Dell 17r N7720 SE - user review

Yup, that's exactly it. I wanted to replace my old slow hdd noisy E1705 I used in bed while my wife watches tv and/or reads books beside me. This thing fit the bill perfectly. I did try the M18x in bed for a week before buying this 17R but it was just too bulky and heavy for that. I only use my M18x for taking to work daily and sometimes when I do night shifts and its quiet I can usually start up steam and play some borderlands 2, crysis 3 multiplay with my son or my friends. We are looking forward to the release date of dead island riptide too.

 

On my 7720 I noticed a bit loud fan when idle, got only 1 chrome window up doing nothing CPU and GPU on zero acrtivity and the fan is going pretty fast/loud (these iddle temps are 61CPU and 56 GPU). Is there any fix for this ? Got shipped bios version i think A08 or so. Dont you have this problem too ?

 

Talk to Dell, you need heatsink replaced.

 

The fan on my inspiron also starts during idle for periods, it's clearly hearable, but not annoying to me. The lowest fan speed seems to be higher than for many other brands though - thus slightly more audible.

The only thing that could help is to put new paste between heatsinks and cpu/gpu - to lower temps slightly making the fan start less often.

You might try using power save power profile too, might help.

 

Thanks for the replies and comments/suggestions.

I currently have a 4yr old Studio 17 1737 so as a more or less direct replacement it's either the 17 R or 17 R SE?

I happen to prefer the slight styling difference of the SE over the std R and since the spec I was looking at was much the same for either the main deciding point was the screen HD+ or Full HD?

 

should look like this.........(sort of in win 8 i guess)

 

Tested on mine, and Dell datasafe backup still could backup from the restore partition just fine! Even after upgrading to win 8 from the win 7 install that it shipped with. (I kept recovery partition intact).

Burned onto bluray just fine and verified fine.

Bluray drive: optiarc BD-5750H (former NEC).
Bluray media: Madiarange 6X BD-R made by Moser Baer India.

 

Hi OC, your software looks different than mine. Ya, I have Verbatim 4x speed disks and I'm going to the store on Monday to pick up some new Verbatin 6x speeds. Who knows, maybe it will work.

I also tried this idea and used win 8 explorer to burn a copy of my backup from the usb drive to the BR. It burned successfully BUT when I reboot and the disk is in the drive my computer spins the drive but then ignores it and just boots into windows. In the bios I see nothing that allows you boot drive preferences?

And I'll be totally honest, I have never seen a bios like this before. It looks completely different to what I'm used to.............. I'm kinda scared to even try to install my 840 pro for fear of wrecking my 7720.

 

Hey, has anyone had any issues with the Intel centrino wireless n 2230 adapter?

I love this laptop but i been getting poor connection speeds with the wireless, i have a wireless N router and rest of my devices with wireless N connects fine. But with this and the most up to date drivers from Intel i only connects at 144 Mbps and its drops to 9 Mbps,13 Mbps, etc and hovers there, This is all happening while im only 2 feet away from the router itself. I seem to get a better connection with the default windows 8 driver but it still capps at 144 Mbps but don't drop, like with Intel driver. This adapter suppose to support 300 Mbps, i read a few places of similar issues but no real fixes. If anyone could offer a driver version that works better be great.

 

xyphir, its one of the couple of pieces in this thing that are a nightmare. Mine has disconnected for no reason 2 times already since I had it. I literally tried to reconnect and it refused to reconnect until I ran the diagnostics on the internet connection and the response back both times was something about the card being reset and then it works again. I will be swapping out this wireless card first chance I get with the best card it will take. I would love to put a killer 1103 in it but I have to research if it will even fit first.

 

Does your n router support channel bonding? Have a read through this article: 802.11n Speed - How Can I Get an 802.11n Wi-Fi Speed Rating of 300 Mbps?

 

Thanks for the info, yeah my router was setup properly i can get 300 Mbps perfectly fine with my desktop wireless card, but i did find that the adapter on my laptop was set to only run at 20 MHz instead of 40, after changing that it now connects at 300 Mbps , ran a speed test also and found that i'm getting my full internet bandwidth 80Mbit

Thanks again.

 

I had a lot of the same issues with the Intel drivers, esp newest one, trying uninstalling the driver ( and deleting it) and just use the driver windows 8 comes with for the adapter version 14.8.8.75


After this and making sure the adapter channel width was set too "auto" instead of just 20 MHz (you can check this under advanced properties in device manager for the adapter), i'm now able to connect @ 300 Mbps and no disconnects yet, also getting my full internet bandwidth now.

 

Works perfectly fine for me and I've never had any issues. I only have G router though.

 

good day guys, my question regarding screen replacement made quite a stir. but overall good and constructive discussion. as other suggested to make research about it and another user here (tidel) make a successful screen replacement care of DELL, which I cant do because my warranty is RTD and the laptop is not in the US anymore. Unfortunately Tidel has LP173WF1(TL)(B3) which is matte and I prefer a glossy one.

I need a little favor guys, if you can manage to post here the Full HD with Truelife (glossy) panel hardware IDS ( note- not the 3d model, just the regular screen ). Ive been looking at this thread what they have replaced is B173HW01 V.4 which has 90% gamut. If that's 17RSE has then will pull a trigger and get myself one. Thanks guys, very much appriciated.

 

Hi, does anyone know if it is possible to replace the normal keyboard with a backlight version - assuming I could buy one from Dell?

 

Well it seems you have resolved your problem. However id like to share my experience with the overall wifi reception on my inspiron 7720 with an 2230 adapter. Out of the box with pre-installed drivers (win8) i had very poor reception and speeds. To the point where my cheap china tablet would beat it by quite a margin. Seeing as I was planning on downgrading back to windows 7 i decided to never really look into it. I figured it was probably a software screw-up. However once I was on win7 with both dell and vanilla intel drivers, my reception and DL-speed remained terrible.

At this point i was fiddling with different software settings, sadly to no avail. Thinking to my self it must either be the card malfunctioning, or the antenna not seated/connected proper. So I screwed the notebook open and had a look at the 2230 module. It was connected by a click mechanism with both a black and white wire, one at each side, which are supposedly both antennas I reckoned. On the wifi adapter itself it shows both a white and black arrow so you know what cable belongs on which side of the 2230 adapter. I removed both of them and checked for any dust or anything that could have gotten between the antennas and wifi card, but nothing. Reseated the antennas either way hoping it would fix it but in the end it changed nothing.

I don't exactly know why but at this point I thought, well might as well try switching the black and white cables around. So i did, 1 minute later I had done so and I rebooted. And upon checking my reception I noticed i had ''turbo charged'' my wifi reception and download speed to my surprise. My best guess is that the black and white cable are soldered at the wrong place, thus the white one actually being the black one, and vice versa.

TL;DR: flip around black and white antenna on wifi card when different software seems to not fix a poor wifi reception.

 

You can do that, no problem.

 

Nigel,

To resolve this issue can you run all the Windows updates prior to burning the backup disk? Once you have done the updates and have burned the disk please let me know if this has resolved the issue. I can then pass the information on to our engineers.

Thank You,
Dell-Jesse L
Dell Social Media and Communities

 

I can confirm all updates were done first before backup was attempted. I got a call into tech support and they want to remote my computer when I get home. What do they care I guess? Its not their $3 blank disks that are getting wrecked.

EDIT:

Yay, the tech phoned back and decided he didnt want to waste another disk either so he is sending me a win 8 OS disk and 2 other disks, don't remember, don't care really lol. When that shows up I can finally do a fresh install on my 840 PRO

 

Hi , After a long wait received my 7720 today

Had a few queries :

1. The USB ports are very tight , it takes some force to insert and remove devices . Is that normal ?

2. Just want to know that there is a fan beneath the laptop and on the side is the heat vent . Do both eject heat ?

How to notebook cooler work ? they just suck the heat out of the bottom fan only right ?

Isn't there nothing to be done about the side vent ?

3. What should be the optimal size of the OS partition (For windows 8 ) ?

 

Hey Shashank, ya, my usb ports are tight too, but so far no problems with them. As for the fan...... intakes are on the bottom and vent is by the power cord. When you put it on a cooler the cooler should blow upwards too. For partitioning windows.... don't know myself, I just give it the whole drive.

 

I'm using a cooler master notepal X2 . My 7720 sits on the top of it , but the cooler is smaller in area than 7720 . Does it matter until the lower fan of 7720 sits on the cooler fan ?

 

If i upgrade my wireless to Killer Wireless-N 1202 Dual Band, will i still be able to use the intel widi ? will i lose any features? Thanks.

 

I checked my battery wear levels today and surprisingly batter care and HW Monitor report 17.93 % wear .

Is that possible ?

I bought my laptop around 3 months ago but it was kept with my brother in US , and switched on only 2-3 times .. Checked these wear levels , when i completely charged my battery and then was discharging it ...

Is it a false reading ? Plz help ...

 

I have 13% wear after some 3 months so I'm going to call the service before summer to have it cleaned and I'm probably going to ask them for a new battery - I'm not sure what's the law in your country but where I live the warranty on a battery is 6 months and if it reaches more than 20% wear you have the right to get a new one. I’ve been taking good care of the battery so it shouldn’t be this worn.

 

Then it was not able to be powered on battery so i plugged in AC , after which i got windows improperly shut down and when windows started i got Battery 7% available , plugged in and charging ... Whats wrong ?

 

I would do like this. Reinstall Quickset. Restart pc.
If that not works i would run the build in diagnostic test (you find IT in BOOT meny). The diag test have a seperate test for the battery.

Last way is (as usual) a clean install of windows.

 

Anyone know how to force a bios back to an earlier version? I'm using A12 and I want to go back to A03 to get rid of the secure-boot rubbish but I get 'error 217 layout doesnt match'.

 

Okay so have a few doubts . Before that just for info , my 7720 has windows 8 and A07 BIOS . I shrinked my OS partition to make new partitions..

1. The Windows 8 PC settings won't open . It says to refresh windows 8 . So would refreshing delete all drivers and preinstalled Dell software ?

2. After a full discharge and full charge now the wear levels are down to 3.04 % . What does this mean ?

3 . If battery stays at 100% Fully charged , Would using the pc plugged in to AC , hamper battery life ? Coz the battery charging is disabled after battery reaches 100% right ?

4. What to Desktop mode and longevity mode in battery meter do ? Should i enable them both ?

Tried Enabling both and battery stays at 98% plugged in charging and do not reach 100% . Howz that benefetial ?

5 . Since i repartitioned my OS partitioned and shrinked it , would restoring from Dell recovery disk work ? I mean it is designed to work on a single partition as came from the factory or not ?

6 . Where is windows 8 key ? How to activate it once i reinstall if needed ?

Can someone please answer these questions ?

Awaiting help please ...

 

i know just one thing.....i never use the build Recovery Partition if i going to do a clean install of windows.........its not very good. (been there, done that many times)

i would call DELL and let them send me a real Windows CD.........way way better.
(you have already paid for your Windows license......they never argue when i ask them to send me a CD)

ps....thanks God for windows 7

 

do they send the real windows CD ? Or just the recovery CD ?

 

Its the same thing. (Dells Windows CD does just include the OS). No drivers , softwares , etc......just the OS.

Its the real deal......a clean copy of your OS

 

How do you measure/monitor the battery wear?

 

I have tried to also download and burn the Recovery Discs and as I found with the 17 R I first had after doing the verification it came up with an error. (last time when I then switched off and on again it then got stuck in boot mode with error 2000-0332, so don't know what will happen this time ?)

However, I managed to download and burn on the 660, so there must clearly be a problem with the laptop series?

I will have to contact Dell next week. You advised that he is sending you a total of 3 discs, W8 OS and 2 others, what are the other ones he is sending and if you are not able to burn the discs does that mean there is a fundamental problem with the pc?

This is my third one now, two 17 R's and now this 17 R SE and don't really want to have to send this one back as clearly they are all suffering from the same problem?

 

I think my recovery partition is corrupt . Whenever i go into the boot menu to restore from the recovery partition , i get an error .

Also , Dell backup and recovery is not opening in windows 8 .

I transferred to India so requested for an ownership transfer . Have asked Dell to send the recovery disks .

Can recovery partition be repaired ?

Still just for some help , can any of you with a windows 8 on 7720 , upload your recovery partition , and the recovery media you have ?

Please help ..

 

6. The win 8 key is apparantly built into the bios now.

 

I picked up my disks yesterday, oddly enought there was 4 of them, just a dell win 8 os disk and other junk like: cyber dvd crap that needs upgrading before it can play the sound on my file, (ya right, I threw it in garbage), essential drivers, webcam disk.

 

first of all DELL ditched "restart - hold F9 - reinstalling Windows" .....some time ago.

like i said before.....there is only ONE way to proceed a 100% clean copy......USE A REAL WINDOWS CD !
(you CANT repair a broken recovery partition....no way in hell.....it takes Hugh skills re-coding an Operative system)

 

Do the discs contain the factory image in which the laptop came ? Or just Clean OS ?

Also, Can you please upload the factory image disc you got ?

 

......its quite difficult making a IMG file of Windows and then upload it on internet (thats why you see millions of crappy/half-working copy's on ex, Pirate Bay....its not very easy)

have you called DELL and said....- hello, i need a windows CD soon as possible.....my PC have crashed and the Recovery partition does not work....i need it A.S.P.

 

Is the Dell Win 8 OS disc they supply the same as what you would be downloading and burning, if it worked or are there other files that are downloaded and burnt at the same time that you will not get with just the Dell Win 8 OS disc?

 

If it's just one disk it's probably only windows 8 right? The back up recovery takes 3 DVD's. Anyway the image on this one is 5.22GB so no I can't upload this somewhere for you to download it, it's too big.

Oh ya, it's just win 8 OS. When I run setup I get a windows 8 blue setup box start on my screen. I have attached a picture of the disk for everyone here to see.

 

Does the Win 8 OS disc they provide have the same key to to what is already installed or is it just a generic disc that can be used on any pc?

 

You should be able to use the disc on any DELL PC that was shipped with win 8. PCs sold with win 8 OEM has a key in their bios that verifies them for win 8 use. There might be license files included on the win 8 installation too, so any win 8 install disc might not work even if your computer came with win 8, you might need an install disc for your brand (like dell is providing if asking for it) that has license files to work with the win 8 code from your bios.

 

Ya, what OC said, Your key for win 8 is built into the bios apparently, no keys with the disk, this disk should work with ANY win 8 dell computer.

 

my touchpad just died. tried to reinstall, uninstall input driver and quick set and nothing worked. FN+F3 doesnt work too.

any tips?

 

Does it show up in your device manager? If not, the first thing I would suspect is something from the touchpad (like the data ribbon) became unplugged.

 

It appears only when I check the option ''Show hidden devices'' and Dell Touchpad have the icon '!' on it. So it must be a hardware (like the data ribbon) problem?

 

? No, it probably isnt the ribbon cable then. If it shows anywhere, even under hidden devices, the system sees it. It sounds like a driver issue, the orange light is not on at the top of the touchpad right?