Dell Studio 15 1558 Thread

No, mkv splitter just demuxes the stream. If you use windows to decode your video not ffdshow then it will fix your stutter.

 

I use VLC at the mo. It stutters very badly and freezes. VLC even stops working after a short while; what would you recommend? It's a 19GB Avatar .mkv file.

Thanks a lot

 

uninstall all 3rd party decoders (codec packs, ffdshow whatever, you can keep vlc because it doesnt install ds decoders) install latest haali media splitter and play the mkv file with windows media player.

 

Hey man. I installed haali media splitter and now my .mkv runs in windows media player. Only downside is it seems to be playing faster than it should. the Picture seems to be in fastforward or something. Also there's no sound on the video, however picture quality is awesome. Any suggestions?

 

You probably have some decoders still installed if video is playing too quickly. For the sound you can install latest AC3 filter AC3Filter downloads | AC3Filter

 

I don't have any decoders afaik. I never installed any. Only got WMP11 and VLC player. I'll try AC3Filter. Bit of a n00b question but: What's the difference between a player like VLC/WMP and a decoder like Haali Media Splitter/AC3/FFDShow??

 

Update: Downloaded the CCCP from http://www.matroska.org; works great and in WMP now. Good stuff!

 

Yeah, I got a free room at the hotel where I work last night for myself and my GF. I plugged the computer into the tv with hdmi and watched 2 movies back to back and all good. I have only had it for a few weeks and have watched maybe 20+ blu ray so far.

 

Here's an idea, maybe the 19GB file is badly fragmented, it would be if you downloaded it over p2p, try copying it and pasting to your desktop, without running anything else, and play it from there. That should leave you with a continuous file.

I use shark007 codecs to play everything through WMP, you could try them out!

 

Well that's piracy! I'm pretty sure NR doesn't tolerate it here!

 

Thanks to all who replied. I tried the new video driver and I have actually been freeze free for three days now, but not sure if this is just a coincidence. Going to return just to be safe.

 

I just brought this laptop and it has dell 1501 wireless-n card. What driver do I install. I just installed windows 7 fresh and am having truoble with drivers. What drivers should i use. is there any order to which I need to install the drivers.

Computer specs:

Dell Studio 1558
Intel I7 720 qm
500gb hd
wireless-n 1501

 

Hi everyone,

I was reading the past 15 or so pages of this thread because I'm looking to get this laptop. Now it can only be configured with the 5470(1GB) and i7-720 or i7-820

I noticed in the past few pages the issue of switchable graphics came up, I didn't see a clear answer. Is this possible? Do I need to use a different driver and if so, is it as stable as the stock drivers?

Is the i7 too hot for this laptop? I noticed before the refresh a lot of you got it with the i5 but not too many got the i7.

How's the LCD? Would it be ok for some amateur photo editing?

Is it possible to do a clean install of Win 7 by creating an install disc via the laptop or do I need to acquire full version on win 7 on disc to do that?

As far as what I want to do with the laptop.

1) Game mainly game on the 360 but I like to have mindless fun with games like Command and Conquer, Sim City

2) Lightroom and Photoshop, can I run these programs without killing the system?

3) How is the bluray player on this? Is it worth the upgrade or should I save the $200 and stick with DVD. Is it possible to upgrade a slot loading drive in the future?

4) Expected battery life with the 9Cell?

I almost bought the Studio XPS16 but after reading elsewhere that the system is prone to overheating programs and they changed the high end LCD to something of lesser quality I sorta backed off. Also, I think the leather on the thing is just tacky.

Thanks everyone

 

See my answers in red below:

 

One additional comment for anyone having similar problems. In researching the "freeze" issue on this forum and others, I've notice one similarity is that ATI Radeon HD 5xxx card is installed. Some users have been reporting getting "large pointer" issues randomnly, that can be fixed only by rebooting or turning the "pointer trails" on. However, I've noticed that when you have the mouse pointer trails on, that is when the freeze occurs. So it looks like it is a graphics card issue where the error becomes 1) a large mouse pointer or 2) a screen freeze if the pointer trails are enabled. ATI's Catalyst Control Center 10.5 was supposed to fix the large pointer issue, but on my system it has not. It has happened twice in the past two days (although my screen has not frozen for a week now since I installed 10.5). I also have newest bios from del (A06 released on 6/1/2010).

 

Edit: Nevermind, fixed it!

 

Hey guys, I need your advice please. I have 2 Studio 1558 here right now, a Core i5 and Core i7. I need to return one of those and like to know which one I should keep. They originally shipped this one to me first:

Studio 1558:
-Intel Core i5-430M 2.26GHz (2.53GHz Turbo Mode, 3M cache)
-Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD
-4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
-320GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Disk Drive
-15.6 Inch Full High Definition (1080p) High Brightness LED Display with TrueLife and Camera
-Intel 6250 Wireless-N w/WiMAX (2x2) Mini Card

Today I received the replacement 1558 but with these 2 upgrades (other components are all the same):

-Intel Core i7-720QM Quad Core Mobile CPU
-ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470, 1GB.

So I have both laptops at home right now and need to return one of those (or return both and get a refund).

My major concern with this Studio 1558 was the running fan and heat. I think I will be better off with the Core i5 when it's comes to fan noise and heat which is kind of important to me. I use my laptop a lot, around 10 hours a day or so.
On the other hand, the Core i7 will be a free upgrade and might be more future proof. I might benefit more from the Core i7 in one or two years from now with the ongoing software/hardware changes.
I don't game at all and mainly use it for work (=internet) and watching TV shows online. Would I notice a difference between the Core i5 and Core i7 in the way I use my laptop? Would I notice a difference between the two video cards (since I don't game)? Not sure about what to do now, keep the Core i5 or Core i7? What would you do in my situation? Thanks for your advice!

 

hi everyone. i brought a dell 1558 my spec is :



can you tell me if i can upgrade my cpu to quad core i7 ?

also, to which model best i can upgrade my gpu( is Mobility Radeon HD 4870 X2 or Mobility Radeon HD 5870 compatable with my laptop?? )
. currently i am using :

Graphics Chipset ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570


would appreciate an indepth reply considering the architecture of the laptop and constructive suggestions.

 

You bring up some good arguments ...

If you are mobile a lot ... to me ... that would be your deciding factor. You are going to get better battery life out of the I5 and hence less time required charging.

If you are plugged in a lot though ... it might not be any difference.

The I5 I think has more than enough horse power for what you going to do with it.

In 2 years ... just buy a new laptop

My vote would be the I5 ...

 

Got mine yesterday from the Outlet. Haven't had much time with it until today.

It looks essentially brand new. Not a scratch to be found on the lid, casing, bezel, etc. However, there IS a small scratch on the display itself. It's about 1/4th - 1/5th of an inch long.

It's a little annoying since everything else is flawless. If it wasn't almost dead center I wouldn't care too much. And to be honest, I don't always notice it. Should I care too much since this is a refurb? I'd almost feel like a jerk for complaining. But I could see how it would eventually drive me nuts.

 

I just got my 1558 from the Dell Outlet and I immediately changed out the hard drive and did a fresh Windows 7 install. I got all the drivers installed and everything is running nice.

The only problem is that the slot loading DVD-RW drive is not autoplaying discs. I went into the autoplay options and everything seems fine there. Any help? Thanks!

 

Hi buddy, you might need to upgrade your DVD drive's firmware. There was an update released on the Dell site for the 1558 a little while ago which apparently addresses the autoplay issue. Check it out HERE

Just check that it's the correct DVD drive model before you flash.

 

hi,
I have been reading thourgh several posts and still didn't find my answer....
I'm considering buying the studio 1558 w/ i7 720qm and the ATI 5470 and can't figure out if it will be good enough for architecture - meaning using with autocad, revit, sketchup, photoshop, max 3Ds etc. I'm a student so on a budget and not using the all of these porgrams to their full potential.
thanks for all of you knowledgable, experienced computer yodas for trying to make it clearer or... leading me to other models...

 

Yes of course it's fine. For CAD and graphic programs the i7 is perfect processor with its 4 cores + 4 threads.

 

Hi all, I've just ordered my Studio 1558 with the i5-430M, 4GB of RAM, HD5470, 500GB Hard Drive, 1080p LED Screen, Bluetooth and the Backlit Keyboard; the temptation to splurge was too much to bear!

I ordered it on Friday night (the 12th June) and have been told to expect delivery on the 15th July; how have most people found the expected delivery date, is it generally accurate? (fingers crossed for not!)

Thanks all, Richard

 

So of the people who have the 9 cell battery. What is your average battery life if your just surfing the web or watching a video( not streaming). Also do you think dell will implement switchable graphics on the Studio 15 anytime soon?

Raz

 

The last couple of nights I have put my 1558 into hibernate before going to sleep and the laptop has been turning itself back on early in the morning. I heard the optical drive making the noise it does when I turn it on, and the laptop has turned on even though the lid is closed.

Anyone else having this problem?

 

To everyone who got the 1080p screen on their 1558, do you have a problem reading the text on the screen? I have one that I am probably going to send back because whenever I launch the browser, everything is too small and whenever I change settings to make the text bigger, then the pictures get out of focus. Is there anyway to lower the settings maybe down to 1600 by 900 without having to return?

 

I believe changing the DPI to a higher number will make it easier to read.

 

That what I was talking about, whenever changing the DPI changes the text, however everything else gets out of focus.

 

umm. try restarting the laptop? i don't really know. Ive never had to change the DPI on something. Sorry i cant be of much help for this topic

 

You can change the resolution to 1600 by 900 if you want to through the display settings.

 

after weeks of debating between the SXPS 16 and this unit, i took the plunge, getting a Studio 15 with the following specs.should arrive in 2-3 weeks.could not ignore the price difference and since i'm not into gaming don't require a fast GPU am hoping this unit would be just fine to run VMWare and a bunch of VMs on it.

Core i7-740QM(surprisingly cheaper by a few bucks compared to the 720QM)
Full HD Display 1920x1080
8GB RAM
ATI 5470 1GB
Backlit Keyboard
9 Cell battery
640GB HDD
3 year premium care

will be getting an intel X25M 80gb SSD and a 2nd hdd caddy to move the 640gb into the space taken up by the the dvd+-rw since i rarely use it.probably will get a usb to sata converter cable or an enclosure with it and use the dvd+-rw unit externally.

can anyone recommend the fastest SD card type the Studio 15 can support? is it only Class IV or can can it handle anything higher?

finally an upgrade to a new laptop after 6 years.

 

Figured it out, Power Options/Change plan settings/Advanced Settings/Sleep/Allow wake timers/disable.

I changed this for both the Dell and Power Saver power plans.

Also Media Center is set to download tv listings etc by default which is supposed to wake the laptop as well, so I turned that off too. Safety number 1.

 

Tried it, didn't work. Reinstalled the drivers that I got from dell's website and didn't give me the options to do so.

 

I have an SDHC 16GB Class 6 made by Transcend & it works just fine. I've had it about a year.

 

that's cool

 

Last night I tried hooking my laptop to the tv via hdmi for the first time, and it works great! I also figured out that I can use a wireless mouse as my "remote control" when watching streaming video on the tv so that I can pause it from the couch. Really pleased with this feature.

 

Had the same problem. Go into advanced power options. Scroll down to sleep and disable allow wake timers.

 

Catalyst 10.6 suite available.
Direct download of 64-bit suite for Windows 7. (Roughly 72.6MB)

New features:

- GPU acceleration of H.264 video content using Adobe Flash Player 10.1

- Video De-blocking support

Reduces blocking artifacts seen in low-bit rate video during playback (for users of Radeon HD 5000 series cards)

- Mosquito noise reduction

Reduces mosquito noise seen in highly compressed progressive video, during playback (for users of Radeon HD 5000 series cards)

- Official support for OpenGL 4.0 and OpenGL 3.3 (OpenGL 4.0 supported by Radeon HD 5000 series only)

Performance improvements

- 3DMark Vantage

Overall scores improve up to 5% on a single ATI Radeon HD 5970

- Batman: Arkham Asylum

Performance improves up to 5% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 series cards

Performance improves up to 10% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

- Aliens vs. Predator DirectX 11 Benchmark

Performance improves up to 4% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series cards

Performance improves up to 10% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Performance improves up to 3% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series cards

- Company of Heroes - DX10

Performance improves up to 7% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series cards

Performance improves up to 5% with single card and CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

- Crysis Warhead

CrossFire performance improves by up to 7% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series cards

- DiRT 2 - DX9

Performance improves up to 10% on single card ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series cards

Performance improves up to 10% on single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Performance improves up to 4% on single card ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series cards

- The Chronicles of Riddick - Assault on Dark Athena

Performance improves up to 15% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series cards

Performance improves up to 13% on CrossFire and single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Performance improves up to 8% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series cards

- Unigine Tropics

CrossFire performance improves by up to 8% on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series cards

- World in Conflict

Performance improves up to 6% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series cards

Performance improves up to 8% on CrossFire and single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

- Wolfenstein

Performance improves up to 18% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series cards

Performance improves up to 18% on CrossFire and single card ATI Radeon HD 5970 configurations

Performance improves up to 11% on CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series cards


After install:
Driver Packaging Version 8.68-091118a-092494C-Dell
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.984
2D Driver File Path /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0000
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0716
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.9210
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2009.1118.1260.23275

 

Cheers, got it sorted, it kinda freaked me out when it happened the first time in the middle of the night!

 

Cheers. Found a direct link for the mobility version

ATI Catalyst? Mobility Display Driver

 

Just got a studio 1558 a few days ago, and am having a few problems . Just wondering if anyone else gets a hissing sound from both of the headphone ports which is especially noticeable when no music is being played. I already contacted dell about another problem with distorted sound coming from the ports when plugged in to the power adapter, and they're sending a replacement adapter, but just wondering whether this is normal for the 1558 as my old laptop never did this. Also, the fan is really annoying it's always on and rarely goes to the lowest speed, remaining on medium/high most of the time. I'm really considering returning it due to these annoyances, but otherwise I really love the 1558.

 

Hi Alex, What spec is your 1558?

 

It's a i5 540m and the ati 5470, with 1080p screen

 

Hi guys - newbie here with fairly desperate tale of woe!

Any help / advice you could give would be very very welcome!

I got a Dell studio 1558 -

(Intel i7-720QM(1.6GHz), 15.6in HD screen (1366X768) 9-cell battery, 1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470, Dell Wireless 1520 (802.11n) Half Mini Card, Backlit Keyboard Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT) - let me know if you need more of my specs)

- It was delievered last month and straight out of the box I have had 3 problems with it:

Firstly, the blueray player would load a blue ray but when it got to the menu screen I was unable to click on 'play' - it was unclickable.

Secondly, without warning the cursor goes HUGE which is really irritating, esp as straight out of the box the settings seem to make the text small (something if I were keeping it I'd know how to change but still - irritating!)

And then lastly when playing solitaire or any game that comes with windows (I like playing solitaire and freecell and play quite a lot) it seems to go into a loop and it tries to bring up an error message which I've only just been able to read which is:

'Display driver stopped responding and has recovered - display driver ATI Radeon family and has successfully recovered.'

To get it to stop looping I have to press and hold the power button which isn't good and then have to choose 'start normally' as it brings up the black screen.

As you can imagine I was really cheesed off by this, contacted Dell who refused to send a new model (my argument being this might be a lemon) offering a refund or to try to fix it.

In the end I got them to have a go fixing it on the understanding I wanted a refund if nothing worked. It did work.... for 2 weeks. It then started playing up again so called them and to Dell's credit, they offered straight away to replace the laptop and put in a free full HD screen. RELIEF!

...

Until it arrived on Friday. I have EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM ABOVE with the new one!!! GRRR!

Apologies for shouting but am SO frustrated by this! Did anyone else have similar problems? Does anyone know why any of these things happen?

And most importantly - does anyone have any advice as to my next move?? If I get a refund, I'm back to the 'which laptop to buy' question once again!

And I think its a good laptop, but if i'm getting this many problems so early... what do I do??

Sorry this is such a long post - I told you it was a tale of woe!! Please help!

Lisa

 

Hi.

I always use my laptop with an eternal monitor by choosing the display output to "Projector Only". Most of the time, I keep the lid closed and only open it when typing. But when I open the lid, the display output switches to the laptop (Disconnect Projector).

Is there a way to keep it always output to external monitor unless I change it manually?

Thanks.

 

lisamclisa,

The large cursor is a known issue - I have it occasionally. I suggest you download the latest catalyst 10.6 (I put a link up the other day in this thread). It may also help solve your solitaire driver issue too.

Have you tried playing the blu-ray with another application? I don't have a blu-ray player on mine as I didn't have a spare kidney to sell to fund it.

 

Yes. I also have a annoying buzzing sound coming from a cold start eminating from the top left corner of the laptop where the fans are placed. When completely idle there is no noise, then when there is a little activity you can hear it sometimes. After 1 hour of use (and after compnents have heated up?), the sound seems to go away.

I tried putting some pressure on the top left corner of the plastic, and it seems to help, so I think something is resonating with the fan. I have had this laptop only 2 months, I don't think it would get dirty this quickly. Anyway, I don't have time to resolve this problem now, but I will take a further look at it next month.

Regards,

Dave (dmn001)

 

For the sound hissing problem, it seems to happen more with my in-ear earphones - they seem to be more sensitive and pick up the hiss. I bought a cheap pair iof seinheisers which are not in-ear ones and the hissing is much less noticable in this pair: Play.com (UK) : Sennheiser MX6 In Ear Headphones / Black : Electronics - Free Delivery

But, I think it is quite bad they haven't solved this completely yet, IDT HD audio shouldn't have any hiss using any type of earphones, and either bad drivers or hardware is to blame.

--
The fan speed issue is a problem with the A05 bios, which is why I have stuck to A04, and not upgraded. You could check also in task manager you don't have any things running in the background using CPU.

If you have bought it recently, I advise you to uninstall Mcafee virus scanner, and cleanup some of the unecessary programs that run on startup.

Regards,

Dave (dmn001)