Dell Vostro 1500

I'm pleased with my Vostro apart from this brightness/display issue. Fresh install of Vista 32Bit Business running smoothly with all my applications and software installed.

Will call Dell tomorrow about the display issue and get an image created of my current, freshly installed and clean partition. That way, if the laptop does need to be sent back, I can simply restore the image and carry as if nothing happened.
 
To be honest, I could probably leave the laptop as it is and not bother calling Dell for a replacement. With the brightness lowered in the nVidia Control Panel, I find the brightness fine. Besides, the laptop will spend the vast majority of its time sat on my desk connected to the mains.

On the rare occasion that I do use the battery and go portable, that monitor whine/buzz/hum will annoy me on the lowest brightness setting.

Besides, I'd hate to send it back and get a refurbed laptop in exchange or get the panel replaced by an inferior AUO version.

Have you actually tried playing CSS on the Vostro yet? It seems to handle Bioshock ok so I'd imagine CSS would be a massive problem.

Maybe Ripper could post the CSS settings he's been playing at.:)
 
Chrisss said:
To anyone with the annoying CPU whine, I have found a fix.

Download/install this program http://forum.rightmark.org/topic.cgi?id=6:1217

Go to CPU advanced settings -> platform #1 -> check the box that says Disable C4 mode

Apply settings and whine goes away.
Click to expand...

Interesting.. However it seems that some people are unable to tick this box, as it is "greyed out" for some of them - have you managed to do this with Vista, or just XP?
 
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Guru ive played CSS a few times on mine now, all texture settings, models etc default to high. reflections is reflect all, however no AA and trilinear filtering. Also I turn HDR off because thats just generally annoying.

Ran the CSS Stress test and I got 157fps average at them settings. In game I max my fps at 101 and played a few mixes on dust2 and can say ive saw it drop below 70-80fps yet. Still need to see what its like on a map like Inferno though. Probs still gunna use my fps config though because I prefer to play CSS with very low settings.
 
Im thinking of ordering one of these vostros... If you phone up dell do u think it would be possible to get a better graphics card with the vostro... i hav heard a few complaints about the ddr2 8600gt...

Also would overclockers be stocking any more vostros, possibly a higher spec one, such as a 2.2ghz processer and a higher speed hdd?
 
Hey celticcrobbo, I have the annoying whine coming from my CPU which seems to have affected lots of people, if I phone Dell and complain about it (it's very annoying) are they likely to sort it out for me?

Am I likely to get an engineer round who could replace the CPU? (I have a Vostro 1500)

Thanks
 
Hey Chris, depends on your warranty but its pretty likely.

Just tell them its very loud, much more noticable that other 1500's.

I remember i similar issue with some of the latitudes and it was something to do with a power state it went into, ive got some documentation about it but its at work just now.

If you give them a call they will be able to help you, the support is very under rated..some ridiculously qualified people being wasted where i am.

They will likely try to rule out the CPU fan as being at fault, so have your driver and resource cd handy as it has diags to boot from, if you dont have that there is an iso of the diags on the support site.
 
Oh ok thanks, I've just downloaded Rm Clock and disabled popup/popdown modes and it's got rid of the noise anyway, so I think I'll stick with this one unless I run into problems with it.
 
well although the GPU is not DDR3 version it seems to be very Overclock friendly, got mine running at 650 core and 500mem, that’s 20% up on mem and 37% up on core!


still you can only really play bioshock with everything on low (else the frame rate is too low)


wonder if using XP will help over vista there!
 
cells said:
well although the GPU is not DDR3 version it seems to be very Overclock friendly, got mine running at 650 core and 500mem, that’s 20% up on mem and 37% up on core!


still you can only really play bioshock with everything on low (else the frame rate is too low)


wonder if using XP will help over vista there!
Click to expand...

Did you use Rivatuner, and are your temps scary?
 
cells said:
well although the GPU is not DDR3 version it seems to be very Overclock friendly, got mine running at 650 core and 500mem, that’s 20% up on mem and 37% up on core!


still you can only really play bioshock with everything on low (else the frame rate is too low)


wonder if using XP will help over vista there!
Click to expand...

Did you bench before and afterwards? On previous dells i have had, even though you could overclock, it didnt make any difference, as its hard locked in the bios.
 
Does anyone think that it would be worth buying the cheapest one (£200) and sticking linux on it? I only need it to take to the library for uni for wireless internet and word processing. I was looking at getting an Eee PC but if I can get one with a full size screen and keyboard for a similar price I would be happy!
 
From what I can see, there are drivers for Ubuntu so you should have a trouble-free experience putting it on.
 
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