Dell XPS 15 L501 *Owner's Lounge*

Turn off screen sounds awesome! I've always said there should be a way to turn off the screen of a laptop on demand without sleeping/hibernating/shutting down.

 

Use Autohotkey for those special characters. It's easier

 

So are those temps you posted with the famous dell square pad or is that with your MX-3? I don't mind tearing the laptop apart as long as there arent any flimsy plastic parts that are going to break along the way.

I have left over Arctic Silver 5 at home that I used on my i7 Desktop I built last summer, but I hear the MX-4 and now MX-3 are better to go with these days.

- Dan

 

Here's some more gaming numbers.

Fallout 3: New Vegas

Settings:
1600x900
AA 4x
AF 8x
Textures - High
Radial Blur - Med
Water Quality - Med
Shadows - Med
Screen Effects - HDR
Vsync

During gaming, I had performance monitor applet running on the screen of my G15 keyboard and CPU usage never went above 25% (specs in sig), RAM usage never went above 45%.
I wasn't running FRAPS, but it never skipped a frame and there was 0 lag, so I'm assuming it was at least around 30fps, subjectively it looked great, take that for what its worth.

Max CPU temp was 88 degrees Celsius, fans kicked in at full bore about a minute into the game. The fans are not nearly as "whiney" as those on the '08 MBP I used to have. They do get kinda loud, but if you're gaming and have the nice JBL 2.1 speakers turned up to about 35% volume or so, I didn't notice the fans.
Processor energy usage is 54.21w during max load. Dell supplies the 130w AC adapter stock, this system never, ever throttles.
GPU max temps, are, wait for it, 96 degrees Celsius. Once fans kick in and cool things off they drop into the low 80s. Debating if I want to add some AS5 or MX-3 compound to the heatsinks. So it runs a little hot and cools down quickly, some of you will undoubtedly get up in arms about this, doesn't really bother me much.
Hard drive max temps are 51 degrees Celsius.

 

Screen question!

I just noticed that the plastic on the edge of the screen is not completely attached to the actual screen. It kinda moves back n forth when you touch and if you have long nails, you can probably slide it in the gap!

Has anyone else noticed this?

 

and what's the actual problem with it?

 

When the computer is at idle, even then the fan runs for no reason.

Maybe its because I have Nividia set as global setting and not Auto?

 

420m or 435m?

i7 runs hot if you're running 435m. My fan runs at low all the time.

 

420m is the card, but I just switched to integrated and still fan noise.....so its not related to that.

 

The fan running constantly has nothing to do with the nvidia card. I have kept my nvidia card disabled in device manager (didn't even install drivers for it) and the fan has not turned off for a second. Even when the PC is just idling. The left side of the touchpad is warm to the touch almost constantly, too.

I guess Dell just doesn't do cooling very well. I'm dreading having to open it up just to reapply some thermal paste on a brand new laptop. Consumers shouldn't have to do such things.

 

I've bought this thing for my XPS 15. It's the best cooling pad I've seen thus far and it should cool the pc around 20 degrees.

http://zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=399

Does anyone have experiences with cooler or this thing in particular?

 

Yes, its definitely crackling on some mid to low level frequencies. Kind of disappointing based on how much the sound on this laptop was hyped up. I hope that a future driver will fix it, but I doubt it. Doesn't seem like a software issue. Dell has a audio new driver up today, but the damn link is broken.

 

I was thinking of getting it, but this review turned me away. It looks like it doesn't really make much of a difference, the build quality isn't nearly as good as the NC2000 (which is all aluminum) and it requires two USB ports to power, and you need to purchase a separate power adapter if you want to connect something like a external HDD to the cooler itself.

I was thinking of getting the NC2000 instead, but the reviews on Amazon makes it clear that while it seems to work great at first, it isn't built to last.

 

But the review doesn't sound bad at all. It only has one real con saying that the power adapter (which you don't need if you you don't plug any high consuming electronical devices into it's usb ports)
And you don't need to plug the Y-usb cabel in two usb slots only if you need more power...

 

I am using Dell Latitude notebook for an year now and as I do only office stuff on it, never was concerned with the temperatures. And now that I getting one, is the cooling pad that effective in getting the temps down?
Also, is thermal paste worth it?

 

In a review I've read that it should cool the laptop around 20 degrees.

 

Does anyone have an issue when using full screen mode on flash videos like Youtube? I get this weird flashy flickering on the bottom where the subtitles or logos (like FOX, abc, etc) stand.

 

has any1 tested the new 263.09 driver from laptopvideo2go.com?
are there any improvement in gaming?

 

I upgraded my nVidia drivers and it went away.

 

Hi

I've just received my laptop as a replacement, therefore it shipped with a small hard drive. I'm planning to get a bigger drive and do a clean install. My questions:

1. 500GB 7200rpm VS. 640GB 5400rpm - will the 5400rpm drive be significantly slower? I mainly watch movies (4-6 gigs in size) and do simple tasks on my laptop

2. How easy is it to reinstall the Dell 'stuff' using the supplied discs? Will I get to retain the 'free' microsoft office basic?

Thanks

 

7200rpm > 5400rpm by far imho. Honestly, look for a 640gb 7200rpm, it's worth the money.

Also, you could just clone the harddrive instead of doing a clean install.

 

the driver from Dell website or from nVidia?

 

From laptopvideo2go.com (with their custom .inf) version 263.06, but 263.09 came out a day or 2 after I updated. Meh.

 

Can you point me in the right direction re cloning my drive? what program or utility will i need?

cheers

 

Well I managed to do it this summer with CloneZilla, but it was a bit of a pain (cause of the say I was set up).

You can use any of these:
Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities (thefreecountry.com)

But none of them are exactly user-friendly...

And I should correct myself, I meant disk imaging, which is making your whole harddrive a single file that can be read by these programs and restored onto the same/other harddrive. Cloning is usually done when you can have two harddrives plugged in at the same time, making the second one exactly the same as the first. Cloning would work if you have an external harddrive enclosure to hold a 2.5" laptop harddrive.

 

If you buy one of the retailed drives - either seagate or WD, they should come with cloning software. That's how I did it. It was very easy. However, I believe I used my external 2.5 HD enclosure to perform the cloning.

 

I did not know you can upgrade to drivers from Nvidia, if you have both integrated and dedicated? I thought you had to wait for Dell to release them....

 

Add me to the Owners list got mine today.

What a gorgeous screen .. I'm still drooling ..

Doing a fresh Win 7 64bit Ultimate install now ..

M

 

I tried the install file from ur link.. and it doesn't work for mine.
can u give the specific link address for the driver?

 

Could you tell us how you updated the drivers? And is it working better do you think? I followed the instructions on that website but when I try to update it tells me I'm already up to date. Cheers

(EDIT)
Btw there is an updated driver on the dell website, but won't download. Suckssss.

 

Man, Dell's drivers suck. the USB 3.0 controller update crashed on install. the video drivers won't download at all. lmao. What a disaster.

 

Been trying to download the same driver , and the link is still broken ..

Sucks that the drive that I downloaded from Nvida won't work either ..

Didn't want to use the modified inf one from laptops2go , but gonna have too .
The one from the CD won't load for me either ..
**Edit**
Same thing for the Realtek Audio driver .. Broken link ..meh ..

M

 

btw anyone got any links to buy a backlit keyboard? none on ebay i can see.

 

I am frustrated with this fan running for no reason all the time!! What can I do in hope to get it fixed? Clean install? BIOS Changes?

 

anyone know how to enter alt codes with this comp?

 

Like I said, set up Autohotkey. It's faster than alt codes, and lets you do just about anything you want with the keyboard.

 

i would do that, if i had the time to map out all the unicode characters.

 

My SXPS 1640 got slighty uncomfortably warm when I first got it, but once I got the ZM-NC2000, it doesn't ever feel even warm anymore. I can do some tests with my XPS 17 on Friday.

 

If you use Autohotkey_L, it takes like 5 minutes. If you save the .ahk as UTF-8, you can just do something like ^!r::unicodegoeshere.

Here's my current script:
Ctrl+Alt+Key::what_is_outputted

^!1::∧
^!2::∨
^!3::¬
^!4::→
^!5::∀
^!6::∃
^!7::∴
^!8::⊕
^!9::≡
^!0::≢
^!-::≠
^!=::↔
^![::•
^!]::∈
^!\::∉
^!u::⊆
^!y::∄
^!w::∅
^!i::∪
^!t::∩
^!q::ℚ
^!n::ℕ
^!z::ℤ
^!r::ℝ
^!o::⊂
^!`::~
^!e::e

 

sorry maxghost, didn't realize you replied to my previous post, haha.

for those of you facing the same issue. apparently this was a problem with the Dell Studio 1555 as well, and the problem is that the letters (m=0, j=1, k=2, etc.) aren't mapped. so using autohotkey (as maxghost stated) you can map those key to the correct numpad numbers. for those who aren't too familiar with autohotkey, you can use download the Virtual Numpad application or follow the Autohotkey guide here.

thanks maxghost, rep'd

 

When I colse the lid of my XPS 15 and hold the notebook in my hand, the lid opens a little bit. Is this normal?

 

You can download latest Nvidia driver from Dell drivers website.

It does not upgrade to the latest one tho......

 

Alright guys, I went through the entire posts above... I see that every single recipient of the XPS 15/17 is having love / hate views and reviews... We all would need some time to know our systems better

Anyways, my order just went in production (remember the 1645's replacement, as a XPS 15...)

I am getting the following config -

XPS L501X / i7-740QM / 15.6 FHD / 8GB / 500GB / BD-ROM / 9 Cell / 2GB GT 435M / Intel WiFi Link 6200 (802.11a/g/n) / Backlit KB.

I am planning to do a clean install As soon as I get the rig...

I would want anyone who has done clean install to enlighten us about the drivers etc and the possible versions for best output as in Graphics and touchpad.

Also, which driver for the WiFi and the motherboard/chipset? Install order for optimal perf. would be appreciated!!

Thanks!

 

The drivers from laptop2go works for you ? I try the 260.99 but they didn't work !!!

 

maxghost ? answer please^do you have GT 420m like us ?

 

Does the XPS 15 uses a glossy or matte design (screen)?

 

glossy ! ))

 

I've got mine It's so great and fast and the screen is just the best screen I've ever seen

 

Reapply the thermal paste or send it back.


TO All: Got my AS5, will probably do the tear down on Monday and reapply on my Dell XPS 15

Yes the Zalman coolers work, I have one for Monster (see sig) it never goes anywhere without the cooler except for thermal testing purposes. my Dell on the other hand is for portability, so the thermal paste reapply is going to fix the issue instead of a cooler.

 

UP Please !!!