Dell Studio 1557

One more:
Here are my temps after ten minutes of stress testing with Furmark extreme burning mode and prime95, 8 threads. I tried to turn off WLAN, keyboard backlight, removed all external devices and turned off the screen, but I could see no change of the throttling, so it seems to be no power issue.

What do you say about my temps? I think they are way to high.
What is the the max temperature, the CPU and GPU are designed for?

Now i idle I have 45°C on the CPU and 51°C on the GPU. Seems that these thermal pads are to poor to conduct the temperature away quick enough.

To the guys who did the copper mod: How did your load temperatures change?

Has anyone called Dell and told them about this problem? What was their response?

 

Use ThrottleStop 1.80, atleast thats what the guys in the 1645 used to accurately look at the throttling of each core, here just read this.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=446193

heres my post
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=420768&page=84

most of the notebooks that come with i7 that come with a 90watt have these issues. as far as if dell knows, yeah delll knows but from reading from this forum it desnt seem like anyone is yelling at dell about OUR model.

 

Hello,

I'm look to buy this 1557. I'm not playing games with PC but do a lot of video editing/encoding.
Would you think that laptop is recommanded ?
If I read the Riemen's post: it's good for video !!

Thanks

 

I don't have a 130W PSU. I also think the throttling is not the main problem with this system:
It also is extremely hot and way too loud. The fan-issue could be solved by a Bios upgrade, but the heat problem remains. And this is because of the cooler design. Maybe for the moment, my system is stable, but how long do you think it will remain this way with a GPU baking at 100°C?

At this moment until Dell offers a solution for the heat problem, e.g. with a new hardware revision, I cannot recommend this system.

 

OK. If you just use the CPU on your tests with prime95 only. How high the CPU temperatures are ?

Thanks

 

Since we're talking about temperature control, maybe someone can help me, since this is my first laptop: I want to buy a cooling pad, the ones with one or two fans, but there are a lot of models out there, and I don't know if I should pick one that blows air into vents underneath or just sucks the hot air out (whick I assume is the right type). Anyone has any experience with this?

 

I think this is a very good recommendation! Most of the problems are to do with the Core i7 CPU - the heat, the throttling issue and the < 2 hour battery life. At this point if I could I would like to return it for a Core i5 version of the laptop. There seems to be nothing wrong with the rest of the design.

 

First, it's insane that Dell/Intel wouldn't design their products with full iPhone compatability in mind, I mean, it's only the most popular mainstream consumer smartphone out there!

Second, no surprise that they didn't mention this little nugget to me when I was buying the machine, nor do they properly advertise it as "not 100% iPhone compatible". I mean, can you imagine what that would do to their sales?!?!

Third, is there a fix on the way any time soon? And if not, what's Dell's position on refunds? iPhone and iTunes are a major part of my computing experience and if this laptop will not work as I assumed it would, then it is by definition defective as far as I'm concerned.

Fourth, small comfort, but I managed to get my iPhone to sync this evening, so my iPod and apps are now restored (although all my album art has sadly not been synced). I will not sync my iPhone again until a) Dell release a fix or b) I get a new machine. In the meantime, any song/app/podcast updates I'll do over the air directly to the iPhone.

 

I have mi 1557 but i order it with 3gb memory.
do you know if it has three 1gb sticks??

i want to upgrade it to 1333mhz memory 4gb.
can i do it with two 2gb sticks?? and in the future buy 1 more to get to 6gb?

thanks

 

I've been using this for more than a month now.. I updated my bios to the latest.

The problems I have enountered so far...

1. Often hangs(mostly when I play Flash games) and during restart the system.
2. Mouse pointer becomes large when flash games-in full screen mode.. and it doesnt go back to normal size until you restart your computer.
3. bad video quality on windows media player so i needed to install alternative player.
4. battery easily drain
5. webcam sometime doesnt work
6. Itunes problems... ipod music folder detection problem
7. I had to reinstall the whole system since It coudnt start up.. this happened when I install Adobe Video Editor software. And restore function couldnt help it
8. Cant install some apllications which can install on XP.
9. etc

 

Any joy with getting a replacement LCD panel from Dell UK so that you can go with the 5530?

I got my 1557 a month ago, but only now have sat down to install my 5530 card and have discovered the issue with the antenna. I'm hoping you are going to tell me it's all OK and they replaced the LCD no problem. I know I am being a little optimistic here...I'm also on the cheapest support option, so I imagine that will count against me!

Would appreciate any input you can give me on the antenna!

Cheers,

Digit100100

 

Just to make a change to the gloomy mood in here, due in part to all the people suffering buyer's remorse with their new laptop....

I've had my 1557 nearly three months AND I LOVE IT!

Following a shaky first month, when the subwoofer didn't work (but eventually got swapped out by Dell's on-site support), I couldn't be happier!

OK, so the lid is a bit flimsy and plasticky, but, besides that, I'm using PS CS4 and it absolutely flies along with no real heat issues! Performs like a proper little workstation.

I don't play games on it, but, GUESS WHAT?!??!!! It wasn't marketed as - and certainly isn't - a gaming machine!!!! Shock horror!!! If I had wanted a games machine, I definitely would have looked somewhere else, so all the nay-saying gamers here only have themselves to blame if the 1557 isn't up to scratch in that department; the tech spec was available before you purchased it, so you really should've read and absorbed!

Use it for watching Blu Ray on my 40" LCD 1080p too, and it rocks!

Just thought I'd share; I'll let you get back to being all miserable now, lolol

 

Watching Blu Ray is a lovely use of a $1200+ laptop! Did you consider a $99.00 Blu Ray player from Costco?

 

lolol Mr Haughty! I have the Blu Ray burner on my laptop because I'm a photographer, and the ability to back up my images at the rate of 50GB per disc is much better than a regular DVD's 8GB maximum, especially when you bear in mind my raw files for each picture are in the region of 30MB each. However, I do beg your pardon for exhibiting the impertinence of watching movies with it too; I'm sure you wouldn't do anything quite as frivolous with your laptop, eh???

EDIT: having checked out your previous posts, ssampath, you really are a bit disgruntled with your purchase, aren't you? Must be gutting having the latest quadcore machine and not being able to watch Youtube properly?

 

He he he, totally agree with you...and I'm on the same situation, using it for Photoshop CS4 and loving it!

 

I'm also more than happy with mine - although I seriously haven't pushed it much yet. No buyers remorse, not even for the 160gb Intel SSD...no really, none.

Not quite sure what folks are on about complaining about the size of the text on the 1080p monitor..actually come to think about it, that may have been another thread / forum.

One question that I do have for the boffins out there - with the bottom of the range i7 in it now, will it ever make sense putting an i5 in instead (faster clock speed?)? I don't even know if it's technically possible, but I have realised I am never going to need the 4 cores with the work I do.

Any knowledge on this anyone? Would never try anything now, but maybe late in the year when I am bored...

Cheers,

Digit100100

 

Hahahaha, digit! You're a funny guy!

 

I have owned my 1557 for a couple of weeks now and will be using it for video editing/photographic use and not gaming. I am also very happy with my machine but I have a couple of questions. Having read through this thread and others some recommend a clean win7 install. Did you bother to do this? Also you state that you have “no real heat issues!” My cpu temperatures when idling hover around 52 c is this normal? What is your cpu temperature at idle? I intend to keep my machine for a long time and after reading comments in this thread and others I am tempted to take my machine apart and apply some better thermal compound to the cpu/gpu. Do you think this is going over the top?

 

Hey guys! I`ve just registered. I`m waiting for the deliver of my 1557 with the following specs: i7-720QM, 4gb, HD 320gb 7200rpm, ATi 4570, etc. etc.

I`m only an ocasional gamer... shall i expect throttling while playing some games with 90w??? I really don`t mind so much, as long as i can take advantage while using solidworks and rendering some images....

 

I think throttling is not the main problem with this machine. But while normal gaming, my graphics core goes up to 100°C because of the crappy cooling solution. Ati says, the can go up to 104/5 °C without a problem, but what about the other components on the mainboard? Remember, the graphics card is included on the mainboard an not exchangable...

Maybe the temperature is just OK at the moment, (winter) but what happens next summer? Maybe the machine will last the next few months. Maybe even the next year, but what happens when my year of support is over? I don't believe this machine will last for the next 3 years and that is the least I am expecting from a notebook.

Mine will go back to Dell next week...

 

I didn't do a clean install as there was very little bloatware on my machine when I received it, and once I removed that I wanted to see how it fared with the factory install, and it's stayed that way every since as I've had no problems at all.

As for the temperature issue, you might want to check out this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5712210

I've read elsewhere that temperatures in the 50's are about right for the i7 QMs in idle, as they can be ramped up to 80-100 degrees max. I can quite honestly say that the heat hasn't bothered me much at all.

 

I did a clean install, but that was inevitable due to installing the SSD. As for the HD that came with the laptop...that is now providing "support" the family Wii .

If you do a clean install, make sure you reinstall the touchpad drivers...I just discovered last week that I had multi-touch because I went with the Win7 default.

Digit100100

 

sad i can't select anything higher than i5-520. Would like to get it with i5-540 or i7-620 in there.

 

Off to the Studio 1558 thread with you!

 

I have read this entire thread, and I figured it was isolated cases. It isn't. This laptop runs really, REALLY hot. It won't reach the maximum turbo boost because it is too hot, and the GPU ... wow. 105 degrees celcius. The processor hits 80 under moderate load .. and downclocks to stay within it's thermal envelope.

So, I registered specifically to say ... DON'T get this laptop!

 

Isn't that not the same issue with Studio XPS as well? I think all of them are pretty much the same boat

 

No thats not the same issue.The 1645 throttles back due to lack of power from the power brick being insufficient under load.The 1557 throttles due to heat issues under load.Because the cooling system sucks.

 

Mine runs at about 45-50c at idle and about 75c when pressed, which I don't think is too outrageous, although I do think it should be about 5 or even 10 degrees less when in an idle state. Seems in line with other brands/models of laptop that have the same processor, though.

However, it does seem to me that a lot of the people having issues with heat are those who are doing quite a bit of gaming, and the GPU is getting really hot, like 100 degrees. Even though I'm repeating myself, I don't know what people where thinking if they purchased this machine primarily for gaming; for all other multimedia apps it runs fine, coz the rather meager graphics card doesn't get unduly stressed (like when I'm using CS4, which does utilise the GPU more than earlier editions, but is still more CPU-intensive).

 

May i ask, how "high" did you OC the 4570???

 

You can read about it here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=444740

if you need more info just post there or here

 

Great, Thank you!

 

This is not frustrating in the slightest!....trying to explain to Dell right now the issue with the antenna.

That has so far taken 45 minutes...including me having to tell them directly to not transfer me through to the software department as it wasn't a software issue. That was a particularly special moment on the call.

Now they have given me the same story regarding the LCD screen, and told me to shove it. I was polite up to the last 2 minutes...but then the politeness ended. Next stop is customer care, when I have the time.

I still still have no problem with this laptop, I just have an issue with their service (so far) and their inability to explain why it's not their problem.

 

I do a lot graphics editing with Photoshop, Lightroom and similar tools. For these tasks I wanted a relatively light laptop with a fast Processor (like the i7).
But I also like to play a little bit in my leisure time. I don't need to play the latest Games in Full HD and the real gaming machines are really big, heavy and most of them look really ugly. Because of this I serched for a machine with a dedicated mid class GPU.
With the Studio 15, I thought I had found the perfect machine. I knew the older Core2 version and was willing to pay more for the CPU-Upgrade to better fit my needs.

Advertised as a gaming machine or not, it has a Ati 4570. I know this graphics card and I know, what it can do if it is cooled decently.
Dell sells this machine as a multimedia machine with this graphics card. Not as a machine with a not full usable graphics card because of overheating issues. You would not buy a car with a top speed of 200 Km/h on which the motor melts away because of a incorrect cooling, if you drive faster than 120, would you? No matter if is advertised as a sports car or not.

For me this was a no go. I called Dell today and my Studio will go back to them...

 

That's all fair enough, Riemen; not being a gamer at all, I clearly haven't experienced the issues that a lot of people have had around here, which are more related to the GPU overheating than the CPU. However....

The Core2Duo versions of this laptop also came with the Ati 4570, and I don't believe there's much difference in the way the 1555 and the 1557 are cooled; if you look around there are plenty of murmurs about the 1555 running hot too. A friend of mine has the original 2008 version, the 1535 I believe, and that runs so hot at idle that you could fry eggs on it.

Not having had mine shut down on me, or anything like that, I'm going to persevere for a while with it; if I find temperatures getting too toasty once we hit the summer months I'll stick a Zalman NC2000 under it

But, to be frank, having read through the entire thread, the temperature issues are still a moot point; it is far from unusual for a high-performance notebook CPU to be running at 50c to 55c whilst idling, and 80c when stressed, as has been borne out by screenshots posted here and my own tests. Yes the GPU gets hot, with some people having an issue with this (thanks for your truly sensational posts, DCx!! ) and others not, but we aren't talking laboratory conditions here. On the somewhat contradictory evidence here, I still think the jury is out on the heat issue.

 

My 1557 have just arrived... and it runs hot as hell... well, i`ll be updating drivers for the next hour or so, and then benchmark, so, we`ll se what happens

so far, woofer sounds good, lcd is ok, camera ok, all ports running... the fan almost never stops! and i`m just writing this on chrome! it isn`t loud although

 

lol@nifkin: NP, Ill put a screen shot up in a week or so. Since the hardware was running so poorly, I consider it broken and I won't be paying a restocking fee to dell - as soon as that's resolved, I'll post my screenshots. Until then, I don't want to give dell ANY opportunity to claim that the screenshots are not mine.

 

To you guys that have taken your laptops apart, could you please give me some advice. Looking at the service manual most steps look ok but.
1. Removing the center control cover. The manual states “Pry out the center control cover with a plastic scribe starting from the battery bay location at the back of the computer.” How difficult is this, what tool did you use? I obviously do not want to mark or worse still break the plastic.
2. Removing the Palm Rest. The manual has the following warning. “Do not use force to separate the palm rest from the computer. If you encounter resistance, gently flex or apply pressure to the palm rest, or move along the edge, working away from the area of resistance, until the palm rest is free.” Again How difficult is this, what method did you use?

 

To start unplug cord and remove the battery.In the battery compartment there is one screw remove that and the rest of the screws in the bottom of the laptop.Remove the memory compartment door and theres 2 (I think) screws in there aswell.In the battery compartment you will see the silverish colored area (theres vertical plastic ribs there)start applying pressure there,from the bottom up.This is how the trim around the keyboard comes off.

 

Thanks for the super quick response.

 

There could be 2 under the HD.You can take the HD out your going to have to anyway.

The trim ring around the key board and the speaker cover (grill) is all one piece.

The only screw that holds it on is the on under the battery.

The ribs (there plastic and silver in color) I speak about have an arrow pointing to them.That is your pressure point.

 

Also, newegg has the g51vx for about the same price as I paid for my 1557 - nvidia 260m, with a P8700. Sure, it's last gen tech now, but it's upgradable to a q9000 (or higher), so a few years down the road when the 3 year warranty is up (2 year standard asus warranty + 1 year mastercard extension) I can upgrade the processor. Or sooner, I suppose. And the graphics card is MXM, also upgradable...

Did I mention that it includes a free 1 year accidental damage warranty? The only downside is the immature case lighting ... *sigh*

Also, there's a g51j which has an i720 instead of a p8700, for the same price as an "upgraded" studio 1557

 

Haha now look what this thread does to everyody!

 

Studio 15... i`ve runned some tests, and it seems that 1557 is not too afected by the 90w adapter. The only thing that made my i7 throttle was temperature. I turned wireless off, low brightest, etc. and runned prime95 on 8 threads and multiplier was between 11 and 13, most of the time 12. Then, i turned on wireless, highest brightest, etc. and runned the same tests, multiplier was bewteen 11/12.

I made the same test, but also runned furmark. 1557 throttled, but mecause core temp was 80c and GPU almost 97!!!! Multiplier went 9x and lower....
heat sucks... well, at least seems that this one has no power issues...

 

So it's not a gaming machine then?

 

hahahaha

I've been reading your posts in this thread for a while and I happen to agree with your statements..

But this reply just cracked me up xD


For all you people out there who plan to do some heavy gaming on this laptop, and demand ultra high performance from the mega-new Intel core i7:

THIS IS NOT A GAMING MACHINE. NOR IS IT SOMETHING WHICH CAN SATISFY ALL YOUR EXPECTATIONS WHEN YOU ACTUALLY WANTED TO BUY A $1600 DOLLAR LAPTOP BUT BOUGHT THIS ONE INSTEAD FOR $800!

 

Heheh glad I made someone laugh! This thread is in need of a bit of levity

Couldn't agree with you more. For the relatively low price of the off-the-shelf spec version of this laptop you do get remarkable performance. No it's not a gaming machine, and I couldn't care less; people need to stop benchmarking and start using their machines instead!

 

i`ve just made a render of a piece made in solidworks, using photoview... it would take about 10 minutes to do it. At 5 minutes, computer just overheated and auto turned off...
so, not gor gaming, but also, not for STRESSING? I`m so f..... annoyed...

Oh, look look! I`ve got a Quad Core i7, one of the most powerful cpu`s for notebooks in the hole world! Amazing! But i can`t really use it because it throttles or overheat.

THIS SUCKS

 

Are you running the A03 bios?

Trust me I feel your pain.Doesnt matter what it is or isnt made,designed,categorized to do,one thing its NOT made to do is to just shut off while your using it.I dont care what your doing with it.

 

yeap, A03... i`ll get a nice cooling pad next week.... hopefully i can do something about it.... if not, this baby is going back

 

i need a cooling pad for the beast.... anyone has any recommendations?