Dell XPS 15 L501 *Owner's Lounge*

I just downloaded the new bios and installed it with no issues.

 

I installed it last night, it works fine now.

 

Alright. I have posted the below at the UBCD4WIN forums - am asking the same here just to increase my chances of finding a solution.

I know there are alternate ways out there, but I want to run the good old UBCD4WIN on XPS 15. So please advise on any tips if available.

UBCD Post - Ubcd4Win Boot Issue With Dell Xps 15 Laptop - UBCD4Win Forums

Thanks!

 

wat mouse would u suggest for my xps ???
we ve got only 3 ports...one im using for coolermaster...two left...i need for gaming...
ive got a usb hub..but im not sure it ll b the same speed f i connect the mouse to tat...

 

I've got 2 questions.

1) Does anyone have a copy of the release notes for bios A05?

2) Does anyone have an issue with a clicking noise coming from the power brick? My friend first mentioned it and I can hear it when it is sitting on the desk next to me. It isn't loud enough to be heard when the adapter is on the floor. It isn't getting hot or anything. It's maybe warm to the touch.

EDIT: It definitely seems the clicking would be abnormal. It is inconsistent (unlike the kind for AC power switching) and sounds more like a spark than anything.

EDIT: Had the PSU replaced by Dell. Waiting on the replacement part now.

 

The 266.35 beta drivers support optimus now finally. You should be able to get them from the nVidia website and they should work asis. I'm running them right now and no immediate issues.

EDIT: Please note I don't have optimus since I got the 435M and Intel i7.

 

Did do you still need the background files? I can provide them without issue. The Dell theme file is simply choosing a pre-definded wallpaper as the background. The light blue one specifically oh and it sets the logonui too. Forgot about that.

 

Hey man, what's happening with your system now? I ran the tests and nothing showed up. My problem seems to be with the wireless, when I turn wireless off I don't get any black screens.

Now today while on skype my video dissapeared and now it says that no webcam is installed on my system. I have reinstalled the webcam software and still my webcam does not show up.

Still waiting on Dell to get back to me!

 

Thank you for posting, just received my XPS L501 today. Loaded the Nvida beta driver without issue.

 

Hi Everyone,

Just a couple of things here... First, I received my notebook, i7 740, 8gb memory, FHD screen, TV Tuner, and it was working pretty good from the beginning, but the fan has been annoying me to no ends... I'm used to a super quiet ASUS machine that never cranked the fan at all in the past and always ran pretty cool!
I'm not a super power user, but do have my times... I've also done the repaste and that dropped the temp down by a few degrees, but nothing to turn off the constant fan hum.

If I was to downgrade my CPU to an i5 do you think that would have the system run quiet enough for me? I don't do much most of the time other than surfing and flash videos. The odd time I will play a game or watch HD video, but most of the time my system is hovering around the 50-55 celcius temperature mark.

Thanks all for their input!

 

Well my xps Has the core i5 and the fan is almost always on, its on its lowest setting but its on. Doesnt bother me. My system is around 35-40 celcius idle.

Laptops and high performance chip sets create heat easily in the confined spaces of a laptop. So unfortunately it comes with the territory

 

Hello. Just got me Dell XPS 15 yesterday. (My Dimension 8200 desktop lasted over seven years!)

I have a stupid question, though. Nowhere in the paperwork does it list the actual model number: L501, L501X, L502, etc so I am not sure where to post. How can I tell what it is other than an XPS 15?

 

Newbie here.

Was going to by an Asus but I couldn't get everything I wanted in it without spending several hundred dollars more. I couldn't justify it.

I waited until Dell offered the 1080 screen to order. I now see it isn't offered again. I hope my order is filled correctly. I'm not a gamer but I wanted a Blu-Ray and thought it would be worthless to get it without the 1080 screen.

Supposed to be here by Jan 27th so we'll see.

I am currently using an Inspiron 8600 and it's worked quite well but I've had plenty of problems with hindges and bezels breaking. I hope build quality is better with the XPS 15.

 

did you get Bluetooth in your laptop? you could use a Bluetooth mouse and that would free you up.that was one thing I made sure I included in mine so I wouldn't have to deal with losing a USB for the mouse. I'll be using one of mine up for the cooler.

 

Hello all

Just wondering if anyone knows the model number of the WWAN card to go in the bottom of this laptop? Dell seem to do a few of them, 5520, 5530, 5540, and none of them specifically state the XPS 15 as compatible.

Any clues?
Thanks

 

I received this baby yesterday and am looking for any faults to it. I couldn't find any faults or defects except for a few "thump" sounds underneath the keyboard. It is really random. Sometimes it would make this thump or "pounding" noise. Currently the machine is perfectly silent.

Anyways, I have issues with Flash videos where they status bar would flicker when in full screen. I googled it and there is a "fix" found from members of nbr. http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...us-issue-adobe-flash-dell-xps-15-l501x-2.html

Asides from that, sweet laptop. Can't wait to play some games on it.

 

There is only the L501x at this present point in time.
There is no L501 (it's missing an x)

The L502x hasn't been released yet

 

how difficult is it to swap 4gb to 8gb ram?

 

Easy. Take off one cover, remove the old modules, and put in the new modules.

XPS 501x Service Manual - Memory Modules

 

I want to clean my XPS 15 glossy 1080 screen - is it possible just to use glass window cleaner on a clean rag to clean it? Or will this leaving streaking and marks? I find glass window cleaner usually works fine on most things but this is my first laptop, so I thought I'd better ask just to check.

 

Using window cleaner such as Windex or the like could permanently damage your screen.

I use a micro fiber cloth for light cleaning and if I find a stubborn spot then I either rub slightly harder or add a touch of water to the cloth.

A micro fiber cleaning rag/cloth can be found at your local PC supply store most of the time but, if you don't have one the next best thing, IMO, is a terry cloth.

 

I like to use the eyeglassess cleaning solution and a micro fiber cloth. The cleaning solution is cheap and lasts forever. Walmart usuall sells them in a 3 pack (one large bottle with 2 minis ) at the vision center

 

I like that idea. Eyeglass cleaner would be much safer then typical window cleaner.

 

Eye Glass cleaner works good. I also buy some "Nice N Clean Electronic Cleaning Wipes" at Walmart that are individually packaged cleaning wipes made for electronics. A package of 24 individual wipes are about $2.50 and are easy to carry with you. I think they make a much larger package too. Work great and convenient.

 

Eyeglass cleaner works well , you can also buy LCD/Plasma TV cleaner that comes with a micro fiber at Best Buy , walmart or Target .

Just make sure you use a micro fiber cloth , anything else could scratch the screen ..

M

 

That would probably be the kick sound system these laptops have .. the bass from the sub woofer ..

Me

 

Hi folks! This is my first post here, having received my XPS 15 this week.
Have read all this forum - great store of info.

I have the i5-460 with 720 screen, 4gb RAM, 500 HDD

I can confirm that the Apple Mini Display Port to VGA Adapter works perfectly, no issues (on mine anyway)

So far am very pleased with the XPS. No issues as to heat/sound etc. One big plus for me is that I managed to save some "Read Only" videos to my HDD from DVDs I've used for years by swapping and changing.

My Inspiron 6000 would not do that.

If I had to gripe it would be about only three USB ports available. Am getting a hub in any case. Also, a backlit KB would have been a good option, unfortunately not available on this side of the pond.

Looking forward to playing with this nice bit o' kit!


Seadeuce

 

That was the first thing I did when I got mine..
Put in two Kingston 4GB DDR3 SODIMM's for 1/2 the price they wanted for the upgrade to 8gb from 4gb.
When I do my re paste I am going to upgrade the HD while I have it apart can get a 1 TB drive for $109 ..

Upgrades is where Dell and other manufactures make there money with something as easy as RAM and Hard drive , I go with the default and then upgrade them myself.

Other upgrades are not however , like the screen upgrade , wireless nic , Bluetooth and backlit keyboard ..
These would be harder to find and you would pay more for them after the fact if you could find them ..

 

I've had my XPS15 since the beginning of Dec .. and love it .. much faster than my old XPS .

Backlite keyboard is nice .. but i could have lived without it ..
Did you add the Bluetooth option?
I used a USB mouse before , but quickly went out and bought a bluetooth mouse after getting this laptop with bluetooth built in. Saves a USB port .
If you have it on the desk most of the time then a hub will work perfect.
I'm very mobile with mine and rarely have anything plugged into a usb port..

M

 

OK, I'm stumped.. My boss just got this laptop with the 1GB video and Tv Tuner card built in, when he/we go to try and set up Windows Media Center we get far enough to get prompted for an IR blaster, and can't get around it. I saw theres a file to emulate the IR Blaster, but it doesn't work for Win7 64bit... So, I'm stumped. I tried to contact Dell and have been getting the runaround, its not their fault its Microsofts, The IR receiver is built into the card, I don't have the latest drivers... They keep telling me this stuff, but its not resolving the issue.

Is there an IR Receiver I can get to make this work - or better yet, is there some way to get it to work WITHOUT an IR receiver and just change channels right from the keyboard...?

Help!

 

What hard drive is this?
Be careful as only a 2.5" 9.5mm (or 7mm) size drive will fit (unless you stick a caddy in the opyical bay)
2.5" 12.5mm size drives will not fit.

 

Well my temps have gotten a lot worse. For the first week that I had my XPS 15 my temps ran 78-84 C in BFBC2. Now they run 84-90 C with settings on low. Got a new Coolmaster U3 coming Monday. I hope this helps some.

 

the nvidia 266.35 beta drivers from nvidia.com installed without issue for me, i chose custom - clean install. no modded inf needed.

Only problem is now once again quakelive doesn't cause the autodetect to use the nvidia GPU when the client is started :/
It's spawned from a browser plugin, so I don't want to force the browser to always use the GPU of course.
(I've had mixed issues with this with different version and even reinstalling the same version, updating the optimus data doesn't help)

 

Hi Everyone,

Somehow I remapped the touch-sensitive button for Mobility Center / Dell Quickset!

It now opens a random folder.

Can anyone suggest how I might remap it back to Quickset? I tried re-installing QuickSet and that didn't work unfortunately.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Jay

 

Open windows mobility center (type it into the start menu) and click on Instant Launch Manager Settings under customised by Dell Inc. and you can change what the button does there

 

I bought mine just a week ago. I was reading the manual and there it was mentioned about the Backlit keyboard being available in three different modes by pressing F6. But that doesn't seem to work. So does Dell XPS 15 L501 support Backlit keyboard?

 

It's an optional upgrade in some countries.

 

No, that only allows me to map the Instant Launch Button (the middle of the three).

I have some somehow screwed up the Mobility / Quickset button (the leftmost of the three). That's the button that I need to remap back to the Mobility / Quickset panel.

Any more ideas, anyone?

Cheers,

Jay

 

Good to know .. thanks ..

The WD Scorpio 1TB is a 12.5mm and only a 5400rpm which I didn't notice too.. gonna have to wait a little while longer for a thinner one I guess ..

Haven't see an optical bay mod yet .. hopefully they come out with one .
I barely use my dvd (I didn't get the BR drive) , any media I play is from file or streamed ..

M

 

Hello fellow XPS L501 users.

I purchased my laptop today and for some reason was not given a CD with the proper drivers. After downloading the drivers from the Support section I am still unable to connect to a wireless or any other type of connection. Could anyone please help me out with acquiring the necessery drivers?

 

Which wireless card do you have? Can you connect using an Ethernet cable?

 

I assume that it's an Intel WiFi Link 1000 BGN, but I might be wrong.. No, I can't connect to anything.

 

Do you have other devices that can connect to your network?

 

I'm currently using my PC and the connection works perfectly.

 

Well, it arrived. I can now connect my Dell XPS 15 to my monitor through DVI.

However, I tried hooking it up through VGA via a DVI to VGA adapter but I couldn't get my monitor to recognise the signal.
So I'll be needing a second adapter to hook it up to the projectors at school.

Still, a good deal.

 

Have a mini USB 3.0 Bluetooth coming so should be okay with that.

Must keep eye open for backlite option, need it while .ppt is on and the room is dark.
The speakers on this machine are the best I've heard - no externals needed, and where audio is a prob the graphic equalizer does a good job.

Am still learning!


Seadeuce

 

Is there suppose to be a little light above the touch pad? I have a clear piece of plastic that looks like it should be a light above the touchpad, but when the keyboard is backlit, the plastic isn't lit as well.
-----

Duh, sorry, I didn't realize that goes on when you turn the touchpad off... oops, my bad.

 

Hey guys i will be getting my dell xps 15 in couple of days.

What will you suggest me to do after i get it, i mean for speeding up the booting as well some tweaking tips are necessary and help me in getting better performance ?

Also should i clean install the OS? after 2-3 days of getting it.

 

Hey team, I dont know if this is normal or not, but my XPS 15 would shut down automatically, especially during gaming. Is it because of the heat? its getting really annoying coz i cant save my game.

 

Does it shut down with a black screen? Mine does that too, usually when connected to the internet. When I disable my wireless (F2) I don't get that many black screen shut downs. It also happens when I am gaming too.

Mine also pauses and stutters a lot when just playing music and watching video files. Then it will stutter and crash leaving a loud stuttering music sound coming out of the speakers and I have to hard reset it by holding down the power button.

Also every now and then my webcam does not show up as connected so I can't use it, then it will just magicly start working again.

At the moment Dell are ignoring me, I've been waiting on a reply for two weeks now, this was a replacement for a Studio 1558 that smoke started pouring out of one day while browsing the net. That laptop is still sitting in my house and has not been collected and it stinks of burning electronics.

My warranty does not appear to be valid and my service tag shows up as invalid, I recieved this XPS 15 on 6th Dec. It was ordered with bluetooth, but it didn't come installed, so a tech came two days later and had to strip down the whole laptop to install it, and he had never seen an XPS 15 before. I also ordered it with the 6200 AGN wireless card and it came with the 1000N and Dell have so far sent out two 6200 AGN cards and neither of them have worked.

At this point I am so dissapointed.