Vostro 3350 Owner's Cafe

New BIOS update out for 3350, version A07.

As for the heat in the palm rest area, my 3350 barely gets warm, so it's not normal if you are getting excess heat in that area.

 

quite normal for the (3350 at least) right side of the palm rest to get a little bit warm, given that the hard disk is immediately below it. with the exception of a couple HP's and a Lenovo, this has been the case for all notebooks I've used.

mind you, this is "warm", and not "hot" - subjective from person to person

 

This is my logic:
If it makes my wrist feel awkward then its gotta go!

 

I missed this thread the first time around so I hope it's ok with this post being in two threads;

How much can I expect the (8-cell) battery in the 3350 to deteriorate in 1,2,3,4 years if I take some measures to keep it healthy, e.g. not letting it get too warm, etc?

edit: And also, for how long will the vostro 3350 be in dell's lineup (new, not used)?

edit2: I guess I got a 3rd question. Is there any real problems with the 6490m now (switching etc)? Is battery power much worse? I've compared a couple of reviews and the difference seems to be about 0-30mins less battery life @ light usage. Is there any way to make the computer use the integrated graphics 100%?

 

It all depends on the count of charge-discharge cycles. My previous notebook's (in my sig) battery, after 2,5 years of use and a lot of charge cycles, is now at 38%. Used to work for 2,5 hours, now approx 1. Still not that bad.

As for your second question, it's hard to guess. I think they will stay for some more months for sure, until Ivy Bridge platform arrives. Business line (Vostro+) always get new platforms a bit later.

I don't know about the ATI one. I have only seen nVidia ones, with Optimus. In the settings you could tell the sw to only use the integrated graphics.

Hope I could help!

 

Your post is much appreciated!

Thanks for the info about cycles, I had totally forgotten about that. I have another laptop that's already f'ed (5min battery) so i'll try and use that for "bed-surfin" etc. ^^

How long do you think Dell keeps selling batteries for a certain laptop after it's discontinued? (weird/tough question maybe ) Or maybe that's easy to find on e.g. ebay? I feel like the battery would be the first thing that goes on my laptop since I'm usually careful with my stuff, and it would be a pain to have toQ buy a new machine only because the old one can't hold a decent charge anymore.

About the graphics; that seems to be what I'm looking for, great! Perhaps it was the other way that was impossible because everything needed to be routed through the integrated, I'm not sure.

 

Unbelievable...

Dell sent me the 3550 as my replacement for the 3350.

 

Just subscribing to this thread as the v131 and the 3350 are on my very shortlist for a 13 - mainly due to the availability of non-gloss anti-glare screens [why dont all makers offer???] and good user feedback.

i'm interested in the models with ATI switchable dedicated graphics.

If anyone sees/hears of the "special deal" on such a model, I'm 'all ears'.
I'll be planning to remove the spinning drive and install fresh from scratch ssd - probably crucial.

can one of you experts tell me in a nutshell the distinctive differences between 3350 vs v131 ?

 

one feature is that the V131 does not have an optical drive.

the main drawback for you (IMO) is that the V131 does not have dedicated graphics, I think it's Intel HD only.

as far as other features go, they are the same

 

Anyone else noticing a very rapid and unusual decay on their battery?

I've attached what HWMonitor is reporting. It's reporting that my full battery capacity is 38791/41440 mWh, yet it thinks that I have a 17% wear level and 106% charge level.

Assuming that Mrs. Baxter from grade 2 didn't teach me wrong, I should be seeing a 7% battery wear level (6.83%), and a regular 100% charge level (I'm on AC right now). And that's assuming that I really do max out at 38791 mWh. that 106% would mean that I'm getting a full capacity of 41440 as designed.... ?

It's not unusual for me to go 2-4 hours without plugging in, so I do frequently manage to drain my battery down to 30-40% up to a couple times a day. I understand that this isn't good for hte battery and expect such battery wear, but the "raw" numbers that HWmonitor are reporting are concerning me a bit.

These numbers have been showing for the past couple weeks. Before that my wear level was only 6-7% and my full charge capacity was literally only 100mWh higher than it is showing now...