Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
Ok, so I get my inspiron. Build quality seems moderately good, attractive case, huge keyboard. As soon as I turn it on I'm startled by the just horrible backlight bleed on the DELL boot screen. There's a top and bottom bleed in the shapes of two opposing arcs but what I couldn't believe is the huge column shaped bleeds )( )( looking like that in the middle of the screen. This is _not_ something you can train your eye not to see. It was exceptional. (Nor was it a result of bad settings, I played with the settings for hours trying to lessen it without losing the ability to see the screen, no dice.) Then when I got into the operating system I noticed a line about 5mm running horizontally bisecting the start bar. It looks like there's pressure being placed on the LCD by the bezel and this is a result.
So I use the laptop for a few days, noticing my typing proficiency is reduced and I'm getting spurious window switching. So I finally notice that the B key is failing 50% of the time and when I place my hand on a certain place on the keyboard area the system tasks away from the window I'm typing in. This seems like a sensitivity in the touchpad that may be tranmitted to the top of the notebook.
Then, after gaming for a few hours using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, the game hangs and after the reboot the bluetooth receiver is dead. I wasn't blocking any of the fan ports it was sitting without any obstruction on a coffee table.
I would be very, very wary of these malfunctions on this laptop. I've only had this unit for 5 days and I'm shocked at the litany of manufacturers defects and failures.
Inspiron 1720 Intel® Core 2 Duo T7300 (4MB cache/2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB), English [223-1014]
System Color Expresso Brown Color with Microsatin Finish [313-5475]
MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm [311-7219]
LCD Panel High Resolution, glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1920 x 1200) [320-5504]
Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce 8600M GT [320-5468]
Hard Drive 160G 5400RPM SATA HDD [341-4709]
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, English [313-5195]
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem [430-0493]
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.08 [412-0917]
Optical Drive 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability [341-4716]
Sound Card Integrated Stereo High Definition Audio [313-4783]
Wireless IntelJ3945 802.11a/g Mini-card [430-2336]
Integrated Webcam Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam [320-5681]
Misc Productivity Software Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 [466-8934]
Anti-Virus/ Security suite (pre-install) Norton Internet Security 2007, 30 Day Trial, English [412-0940]
Batteries 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery [312-0520]
Hardware Support Services 1 Year Return to Depot Service and Technical Support [920-4510]
Online Data Storage DataSafe Online Backup 3GB (included with price)
Wireless Personal Networking Card Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate) [430-2348]
Media Center Enhancements Dell Travel Remote Control, IR [412-0961]
Beware the Inspiron 1720
Discussion in 'Dell' started by philmoskowitz, Sep 23, 2007.
