I am completely frustrated with Dell. I purchased my XPS M1330 in February, 2008. Thank God I also purchased a 3-year premium service contract. Since then I have had the motherboard replaced 4 times, the hard drive replaced once, the fan and heat sink system replaced, the keypad replaced, and the memory replaced.
I had to re-install my operating system and programs to get rid of a Blue Screen of Death, at Dell's insistence, when I knew and it was later substantiated that the motherboard was at fault, yet again. Needless to say, I had to exercise a lot of self-control after that. All that work and time invested and, PRESTO: Blue Screen of Death. So much for "it's a driver issue."
In my opinion, these laptops run way too hot and, as a result, kill components. Please don't get me wrong.
When it works it is a joy to own and use. But, if I take just the replacement motherboards (4) the replaced hard drive (1), the replaced keypad (1 or is it 2 now?), replaced memory (1), etc. and simply divide those 7 service calls by 24 months, it averages one major fix every three and a half months that I have owned the computer.
This is a far cry from the exceptional dependability of my old Inspiron 600M that never gave me one ounce of trouble in three years of very hard use.
Has anybody on here with the Intel GMA X3100 had a failed motherboard on the M1330? I have searched the forums, and while the Nvidia equipped models seem to be prone to it, I've not had any luck finding info on failed Mobo's on laptops with intergrated graphics. Two months out of warranty too.
also, If i jam a big hard drive into the machine, how would that affect cooling/battery life? I'm sure is its a noob question but i've only ever stripped desktops.
I own a DELL XPS 1640 laptop here in India [See Signature for details...]...
AND, I finally gave vent to my DELL'ish' emotions and shot a mail to our very beloved Sir Michael Dell for the following issues –
•Ever falling rubber bumps/guards on the left and right sides of the keyboard
•Continues scratching on the LCD and keys imprinted on it due to 'screen rubbing against keyboard' syndrome;
•Dust behind the LCD plastic cover coating;
•The heat issue;
•And last but not the least the infamous ‘1640 Throttling’.
I got a call from a Senior Dell Marketing person today and had a lengthy half hour talk with him.
I tried pushing for replacement but since I got my DELL XPS 1640 laptop via a friend in U.S of A (I am writing in from India),
who got it delivered to me here, they say this would be possible only if the system reaches back to the starting point in USA, from where DELL can take over (Dear DELL, I really don’t have the luxury of time for all this playing around .....
I'm having trouble with the fingerprint reader on my M4400. I have done a clean install of Windows 7 RC x64, and installed the relevant drivers, but the only software that recognizes the fingerprint reader is Embassy Wave bundled by Dell (which seems a bit, well, clunky ).
I have tried UPEK's Windows 7 software, which installs fine, but it cannot find the fingerprint reader. The same happens with DigitalPersona too; it installs perfectly but can't find the device. The fingerprint reader is listed in the control panel (it shows as '5880', which is the combined Broadcom fingerprint reader, smart card reader etc.), so I'm not sure why nothing but Dell's software can 'see' it.
I have purchased a HP fv5 1215 tx its C2d 2.2ghz (intel T6600) has Nvidia 9600M GT graphic card,15.4 inch display full specs:- [url]
I felt that the 6 cell battery life is not as it sould be (a few fellows have laptops, without a dedicated graphic card, so i wasnt sure) so I have ran some tests (more than once to verify data ,the difference is +/- 1 minute) to verify the status of the battery ambient temperature around 35~40 celcius
All 'tests' were on windows vista SP1 , 50% brightness, no wifi,bluetooth,lan moden connection,no usbs attached on windows vista, when laptop is idle (to test, i just opened it up,changed the powersettigns so it doesnt close scree,run screen saver ,suspend or hibernate, and left it there, doing nothing and it ran for mere 2 hr 30 min..........
One of the main reasons I chose to go with the dell was:
A. I had the option of having a very high resolution screen 1900 x 1200 (wuxga)
B. I got a good deal on a 4 year accidental damage warranty w/ the package.
--
I was so excited about getting a 1900 x 1200 screen; it would allow me to be as productive as on my desktop since I work with many windows open. I also play a little with video editing.
As soon as I received it I tested out the notebook for several hours.
The first thing I noticed was that white and light colors are shimmery / grainy. I have never seen this on any other screen that I work on.
After several hours I found myself feeling a little nauseous. In addition, my eyes felt strained.
I have never experience this in my life as I sit in front of computers 8-10 hours a day for the past 20 years (Work).
I raised the DPI of the fonts in vista to make them a normal size, so I don't feel that the size of the letters caused this feeling.
The next day, I decided to try again. This time I set the screen to 1440 x 900. I still experienced the same effect. I think the shimmery / graininess of the screen is causing this, as it causes the text to blend in with the background to a degree.
I tried using the notebook throughout the week. I tried getting used to it, and I did somewhat, but still felt uncomfortable working on it for an extended period of time (after only 2 hours).
I then called my sales rep. to see if he had heard of this problem. His only advice was that I should call customer support.
I called customer support, and got someone from the Philippines on the phone very quickly. The person was very nice, friendly, and wanted to help me. I was impressed. (They probably don’t want me to return it within 21 days).
He told me this is the nature of the wuxga screens. He was willing to send me another notebook to compare it with either a 1440x900 display or another wuxga.
I then did a bit of searching and found other people expressing dissatisfaction about the graininess (which is what I think is causing my fatigue) on the wuxga screens as well as other Samsung screens.
My question to everyone is:
Has anyone else experience this?
Do you think switching to the 1440 x 900 LED screen will resolve this issue?
Does the WUXGA 1900 x 1200 screen come in any other brands besides Samsung, eg. LG ?
I am really dreading on downgrading to 1440x900 as I love the real estate that the wuxga screen provides, but something is up with its quality.
I am trying to convince myself that I will get used to it but I really do not think this is the case..
I have purchased a HP fv5 1215 tx its C2d 2.2ghz (intel T6600) has Nvidia 9600M GT graphic card,15.4 inch display full specs:- [url]
I felt that the 6 cell battery life is not as it sould be (a few fellows have laptops, without a dedicated graphic card, so i wasnt sure) so I have ran some tests (more than once to verify data ,the difference is +/- 1 minute) to verify the status of the battery ambient temperature around 35~40 celcius
All 'tests' were on windows vista SP1 , 50% brightness, no wifi,bluetooth,lan moden connection,no usbs attached on windows vista, when laptop is idle (to test, i just opened it up,changed the powersettigns so it doesnt close scree,run screen saver ,suspend or hibernate, and left it there, doing nothing and it ran for mere 2 hr 30 min
and with everything same,ran a avi movie off harddisk it lasted 2hr 18min
when turned off , it takes 1hr 45 min to charge from 1% to 100
when turned on it takes 2 hr 25 min to charge from 1% to 100
I just treated myself to a sweet new Solid State Drive but boot camp apparently does not like the new intel ssd drives. Is there any viable work around for this? Lovin my new mac, but bootcamp was fun for lan parties and such... I hear an EFI firmware might be in order, but in the mean time any alternative would be useful. I find the myself using OSX way more often than windows, and if not for gaming would prob convert most of my machines. Sorry if this is a dupe thread, but i've been searching the net days for info on this.
These drives are going to be popular, i hope other future ssd drives don't have issues with these new nvidia based macs.
since receiving my new Acer 7720-6604 (Cdn) a week ago, I am a firm believer. I cant believe it, the new Acer with 3G's of DDR2 RAM is even slower than my 5 year old Toshiba Satellite 2.8Gz Celery with 768MB of memory. It opens sites faster. It boots faster!
The only changes I have made to the new Acer so far was to uninstall the demo Nortons and have installed AVG free and SpywareBlaster. Also, I have disable Aero
I thought it might be AVG and SpywareBlaster slowing it down so tried it with both uninstalled and no change. Re-installed them
I ran across a MS suggestion using "Ready Boost" in which you utilize a 1G or larger thumbdrive to use as a cache. Possibly a very slight increase, so small I really cant say.
As the new Acer has a Geforce 8600M GT GPU and a T8100 Core 2 Duo processor, it cant be the hardware. The two drives are both WD 5400rpm so its really not them as I dont believe that 7200s would make that big a diff.
I am sorely tempted to utilize the second HDD for an XP install (just that it will be another $100 or so layout) Hoping that the SP1 will sort this garbage out.
Just picked up this new notebook. When on Skype, the image quality rec'd by others is downright terrible. For example, the cables for the headphones I was using is seen as terribly jagged on the other end. See it here.
Is this image is as good as it gets? Seems like a 1.3 Mb camera should be able to do a better job.
On my DV9774ca theres two hard drives. The second (D) drive has started acting up. I download torrents and newsgroup Tv shows to it, leaves the C drive free. Its started to freeze the system if I sometime do stuff on the D drive, like un-rar a movie on the D drive.Theres no odd noises, nice and quiet.
I did the hard drive scan and fix on the Tools tab in Properties of the D drive. It gets to test 4 and says its at '10% File 359 of 17254' and freezes there then! I did the diagnostic in the BIOS for this drive and it estimates 89 minutes to do the test, yet after 20 seconds it stops and says something like '#100068 Replace Hard Disc'.
I gather the hard drive is toast. Its a WD 160GB. Came with the laptop exactly 12.5 months ago! I called HP and I am out of luck, I thought they could swing it for me.
Am I right it say its toast? I gather its mecahnical, as thats what the BIOS looks for? I can't just reformat it?
I recently replaced an old Linksys router with a 1TB Time Capsule. I loved the idea of an integrated solution with passive backups. Unfortunately, I am starting to regret this purchase but I'm hoping that I am just missing something.
The TC sits upstairs in my office where my Linksys used to be. On the main floor, I tried to add my PS3 to the network. It ends up showing a signal strength of about 55%-65%, with NAT Type 3. My old Linksys gave me 85%+, with NAT Type 2. I also noticed that my laptop's network signal strength is four bars when I'm on the main floor, which is one less than with the Linksys.
Laptop: Sony Vaio TZ31VN Integrated Globetrotter HSDPA Wireless WAN, Bluetooth and Intel 4965AGN Wireless LAN, Windows XP SP3 (Official Sony XP Downgrade Build)
This one really has me stumped - I'd appreciate any suggestions!
In summary, I have a problem with my Sony VAIO TZ31 wherein I'm unable to use my WiFi. The Wireless Device Switcher utility (C:Program FilesSonyWireless Switch Setting UtilitySwitcher.exe version 4.0) no longer 'sees' my integrated WLAN card to give me the option of turning it on or off, however it does see both the Bluetooth and WWAN cards. The hardware switch on the front of the laptop is in the 'ON' position, and the Bluetooth and WWAN lights are illuminated, however the WLAN light isn't, and I can find no way of enabling it. The Bluetooth and WWAN are still working.
My problem determination so far:
The normal Windows Wireless Network Connection dialogue tells me immediately (i.e. doesn't seem to scan at all) that it can't find any networks and that I should check that my wireless is turned on. I have another several devices in the house that are seeing the network just fine, as does my iPhone right next to this laptop.
Running an `IPCONFIG ALL` from the command line suggests that it is physically still there:
Checking in Windows Device Manager the `Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN' entry appears with no question marks or exclamation marks telling me there's a problem or that the device is disabled. Opening up the properties dialogue for this, the drop down box on the Advanced tab says 'Wireless On'. All other properties are on the default values....
is anyone else having probs with their touchpad? i got this laptop in Feb and now when i click the button on the touchpad i have to press it a couple times before it does anything.
I recently bought an OEM Vista Home Premium 64-bit and installed is yesterday. I chatted to a Dell tech support guy today and he essentially said that I wasted my money on the 64-bit OS as Dell laptops do not support 64-bit Operating systems. He said this was due to the fact that my processor (see above) was a 32bit processor. I however came accross this intel site;[url] whci i believe to be my processor that states it is a 64-bit processor.
Another thing; in the dell tech support application, my total memory is shown as 4GB, whilst my available memory is shown to be 2.6GB. Does this mean that all 4GB is not being recognised/utilised? Or does it simply mean that 1.4GB of RAM is currently being used, with 2.6GB left for when I need it?
Early last week my XPS M1330 started to blue screen and suffer screen pixelation issues on a frequently recurring basis.
Thanks to this forum I was soon able to deduce that my GPU was suffering from the well known GPU over-heating issue.
I called Dell XPS premium support on Wednesday afternoon and got through to someone in India who was extremely curtious, spoke excellent english and was obviously technically savy.
Do the Studio XPS machines get the customer support that the standard XPS machines do? That is, the American customer/tech support rather than the outsourced one?
I rely heavily on SDHC cards and use the built in card reader heavily in my Studio 1537.
I just bought a new Studio XPS 16 and it won't read my SDHC cards. I chatted with Dell last night and they took control of my system remotely.. They couldn't fix it, and finally said "The Studio XPS 16 does not support SDHC, you'll have to use regular SD"
I just find this hard to believe on a new, so called "State of the art system"
I also have a Studio 15 (1537) and SDHC works perfectly.
After fighting with several "Techs" and their "Supervisors" I returned the system and bought another..... AND, what do you know... I was right....It does support SDHC!!
I'm thinking about upgrading to Core i7 for my laptop (Studio 1555, since I run games and stuff on it, and don't have enough resources to build my own PC.
I researched, but I always like asking to make sure... does the PM45 chipset support i7 processors? I usually know this stuff, but i* is pretty new, and I'm running behind.
I currently have a freshly undervolted Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz (I forget the model number).
I have a DELL XPS M1710. It has the T7200 Merom processor installed. I have here with me a X7900 Merom Processor. Will that fit into my laptop? Seems to be the same processor.
I'm thinking of buying a laptop which is quite powerful and can run Linux (most of my work is in Linux). I'm an engineering student and frequently need to use computationally intensive applications,
which are also graphically intensive. Following a post on another subforum (http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...6#post4548016), I was asked to confirm with Dell users here as to what their Linux experiences are.
I would appreciate inputs and suggestions about purchasing laptops from users of Dell laptops, especially the Latitide and Precision.
I understand that the appropriate subforum for this is different, but since this is now only a matter of deciding which Dell model to purchase
I was wondering in you could stick more than 4gb into the M1530 if you have a 64-bit OS installed (Vista or 7)? Mine is more than a year old, but I've noticed that you can now configure the M1530 with up to 8gb.
