Dell Vostro 1500 random issues

Hi
I have a Dell Vostro 1500 with the nvidia 8600GT card.

I'm experiencing 2 issues:
- sometimes it takes forever to get past the POST phase in the bios: teh progress bar rapidly progresses until 3/4 and then stops and goes ahead slowly...
This happened to me 2 times, when I turned on the nb after pulling out the AC cord, and then when I turned on the nb after having re-plugged the AC cord in (after normal battery use).

- standby: the screen never comes back. Moreover, there isn't an option to turn ONLY the screen off when you close the lid, without putting the nb to sleep or similar... this way when I close the lid, the screen will stay on.... that's not a pretty thing... couldn't they put an external pin like many notebook I had, that, when pressed, turned the screen of NO MATTER of what was going on in windows???

thanks in advnace
bye bye

 

omfg! i too just discovered that the screen doesn't shut off when you close the lid! that's so god damn retarded! this is a laptop, we need this feature to conserve battery sometimes! omfg. dell, you're morons!

 

You obviously have issues. Mine and everyone else's works properly. You should refrain from ranting like a complete imbecile and call Dell. If you speak to them in a rational manner they will probably help you.

 

That part of the POST is when it should be detecting memory. There is a BIOS option that allows you to change it to a fast POST, only checking hardware if there is a configuration change. Check to see if it is set to that.

Your LCD is not resuming from standby because you are using a version of the Nvidia drivers that does not support it. The screen is also not shutting off when you close the lid because of this same reason. I use XP Pro on my 1500 and when I set the lid power option to "Do Nothing" then I can close the lid until about a 2 degree angle and see the LCD shut off.

 

there are 3 options, mine is set to Minimal (and i think it's the fastest option too)
anyway i had this issue onlyu another couple times, it's working properly now...

What driver version did you install?
I changed driver and installed the 162.18 from laptopvideo2go, now standby works properly, but the screen is still lit when I close the lid (note that if I set "when lid is closed: standby" in the options, the notebook correctly goes to sleep, so it's noa an hardware fault...)

 

OMG!
I have this issue too
And then after it finishes, I get stuck at a black screen with a blinking cursor at the top left corner
it's rare, but when it happens, it pisses me off
happened about 3 times for me so far.


Did you do a fresh install of windows/mediadirect?

I think it has something to do with bootmgr

 

Same with Vostro 1400. The takes forever for the screen to turn on once it wakes from sleep mode. Also, when I clicked "shutdown" and close lid right away, I thought the system was off, but when I opened it the next day,,, it said "Shutting Down".. WTF? So it stops shutting down when I close the lid???

 

Mine only goes slow in the POST .... no blinking cursor issues.
I've reinstalled wndows xp by putting the MD disc first, and then installing windows in the MD-supplied partition... then i tried to finish the MD installation in windows, but it complained that my system was unsupported....

 

I did get my MD3 installed
I think it might be an issue with the partitioning

For me, I think I get stuck at the blinking cursor because the thing's trying to boot up media direct and gets stuck

maybe yours gets redirected to windows since MD3 isn't installed

 

My only problem is extremely painintheassy: whenever the computer awakens from sleep, it loses my bluetooth devices, meaning I have to reinstall my bluetooth mouse & keyboard every time the damned thing wakes up from sleep.

 

are you sure they don't come up if you power-cycle the side button? (wifi & bt)?

 

This is common to other laptops, and I assume because closing the lid is a hardware switch to force the machine into sleep mode. I know Thinkpads did this.

 

Do someone find that continuous hard drive ticking sound extremely irritating!?
I've got the hitachi hard disk, it's EXTREMELY noisy, and it doens't get any quieter with the Quiet setting in the bios. It's like nothing changed.

I've noticed that nvsvc.exe and PCMservice.exe (dell's MD) are responsible for a great deal of it, but terminating them doesn't end the ticking....

do someone know how to get rid of this???

thanks