Dell XPS 15 L501 *Owner's Lounge*

Download the plugin nosquint for firefox. You'll need to go to the publisher's website to get ver. 2.0.5 that works with the newest firefox.

Then you can turn the windows setting back to 100%...

 

Just a heads up, but this guy has been posting his impressions and benchmarks for tons of different games on his XPS L501X i7-840QM GT 435M here: YouTube - kriios's Channel One thing to note though, is that he doesn't seem to point out that Fraps usually hits your performance by 10 FPS.

 

Hi, I'm new to this forum so I'll post a short introduction in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

I'm Norwegian and a student, I currently own a Macbook Pro 3,1 with the 2,2GHz C2D. I have repasted it and upgraded the RAM to 4Gb, installed dual HDD and added some colour to the backlit logo for some extra flare! My iPhone has also been subject to some surgery so it's safe to say that I enjoy opening stuff that shouldn't be opened.

Now, both my 1 yr old iPhone and my 3 yr old mbp is on the verge of dying. Recently the GPU has started to die so I need a new computer sooner or later, probably sooner. I'm going for a W7 computer and a WP7 phone this time around. Mainly because of my restricted student bugdet and the look of WP7.

So, as you now may already know, I'm looking for a new computer and I'm not afraid to tinker with it. Dell XPS 15 is on the top of my list, that's why I'm here.

As I'm not used to Dell I have two questions before I order the system:

• Generally speaking about Dell, is it possible to install the integrated bluetooth card yourself, if you decide that you want it later? (Also is it possible to purchase it somewhere?) - After some more googling I found that it usually is possible to do this. That's good enough for me.
• Could someone post a picture of the 9-cell battery bulk? - The video above answered this question

Yeah, I know I'm not saving a fortune (or anywhere near that) on not installing the BT card stock. It's just nice to have an excuse to tinker...

I'm sorry if this is littering the owners thread. I figured that at least the bt question would be relevant for owners, admins may move this to a seperate thread if that is appropriate.

Edit: Found out what I needed. Going to order my Dell soon. Thanks for all the info I have got out of lurking this place so far.

 

This is probably not the best place to ask, but ill give it a try. Is dell the only company that takes this long to ship? Having to wait 2 weeks just for them to send the computer is kind of crazy. The dell XPS 15 is at the top of my list (hell I almost completed my order yesterday), but the time it takes for them to ship is crazy. I would pay an extra $50 to rush the order if I could.

 

They are building your computer before the ship it.

 

I was thinking about that rush thing too, but then everyone would pay, and it wouldn't even be a rush anymore.

 

How to upgrade drivers for Nvidia 420m gt using latest nvidia drivers?

I dont really need switchable graphics, so can I install latest drivers from Nvidia site?

 

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sorry, i made this post by mistake...i could not delete it

 

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I tried to break my existing HDD partition into two - relatively small C: and bigger D: and Windows did not allow me to have my C: lesser than 290 GB while having D: around 290 GB.
How can I force my lappy to have C: around 100GB or less?
Help is appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

While playing a game, game was running slow and then I found out it was using Intel card, and I had to manully change it from Nvidia settings to always use Nvidia card and then it started working smoothly.

There should really be something manual to change between the graphics card.

 

Shouldt there be an option for the system to auto switch and you can get an icon in the task bar advising which is being used

 

I dont see anything.....theres no easy button to switch the graphics as there were in my previous laptops

 

wrong post...

 

Found the answer - there are some unmoveable files that prevent volume from shrinking. In Event Log -> Windows -> Application i found unmoveable files and moved them by myself

 

I just received a xps 15 as a replacement for my xps 1645 (throttling/heating issues) and was thinking about applying new thermal paste on the CPU & GPU, but I like how Dell has made it near impossible to get to them (compared to the xps 16, and subsequently all the xps models before it). Here's the disassemble guide to access the cpu: link

 

the lenovo y560 and z560 seem good. should i go for lenovo or this dell xps.

 

In the support manula for XPS 15 it is mentioned that SIM card can be inserted below battery??
Is it true for XPS 15 laptops in India? can SIM card be inserted?
If yes can we access 3G support in XPS15 also as in mobile phones??

I found it here in DELL's site user maual for XPS15
Documentation

 

From what I could see from dell.co.in the 3G upgrade is not available in your region.

 

ok.. Thanks..
But can the SIM be inserted in XPS or DELL dont provide this facility for XPS in India

 

The SIM slot is there to facilitate the 3G features that are available for upgrade in other regions. If, and I doubt it, the slot is there even if you haven't got the 3G upgrade it wouldn't do you any good to place a simcard there.. Other than for safekeeping of course....

 

The fan noise has reached irritating levels. Doing some light web surfing and the fan is constantly kicking in high, low, high, low. Extremely irritating. :/ The AS5 needs to hurry up and get here.

 

I have noticed that too....

I thought it was because I had Nividia set as Global all the time and did not switch to Intel......guess that was not the reason.

Are you sure AS5 will fix it?

 

It should. I think Dell did an incredibly sloppy job with the paste on my system. From what I'm seeing I'm running about 10c higher than several others (including a few with I7's)... t

I should not be hitting 65c temps with about 10% cpu usage. That's just stupid. My HDX18t hits 62c under FULL LOAD for several hours. And my Dell is idling higher than that? Eeesh.

Won't know for sure until I can do it though. If that doesn't fix this, then it's going back. I'm so irritated (high, low, high low, as I type this), I want to toss the thing in the garbage.

 

By AS5 you meant BIOS Version? I am on A03....

 

Arctic Silver 5. Arctic Silver, Inc. - Instructions

 

Oh, is it possible someone can make a video or screenshots on how to apply that to XPS 15, as I am completely new at this and would not want to mess anything up.

 

so my xps 15 just arrived and I started playing civ 5. it works fine, but I wasn't totally sure if it was using the nvidia (gt 420m) or integrated graphics so I manually switched the graphics to nvidia but when I do civ 5 stops working altogether, it won't even start up. which leads me to believe that when it can choose for itself it chooses the integrated graphics because the nvidia graphics don't work at all.

second of all when I try to download the newest driver (260.99) it tells me that the graphics driver can't find compatible graphics hardware.

any thoughts?

 

Ninja2000 was going to post a guide. I'll probably just end up taking some before and after temp readings. I won't have the hands available to make a video.

When I do it i'll try to stop midway once the notebook is apart and take some pics. Beyond that there are plenty of videos on the web, just not for this model yet.

 

Arctic Silver 5. It helps to dissipate the heat from the CPU/GPU faster. I think there is BIOS version A04 out now.

 

Have any of you guys tried out the multi touch on the trackpad? How would I go about enabling that or did I need a specific driver other than the synaptics one

 

It's really worth trying!

 

Also I would like to know, how to upgrade to latest nvidia driver?

 

anyone do a fresh install yet?

 

I still want to know how to edit the rate at which the volume changes (Fn+F8/F9). I find it way too slow for my taste. I goes up by 2% per tick, I'd rather ~5-10% per tick instead.

 

Yeah, its easy peasy. Just download all the drivers to a USB stick before you do it because the Intel wifi drivers arent on the Win7 disk, so you'd have a tough time downloading drivers.

 

is the wifi driver the only one which is not on the disk? What about the Nvidia 435 driver?

 

I deleted all the dell partitions on my HD... All the drivers are on the CD but none of them would open. When I tried to install off the CD, it kept giving me an error saying my operating system was 64bit. My operating system is 64bit and the CD was supposed to have 64bit drivers on it.

Luckily I had my other laptop to download the wifi driver and then I just went to dell.com and got everything I needed.

 

Anyone replaced the optical drive with an SSD yet? I'm interested but I'm not sure which caddy to get where the original faceplate fits. I don't want to end up with a hole on the side of my notebook or something mismatching...

 

Yeah I'm wondering the same as Fishker. I'd like the replace the optical drive with my old 500gb HDD from my old laptop. Would be nice to have >1TB of space on my laptop

 

Sorry, but why you need that much right at laptop? Some kind of torrent machine loaded with all TV-series of House M.D. in FullHD ? Just curious.

 

Anyone else ESC key alittle hard to press?

 

while gaming fans runs constantly and temp above 70C, this normal?

 

So does anyone recommend changing the thermal compound on the new XPS 15 to something along the lines of Arctic Cooling MX-4?

I just ordered mine a few days ago and if it is anything like my old SXPS 1640, I believe I may give this a go. Has anyone else changed theirs?

 

I've been playing around with my XPS 15 and noticed that I can't get alt codes to work, on my previous systems (m1530 and sxps 1645) you can do this using alt+Fn+(m=0,j=1,k=2, etc.). Anyone know how I can fix this?

 

I personally use mx-3, I've read the mx-4 isn't as good.

As far as replacing the thermal paste, it' quite difficult to get to the cpu&gpu on the xps, unlike the xps 16s. I the manual from Dell on how to disassemble the system to get to the cpu, and you pretty much have to tear apart the whole thing.

My temps seem average now,
i7-740qm - idle: 48-50, gaming (black ops): 77-80
435M GT - idle: 44-46, gaming (black ops): 76-78

I hate the thermal paste Dell uses, its like a pre-made square pad, that they just stick on, so if you have the time, I'll say go for it, it'll give you a good 3-5C (or more?) drop

 

What is a good way to use the Dell Instant Launch button for? Anything useful I can set it for?

 

I've put it on turn off screen, using that a lot in college, to save a bit of battery life. But linking it to your webmail (or hotmail for example) is very useful as well.

 

So to get average temps, you may need to tear the whole thing apart and replace the 'square pad'.

That's sold me. Ordered!