Vostro, review and question

KStaford

Hi

Just bought a new Vostro 1400 from Dell.

Not too impressed to be honest. It is bloody heavy, I downgraded from a 15.4" to this new 14" screen in an effort to save weight, but the vostro feels about the same weight as my old HP.

The touchpad mouse is AWFUL!!!! sometimes when the machine is busy, the mouse stops responding for a few milliseconds giving a jagged feel.

The battery is CRAP!!! I get about an hour. I was getting 2+ hours on laptops 10 years ago, so how far have we come with regards to battery technology.

When it arrived, one of the panels on the base was sticking out badly, it had not been fitted properly at the factory. I had to get a screwdriver, remove the panel and reseat it.

Another thing (and here's my question)
How do I know when the laptop battery is fully charged?

When I plug it into the mains, the battery led on the front lights blue, it stays that way forever, so I seem to have no visual clue as to when it gets fully charged. Last night I left it plugged into the mains and switched off (so just charging) for 3 hours. the light never went out. ?????????????????????????

Overall, the "experience" has been terrible. I have tonight written to dell asking them to take this piece of crap back and refund me my cash. Lets see what happens, but either way, I just dont want this thing now at all.

TerrorFirmer

The Vostro are a fantastic line and you should be getting several hours easily from even the standard 6 cell. The weight is hardly Dells fault, I'm sorry that you feel it is a terrible burden but it starts at 2.45kg, fairly average.

When it's charging it should have a blue light, when the cycle is finished I think it flashes blue. Give it longer then a few hours to fully charge.

As for the mouse, what OS and how much ram did you get?

watty

My April 2002 Inspiron 8200 with 15.4" is heavy at over 3.75Kg. Only 2.45kg is not bad.

I get about 2.5hrs on a new battery pack with only disk power saving and downclock to 1.2GHz. It's a power hungry 1600x1200 screen with 768M RAM running a desktop P4 CPU.

I'd have thought after nearly 6 six years a new laptop ought to have more than 3hrs? Only "several hours"?

KStaford

The Vostro are a fantastic line and you should be getting several hours easily from even the standard 6 cell. The weight is hardly Dells fault, I'm sorry that you feel it is a terrible burden but it starts at 2.45kg, fairly average.

When it's charging it should have a blue light, when the cycle is finished I think it flashes blue. Give it longer then a few hours to fully charge.

As for the mouse, what OS and how much ram did you get?

They advertise the vostro at 2,4kg, but in reality, it's about the same as my old HP. 3kg. especially when you couple it with the power supply, put it in a bag and put the bag on your back. For god sakes - its like a sack of spuds. Mobile it aint.

Re - the battery, how long would you suggest I leave it on charge? As I stated earlier, I already tried 3 hours which I think is a crazy long time to charge a battery and in that time, the battery light stayed on constant blue. Any longer is just mad. I should be bable to charge a battery on about 1-2 hours. My old HP was well capable of a full charge in 1 hour.

As for the spec, I went for the T7250 C2D, 2GB Ram, and that awful Vista which I have no option but to accept. (I could not see an option in the build your own section to choose XP). This jittery mouse when system busy is bloody terrible. The mouse pointer should be sacred as far as resources is concerned. Nothing should interfere with it.

KStaford

Does anyone wanna buy this Vostro?

Brand new, 1 week old, - €700

Spec
Core 2 duo T7250
2MP camera
14.1" WXGA
160GB HDD
2048MB RAM 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
128 MB NVIDIA Geforce 8400M GS
8X DVD+/- RW
6 Cell battery
Modem built in
Bluetooth built in
Wireless built in
Vista Business
MS Works
1 year warranty

I have placed an add over on adverts here

kaimera

ffs, of course the damn laptop is heavier if you incl. the power supply :rolleyes:

Point me to one that isn't heavier?

ftr, I get around 5+ hours from the 9cell battery on full charge and power saver power plan. The visual aid as to when the battery is full; mouse over the ac icon in the taskbar...

Turn off the bluetooth/wifi if your not using them. Simple stuff to extend the battery life tbh.

KStaford

Kaimera

I dont appreciate your tone with the "ffs" and "damn" etc. It's as if I am committing a sin by not liking the laptop. With regard to charging, I was refering to the scenario where I am charging it while it is shut down and not in use.

If we were meeting in real life, you would not use expressions like "ffs", or at least I hope you would not. If you did I would be deeply offended as I pretty much am here in this context. A little politeness and some manners if you can, otherwise please just do not reply to me.

grimm2005

on my xps m1730 i can turn it upside down and press a little button on the battery which shows how charged it is thru 5 led lights. it mite work for yours aswell

AlmightyCushion

grimm2005 wrote: »

on my xps m1730 i can turn it upside down and press a little button on the battery which shows how charged it is thru 5 led lights. it mite work for yours aswell

I've had my laptop over a year and I've often wondered what those led type things were for. I presumed they would show the charge level of the battery but I've never seen them on. It turns out the battery icon is a button. I never noticed that. Cheers grimm.

Kieran, the mouse problem would be more an OS thing I'd say. As for battery life there must be something wrong if you are only getting an hour. What are you doing that you only get an hour? Is it basic browsing and email or is it more demanding things?

TerrorFirmer

If you think it's as heavy as a sack of spuds, you must be built like a garden rake, I don't even notice my 1500 in my bag..:D

Seriously though, what sort of weight were you hoping for? You don't include the power pack in the weight of the machine.

I get about 5 hours typically on my 9 cell. Last night I got 1 hour browsing the net, 2 hours watching a movie, with wifi on the whole time, and 25% battery left on shut down. When just using Word, or browsing the net, I get about 5-6 hours. So clearly something is wrong with your battery on an individual level if you're only getting 1 hour, rather then the quality of Dell batteries.

kaimera

KStaford wrote: »

Kaimera

I dont appreciate your tone with the "ffs" and "damn" etc. It's as if I am committing a sin by not liking the laptop. With regard to charging, I was refering to the scenario where I am charging it while it is shut down and not in use.

If we were meeting in real life, you would not use expressions like "ffs", or at least I hope you would not. If you did I would be deeply offended as I pretty much am here in this context. A little politeness and some manners if you can, otherwise please just do not reply to me.

My tone?

Well tbph, complaining about and the weight of the lappy PLUS power supply is just silly imo. It's a harsh reality of mobile computing this external device.

Perhaps a tad harsh on my behalf but silly nontheless.

KStaford

kaimera

now you are calling me "silly". You obviously did not receive the message I was attempting to send in my previos post to you. I am asking you now to stop responding to my posts, do not communicate with me in any way whatsoever. If you persist, I shall report you for your obnoxious behaviour.

take the hint, Go Away!

KStaford

Conn an grimm

The mouse is actually fine. I just hadn't realized that you can calibrate the touch pad area v's the scroll area.
I had it set to a narrow setting and my finger was intermittantly going in and out of the touchable area. I have since discovered the mouse driver and have set the mouse pad up to suit my fingers etc.

The battery is probably not as bad as I made out originally now that I have monitored it more scientifically. I reckon I am getting 2 - 2.5 hours normal usage with wi-fi enabled.

so, yea, its not as bad as I originally made out. Just my impatience and temper getting in the way. I still do not like the small screen tho so I have decided to go back to a 15.4 "" model and sod the weight.

kaimera

*yawn*

Clearly you can't read or deliberately misread what I posted. Obnoxious? I lolled.

so, yea, its not as bad as I originally made out

:rolleyes:

Over.react much?

AlmightyCushion

Kstaford, Kaimera take it to PM if you like but keep on topic.

Jonathan

I have a 1400 myself and i have had no problems so far... very happy with mine...

I presume the op has researched all about the power profiles in vista aswell then? :rolleyes:

They make a big difference!

KStaford

I have indeed jmccrohan, but thanks for the post anyways. I think the reality is that I just dont like ths laptop. Its too small. I want rid 'sall. I'll take the hit and buy again, only this time, I will buy off the shelf where at least I can get a tangiable feel for what I am about to purchase.