Dell Studio 1557

[bigstu22]

Okay, quick update. I've tried watching only DOWNLOADED TO HDD (from youtube etc) high defintion, full screen all night with not one crash (battery power only). Of course, I thought I'd fixed everything last night and hadn't, but this IS encouraging. The downloaded video plays automatically in Windows Media Player but with no problem. I have a suspicion that this may actually be a Flash Player problem more than anything else. To further confirm, if you look at user comments in youtube from people trying to watch HD content (search HD 1080 in youtube), there are many who share our issues who also own powerful systems (non Dell).

There are two possible fixes from reading these comments. Firstly, download the Flash player 10.1 beta. Or, secondly, this HTML5 thingy seems good. I still suspect there may be a heat/power issue but this may get things going well for everyone bar serious gamers (maybe!!!)

Hold on that reinstall, Phu!

[spetzje]

Okay, quick update. I've tried watching only DOWNLOADED TO HDD (from youtube etc) high defintion, full screen all night with not one crash (battery power only). Of course, I thought I'd fixed everything last night and hadn't, but this IS encouraging. The downloaded video plays automatically in Windows Media Player but with no problem. I have a suspicion that this may actually be a Flash Player problem more than anything else. To further confirm, if you look at user comments in youtube from people trying to watch HD content (search HD 1080 in youtube), there are many who share our issues who also own powerful systems (non Dell).

There are two possible fixes from reading these comments. Firstly, download the Flash player 10.1 beta. Or, secondly, this HTML5 thingy seems good. I still suspect there may be a heat/power issue but this may get things going well for everyone bar serious gamers (maybe!!!)

Hold on that reinstall, Phu!

Have you guys tried disabling hardware acceleration??

I was experiencing the same problems as you guys are now...
Crashes when watching HD video's on YouTube on fullscreen.. even BSOD's.

After disabling hardware acceleration in flash player apps 2 months ago, I haven't had any crashes so far. So try it

Right-click on any flash player application (youtube etc), settings, deselect hardware acceleration. That should do the trick.

[momsteria]

Have you guys tried disabling hardware acceleration??

I was experiencing the same problems as you guys are now...
Crashes when watching HD video's on YouTube on fullscreen.. even BSOD's.

After disabling hardware acceleration in flash player apps 2 months ago, I haven't had any crashes so far. So try it

Right-click on any flash player application (youtube etc), settings, deselect hardware acceleration. That should do the trick.

I just disabled hardware acceleration...results seem promising so far. Will feed back on results. Fingers crossed.

[spetzje]

ROFL...

NEW STUDIO 15 @ DELL HOMEPAGE:

*** Core i7 WITH ATI RADEON 4670 ***

EDIT: Apparently this was a (common) mistake by Dell.. It's changed to an ATI RADEON 5470

[bigstu22]

I did try the disabling hardware acceleration and it did work. However, if you read up on Flash Player, the whole point of that function is to draw upon your GPU so that the experience is enhanced. And the whole point of me spending my hard earned cash on a top spec laptop was so I could get the best experience possible. Having to 'mollycoddle' the GPU because it isn't working right, and opt for reduced playback, isn't acceptable in my eyes.

That said, I'm still banking on this possibly being a Flash Player problem-see my previous post. Videos that are downloaded, and not streamed in Flash, are playing perfect for me (so far!). As far as streaming from youtube is concerned-there is still the possibility that can be fixed too by using the Flash 10.1 beta or HTML5. I might just try that later.

[mawki]

It's the PowerPlay function of the ATI card, when unplugged it enters 'Maximize Battery Life' mode. This, combined with playing full screen flash content via the GPU, causes the laptop to crash.

[bigstu22]

It's the PowerPlay function of the ATI card, when unplugged it enters 'Maximize Battery Life' mode. This, combined with playing full screen flash content via the GPU, causes the laptop to crash.

But I have my laptop set up so that ATI powerplay gives maximum performance even whilst on battery (done through Windows power options). Does this get overrode somehow? And why does it only seem to happen in Flash on fullscreen (so far anyway, for me)?

[bigstu22]

Okay, next update. I’ve been playing around all morning with various things (it’s just great being off work!!) I’ve updated to the 10.1 Flash player, tried HTML5 in Youtube with the full screen add-on and played downloaded youtube videos from my HDD on Windows Media Player unplugged until my 9 cell battery gave up. Here are my findings:

• Videos downloaded from youtube and played on Window Media Player run absolutely beautifully with not one crash-and remember this was running that 9 cell battery until dead (I have to say the picture quality and those great speakers make for a wonderful experience)

• The 10.1 Flash player in youtube ran jerky for me

• The HTML5 in youtube didn’t work particularly well either

• Neither crashed but even pausing to allow the streaming plenty of time for ‘catch-up’ didn’t stop jerky playback

• I didn’t do the modded driver update suggested by Momsteria so a combination of that and what I’ve tried may be enough. TBH, I’m happy-I can live with just downloading-so I won’t do that update unless someone else proves the combination to work. Momsteria-perhaps since you’ve done the driver update you could try what I’ve done and let us know how you get on?

• The only other variable I didn’t experiment with was with the laptop sitting on my lap. I did all this with the machine sitting on my desk. The 9 cell battery makes it sit up and therefore provides better airflow. I seem to remember the crashes happened to me whilst on my lap. That said, today the laptop did still feel hot. Probably irrelevant but something else to try later if this doesn’t fix things

• So this is all promising. It seems that it may not wholly be a GPU issue; it’s only when using Flash/HTML5 that problems arise. The problem may well be more with these than with the GPU itself. Again, reading the youtube user comments, there do seem to be a good few other people with powerful, non-Dell laptops experiencing similar problems.

• For anyone wanting to dabble. Flash 10.1 available here:

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html

HTML5 youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/html5

You need an add-on to watch fullscreen:

https://chrome.google.com/extensions...ecaphecgokpnhp

I don’t know about Internet Explorer-go find if you need to! Good luck.

[BlitZX]

So apparently the Studio 15 in the UK lists a 1GB 5470 when bought with an i7. I'm assuming it isn't a typo since the 4570 usually comes with 512MB of vram.

It's a 64-bit card but according to one of the reps it uses GDDR5 memory. Other than that, the card just seems like a slightly higher clocked 4570 with DX11 support.

[mawki]

quick update - dell are collecting the laptop tomorrow to try and fix the crashing, then they'll test and return it to me, if it still fails they said they'll give me a refund. but then again, that's also what they promised me when I let a technician come and waste an afternoon of my time.