Studio 15 Owner's Thread

Can anyone confirm for me, is the Dell part# D344C - the uk backlit keyboard for the 1537?

 

What exactly sets the UK version apart?

The one I ordered from a reseller is listed as D794C or KR766, which is a backlit keyboard for 1535/1536/1537. It's an English U.S. - International keyboard layout, with the Euro (€ sign on the 5 key, etc.

 

I think the size and position of the enter key is different between uk and us.

on mine i have the € and $ on the 4 key, which i have no clue how to use the € key as holding shift is for the $ and holding function doesn't work.

first one is us then uk

 

I see. Yeah, the one I have is more or less identical to the first one. I don't think the site I got mine from has that U.K. layout.

Also, to use the Euro sign, you hold the right Alt key and press 4. You may have to change your keyboard layout settings in Windows to enable this. On the default U.S. layout, right Alt + 5 does nothing, but on the U.S. International layout, right Alt + 5 generates the € sign.

 

I found one on ebay for just under £20, the listing says it's backlit and the part number is D344C, just wondering if this is the correct part number for the uk backlit keyboard. Hopefully someone in the uk can verify this.

Thanks for your help mastershroom

 

If I were you I would send a message to the seller and ask to confirm that it is the U.K. keyboard layout.

Glad to help.

 

I got a reply from the seller and they did confirm that the keyboard is backlit, so i'm going to buy it today.

Mastershroom, i read about you replacing the keyboard with a backlit one, how exactly did you do it and is it difficult?

 

Not at all. Here's Dell's official instructions on how to remove the keyboard:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/studio1535/en/SM/keyboard.htm#wp1180346

It's one of the simplest procedures, really. You don't even have to remove the bottom panel. Shut everything down, unplug the power, remove the battery. In the battery bay, there should be two Philips head screws labeled "K". Remove both of these. Now, open the laptop all the way, and pop the touch-sensitive media panel out of place. It's just held on with plastic tabs, so flex it a bit, dig your nails underneath and pry it apart. The Dell guide actually has separate instructions for removing the panel, linked within that keyboard guide.

Once you have the media panel off, either disconnect the ribbon cable that connects it to the motherboard and lay it off to the side, or if you want to leave the cable on, just try and angle the panel so that it doesn't cover the keyboard at all.

Remove the plastic bezel that surrounds the keyboard. It's not really fastened at all, you basically just peel it off.

The keyboard itself is only held on by two screws, at the top of the keyboard. Remove these, and then slide the keyboard up out of the tabs at the bottom, and then pull it up. You may have to flex it a bit to get it out of the side tabs. Once you've released the keyboard, disconnect the data cable that connects it to the motherboard by flipping up that tab thing and just take it away.

Now, the backlit keyboard is basically identical to the normal keyboard, except it has one extra, much smaller, cable to attach (for the power for the backlight LED's). Plug the data cable in the same way you took it out for the regular keyboard. Just put the cable in the slot and close that little tab to secure it. Do the same for the power cable, which should go in a slot pretty close to the keyboard data cable.

Pop the new keyboard back into the side tabs, and slide it down into the bottom tabs, and put the two screws at the top back in. Snap the bezel back into place, pop the media panel back on (re-connect the cable if you removed it earlier), flip it over and put the two screws back on in the battery bay.

Put your battery back it and/or plug in the AC adapter, and power up. The new keyboard should be ready to go, no drivers or anything needed. To activate the backlight, hold Fn and press the right arrow key once to enable the lights on full brightness. Doing this one more time will turn them down to a less bright setting, and again will turn them off. By default, I believe the key lights are set to automatically turn off after 30 seconds or so of inactivity until you press a key again, but out of personal preference, I changed this in the QuickSet software so they just stay on until I turn them off. You can set it however you like, of course.

Last step...enjoy! The backlights are a nice white color, same as the touch-panel buttons. The one negative side of the backlights is that if you look at the keyboard from a shallow angle, you can see some of the backlighting bleed through between the keys. It's really not a problem, though, just a minor pet peeve of mine. If you look at the board from a higher angle, you won't see any edge bleeding.

Mind you, this wall of text will probably take you longer to read than the actual procedure. The whole process of remove and replace took me around 5 minutes.

Hope you find this helpful.

 

That's a really detailed explanation, thanks alot, i should get it next week some time and i'll let you know how it goes.

thanks again

 

Hey mastershroom, just to let you know i got the backlit keyboard today and fitted it, it was very easy with your guide and looks really nice, just have to wait till night time to properly use it. The keys actually seem more tougher than the standard keyboard that dell fit, better build perhaps?


Thanks again

 

Guess its time to post here.

I just got my 1537 in this week off the dell outlet. Paid 540 for it shipped/taxed under the "previously ordered new" category and im still trying to figure out why the hell it was so cheap. I had it less than an hour before it was undervolted, and a few days before the v-card was OCed. Im always looking for ways to make its more powerful when its plugged in, and have a longer battery life when its wireless. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Wow. Thats an awesome price. I'm, uh, jealous. Beyond jealous, actually.

Enjoy your new machine...
--Eric

 

thanks. honestly when i got it in the mail i expected the screen not to be attached or something

 

Interesting...my backlit keyboard actually seems to have a bit more flex than the original one...my old regular keyboard had a metal plate of some sort covering the entire bottom, which made the whole thing very rigid. This backlit one doesn't have that plate, although I guess if I wanted to, I could mod something like myself. Either way, the flex isn't anything worth noting.

That is definitely a fantastic price. And I'm happy you managed to overclock the 3450, although I suggest you remove the heatsink and the crap Dell thermal pad, and apply some Arctic Silver or something similar.

 

i actually have some in a box some where, and im fairly confident in desktop parts, but id be scared to do that while still under dell warranty.

I have read horror storys before about the heatsink not even in full contact with the vcard though

 

It's entirely up to you if you want to do anything that may void your warranty. And that's why Dell puts in that stupid pad, because the heatsink doesn't even touch the graphics unit. You might want to get a small copper shim to place in that little gap, and put some AS5 on both sides.

K-TRON is selling 16x16mm shims in his thread in the NBR Marketplace forum, for $1 each. I just bought two, and I'm going to attempt a copper mod for the 3450 tonight.

 

take pics and ill see how involved it is

 

how is the lcd on this laptop? bright? whats the nit 300? sorry my eyes suck.

 

I'm wanting to upgrade my ram of my 1537, but i have no idea which kind is good, can anyone point me in the right direction of good ram?

I currently have 3GB installed, so i would need to get another 2GB stick to replace the 1GB.

 

So lucky! I'm looking for a deal like that.

I wonder. What battery did you get with it? And what's the battery life you have experienced so far?

 

You need 800 MHz DDR2 RAM modules. Just to be sure, you can check it in CPU-Z, under Memory tab.

Also, Kingston have an online product finder, and they suggested these: Kingston results

Note, that the 667 models listed there are for older 1535 machines.

Edit: Kingston sells pretty good memory modules at good price. To make full use of 4 GB memory, you need a 64 bit OS. Otherwise, any 32 bit Windows will see / use only approx. 3,1-3,5 GB, depending on the system itself.

 

Kingston, OCZ, mushkin, Corsair, Crucial, and G.Skill are all good names.
I have a 2x2GB kit of Kingston HyperX DDR2 667MHz, 4-4-4-12 timings, which set me back around $50 for the pair.
You have a 1537, so you would need 800MHz, aka PC-6400 of DDR2 200-pin memory, at 1.6V.
Latency doesn't matter much at these speeds...5-5-5-15 or 6-6-6-18 will be just fine.
These should suit you just fine:

2x2GB Kingston 800MHz, CAS latency 6: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134831

2x2GB Mushkin 800MHz, CAS latency 5: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146724

2x2GB Kingston HyperX 800MHz, CAS latency 5 (same series I use): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104026

2x2GB Corsair 800MHz, CAS latency unspecified, so probably 6: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145598 (free shipping on this one)

2x2GB G.Skill 800MHz, CAS latency 5: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231156

These all run in the vicinity of $40 to $50.

 

Studio 1537 uses DDR2 RAM running at 800MHz. Your idea is right, just get a 2GB stick to replace the 1GB stock one.

Edit: This time Mushroom beat me and gave a lot of extra info

 

Hey guys thanks for all your answers.

what's the difference between these two, i think the first one is the one you suggested mastershroom.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-038-KS


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-136-CS

 

Beat you at your own game!

If you really want, you can replace just the one 1GB stick for a 2GB stick, but it will have to have identical timings, and single 2GB cards cost almost as much as most 2x2GB kits anyway. You're better off just getting two brand new matching sticks.

 

Neither of these will do for you, these are desktop modules. You need SODIMM ones (approx. half width as these, and a bit taller).

 

Adrianu is right. The ones you linked are for desktop systems only.

Here is the notebook memory page on that site, although it's seriously lacking: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=8&subid=936

I wouldn't buy from there. They don't even have any 2x2GB 800MHz notebook RAM kits.

 

If you are not using a 64-bit OS you are wasting your money: paying for 2 GB and using only 0.5...

 

If it comes to that, he can get a free Vista 64-bit installation DVD from Dell. The only problem is, you have to wipe out your existing 32-bit Vista first.

 

Actually he would use 1.5, he loses 0.5

 

Semantics.

Either way, it's less than 2GB when it should be 2GB.

 

I suppose, lol. It was worth the money for me and I lose 0.5GB. At the same time, Dell sent me a 64-bit OS.

 

Exactly. I called Dell before I ordered my 4GB memory kit and made sure that they would send me the 64-bit disk. Otherwise I probably would have just kept the 3GB I had.

 

Ah, i guess i wasn't paying attention.

How are these? http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/2164/1...M-Memory-Module/Product.html?searchtype=genre

Sorry for all the questions, i have no idea when it comes to good ram, is it better to have two sticks of the same size and same brand?

 

Just got off the phone with dell uk about get vista 64bit, what a hassle!

The guy tried to say they do not ship the studio 1537 with vista 64bit and that they will give me it if i pay for it, he phones somebody, then comes back and says the reason they do not ship it with 64bit is that it's not been tested with the studio 1537, something to do with the discreet graphics card and drawing power.

Then he goes on to say that he will send me out a copy for free but he needs a letter from the person that bought the laptop for me, to confirm that they understand that it's not tested and that any fault in the hardware is not their responsibility.

Does this make sense?

 

They gave me quite a hassle sending me the 64-bit disk as well, saying that it's not the original software and there are no drivers for it.

So tell me, Dell Tech Support, why does the Studio 1535 and 1537 downloads page have its own section for Vista 64 bit, hmm?

That RAM you linked earlier should work. Just buy two of them. Dual-channel RAM tends to work best when you have two identical sticks. If you really want, you can mix and match brands, but there's really no reason to.

 

For what its worth, my Studio 1537 came with 64bit Vista.

Which was promptly wiped away for Linux... but, I digress

Just my .02...
--Eric

 

Linux is a fine operating system by all means, but I need Windows (I am a gamer, after all ).

I actually have OpenSuSE installed on another hard drive partition, but I don't even remember the last time I logged into it. I probably don't even remember the root password.

 

I have officially joined the sticking-eject-button club. Can I get a jacket? My eject button lit up and my drive was trying to eject the nonexistent disk. It lasted for about 2 minutes. Hooray!

 

That just happened to you?

 

Hahaha. I know. Late bloomer I guess.

 

Well...welcome to the club.

Speaking of eject buttons, it's the strangest thing. My eject button has actually been functioning all day today...granted, it will probably fail again at the next boot, but I really can't explain this.

 

Sorry to come back to the ram discussion again, i've been looking at more stick, i think i've found the set you have, here in the uk - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001CIRDJU/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
Also is this legit, i didn't know you could get 3GB sticks, or is it 2x1.5? - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001CQV34S/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
If it is actually 3GB sticks, i may consider putting in two

 

Kingston's homepage didn't list the 3 GB sticks to your model, so I think I wouldn't try it. Not that cheap.

 

I just clicked on more technical detail, and it says SODIMM Kit of 1GB + 2GB

Damn....

 

I've never seen 3GB sticks.

 

After my first few debacles trying to get my 1535 to eject the disc, I just quit using the optical drive altogether. It just wasn't worth risking an aneurysm fighting with it (and swearing at it). Slot-loading drives are great, but only if they're reliable!!! More than once, I wanted to break the entire notebook in half before I managed to get the disc out....

 

My capacitive eject button and Fn+F10 eject function both fail frequently, but I've never had any issues with right-clicking the DVD in My Computer and selecting Eject.

 

Anybody here ever got the problem with AC adapter type not determined?

 

Once, it happened when I accidentally plugged it in only about half way.

I remember that happened to you when you were doing the unboxing video of your Studio 15 SE. Has it been happening more/more often?