New Dell Vostro V131

How are the temps (cpu especially) with the i3 under sustained load?

 

I got my V131 the other day and I'm starting to really like it, the screen is kinda weak but it's well worth it's price unless you go nuts in the dell configurator.

One issue though, I can't remove the back cover to add some more ram. One of the short sides refuse to give in and I've tried pushing and lifting in every possible angle. Is there a trick to it I'm missing?

 

If the V131 is similar to the V13 the base cover should come off the same.

Documentation

 

Hello guys,
I bought recently a Vostro V131, with a core i3 CPU, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD.
I currently have 2 boring issues :

- the USB port on the left is NOT an eSATA/USB combo port but a simple USB2 port ! It's crazy, but I'm not joking... I have an eSATA external HDD device, with an eSATA cable, and I can't plug it on the Vostro ! No problem to plug it on my desktop which has an eSATA connector (Asus P5B motherboard) ... Did i miss something ?


- the webcam is NOT functionning (black screen when launching Dell Webcam Central). I've tried to desinstall / reinstall the driver, to download and install the last version of Dell Webcam Central, but it didn't help. I tried to use the webcam with Microsoft Live Messenger => same issue (no image) !

Does one of you have the same problems ?

 

hello,
i did not measure exactly the temps on my V131 with a core i3, but in any case, the fan is on, so the laptop is audible.

 

It's way the frick hard. Poor, poor design in my opinion. Took me 45 minutes to get into. Finally I decided I wasn't going to be quite as careful.

Undo the screw (it stays in), find the tiniest flat-head screwdriver ever made, slide into top (edge nearest to screw), pick a side to start pulling up on, and give it a good heave without busting it in half. DON'T pull where the screw is, cause you're distributing too much force evenly, and it'll never come out. Pick a side next to the screw, and go for it.

It's really hard, but very convenient looking after getting inside. I forgave Dell by at least 20% after I saw the tidiness of the inside. Still unhappy about how insanely difficult it was to get off.

 

...Did the documentation say we were supposed to have an eSata port? Cause if it did, I'm going to jump onto the pissy bandwagon with ya. It's USB2.0 only on the i3 version.

 

i think its only usb 2.0 for the latest models.. since you already have 2 usb3s

i dont wana buy at regular price and with tax... any discounts available or from store elsewhere?

thanks

 

I solved it with an unhealthy amount of force.

It's designed so that after you unscrew it you can push the cover ever so little towards the battery end and then it should come of pretty much by itself.

For me it was much more difficult since there wasn't enough room to push one side of the cover anywhere due to what looks like to small margin of error together with to little precision in the production. The black part at the bottom was simply to tightly assembled on one side (not by much, <0.5mm or so). I had to bend and push in every direction and eventually it came of. I hope I'll never have to do that again...

 

To the current owners:

How many hours of battery life are you guys getting with normal tasks with the different battery sizes? Using word, and web browsing?

Thanks