Dell Studio 1557

Nice, tomorrow I will call again asking for further details!

 

Hmmm. Having run diagnostics and found nothing wrong with the hardware, I'm thinking maybe it's a Win7 issue causing my lack of subwoofer response. Googled it and a number of other people using laptops from other brands have also found their built in subwoofer doesn't perform whilst using Windows 7; if anyone else finds this is the case with their Win7 pre-installed machine, please post here!

 

hey, guys
i know dell vista 32bit users can request 64 bit vista dvd from dell
now im eligible to upgrade to win7 32 bit, can i also request the 64 bit version dvd?

 

Nifkin,

This whole time I really thought my sub was working since the sound was pretty good by my standard, but after locating it on the bottom of the 1557 (you can see the actual speaker through the air holes) and putting my ear directly to it while playing bass heavy music I am pretty sure mine is not working either.

I am also running W7 so maybe it is just a software issue. I am thinking of putting Vista back on just to test that but I won't have time until the weekend.

In the mean time, I am searching for answers on various forums

 

I've had my 1557 for like a week now. It shipped with 64vista and i noticed the sub not working the same day i got it, i also had case problems. like it was a big bulge above the keyboard where it says srs premium. so i called dell and they sent out a tech to replace the sub and it still didnt work. so i called dell again and the rep was being all hostile with me so i told him ill sue they if they dont get it fixed. to make a long story short his manager sent me out a new one. if the sub dont work on this one im going to be highly pissed

 

After downloading the audio driver off the dell website my sub now works.

 

did that and my sub still do not work

 

downloaded the drivers but my sub still doesn't work too.

it has been 1 week and I still can't order my win7 upgrade.. has anyone here successfully ordered it?

 

@kirri: yeah, I agree the sound is pretty good for a laptop even without the subwoofer; I imagine that if I didn't know there was a sub I wouldn't even miss it! Tis a bit annoying; am hoping if enough of us complain to Dell, they'll sort out a patch (that's assuming it is a software issue... ) Please do keep us informed with any info you unearth on the issue; I'll meet you back here with anything I can find..

@plee127: I downloaded the IDT driver form the Dell site, bit it made no difference; when you open the IDT control panel (as kirii explained before) you can set the speakers to either stereo or 5.1, yet only two speakers are detected when you do a speaker test, in either configuration. And what OS are you using???

Is anybody using their machine with Vista installed and the subwoofer DOES work? I'd be interested to see whether it is a Win7 issue.

 

Hi Guys,

I just got one of 1557s. So far, I am happy with it. The games I aleady played

NFS underground 2 (High)
NFS Most Wanted (High)
GTA San Andres (High)
T. C. HAWx (High)
Fuel (meduim to high (mix))

I played all those smoothly. I ve been using it for 2 days, quite fast. For games, I changed ATI options to not strecth to wide, it definetly help for playing smoothly/

BUT, I VE ONE QUESTION ?

WHAT IS THE BEST SETTINGS FOR SOUND, I KINDA FOUND SOUND UNBLANCED BETWEEN bass & treble.

I TRIED MANY MIX SETTINGS, BUT STILL DIDNT FIND THE BEST ONE.

thanks

 

#123: Is your subwoofer working, and what OS are you using?

Cheers

Niff

 

Not Sure Actually, I was playing game like crazy )...
(By the way Cpu Temp: 58C, Gpu Temp: 62 after hours of playing game). I found it overall, not bad.

I Use Vista SP2, but i dont about subw, i didnt spend so much time on that.
Any way how do u get it, it works or not?

 

Where can you find the ATI option to not to stretch to wide?

 

Hi there.

Sounds stupid but I don't know if my sub is working or not... how to know that? The sound is pretty good for a laptop (the best I've ever heard tbh), only that when I watch TDT on it, it gets noisy with vibrations that come and go and I don't know what causes it, whether the speakers or the TDT broadcasting. My speakers sound the same both in Vista and W7 (I have a partition for each till I'm sure W7 is compatible enough).

Did anyone find the PAUSE key? I'm going crazy...
And how to emulate a numeric keypad? Normally laptops include that in characters. I used it to enlarge folder fields in explorer with the keyboard rather than double clicking every time.

 

I m not at home at the moment.

But, its somewhere in Ati Catalyst. (I ll show, when I get home)
But, I should say, it simpy let you play as in original resolution, it means it add black bars (generally vertical bars to sides).

Instead of playing with a car which streched (looks awfull but full screen). I perefer to play is in original resolution with black bars, and it helps abit to increase the fps in the games.

 

I've been looking in ATI Catalyst but can't find the option anywhere..
I'm using the standard ATI CCC which came preinstalled btw.. maybe that's the cause?

 

On desktop right click >>
open Catalyst Control Center >>
choose basic, click next >>
choose notebook panel properties >>
choose Resize......... on the right, click go >>
choose Resize, but keep the image........ !

Thats it.

 

right click your desktop,click personalize,click desktop background.. it gives you all the choices under the scroll under picture position.


I can confirm that my subwoofer is working under Windows 7... but im using 32bit beta (waiting on 64 from Dell).I hear music coming from my sub when I hold my ear to it. With that said I still think the sound could be ALOT better for the flagship of Dells Studio 15 series.

The problem with screen auto-dimming when on battery is on going.
I have tried every setting to no avail.
In CCC I turned off PowerPlay
I went thru all settings in power management...even some I dont think Vista had!!

I know its the BIOS doing it but theres no setting for it.

Dell please fix this on your next BIOS update.

 

Any more news on the subwoofer in Win7 issue, pals?

 

Hello everybody. I am new here, I just registered.... I am about to order a dell 1557 today from Dell.ch. I am mostly interested in running simulations using Matlab and I think that the laptop is more than ok for me. However, I would like to ask about the battery life. Some of you said 5 hours (with screen off and ssd), 4 hours etc but without giving exact specifications. Could you please indicate some times with specifications like cpu, ram, screen and battery?

I will go for the one with i7 720QM, 6Gb ram, full HD screen and 9 cell battery.

Thank you and have a nice day.

 

5 hour is a myth unless you are writing a word document and nothing else. For that you need low resolution activated, set power profile to use 40% of processor power or less, etc. etc.

6 gb ram is a hell of a lot, 4 gb runs smooth but everyone have their preferences. Before you get the full hd screen you must know everything is very very small in the screen. You can enlarge windows font size but some java applications etc. won't change their font size and you'll go half blind. But once you get used it's not that bad. On the other hand you get an espectacular screen resolution when seeing pictures or watching movies/TV. And if you work with large excel books small cells and font size is perfect.

 

Exactly the set up I've got! So if you're not worried about the subwoofer not working, go for it!

 

Thanks for your replies.

@ Nifkin.

Have you tested the battery life?

 

Not at all yet; the thing has been on plugged into the mains sitting on my desk since I got it. Will give it a go now with some light use and keep you updated.

 

Lol, Dell sent me an email apologizing for the late. They say that the delay is for the HUGE success of the studio promotion, too much orders... By the way, i am waiting from 2 and one half weeks and Phase3 is always with me

 

Relax. Many of us have had to wait considerably longer than that for machines in the past. I myself waited 4 weeks for my Inspiron, and it was far from newly released when I bought it. It's the price we pay for being able to customise our notebooks.

 

Wow, I've just check out this thread about two days ago and I'm really surprised that it goes that further...'Coz I open this thread to discuss about the potential clock speed issue in the intel core i7-720QM...

Though, I got my laptop about a week ago and I'm really pleasure about it...My concern totally doesn't apply since I run a few benchmarks and is showed a clock speed at 1.73GHz with 8% of overclocked for multitasking...

Now I have actually other thing that I'm not sure....I got the AMD GPU Clock Tool to check out my GPU speeds...And for my surprise is showed in Engine Settings 499.50Mhz and Memory Clock 697.50Mhz...when it's running a dvd movie at WMP...meanwhile I was pleasure to see that in IDLE UVD status the engine went for 219.37Mhz and memory 299.25Mhz what probably will end up saving more power...

I'd like to know if the speeds showed when WMP is running is my max (what would show a underclock setting from DELL ) or if I try gaming would it climb up to 680Mhz which is the max. clock speed of this card ?????

Battery life....so far....
Browsing, windows live, skype.....I'm getting about 4 hours...sometimes little less than this.... using a 9-cell battery

My laptop specifications:
intel core i7-720QM, screen def. 720p, HDD 500Gb 7200RPM, 4Gb RAM DDR3 1066Mhz (sucks it since DELL canada wasn't offering this laptop with DDR3 1333GHz)

Besides, so far I couldn't here my subwoofer as well....

 

680MHz is only the recommended guideline for the card; Dell may have chosen to underclock it to prevent overheating - this is something many notebook manufacturers do.

Try running a game like Crysis, if it's not hitting the full speed, you probably are stuffed with whatever they set it to. Some people have tried overclocking using software, but AFAIK nothing has worked on this particular GPU.

 

Ok I'm gutted now.... Under Vista-64bit my subwoofer was working fine and after reading the latest posts here I've now discovered with W7-64bit that the sub is totally dead and I've played with EVERY setting imaginable!!

Add me to the list of disappointees

 

Whilst this is certainly not great, Dell will come out with a fix sooner or later. Hopefully sooner of course. Make sure you raise it as an issue with them.

 

Oh I will now I know about it!! I have home support so might just call them out to fix it LOL

 

Home support is only offered after telephone or online diagnostics I'm afraid. Mind you, some of the reps at Dell might actually send someone anyway....

 

i had the same probs.these dell guys S##k.i had ordered a 1557 with all the suitable upgrades.that guy has sent my order within ten days and what they delivered was a 1555 mike ming with P8700 and no other upgrades.he has already taken the damn money and the procedure he said was to refund the money and place a fresh order.i am still waiting for the damn refund.ordering it would be something i can't think of.i am now currently thinking of HP DV-6 quad core edition and would like to recommend the same.i had placed my order twent days ago.

 

Yep, I know! But My workstation doesn't work very well (it reboots after 10-15 min of usage, probably memory or ali fail) so I need my dell! I am a programmer, so you know how important is have a stable machine
I am Crossing fingers for a quick deliver!

REally? Mine Memory : 4096MB (2x2048) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel!
That's strange from dell canada!

 

Would it be possible for someone with a 1557, ideally with a 720QM, 7200rpm 500gb hdd and Windows 7 to download HD Tune from the link below (the free version 2.5 is fine) and run the benchmark and then post the results here please?

http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

 

***Subwoofer update!!!***

Spoke to Dell UK Tech Support via online chat this morning:

10:23:22 Simon Initial Question/Comment: I have a problem with the subwoofer on my Dell Studio 1557; it is not working
10:24:18 System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
10:24:18 System Connected with Americas\achamma_varghese
10:24:33 Americas\achamma_varghese Thank you for contacting Dell Chat support. Please bear with me for a moment, while I pull up your system information.
10:28:38 Simon Hello?
10:29:08 Americas\achamma_varghese Thank you for your patience. My name is Achamma, and I will be assisting you today.
10:29:18 Simon Hello Achamma
10:29:23 Americas\achamma_varghese I understand that there is an issue with the subwoofer.
10:29:45 Simon Yes. I have tried reinstalling the drivers but it does not work at all
10:30:15 Americas\achamma_varghese Good Morning, Simon. I will try my best to help you resolve the issue.
10:30:24 Simon I have a friend who has a Studio 1555 running Windows Vista, and his subwoofer works
10:30:41 Simon my 1557 is running Win7 and the subwoofer does not work
10:31:25 Americas\achamma_varghese Thanks for the contact number. May I know since when you are facing this issue?
10:31:58 Simon There are also a number of commetns on forums,including Dell Community, where people with Win7 installed have the same problem
10:32:16 Simon My laptop arrived Wednesday 28th October, and it has not worked since then
10:32:26 Simon I had Win7 pre-installed
10:33:36 Americas\achamma_varghese Thanks for the information.
10:34:05 Americas\achamma_varghese Are you contacting us from the same computer with the issue?
10:34:19 Simon No. I am at work, so am using my work PC
10:34:53 Simon The problem with the subwoofer is either a driver compatibility issue or a BIOS issue
10:35:25 Americas\achamma_varghese As you are not with the computer to trouble shoot we will not be able to do any thing much.
10:35:46 Simon Dell Support is only available to UK customers when I am at work!
10:36:10 Simon Do I have to return my laptop to Dell for a refund to get this sorted out?
10:36:20 Simon I would like Dell to acknowledge the issue
10:36:46 Simon I have run hardware diagnostics myself, and there is nothing wrong with the hardware
10:37:06 Simon however, I do not want to pay for a product that is partly faulty
10:38:44 Americas\achamma_varghese Simon, I understand from the system records that you there is a 2 speakers i.e. 2 channel. May I know what is the sub woofer that you are referring to ?
10:39:47 Simon lol! The Dell Studio 1555 & 1557 models come with a subwoofer built in! It is on the underside of the laptop, to the right-hand side!
10:39:52 Americas\achamma_varghese May I know by what time will you be available with your computer so that we can trouble shoot to fix this issue ?
10:39:59 Simon Are you not familiar with Dells own products??!!!
10:41:13 Simon I will be available from 5pm UK time onwards
10:42:23 Americas\achamma_varghese We that chat and voice support work until 8 pm GMT.
10:42:49 Simon It is only today that I am available from 5pm onwards
10:43:48 Simon Can you fonfirm to me that you know there is a subwoofer on the Dell 1557 please?
10:44:41 Simon *confirm
10:45:38 Americas\achamma_varghese Simon, you will need to contact us when you have the computer in question beside you so that we can trouble shoot.
10:51:24 Americas\achamma_varghese Simon, I am sure that there is no subwoofer in your computer. It only has 2 speakers
10:52:05 Americas\achamma_varghese However, you have the option to connect a 5 channel external speakers
10:52:10 Americas\achamma_varghese Sorry 5.1 channel
10:52:59 Simon It has a subwoofer on the underside; you can see it through the grille. My friend has a Dell 1555, which is exactly the same build-wise as a 1557, except for it has a Core2Duo instead of a i7 processor, and his subwoofer definitely works
10:54:48 Americas\achamma_varghese If you have a grill,then, it is the fan vent that you are referring to.
10:55:18 Simon no it is not. It is a subwoofer grille. It has a subwoofer in a dell 1555
10:55:30 Simon they have not swapped it out for a fan in the 1557!
10:56:53 Americas\achamma_varghese STUDIO 1557 does not have a built in subwoofer. It only have an option to connect a subwoofer. However, at the rear end of this respective system, towards the right hand side, there are 'Air Vents'
10:57:12 Simon I'm not talking about the rear air vents
10:59:11 Simon Nevermind. I'll speak with someone else later. This has been... amusing!
11:01:11 Simon From notebookreview.com: "When we originally reviewed the Studio 15 (1555) we certainly weren't impressed. The stereo speakers located beneath the screen produced weak and flat sound and we couldn't detect anything from the built-in subwoofer. We sent our review unit back to Dell for service and upon its return all we can say is, WOW!

"The subwoofer adds a surprising impressive level of bass to the speakers in the Studio 15. The bass is actually strong enough to feel with your hand on the keyboard. Overall the sound pretty good with crisp high notes from the main speakers and milder bass from the subwoofer. In short, the fixed subwoofer makes a world of difference and is much better than before. I still think the audio could use some tuning to lower the volume of the main speakers to match the subwoofer, but it's a minor issue."


11:01:52 Simon "built-in subwoofer"!!!!!
11:02:02 Simon it even says so on the Dell website
11:03:41 System The session has ended!

Sooooooo.... after being hung up upon, I was left reeling at the thought that, contrary to Dell's own marketing, various forum entries and reviews, the Studio 15 (according to Achamma here) doesn't have a built in subwoofer! Must be the most incredible example of a collective aural hallucination that I've ever come across!!!

 

I have another request if anyone is feeling kind and although I've mentioned it on another thread I thought I'd add it here too.

Would it be possible for someone with a 1557 and Windows 7 to try and connect two external monitors, one to the hdmi port and another to the vga port and see if you can get both running at the same time?

I appreciate that one of the monitors will either be a clone of the internal laptop screen or that the internal laptop screen will be disabled.

 

From Dell Asia Pac Store:
http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=s511019sg&c=sg&l=en&s=dhs&cs=sgdhs1

it comes with
4GB Dual-channel 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 2GB)
Integrated Stereo Sound with ***Subwoofer***

 

This is so bad publicity for Indian Call centers... I couldn't stop laughing when reading your conversation with Dell, Nifkin.

Everytime I see this, I'm happy I live in Belgium. We speak the unknown difficult Dutch. Never heard an Indian speaking that rare language! Happy I get local smart help support

If Chatt support doesn't give results, maybe you can try on Dell Forums ( link). Problems rarely get solved there, but hey it doesn't hurt trying

 

The Dell Belgium & The Netherlands (same) support isn't that good... When i go to chat, no one is available. My sister had a problem with her battery, send 2 mails never had an answer. If they answer it always takes a week. When you send an email in dutch, you get a response in English. The email team is from the UK i think. The dutch one doesn't exist anymore.

I ordered a 1557 today, will be using it for school:
Intel® Core™ i7 Mobile Processor 720QM
6.144 MB 1333 MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM
500 GB (7.200 rpm) SATA HD
15,6" 1.920 x 1.080
Windows® 7 Professional 64 BIT

Price: €803

 

Hi there,

I have the same problem with the subwoofer of my 1557 (W7) that I received last week. I tried to fix it by many ways, but still not working. arrgghhhh!
I rely on you Nifkin

 

maybe we need to ask an online chat person does the 1557 come with a subwoofer as you are thinking of buying one then if they say yes hit them with the issue... although maybe they will then backtrack and say it doesn't.

Got a mail yesterday saying my 1557 was delayed until mid-november but today y order status on the website changed from in production to preparing for delivery and then finally changed to out for delivery with interlink so hopefully it will arrive quicker than mid-nov.

That has just reminded me when I did jury duty 5 years ago one of the cases was a delivery guy who was stealing dell laptops that he was ment to be delivering!

 

Okay, I agree on the chat support. They are clearly understaffed.
I'm surprised about your reaction on email support. Yes it takes a long time, but I always had my answers in Dutch. Even recently. And response is much faster once they replied (if you stay on the same topic off course)

Or maybe I'm just lucky... ?

 

Yep, Sad but true..

They have 4Gb DDR3 1333Mhz option just for the Studio 17 and for the Studio 15 is just available at 6Gb or 8Gb.......

Though, I check out in DELL US and they do offer it by just adding $50.....

 

I can run it for you...though I haven't got the Win 7 yet , so I'm currently running at VISTA SP2 64bits....

If it's not a big issue for you let me know and I'll run it....

 

Don't think you could do alot with that information. Dell uses different hard drives i think. They don't use one specific model.

 

This is the result in the Windows Vista SP2 64bits
Information from EVEREST....

Hard Disk Name: Momentus 7200.4 500420
Capacity: 500Gb
Disks: 2 ( C: for OS and D: for Recovery)
Recording Surfaces: 4
Average Rotational Latency: 4.17ms
Interface: SATA II
Buffer-to-Host Date Rate: 300Mb/s
Buffer size: 16Mb
Company name: Seagate Technology LLC

HD Tune: ST9500420AS Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 41.7 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 95.4 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 72.1 MB/sec
Access Time : 19.7 ms
Burst Rate : 55.1 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 3.5%

Hope it can help you.....

 

luizbaiao,

Thank you very much for posting those results they're very helpful. While the drives may vary by brand and type depending on what they're using this week it gives me a good indication of performance.

I'm looking to replace my desktop pc and my older Sony laptop which only manages about 35MB/s as an average and I wanted to make sure it would be considerably quicker than that which it looks like it should be.

An ssd drive would be nice but they're still too much money for large size ones.

Now if anyone can test that two external monitors can work at the same time then it would be very helpful and put me in a position to get an order placed.

 

Hi people,

After I posted that transcript of my conversation with Dell UK tech support earlier, I decided to post it on the Dell Community forum.

Very quickly it was deleted, and I received this email by way of explanation:

Your post was deleted by TOS26.

Subject: Re: Studio 15 (1557) Subwoofer Not Working

Reason: Hello Nifkin,

We are writing in reference to your post in the DELL COMMUNITY.

While we value your participation in the Dell Community, we have removed the post described above because it violates the Dell Community Terms of Service. You may remember that you agreed to abide by these Terms of Service when you registered with our website. If you would like to review the Terms of Service, you can find them at the following link: http://en.community.dell.com/content/TOS.aspx

We encourage you to edit your post to comply with the Terms of Service, and resubmit it. In order to assist you in reposting your message, we note that your post violates our Terms of Service for the following reason:

Your post contains language that we believe reveals non-public information about Dell or another company or person. The Terms of Service do not allow users to post this type of information, which generally includes the names, telephone numbers and/or personal email addresses of Dell employees and Dell Community participants, as well as tracking numbers, customer numbers, order numbers, or service tags. If you included your service tag in the “add tag” section of your post, please be aware that the “add tag” field is used to identify key words from your post that could help other users find relevant information. It is not a field requesting that you reveal your service tag. For more information on how to use the “add tag” field, please click on the following link: http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/help_faq#tagging. For more information on how to add your service tag to your profile, please click here: *.

For your convenience, a copy of the original post also appears at the end of this message. Please keep in mind that continued violations of the Terms of Service may cause you to lose your posting privileges.

Thanks for cooperating and participating in the Dell Community.


Sincerely,

DTA79021
Dell Community Administration Services

It is very clear that Dell are a bit sensitive about us taking the p*ss out of their under-trained support staff. It's amazing that an organisation such as Dell will obviously spend more time and resources weeding out forum posts that criticise their service than actually improving the actual services themselves.

 

Well, that is the first time I have seen such a quick reaction from Dell

I presume you mentioned the name of the 'not so helpful and not informed' assistant from chat support? Then it's quiet normal Dell responds like this.

Still I hope they respond to your subwoofer problem anyway!