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

i got extended warranty so my warranty expires somewhere in august 2014...

so if adamo refurb are all gone and parts like mobo is depleted since they probably dont make it anymore after discontinuing, what will happen to me if any major parts malfunction????? somebody told me there will be like an entire exchange but u guys think dell with come up with models like adamo in the future?? i dont wanna end up getting something like xps 14 so to say...

 

the tech guy is coming in a few hours to fix my hinges, i've been reading about square trade... is it really that reliable? if i buy the accidential how would they know if the laptop has been damaged or not? i really want the onyx one but i guess i'll have to stick with this one

 

i think

* Dellienware - it doesn't matter if they don't sell it anymore. they will still have spare parts. and in the end you will prolly be offered a newer system for exchange

* caoboi - if you get the full cover they don't care what happened with the system. they will have to fix it. that's why u'r paying the extra coin

 

hi,

i put a sim card in the slot and loaded the ATT software but the software doesnt recognize the card or a modem.

any ideas?

the specs dont say that it doesnt have the wwan so im assuming that it does.

 

well i don't think you have the wwan card. check the specs and if you don't see an entry for the wwan card then prolly it's not there. check device manager see if you can find it there.

 

i don't think the wwan was ever included as a default offering. you always had to add it as an upgrade. pretty sure your setup doesn't have it.

 

With the 1.4ghz cpu, cpu usage is at 50% when running microtrend scan...

around when will we see cpu hitting 100% constantly while doing normal work? i say like 1-1.5 years?

 

not sure what you mean. the cpu usage shouldn't change if it's running the same processes.

 

is it just 1 core at 100% and 1 around 0% or both cores around 50%?

i don't get it... my 1.6ghz 5 year old celeron is at 100% constantly when doing almost anything

 

its like one core at 40% and other at 60%.

well i was just worried even before my warranty expires i might see significantly slow performance up to a point i cannot do anything much

 

well i think that as long as you don't install loads of crap and keep the os clean of spyware and viruses you don't have to worry about it. if your hdd is trim enabled then u'r fine.

btw i was just thinking. on a ssd drive do we still have to run disk defrag just like on a normal hdd?

 

2.13ghz owners:

please do me a favor. can any of you play 4k videos on youtube and see how well it can play?

like type in 4k video. click on the video about NYC suft, set the resolution to "original" and open up the task manager and see how much the cpu is being used while play on full screen. also can you see if it plays flawlessly??

with the 1.4ghz i get 100% cpu usage and get like 1fps...

thank you for your help in advance

 

same here well maybe i got 2fps haha
as long as it plays 1080p just fine i don't care for more mate
playing 1080p is prolly the most you can have from an on-board graphics card
oh btw you can play half life

 

I would not recommend defrag on an SSD. Here are two comments from another forum.

All you'll ever achieve by defragging is wearing the drive down more. I would not defrag a SSD ever - there is no point to it at all.

The 2 main reasons for defragging your disk is to limit the amount of times the drive heads have to move to a different section of the disk to read the data (limit the use of seek times on the disk). The second is to place the majority of your data on the outer edge of the disk where your read and write speeds are faster on a mechanical drive do to simple mechanical physics.

SSD's elimate both of these, one their seek times are next to nil. So moving to a different section of the disk causes little to no delay in data read/writes so you dont need to have a file placed sequentially on the disk. And their is no drop in performance over the entire size of the disk because there is no mechanical limiting factor continually writing everything to a particular section on an SSD will actually decrease the life expectancy on the drive as there are only so many writes per cell before failure.

 

haha thanks for trying this out. was your cpu at 100% while the clip was playing?? im trying to figure out which part is the bottleneck since my cpu was hitting 100%

 

I have a Dell Adamo 13, my internal power connector is broken (the one that is on the motherboard) do you know where i can buy only this part? I don't want to change the motherboard becouse it's only a small piece that is broken.
If this part is unavailable do you have schematics of this part?

Do you have alternative solutions?

Thank you very much

 

yea the cpu was at 100%.
task manager showed that the web browser was using it all no matter what web browser i tried with

 

good point. thanks

 

i downloaded this surf nyc YouTube - Surf NYC (4K resolution)

it was 250ish mb

mpc hc 64bit played it about 6 frames per sec

power dvd 10 plays it 100% fps clean

enable hardware in the options

this is while i was in power save mode and having ffox beta 4.11 facebook open and jdownloader that was downloading 2 files at 1.2mb

 

thanks for the help! enable hardware in the options for power dvd right?? i guess the on board graphics is so bad that cpu has to step in help out..

 

otherway around.

it enables the graphics card when you use "hardware"

its just another point on how when in the right hands intergrated gfx is not that bad

 

Guys, one question and advice from you.

I have Onyx and Pearl.

What I did today:

Pearl: Installed fresh Windows 7 HP OEM DVD + SP1 + all the Dell drivers. Result: everything works no problem.

Onyx: Install fresh Windows 7 HP OEM DVD + SP1 + all the Dell drivers. Result: changing screen brightness does not work.

Both systems are identical, both have quickset, both have video driver from the Dell website and both have all the updates from Windows Update.

Any idea? Service?

PICOW

 

Do you mean the light sensor doesn't automatically change the screen brightness with ambient light conditions, or is that you can't change the screen brightness at all - even manually?

 

try uninstalling and then reinstalling the video driver.

 

I cannot change it manually. No way!

Hm, I see no point in doing that. Both notebooks were formated, installed SW and even installation sequence was the same. Have no clue what can be wrong.

PICOW

 

did the sensor work on the onyx before you wiped it?

if so, it's not a hardware issue.

 

Hello,

First thanks for all of your contribution to this much informative thread. With your knowledge base here I hope you guys will be much a better help than Dell's been.

So my old adamo has its gps work fine using Dell location utility. After the motherboard fried from flashing a new bios and several part-replacements later, long story short, I got a whole new replacement laptop. This time no matter how much I tried I can't seem to get the GPS to work. When I ran diagnose in Dell location utility it gives a red X when checking for GPS, so I concluded that Dell didn't install the Broadcom 705 gps mini-card. I called and the technician seems puzzled about this too, saying ANY adamo should have this GPS card. So they sent out 2 consecutive dispatches, WLAN then WWAN card. Apparently none of these helps out with the GPS issue. Also, after they installed the WWAN card I can't seem to find proper driver anywhere to make the machine recognize the new hardware (which shows up as 4 "Data interface" under "Other devices" in Device manager). However I did see an addition of "Dell wireless GPS/WPS Virtual COM Port (COM3)" under Ports (COM & LPT).

So my questions are:
1. Where should I get the driver for WWAN card?
2. What's up with that Dell Wireless GPS/WPS Virtual COM port? Isn't it supposed to be Broadcom 705 GPS mini card? I'm so confused...
3. Can anyone post a picture of Broadcom 705 GPS mini card so I can show it to Dell technician and make sure they will send out the right part this time? Also, do you know where this card should be installed? (ifixit.com has a tear down of the adamo 13 so this link could be of help Dell Adamo Teardown - Page 2 - iFixit)

Thank you for your time.

 

Did they install the 5530 WWAN?
DELL Dell Wireless 5530 (Tri-band HSDPA 7.2/HSUPA 2.0 and GPS) Mini-Card for AT and T, Latitude E-Family/Mobile Precision, Cus : Wireless, WiFi, VoIP & Networking | Dell Canada

 

hi,

ok so when you say you can't get the gps to work, are u reffering to that dell location utility? because that utility is calculating your position using the wifi access points around you. i know this because it works for me and i don't have the gps card or a wwan card. if i start diagnostics i get the red x when checking for the gps card. i took the bottom of and i could not see any other cards except the wlan and bloototh cards.
there is no slot on the motherboard for a gps card and i've never seen one unless it uses the wwan slot.
u can get the driver for your wwan card here:
Drivers and Downloads

that Dell Wireless GPS/WPS Virtual COM port should be a virtual port that connects the location sensor. there is a sensor on the motherboard that detects wifi spots around you and calculates your position. actually i don't know if this sensor is part of the wlan card or the mobo.

that sensor acts like a gps.
some wwan cards have gps capabilities. don't know which ones tho.

 

What battery life are you guys getting on your adamos?

I have the adamo pearl,running it on low brightness, bluetooth off and I get these numbers:

Doing normal browsing/youtube with wireless i'm only able to get about 2.5 hours.
Watching a 720p movie, I do between 1.45 and 2 hours.

I feel my battery is cutting me short by 1 hour... what are you guys getting?

 

@M76: I don't think it's 5530 WWAN. I managed to take a picture when the technician opened up the laptop so here it is, EM760, I think it's from Dell, don't know if it has GPS like the 5530 or not... http://www.box.net/shared/static/opbtablgzn.jpg

@lucianmobile9: If I remember correctly the first time I got my brand new adamo the GPS works even without wifi. Back then the laptop came pre-installed with what looked like a lite version of Dell location utility with a small square status box on the top right corner of the screen telling you the location where you're at. I've been trying to get back that feature but no hope. Thank you though for your very informative input.

Btw, I googled around and came across this image of a GPS 700 mini card http://www.navigadget.com/wp-content/postimages/2009/06/dell-mini-10-gps.JPG I guess the 705 shouldn't be too different from this one? Maybe I'll just send Dell this picture and see what they can come up with.

 

i think i get around that. with wifi and doing documents, i get bout 4 hours maybe

 

doing normal stuff, between 3-4 hours. heavy video, probably 2-3.

 

If anyone out there is interested I'd like to sell my Onyx Adamo 13. I've had it for about 3 months and I've realized I can't do without a CDROM drive, SD card slot, and I'm not the biggest fan of this keyboard. System is mint, contains the 2.1ghz processor, 4gb or memory and the 128gb ssd. I'm looking for $750 plus shipping. Message me if anyone is interested.

 

I completely understand where you're coming from, but that's within a few $$$ of what refurb and "scratch and dent" units from Dell outlet are currently going for. You might have to go a bit lower to get bites this month.

 

Okay, so I'm confused about this gps feature.
I certainly don't seem to have it--I recently bought an Onyx 2.13 privately, and see no mention of the 5530 wwan or a 705 in the "original system configuration" page on Dell (just KW37: 5300 wireless, and p560G: Bluetooth), so should I expect to have GPS? I suspect not, but why would the aforementioned tech have said "all Adamos are equipped with gps"? I installed the driver for gps to no effect.

Also, is there any proper, i.e. reasonably comprehensive, documentation for this machine? I'd like to know, for one example, whether the single headphone jack might accept microphone input (as do some macs).

 

Docs for the Adamo 13:
Documentation

Anandtech review suggests the jack on the right takes both headphone and microphone.
Dell Adamo 13: CULV Goes Upscale - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

As far as I know, the tech was wrong. Adamos don't come with GPS by default, maybe if you ordered one of those expensive executive packages that included vanities like the Tumi bag.

 

Thanks for that, M76. Yes, so that's the extent of their documentation? Guess they've extended their minimalist design to that, as well.

Interesting link to Anandtech! Hmm... I wonder what kind of plug I need for mic input, say for a mic-equipped headset. My Ipod-compatible adapter (the one with four plug contacts) doesn't seem to work, but I think they use their own arrangement.

I can live without GPS, or WWAN for that matter. But, a Tumi bag? I could have had a TUMI BAG!?! IF only I'd KNOWN!!





...what's a "Tumi bag"?

 

Tumi is a luxury luggage brand. They make really quality stuff but at crazy prices, like 3 to 4 figure luggage.

When Dell released Adamo as a luxury brand, they partnered with Tumi to create sleeves and totes specifically for the Adamo 13, partly because the Adamo 13 had nonstandard measurements for a 13" laptop.

You can still buy the Tumi business tote from Dell.
adamo - Dell - Search - Large Business

Just fork over $530 plus tax.

 

mine wont boot win7 since saturday

setup repair keeps trying to repair but keep getting error 0x0 for all tests

i have emailed dell, i have two weeks left on warrenty !!

also the backlight keyboard died last month

 

True, but why get one that's "scratched and dented" when you can mine and be assured that it's in mint condition. Again I've only had it for 3 months so it's still under warranty. I know some people are getting lucky with their refurbs but it's not a guarantee that the system will arrive mint like mine.

$750+ship, worldwide shipping available, operators are standing by.

 

you are gonna have to try ebay or craigslist. people talkin in this thread knows that refurb ones, not scratch/dent ones, are basically all in mint condition. not to mention the full 12 month warranty.

 

Exactly, and my credit card company will double the warranty of a unit bought at Dell, so buying a 3 month old used unit, no matter how tenderly treated, just doesn't come in to my consideration when the price is almost the same. Go a few hundred less and I'm all over used.

Diane

 

just a quick question: which credit card company??? is it something u get from your work?

 

I think it depends on the various credit cards each company offers. Most American Express and Mastercard cards do I believe. These are personal cards, not work cards.

 

Correct, in this case it's AMEX, that feature alone has made the card worth it several times, like when my PS3 died at 18 months.

Let me add, my unit showed up today, very pretty! no GPS (didn't expect it) and a fingerprint magnet at its best (also no surprise)

For a "scratch and dent" I see nothing that makes me think it isn't new.

 

so if you use amex card and purchase online, it will automatically give you doubled warranty???

thanks for your reponse

 

In most cases as long as it's from a real seller, as in this case Dell, yes, they double the warranty up to an additional year. If Dell had a 90-day warranty they would double it to 180-days. Not all versions of all cards do it, so you have to check, but I've used it at least 8 times in the past 10 years, it's always been awesome.

 

fyi for those considering to purchase adamo in outlet, i was able to run call of duty modern warfare 2 in 800x600p lowest setting with playable results. the fps was bad in really intensive scenes, but overall was "playable."

with 1.4ghz cpu, it was hitting around 75-80% consistent during the play. however black ops was 100% unplayable. not sure if it was the graphics or cpu, since cpu was hitting 90-95 to even 100% during the game. maybe it may be barely playable with 2.13ghz

 

cool but i bet it got so hot that it was starting to smell like burning metal