Studio 15 - What are the common issues?

Hi all,

I'm looking for a new notebook and the Studio 15 looks good, although I've read a few reports about issues and wanted to see what the 'current' revision of the Studio 15 coming out of Dell were like.

Previous issues I've seen reference to are:
- Low speaker quality
- Touchpad is erratic
- Volume control has little 'in between' and sometimes resets itself

I'd appreciate it if anyone can point out in a mature way if there are other inherit problems with this model...

Also I'd prefer to run Windows XP - is there enough community support to allow XP to be installed with all key devices (video, audio, network, hotkeys) functioning?

Cheers.

 

Speaker quality is average, though a little too soft. This can be fixed but uninstalling the IDT and high definition sound devices from the device manager. Rebooting will make the computer find and install the Vista drivers for the hardware, which makes them much louder. Perfect. Touchpad is fine for me, been fine for 2-4 months I've had it. Volume control never reset itself. In between I don't know.

 

The only erratic behaviour I've had with my touchpad has been that it doesn't always register a tap as a left-click. I did the sound tweak as mentioned by FatMangos, which makes a big difference; although the speakers themselves are still not the greatest. Never had the volume reset itself, and it has enough in-between volume range for me.

I've only had my Studio 1537 just over a week now but I'm very happy with it.

 

i agree.. im using IDT drivers and speakers are fine to me. i have had the erratic touchpad issue but that can be resolved by installing synaptics drivers instead of alps' ones. however that will make ur touchpad scrolling not work.

 

If you really want to install XP, then here is some guidance

http://wickmanstudios.com/content/view/17/29/

 

Yeah, frankly I wasn't expecting mind-blowing audio from a "normal" laptop, as opposed to a premium ninja one with a sub-one-hour battery life that can run Crysis maxed out.

It's perfectly acceptable once tweaked. Mine sounds awesome on headphones, too.

 

I just got my Studio 1537 on the 23rd. I'd read a lot of stuff saying the speakers were bad, but I figured they couldn't be any worse then the ones in my 6 year old Inspiron 8500 ... they are. Very quiet and tinny, the tiny speaker on my cell phone plays music louder and at a higher quality. That's my biggest complaint. Will need to get some portable USB-powered speakers.

I did a clean install of vista, so I've never used Dell's audio or trackpad drivers. No trackpad issues, I did just recently install the alps driver to get the slider functionality, haven't used it enough to know if that causes problems.

Only other issues is it seems like sometimes, mainly when it goes to sleep? when restarted the eject button light stays on and all other other media buttons don't work. Have to pull the battery to work. In Firefox I couldn't click any download links, but I've just read that's a problem with the fingerprint reader and it's software, may try disabled the add-on to see if that fixes it.

 

I agree with Jason. Several people report the eject button issue (where it lights up for a while and none of the other buttons work.)

Mine has trouble resuming from sleep sometimes. I open the lid and usually it wakes up; however, sometimes it just stays in a black screen and freezes.

@ Jason: Yes, disabling the fingerprint plugin for firefox fixes the unable to download anything problem.

 

well I'm using headphones and i'm perfect!
I had "crackling" issue but it was fixed!
Sometimes (may be it's just me - I have LED 1440x900 LGPHILIPS) - sometimes I feel the Display more bright!
On practice brigtness level is the same, but sometimes I feel it different and little "irritating" my eyes!
May be it is hardware Issue, may be it is just me, may be it is just different "light" in my room
Anyway I'm very happy with my studio!

 

I used to have an eject button problem from time to time, but I got a new studio and now I never have that problem. It seems the slot loading drive is different. Try updating your BIOS to BIOS A06 from Dell. When I press the eject button on this newer model, it no longer makes an ejecting sound unless there is already a disc inside. It also never stays on.

 

Mine came with version A07 dated December 3rd (A05 seems to be the newest available for download) and I have the eject issue

 

I have A06 on my 1535 and the eject issue seems to still be around, though I haven't tested it much.

 

I have A06 on my Studio 1535 with the eject button problem. The drive never makes any noise unless there's a disc already in it. Trying to eject the empty drive produces no sound whatsoever.

No clue what's causing the malfunction.

 

I'd give dell technical support a call.

 

Right-clicking and opening a new tab from the menu is my workaround for the download. I like using the reader in Firefox, it's a trade-off.

My media bar does exactly that with the eject button. It does it coming out of sleep, hibernation or even powering on now. Once the eject button light goes out (about 5-10 minutes), the touch buttons then all work. My drive makes no ejecting sounds unless there's a disc in it to actually eject.

I forget which BIOS version I have. Will make a note on next bootup. I think it's A07, though.

 

I would say skip the Studio and get a XPS.

I had a Studio 15 and experienced just horrible sound. Some people are saying the sound is acceptable and they expected no better since it is not a laptop that costs xxx that is a joke.

HP dv5 and dv7 series as well as older HP DV5000 and DV9000 series which are all comparale or cheaper in terms of pricing to the Studio has FAR BETTER sound quality. The sound on the Studios are only acceptable if you are not used to anything better or a Dell fanatic.

I also experienced the horrible jumpy touchpad. At the end of the day I found Studios to be unacceptable and sold mine. I now use a XPS which has much better sound, screen and touchpad.

To be frank even Inspiron 14" is better than the Studio 15".

 

The sound issue has actually been fixed here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=330478

But there are more problems..
- When closing the lid and opening it, sometimes it doesn't turn back on and I have to open and close a few times or shut it down by holding the power button just to get it back on.
- It causes blemishes to itself. I get scratches on the top grill, although I don't see the display touching it at all.. it gets scratched by itself somehow.
- The built quality is not very sturdy.
- After a few months, the charger sometimes doesn't really work. (I think it got overheat)
- The touchpad is not responsive sometimes.
- Ejects itself after hibernation.

I got it cheap, so no complains.

 

I'm surprised no one mentioned the rather loud hiss that is always present when you put in earbuds.

 

Ive had mine for about 5days and this morning when i turned it on the eject button stayed on for about 5min, first time its happened since i got it.
Running A07

 

For me the the persistent problem is the audio skipping and cracking caused by disturbance from the Dell 1397 WiFi card

 

Another: the frigging cooling fan at 100% randomly. Only way to fix it is to physically lift the laptop up, and place it back down, which makes quiets the fan. However, even after that the fan still can go 100% for no reason.

 

I've had no hiss on headphones, just good sound.

So far, at least!

 

hey
call Dell and get you heatsink/fan replaced, mine was doing this exact same thing. Got the heatsink/fan replaced, and the problem is gone
look at the video I made for Dell Support:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISIcmEOJt88
take care!

 

mmmm touchpad is the most disgusting i've ever seen !!

I'm getting the mice with me everywhere

 

I've never noticed issues with the touchpad; and I've been using it on the pre-installed Vista Home Premium, as well as Windows 7 Beta x64, and Ubuntu Linux.

I've always thought the integrated speakers were pretty quiet, but with my Logitech Z-2300 speakers, it's not so bad. I never knew about that tweak, though, thanks for that. Will that mess up my sound quality with really good speakers?

I think I may have lucked out with this one; I haven't experienced many of the problems that are apparently quite common with Studio 15's.

 

Not had any touchpad issues, and since updating the BIOS i havent had any issues with the media buttons. I never use the laptop speakers because I actually care about audio.

I dont know of any laptop (or desktop with in integrated soundcard) that has a soundcard that is up to much - as in no hiss, and good SNR. even the best laptop built in speakers are easily beaten by an inexpensive set or stereo or 2.1 speakers.