Dell Vostro 1500

One of my gripes with this Vostro was that there was no function key to turn off the wireless and bluetooth like on my previous Inspiron 630m.

Just discovered if you push the Wi-Fi catcher button on the left side of the machine all they back, it turns them off.:o

You can configure it in the BIOS to do Bluetooth only, Wireless Only or both.
 
Thanks for the tip Guru.

Somehow i'm having yet more trouble with my vostro :(, it doesn't seem to like games much for some reason. I tried dawn of war yesterday, worked fine for a while, then when i tried updating it a few times i couldn't reopen it because i got an error message about directx. Earlier today i tried lord of the rings: battle for middle earth 2, this didn't go well either, it wouldn't even start :S. I installed it fully and clicked play and it just crashed every time. What do you think the problem could be?
 
Hmm, thats a problem, i haven't got a version of xp to install to test. I have a feeling windows defender may be one of the main problems with it, it tries to block pretty much everything. Ill try disabling it to see if that works.
 
GuruJockStrap said:
I've just played the Bioshock demo and that ran quite well. Left everything on High at 1280x800. Some areas it slowed a bit but I'm sure tweaking around with the graphical settings would improve performance.

Will install CS:S at the weekend and I'm confident it'll run that at 1280x800 with everything on high. I'm not bothered about AA to be honest.

You got to remember that the 8600MGT is a cut down version of the desktop 8600GT.

8600GT: Approx 540MHz Core, 256MB 1400MHz GDDR3 Memory

8600MGT: 475MHz Core, 256MB 400MHz DDRII Memory
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Don't really know much about graphics cards nowadays, other than the numbers go up ;) But i see what cells was moaning about with the memory :eek: slight difference hehe.

Cheers for the info on installing those drivers

Just tried Bioshock on Vista 64, runs and looks soooooo much better than on my 1950. Think i'll be copying my saved games across to my laptop shortly :p
 
GuruJockStrap said:
I've just played the Bioshock demo and that ran quite well. Left everything on High at 1280x800. Some areas it slowed a bit but I'm sure tweaking around with the graphical settings would improve performance.
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on vista?

my one is terrible and can only play bioshock at low settings and then it has terrible fps, under 25 most the time!

are you sure your playing on high in native?
 
Finally managed to get the games to work :D But is there any reason why the games won't run in 1280x800? They only seem to run in the resolution below.

Edit: Answering my own question here :P, the games in question doesn't support widescreen resolutions :(
 
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Looks good.

Bluetooth is in Tab 3 along the top (can't remember what it's called). The T7500 can be changed for a T7300. You won't see much performance drop and it'll save you a bit of money :)

Jon
 
I would really consider getting the 1500 with the 8600GT M instead mate, the 8400 will struggle if you do want to do a bit of gaming, you can get bluetooth on the 1500, im not sure on the 1400.
 
cells said:
on vista?

my one is terrible and can only play bioshock at low settings and then it has terrible fps, under 25 most the time!

are you sure your playing on high in native?
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Seems to run ok on mine.

It states 1280x800 in the graphics options screen but I don't think the demo supports widescreen resolutions as its doesn't fill the entire screen.

I've been away from PC gaming for over a year now. Been gaming on a 360. Many of the games don't run at 60FPS but I've found them perfectly comfortable to play on.

Mind you, I have tweaked Vista a fair bit.:D

Have you got the 3 performance hotfixes installed? I installed them straight away so no idea what performance was like before them.
 
djjuk said:
Just had confirmation of my order.

Vostra 1700 with the Truelife 1900x1200 screen, 8600GT, Bluetooth & all that jazz. Just under £700 inc delivery. Bargain for the spec.

Just got to wait 4 weeks for delivery..Boo.
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Doubt you'll be waiting that long to be honest.

I ordered my Vostro on the 14th August and that had an expected delivery date of 7th September!:eek:

It was delivered exactly a week later.
 
GuruJockStrap said:
Excellent!

Been away from CSS for absolutely ages. Will be great to finally get back into it.

1280x800 with everything on high here we come!:D
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I just ran the stress test which is harder than the actual game with 1280x800, everything on high and 2x AF, i get 46fps on that. With HDR and 1440x900 it drops to 29fps, so you would still be over 30 at 1280x800 if you want HDR.

For me in game, it seems to be 60fps, i have vsync on and it runs without any tearing or apaprent slowdown with full detail (hdr off) 2x AF at 1440x900.
 
Can't wait! Even if CSS is the only game this Vostro 1500 can play comfortably in high detail I'll be happy.

Got a feeling my long absence from the game will result in some serious butt kicking for the first month.:(
 
Does Bioshock have support for 64bit? Since playing on XP32 (on my 1950) and having to set everything very low, I've run on it Vista 64 on the laptop and it is amazingly smooth with everything set high. Then i tried it on XP64 with my 1950 and it's even better! Played it for about 4 hours, not a single problem with the sound, not a single slowdown.

I'd highly recommend you try it on a 64bit system :D
 
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