New Vostro Lineup (3350, 3450..)

My 3350 is idling at 32 degrees. No laptop cooler but the 8 cell battery raises the back by about an inch.

 

Thanks for your replies guys - guess it's not too bad then!

 

sold it

 

Sad but true - my Vostro 3450 period is already over. I got high pitched noise issues when using this device in battery mode, which seemed to be related to Intel speed stepping.

What bothered me most is the non existant german service - I paid a good amount of money to get three years of pro support and it was really not worth a penny. I contacted them about a week ago, described my problem and promised them to run some tests and mail a detailed error description in the evening. After fulfilling all these requests I waited until the last weekend for the callback and tried to contact service myself again - unortunately this was outside normal business hours and so I got in contact with the english speaking service - this guy was really great but he was just able to narrow down the source of the error and had to forward the case to my local agents (they would call me) because he was not allowed to make decisions on further proceeding.
When I was not called on tuesday I called myself and explained my story again - the new agent wanted to investigate again and call back the next day - that didn't happen.
On thursday - one week after my initial call - I was called by the agent I first contacted, explained the issue again and was told he needed to talk to his superior and would call me back. On friday I was out of patience and trid to contact him myself and was finally forwarded to his superior.

His great explanation was that this noise issue is caused by an piezo electric effect that may occur on certain hardware configurations. It is said to be within normal operation parameters and there is no guaranteed way to get rid of the noise.

My device will be collected on tuesday and my dell experience is definitely over.

To cut a long story short - the 3450 is a great product and without the issues I would definitely love it. German Dell pro support on the other hand is definitely not pro and I would not even call them "support" at all.

So the search for my new notebook goes on ;-)

 

Salix, I'm sorry to hear that your experience with Vostro turned out to be a disappointment. And I know that the search for ideal notebook with decent warranty/support can be a real frustration. I read a lot about such bad service, but in regard to Asus and I've known Dell to be much better. Apparently that varies from country to country...

 

IdeaStorm | Update Vostro 3550 AMD 6630/Intel HD 3000 Switchable Drivers

Dell on Vostro's AMD switchable graphics problems and limitations

 

Does anyone know if the 3300 backlit keyboard will work on the 3350? I know E6410 E6510 E6400 E6500 all use the same backlit keyboard. Is it similar for vostro series

 

Hello, I ordered my Vostro 3350 last week and it's scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, exciting stuff!

In the mean time I'd like to order some accessories, most importantly a notebook sleeve, since I'll carry it in my backpack. I'm having a hard time finding the dimensions of this machine though, and when I do I'm not sure with what battery it is.

So does anyone who has the 3350 with an 8-cell battery have the exact measurements of this setup? And do you have experience with sleeves that fit it well?

 

Hello guys, my first post here.

I ordered a Vostro 3450 last night with scheduled delivery of Wednesday, 07/27/2011.
i5 2410M/4GB RAM/320GB HD/Backlit keyboard/Fingerprint reader/Win 7 Pro 64bit.

I have a few questions:
Dell states that the max RAM 6GB on the Vostro 3450 on their technical specification page but there are a few posts here stating they have upgraded to 8GB. Am I limited to 6GB or can I go as high as 8GB?

Dell tech support claims that WiDi is not available on Vostro laptops but I read a post on this thread stating that WiDi drivers installed without issues and laptop searches for WiDi adapters. Has anyone successfully used WiDi with the new Vostro 3350/3450/3550/3750?

I have always formatted and clean installed Windows on all my computers over the years and I'd like to do so again. If I perform the clean install, can I still get the 3 hot keys (especially Windows Mobility Center & Display On/Off) to work and how do I go about it?

 

I have 8GB of RAM installed on my 3350, so I don't see, why this couldn't be done in the 3450. Also 6GB is 1x4GB + 1x2GB sticks and obviously you can install 2x4GB sticks.

WiDi installed fine on my machine, but I don't have a compatible receiver to test it.

To use Vostro's special buttons, all you need is Dell QuickSet, which is available for download among other apps and drivers.

And for the record: whatever Dell states or claims, they are usually wrong - either being misinformed or not informed at all and just guessing...