Dell XPS 15 L501 *Owner's Lounge*

Mine's exactly the same. Pretty squidgy all the way across really. I suppose it depends on what you're comparing it to. I had an ASUS G1S before, and the keyboard was rigid. I did notice the keyboard flex on this within 30 seconds of starting to use it, and was quite alarmed by it, but now time has passed, and I've adjusted to the differences, and now really enjoy the machine on its' own merits. The flexible keyboard doesn't really bother me, as your fingers don't relly feel it, but if I look at it when I'm typing, there's a significant amount of movement.

 

My XPS 15 is connected to a LED monitor via hdmi and a few minutes ago the display went blank, black that is. The notebook was still working tho, and the monitor as well. And I couldn't toggle between the displays so had to hard reset it. Now it's working fine, but do you guys have any idea what can cause such a problem? Graphic card?

I was watching a video on YouTube BTW, just for info.

Thanks.

PS: My power management settings are turned off, so the display cannot shut down or dim itself.

 

Did you try hitting the display toggle key, F1? It may switch the internal LCD back on.

 

Well yeah, I tried to hit the Fn+F1 combination to no avail. It didn't happen again since, but it bugs me not knowing the reason. Maybe it's because I raised my laptops rear end a little, in order to provide more air circulation beneath it (inspired by the 9 cell battery!), but it was unbalanced since I did that with only one piece of a support at the middle of the laptop. So, it wasn't stable and I caused it to shake once or twice by accident, so I put another support beneath it and stabilized it. Maybe that shake caused a loose connection temporarily, I don't know.



On second thought, even if so, it really wasn't that strong of a shake to cause a problem but you never know...

 

I tried that and am unable to find the setting. Was anyone else able to find it?

 

It's under desktop in the nvidia control panel. PHISH.

 

My new XPS 15 is driving me nuts. Every time I hit a key or tap on the touchpad the top cover buzzes. It is coming from near the left speaker.

Is this common? Is there anything I can do about it other than ship it back to Dell?

 

So I just got off the phone with dell xps support. I told them my gpu heats up to 96C after about 4 minutes after gaming and it stays there the whole time. The reply was that it is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.
Does that seem right to you guys?

 

Check the connections to your a/c adapter and to the wall.

 

It is "normal" for them to reply like that. They won't take any action just for high temperature. If you tell them that you also experienced other issues related to overheating like your notebook produced beeps sound, automatically shutdown while using it, etc, they will take it to another level such as sending Dell technician to your house for repair.

On my first report to Dell, I told them that the CPU's temp is too high. I also told them when I tried to power ON my notebook, I heard beeps sound & it refused to boot. I have to wait a couple of minute to power ON it & boot normally. Both problem actually happened. Dell support just ask simple question & set an appointment for Dell technician to come to my house for replacing the motherboard & heatsink. On second report, I told them the GPU's temp reaching 102C. They told me it perfectly normal.

 

I get the same buzzing without the AC adapter plugged in.

 

Oh, I didn't realize it was happening on battery power too. On my previous laptop, an HP DV6, if the cord from the laptop to the power brick came a little loose, I would feel a very mild shock when I touched the computer. Nothing painful, more like licking a 9-volt battery, except through my fingers.

 

It isn't electrical. It's like something is loose on the left side and it vibrates when I hit the touch pad. I get the same vibration if I tap on the top cover or type with more than a very soft touch on the keys.

I can't decide if I should send it back to Dell or take off the top cover and see what is loose. It looks like there is just a screw and two clips holding the top cover.

 

Meh, I emailed them about high cpu temps "under load" and they sent me a MB, Heatsink, and a bunch of other parts to replace including a new undercarriage. I replaced the heatsink and sent the other parts back.

I don't play games however. I did it all through email. No issues.

So they will respond. I wanted the heatsink replaced as I felt the original I got was inferior in quality, and as it turns out, it was. The temps are "finally" under control now under load.


In any case, now that the LX502 is soon to be arriving, I will not be updating the first post in this thread anymore. I suggest someone who orders the LX502 make an owners thread for that refresh as the changes are significant enough to warrant a new owners thread.

 

You have completely different problem. Yours clearly have problem with cooling system because even under loads, the temps are too high. That is why dell sent you the motherboard, heatsink, etc. While me & halvis have high temps while or after playing games.

If halvis does not mention that it happen after playing games & just mention the high temps when under loads (since it happen after halvis playing games), I'm sure dell will fix it by replacing the motherboard or heatsink or both.

 

Sup bros. Just got my 1640 replaced with an XPS 15 + i5 and GT 420m and loving it so far! It's quite a beautiful machine. I have one problem with it however:

I'm not able to run Left 4 Dead 2 at all. I can navigate through the menus and such but when I actually join or start a game it automatically crashes to the desktop. Plus, some of the textures are wonky and look like they are missing. Tried a variety of other games and other Source games (Half-Life 2, CSS, etc) as well and they work fine, tried reinstalling drivers as well and still the same problem.

I want to shoot my zombies. ;__; If anyone can help, that'd be super special awesome.

 

Hi guys, got a problem with my lappy (i7,GT435M), would appreciate any help. When outputting to my TV via HDMI to watch films I get an intermittent judder than gets quite annoying. One of the main reasons I bought the laptop was to display films I have, on my tv. Any ideas what could be causing this ? thanks

 

I have the same configuration and have had no problems using HDMI with a bunch of different displays...

what kind of TV is it? (DLP, LCD, plasma, projection, etc.)

 

thanks for the quick reply. I've tried it on two lcd's and a plasma - all with the same results.

 

It's all a matter of how you explain the issue to them is my point. As someone who works for a hardware manufacturer of notebooks, if you go in talking about high temps when gaming, you're not going to get what you want, sadly.

 

(never mind, let's stop here before going off topic. both of us have the same point.)

 

Is there a post up for this? I have the caddy but (a) am having trouble getting the caddy based hard drive recognized (and can't boot with it installed - only with the SSD in the original hard drive location will it boot) and (b) want to change the faceplate.

Thanks!

 

anyone tried to bother or know if you can overclock this laptop? passing the 3.0ghz bench would be nice even if its a small overclock

 

@ clearizzy:

I had the same problem too, it was driving me nuts. However all it is is that nvidia doesn't have a profile for that game so the computer defaults to using the onboard graphics rather than the nvidia card. All you have to do is right click the icon and change the default graphics card for the game. If your using steam it's in the steam folder.

 

Can I upgrade the RAM by myself? If yes, will it be painstakingly hard?

 

Yes you can, and no its not. It's actually the easiest things you can do on your laptop.

There is a small compartment plate thingy on the bottom, no bigger than your hand, just open that up, few screws, and i would assume you know the rest.

 

^ cheers ans, one more question, what is the brand of ram installed on the xps? so when I purchase one it will be the same as the original installed ram.

 

Hey, I've had 2 XPS 15s, (one was replaced for a faulty screen) and both had the same problem with the speakers popping during audio playback. It is NOT the power management issue with the subwoofer popping when it's turning off, it only happens playback. It's especially evident in quieter music and piano music. Both my laptops had this problem and it also happens with headphones. Anyone else with the same problem/a solution?

 

Is it recommended to take the laptop battery out if I mainly use the computer plugged in or is that an old myth?

 

I got the BSOD when resuming from 'sleep' mode. Did a little research and turns out it has something to do with the hard drives I guess. Not that they are faulty or something, but it seems the power management settings or AHCI or whatever settings are problematic maybe, I don't know.

I attached the photo of the BSOD, any help would be great.

http://img153.imageshack.us/i/dsc00765kv.jpg/



(After I got the blue screen, I started the computer again and it worked fine, it's just a resuming from sleep issue I guess)

 

That is a very good practice.

Make sure you use your battery about once a month though - pop it in, charge it fully, unplug power supply, discharge, charge to about 40% and take the battery out for another few weeeks.

That way you will have a working battery when you need it.

 

Hmm, thats strange. I resume from sleep without issues. What's ur setup?

 

Well I finally bit the bullet and took my lappy apart after having the fans almost always on and temps on the cpu reaching 80 and gpu 69. The following pictures show the "caking" of Dells thermal paste. Click on them to get a larger pic.

 

Here are the same components after a good cleaning

 

And after applying my choice of thermal compound as recommended by this forum, Liquid Ultra Pro

 

Taking the lappy apart took me about 30mins. The hard parts were psyching myself up to do this and removing the gunk from the processors. BTW, can anyone tell me what this is

 

There is "HM57" written on it. So, it is HM57 chipset. Can you check something for me? In device manager, can you see "Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset..." or similar? I asked because I want to know whether HM57 chipset also in 3400 series chipset or not.

 

What are your temps after repasting?
Curious to see how low the i5 can go with proper paste.

 

Didn't see a reply on this ..
DELL uses an OEM to supply ram .. Chances are if you have 4 gb , it will be 2 - 2gb chips..
I replaced my 4gb with a pair of Kingston 4gb sticks .
Think it was these Newegg.com - Kingston 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model KVR1333D3S9/4G , but not 100% sure the exact model .

Was easy , take the bottom cover off , clip the old ram out and snap the new ones in.. they didn't hide one ram module under the key board like most manufactures.

M

 

I am thinking of doing this when I do my re-paste and found this link ( 2nd HDD or SSD Caddy for DELL XPS 15 (replace optical) [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-BU] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks ) from a thread on these boards.

Is this the one you purchased?

M

 

Didn't see a reply to this..

1. - Yes - Shows 8 cores in "cpu usage hisotry" picographs
2. - Turbo has reached the 2.93ghz (the max I think) but Turbo only works when a app or game is using 1 core . If the more than one core is being used it will not Turbo Boost . Currently it is sitting at 2.40ghz with a game (Age of Conan) minimized and 5 or size apps open ( IE , FF , MSN , Notepad , etc )
3. - Not sure on those games don't play them . But I am a gamer and have been very happy with the game performance.. Blackops is smooth on med - high .. Age of Conan is a graphics hog and I get 30 + fps on high settings.

M

 

Yes there is. PCI Express root port 1,2,4,5,6

 

Thank you. I may have made a mistake. Actually HM57 & 3400 is not the same chipset. The "Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset..." is only a device name since both chipset use the same driver. The reason why I asked you earlier because I was wondering whether HM57 chipset does supported "Port Multiplier" or not. HM57 chipset does support "Port Multiplier" while 3400 is not.

 

Well it's kind of a mixed bag. CPU is down to 70 but gpu remains at 69!!! Idle is around 45 for the cpu and 39-40 on the gpu. I do a lot of AE work and play a few games. I have POP FS which I ran at full everything. I shall be loading a particularly system intensive AE project later on. Will keep you posted...

 

XPS 15 L501x, i7-740QM, 6GB, 640GB HDD, GT 435m 2GB, 15,6 720p, 6 cell battery and Win 7 Home Premium...

Yesterday I downloaded and installed th new Win7 updates which took half an hour or so, there was a service pack 1 included as well. Anyways, I then worked with my laptop and put it on sleep and now resumed with no problems. People say that this BSOD behavior usually occurs after a few sleep/resumes tho.

I don't if it will happen again after 3 or 5 times, or if the new updates fixed this in the first place. Also, I always left Photoshop, Chrome and Winamp open when putting on sleep. Now I closed all the programs, I heard that running some programs can interfere with resuming sometimes, so, we'll see...

PS: I also have a Wacom tablet attached to it via USB port, just for your info.

 

Yeah, the heatsink sucks, I got lucky and got a better one the 2nd time around. Those small pits and scratches are actually quite mountainous, it should be mirror smooth.

 

This may sound silly but try AS5 on the Nvidia GPU and keep the Liquid Ultra for the CPU.

I used AS5 and found my GPU running cooler than my CPU. in some cases much cooler.

 

I had this a couple of times when resuming from hibernation, After a bunch of driver updates from dell the problem went away, have you tried that?

 

Just got my XPS 15 L501 a week or so ago and I like it a lot, except for the fan noise.

Specs:XPS 15 L501x, i7-740QM, 6GB, 640GB HDD, GT 435m 2GB, 15.6 1080p, 9 cell battery and Win 7 Home Premium

The fan runs at what I assume must be 100% speed for probably 75% of the time I'm using the computer for just web browsing, with only a few tabs open. It's really loud and driving me crazy. Right now it's running at maybe 20% speed and I can definitely handle that, but oh, here it goes - it's ramping back up to jet engine speed.

I don't mind that it's running at full speed when I have several applications open at once, particularly with VM and ArcGIS - that makes sense - but right now it doesn't seem to need the fan running this high - the temps are all around 55 C for all 4 cores and at 53 for the GPU.

I've been searching all evening for a remedy and so far I haven't found one. I'm running the A06 BIOS from 1/6/2011. Is there not a way to control the fan in the BIOS? I looked but didn't see any fan settings. Is there a mod or driver update or something? Do any of the fan control programs work for the XPS 15? Should I just get a tech to come out and replace the fan?

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated!

Also, I got this from the outlet, so I can't really get it replaced, although I could still return it at this point.

 

Well, I thought of that as well, but I already had downloaded all the drivers after a fresh install a month ago. Let's see what will happen after a bunch of sleeps/resumes! I'll keep you guys updated.

I really hate that blue screen! So annoying