Dell Vostro 1500

dante6491 · 16 Apr 2008 at 21:40

I ordered a 1500 today... T8100 2.4ghz, 8600m 256, 1680x1050 screen. Everything else as standard. It cost me £622 but that also included a carry case.

It seems when I asked for no OS they opted to give me Vista home basic. Should I be able to put my XP disc in, Format the vista partition and then install XP?

EDIT: I read back to the last page and it seems that this is ok. Does anyone have a link to Vista64bit drivers?

GhostTrain · 17 Apr 2008 at 10:03

bought dell vostro 1500 after coming across this thread it really is great

thnx for all advice located in this thread

AmDaMan · 21 Apr 2008 at 10:20

Think i'm going to order one of these but all the offers will be gone by the time I get around to it

I definately want an 8600GT and 1440x900 res what options do I have? Not sure about vista either.

Can you get a port replicator with this laptop?

5ingh · 24 Apr 2008 at 10:41

Has anyone changed their Harddisk Acoustics in the BIOS? Mine is set to 'bypass' at the moment but don't know whether to change it to up the performance (as it says). In fact I'm actually hesitant to change it in case I mess it up :embarrassed:

fish99 · 24 Apr 2008 at 14:09

5ingh said:
Has anyone changed their Harddisk Acoustics in the BIOS? Mine is set to 'bypass' at the moment but don't know whether to change it to up the performance (as it says). In fact I'm actually hesitant to change it in case I mess it up :embarrassed:

You're not going to mess anything up just by changing that setting. TBH though I couldn't detect any speed or noise difference from the drive from changing that setting.

slipd · 27 Apr 2008 at 17:29

Hey guys,

My original 160 GB hard disk is rapidly filling up and seeing as though I'm happy with the rest of the laptop, I'd like to upgrade it

Ideally, I'm after a 320 GB drive? What can I/can't I have etc - I think the Vostro's use sata don't they? Anyone here had any experience of upgrading the hd on the Vostro - mines a 1500 btw. Is it easy?

Also, although my 9-cell battery is still packing quite a punch, it's obviously not up to the standard it was 9 months ago when I first bought the laptop. I'm in the habit of using it until the battery is completely flat, then I charge it - always been told that this is the way to get the best out of any battery

Are there any hardware/software resets you can perform on the Vostro's battery? I remember there was a battery 'reset' feature on one of my old Time laptops, but that was a long time ago, and even then, I'm not sure it actually made much difference to the life of the battery... If they're not astronomically priced (which, because it's from Dell, I expect it will be) I'd buy another one?

Cheers,

SW.

Bradmax57 · 27 Apr 2008 at 18:03

sam.wheale said:
Hey guys,

My original 160 GB hard disk is rapidly filling up and seeing as though I'm happy with the rest of the laptop, I'd like to upgrade it

Ideally, I'm after a 320 GB drive? What can I/can't I have etc - I think the Vostro's use sata don't they? Anyone here had any experience of upgrading the hd on the Vostro - mines a 1500 btw. Is it easy?

Also, although my 9-cell battery is still packing quite a punch, it's obviously not up to the standard it was 9 months ago when I first bought the laptop. I'm in the habit of using it until the battery is completely flat, then I charge it - always been told that this is the way to get the best out of any battery

Are there any hardware/software resets you can perform on the Vostro's battery? I remember there was a battery 'reset' feature on one of my old Time laptops, but that was a long time ago, and even then, I'm not sure it actually made much difference to the life of the battery... If they're not astronomically priced (which, because it's from Dell, I expect it will be) I'd buy another one?

Cheers,

SW.

4 screws under laptop ro release the caddy, and then another 2 i think to release the hdd from caddy easy as that, any standard 2.5" laptop sata drive will do, i just got a 320gb one for £75 delivered scores a nice 5.4 in vista even being a 5400rpm drive

slipd · 27 Apr 2008 at 18:13

Bradmax57 said:
4 screws under laptop ro release the caddy, and then another 2 i think to release the hdd from caddy easy as that, any standard 2.5" laptop sata drive will do, i just got a 320gb one for £75 delivered scores a nice 5.4 in vista even being a 5400rpm drive

Thanks for the reply!

I'll look into that then, definitely going to go down the 320 road

Regarding the replacement batteries, there are some Asian shops on the Bay that do them for about £45 iirc? Which doesn't seem too bad - I doubt they're genuine tho...

Cheers,

SW.

slipd · 27 Apr 2008 at 18:22

Guys, it is correct that the Vostro only supports or has support for Vista 32bit and XP 64bit, there's no support for Vista 64bit - is that right?

SW.

Markus123 · 27 Apr 2008 at 18:51

sam.wheale said:
Guys, it is correct that the Vostro only supports or has support for Vista 32bit and XP 64bit, there's no support for Vista 64bit - is that right?

SW.

I run Vista x64 Business on my Vostro 1500 perfectly, as far as I know Dell won't sell it with x64 though so you'd need to buy a separate license. I had a spare.

slipd · 27 Apr 2008 at 19:06

Markus123 said:
I run Vista x64 Business on my Vostro 1500 perfectly, as far as I know Dell won't sell it with x64 though so you'd need to buy a separate license. I had a spare.

Cool - and are the drivers okay? What do you use - the 32bit ones?

Markus123 · 27 Apr 2008 at 21:37

Some of the drivers I used were 32bit, the remaining ones were the 64bit ones on the Dell site listed under the Vista x64 - XPS M1330 (but most work fine with the Vostro 1500)

the39steps · 27 Apr 2008 at 22:24

Ordered a Vostro 1500 a couple of days ago.

Core2Duo T8300 2.4Ghz
3 Gig Ram
320 Gb Harddrive
Win XP Pro
3 year basic warranty
15.4" WXGA 1280x800 true life display

all for £681.50!!!!!!

They are currently running a discount of £50 and when I placed the order I got another £25 off. Luvverly!!

SimonC · 27 Apr 2008 at 22:38

Nice spec, think I would have gone for 1440x900 screen though, loving mine. :cool:

SANDMAN666 · 28 Apr 2008 at 11:12

SimonC said:
Nice spec, think I would have gone for 1440x900 screen though, loving mine.

I must agree with you about the screen,the lower resolution screen has had bad reviews from users and review sites with people saying it is a very fuzzy and not as sharp as it should be.there are no known issues with the 1440x900 display however,i have this in my Vostro1700 and it is pin sharp and colour perfect.

leaskovski · 28 Apr 2008 at 18:42

Just looking at a vostro 1700. Is the bluetooth addon and actual usb stick or is it built into the laptop?

chippie · 28 Apr 2008 at 18:50

It's built in to the laptop.

SANDMAN666 · 28 Apr 2008 at 18:53

leaskovski said:
Just looking at a vostro 1700. Is the bluetooth addon and actual usb stick or is it built into the laptop?

Built into laptop m8,i have the vostro 1700 but didnt go for the bluetooth as i already had a external belkin stick.Nice machine,im very impressed with the power of the dual core cpu and combination of 128mb nvidia graphics card,plays games like rainbow six vegas and vegas 2 no problem on medium settings.

leaskovski · 28 Apr 2008 at 19:04

Good stuff. It sounds like this is the laptop of choice if you want to do light gaming. Im not really playing that many games these days, so i wouldnt mind baying the desktop and picking on of these up. The only game I do play is rfactor.

My idea is then if I want to play games i can use the nice 17" screen or plug the TV into it with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

peetee · 29 Apr 2008 at 01:56

its sound for most things tbh, im using mine at the mo but i cant plug my ps2 keyboard in

!!! its plugged into a 2nd screen atm due to me being at uni whilst my main rig has been moved back to the parents(its distracting cos its got games installed onto it!)