Dell Studio 17 coming tomorrow.. did i screw up???

My laptop is coming tomorrow, I knwo nothign about computers pretty much and purchase it and customized it aon my own.. now im scared ****less that i made wrong decisions and of what is coming in the mail tomorrow. One concern is my processor, if anyone can tell me if its crap or i shoudl ahve upgraded, another is the sound card.. and the computer itself.. iw anted initially a small lightweight one but after soo many computeres and research and confusion i ended up building this one... its use will be for work and my son to watch dvds. NOthign fancy, just wanted internet, tv tuner and fingerprint reader, and i didnt have a ****load of money to spend.. i want to be able to watch my tv shows that i miss but im not sure if thats an option with ym tv tuner.... or if i need any additional software for anything?? pls help!!! thanks

hopelessly confused

 

oh..lol sorry new to this as well.. this is my specs!

Studio 17:
Intel® Pentium® Dual Core T2390 (1.86GHz/533Mhz FSB/1MB cache)

Operation System:
Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium Edition SP1

System Colour Option:
Flamingo Pink

LCD Panel:
Hi Resolution, glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440x900)

Camera Module:
Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam

Memory:
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz

Hard Drive:
250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

Video Card:
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

Combo or DVD+RW Drive:
8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)

Wireless Networking Cards:
Dell Wireless 1510 802.11n Half Mini-Card

Bluetooth Option:
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Internal (2.0)

Battery Options:
6 Cell Battery

Sound Card:
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ Advanced HD Software Ed

Keyboard:
Standard Keyboard

Adobe Software:
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1

Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed):
Microsoft Works

Service:
1 Year Return to Depot Service and Technical Support

Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed):
McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 30-Days

ISP:
No ISP requested

Extended Service:
Dell On Call 13 month includes 30 Day Unlimited +1 Yr 5 Incidents

Direct Line:
Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year

Media Center Enhancements:
AVerTV Hybrid NanoExpress ATSC

Finger Print Reader Module:
Biometric Fingerprint Reader

 

I'm sure it will be fine, quit freaking out. If it sucks you have 21 days to return it. Make sure you post some pictures of it when it comes, I think the pink is the only one I haven't seen a picture of.

 

Everything's alright, except that if you wanted a light computer, that definitely ain't it. Lol.

 

I personally wouldnt have chosen the 17" for lightweight uses. Other than that its fine.

 

i would recommend upgrading the processor a lil bit , FSB and cache is low

extra $ 50 or 100 would give you a better processor which will give u a competitve edge for couple years ahead

 

your gonna enjoy that 17" while watching DVDs,
it will be perfectly fine when you get it..
you wont need a strong processor, for those things, and it was cheap.
now unless your gonna carry it with you the entire day to work,meeting,home..etc,you chose a good laptop.
Congrats on your purchase.

 

No, the setup is fine. She will only be doing internet stuff and watching videos. I have a P4 and its playing videos fine.

 

Hell, even a celeron could do those tasks. Lol.

 

Your computer's fine for your purposes. I personally recommend the video card if you want to play games on the laptop...

And how much did the "Dell On Call" cost. Is the Dell On Call support really worth paying the extra dough?

 

Thansk to everyone, i was worried abotu the processor, and am a little maybe .. im having alot of trouble with it, i posted sometign in here yesterday explaingin it, it is in regards to the fingerprint reader, but i cant find my post.lol im new to all of this... if anyoen sees it please let me know ihavent even tried the tv tuner yet.. apparently i need to hook it up to te cable form my wall, which defeats the purpose of why i wanted it but ill make it work.... anyhow.. finger print reader has been a hassltle since day one, and the dull support in india have no clue.... they have restored my comp to factory ssetting liek 3 times.... yesterday i lost all my pics of my son... today i bought a USB key...lol im fed up i fixed it on my own but hten it went when i rebooted again.. now it still tells me to login but it wont detect the reader... its a tease everytime im on a sit ewith a login screen it prompts me...loll i also had to uninstall mcafee that i had a free trial of as that seemed to be causign problems... now i have no antivirus???? im looking for norton .... help!!!!! im lost!!!!!

dazed and confused....

and ready to send back for an HP!

 

ill get a pic out as soon as i get a chance!

 

ill have to check again abotu the dell on call... i really know nothign.. i tdo know ive beentalking to india support techas since i got it and its done F all for me..lol

 

Norton and McAffee are expensive and terrible anti-virus solutions for a home user.

I recommend downloading Avast. It is free, won't bloat your system or eat up much resources as it runs in the background. It also auto-updates on its own.

I would disable the fingerprint reader entirely and forget about it. Just create a strong password for your system. It sucks that Dell is including faulty fingerprint readers but seriously now. Fingerprint readers are easy to trick, especially with a laptop that will surely be full of your finger prints. Anyone can google methods used to lift and use that fingerprint on your reader, provided the **** thing even works in the first place!

 

Tell them you're tired of reformatting and that you want a technician to come. My fingerprint reader was a ###### too, but they did troubleshooting and then factory image reset and it still didn't work, so they sent someone. Works great now.

 

thanks ill try that... i replied in teh box after i had a session withthem taking over my notebook and said iw as ready for an HP...lol the tecfh also hadnt signed off yet when i replies to my friend via msn that the dell guys in india were morons... OOPPSS!! so im expecting a major breakdown soon if it dosent work when they call me back( they better call back this time) i will tell htem to send someone or start building a new one!!! i go tit owekrign on my own by the way... i restored it to factory setting.. then i reinstalled everything... seems to work so far.. that was one of the many things i did.. i also downloaded PC tue up fro dell which i like alot and i only do updates as i want to... agsain it seems to be when i have to restart that it will glitch.. now it flashe sthat its not detected then flashes back to swipe my finger.. adn ive only had a few glitches whle operating... ??? but my fsound had to be fixed too!!! who needs dell tech i knwo jack all about pc's and i have doen more for me then 4 of there agents and there "gold suuport" or whoever the H#@@ it is they keep referring to when they have to call back!!

 

English is not your first language is it? It might be difficult for you to convey in a second language what your problem is to someone who is also speaking a second language.

 

Yeh its kinda hard understanding you. No offence

 

lmao no sory i am canadian...lol but i type really fast cause i dont get much time on here and usually my son is trying to get me to play cars or coming at me with cars...lol not to mention i have to cut my nails...lol sorry thats hilarious!!!

 

and a little disturbing..lol

 

i did post another thread tho abour tryign to download shows for my son... and it took a week and a half to do one... well it was 6 hrs of shows but it still shouldn't take that long... I tried everything i could find online i even downloadad a program that was suppose to help by microsoft... they took an hour to scan and tell me i had 607 errors... then it proceeded to tell me that it coudl only fix 2 with the download i had so i had to pay $30 to download the prgrm that could fix it... needless to say i uninstalled it and moved on... im at a loss???

 

hey it sounds like the program you downloaded was a registry cleaner and downloading films and stuff depends on your network connection if your using wireless then it can be slow depending on how far from the router (modem) you are and depending on how many people are sharing the file.

overall fingerprint reader is a bit useless as its soo true that someone can just pick up fingerprints from your laptop and use them so you are best off to disable it.

ohh and this site might be usefull to you: http://dragon.ep.usm.edu/~it365/module/Basics/Basics.htm

there are many sites like it and will teach you basics of a computer and how to maintain it if theres ever something you dont understand just google it and im sure you will find an answer or even google tutorials for using software and things or for free virus scanners / spyware removers / registry cleaners.

hope this somehow helped.

 

Be -very- skeptical of anything that says it's found something wrong with your PC and then wants your credit card details to get rid of it. There's a lot of PC 'cleaner' software out there which is rubbish at best and downright criminal at worst.

If you're not sure then I'd recommend Googling for the name of the software to see what people are saying about it before you install anything, if it's a scam them you'll find out pretty fast. Plus it's a lot easier to sort out a PC -before- one of these things has totally hosed it. (-:

 

Thanks for the advice guys! Before I know it i'll be a wiz!!

 

As a canadian you might have trouble with the tv tuner as vista media wont recognize canada as a region. Ive have not been able to rectify this issue with my tuner and vista.

 

thanks dellfan08 I did hear that... my friend told me i can hook it up through the cable to record... which is kinda the same as a tv and defeats the [ur[pse in my case.... they should tell us that when we want to order it.... i was tryign to use it to get my sons video off of the video camera using it but had no luck... i havent tried again since as i had so many otehr errors to overcome! I will try again soon, but if anyoen has any tips or has tried it please let me know!!