Dell Vostro 1500

Thanks for that m0d0, i was concered about how fat it was at the back compared to the front :)

Cheers
 
I have installed a few games on the 1500 today, so far im pretty impressed.

WOW as i have said runs flawlessly with AF on. Company of heroes runs at 1440x900 with almost highest detail, it looks pretty nice.

Tiger Woods 2008 runs, but dosent run that great at 1280x720, thats with detail on high though, ill drop it down a bit and it will no doubt run okay, im just in the process of installing tomb raider anniversary to see how that goes.
 
My CD drive doesn't seem to be reading audio cd's for some reason. Did anyone else have this problem? Also, are the drivers on the dell cd the latest ones? If not, where can i get the latest ones?
 
Go to the Help & Support section of Dell's website for their latest drivers.

And yes to whoever asked about putting Windows XP on, I'm sure it will work fine. All the components on these laptops have XP drivers.
 
stable overclock at

675mhz core
480 mem



mem fails at 490 in atitools check, core could go higher but see no need specilly as temp is aprocing 70

nice overclock considering stock on the card is 475core(42% overclock) 400mem (20% overclock)



real shame is gpu is DDR2, truely criples the card, core overclocks like a dream but the dam ddr2 mem :mad:
 
Got mine this morning very impressed so far, nice speakers nice controls at front, screen is shiny but very clear, feels a lot sturdier than my old one.
Unfortunately i too have an annoying whining sound in the headphones but its hard to hear when music is playing but I have tinnitus, so er its mostly drowned out by that:(

The only problem im having is with the bloat and the 89 processes :eek: I have a brown Dell Windows disk - is it just windows or does it have lots of Dell crap on it? Is there any Dell software that you would recommend keeping on the laptop, like the tune up tool?

Cheers

60% Battery - 3 hours left :eek:
 
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Having a few problems with the CD drive still. Im getting the error message: 'Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)' from the device manager, yet when i try to update the driver, it says it is up to date. Don't know whats happening :S It was working earlier. Anyone got any advice?
 
CD person -

Have you tried deleting the device from Device Manager and doing a rescan so it can pick it up again?
 
sWiZzLe said:
The only problem im having is with the bloat and the 89 processes :eek: I have a brown Dell Windows disk - is it just windows or does it have lots of Dell crap on it? Is there any Dell software that you would recommend keeping on the laptop, like the tune up tool?
Click to expand...

The brown disc is just Vista Business Edition OEM. No Dell drivers or software.

I personally never kept any of the Dell software. I made a post a few pages back with the drivers you need to install to get full functionality without a load of bloated rubbish.

Here it is again:

I'd recommend a re-install of Vista. From 70+ running processes with the Dell install, I'm down to around 35-40 with a fresh install and nearly all of my apps installed.

Installation of drivers was fine. If your going the re-install route, here are the drivers you'll need:

1. Lastest chipset drivers from Intels website
2. 8600M GT - I used a modified set based on the recent 163.44 from here. If you don't fancy that, just use the ones from Dells website
3. Sigmatel Soundcard drivers from the Dell website - Run the .exe
4. Broadcom NIC - Download from the Dell website and update driver via device manager
5. Modem Driver - Download from the Dell website and update driver via device manager
6. Intel Wireless Adapter - rather than use the latest from Intel, I used the version from Dells website only because it says in the readme that it fixes an issue when using the wireless device and bluetooth. Download from the Dell website and update driver via device manager. I let Vista handle my wireless connections and don't want the Intel software installed (another 3 startup programs)
7. Webcam - Just used Vista own drivers
8. SD card reader - Download from Dell website - Run the .exe. If you don't, you'll see 3 unknown devices in device manger.
9. I installed the Synaptics touchpad driver as it allows you to disable the touchpad when a USB mouse is present and also allows use of the touchpad scrolling feature.

With the Dell drivers downloaded from the site, I used 7-Zip to unpack them first.

You can't use the Wi-Fi catcher button if you go the above route. Although I find that feature a bit useless. Nothing that clicking in the system tray doesn't fix.

Doing it via the above method will ensure full functionality of all the hardware while minimising any possible bloat and additional startup apps.:)
Click to expand...

Update on my buzzing/humming screen.

Received a phone call from the external company that handles Dell's on-site support. They don't have the replacement motherboard in stock so it'll be another 3 day wait until somebody comes round to swap it out.

I personally don't think its going to do jack. The noise sounds like a resistor that powers the panel is faulty. Much like the buzz/hum you hear from overhead strip lighting. I'd be extremely surprised if replacing the motherboard fixes this issue.
 
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Trixter said:
Got mine today, anyone know if i can install xp using the disc from my other dell laptop ?
Click to expand...

It will almost certainly work but unless you have an XP licence it will be breaking the EULA T&Cs. The OEM vista edition does not include rights to run XP. AFAIK you need the OpenLicence to do that.
 
I purchased a Vostro 1500 as well. Very happy with it apart from the fact it has a horrible noise if you use earphones or record something through the line in socket.

I did manage to get a credit back for the vista business that was installed on my machine under the terms of the EULA agreement :cool:
 
What with all this talk of the horrible headphone noise I decided to test it out myself.

Plugged in a cheap pair and oh my you can really hear it! Never noticed it before but I've had my laptop connected to my amp and stereo speakers. When I play music I can't hear it at all. It was only until I really ramped up the amp volume that I actually heard it through the speakers.
 
Thanks GuruJockStrap :p hehehe interesting name, ill give that a go tomorrow.

Just found this - different laptop but same problem, but for this laptop it seems to fixable with a bios update.

Annoyingly the hum is supposed to be louder the better your headphones are and i have some very nice Bose ones :(

The sound is actually there all the time but only audible through headphones. I wanted to see whether Cubase worked on Vista and the noise is very visible on the mixer.
 
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Hi,

I have been trying to decide on getting one of these for a few weeks now and looks like i waited too long to get the real bargains lol However I have noticed the real bargain at the moment seems to be the vostro 1700 if you can be bothered to wait 4 weeks or more for delivery! I Specced up a 2Ghz one similar spec to the 1500 with bluetooth, wireless n, same 2gb memory, 160gb hard drive and 8600GT graphics but the 1700 has the 1900x1200 truelife 17" display as opposed to the 1280x800 with truelife I specced on the 1500 and is only £50 more including vat and shipping :eek:

Obviously i think the 8600GT will struggle to run games at native 1900x1200 Res but i wonder how well it scales to lower res for games becuase i really like the sound of the 1900x200 display. Does anyone have the vostro 1700 with 1900x1200 panel?

Cheers,
Hugest
 
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