Stay Away from dell Core 2 Duo Laptops [Archive]

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Henchman

02-12-2007, 09:18 PM

I just spent 2 weeks trying to get my Dell latitude D820 to work properly with my presonus firewire interface.
No luck. And I knowmy way around PC's abit.
Further investigation showed that it is a known problem, and that Dell has no plans to do anything about it. Neither the internal firewire or the Siig 2-port firewire Expresscard (which uses the TI chipset) would work properly. Dell offers the Siig for sale on their website.
A USB VS Firewire test showed them underperforming using a HD, quite significantly too.

This simply shows me that it is badly implemented hardware via the BIOS.

I have read a ton of reports with people having the same issues form various other Dell laptop lines, and strongly suggest to stay away from them for any kind of Pro-Audio or multimedia type applicationswhere high firewire throughput is needed.

I really like the laptop, and the features it has. Especially the media bay option.
But I need this to work now. Not in a month or 2.

Maybe the mod can sticky this so no one else wastes their time like I did.

itsplayed

02-12-2007, 09:27 PM

Have you tried disabling all unused devices in the BIOS(ie. serial, parallel, USB ports, on-board sound, etc.) then reformatting the drive and reinstalling the OS.

Henchman

02-12-2007, 10:10 PM

Have you tried disabling all unused devices in the BIOS(ie. serial, parallel, USB ports, on-board sound, etc.) then reformatting the drive and reinstalling the OS.

I tried for 2 weeks. Everything. You name it, I did it.
Tis is not the first PC I've set-up for Audio.

Dell knows there's a problem. They've know since last August.

lasaxman

02-12-2007, 10:16 PM

Which Presonus interface do you have? There's alot of rutcus going on about the Firestudio in the Sonar forum. Alot of people are having problems with this unit. You may want to explore that.

Henchman

02-12-2007, 10:26 PM

Which Presonus interface do you have? There's alot of rutcus going on about the Firestudio in the Sonar forum. Alot of people are having problems with this unit. You may want to explore that.

I have the firebox.
It worked totally fine on my $1k Emachines Laptop.
It also works completely fine on the HP NC8430 Core 2 Duo laptop that I picked up this weekend.

87PRS

02-13-2007, 03:42 AM

henchman, sorry to hear you are having problems with your Dell C2D laptop, computers are a joy when they work right, other times they can be slung up against a wall with no hesitation...I use a Dell C2D tower model (conroy) with XP Pro and the Siig PCIe card (T.I. chipset) in my studio, only have had it since Christmas, but it performs well for my use w/M-Audio Lightbridge...I was just wondering what your laptop is doing....freezing up, dropping out? Just curious. Thanks

itsplayed

02-13-2007, 05:58 AM

I tried for 2 weeks. Everything. You name it, I did it.
Tis is not the first PC I've set-up for Audio.

Dell knows there's a problem. They've know since last August.

So you did uninstall all unused devices within the BIOS then reformated and reinstalled the OS(no recovery disk) and after the reinstall you have eliminated any IRQ/resource conflicts within the system and it's still a no go? If so, have you tried reverting to a standard PC setup in order to allocate system resources within the BIOS as you see fit? Also, what operating system is on that Dell?

Henchman

02-13-2007, 09:52 AM

So you did uninstall all unused devices within the BIOS then reformated and reinstalled the OS(no recovery disk) and after the reinstall you have eliminated any IRQ/resource conflicts within the system and it's still a no go? If so, have you tried reverting to a standard PC setup in order to allocate system resources within the BIOS as you see fit? Also, what operating system is on that Dell?

I did everything. Clean XP-pro. All the IRQ stuff, re-installed as standard PC, etc. etc. etc.
Again, this is no the first computer or laptop I've used with Pro-Audio applications and interfaces.

The impementation is so bad on the dell, that it will freeze if you try to boot with the Siig Firewirecard in the Expresscard slot.

Unacceptable.

itsplayed

02-13-2007, 07:57 PM

I did everything. Clean XP-pro. All the IRQ stuff, re-installed as standard PC, etc. etc. etc.
Again, this is no the first computer or laptop I've used with Pro-Audio applications and interfaces.

The impementation is so bad on the dell, that it will freeze if you try to boot with the Siig Firewirecard in the Expresscard slot.

Unacceptable.

I wasn't trying to belittle your efforts or snub your experience, just tring to ask the pertinent questions. some laptops just aren't good for audio work even if the specs say otherwise. which is why I always try and convince others looking for laptops to go with a company that builds audio specific workstations. Laptops are a crapshoot at best, I'm glad you found one that works.

Henchman

02-13-2007, 08:30 PM

I wasn't trying to belittle your efforts or snub your experience, just tring to ask the pertinent questions. some laptops just aren't good for audio work even if the specs say otherwise. which is why I always try and convince others looking for laptops to go with a company that builds audio specific workstations. Laptops are a crapshoot at best, I'm glad you found one that works.

Don't worry. I didn't think you were trying to belittle me at all.

I would suggest to anyone to go for the music configure laptops. You can get them in pretty much the same price range or even less, than a similar barndname.
If i hadn't found such a good deal locally for the 3 month old HP NC8430, I woudl ahve gotten this one:

http://powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=354

It's the exact same as the D1580 Sonica sells. But instead of costing $2k for a T7200 version, it's $1500 with a T7400.

arela

03-19-2007, 01:43 AM

Oh boy
I just ordered a Dell D520 - but its mostly for other things than daw.
Since i have no soundcard for this jet, i was thinking of buying a USB card.
Stupid me ordered with Vista, so i guess i need to look around before i decide what to go for.

Henchman

03-19-2007, 10:25 AM

Hard2Hear

03-21-2007, 11:29 AM

Don't worry. I didn't think you were trying to belittle me at all.

I would suggest to anyone to go for the music configure laptops. You can get them in pretty much the same price range or even less, than a similar barndname.
If i hadn't found such a good deal locally for the 3 month old HP NC8430, I woudl ahve gotten this one:

http://powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=354

It's the exact same as the D1580 Sonica sells. But instead of costing $2k for a T7200 version, it's $1500 with a T7400.

To be fair to Sonica, apples to apples with specs, the powernotebooks model is $1764.

And some audio specialty places have laptops you can't find anywhere else, too. Not to mention getting audio support in addition to just the computer support. Be glad theyre the ones who bought many of test laptops to find the one or two that actually work for pro audio.

kungfuu72

04-06-2007, 10:51 AM

Is your problem that it does not work properly? I too have a firebox with a new ASUS laptop that I bought and it works quite well.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222

If it does "kind of work" you might consider doing this.... I haven't done it on my laptop but I think I will when I have the time. Ciao.

Henchman

04-06-2007, 06:43 PM

arela

04-09-2007, 12:24 AM

Henchman, is this due to the way firewire works on this laptops.
I'm thinking of some bad firewire drivers, bad firewire "card", bad handling by the bios or general bad motherboard?

If you say USB should work well, then i suspect there is a general firewire issue on this laptops, ...any opinions?

Any clues where to find out more....?