little problem with 1420

Hello to all, I've been lerking here for awhile but thought I would post after receiving my 1420 last night. Everything is going well, I love the notebook, but there is one problem that I have yet to encounter on other computers I've used that run Vista. Everytime I open the notebook, the screen comes back on for a second then goes black, then comes back on in a severly low resolution. A warning box pops up saying that things might be blurry because of the resolution the computer is now running in... When I simply restart the computer, it doesn't seem to happen, anybody have any idea why this is happening? I haven't done a fresh install of vista or anything, and the only program that I loaded was iTunes. Any ideas?

 

I figured nobody else was having this problem. I haven't seen it anywhere else. Maybe somebody can answer me this, I have the dell 3 year service plan, etc. Will they trouble shoot for me over the phone, or is this a software issue that they won't mess with? I tried uninstalling iTunes, didn't seem to help. Suggestions welcome.

 

Sounds like a driver issue... are you using the latest drivers?

Dell support has specifically a division to deal with software issues. If you call them up, you'll get 3 choices for tech support, "software, wireless, or none of those." Just say software into the phone at that point and you should get the tech support you want.

 

I figured it would be something like that, they will probably just have me reinstall all my drivers. It is probably just better to do a fresh install at this point, correct? I was actually surprised, there wasn't as much crap pre loaded on there as I was expecting after reading many posts on here. I deleted whatever possible in the ordering stages.

 

Yep, reinstalling is always better. But you can also try updating your VGA drivers. If you already have up-to-date DELL driers then try the moded ForceWare drivers at laptopvideo2go.com or Intel drivers at intel.com

 

i would definitely recommend reinstalling Vista and starting from scratch. i immediately did that upon receipt of my 1420 to ensure getting rid of all bloatware and to have the latest and greatest driver revisions.

 

Pardon me if this is a tired subject, but I am not exactly well versed in doing a fresh install of an os. How do I know what all drivers I will need, and are the ones that came packaged with my comp not up-to-date enough? Will I have to go to the individual websites, eg. intel, etc., to get these new drivers? Thanks again.

 

all the drivers specific to your computer will be on support.dell.com. you just have to input your service tag in the downloads section. the service tag can be found on the bottom of the computer. from there you install the ones you need. the good thing about the website is that they publish the latest revision driver as opposed to the disk that came with the system. and i did notice there were a few for my 1420 that were more current than the disk i was provided with.

 

But wouldn't it be easier just to uninstall and delete all bloatware and upgrade the drivers from the website without going through the occasionally risky processes of reformatting?

 

the problem with just uninstalling/deleting software is that it often times does not completely remove all traces. there were still be remnants left within the registry or within other hidden places on the computer. by doing a reformat and reinstall, you are getting rid of ALL traces/remnants thus keeping the computer as clean as possible. there is nothing risky about reformatting as long as the user removes any personal data he put on previously, such as picture, videos, music, etc. the Vista built-in reformat utility works well for unexperienced users.

 

Honestly, it is not hard at all. All you have to do is just pop in the CD and follow some very basic instructions (there is a thread on these forums explaining how to do it very throughly, but it's always hard to find...). Then when your done, just be sure to delete a file called "Windows.old". And for me and many other people, that file is 10 GB's or more.

 

if you delete the partition and create a newly formatted one you wont have the windows.old folder.

 

Service for exchange. Keep using your laptop until replacement/new one arrives. Got mine (1420) two days ago and I simply removed unwanted pre-installed programs/applications. Don't give yourself more work than necessary. Enjoy your f'ing new laptop and Windows Vista!

 

Follow up to this problem, I contacted dell's tech support last night, they remotely accessed my computer, right clicked on the desktop, and selected "maintain aspect ratio" under one of the graphic tabs. It seems to have remedied the problem. Initially I was told that the 1440x900 screen was not compatitble with integrated graphics and got pissed, but this seems to have done the trick. Anybody know anything about this? If it is set to fill screen, my resolution dips way down when the computer is awoken from sleep mode. For some reason, it didn't seem to do it when my wireless switch was turned off. I am completely baffled by this, if it was only that setitng, why wasn't it shipped like that?