OFFICIAL: Inspiron 1720 Owner's Thread

oh!! thanks i'll check it out, hope everything goes well

 

If you are installing Ubuntu then it should be in the restricted drivers manager. it automatically downloads and installs drivers for you.

 

My Inspiron 1720 was delivered today and I am very impressed. It is very fast and good looking. I am really happy with it. I am also happy with the delivery time. Ordered on 7/8/08 and got it today. Estimate was August 5.

 

congratulations buddy!

 

congrats

 

Midnight Blue Dell Inspiron 1720
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.50GHz
17.0" Widescreen 1920*1200 with TrueLife
4.0GB RAM (Dual)
320GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT 256MB
Dell 355 Bluetooth
Intel Wireless
6 cell Battery

 

I have an Inspiron 1721, AMD Turion duo 1.9, 3gig DDR2, however it runs like a slow pony. It has a WEI of only 2.1.
Is this going to be enough to run media type software like movie editing?

 

Have you tried doing a clean install to get rid of all the bloatware which dell sticks on? If not, follow the guide below and performance should improve significantly.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

 

Just comin' in to say howdy... I hope you're all enjoying your 1720s! Say, anyone has added a second harddrive to their machine?

 

OK so my order got faxed to Dell on 7/11/2008 and as of today 7/23/2008 SILL in Build Stage. I have a feeling this is the beginning of Dell Hell with thier delays. Ugh. Wonderful.

 

So my beautiful 1720 is due to be delivered today...I had been planning to buy it since Christmas (new laptop for college). By the time we finally convinced my parents to order it the option for spring green was gone! ::cries:: so I don't get to have my green laptop but I NEED my black one like....now. I'm currently running a ten year old Windows 2000 desktop (as in it was originally 98 then upgraded...yeah. I know.)

Anyway...not to be long-winded or anything I guess I just want to know this:

The integrated web cam has a microphone yes? I want to video chat with my high school friends when we're 300 miles away from each other. Also..it's been almost a year since you guys bought your laptops. Are things still running smoothly?

I hope you reply after all this time!

Thanks!

 

Ordered a 1720 to replace my old 5150.
I placed the order on the 9th of July and the scheduled ship date is on the 28th of July. Dell's web site stills shows "In Production"

Here is what's in it.................

Intel Core 2 Duo T8300(2.4GHz, 800Mhz, 3M L2 Cache)
Jet Black Color with Matte Finish
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
High Resolution, glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1920 x 1200)
256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT
320G 5400RPM SAMSUNG Hard Drive
Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Ultimate
8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi

 

yeh webcam has got built in microphone so you'll be alright

 

Indeed!

You will need the following:
HDD Caddy
Interposer
Screws
SATA Hard drive....

usually 30 - 40 dollars on ebay will get you everything that you need.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200240811912

That would fit the bill perfectly.


Be sure that if you decide that you want to add another HDD... that you get the caddy that is designed for the second bay. The two caddies are a bit different, and you can not use a HDD1 caddy in the HDD2 slot.



Good luck

 

LOL, I already have Dual Drive configuration with 200GB 7200rpm + 320GB 5400 rpm. Just asking if anyone has upgraded their drives like I did. First time in my life had alot of storage space on a laptop!

 

I might get a 7200RPM drive as well, but I'm not so sure yet. If the 5400 RPM one is fast enough I won't bother. I know I'll have PLENTY of storage, between the 320GB in my laptop, my 500GB external, and the 160GB external I'm trying to sell.

 

hey i just wanted to drop in and say hi to all my 1720 peers

Alpine White Dell Inspiron 1720
Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 2.0GHz, 667MHz
17.0" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) Anti-Glare
4.0GB RAM (Dual)
320GB 5400RPM Harddrive
NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT 256MB
Dell 355 Bluetooth
Wireless Dell 1395 (802.b/g)
6-cell Battery
Dell travel remote

 

I've had my inspriron for about a month now and I just noticed a piece of that sticky plastic you get when it's delivered. It was covering what looks like a infra-red port plus it is reddish. I didnt know 1720 have infra-red, I've never seen any drivers for it. Is it infra-red? How cool would it be if it was?

 

It is indeed infrared!

 

Can a remote be purchased for the IR to be used? If so where can I find it? Also, I was surprised to see that there wasn't that much bloatware on my new 1720.

 

This is brilliant although I don't think it works because I tried sending a file with my phone and it didnt recognise it. Surely it needs some kind of drivers. and I forgot to mention the port is under the play/pause media key.

 

I think the IR is in fact for the Media remote you cana buy that slides into the ExpressCard slot. Otherwise, I think you need software to get it to communicate with phones. Some Nokias, Kyoceras, Blackberries, and a few other SmartPhones use IR for communication, so you'd have to look up thier respective software packages.

 

WOOHOO! Got my laptop yesterday. Awesome machine. battery life with web browsing and low-power req things is AMAZING! 3-4 Hours?! What a difference between this laptop and my mom's Velocity Micro that has a smaller screen, less RAM and a lower freq CPU! Good job Dell.

 

The infra-red port is a consumer port that only recieves, to be used with the Dell Remote only.

 

Howdy, I'm about to, Ive ordered the 2nd drive caddy/interposer and screws and will be adding a 320GB into the second bay

 

Awesome, I just put a HDD in my second bay too. Good luck.

 

Where did you get your kit from please?

 

right here

 

Thanks for the link. I chatted with a tech support agent who offered me a caddy and interposer for $10 each and $4 shipping. But I forgot to ask if screws were included. It doesn't matter anyway because I didn't order from him.

 

Hello peeps. I decided to install XP Pro SP2 on my 1720 so I could see what it can really do. So I slipstreamed the SATA drivers and installed XP. But now I can't install the drivers for the graphics card, it just says it's incompatible. I've tried different versions but still no luck. Can anyone help?

 

I can't recall the link which Dell has the XP graphic drivers. I know there is. You might want to do a search there.

OR...

You can try laptopvideo2go.com. I helped to install XP 32 on many of my friends' XPS 1530 many times, whereby obtaining the graphic drivers from there. Works absolutely well and no problems. 177.XX for windows XP release is here:
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=94

But I would highly recommend and strongly suggest that you try the Dell official site first before going ahead to LV2G. Write back to me. Thanks.

 

yeah, the Dell website has got the drivers. I was downloading drivers straight from the nVidia website only to find out that they were desktop drivers and couldn't be used with laptops. But problem solved btw I went back to Vista because there are no XP bluetooth drivers and I can't do without the bluetooth.

 

Got my 1720 today. Vista premium SP1. 320 GB drive.
Has 2 partitions: C= OS & D = recovery

Want to partiton the C drive into 3 partitions.
C = OS
D= Programs
E= Data

How do I proceed and whats the best partition program to use? Also how big should these partitions be? eg: how much for the OS?

Thanks

 

hehe there is an amazing thread advising you on doing just that. It's below.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

Everything is covered on there.

 

The thread is titled "Vista Reformat To Remove Bloatware ". I only want to partiton the drive"

 

Thanks for the link, but is there no place in UK to buy this? Since it is shipped from USA, did you have to pay any gross overheads such as customs & excise duty, shipping etc. Sometimes these charges raise the price by 30%.

 

Get a 3rd party partition software.

 

Your laptop has probably come with MediaDirect a separate OS designed to save battery power when you only want to view pictures or music. If you are going to do the partitions mentioned above you will have to wipe all of your hard-drive first. The guide above just explains how you can keep MediaDirect and create custom partitions. But if you arent bothered about MediaDirect just use Vista to reformat and make your partitions.

 

That's not correct. You can create/delete partitions without doing a complete format.

 

If I install the third party partition program (partition manager 8.5) on the C Drive, will it work? I read somehere that the partitioning program has to be on another partition for it to work.

 

I actually paid roughly £30 for the lot, on ebay.co.uk, a shop there wanted £40 for the same thing minus screws, so in effect, I saved money.

 

yes that is true. I'm sorry. however a complete format will significantly increase system performance and is worth doing especially if you're planning to re-partition anyway. Since it will get rid of all these Dell program and registries which are loaded at the factory.

 

I think that you read it right. I think the partitioning software has to lock the partition it has to perform actions on. So install it on the partition that you don't have to edit.

Can anyone with some knowledge regarding this further clarify? I'd like to know about it myself. I've used these partitioning softwares before, but I didn't pay much attention to this stuff. Maybe I did then, but I certainly don't remember now.

 

My laptop nevers seem to use more than about 1.5GB of RAM and I've got 4GB. Is there anyway to make it use it so it runs faster? Cheers

 

<Silas Awaketh> It doesnt matter what partition the program is on. As far as I know the program loads itself into RAM in the very first stages of OS load, and prevents the OS from loading so no programs are runnnig off of the hard disk. I used to use Partition Magic 8 from Acronis (now owned by Symantec I believe) and I always installed it on my default partition and it never hurt anything.

<Stoy> The RAM is pretty much there for any programs that need it. Try running a big game like Crysis and Alt-Tab out of it. I'm sure your RAM usage will be MUCH higher then 1.5GB.

<All> The BluRay movies look GREAT with the HD Display. And also, MD 3.5 IS capable of playing BLuRay movies w/o Vista running. Works great. My test movie was Pan's Labyrinth. Great movie, with LOTS of detail in the better scenes. Perfect for testing something like this.

 

I use Acronis Disc Director, and it does it on the fly, no rebooting, no loading in RAM and stopping other programs from loading, just knowing it's role and shutting it's mouth like a Jabroni. How does this work?

 

Not sure. That's a damn good question. Ever try re-sizing the boot/system partition? That'll usually make a partition management program kick into boot-mode because it can't mess with the files in use by the OS.

 

You can resize the OS partition with the BUILT IN disk management tools. It's easy. You can't relocate it, and you can only shrink it form the end and make new partition. Then destroy those new ones and re add them to the original partition but it works... on the fly.... on the OS partititon....no reboot.

 

Wow Vista has a good disk tool then. Awesome. It'll maie it easier for me to dual boot with Linux then. Thinknig of Dual Booting with etiher Ubuntu, Slackware, or a couple others.

 

Hello. It's been a while since anyone has posted on here but it is time again. I'm thinking about switching to 64-bit Vista, however the drivers below are missing from the website or the resource CD.

Ricoh Chipset
Broadcom Network Adapter 440x 10/100
Dell touch pad/pointing stick

Does anyone where I can get 64-Vista versions of these?

Thanks in advance