OFFICIAL: Inspiron 1720 Owner's Thread

Hey everyone,

just got my 1720 3 days back. Love the screen and the build of the laptop. I got a C2D 1.8 GHz with 2 GB RAM, 8600m GT.

FIrst thing i did when i got it was to do a clean install of vista home premium (I followed these instructions - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838)

Well, i'm having 2 problems now

1. Internet is acting weird. I have a 6 Mbps connection and download works fine. I checked my sped at www.speedtest.net and the download speed is fine but upload is much slower than my desktop, abt 300 kbps which is almost half of what it usually is. Download is around 6000 kbps. Problem is that pages take long to load up.but i dont have any problems when playing warrock online, no lag at all.

2. also, the boot up takes pretty long, almost 2 min, and overall vista seems slugigish. But games work pretty nice. FAR CRY at max settings works perfectly. and FEAR at everything high except AA (2x), and "soft shadows" off works nice too, abt 40-50 fps. but vista itself and other applications seem slow.

hope you guys have some suggestions. thanks

 

Ordered: Sept. 18, 2007
Expecting it tomorrow: Sept. 24, 2007.

Dell Inspiron 1720

Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, 2.2GHz, 800Mhz, 4M L2 Cache
Black Color with Matte Finish
2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm for Inspiron 1720
High Resolution, glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1920 x 1200)
NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600 GT 256mb
120G 5400RPM SATA hard drive 5400RPM
Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition, English
Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem
8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive
Integrated High Definition Audio 2.0
Intel 3945 WLAN (802.11a/g) Mini Card
WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery

 

I received mine 5 days ago. Unfortunately there were some problems right off the bat and then some that cropped up. It's going back unfortunately, I waited a long time for it. If you get the 1920x1200 glossy screen keep an eye for horrible backlight bleeding. The second I booted it up to the Dell screen I noticed it, I'd hoped it was just bad settings but alas. I have the LG 400 panel in it. I was trying to get used to that when my keyboard started to act funny. The B key now works 50% of the time and when I type there seems to be some random task switching, I assume there's a defect in the touchpad or something. So I ditched the onboard keyboard and mouse in favour of a bluetooth M&K. After gaming on it for a couple hours the bluetooth component seemed to die, after a reboot the bluetooth device could not be found. I don't know if this was from heat or what but it worked again a few hours later.

I was really hoping I could own this laptop for a long time, buying into the santa rosa so I could ride the new tech for a few years. Alas, she's going back.

Inspiron 1720 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (4MB cache/2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB), English [223-1014]
System Color Expresso Brown Color with Microsatin Finish [313-5475]
MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm [311-7219]
LCD Panel High Resolution, glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1920 x 1200) [320-5504]
Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT [320-5468]
Hard Drive 160G 5400RPM SATA HDD [341-4709]
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition, English [313-5195]
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem [430-0493]
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.08 [412-0917]
Optical Drive 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability [341-4716]
Sound Card Integrated Stereo High Definition Audio [313-4783]
Wireless IntelJ3945 802.11a/g Mini-card [430-2336]
Integrated Webcam Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam [320-5681]
Misc Productivity Software Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 [466-8934]
Anti-Virus/ Security suite (pre-install) Norton Internet Security™ 2007, 30 Day Trial, English [412-0940]
Batteries 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery [312-0520]
Hardware Support Services 1 Year Return to Depot Service and Technical Support [920-4510]
Online Data Storage DataSafe Online Backup 3GB (included with price)
Wireless Personal Networking Card Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate) [430-2348]
Media Center Enhancements Dell Travel Remote Control, IR [412-0961]

 

Most if not all notebooks have some degree of backlight bleeding in an way or another....
I have yet to seen one with 100% no backlight bleeding... anyone can post a picture?

 

Oh, I'm aware of that however this is just overboard. Besides that I forgot to mention this odd line that runs ~4mm horizantally bisecting the start bar, it appears to be a pressure point that distorts the lcd film and causes a line across the start bar. Here's a shot of the bleeding I just took with my HV20 video camera, sorry I don't have a real DSLR for good pics. It's bad enough to be easily caught on a 3meg video cam. I'll see if I can get the other aberration on film.

 

Got my machine not long ago (day early!) and I'm pretty impressed so far. Doesn't quite sit flat, but I'll sort that out with a foam sticker and see if that fixes the slight wobble. Thankfully there doesn't seem to be any backlight bleeding or grainyness. Screen is a SEC3155.

Vista is not too bad so far, but I haven't had that much of a play yet.

 

Here's a shot of the odd line that runs along the bottom of the screen as well.

 

Dell have really hit a new low with me now. I decided to cancel my 1720 and told Dell so on Sunday 23 and then in about 3 other e-mails since then yet they haven't bothered to cancel it and now it's been dispatched but I'm so annoyed with Dell I just plain don;t want it and I've found a much better laptop for about the same price. I can't help but feel they've done this on purpose so that I can't get a refund for a good 2 weeks and I may end up having to pay for the return of the laptop to Dell.

My advice for anyone thinking of buying from Dell these days is simply don't, even from a moral stand point they treat their customer service is so bad they don't deserve to have any customers at all.

 

I recieved my 1720 a week back, and I am so happy!

 

Thought it might be interesting to find out what screens we have all got and which ones have had problems. Compared to the Vostros, 1420 & 1520, the 1720 doesn't seem to suffer as badly. This could also be due to the fact that it is not as popular I suppose.

 

or may be the vostro lcd could be worse of the inspiron ones because of the vostros are cheaper? I hope no!

 

All my moaning and cancelling my order has come up trumphs. Dell customer services replied to my order and offered me a 10% discount and my order was with the courier now.

Even with their bad customer service, I'm not going to turn down a 1720 with 10% discount that already had £100 off.

 

just got my laptop! i have joined!

 

Got my laptop this mornign but it's got a big clump of dead pixels!!! will this saga never end...

 

I have a Samsung screen, and I don't think it has any problems. Or if it has, I don't see them (grain or light-bleeds). Therefore, I don't have any problems with it.

 

Bloody hell, you are having a bad run.

What screen is this one?

 

I just purchased a new 1721 from DELL. I took out my current 5400rpm SATA HD to install this 7200 RPM sata HD( http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822145160 ) . However when I pulled my old HD out, it appeared to have a different pin connection. It had all these pins. Did I purchase the wrong type of HD? I thought SATA was a SATA connection. Weird. Any help would be great.

Thanks.

Brian

 

i'm not sure what that means. how many pins ? maybe 40 of them in two rows? if so, that's regular ide, not sata.

 

I guess you have to pull the PIN adapter off the Dell HD and put it on the new one.

 

Hy guys, i got my 1720 a while back, about 10 days ago.
I've been having a problem lately with the remote control. I configured it in winamp, using global hotkeys, but i cannot make it work in win media player for example. The only buttons that work are stop and play/pause. Any ideas on what i can do?

 

I apologise for sounding like a novice but how do I check what screen I have?

Thanks

I'm guessing we're not talking about res as in that case it's 1920x1200

 

The delivery man is delivering mine today! *crosses fingers in the hope that nothing will be wrong with it*

 

Go to Control Panel->Hardware & Sound -> Device Manager -> View Hardware & Devices -> Click on Monitors -> Click generic PnP Monitor -> Click on Details then in Property scroll down to Hardware Ids and that will tell you what brand of screen you have.

 

I got my 1720 today and it seems to be sweet except I'm getting that annoying squealing when I use headphones is there any way around this?

 

hy guys, i checked my monitor, it says LPLE400. What brand is this?
And can anyone help me figure out the remote control prob i posted earlier?

 

Regarding the headphone noise, it seems to be a common problem across the whole Dell range from the threads I've read here. Mine does it but I don't hear it when I'm actually listening to something.

Other brands of notebook seem to suffer also.

Do you hear noise when you are listening to something or only when it's plugged in and you haven't got anything else running?

Dusul - I would hazard a guess that your screen is an LG.

 

I have the same. Do you have any problems with backlight bleeding? Mine was very bad. I also have a line running throught the start bar, looks like some pressure on the screen.

 

From the pics you posted before a replacement is in order. Did you call Dell?

 

I believe that is a LG Panel. They are supposed to be good quality....hmmm

 

I haven't had any pb with it, maybe i just don't know how it looks. In my opinion the screen is ok. Can anyone post some pics with backlight bleeding, just to be sure?

 

does it squeal if you dont use the dell earbuds? i have not personally try it myself. what if you use a third party earphones.

 

I'm using Sony 7505 Professional Studio Monitor headphones. It is quite noticable when using them, not so noticable when using my older Sennheiser 455s

 

My screen is SHP13CB. This is what the grp of fixed pixels looks like, it's about 2.5mm x 2.5mm, it's about 2" from the left of the screen and about the same down from the top.

The black dot you can see is it, sorry about the picture quality.
http://www.imagehosting.com/show.php/1194968_DSC00019.JPG.html

Any advice on what I might be offered would be appreciated.

 

So anyway, apart from the headphone issues my laptop seems to be working perfectly. Strangely, my laptop didn't seem to come with a whole lot of bloatware (apart from norton of course), has dell been easing off a bit?

Here's a screen image with the 1440x900 resolution:

 

Have no idea what SHP13CB is.

I've read on a couple of forums about software to fix 'stuck pixels'. I have no idea about a good one or a bad one though. Here is a link to a free one http://majorgeeks.com/Dans_Dead_Pixel_Fixer_d5571.html

Hope you find something that works.

 

Didn't work mate but thanks for the help. Dell have offered to send a technician to replace the screen, they also offered to swap my laptop for a brand new one but I opted for the latter because I don't want to have to reinstall everything.

Anyone know what this technician larky will involve? like how long it takes?

Thanks

 

I'm pretty sure I've read that it only takes around half an hour to replace the screen.

 

Came today, took the bloke about 10 minutes to change it and it's all fine now, really happy with my laptop and can't complain about the price eithier, £740 once everything's deduted.

 

hello guys

i don;t know if this ahs been discussed before ion this thread or anywhere else on the forum - i googled it and didnt find anything here, so i will take a shot

i have a major problem with my 1720

as you know, there aren't many xp drivers for 1720 so i had to do a little digging and found the answer on this very forum, on a different thread.

i installed my graphics drivers for the 8600m using an nvidia forceware and an inf generated with inf enhacer form laptopvideo2go.com

it workde great until one day i put it into hibernation and when i started the computer again, the screen was blank, even though the backlighting was on. i shut it down from the button and restarted it, and the screen was back on, so i didn't pay too much attention to this event.


one week later, i put it into hibernation again, and the screen didnt start even after 10 button restarts. i plugged in an external display and suddenly the display on the laptop reappared when i restarted.

i thought i had got rid of the problem, but what i read on the laptopvideo2go forums makes me worry even MORE! because my computer starts with the blank screen EVEN IF I SHUT IT DOWN PROPERLY (not hibernate or stand by). I am terrified that only 2 weeks after buying a brand new laptop i have these problems.

i read about this issue with 8600m on this forum and thought that if i get the drivers from dell it would work, but after i shut it down properly and let it a couple of hours, when i started the screen was blank again.

the problem persisted even AFTER i installed the original drivers from dell support page - is it possible that there are remains of the initial dirver left ? how can i reset my computer to it's original state ? i dont even use hibernate or stand by that much, i just want to see what's on the screen.

i also mention that not even the bios boot screen is displayed - the screen is completely dark from the very beginning. one mentioned solution with Fn+F8 doesnt work for me

please tell me what to do - could it disappear if i format the system drive, reset the bios to default settings (although i haven't changed one single setting), and reinstall ?



by the way, i am using xp pro

thanks in advance

 

i wish i got a deal like that. i had to pay a $100-200 more than you for a slightly worse system.

 

Thejuju, where is the desktop wallpaper in your picture from?

 

I got the wallpaper from

http://www.themecreative.com/wallpaper/space.html

 

Thanks for the link.
There are some really nice wallpapers there.

 

I would do a clean install of the os with dells drivers. If that doesn’t work call dell.

 

specs are in my sig. i was about to ask for a refund because of how BIG it was but now using for like 2 days i love it!

 

i have a 1720 and have had the same issue with the screen not coming up on boots and reboots. having to restart the computer like 4 or 5 times to make screen appear. i contacted dell and they had me run a diagnostic on it.....it gave them some code and they instantly said is a bad lcd screen and they are sending someone out to replace it.

 

Hello Pple. I wanted to make sure. How much do u think i should be charged for the following specs:
Inspiron 1720
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 1.5 Ghz
17" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) Display
Jet Black and Integrated 2MP Webcam
1GB DDR2 RAM
160GB Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR2
I have been charged $1400. Is that rght?

 

Anyone know where I can get Vista x64 drivers for the Card Reader???

 

I am still waiting for my 1720.

Anyone can tell me if the lid open all the way flat?

 

No it won't open flat.