Dell Studio 15 1558 Thread

I'd get the 1080p (1920x1080) so you can fit more items on the screen unless you have poor eyesite. I think 720p is 1280x720.

Get the backlit keyboard in case you are grinding at night with lights off (in case your hotkey fingers lose their path). Can always turn the feature off if you don't like it and its a cheap upgrade.

Yes, 9 cell battery means you get one battery which has 9 cells. Sounds like you do not need the 9 cell since you will be playing at home (just keep it plugged in). I like the 9 cell because it lifts the back of the laptop up about an inch (since they needed more room for the cells) - so I think it helps with air flow (but it may not). Some people dislike the 9 cell battery for this reason also...but I like it.

Your needs do not justify a bigger hard drive....I would just make sure it is 7200rpm (which yours is).

Bluetooth may be an option if you want to get a wireless mouse or the like - but not necessary. But if you hdmi your laptop into your bigscreen, it would be nice to lean back with a bluetooth keyboard and trackball.

Good luck!

 

Was curious so looked this up. SLP = System Locked Preinstallation which is basically a way for Dell (and other big distrubtors) to allow us to bypass the Windows activation process. It is basically pre-activated for us. If you re-install the OS via the disk, you will not have to re-active then either since it is tied to the BIOS somehow. SLP 2.1 is for Win 7 and some other versions, but I did not have to active Win 7 when I reloaded it from disk using earlier BIOS version.

So, if that's all that changed probably don't have to worry about it but probably won't hurt either.

 

Someone sure drank the kool-aid.

1080p won't let you fit more on the screen in terms of physical real estate. It will just make things clearer when you've got more on the screen. If you have multiple tables on the screen and need to be able to see the fine detail on each, 1080p, otherwise it's not worth the expense. It might be better to put the upgrade money toward a second monitor to hold more tables, in my opinion.

You should probably opt for at least 4GB of RAM, that's probably your issue more than the processor in the old computer.

If you get the 9-cell upgrade, it's one or the other, you don't get both. I would check into battery life on the 1555 from other users to see how long it lasts with a similar configuration. (Note: This is the 1558 thread). If you're going to be away from an outlet, 9-cell is usually better, but if you're watching football, you probably have a spare outlet and can stay plugged in. The extra elevation is nice, but a powered fan-cooler will do more for keeping temperatures down.

If you touch-type and know how to center yourself to f-j, backlights are just unnecessary bling. Cheap, but unnecessary.

If you don't want a big HDD, don't get one. I have a large drive but it's less than 20% full because my files are all stored externally.

 

As far as a backlit key board is concerned ... it is AWESOME!

I am a pretty good typer, but in the world where function keys are used a lot, alt this, ctrl that, window key this, page up/down, where is the "$" again ... the lights are AWESOME ... for the $25 ... it is TOTALLY worth it ...

The screen "dimensions" are the same between a 720P and a 1080P ... both are 15 inch displays. A 1080P screen has 2,073,600 pixels. A 720P screen has 921,600 pixels. Hence a 1080P screen has 2.25 more pixels to display. If you have a 720P screen and are say looking at spreadsheet that takes up say 2/3 of your screen. With a 1080P ... you may be able to "fit" two such spreadsheets comfortably side by side, without have to "switch" or "flip" between them flipping back and forth.

 

I've had my 1558 for a week now and here are my observations.

Backlit keyboard.. pretty cool. Likely not needed by most but it can be useful at times. While I do know where all the letters are and can type pretty fast, the backlit keyboard helps out with those not as used keys that can be in different areas depending on computer..shift, volume up, screen brightness, pg up, down and up arrow keys etc. Like others have said, you can adjust it. On, half lit, off. I often keep mine off during the day, then simply hit the F6 key to turn it on. For $25, well worth it.

Screen.. 720 screen is pretty nice in my opinion. I watch some HD home videos on it and it looks great. No blu ray player on mine so if I did have one, I'd probably opt for the 1080. Regarding screen resolution though, I do notice that the icons on the desktop are much bigger than what they were on my old Inspiron 1505. I'm not sure why this is since my 1505 is 1280 x 800 and this is 1366 x 768. I thought the icons would be much smaller as they are on my 1505 since the resolution is similar.

Sound.. I do notice the sound/speakers aren't nearly as nice as they are on my 1505. I understand it's a laptop bu they sound a bit tinny. I opted for the sound upgrade when I bought my 1505 4 years ago so maybe that's why that sounds better than the 1558. I think I may be regretting not getting the audio upgrade (Soundblaster was only $25), especially since I listen to iTunes all the time while I am on my laptop. Does anyone know if that (or some kind of audio upgrade software) is something that can be added now? Can I just ask Dell to send a CD? Can I find some other software?

9 cell battery.. I haven't tested it until failure but it read 5 or so hours when I was using it. The 9 cell does indeed raise up the back of the laptop a good inch or so.The battery runs along the back bottom of the laptop except for about 3 inches on each side. I wasn't ready for the look of that (raised) but I've gotten used to it. It can be uncomfortable when sitting on your lap so I usually just spread my knees apart an extra inch or so, so the battery fits in between my thighs instead of on them.

So far, no crashes or problems. I didn't do a total Windows reload but may do in the future. The laptop is super fast and handles everything so far. Anyway, just wanted to give my feedback on what I've experienced so far.

 

Try doing this update to improve your sound, I found it made a marked improvement for me.

Dell - Support

 

I tried the link. I clicked download and it downloaded a application manifest file. But when i tried to launch the application file, it said "There are no files to download. Please go to Drivers and Download to select file(s)" I've done this a couple times and keep getting this error.

Does that make any sense? I am not used to seeing this type of message.

Thanks,

 

Tried that link, download works for me.

 

It's a different OS so the icons will change. Right click the desktop and choose to view small icons. If they're still too big, they can be shrunk -further - in the control panel, go to personalization, window color, advanced settings, icon, and adjust the size. There are lots of appearance options on that screen, and changing too many at once can be very disorienting, so apply one change at a time in small increments.

The speakers are what they are. Software will not make them sound better. The SB upgrade $ is better spent toward quality headphones or desktop speakers.

The pressure is a bit annoying, but it's not as bad as the heat across my entire thigh without it. Just my personal preference.

No point, imo. Just get rid of the dock and trialware. It's not all that bloated an install.

 

Tried again this morning. Same darn message. How weird. Could it just be me?

I guess I'll try to contact Dell Support... wish me luck!

 

OK, now I feel dumb. The view, small icons did it. I played around and somehow missed this the first time through. DUH.

Interesting. I wonder exactly what Soundblaster is intended to do. Has to do something for $25, right?

I did notice that last night as I had it on my lap for 2 hours. The heat is noticeable less since it's raised up a bit. Pressure can be tough but like you said, not as bad as the heat it could have. And by the way. I had it on battery... started at 100% and 5 hours and 2 hours later it was at 60%. So it seems right on target for the 5 I expect. Someday I'll shoot for the whole 5 and see if it makes it.

 

Is there any way we can change the graphics carrd 5470 is a real ...

 

Try this link instead which is ftp direct to the file: http://ftp.us.dell.com/audio/R261324.exe

 

SB Live software is essentially just a very fancy equalizer. It cannot improve the sound volume or quality, it just makes it sound different.

Nope. Soldered chip on the same pcb as the mobo.

 

What's the 5470 like for light gaming? Awaiting delivery of my 1558 but I've now read mixed reviews on it.

 

Worked! Thank you.

 

Anyone managed to get xbmc live properly installed to the dell studio?
I can't seem to get the ati drivers installed for the life of it.

 

Hi guys,

I am trying to configure 1558 on Dell website (I am in the US) however neither ATI nor Blue Ray player are currently offered. Do you know what's up with that?

Could you tell what hard drive brands are they putting in 1558

7K320 - ?
7K500 - ?

THX

 

To answer my own question, here is what Dell said "As of this moment we do not have any information on when we will be having those options back to our Studio models. Due to huge demand and supply issue, our marketing department recently decided to stop offering the ATI cards and Bluray on Studio 15 I do however encourage you to check out our Studio XPS 16 laptop".

I guess 1558 was eating into XPS 16 sales so they stopped offering discrete gfx.

 

Or, more likely, they just don't have enough Studio 15 motherboard with discrete GPUs and are out of slot load blu-ray drives. Yes, they try to upsell you to the XPS 16, but that's mostly because it's the closest match in specs to what you were looking for.

 

This is why I am sooo very grateful back in the spring when I purchased my 1558, that my original 1558 order got backordered - it just had a DVD burner. I was told I could cancel my order due to the backorder. That very day they offered a 1558 with a BR burner (can burn BR and DVD). Needless to say I cancelled and turned around and ordered a new one with the BR burner. I squaked enough and I only had to pay I think $100 on top of what I had initially ordered. BR on the 1080P looks really good.

With that being said ... the XPS is a good machine too ... with that kind of money though ... it would be worth looking at other brands too before you settle on a XPS.

 

@theoak - your config is what I want except the color

XPS comes with i7-720QM+ only, those are the battery draining quad core CPUs that I will not be able to utilize, I am looking for i5-520M. They also offer Blue-ray burner and no Blue-ray player. Because of these the price comes to $1600+ for the config with 1080p screen - I do not want to pay that much for the things I do not need.

 

I had a XPS 16 with an I7 back in Dec 2009. Battery life on that guy was around 2 hours ... barely. I ended up returning it because the screen kept dying out on me.

With the I5-520 ... I get MUCH better battery life.

I am looking into another laptop ... if I can find a I5-540 with a bluray burner ... I will be severely tempted The I7-620 also intrigues me as it is built on the smaller die and should have lower power consumption.

 

Have you looked at Vaio EB series? They are 15" 1080p screeen, they have bluray burner, but the only cpu they currently offer is I3, however they said I5 is coming soon.

I am between Dell 1558 and Vaio EB but they both currently underspeced for my needs. I got burned by Sony tech support though so I do not know about Sony...

 

Oh, question, can 1558 boot from USB device?

Thanks

 

Hi everyone,

I joined this forum mainly to post in this thread.

I bought this laptop a few hours ago from the Dell Outlet UK, and atm it is in production.

It is a:

i7 720QM, 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz, 1GB 5470, 500GB 7200rpm, 15.4" 1366x768 WLED display.

I'm just wondering, if I can actually buy the 1920x1080 panel and replace my one with that. I really want a 1080p screen as I will be using a lot of windows at a time and watch hd movies.

Can anyone help me out here.
Thanks.

 

Huh? Dell offers the 1558 LCD at 720p, 900p, and 1080p resolutions - although the 900p resolution has been absent from the configuration list for a while.

Replacing the LCD is not impossible, but complicated. I don't know the cost of a replacement FHD LCD, but you should work out the final total, plus your time and, possibly, frustration.

As you know your needs so well, I'd recommend you purchase a laptop with a 1080p screen. I am using a 1558 similar to the configuration you stated, except for the FHD LCD, and I love it.

Good luck.

 

yes. make sure the usb is bootable (google for instructions) and the boot order is edited in the bios (moved before HDD).

 

I was going to buy this laptop but then someone mentioned to me online it has a fan problem

Studio 1558 fan problem - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community


To anyone that has bought this laptop recently, do you have any problems whatsosever like it shutting down on you??

 

The I7's can get warm I hear. The I5's are not near as bad as they are built on a smaller die and hence use less power. You will get a lot better battery life out of an I5 versus an I7 also. The I7-620 I believe was built on the smaller die ... but you jump down to 2 cores also (more cache versus an I5 though).

 

The i7 QM can generate a lot of heat. The i7 M (like the 620M you mentioned), which uses 32nm process technology, is supposed to be better in terms of heat generation and power consumption, but from what I've read lately the improvement is not significant.

To date, the new 2010 Core family of processors stands out in terms of heat compared to earlier generations.

 

I am using a 1558. The noisy fan starts up more often than I would like. The touchpad gets hot - I mean burning hot, not just warm - after about 2 hours of moderate use. My solution is the mouse, which I tend to prefer anyway.

Shutting down randomly? Not yet, and I hope never. However, if the system goes into hibernation after a period of inactivity, or because I close the lid, when it comes up again, I consistently have this problem of "mouse pointer getting bigger" - this has been reported on various forums for many months now, and nobody seems to know why.

The Dell Studio 15 1558 performs well (concurrent Adobe CS5 applications are a breeze), the keyboard is great, and the FHD 1080p LCD is top-notch... But it gets hot too early and noisy fairly often.

 

What is the battery life you get for it if i may ask? You have 6 or 9 cell?

 

This problem has been solved a few months ago, update ati driver to 10.8.

 

I want to buy a Dell studio 15 very soon and wanted to know if the ATI Graphic card is worth it for this laptop because it seems to be backorder since a while.

Is Intel HD graphics good enough? Will I be able to occasionaly play some light games?

Should I wait or not for restock of this Graphics Card?

 

This area is fuzzy. For occasional light games, Intel integrated graphics will do fine. For occasional serious games, you need the ATI Radeon. For really serious games, the Dell 15 is not the appropriate machine.

On my 1558 with Core i7 QM and Radeon 1GB, and Adobe multimedia applications runs smoothly and snappily. Only heat and fan noise are annoying.

 

My 1558 has a 6-cell battery. Away from my desk, I get from 3 hr (light use) to 2 hr (heavy use) of battery life.

The top-notch FHD 1080p is great for the eyes, but bad for battery.

 

Guys i just purchased a Dell Studio 15 from Dell Outlet for $545 at 20% off
and now i want a backpack for this laptop.. Please help me and suggest a few backpacks great for this notebook

Adam

 

would you guys still suggest buying the studio 1558 with all these problems people mention here?

 

I love my Dell 1558. I had problems with it when it first arrived. The video was unstable, would freeze, and I had to reboot it. Dell sent out a tech who replaced the motherboard. Dell called within 24 hours to see if the work was complete and if my computer was running without any problems. The tech then updated my bios and drives and I am not having any problem now. Dell followed up again within 24 hours to see if my computer was running fine. I am very happy with Dell's response to my problems and I am very happy with my Dell 1558.

 

Hey. Is there a possible way i can actually see the studio 1558 in person? I know best buy and those stores have tons of laptops but i know they do not have that laptop on their website.

Anyone else can give me their feedback on the 1558? I really wanted to get it but the fan heating up and it shuting down so many times makes me not want to get it. My old laptop is an inspiron 6000 that i had for 4 years or so but its a pentium 4 processor and slow.

 

I am keeping my 1558. There are no perfect systems. The fan noise and touchpad heat problems are relatively minor compared to cases where people have to send their machines in for repair or wait for technicians to arrive. People come to the forum to look for help and to offer help, but not to complain. The majority of satisfied customers don't bother coming to the forum.

As I said, the 1558 looks nice and is quite capable, as well as being reasonably priced. I would happily recommend it.

 

Noone's had shutdown problems for months now. Those that do aren't updating their BIOS/drivers. As of A06 BIOS (on Dell's site) and 10.6 Catalyst drivers (not the ones on Dell's site), there haven't been any issues with shutdown or large mouse cursors, to the best of my knowledge.

As far as fan noise, a silent laptop is one designed either for thermal failure or to get uncomfortably hot.

The shutdown and fan noise are still cited for whatever reason, but I haven't heard any new cases in the past 2-3 months.

 

So if i purchase it now, it would be good idea right? Would i need to do any updating of any sort? I really want to know how annoying is the fan noise and the laptop getting real hot. Thanks!

 

My 1558 is has the I7 core processor. I have not noticed the fan noise problem or the laptop getting really hot under normal everyday use. I am sure if you are doing some intense video processing you may notice more fan noise and the laptop getting warm but for everyday use I do not see it as a problem. I am perfectly happy with mine and would recommend it. Both my sons have macs and tried to talk me into one but I am very happy with my 1558.

 

Like budven above, I have the i7 and have not had heat/fan issues. I have not pushed my system too much though. Like stated above, it seems a BIOS update helped the earlier issues. Your BIOS should be up to date or close to it when you get it (mine was one release behind). But if you do have to update the BIOS it is very easy.

 

I am totally happy with my 1558.

BluRay Burner - check
I5 520 - check
1080P - check
Video card that supports DX11 - check
Lighted key board - check


Those were my main qualifications.


What would be nice ...

USB 3 (It does have eSATA)
3 monitor support (I can do 2 monitors)
3D support (No biggie here as I rarely watch rented movies and 3D is not big yet - next laptop)
Switchable graphics (Would save the battery life some - already get 4+ hours though)
Number pad (I do have the number row)

Once SSDs drop in price ... I will pop one of those puppies in and get a good speed bump there ...

Completely happy with my 1558 ... thumbs up!

 

hey theoak. The one i want to buy is i5-450 processor and most importantly 1080p.

Another question i have is do any of you dislike the glossy screen? I have a dell inspiron 6000 and the screen is matte ... not shining. I bought a laptop for my sister last time and it was a e1405 from dell and the screen was glossy. I noticed the studio 1558 is glossy too and when i saw the e1405, i did not like it because of the screen. I didn't like the fact that you can see yourself when you turn the laptop off and you can see reflections.

Also, battery life is around 2 hours correct? If i choose to buy a 9 cell battery from ebay, battery life should be close to 4?

 

It's glossier than my e1505 was. Battery life will vary depending on whether you choose to get discrete graphics. The times you cited should be a minimum.

 

I work over 3 hours straight on a 6-cell battery, and my 1558 has an i7 QM. If you select the i5 450M, you will observe longer battery time (and, possibly, cooler temperature). An additional 9-cell battery is a good idea - this you can shop around after using your 1558 for a while and get to know your system better.

I use both glossy (Dell 1558) and matte (Lenovo T510) screens, and they have their own characteristics which I like equally. The 1080p FHD LCD on the 1558 is top-notch. The glossiness gives you the feeling that the display is clearer and more vivid.

Spend extra dollars to select the backlit keyboard. It is very helpful.

Good luck!