Owner's Thread: Dell Inspiron 7000 series

It's better - I disabled a bunch of processes that were running in the background, and my backup was set to use a lot of cpu. It's still not as fast as you are saying. For some reason I am unable to upload the screen shot. I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for -


Passmark rating: 878 (1 star)
CPU mark 1397 (1/2 star)
2d graphics 186 (1/2 star)
3d graphics 342 (1 1/2 star)
memory 657 (1 star)
Disk 3513 (4 1/2 stars)

 

Hi,

On 18 November 2013 I ordered a Dell Inspiron 15 7000 (7537). With all possibly options like sdd, ect. The laptop was delivered 2 weeks later than promised on 12 December 2013. Since day 1 my internet, or better said wifi, didn’t worked from time to time and only had a normal download speed when I was within 5 meters of the router. When I went further or upstairs my connection failed or was extremely slow. Also on other routers, hotspot, ect. this laptop has the same issue. You can’t get further then 5m from the router or the wifi becomes terribly slow.

So I contacted Dell to see what they could do about it and if it was possible to return my laptop because of the defect (it took me 2 weeks to convince them that I was not ‘lying’). On the phone they told me this was not how they usually do this and they would send a technician with a new wifi antenna (integrated in a new lcd screen) to see if this solved the problem and to check if it actually was a defect of the laptop itself or because of my routers. So on 20 December the intervention was planned but the technician didn’t show up until 6 January. He had a new lcd/antenna kit but not a new wifi card (which they promised me to replace too). He installed the new part but no improvement. At least he recognized that it was an actual defect on the laptop and not because of my router which is fine. So he came back with 3 different models of wifi cards on 8 January to test if the card was the problem. Again no improvement was made and it even became worse: the technician broke the antenna cables when he tried to unplug it during the testing of the wifi cards. He told me he would come back to install a new lcd/wifi antenna for the second time. So at the moment I don’t have any wifi connection because the cables aren’t connected anymore. When the technician leaved he also told me that I should ask for a refund because he was almost 100% sure that there is no solution to solve this problem and that he already had seen this issue with the XPS. Then Dell couldn’t find the problem or couldn’t fix it so they told there customers to buy an external wifi antenna. (These are his words) We also talked about the fact that there are a lot other user of my model have the same issues and that a replacement laptop will give me the same result.

After all this I am really getting tired of all this problems with Dell and the way how they treat their customers. At first they didn’t believe me, then I had to wait for all the replacements which didn’t help and now I have to wait again for a replacement. So I contacted Dell because I wanted a refund and send the laptop back (or at least a new/or other model with a new warranty). But this was not possible because THE LAPTOP ALREADY HAD PARTS REPLACED BY THE DELL TECHNICIANS. So I got angry and told them that first they didn’t want me to send the laptop back because a technician had to check the defect first so that they could be sure I was not “lying” and now I also can’t send it back because they already replaced parts in it.

So now I am stuck with a laptop that doesn’t work and a customer service that doesn’t want to help me or that is the impression I have. I can’t do anything else than waiting for the technician with the new lcd so I can ask him to write down on paper that nothing helps to fix the wifi issues. This might be the only chance to get my money back with a solid evidence on paper. Any suggestion how to get my money back are more than welcome…


SO I SUGGEST THAT EVERYBODY WHO WANTS TO BUY THIS MODEL SHOULD CONSIDER THE FACT THAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE A DECENT CONNECTION. NOT EVEN GOOD ENOUGH TO WATCH A YOUTUBE VIDEO AT 144P. THOSE WHO ALREADY BOUGHT THIS MODEL: RETURN IT BEFORE THEY SEND A TECHNICIAN AND JUST TELL THEM YOU JUST DON’T LIKE IT. IF YOU TELL THEM ABOUT THE WIFI ISSUE THEY WILL SEND A TECHNICIAN.


This is how Dell works in Belgium/the Netherlands...

 

The only problem with my laptop is the annoying hissing sound when I plug in my headphone. Otherwise everything else works great. But then its not supposed to have any problem in the first place.

 

Originally bought the 7537 because a) it was $899 during boxing week, b) specs for the price were quite decent, and c) i had a $500 futureshop gift card.

Battery life is probably the only real issue I can see with the Toshiba compared to the Dell, but I've seen reports of 4-5hrs of battery life on low brightness, so who knows. 95% of the time it will be plugged in anyway.
I'm a programmer and I'll be running several virtual machines (albeit web servers mostly), so the dual-core i7 w/ 16gb ram was good enough for what I needed, and the touch screen was mostly an added bonus for mobile development, but wasn't something i cared about.

 

mine has that to. If that would be the only problem i would be the happiest men in the world can you connect to 5ghz networks with your wifi?

 

Ok, something is definitely wrong. The CPU score for the Core i7-4500u should be around 4,012. The fact that you only got about 1,400 means something is REALLY wrong.
See here for average score for this CPU: PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End

Mine gets a score of 4,120 for example.

Memory is strangely slow too, but this can also be caused by a slow CPU. (I doubt anything is wrong with your RAM).

The disk speed mark is normal, so your SSD is working perfectly fine, but the CPU seems to be the big red flag here.

Are you sure your CPU isn't crippled somehow? When you open Task Manager, click on performance, and then CPU, do you see all four logical cores?
Because that score is consistent with only one core running. In fact, I temporarily disabled all the other cores I have to test it out, and I got a score of about 1,400.

The only other big possibility is that there's some program running constantly in the background and keeping the CPU very busy. What's your CPU utilization like?

 

At first my internet speed was 3mps very hard to download stuff. Then I installed the latest driver from intel and its now 16.5mps which is the same as my desktop. In device manager, my wireless card is displayed as Intel(R) Wireless-N 7260, but intel auto detect will still tell its a dual band. I have no idea if it can connect to 5ghz network

 

Update. I've observed 20Mbps downloads with my WiFi connection inside about 12 feet. I don't know the dB reception. The router and ISP are supposed to push 30dB which I am getting on a CAT-6 cable.

I'm satisfied, but I'm sympathetic to people who are supposed to be getting much higher speeds. Can someone describe the location of the antennae and whether it might be feasible to test a connection with a homemade set of antennae or at least replace the WiFi card? Trying your own antenna, though, would mean getting deep into hacking/engineering and antenna knowledge (it would be best if someone could parameterize and do some analysis on various potential 2.4GHz shapes' resonance in a CAD simulator like ANSYS).

 

The CPU isn't very busy:

 

The cpu is throttled to 0.77ghz in power saving. Maybe try it on another mode?

 

How do I do that? Throttling is one thing I haven't learned much about. Thanks for your help with this - it's driving me batty.

Found it - THANK YOU!! CPU score now 4151 and memory 2037:thumbsup:

 

Awesome! Does the laptop feel a lot faster now or do you still think it's sluggish?

 

hehe power plan can trick you badly sometimes! Still I don't think that your laptop should be so sluggish even in Power saving mode...

 

Just wondering what setting you changed. My 7737 scored an 878 on the Passmark as well, but my power option plan is currently set on High Performance. The computer seems to be running about the same speed overall as my 2 year old L702X.

 

This is really unacceptable, you should consider calling a consumers' association. I will call Dell the next week and see what will be of mine.
If they can't solve this I will ask for a complete refund and I will return it.

 

had anyone tried this: Intel® Wi-Fi Products — TechNote: Sporadic wireless disconnects caused by data reordering issue ? How it is? Problems are still there? Or it resolve everything?

 

Much snappier, thank you! Login to desktop in a second or two - before it was taking upwards of 20. Itunes loaded in 6 sec rather than 15-20, for example. Not as fast as you said yours loaded, but that could be due to processes I have running in background. No hesitation now switching between tabs in Chrome. Thanks so much!

 

In power options (control panel) I changed power plan from power savings to balanced. I tried moving to max performance, but didn't see any significant increase in speed over balanced. Check the advanced settings. This is how mine are set under the balanced plan (I'm only listing the ones that differed from both the power saver and high performance settings):

-hard drive: battery 10 min, plug in 20
-ie/java: battery max power savings, plug in max performance
-wireless: battery medium power savings, plug in max performance
-sleep: sleep after 15/30, hybrid off/off, hibernate 180/180, allow wake timers disabled for both
-graphics: battery - balanced, plug in - balanced
-pci: battery - max power saver, plug in - moderate power saver
-processor: minimum proc. state - 5% for both, system cooling - battery passive, plug in active, maximum proc. state - 100%
-display: turn off - battery 5 min, plug in 10 min, brightness - battery 40%, plug in 80%, dimmed display brightness - 50/50, enable adaptive brightness on/on
-multi media: sharing media, battery allow sleep, plug in prevent, video, battery balanced, plug in optimize video quality

 

Regarding the wireless disaster: Dell replaced wifi card with 1901 and it was worse than the 7260n and the 6235, so I had them put the 6235 back in. They replaced the display, since they can't replace just the wifi antenna. That made a very small bit of improvement. Tech & I noticed connectors were made of different metal on the new display - maybe more conductive? In any case, even though I promised Dell I would shut up after this, I'll ask for a 7260ac and tell them I'll install myself and see what they say. If they won't, I may just buy one myself. Most of the time I work close to the router, so after all of the time and energy I've spent on this beast, I'm not going to send it back just for that. The thought of having to start all over again with another new laptop - I just don't want to go there. I may also try a new AC router or a booster.

 

I've also had mine replaced by the DW1901 card 2 days ago. Once I got the 8.1 driver installed it gave excellent speeds and no drop outs. Last night I had problems streaming after about 30 minutes, though that could be the site or VM playing up. I'll continue to test and post results after a week.

 

So guys, does the 1901 still suffer from the same issue? tenacious and Rex77 are reporting different behaviors, can someone else confirm?

 

If you do install the 7260ac, please report back with results. It would be helpful to a few.

 

Ya definitely will

 

Could someone who DOES have the audio hiss on the headphone port confirm that if they use a pair of USB headphones / headset that the noise isnt present?

 

Rather than go through Dell I bought a 1901 off eBay and fitted it myself, wifi has been flawless since (compared with continual disconnects/poor signal with the Intel N7260).

 

I use USB headphones and there's no noise.
But I never actually tested the headphone jack.

 

It seems there's a difference between the canadian and the US models:
From dell.ca (CA) The brightest Inspiron yet: The optional Full HD 15.6" display with available touch screen has 300-nit brightness, 97% more pixels than HD and 50% brighter than the previous-generation Inspiron 15.Additionally, the 160-degree viewing angle means your display looks clear and crisp from almost any seat.
While Dell.com (US): The optional Full HD 15.6" display with touch screen has 270-nit brightness, 97% more pixels than HD and 35% brighter than the previous-generation Inspiron 15. Additionally, the 160-degree viewing angle means your display looks clear and crisp from almost any seat.
Might be why there's a different selection of displays..

 

I'm in the UK and my laptop was shipped from China. HWiNFO64 reports that my display (full HD touchscreen) is a 156HL [DELL P/N: M6XR1]
Don't know who the manufacturer is. A quick google for this part number shows that it is an IPS panel. My display has properties of an IPS panel; very good viewing angles both horizontal and vertical, good brightness at all angles and no inversing of colours.

I guess as with most monitor and TV manufacturers, Dell use a number of different panels in the same product (supply and cost reasons)

 

I do not have any issues with the 1901 but I did notice I do have some slight random problems if I force my router's wireless to 40Mhz.

 

Anyone know where I can buy a lid protector (clear) for the 15 inch model (7537)?

 

Unless Dell sells them I don't think you'll find one from a 3rd party. This model (and most PC laptops too) isn't widely distributed enough to find a market. Form fitting protectors are usually only found for Apple laptops.

If you're DIY inclined, you could look into whether thingiverse is capable of printing a more rubbery, flexible material and design a protector for yourself.

 

My laptop does not sense the battery. The battery level is not going down, and doesn't recognize the battery. Anyone having trouble with this?

 

I have a problem on my 7537. Whenever i shut down it, it reboots after five seconds. But after i try to shut down for the second time it works fine. Anyone else??

Inviato dal mio Nexus 4 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

Does it happen every single time? Because I have the same prob although it's not too often. Maybe 1 out of 20 times I shut down that it occurs.

 

Every single time

Inviato dal mio Nexus 4 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

Has any of you noticed some screen flickering when your laptop is running is battery mode? Nothing very obvious but it's as is the contrast was changing slightly once every 10s or so. It's especially noticeable when browing on the internet or typing with Word for instance (white background makes it more obvious). Luckily I found a way to fix it in the Intel Graphic properties menu under Battery mode options,by disabling the automatic battery life extension scheme. This way driving me crazy even though it is not that bad but I might be a little bit fussy! I hope this can help

 

Hey
I'm interested, if 7537 (i7-1,8/8gb/1TB/gt750m) can run games like ARMA III on mid-high settings (+30fps) and programs like autoCAD?

 

Yes, i have this issue in battery and desktop mode. I turn on and off many graphic options but issue continues

 

I had this and it was driving me nuts, it's fixed by disabling the intel intelligent/smart display power saving feature in the intel display control panel.

 

Don't buy it! i am waiting for a replacement laptop which will arrive in march. Had mine since 12 december but this laptop was really crap. wifi sucks, headphone hissing and it gets very hot when you run programs like autocad, adobe cs6 suite and so on.
+ keyboard looks nice on the pics but in reality it is the most unpleasant keyboard i ever worked on.also the touchpad is something i just don't get used to.
Looks are ok and screen is perfect but apart from that: get an apple if you really wan't a decent laptop.

I won't make this mistake again to buy a DELL

 

It's coming up to a week since I swapped the Wi-Fi card for a DW1901. I can report that my reception is now rock solid and haven't had a single drop. I've used various routers, with all reacting well to the card. I'm running my home router on 5ghz, and my speeds are lightning fast. Just make sure you remove all the previous Intel software and get the latest 8.1 drivers if you upgraded.

 

I swapped my 7260 with a intel 6235 and now I no longer get disconnections when streaming full hd video over my network. But I wanted know what the difference between the 2, I checked the technical documents and I only see that the 7260 has intel location based service which I believe is software only. Hardware wise they look the same.

 

even when you are further than 35 feet from the router?

 

Are people still having issues with the Samsung 840 Pro or is everyone just putting a different drive in? I have a 512GB 840 Pro I was wanting to move from another laptop but also have a 512GB M4 if I have to use it.

 

From a 60mb Virgin connection, I'm getting 55mb from 25ft downstairs, 20mb upstairs, from a back bedroom which is around 50ft. I'm finding that 5ghz doesn't like going through walls as well as 2.4ghz does.

 

Yes, I don't think anyone has gotten 840 PRO to work long term, after a few days windows won't boot anymore.

I reinstalled 3-4 times and it kept happening I put in a M4 instead and have had no problems since.

I wouldn't bother trying with the 840 PRO if you already have another SSD.

 

Couldn't do it the M4 or even M500/Intel 530 perfromance seemed too much of a step back. IDK I'm downsizing with the inspiron just ordered a 250GB EVO just sell the other drives when I sell the old laptop. Doing all my VM builds on Precision t7600 now instead of the laptop.

 

Hey Guys,

I recieved my inspiron 7537 today. It came without nvidia drivers preinstalled, i installed the latest drivers but i'm missing most of the settings in nvidia control panel.

Is this normal?

 

So even though I was told last week I'd be getting my replacement today, I got a call a couple hours from dell. Those motherers said it'd be another 12-14 days before they ship my replacement. me

 

I'm having an annoying issue with my connections.

I connected every time my laptop with wifi (I don't have problems). When I power on my laptop, it's usually connected to my network in no more than 1 second, instantly. One day, I connected it via Ethernet. Since that day, every time I power on my laptop it starts showing the ethernet icon like disconnected, and it takes about 20 seconds to start automatically Wifi connection. How can I fix this?