Dell XPS 15 L501 *Owner's Lounge*

So I just got my XPS 15 yesterday. VERY pleased with it! 1080p display plus blu-ray look unbeleivable!!!
I'm also very pleased with the cooling .It gets slightly warm under during heavy use but nothing compared to the XPS 16...It will never feel uncomfortable on your lap.

I'm having an issue I think with the graphic card though:

First I was not able to open the demos I downoaded from Steam (Mafia 2 etc..). I figured out it might be a nvidia GPU problem so I upgraded the drivers from Dell support.
No I'm able to open Mafia 2 but performance is REALLY bad. I ran Mafia 2 benchmark test and the game wont go over 18-20fps no matter what resolution I put (from 640X480 to 1920X1080).
Picture hangs every couple seconds.

I downloaded MSI afterburner and it shows the GPU is being used at the max. So is it normal I get this type of performance with the GT420M??

 

Wait ... isn't there some setting for that. My sister has an old MSI (4y+) and it has two finger middle click and three finger right click.

 

I've bought a Estern Digital USB 3.0 drive and I just get around 40MB/s with the USB 3 connection... What am I doing wrong that it's so slow?

 

Oh, no idea actually. I'm going to look for it now, thanks for the tip.


I saw somebody complaining about their auidocard stoping to work randomly. Just happened to me, I used the multimediakey to pause spotify then all sound died. A reboot fixed it.

 

Maybe it is the drive inside that is limiting your speed?
My USB 2.0 drives get about 22MB/S, so you're still doing better than USB 2.

 

As a update: I didn't find 2 finger right click. But I found a few other cool gestures .

 

OMG I ordered mine on the 27th and it came today!!!!!!!

 

i'd feel a bit sketchy about that.... u ordered on the 27th.. would hv gone through the production line by 28th.. should hv taken at least a day for delivery... meaning took only 2 days in production?

check if u can see any marks of usage... maybe they sent u the same configuration of a returned laptop?

 

Even though I got mine a few weeks ago, I always go to dell.com and build another one to see if prices went up or down I checked on 11/24 (black Friday) and it said it would ship by 11/27! It took almost a month to get mine...

 

Actually, I ordered it on the 24th, sorry.

 

Did anyone post a guide to reapplying the thermal paste? I got my machine today and the fan is almost constantly going, it is very annoying. At idle it will let the CPU get to about 60C and then turn on until it goes back down to about 40C. This is a cycle of about a minute on, 30 seconds off. Also my hard drive is basically a constant 45C, does this seem high to anyone else?

Also, CPUID monitor is not showing me the 420M graphics, anyone know why? I have a 560M CPU, it doesn't show the battery info either that I have seen in other screenshots. All I have listed is a Dell Inc, CPU and hard drive (toshiba).

 

My system will be coming in this weekend (fingers crossed!). Wud be GREAT if ANYONE could share some pics / videos of the thermal paste job, if possible....

This is very much required now that the XPS 1X are becoming popular (and notorious for fans on all the time!)

Any help appreciated..!

 

Just a general point not aimed at anyone: Are we not letting Dell off the hook by allowing them to continually do an unacceptable job on the thermal paste? Sure, these Dell systems are good value but they still cost many hundreds of Dollars, Pounds and Euros and should be built properly.

My suggestion: We should make an online petition to improve the thermal pasting part of the construction process- and send it to Dell.

 

How many people have done a repaste and fixed their thermal issues (fan constantly running, warm palmrest at idle)? I've only read one on the forum so far...

 

Who cares ? we just want new drivers or drivers from NVIDIA working!!!!!

 

I got my laptop the other day and the FHD screen is really beautiful I'm very happy with it! the Tv tuner is also working well with the antenna cable.

 

My ArctiClean and AS5 came yesterday, unfortunately I gotta study my bum off for an anesthesia final Monday morning, so I won't be getting to it until then. But if nothing is posted by then, well that is the earliest you'll be seeing anything.
Back to the books, peace out.

 

Sure thing! Thanks! And best of luck with the anesthesia

 

I've been watching this forum for the last month and a few people said that they repasted. Others have complained about higher than normal internal temps and constantly running fans (with a poor paste job being the likely culprit). Also a person a few posts ago, so it seems to be an ongoing thing that isn't being rectified by Dell. They do seem to have a quality-control problem with the machine that does the pasting.

A group complaint would be far more effective than a few isolated individuals- this applies to all areas of life if something needs to be improved, not just notebooks

 

New on this forum but just received my new XPS 15!!
No probs with the fan though... i'll post if this changes.

Of the guys that have ordered a tv-tuner; did you receive a remote with the order???

 

Anyone else not getting USB 3 transfer speeds from their USB 3 ports? I have the latest drivers installed, the ports show in device manager as USB 3 but when I plug in my USB 3 drive I get a message saying that "this device is capable of higher speeds and should be plugged into a USB 3 port" when its plugged into the USB 3 port!

My transfer speeds of it are standard USB 2 as well.

 

Well that depends on the size of the group. I'm not as convinced as you seem to be that it is a widespread problem. It must be very frustrating for those people who do have the problem but I don't think there's been any more than 6 or so individuals who have reported the problem. There appear to be many posts because of people commenting on the original posts and the people who have the problem providing updates on their re-pasting or their returns. For what it's worth (and of no consolation to the people who do have the problem), I don't have any fan problems with my L501x (I5 / 420).

 

My XPS 15 that was replaced for subwoofer popping when no sound/music was playing has decreased fan noise compared to my original XPS 15 that was built the 2nd week of November. The new one was built the 4th week of November. Still repasting it though, for no other reason than to tinker.

 

No I have not. Would've been cool, but actually I'm pretty good with just my mouse

 

I think that Dell Laptops are assembled in different parts of the world for different markets. With that in mind, does anybody in the UK have the fan/heating problem with their L501?

 

Hey guys. I have almost made up my mind and about to place an order in the next couple of days. I have a few more doubts so i would really appreciate if you could advice me a little more.

First of all, i wanted to know how much difference will a windows7 home premium and windows7 proffessional would make?coz i am getting an upgrade to proffessional in INR 3688(thats around $80)?

Secondly, they re giving me McAfee trial version for 30 days with my present config and offering an upgrade to 15 months for around $20 more and a dell recommended upgrade of 36 months for around $55. is it advisable to go for an upgrade in the anti virus?

And finally what kinda gameplay can i expect in games like COD Black Ops and NFS HotPursuit 2010 with this config?

The config i have chosen is

XPS L501X
Intel® Core? i7-740QM Processor (1.73GHz, 4Core/8Threads, turbo boost up to 2.93Ghz, 6M
cache)
15.6 FHD (1920x1080) B+RGLED display with TrueLife?
Anodized Aluminium LCD Back Cover (WLAN)
4GB (2GBx2) 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Tray Load Blu-ray BD-ROM / DVD + /-RW Combo Drive
Intel Wireless Driver(6200/6300)
2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 435M graphics with Bluetooth
Waves MaxxAudio V3.0 audio enhancements software
Intel WiFi Link 6200 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini-card
Dell? Backlit Keyboard with Touchpad (English)
Genuine Windows(R) 7 Home Premium 64bit (English)
McAfee(R) Security Center - 30 Days Trial Version
1-year XPS Premier Service with 1-year CompleteCover

 

Dude, why are you double posting? This question was answered elsewhere and besides, this is the owners lounge.
Where you posted prior is the correct place.

 

Please let me know how your paste job goes, sprtnbsbl. I am very close to doing it myself but am hesitant to tear down a brand new machine.

Is anyone else not seeing their graphics card show up in CPUID temp monitor? Suggestions on another monitor to try?

Also any tips on how to see which graphics card is being used (optimus)? I saw this asked in other places but no real answer.

 

Just a question, are the drives that come in our L501X SATA or PATA connectors? I'm getting ready to buy a Blu-Ray burner to put in my XPS15, just need to know what I'm looking for before the laptop gets here. Thanks!

 

I think it's safe to say it will be SATA. And can you link to the drive you are ordering? Newegg doesn't have much in stock so I'm just curious which one you're going with.

123KN Dvd+/-Rw, 8, 12.7, Serial Ata, Tray, Hitachi Lg Data Storage

 

can you post some pictures when you open up the laptop? it would be great to see how to get access to Hard drive and CPU.

 

If I have time I will.

Seriously though, a lot of people are asking for this bit of info, if everyone will look at the front page of this thread, there is a link to Dell's manuals, and within there are directions to get to every piece of hardware in the laptop.
That is what I'm using for my guide, it should work just fine for everyone else as well.

 

Is there anyone in San Francisco that has a xps 15 and would be willing to let me see it? I really want to order one but I am hesitant about the keyboard and would like to check it out before spending a huge chunk of change.

 

what are you using to overclock? codbo lags like hell for me @720p medium/aa&af off/shawdows off/vsync off

 

NVIDIA built a useful tool into the Verde drivers which shows you when the GPU is active and what program(s) are using it. You can view a YouTube video I created here which outlines how to enable and use this feature (along with the other features listed above within the NVIDIA Control Panel). I apologize for the low volume...

YouTube - NVIDIA Optimus Driver Tutorial

Have a good one...

Sean

Sean Pelletier
Senior Technical Marketing Manager - Notebooks
NVIDIA

 

Can I ask you a question? Why there are specific Dell drivers for the 435m that doesn't have optimus? I would find it easier to just use the normal nvidia drivers (can I do that?).

 

Its because i7 + 435m combo does not have optimus capability. It always uses the Nvidia card. if I remember it correctly it does not actually have an Intel card to fall back on. Nvidia is the only card so no Optimus.

 

Right, the i5 processor has its integrated Intel graphics on-chip, the i7 is missing that chip entirely.

 

yes, infact I have the i7+435 and only the i5 has the intel secondary gpu.
so, if I understood correctly, I can't use the driver from nvidia's site because I don't have optimus?
I'm sorry but I'm kind of confused. I thought I could use the nvidia driver just because I am without optimus

 

Just realized that even with the laptop turned off and connected to a power supply, the eSATA/USB 2.0 port is able to charge your devices like iPhone etc. Sweet!

 

Universal Serial Bus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sleep-and-charge USB ports can be used to charge electronic devices even when the computer is switched off. Normally when a computer is powered off the USB ports are powered down. This prevents phones and other devices from being able to charge unless the computer is powered on. Sleep-and-charge USB ports remain powered even when the computer is off. On laptops charging devices from the USB port when it is not being powered from AC will flatten the laptop battery faster. Desktop machines need to remain plugged into AC power for Sleep-and-charge to work

Yeah a lot of notebooks are coming with them these days.

 

Been doing some playing around with OCCT and prime95 for temps and such .

When running both it pegs the cores and the cpu speed stays at 1.73ghz ..
Is it suppose too since that is the core speed?

When turbo kicks in, from what I have read it only clocks up one core for extra power when the app is only using 1 core or needs it?

A quick question on speedstep too . I disabled it in the BIOS .. Will this effect turbo at all?

Thanks
M

 

I am using msi afterburner 2.1 beta 4.

Also use afterburner to check your gpu use whilst playing COD BO. I noticed my utilisation is 70-80% which is odd. I play 720p with AA/AF high but no shadows and get good fps.
Bear in mind though, COD BO is a buggy poor console port POS, the issues is more likely BO than your gpu. BO looks worse than MW or WAW but runs a lot worse! Hoping for a decent patch to sort the issues out

 

I got my new xps 2 days back. and when i tried to play gta 4, it lags in between. Benchmark test result was good though (35-40 fps). Even when the settings are low, it lags. Anyone knows what the problem might be ?

 

For people with the i5 processor, I understand that this has "turbo boost". When does turbo boost come into effect and how do you know that it is being implemented?

 

I don't uderstand, maybe you're talking about optimus? Because turbo-boost is a cpu feature that's on the i7 aswell.

 

I'm not talking about optimus but turbo boost. How does it work and does it give you any notification when it's in use?

 

I asked because you were referring to the i5 cpu and I wanted to be sure I was thinking about the right thing
anyway here's the description of intel turbo boost:
Increasing Performance with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
personally the only notification I notice is the gadget on the desktop showing you the cpu speed level.

 

Which gadget is that?

It's not the windows widget showing cpu and memory is it as that is just a generic widget and not related to turbo boost.

 

no, it's a specific gadget (or widget, whatever they're called...recently switched from XP and I never use them ) from Intel and you should have it installed with the default config, or you can get from Dell's driver page, it's in the chipset category and it's called "Turbo Boost Technology Monitor Software".