***-->The Official Dell Adamo Thread<--***

Where should I get a extended warranty for my Dell Adamo? I'm considering using Squaretrade because their 3 year warranty with ADH is $160 while something similar from Dell is double that. I use Squaretrade for all my cell phones but never had to actually put in a claim, however I used Dell Completecare and they always have a technician out the next day to fix my issue. Does anyone have any recommendation?

 

Here is a new Deal:
Dell Adamo 13.4" Ultra Thin Notebook $899
Features an Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4GHz processor, 2GB DDR3, 128GB SSD and Windows 7 HP x64.


Dell has the ultra portable Dell Adamo 13.4" notebook (black) for $999
- $100 off with coupon code FCGPX2C0L9C428 [162 uses] + $0 shipping with stackable code ?8CN$RJ?W5TQ0C [Exp 10/28] = $899 shipped.
The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Dell Adamo 13.4" Notebook (Pearl) for $899 - $100 off w/ FRMCX1$KRT96WZ [66 uses] + $0 shipping w/ ?8CN$RJ?W5TQ0C [Exp 10/28] = $799 shipped
The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

 

Ok, what Dell is doing is beyond me...

Not only did they bring back the Adamo, but now they are selling both the original ([email protected]) and the “updated” ([email protected]) processors!!! They call them Economy ($899) and Standard ($999) models, respectively (no other difference).

So instead of offering an upgraded model, now they give you the opportunity to get the first Adamo debuted in 2009! Is this a step back or am I missing something? At least they could have upgraded the RAM to 4GB.

Note they are both the Onyx (flatsix911, if I am not mistaken, there is no Pearl).

Edit: I was wrong. The SU9300 is Pearl, the SU9400 is onyx.

I wonder if tomorrow they'll put up the Desire with the [email protected]; or will they offer us a "basic" Adamo with a Pentium-M?!

 

Just spoke with EPP and I think they had enough repsones from ppl wanting to buy them they brought it back.

According to my source it was NOT a very good sellar, but when you charge $2000 for very basic hardware what do you expect?

He said they are def EOL and will probably shut it down as soon as enough orders deplete parts on stock.

Who knows, really.

All I know is I picked up and Onyx SU9400 just because.

Maybe in 6 months someone will want one BAD and I'll make a grand off of it! hahaha

 

Maybe so! Keep it sealed then!
Hopefully you'll get more a grand since more or less that's how much you paid!

Personally I’d keep it though…

Edit: Sleey0, what does "def EOL" mean?

Edit 2: End Of Life.....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

 

There are a few issues with my new Dell Adamo.

First:
I paid $850 and the price dropped to $800 today.

2nd:
The ambient sensor does not work in windows 7 for me.

3rd:
My SSD is the VAM05D1Q which doesn't support trim.

4th:
After using the laptop for 5 hours the bottom plate just popped out of place... Looks like I will be refunding this and will not be getting a replacement adamo

I'm going to return it because of the trim issue.

 

No TRIM support? Very weird... Which one did you get (SU9300 or 9400?)
I guess the SU9300 are the trim-less, having read posts in this forum. Get the SU9400 if you go for replacement.

$800? Where? Dell lists the SU9300 for $899 and the SU9400 for $999. You mean the SU9300 after the $100 coupon flatsix911 mentioned above?

 

I actually got the SU9400 in pearl for $849.10 and it came with non-trim SSD. I'm going to return it and order something else unless they can guarantee me a trim-enabled drive.

 

After using the laptop for 5 hours the bottom plate just popped out of place... Looks like I will be refunding this and will not be getting a replacement adamo

I contacted dell and they said they will get back to me on this issue. Looks like this refund process is going to be a nightmare.

image -
http://img818.imageshack.us/i/imag0044l.jpg/
http://img524.imageshack.us/i/imag0043b.jpg/

 

First of all, I love your Soundsticks! (I have them too!)

Secondly, I guess you got a new Adamo right? What happened to you is just unimaginable!!! I have heard about this before from people who got refurbished ones. The bottom plate in the Adamo has 3 sealing points (one on each side and one in the front of the laptop; check the guide from iFixIt). It seems to me that your Adamo has been opened before, and never sealed back correctly. Fixing it yourself is easy, but this begs the question: Who the hell opened your NEW Adamo? Note that Pearls (like the SU9300s) were not available in Dell’s website for several months (only Onyxs and SU9400s were available). I cannot help but wonder what's the DEAL with DELL… Are they passing old stock after rechecking it (in other words refurbished) as new?

And last but certainly not least, I am really sorry this happened to you...

 

I bought a brand new SU9400, and paid $899, however I saw a unit at bestbuy for $849.99 (probably returned) and dell decided to match the price so I kept the unit. Also a weird thing was after I called to cancel my orignial order dell said they would match the price and the unit shipped the next day, almost 2 weeks ahead of the devliery estimate.

I bought a Brand New Pearl SU9400 for $899, after EPP discount. I called in to cancel my order because I saw a unit at bestbuy that was returned for $850, but dell said they would match the price if I kept the unit. The weird thing is after this call my order shipped the next day almost 2 weeks ahead of my shipping estimation. So I'm really wondering if I got a refurbished unit because it seems like the light sensor isn't working as well and the bottom plate just popping out like that. Oh yeah and the drive isn't trim enabled...

Today I called the Dell representative handling my case, and he said he would talk to the manager, I sent him photos and everything. I requested a refund but he said lets talk about that after he gets a reply from his manager... I'm guessing my $850 is going to be in dells hands for another month or two argh...

 

Darn! Your story is very complicated... Dell tried to match BestBuy's price? Unbelievable... Did you tell them that the BestBuy was a returned one??? Then they probably saw fit not only to match the price, but the condition as well!

Just get your money back, and try to avoid the restocking fee. Only if they offer to replace it for a brand new would I go along.

 

Thy offered to replace it with a brand new one and gave me a $50 discount as well! Total is 799 now yay

 

Kydos to Dell for once! Go for it!

 

Hey, I was wondering, what you said about the bottom popping out. Is that due to a poor job by the person who put it together or was i just really unlucky? I'm having second feelings about keeping a new adamo because I'm worried the bottom is going to pop out like that again..

 

Do not worry. It was definetely a poor job. The locking mechanism is very secure if you do it right (check the iFixIt link above). The computer is very sturdy, not flimsy at all.

 

My Adamo Pearl like some others described here has a couple of problems:

1) A 128 Gb SSD with ancient FW which is non-TRIM (no remedy for this I guess!)

2) The light sensor doesn't seem to work even though the device manager says it is installed OK (after installing the updated keyboard driver). Also, it is turned on in the control panel (a setting I only recently found!).

The unit was originally shipped w/ Vista installed and a Win 7 upgrade DVD. I didn't notice if the sensor was working under Vista before I installed Win7. Judging by the number of people reporting problems with the sensor is it reasonable to conclude that this is not a hardware problem, but a problem with Win7? If it is how do we get Dell to address this issue?

 

Dell recently announced an updated FW that supports TRIM- it applies for most of the SSDs included in the Adamo, but for some very old ones with FW VBM15D1Q. If yours shipped with Vista, it's an early 2009 model, so you might be unlucky. Check the penultimate post on page 167 in this forum. The process is a little bit of a pain, though.

Well, the light sensor definetly works with Win 7 Home Premium stock, but lots of people here reported non-working after clean installs. Did you check the BIOS settings for the light sensor? If it's set to disable, this will overide the software settings.

 

Oh yeah, it's real early... FW VAM05D1O
I assume there is absolutely no hope for this unit...

Forgot to mention in last post that, yes, the BIOS (A07) setting for Ambient Light Sensor is set to Enabled.

How strange. So what's different about a non-factory installation of Win7 that could cause this?

 

I think, then, there is no other option for your SSD, other that to do some informal TRIM-like maintainance now and then. I have not much experience in how you do that, but try Google.

The light sensor difference... no idea!

 

there is no manual trim, you have to do a secure erase whenever you want a fresh start. dell is being slow about the replacement, I called in twice to talk to my representative but he was busy both times.. im getting to the point where i'm just gonna keep my sony S and going to refund my adamo

 

yeah... what's what I meant- just didn't know how this works...

 

Now I am wondering if the problem is with the Intel display driver. I am using the driver from the Dell Driver/Download page Ver 8.15.10.1840 (03/07/2009). Intel has issued several updates for this chipset since then, but as Intel warms, they are generic drivers and Dell may have modified the one on their page.

I'm curious to know what driver version is being used by those with a working light sensor?

 

Well, the stock driver worked fine with Win7 HP. I cannot help you identify it, though, since I did not keep my Adamo for more than a month.

Maybe others here can help...

 

For the benefit of anyone who might be interested, I finally got the light sensor working! My suspicion about the display driver turned out to be correct. I ended up uninstalling the driver AND deleting all of the files associated with it. I then reinstalled the (same? ...1840) driver freshly downloaded from Dell.

Works!

 

Good job- Congrats! This will be hepful to many!

 

Hi guys. First post here, but I'm hoping to join the Adamo owners club Are there any places that still sell the higher Desire spec Adamo? I've had a look around and the last one that was on ndc.co.uk just sold. I live in Australia, so need a place that ships internationally, or at least to the US (and use one of those mail forwarding services).

 

welcome zzyss!
No Desires are available any more. NDC sold some refurbished ones they had left. You can only track them on ebay (used)- some Desires come up from time to time, and sell for $1200-1800, depending on the condition.

 

Ah, bummer. Thanks anyway.

I was kinda hoping that somebody might know of a secret place where BestBuy or something squirreled a few away. Oh well NDC reckons they might have some more in a few weeks. Will keep an eye out.

 

Has anyone had problems with their touchpad? My pointer acts very erratically almost every time after I press the left touchpad button. When I uninstall the Dell/Synaptics driver, it seems to help, but doesn't get rid of the issue completely. I tried reinstalling and the problem comes right back, so there's definitely some software/hardware thing going on.

I have a feeling it's just me since it is very obvious problem that impairs normal use.

 

The Dell Outlet has a 2.1ghz desire with 4gb ram for $1529 right now.

 

True, but it mentions an 128GB SSD...

Adamo 13 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600 (2.1GHz/800MHz FSB/3M L2 Cache)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
128 GB Mobility Solid State Drive
4 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 800MHz

I have no idea what's this all about...

 

The Adamo is not dead ... it's just hibernating for a while

 

hi, im new here.

im in uk and have a "desire" in pearl/white.

i see that dell uk only have one driver for the intel grafx for windows7

dated 3rd july 2009 !!! (driver ver. 8.15.10.1840)

is there a way to get the driver from this year to work?

ive tryed intel.com and their damn site only lets me download an app and not the driver

when i run their driver app it says im running a custom driver, contact your manifacture akkk!!!

has anyone got the actual new drivers to download please.

i mainly use my adamo for internet and hd video. so a new driver for the video/grafx would be great.

thanks inadvance

 

don't think you will have much performance improvement with newer driver from intel, most likely an bug fix version. Also reported intel driver does not work with light senser software. 720p flash video with flash 10.1 shouldn't be an issue on your system.

 

Hello!

One question!

I have updated my SSD and of course lost the recovery partition. I have saved the factory.wim which contains the Dell factory image. I would like to get this image to a bootable USB drive. Any tips how to do this?

PICOW

 

eZe bootable usb

im sure u can google that and download that easy.

did you upgrade the ssd firmware?

im prob going to to do that myself tomorrow on my 256gb stock drive

 

can u upload this as the dell site wont add it to my download manager even thp im signed in

 

hello everybody, i just get an adamo and im new in this forum, i was reading along the threat but i dont find it, can somebody tell me how to know if i can update the fw of my 128 ssd, and how to do it?

i change the vista os for a clean w7 ultimate 32bits and after try some things i get my ligth sensor working perfectly, if somebody need to know how just ask me.

thanks in advance

 

Please tell how you got light sensor working perfectly - can use it to check mine.

 

just upgrade the ssd to C300 1.8 128GB. it does work with adamo 13 and performance as below. bye bye to the none trim old samsung!

 

Nice upgrade ...
Do you have the performance numbers for the old Samsung SSD?

 

don't have it now. but I can remember the r/w speed are both around 90mb/s mark. not too bad compare to HDD, but just way 2008 spec. I would suggest this one over the x18-m, as this one is faster with the same price.

 

Does anyone know the output specs of the power supply? Mine has broken and 2 weeks and dell still hasnt shipped a new one , want to get a new one from a local store (3rd party) to tide me over but not sure what to get.
Is it just the output voltage thats important ?

 

Manufacturer: Dell
Input
AC: 100-240V, 1,5A(1.5A) 50-60 Hz.
Output: 19.5V(19,5V) 3.34A(3,34A)
Size: 2.38" x 5.44" x 1.14"
Power Provided:65 Watts

Both Voltage and power (watts) are important.

 

does anyone know what the PLL is inside the adamo

i want to overclock using setfsb like i do with my vaio P

 

So I'm awaiting my new (refurb) Adamo from Dell, and am questioning whether I should have gotten the 2GB/Win7 version instead of the 4GB/Vista version (both 1.4GHZ) because the 4GB version sounds like it will have the older SSD. Assuming it does, can the SSD be switched out with an off the shelf model (OCZ, etc) *with* the exterior SSD casing? The ifixit teardown looks like the stock Samsung SSD is installed without the metal casing...suppose one could do the same with the replacement, no?

 

Well, received my (refurbed) Adamo. Nice machine, quiet except when pushed, screen is immaculate. Casing shows very minute signs of wear, and there's the great big green REFURBISHED sticker on the bottom...other than that, I quite like it. IUpdated the stock install to Vista SP2, things are a little snappier. Also confirmed via the hardware ID in the device manager for the SSD that it actually is the VBM25D1Q firmware that is TRIM capable, which means here comes Win7. All in all, not a bad purchase for $899 (for the 4GB version at that).

 

Where did you purchase your 4 GB Adamo?

 

Hi guys,

I've been a massive admirer of the Adamo range since it was launched, and I was looking for a new laptop a few weeks ago and was staggered by how much the price has come down.

Is this a good deal?
Dell Adamo A13 6420 A13/6420 Laptop from Laptopshop.co.uk

Also, I know the SSD's are different with some faster than others - can you tell which one is likely to come in that?

If anyone knows any better deals for a UK buyer, please let me know!

Cheers