Dell Studio 15 1558 Thread

I posted a lot of info in the fan problem thread for this 1558. I LOVED this laptop, its so beautiful. My recommendation to everyone is to get the full 1920X1080 HD screen, not only its a higher resolution but its also brighter and with a higher contrast. I returned it because of two things: 1) Random shutdown problem, (this definitely was fixed with the A04 BIOS update so no worries for anyone here). 2) The initial reason to buy this computer was to replace a dead M1210 that was 1 month out of 3 year Complete Care warranty, and after a lot of back and forth with Dell, I got them to honor the warranty so I didn't "really" need the laptop anymore.

But really, the laptop was flawless, I researched other computers after returning the 1558 to Dell, and I don't think there's another laptop in the market right now that offers all the 1558 has going for it right now. The only downside is the lack of blu-ray but hopefully Dell will start offering it in less than a year. Those specs definitely deserve a blu-ray player.

 

Bluray was added to the specsheet in the last week. I saw it on there while checking what they had. Nice to see a positive review about the laptop for once too

 

What did you think of the 1080p LCD with the Intel HD card? I'd like to stay integrated for battery reasons although I'm somewhat concerned to it being underpowered. I'll be using it for photo / video editing.

 

I'm glad to hear they honored the warranty and took care of you. These forums are so full of people being pissed at various vendors it's nice to see someone post something positive about them.

 

The new Intel GMA HD being used in this new icore series processor, is a completely different kind of animal when compared to the X4500 HD that was being offered before. I can genuinely tell you that as long as you are not a big gamer, you will have NO PROBLEM at all with this video card. There are a couple of benchmark sites try googling them ( I can't remember the ones I saw but I did quite a lot of research before buying) and you will see that this new integrated video cards are fully capable for video playback and even decent for light gaming. As long as you are not a big time gamer, definitely go for the integrated card, the lower temps are completely worth it and the only thing you are losing is gaming.

Yeah man, I've owned Dell since the 90's and of course they have some bad things as every other company, but in my experience they have stand for their warranty and for customer service almost all the time. I can't complain at all and I will still buy a Dell when my M1210 finally dies.

 

Dimodi, yes similar spec to yours except for a 500Gb and I went for the larger capacity battery. My option had a free lid cover so I went with the purple and its very nice. The cover does not attract any finger prints.

Everything about the laptop is great even down to the charger cable which has a blue light on when it's plugged in to a power source. Nice touch that.

I also went for 3years warranty for an extra £30 (as part of the offer). Yes, I don't trust dell - lol. But, so far, I'm really impressed.

In the manual it mentions the hard disk has a free fall detector so if it's dropped, it's parks the read/write heads safely. Another neat touch that too. Nevertheless, think I'll get a Dragons Dens impact wrap tech21 d30 sleeve for it. Paying this much for the laptop, it'll break my heart if it's dropped! They're available for £30 if you collect & reserve from PC World/Currys.

 

Agree, But do not you think, for a new laptop of today should have USB 3.0 and switchable graphics (if it has dedicated GPU and dual core i3/i5/i7 processor) ?

One thing I liked most of Studio 1558 is the option to upgrade the screen to full HD, 1080p. BTW, what did you pay for your signature configuration and when ?

 

On the UK Dell site they dont offer the intergrated graphics anymore

 

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I would love to hear the reasoning behind that.

 

I had not thought about the USB 3.0 and think you are right, but also understand that its still not widely available. About the graphic cards you are right again but personally I couldn't care less for it really, the performance of the Intel GMA HD is amazing for an integrated card, and since it will be enough for everything BUT gaming, it fits my bill. Also, it all depends on how much are we willing to pay.

I paid $1074 after tax and shipping on February 2nd.

 

Did they ever? I would have considered getting mine with integrated graphics if it had been available so I don't think it was up there in early/mid-February.

 

Does anyone elses power supply make small, occasional fizzing noises when it gets too hot? I think I need to be more careful about where I leave it, if I accidentally leave it underneath anything it gets so so hot.

 

David ag: could I be cheeky and ask if you would be willing to post some photos of the 1080p screen in action?

I am interested in the 1080p screen option, as I've heard it's much better quality than the 1366x768 screen but I am concerned that it will make everything too small on a 15.6" screen (text is my main concer). I know Windows can increase font DPI etc but I've read this doesn't look very good in some instances.

 

Thank you for your pricing info.
For my requirements, Intel GMA HD can give me more what I actually need. I hate to play games on laptop/PC (purely personal). I would be happy if I'll get an i5-520M, 15-16" full HD screen, 4 GB RAM, 520GB 7200 rpm HDD, wifi, bluetooth, DVD drive, chicklet + backlit keyboard configuration laptop without dedicated graphics.

 

Yes, my power supply made a nice fizzing noise when plugged into the laptop. I let it be for a few days before calling Dell and some 45 minutes, later had a replacement shipped out to me, which arrived the very next day.

I would suggest calling them. The power supply/brick should not make any noise, what-so-ever.

 

Im sorry man, I already returned the laptop, but any of the other guys here can help you with those pics. The DPI at 125% looks good and its big enough. On web pages I would just zoom in or out with the touchpad to whatever I needed to be able to read. I had the same concern before getting the laptop but it wasn't an issue when I got it.

 

No worries, thanks for the info. I was forgetting that with the multi-touch pad you could zoom in easily. So with the DPI 125%, did everything look ok? I mean text and icons didn't look distorted at all or just odd?

 

In my personal opinion they didn't. They looked pretty sharp.
150% DID distort them.

 

Ok, looks like the sim card is just a dummy slot as I can't get it to work with my mobile broadband sim.

Anyone know how I can find out if a WWAN card has been installed? I didn't ask for one as part of my order but I'd like to be sure before I give up.

 

I ordered a Studio 1558 with an i3 and integrated Intel HD graphics card. All the rest was base configuration. Has anyone ordered a similar configuration recently? I'm wondering how long their order took from production to shipping? My order status says In Production now...

 

I ordered mine 3/18 with an EDD of 4/5. On 3/21 it rolled over to 'shipped' with an EDD of 3/27. However, 2 days later I've yet to receive an email saying it's shipped, or have the website update with any kind of tracking info.

 

I ordered a similar but upgraded to i5-520, 500MB HD, Wireless 6200. Ordered on the 12th was delivered today. This was of course during the days of deals and there was a delay with the integrated Graphics card. The "normal" average time seems about two weeks from order to delivery. This of course all depends on stock on hand and how long it takes to get to you.

 

I love the 1080p screen, I thought I'd find things too small but it has been fine. 125% was fine for most stuff, there was the odd program that wasn't set up properly for it so button text/column headings would either be incomplete or on two lines, nothing major though. Oddly one program doesn't display correctly on 100%, suspect that is because the default is 125% - some dodgy programming probably used 100% and default interchangeably I guess. I've now got the screen set to 101% and everything is perfect, it looks so good, especially next to my 10-month old Acer.

 

Exactly ! 1080p screen is awesome. Can not live with out it. Though Asus has released couple of tempting laptops with latest hardware approx $1000 USD, they all are lacking with Full HD screens and all have 1366x768 resolution in a 16" laptop !!! Else Asus could have been the real winner in this segment.

 

Right, after much caffufling, the sim slot is useless unless you have a WWAN card installed.

Bios says WWAN is enabled but I think it lies.

 

Just ordered a Studio 15 as per my signature.

I did call them though and got them to throw in next day shipping for free.

I also got the 2 year advanced warranty.

 

That's a nice machine. Did you go for the backlit keyboard?

 

Ah ... good catch ... yes I did ... I will add that to my sig now

Edit:

I am not a gamer ... but I went with the ATI 5470 to make sure I had DirectX 11 capabilities in case they got introduced at the OS level ...

 

No charge for the catch! Did they give you an ETA for delivery yet?

And where did the thread starter disappear off too! Dimodi, how are you getting on with your Dell?!

 

No new ETA yet ... it has only been just over a day before I ordered it. My EDD is still April 5.

 

Woot. Shipped, in Georgia ( I'm in Florida). ETA, Friday.

 

I'm also like your position. I NEVER play games with computers but wanted some kind of future proof laptop for at least 3-4 years. My primary requirement is full HD, 1080p screen with i5-520M processor.

BTW, what you have paid for your configuration ? But still could not understand why the HELL Dell is not giving the option to use the embedded Intel GMA HD on i5 processor, its still remain UNUSED

 

What were you doing for your PSU to get so hot? mine gets a little warm but thats it?

I'll post pics on Wed. Got my 1558 and I've used it for about 2hours in total. Haven't got time until after Wednesday next week to even do a clean install (lots of uni work etc). For now though, it looks good. Didnt even realise i was on 125% until i looked into the options.. the screens amazing.

Was this done for your for free? Did they collect the old charger, and did you get a 130watt charger of just another 90watt one?

The i7 processor is amazing and i'd recommend it for 'futureproofing'.

 

Not that much, really - task manager claims I'm well under 50% for memory and processor usage. I keep it on high performance most of the time as I can't afford for it to slow down at all, I guess that must have an affect - the centre of the machine itself gets quite hot too.

 

It is my understanding that the chipset used in the 1558 will actually support switchable graphics ... it is probably very wishful thinking ... but who knows ... it might be something that is introduced in the future ...

 

Thanks, I'd really appreciate that!

 

Hey guys,

Since the studio 1558 doesn't have a floppy disk drive, how did you guys flash the latest A04 BIOS? Do you have external USB floppy drives or something? Is there a safe way around using a floppy disk - say a USB memory stick?

Thanks

 

I've seen some people mention that the fan is quite loud on the 1558. Is it comparable to other laptops or would you say it's excessively/annoyingly loud? How hot does the machine get?

 

floppy disk drives? hahaha.

i thought all Dell BIOS' were .exe files that could be run within Windows. after it finishes, it'll ask you to reboot and then you're all done.

 

Nope. Check out the A04 BIOS for the Studio 1558 - it's floppy disk only. The A03 on the other hand was directly executable within Windows...

 

I am using A04, and my machine has certainly never had a floppy disk anywhere near it!

I just downloaded realtemp 3.40. It gave readings of upto 62 degrees celsius on low CPU usage, then when I started streaming HD video CPU usage went up to 80% and core temperature to 82 degrees. It fell back to 60 degrees seconds after I closed the HD video. This was using the "high performance" power plan.

 

I had never read the instructions for flashing this BIOS LOL Dell wants you to use a floppy disk WOWWWWW....... When I updated the Bios on mine, I just ran the .Exe from inside Windows.

 

do any of you 1558 owners experience headphone hiss noise when plugged in any of the 2 output jacks?

and is it possible to install dell bluetooth 365 without dell provided drivers (device manager doesn't recognize the bluetooth module when those widcomm drivers arent installed)

 

Can anyone confirm if I buy an i3-version can I upgrade to i7 820qm myself? Or is it a different BIOS or motherboard required?

Thx!

 

i3 and i7 processors require different sockets and therefore different motherboards. you cannot upgrade from i3 to i7

 

Thanks so much! What about upgrading to the i7 620m, as that's not a quad?

+Rep added

 

Has anyone tried adding a 1.8" SSD to co-exist with the hard disk? Its not so much the physical space as it is the drive connectors. This laptop is made for one drive only, right?
I am hoping to order one today or tomorrow on the Employee Purchase Program for the city I work for. It is a pretty good deal. Nothing Earth-shattering, but it is $459 off retail.

 

Me too. I was expecting a lot of action giving me a thousand warnings from the program but it just got on with it.

 

I found a 2nd HDD or SSD Caddy. I assume you can use the original sata connector from the OD for the new HDD (you do lose your optical drive btw). My plan is to install a 1TB 2.5" HDD in there.

 

Oh! I never thought of that prospect, but I would be OK with that. Get one very large HDD and one reasonable SSD and one external optical drive...
Hum. You've given me a new angle to look at. Please let me know if you do this and what you've found. I will do the same.

Edit: Any way to enclose the slot drive that came out and use it as external? I'm checking over at Newegg.

Edit 2: For $25, this may do the trick!