1520 Issues

So, has anyone had any issues with thier 1520?

I recieved mine and believe it came with a defective motherboard. The machine ran slow as all hell, over 30 minutes just to open the driver CDrom. I ran some latency tests on it to confirm, and just as an example: I ran Sisoft Sandra on my machine (t7500, 4GB ram) and my memory latency was 2244 ns. For comparison sake, a Pentium 2 system, with PC100 ram has a latency of 204ns. I also ran some of thier CPU benchmarks. With Multimedia, my system functions at ~5500 it/s, which is even less then a 600Mhz Pentium M. (A t7400, the previous version of my processor gets 116000+.

Anyway, I called Dell and the techs insisted there was nothing wrong, but informed me I could invoke my 21-day system exchange right. So I am currently waiting on a system exchange.... I think the system will be delayed though, its supposed to ship tomorrow, and still in build stage. (Maybe I can talk em into switching from Midnight Blue to red to speed it up)

 

I've heard of people having the following issues w/ the 1520:

a) unwanted interference from the CPU through the headphone jack
b) grainy screen appearance (especially on glossy, high-res screens)
c) play in the latch when closed

However, on my old inspiron, i encountered a problem similar to yours, and it was confirmed to be a faulty mobo. I used the system exchange, and the next one worked fine. I think you're taking the right actions.

btw... if you want to ensure that your lappy is not delayed due to color, I'd go for Jet Black. Personally, its my favorite color anyway.

 

Sorry to hear about that. After reading all of these problems with the new Dells I'm glad mine works perfectly...

 

Oh, I didn't mean to blow that out of proportion.

I in no way meant to imply that the majority, or even a very large minority of users have had these problems (except for the play in the latch, but that's no big deal anyway)

As to the other two problems, many of the people who have encountered them either:
a) didn't notice them until reading posts like mine :wink:
...or..
b) didn't think the problem was that big a deal

As there is a known fix to the headphone jack problem through CPU scaling, and because the grainy screen can be avoided by buying anti-glare, I highly recommend the Inspiron 1520.

As you can see, I have ordered mine, and I can't wait to get it!

 

My 1520- 22nd birthday gift from my mother

Worked fine for 1 week, then random restarts and bios loading hangups. have tried updating bios, no change there. Tech support first said it was my LCD that was bad, so they sent a tech out to replace that. He couldnt get it to boot after the screen was replaced, and I told him about the memory errors the other tech over the online chat had not payed attention to. Dave ( the onsite tech) removed the memory and the wifi card and put each one back in one by one. Only then would it boot. He said he didnt have parts to fix it with him because of dell telling him it was the screen

This thing heats up way too fast, 20 minutes and HOT to the touch. I never run it without a chillpad under it. Right now to get it to boot I have to reseat the memory and the wifi card. Called dell again last night, they said their diagnostic tools were down, then they called me 2 hours later to say i had called the wrong division. I am getting a little annoyed, and really just want the thing to work. My laptop is the main way my fiance and i communicate. I went with dell only due to my union discount, and otherwise would have gone thru a custom laptop shop my friend owns.

If dell cant get it fixed, they had better replace it or give me back my $$$

 

New motherboard on the way, this had better fix it

 

new board & memory in, boots fine now, no more errors or overheating. Looks to be a good future.

 

I have the headphone noise. It is terrible especially given the several hours of lectures I listen to on my laptop. I am sending it back.

 

I also have the headphone noise, but since it's been over the 21 day limit I just had Dell give me a free creative x-fi card.