Dell XPS 15 L501 *Owner's Lounge*

I'm still having issues with the volume controls and VLC. Anybody got any ideas of solutions to it? When I press the volume controls (F8/F9) VLC also increases/decreases volume along with it, which is very annoying. Another question, is it possible to change the rate of the volume changing? I find it kinda slow.

 

I guess those controls were made to be used with VLC player aswell as in the past those buttons on the keyboard worked with just Windows media player, but now it seems to be working with VLC Player aswell.

 

Yeah, but I don't want that. It changes both VLC's volume and windows' volume. That's completely the opposite of what I want. I want only windows' volume to change.

 

My friend bought Dell XPS 15. It looks cheep... old Envy from HP looks better.

 

Here is a screen grab of the system while running Handbrake (latest version, just downloaded it yesterday) transcoding from a .mkv file weighing in at 1.8gb to an .mp4 file on the normal preset.
Not doing anything else on the system at the time (studying books), encode had been running for several minutes before I took the screen grab.
Just so you can get an idea of CPU usage and temps of video transcoding.
Left side of the palm rest isn't even remotely hot during this at all. Warm? Yes, not uncomfortable at all.

 

This indeed, I get the "popping" as well, it's hard to hear, but it's there. I've only tried it when on battery though, not with the adapter connected, gonna try that later.

And oh yeah.. My MBP owning friends are all very impressed as well , especially because of the resolution, beautiful screen, USB 3.0 ports and the speakers!

 

good news, my sxps is being replaced with an xps 15. stay tuned for a thermal paste video guide when i recieve it.

 

So Dell responded to my inquiry about the subwoofer's muffled popping, they are sending out a like-for-like replacement system within the next 1-3 weeks.

 

and the old one? Do you have to return it when the new system arrives?
I've read many posts about that poppping here in the forum and will dell replace al those notebooks?

 

Of course I have to return the old system...

 

Do you have any proof of this? I'm in Germany and my estimated arrival date has been extended 2 weeks! I wonder if this could be the reason?

 

Oh that sounds bad... I live in Germany too and my order still has an EDD of 30 nov. it went in production today. hopefully they'll get it done within the time frame

 

My computer finally changed from production to delivery prep late last night and this morning is SHIPPED!

Im in Canada
Order Date: 10/29/2010
Estimated Delivery Date: 11/25/2010

XPS 15
Intel Core i7-740QM 1.73GHz
56 WHr 6-cell Li-Ion Primary Batt L501X
6GB,DDR3,2 DIMM (L501X)
8X DVD+/-RW Tray Load Drive
15.6FHD TLF LCD L501X
Backlit Keyboard (Internal) - English
500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive (L501X)
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (L501X)

 

If there are heat issues with the palmrest, it must be across all XPS 15s, as I imagine all of them use the exact same chassis part. But people are still getting theirs shipped out using a wide variety of specs (i5s, i7s, etc).

That would seem to suggest that either they're shipping out some models with faulty parts, or the palm rest isn't actually the issue. Either way, it doesn't sound like good news.

 

No problems with my palmrest, even under video transcoding loads...

 

No problems with my palmrest either (it stays a lot cooler than my 1530). Also, no issues with the speakers/subwoofer.

 

Hi mgarvey,
Thank you for your feedback.

It's nice to know that even 720p standard screen is good enough, and that I will not be forced to pay 200€ to break my eyes on a native high resolution screen ;o)

 

Dell uses different suplliers for the standard screens. Sometimes the difference between two standard panels is like day and night. so keep your fingers crossed.

 

If that's the case, I think the Anandtech reviewer was presumptious and a bit irresponsible in dismissing the 720p screen without having even seen it!

I say 'irresponsible' because many prospective purchasers are very influenced by these internet reviews and the reviewer would be fully aware of that.

Talking of Dell changing supplier, I hope the 1080p panel is of the same quality as the present one if / when I purchase an xps in a couple of months time.

 

I am one of those whose decision on which screen to get was influenced by that review. I paid the extra $130, knowing very well that I am going to lower the resolution to 1366X768 (i.e. 720p).

 

Woot!!!!! Received my shipping notice this morning .. In Canada.
Palm rest thing might be isolated to region maybe?

Order Date:11/9/2010
EDD was 12/8/2010
Shipping Method: Canada Standard
Shipped Date: 11/19/2010
Estimated Delivery Date: Order Shipped
Carrier: PUROLATOR

M

 

I haven't heard from him since he mentioned he was going to write it. I'll be doing mine next weekend since Newegg messed up my re-order of AS5 and never shipped it.

 

Dell in Germany is offering 186 Euros discount on XPS 15 with i7 until next week. Do you think they might have better offers after that for Christmas? Does anyone have any idea about Dell's policies on this matter?

 

complete turnaround, my xps 15 who's delivery was postponed till the 9th dec has already been sent! this means it will probably arrive before the original delivery date. I wonder if it's cause I ed to them?

 

Here is after gaming for half an hour with everything cranked up.
Never went above 76 CPU, palmrest never got hot, fan isn't annoying at all, couldn't even hear it over the JBL speakers.

 

What kind of fps you getting in WoW with the 435m? Just curious since my laptop with the 445 just arrived for my wife who is a massive WoW addict. I hoping it will be much, much better than her currrent 3670.

 

That wasn't WoW, it was LoL, steady 60fps at the cap.
82 GPU max with 435m, not 420m.

 

To be fair, LoL isn't graphics intensive, AT ALL. It's really one of the ugliest games I've seen in a long time.

 

Finally succumbed to temptation, I've ordered the XPS 15!

Dell XPS 15" FHD B+RGLED, i7-740qm, 6gb RAM, 640gb HD, nVidia GT 435m, 6-cell, Bluetooth and 4 year prosupport all for £1035 Estimated Delivery 15th Dec

 

Can anyone recommend a laptop case for the XPS 15? I would prefer a briefcase style leather or nylon

 

I ordered this one:


It'll arrive on Tuesday. Bought it for 10 euros (13,60 dollars), while it should be priced around 28 euros (37 dollars). It was a mistake by the webshop, they put the importprice online instead of the shop price, so I got very lucky . I'll tell you how it works out, but I read some great reviews about it.

 

Cool, looks like a sturdy slip case, i need something to store the charger and other bits though.

 

I've noticed the subwoofer popping noise only happens with the Realtek High Def Audio driver. My system came with a differnt driver installed (High Def Audio Device) and there was no popping. Came across this while working an issue with my microphone. Seems my internal mic does not work! Unable to use Skype or Dell Webcam because it will not record sound. When I installed the Realtek Driver the poping started. Reverted back to the other driver and no popping.

The mic issue is unresolved, dell is sending a Tech to the house hopefully Monday or Tuesday.

 

Seeing as you've got a nice running example, I'd be a bit nervous about having it changed for another notebook. Are you sure the sub popping problem is not fixable? From my experience with Dell, they can sometimes change things unneccessarily, depending on who you speak to

 

Can you point me in the direction of the 'High Def Audio Device' drivers? The only ones I found for the XPS 15 were the Realtek based ones.

Other than audio this machine is absolutely perfect.

 

Meh, my laptop is stuck in customs until i get some papers out of department of treasury (it is worth more than 1k soo you need a special permit). Meanwhile, I notice something in the DHL invoice....besides the laptop and the drivers, there is a "DVD+RW drive external".

So I am wondering if the latinamerica dell branch sent me a xps 15 with a faulty drive and so they sent me an external too??

 

Before I put this pic up in the accessories section, thought I would share it here with the other XPS 15 owners.
If you're looking for a good backpack for the XPS 15 with a 9-cell battery, I found the Swissgear Pegasus to be the perfect pack. I'm a grad student that always has to take a ton of materials to campus with me (I live off campus) plus my computer, and this pack can fit it and a good amount of other stuff. It will hold the laptop with 9-cell, several 1" binders stuffed full, and tons of other little pockets for drinks, mouse, etc. And its very comfortable with all the padding.
I considered the Swissgear Ibex as well, but it was a little more pricey and from the pictures it looked quite a bit larger, and since I also want to take this on an airplane and fit it in my locker outside the lab, I had to pick a smaller sized pack than the Ibex.

You can get it for like $56 off Amazon and choosing Beach Camera as the seller (theres like 30 or 40 vendors selling it, Beach was fast and cheap).

 

^^ Had that bag for a while and it's great!

 

For some reason this driver was pre-loaded on my machine:

Microsoft Date 7/13/2009
6.1.7600.16385
win7_rtm.090713-1255

With this driver the Waves Max Audio3 button on top of the keyboard does not work either.

Does your internal mic work ok? I ran Dell Diagnostics from boot and the internal mic fails there too! side 3.5 mic jack works.

 

Did you guys notice that if you have a USB mouse in the right USB and shutdown the computer but it still has power adapter connected to the laptop, the USB is still on?

How to make it turn off when the computer shut down?

 

Damn, I went through Anand's review that baby looks so awesome. I want an XPS 15 with Sandy Bridge so bad and a mid range Radeon 6000 with GDDR5 would top it all.

 

Yes, Dell Tech Support did the remote dell connect with no luck. So I've got to wait for a tech to come to the house. Monday or Tuesday hopefully!

 

That is most probably due to the fact that it is the USB2/eSATA port, which enables you to charge USB items even when the computer is off.

So your solution here is either choose another port, or disconnect your mouse on shutdown.

 

It would be nice if the XPS 15 had a better GPU and better type of memory than just plain old DDR3. It doesn't have to be some GTX card, but at least something that has more power to play upcoming games at decent FPS on reasonable settings. I don't expect max settings.

You would think switchable configurations would allow for near high end performance and basic mobile operations.

Hearing me Dell. Or still going to make those ugly Alienware computers.

 

I prefer anything by Mobile Edge, all of their stuff is extremely rugged.

Amazon.com: mobile edge

I use the 17 inch bag, it fits monster. Works well for the XPS 15 as well.

 

Or disable the sleep charging in Bios. Though I wasn't aware that port was a sleep charge port. If it is, there should be a setting in the bios to shut it off.

 

Did someone run Need for speed hot pursuit the new one on this laptop? Does it run fine on high settings?

 

Hey guys, I'm trying to decide between the Sony Vaio F1390 and the Dell XPS 15. I made a thread here to help me decide so any help is appreicated!!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...34769-dell-xps-15-vs-sony-vaio-vpc-f1390.html

(This is for Canada, and on the Canadian Sony Style website it does not mention whether the current listed model has a backlit keyboard or not).

 

So, is there any way to get a discount on this laptopt? Cupons, wait till black friday, win the lottery, etc? I am between this laptop and the vaio.

 

Okay so I've been using this laptop more than 18+ hours a day for about 4 days.

Some points to make of so far...

1. someone mentioned backlight issue (I think it was from another thread..)
No such issue on mine. backlights are even.
2. palm rest / temperature issue
At least for mine, I don't sense any "hot" or even "warm" going on... I'm an electrical engineering student using a bunch of softwares to run simulations over and over again (which generally takes a lot of CPU's...) but no such warmness at all..
3. resolution...
I may have posted it before.. but seems like it's just my issue. I'm not really used to the 1920 resolution, so I bumped up the text size to 125% (using Windows settings).. zoomed firefox, IE, chorme to 130~144.. it's better now, but just simply zooming doesnt solve all the issues, especially loading up flash types on websites. I mean, all the text and pics are zoomed, but the flash remain the same, making weird positions when zoomed.. I guess I'll have to stick with it
otherwise, screen looks perfect, especially when watching movie!
4. is it heavy?
Yes it's heavy.. Is it portable? Yes it's portable. I actually carried this system ALONG with my old Studio 14 together inside my backpack. Even with two laptops, it didn't seem to be too heavy to carry around..
Just one tip if you're looking for a bag, don't just check the screen size. Check the dimensions... It might not fit...
5. fan noise
nope. cant even hear it over the speakers (I love the speakers btw)
6. scrolling issue?
This I'm not sure... it seems to be an issue on just mine, but can anyone check on their xps 15 too? So, say I open up 'Uninstall a Program' window. I scroll down using the touch pad. But instead of using the two-finger scroll, try using the one-finger scroll (either the circular or the vertical scroll). I can't get to the last part of the list. It always stop right in front of the last part... But then it works perfectly fine when using two-finger scrolling. Weird..

Any other known issues that I should also check?