work and at times this is annoying.

I put 8GB RAM and had the SSD working at one point was really great. Overall happy with it and esp the price.

C

 

I actually think that the case is really good, for what I paid for it. I agree with everything else, but honestly, I paid $260 including shipping for the 3138 back in January, I really can't complain. I expected it to perform a whole lot worse, having owned an Asus Netbook a couple of years back. If I wanted a top notch machine, I'd have to spend a whole lot more...

 

This laptop DOES have a fan.

 

My model does not have a fan. I have opened it and used it extensively. Do you have the Pentium or Celeron version?

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

I stand corrected.

I have the 3137 version with Celeron 2955U CPU (dual core Haswell 1.4GHz).

 

Right on. Mine is the Celeron N2815 @ 1.86GHz

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

Just out of curiosity I repasted the laptop with Arctic MX-4 thermal compound and CPU idle temps dropped by 10C.

 

wowsers, I will have to do that myself. Good tip.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

If you want these to boot faster and skip the annoying "checking media" step then go into UEFI boot options and move your hard drive to the top of the list above ipv4 and ipv6 options. I get less than 10 second boot now to my M550 SSD. woot!

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

The manual has lots of info on swapping hardware which is very surprising. It shows swapping fan I bet on fan less machines you could install a fan if desired. I will take pics when I open mine again to change the heat sink compound.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

BIOS A10 released today:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...nspiron-11-3138&languageCode=EN&categoryId=BI

 

I changed my thermal compound to Antec Formula 6 Nano Diamond and my idle temps went down 10 degrees from 52 degrees C to 42 degrees C!

 

hi =)
i have dell 3138.
how i can install windows 7 on it ??

 

Hey @TomBI, yeah i'm having the same issues. Got the 3138 with the celeron processor about a month ago. Have had the touchscreen intermittently go off for about 10-30 minutes about 5 times now. The touchpad sometimes goes out for about a minute, had that happen about 3 times now.

I'm also having audio issues when I unplug my headphones and it thinks they're still in sometimes. And then if I continue to use the laptop without restarting it to fix the issue, it makes some creepy grumbling noises almost on par with the sounds you would hear before the monster appears in an apocalyptic movie (not the best experience when you're hard at word in the middle of the night)...but I've only had that happen twice where only once was it loud enough to actually freak me out

 

Try the older drivers for the touch screen as mentioned previously in this thread. Might help with that issue. I have not had older driver in long enough to really tell but my first impression is that is helps.

 

Well as I was searching for the post with the old touchscreen driver to report it is working better my touchscreen stopped working. Argh. I have a new non glossy screen protector on now which is great and makes using the screen much smoother and easier.
11 6&apos;&apos; Anti Glare Screen Protector for Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Seri 3137 3135 3138 | eBay

In any event- the touchscreen issue persists. Putting the latest driver back on.

 

I actually got on Dell tech support chat and got someone to do some remote controlled stuff on the computer.

For the touch screen, they reset the tableinput settings, then turned off the USB power management and installed the chipset driver again. For the audio, they disabled the Intel R audio, which might be conflicting with Realtek Audio and then reset the settings from Dell audio.

Not exactly sure what that means, but I haven't had any issues with it yet, but then again, I haven't used it that much since.

Hope that helps. The tech support was great, but a pain to find , so just google Dell technical support chat and you won't have to go through the stupid tech support threads and diagnostics that the normal support screen shows...

 

Also, how's the anti-glare screen protector working for glare, does it actually help when you're outside?

 

tableinput and usb power settings- if you recall anything more about what they did try to report it here.

The anti glare screen cover is great and also has a much smoother tactile feel and is def an improvement with regards to glare and daylight- but installation without bubbles is very difficult as the film is statically charged and will attract particles in the air so do your best to install in a dust free place if possible.

 

So I put in a samsung evo ssd, did anyone else realise that the original hdd is only held in by two screws - one at the top right and the other at the bottom left also holding in the battery?? Would there be any benefit of trying to source 2 more screws to put it in?

Also, should I just install all the drivers listed for the laptop in Dell support?

What is the difference between the following two?

Dell Wireless 1704 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth4.0 + HS Driver

Dell Wireless 1705 802.11b/g/n (2.4GHZ) + Bluetooth Driver

Cheers