Dell Studio 15 1558 Thread

I doubt you'd have to return it. Call Dell and tell them. They will send someone out more than likely. I would call them ASAP though. Let it ride too long and they may not be as accommodating (of course that depends on your warranty too).

 

Good point. I'll call it in tomorrow and hope for the best (someone to come out rather than having to be without it for a week or two).

 

Hi below is the score running the test. Since I have the i5-520 results are in line about 20% lower than i7

 

So I have had my Studio 15 for a good week now ...

In two words ...

"I LIKE"

I have reinstalled the OS ... and all of my drivers ... all is good!

I do have 2 nagging devices in my Device Manager that are "unknown" however. I am pretty sure I have installed all of my drivers including the 8 in 1 (or 7 in 1 or whatever it is ...) reader. Have not had a chance to really dig on these two though ...

BluRay is beautiful! At first it was skipping ... after I burnt a few DVDs though ... it has been playing without a skip. Perhaps the lasers needed to be "worked in"? Perhaps it was a combination of driver updates.

Boots MUCH faster than I expected.

I have it connected to my 21.5 1080P monitor ... looks beautiful!

Its a keeper!

 

I m facing a strange problem with the 1558

Neither everest or gpuz is showing the right fan speed for me

When the fan is rather loud, it displays values like 2-6 rpm.
The values are fluctuating b/w 1rpm to 3300 rpm
gpuz shows fan speed 30% constantly

Anybody else facing same issue??

 

Yes I am seeig the same issue ( I posted similar issue yesterday) when I used PCWizard. fan speed stuck at 30% and rpm is all over the place and not matching when the fan is going full speed. Maybe the fans sensor setup is messed and that is why heat management system in the bios cannot does not seem effective.

 

Hum. My BIOS does not have an option for video. I am using A04, but I bet they differ due to the on-board vs discrete video.

 

my fan speed is also stuck at 30%. pretty annoying. Ive tried:
GPU-Z
GPUTool
ATI Tool
ATI Tray Tools
CCC (ATI's software)
ATI RBE (radeon bios editor)

All of these don't work. The bios is locked and can't be accessed/loaded into the above software to change the fan speed. I just plaeyd a game on ehre for the first time, it was on by the temps are way too high for my liking. I don't game anyway but thought i'd try it. After closing a game the PC froze. My first system halt since getting the laptop a month ago. Im guessing it's cause i played agame, gpu overheated, or perhaps a driver clash as ive instaleld a lot of GPU crap in the last few hours.

Anyways. It's stuck at 30%, but im sure the fan i hear spinning up is the GPU fan and not the CPU fan. My temps during normal usage are ok nonetheless...

 

instaleld a lot of GPU crap in the last few hours.

Do we have 2 separate fans? My Vostro had only one.
PCWizard does show 2 fans but I am not sure if we really do.
Also it seems the signal that are normally available to tell the speed of the fan are not there are not correctly hooked up. this may be the cause of the overheating as well but I am sure if that was the case it should be a simple fix and Dell should have done it by nos as they have bumped this model up a few times in last couple of years

 

Well i'm assuming it has 2 fans... I can't possibly imagine a laptop of this high spec with just 1 fan in it. If it has 1 fan then f**k me.. Dell are twats.

 

You maybe right but going through the manual I see only one fan.

Fan
Documentation

CPU heatisink that seems to cover the GPU as well.
Documentation

Here is the whole view and only one fan
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/studio1558/en/SM/sysboard.htm#wp1180315
I could not find GPU or a fan dedicated to it in the manual.

 

Took some convincing to get them to come onsite instead of having me send it in and wait for the repair. Fingers crossed it all works out.

 

I made a stupid mistake with mine but don't want to cancel it either. I forgot to get the backlit keyboard. It says in production and it was already canceled once on me so i'm not touching it,lol.

 

I think I'm about ready to pull the trigger and get a Studio 15, but a couple questions if anyone can help:

1.Does Dell get antsy about fulfilling warranty service if you've had accidents before? Last year my husband got a new laptop, but I handled ordering and put it in my name thinking that would be easiest. He's had several mishaps and we were so glad we got the accidental damage warranty, and they were great about it each time we called -- though they did start mentioning how we'd had several claims before. Even though I've never dropped a laptop, I'd be nervous that if I did, Dell would look at my account and see the other laptop and find some problem with fulfilling service because there had been so many incidents? I guess I'm asking if anyone has had more than one laptop in their name and needed to use damage claims on both, and did Dell act funny about it? Doubt I will ever need a claim on mine as I'm uber-careful, but you never know, that's why we buy full warranties. I could always put the new laptop in hubby's name if it would avert issues.

2. Is it worthwhile to get the 802.11n Dell Wireless 1520 Half Mini Card rather than the b/g series card? We don't have an N router, but I suppose we could do sometime in the next 3-4 years during the time I'll likely use the laptop.

 

Has nobody opened his/her studio up??
I mean that would settle it- common fan or separate fan for cpu and gpu

 

I installed pcwizard and for me it initially showed 4 fans(chassis,processor,gpu,power/aux) but now shows only 1 fan. On another run, it showed 4 fans

Also, I have observed that acpi temp is constant at 26C and 0C(as reported by hwmonitor) and gpu shader temp at -150C(as reported by gpuz)

It seems that either the sensors are bugged or the programs(nearly all available) fail to give the right readings

 

This is what I ordered on the 21st and they say edd is may 12th. I hope its earlier but it was canceled on me once already.

Intel Core i3 350M 2.26GHz
HD AUDIO 2.0
4X SLOT LOAD BLURAY REWRITABLE DRIVE,INS
6GB DDR3 1333MHz RUNS AT 1066MHZ
15.6INCH FHD TL LED DISPLAY W/CAM,
Windows 7 pro
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470, 1GB,
500GB 7.2K SATA HDD

Also ordered other items the same day which I have received in 4 different shipments from purolator between the 22nd and 27th.

All in one printer, laptop bag, cooling pad, 1tb external drive, travel surge protector.

 

1. What is the difference between European and American model of Studio of 1558 ? I believe there is some difference in keyboard/keys layout as I can figure out from the images.

2. Is 7200 rpm HDD is better than 5200 rpm ? Many argue, more rpm, more heat and drainage of power

3. How significant a backlit keyboard, if we are looking for a budget centric laptop ?

4. Is the Intel 6200 wireless, more than sufficient ?

5. Can my friend bought it in his name at USA and give it to me in India and then I'll apply for ownership change and still the warranty will be applicable in India ?

 

1. I believe the keyboard is the only difference (well, that and which power cord comes with it). I don't know what keyboard layout you are used to, but if you go to Wikipedia you can find closeup layouts of UK and US keyboards to see the difference (looking at the UK Dell Web site doesn't help, as they seem to have photos of the U.S. laptops judging by the keyboards -- I looked in stores in the UK and the keyboards are NOT what is in the picture online!). I am used to a U.S. keyboard and don't like the UK one at all, mainly because the " is in a different place and the Enter key is one key farther away in the UK keyboard. I'm sure I could get used to the UK one, but I don't want to. When I order in the UK I ask for a U.S. keyboard, so they probably could do the same thing in reverse when you order in the U.S.

5.You need to double check about warranties, but it has to be the three year warranty in order to transfer it to other countries. You need to check which 3-year warranties apply (I think it has to be the next-business-day warranty), and whether you can transfer from the U.S. to India. Google "transfer Dell international warranty" and you'll find a form that may help. I believe the same form lets you transfer ownership, though I've never done that myself so hopefully someone who has can give more insight.

hth

 

ATI Catalyst 10.4 is out now.
Check it out here.

 

Yes PCWizard for me also show 4 different fans which for sure is wrong.
Again most likely one fan close to CPU since I do not find only 1 fan shown in the manual.

Also my GPU is always between 53-56C range and CPU cores between 40-45C during normal surfing the web which tells me the fan is next to CPU and GPU is getting toasted.

 

2. 7200rpm seems to have light vibration for me so i will not recommend it.
4. 6200 N is a big improvement for me over the g I was using before. Ihave an N router too.

 

Please post your review if you install it
I will be doing a clean install next week and will not worry about it till then

 

Its on and running well. What would you like me to check out for you?

 

How to remove and install your 1557/1558 keyboard:
Documentation

 

Single fan!

 

hi guys, does anyone know how i can make use of the sim card reader we have underneath the battery so i can connect to internet using my sim card??
cheers!

 

If you didn't opt for it when you bought it you won't have any antenna's connected so it's not going to be of much use. They aren't charging you $150 for the sim card.

 

So I have the vibration issue with HDD on 1558. I have the Seagate HDD 500GB, 7200rpm. I talked to Dell and they will be sending me a replacement HDD. I requested them to avoid sending me Seagate, we will see if they comply to my request.

Can somone has a link to change the HDD on 1558? It seems you pop out the bottom cover after unscrew 3 screws and the HDD on the side. Is it easy to pop out where it is sitting? Any tricks? do not want to damage anything. Please advise if there is anything I should be careful about.
Thanks!

 

You unscrew the panel on the bottom and then unscrew the hard drive caddy. It's really simple, I put an SSD in it the first day I got mine.

 

so the 3-4 screws on the caddy and it drops out of the caddy?
Is there a SATA adaptor already there?
I have a Seagate and getting a Toshiba replacement.

 

You slide the drive a bit and pull it out. The connector is on the mobo.

 

Thanks!

Anyone knows what is the mfr. # for this drive?
984TP Hard Drive,500,S2,7.2,P11,2.5,TSHBA-LC

Seems to be Toshiba 500GB 7200rpm.
There is only one I could find and that is MK5056GSY.
Anyone has experience using this one?

 

Hey would you guys suggest ending the "atiedxx.exe" process in the task manager? I googled it and its for the AMD Radeon graphics card. I'm curious if anyone else has ended that process--and if you recommend doing so.

 

I see you got yourself an Intel SSD. How are the performance gains on your machine in comparison. Where'd you get your SSD from?

 

Drivers & Downloads

Have a look at this
studio 1569 has received an upgrade to enable switchable graphics, but only for 5470.

so, maybe 1558 also receives an upgrade. But people like me with ati 4570 would be deprived of the feature

 

Thanks dude! i was expecting that, and I assume there isnt a way of connecting an antenna to it?

 

No comparison, the SSD just blows it all away. I got it from Newegg.

 

Sweet! Here's to hoping it comes for the 1558 too!

Great find!

 

So 4570 is not capable of switchable graphics even if the upgrade driver is available?

 

I have 68 process running once I boot in Win 7 premium on my 1558.
I still have the factory image on it with some a few new programs I installed on it.
Can somoene post if they did a comparision how many they had seen with facotry installed image and than a fresh Install??



By the way anyone has experience with Windows Movie maker Live? I was trying to open .mkv file and it Windows Movie maker Live opened up try to run the video. I closed it as it seemed hung up. After that the laptop CPU went into trubo mode and fan was constantly on full speed. I checked with multiple programs that my CPU was clocking 2.66 and 2.79 constantly. I c ould not figure out why. so I decided to shutdown and reboot and it would not and message said cannot close a program and shutdown. So once I went into the task manager I foudn Windows Movie maker Live was still running even though I though it was clsoed and it was sucking in 25-50% of CPU. I forced it to close and the CPU slowed down and after 30 secs fans also came down.

Just wondering if anyone has smilar experience? with Windows Movie maker Live or any other program. Is it a bug in 1558 or Win7?

 

Comparing the number of tasks running is a pretty useless value. It is always recommended to do a clean install. As for the .mkv I'd recommend Media Player Classic with the K-Lite Codec pack.

 

You could also try VLC Player.

 

Guys, after the fresh install I have a "PCI Simple Communications Controller" that is not loaded. Properties tell me this is the ACPI controller.
I've poured over the drivers and cannot find one to make this go away. Any thoughts?

 

Guys, confirmation that there are no WWAN antennas in the 1558.

I just took this pic if anyone wants to see what lies behind the underside flap. One of the screws was a bugger to take out as it kept spinning and clicking. Had to use a flat head to prize it up.

I've depersonalised the pic in case anyone is wondering why the serial/barcodes look weird.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/8554/p1040437x.jpg

 

Whats the model number? Is it 1.8" or 2.5"

 

Been here ... done that ...

I had two unknown devices ...

One was the Intel Management Engine Interface drivers.
The other was the ST Microelectronics Motion Sensor.

If memory serves the PCI one is Intel Management Engine Interface.

Give that one a whirl ...

 

Question ... I see that you have the 6300 wireless. Did it come with it ... or did you add it after the fact?

I ask because I have the 6200 and was wondering if Dell put the third antenna in there already if I happen to snag a 6300 from somewhere.

Thanks ...

 

Thank you!

 

after the fresh install the screen brightness or the volume does not show up on the screen. They work though but do not show up. What am i missing as I have installed all driver and have issue in device manager.
Also the orange multimedia buttons do not work either.
I have not installed dell quickset though.