Studio 15 Owner's Thread

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I felt we needed a proper stylish thread to go with our systems, so here it is.
It's official by merit of the fact that I pmed Greg to see if there was one/I could make one and he said go ahead <_<

Dell Studio laptops at Dell.com: http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/laptop_studio?c=us&cs=19&l=en&ref=lthp&s=dhs|

The Dell Studio is a laptop that places emphasis on style and personalisation, evident in the large range of c o l o u r s it is available in.

Colours showcase: Links to pic threads: (Alphabetically for fairness )
Flamingo Pink: Kattikus: Here

Graphite grey with Black U-trim: Techboi: Here

Graphite grey with Pink U-trim: eesh72: Here

Jet Black (+ Unboxing pics): purplegreendave: Here

Midnight Blue: ashoknalam: Here

Plum Purple: Ben J: Here

Spring Green (+ Unboxing pics): DDGuy: Here

Tangerine Orange: tvassas Here

*will finish colours later, pm me if you have a thread you want me to post*

 

There's already a Studio 15 owner's thread started.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=283163

 

hihi that's what i thought.

 

Oh man, I didn't know about this thread...
**** seachbar with its misleading results
I went to quite a bit of trouble in the one I started as well...

 

You are joking
Search didn't turn it up and Greg wasn't aware of one - well that's how his message came across anyway...

 

Hello, I got one of these earlier in the week from the Dell Outlet in the UK and I must say it's a very nice machine indeed! Except for one thing...

I have the standard 1280x800 true life screen which is very bright and vibrant but I'm not impressed with the vertical viewing angles on a dark screen, i.e. it's very narrow! I can't really find a sweet spot where it's relatively consistent, it's usually dark/black at the top and light grey at the bottom, this is most obvious in a dark room but still visible in daylight. I find it pretty annoying and I'm considering returning it and getting one with a better screen (i.e. the LED backlit one has better vertical viewing angles in the spec).

I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this or is bothered by it? Maybe I'm just fussy or I'm just too used to using desktop monitors and this is pretty common for laptop screens but it would distract me a lot especially watching movies, gaming, editing photos etc.

Also, has anyone noticed this on the better screens?

Apart from that the machine is nearly perfect, it'll be a shame to have to return it! Any feedback appreciated, thanks!

 

I've mostly been looking at my laptop straight on so I haven't really noticed a loss in quality while viewing the screen at different angles. I'll have to try it out when I get home and see if I come up with the same issue as you. I'm going to guess that it probably won't be as severe since I have the LED screen and it looks pretty amazing.

This thread has gotten quite long, I think having a new one started won't hurt. Plus you put all the links to the different lid colors all in one place and thats going to help a lot of people out. It's all good.

 

Thanks StrawberryCrush, I'd appreciate if you could have a look! I should have been more specific though and said that it was the vertical viewing angles that were the problem, horizontal seems to be excellent!

 

Mine has fantastic viewing angles. Side angles are close on full 180 degrees, fully opened (albeit with the 9-cell in) I can still view it comfortably too.
Closing it the angle isn't so good, but hey - who uses it half closed anyway?

Pity noone has looked at mine, save to tell me I was beat to it. This has become more of a delay thread anyway!

 

Thanks for the feedback purplegreendave!

 

I just got home and did a walk around it looks pretty good no matter what angle I'm viewing things from. Everything looks pretty crisp. Even though we don't have the same specs, you should be getting similar results even on a 1280x800 screen. You may have a faulty screen and if that's the case, it might not be worth the hassle and the extra money of returning it if you can just have it replaced with one that works?

It'll be interesting to see if a lot of others are having the same problems. If they do too, then I say return it for a LED.

 

Thanks StrawberryCrush! I've been wondering if I got a bad one, but I suspect I'm just being fussy! I'll give them a call to see what can be done, but I'm still tempted to return it for one with an LED, just to be sure!

 

K, guys, obviously I don't wanna go to any more trouble if it's not gonna be looked at.
If the thread picks up I'll finish updating...

 

Ruby Red Colour with Black U-Trim
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9300 2.5GHz, 800MHz, 6M L2Cache
4GB ( 2 X 2048MB ) 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450
250GB SATA Hard Drive 5400RPM
15.4 " Widescreen WXGA CCFL (1280X800) TFT Display with TrueLife(TM) w/ Camera

Estimate Delivery Date: 10-Sep-2008
ordered :- 29-Aug-2008
But Still in :- Work in progress

I cant wait!!!


with this configuration can i play high ended games please help me

 

Nope. At least not at their highest settings. Medium to low settings on high end games would offer acceptable frame rates.

The Studio 15 just isn't a gaming laptop. Note though, that even an Nvidia Gtx 280 struggles to get decent frames out of crysis when all DX10 settings are maxed.

 

Well....I say we keep this one.... LOL

 

Aww! I ordered mine on August 31st and my EDD is Sept 23rd Just two days apart and my delivery date is hell later. Grr! I'd be so happy to get it on the 10th!

Plum Purple Colour with Black U-Trim
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4GHz, 3MB Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
3GB (1X1GB+1X2GB) 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
320GB SATA Hard Drive
15.4 " Widescreen WXGA CCFL (1280X800) TFT Display with TrueLife(TM) w/ Camera
Genuine Windows Vista(R) Home Premium 32 bit SP1 Edition (English)

 

For those of you with long delays.... you'd be surprised at what a 'nicely' worded email to customer support can get you... I ordered mine on the 8/25, had a ship time of 10/1... After emailing customer support (nicely) my order shipped out on the 8/29 with next day air... YMMV.

Anyways....

Has anyone noticed how 'quiet' the speakers are when playing a bluray movie? I think its probably related to the media player that plays them... I played around with the settings, there is one setting for audio environment (Loud, quiet, normal)... Setting it to loud helps.. but still.. I'm used to laptops where it can really crank (even if the speakers sound like cr@p)... Other than that I'm pretty happy with the laptop!

Jet Black Color
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T9300 (2.5GHz, 6MB Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
3GB (1X1GB+1X2GB) 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
320GB SATA Hard Drive
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450
15.4 " Widescreen WLED (1440X900) Display w/ Camera
6X Slot Load Bluray

 

UK Here

I ordered a standard Studio 15 with 9cell on 9th, EDD is 24th yet today my build is on stage 3!

Guess it wont take too long!

 

im curious if any other studio 15 owners are having the same problem as me regarding losing audio whenever logging into yahoo messenger or google talk. Anyone have an idea how to fix the problem? Thanks.

 

I ordered my Studio 15 on the 4th, and was worried about getting it before i went off to uni on the 19th, was given an ETA of the 24th

Checking today on the 6th though, its on stage 3!

My first dell purchase, hoping it'll all be ok.

 

I actually preffer this one; not just for the OFFICIALness (tho it helps )

but because in the few posts that it has, theres already more pertinent information to help owners AND prospective buyers with a rundown of the colors on the first post. the other thread, while helpful, seems to be filled more with questions on order status and delays without any mention of specific parts to avoid to reduce delay (guess the threads too large for its own good) maybe this new one could be a better help also because the first pages of the other one deal with delays and problems that probably have no bearing anymore as it is now september. plus would be nice to have a main page with all the colors posted from new owners without two months of NON owners posting. (no offense to those with delays)

 

I've had my Jet Black 15 for about 4 days now. I simply LOVE it. Vista isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The DellDock makes the desktop look more classy and clean. I got the basic screen option but I swear this thing is vibrant. Even when "dimmed" when not connected to the power cord it's still bright. I'm not understanding why so many folks are having troubles with the sound on their 15s. Mine is great! I mean, it is a laptop. It's actually clearer and louder than the sound on my old Acer TravelMate 2410. I have absolutely no complaints with this piece of art! Great job Dell!

 

so i guess no one else has the yahoo messenger = no audio problem?

 

Weird! I just tried it and sure enough my audio is no longer working. What gives?

 

I use Digsby, but I went ahead and tested this out for myself and sure enough the audio died. They have a beta client, have you tried that one?

 

i just deleted ym 8.01 and am installing ym beta 9.0. i will update if there is any difference. hopefully there is audio. sorry to see other people are affected with the same issue as me.

 

Yeah, it sucks because it completely trashes your audio and you have to reboot. Talk about a major inconvenience.

 

Still does NOT work. yeah its a real pain. I've read rumors that Dell will update the bios or something. Like I said I'm sad to see that others are affected as well but at the same time a sigh of relief cause I thought I had a defective laptop. Hopefully its a software issue and can be resolved with an update on Dell's end. (crosses fingers)

On the other hand, is there any other chat programs that work with YM and can allow me to use their "YM Mobile" mode where you sign out and you receive messages on your cellphone? This is the only reason I use YM and if there is another compatible program please let me know. Thanks a lot for the quick replies.

 

Saw this and thought I would post it for you Studio 15 owners... Since I dont frequent this thread I'm not sure if its already been posted...

Dell updated the ALPS Touchpad driver for the Studio 15 / Studio 17 on Friday (64-bit Vista only). Here's the link:

http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R192617&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=264800

 

Just chatted with someone from Dell. This is the response I got.

Representative - There is a compatibility issue of Yahoo messenger with the Studio systems working on Vista operating system. The Yahoo messenger version that is currently available is not compatible and hence this issue occurs. I would request you to either contact Yahoo for this to get some patches or the more recent version installed else you can wait for a few days for the Vista updates and then you would be able to use Yahoo messenger with Vista.

Representative - Till that time, we would suggest you to uninstall this version of Yahoo messenger as it will cause these sound issues.

Me - Ok. Is Dell going to release any kind of update as well for the Studio systems?

Representative - There will be updates released for Vista in the near future, those updates will be automatically installed on your system if you have automatic updates enabled. Also, I would suggest you to have a word with Yahoo once regarding this and see if they have a more recent version or some patches available to install.

Me - Ok then.

Even with the so-so response at least they said this at the end

Representative - Thank you. I am sorry for the trouble due to that Yahoo messenger compatibility issue. However I am sure that will be resolved by either installing patches from Yahoo or by automatic updates. You can always check back with us after about 15-20 days for the release of updates.

So there we have it, seems its a Yahoo or Windows error, not Dell's. ^^ Or so they accuse. Haha.. I'll try to contact Yahoo and see what they say.

 

http://messenger.yahoo.com/vista/

use the new yahoo messenger for vista. so far i have sound. hope it stays this way.

 

that makes sense. Well maybe they can integrate the two forum topics or something.

Anyway, for those people who use Yahoo Messenger and have no audio here is the solution.

http://messenger.yahoo.com/vista/

So far my audio hasn't cut off. Hope this fixes other people's similar problems.

 

Just ordered my Studio 15 today. I literally spent hours deciding on my laptop before I decided on the jet black. It looks classy and I decided I can just add on a sticker for a quarter of the price.
Estimated time is 26/9/08 I'm so excited

 

congrats on your purchase. we have practically the same system except for the HD and ram. ^^ I like the jet black. Anyways, enjoy it when you get it.

 

thanks for the yahoo messegner link.

 

Today I spoke with a customer care rep she told that

Estimate Delivery Date: 10-Sep-2008 this date will be extended for another week :-(
ordered :- 29-Aug-2008
But Still in :- Work in progress

 

Today I spoke with a customer care rep she told that factory is in shortage of 6 cell & 9 Cell batteries so I have to wait for another week.


Estimate Delivery Date: 10-Sep-2008 this date will be extended for another week
ordered :- 29-Aug-2008
But Still in :- Work in progress

 

hello and welcome to the forum. try not to double post if possible. You might have just accidentally double clicked.

That sucks that they have a shortage. I heard rumors here in the forums that one of their battery warehouses caught fire a few months back. (not 100% sure). Well anyway, just hang it there. Dell actually delivered my laptop 7 days ahead of schedule. Hopefully that will be your first and last delay. ^^

 

Thanks and REP for the YM link....Gee...could never have thought that YM for VISTA is just getting released !!!! YM sure doesn't trust Vista enough, LOL !!

So now we need a Gtalk for Vista too

 

For those that are interested: Dell Studio 15 Service Manual:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/1535/en/index.htm

Unfortunately they only have a HTML version of their service manual online, no PDF. Its pretty easy to convert that into a PDF via Acrobat if you have it tho and retain all of the individual pages/links.

I'd upload that but it appears to have copyrights all over it...

Good luck

 

The audio problem isn't specific to yahoo. googletalk is also having similar problems (crashing the audio driver). I know that googletalk works with other vista installations so it must be the driver specific to the Studio series. I found a workaround to the whole problem with a different IM program that consolidates all the IM clients to one. I found it on a thread on NBR. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=206289
direct link to Pidgin is
http://www.pidgin.im/

 

Pidgin doesn't support voice or video. Digsby uses Tokbox for those. I think most people here are using YIM or Gtalk for VoIP.

 

its its voip, the yahoo messenger vista that i listed works fine. as for gtalk i still have no solution. link for yahoo vista is in my sig. Although yahoo messenger vista does not have webcam features, the voip is decent.

 

Hey guys, just got my studio 15 and just registered.

I have a cool little trick I just figured out regarding media center. I noticed I didn't get the little remote with mine either, but I wanted to see if a regular media center remote would work. It didn't. But I noticed the IR transceiver in this laptop is a "microsoft ehome infrared transceiver". That's the same as the external USB one I have in my living room so I figured Dell just tweaked the driver to make only their own remote work.

Longer story short, here's how to get a regular media center remote working (also confirmed working for Studio 17)"

- Open device manager, and under "Human Interface Devices", right click "microsoft ehome infrared transceiver" and choose to update driver.
- choose the manual option, to browse the computer for the driver.
- You'll see the current driver and another named "Infrared HID Device". Switch to this driver, and now your standard media center remote (which can include Harmony remotes) will work!

Have fun!

 

studio 15 is wonderful, just recieived one today, everything works flawlessly.
unblievable dell can produce a condumer laptop at this high quality.
definately the best dell ever offered.
studio 15 beats my gatewy p7811 all in respects except main hardware components, ie gpu.
i know studio 15 is a macbook clone, but dell did a brilliant job .
studio sseries is the best macbook clone ever made, both inside & outside.
highly recommend, go get one if there is coupon .
ill replace my gateway with studio 17 once dell put 9600m gt in it.

 

I'm glad you like your Studio 15! I am really happy with mine so far.

 

Me too. I got mine for about $770 after EPP discounts from Dell. I had that fear that a better deal would pop up all too soon, but I haven't really seen any so I think I jumped at the right time.

 

I had my Dell Studio 15 about a week ago, and formated it two times duo to some HD partition thingies

The Studio 15 is awesome !!

but I have one problem and one concern
problem : when I disable AHCI in the BIOS I can't install vista, I need the drivers and I don't know where to get it, dell support website only offer the Intel matrix driver I don't know if this is the required one or not, currenly I'm running without AHCI and I can't enable it as Vista wont start...

concern, when holding the lappy from the left side, any small pressure will make the CD touchs the inside of the lappy, if the CD is used then a noisey scratching will be heard as the rotating CD is scratching with the interier !!

 

^ The intel matrix one is what you're looking for. It's under SATA devices or something like that...