NewEgg: DELL Inspiron 15R (i15R-2105sLV) Intel Core i5 3210M(2.50GHz) 15.6" 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 5400rpm Intel HD Graphics 4000 - $479 FREE Shipping

Quote from SlickJedi : Me too! Even without an SSD this laptop is a performer for sure! Don't forget to run msconfig.exe and disable startup items that annoy you like the Dell stuff, CPU speed boost monitor, etc. I was holding off doing the McAfee trial and it said I had until 12/12 to activate, but when I turned on today it says it expired. WTF? Oh well Microsoft Security Essentials will be fine (and free).

Sorry for dumb question but what all can I safely remove? Don't want to remove something needed. Thanks for any help with this.

Quote from sp1209 : Sorry for dumb question but what all can I safely remove? Don't want to remove something needed. Thanks for any help with this.

Off the top of my head in the startup tab while running msconfig.exe I unticked The Intel Turbo boost CPU monitor, the Dell weather widget, the Adobe update check (something like that). If there was one for QUicktime check I think I unticked that one too. I think Google update was another and Java updater (though I think that one came on after I installed java runtime environment. I hate apps that waste resources running processes to check if they need updated. I'd rather randomly check myself if any updates are available and update accordingly. I don't need something annoying me causing my machine to run slower everyday.

Quote from SlickJedi : Off the top of my head in the startup tab while running msconfig.exe I unticked The Intel Turbo boost CPU monitor, the Dell weather widget, the Adobe update check (something like that). If there was one for QUicktime check I think I unticked that one too. I think Google update was another and Java updater (though I think that one came on after I installed java runtime environment. I hate apps that waste resources running processes to check if they need updated. I'd rather randomly check myself if any updates are available and update accordingly. I don't need something annoying me causing my machine to run slower everyday.

Thank you!!

Quote from sp1209 : Thank you!!

I've been on machines crawling with spyware and viruses and that msconfig has saved a machine or two by shutting down crap to allow resources to load some tools and get it cleaned up. I've saved a few folks that way before (including myself when I clicked on something I knew better than to attempt).

Has anyone changed their settings and done anything to fix the oversaturation of blue that this notebook's screen has out of the box? What about the overall audio volume output while using headphones? I've found it to be too quiet overall although choosing the loudness option from the Wave MaxxAudio improves it a little bit. The other surprising thing is that for some reason Game mode seems to provide a much richer audio experience as well. Go figure.

Quote from dj24 : Has anyone changed their settings and done anything to fix the oversaturation of blue that this notebook's screen has out of the box? What about the overall audio volume output while using headphones? I've found it to be too quiet overall although choosing the loudness option from the Wave MaxxAudio improves it a little bit. The other surprising thing is that for some reason Game mode seems to provide a much richer audio experience as well. Go figure.

Here's what I posted in another thread about the same laptop:

Quote from Vasario : Well, this model suffers the same issue that every Intel video graphics laptop has, over saturation of blue. Here are the correct settings to use to get the display more in line with reality: Red: Brightness: -5 Contrast: 50 Gamma: 1.0 Saturation: 0 Green: Brightness: -14 Contrast: 50 Gamma: 1.0 Saturation: 0 Blue: Brightness: 10 Contrast: 40 Gamma: 0.7 Saturation: 0

it can't start when I get it out of the box. Return it right away. Never get a dell. So disappointing

Anyone do the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant and find that the following aren't compatible?:

Intel(R) PROSet/Wireless Software for Bluetooth(R) Technology
Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver

So my bluetooth and USB 3 won't work when I update to Windows 8? That's no good.