Dell XPS 15 L501 *Owner's Lounge*

How tightly does your XPS close? Is there any gap between the lid and the palmrest when you put it in the bag?

I am not sure whether mine is defective or not: there is like a quarter inch gap openning when I put it in the bag. It doesn't wake up from sleep though.

Please help me before I request a return

 

Here is the link to the drivers from laptopvideo2go

v263.09 Windows 7/Vista 64bit | NVIDIA Desktop - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

download the drive and then extract it to a folder .. use 7z or something .. you can run the file but then cancel when it wants to do the install after extracting.
download the INF Modified link and overwrite the one in the extracted folder above..

Now run the setup in the extracted folder.

Work for me NP .

M

 

Not sure if I am liking the 9 cell battery .

Extended run time is nice , but I don't think I like the raised profile.

Anyone want to trade a 6 cell for a 9 cell?
Or anyone know of a good (cheap ) place to buy a 6 cell.

M

 

I just got my Dell XPS 15 yesterday and here are some of my initial views on the laptop.

Good points:

The screen I have is a 1080p AUO17ED, which is absolutely gorgeous. All my friends who have a Macbook couldnt believe it.

Construction is really solid and despite my initial worries, Dell has really designed a bulky but solid product. In my opinion this design is better to get rid of heat. The thinner a laptop and higher the specs, more heat is generated. So Dell had to make a compromise somewhere I guess.

Speakers are fantastic for a laptop. This blows HP Envy beats out for sure.

I have a Core i5-560M processor and the performance is really very good. Everything is speedy and no complaints so far.

Bad points:

Bloatware and crapware come installed. Takes some time to get rid of them.

The keyboard for me is a little raised near the Y key making a little flex on the keyboard. I have a backlit keyboard btw.

Touchpad takes some time getting used to. Two finger scrolling sucks for me, so I switched to one finger scrolling. I had an inspiron before and I feel the touchpads in inspirons are better.

For some reason whenever I use youtube and switch to 1080p HD, the 'Press Esc to exit full screen' message starts flickering. I managed to upgrade the drivers for NVIDIA and Intel Graphics on Dell's website but the issue still persists.

I tried out the HDMI connection on an external LCD monitor that I use. Unfortunately there are a lot of issues involved. You need to resize the desktop to fit on a LCD monitor because of overscan/underscan issues. And then there is the issue of Youtube again. Whenever I play a 1080p video on youtube, the external LCD keeps turning on and off intermittently as the video keeps buffering. I believe this is because of Optimus switchable graphics. I am going to try the HDMI connection on a HDTV next and see what happens. If the issue persists, it definitely is a problem with the drivers or video card.

I read about the modified drivers on this forum and am afraid to try them out. If anyone can comfort me that there is no harm in trying it out that would be great!

 

Is this a common issue? My fan constantly runs, even when nothing is being taxed, the computer is sitting there just idling and the screen is down. It's got to be murder for battery life. My 9 cell with 560 and 420 gets 4 hours so far, not very good. That's with the nvidia card disabled. Also, the laptop rattles a bit too much at volumes higher than 75%.

So, what are my options here? If everyone isn't experiencing this issue I would like to take a chance with another unit. How is Dell about replacing new units with problems like these?

 

I'm sure it would be much better if that damn fan turned off once in a while. At least its not a loud fan, I can't hear it, but I can feel it running and the warm air being blown out the side vent.

 

Epic nitpicking

 

Basically. It's not even that bad. At all.

 

I don't think its unreasonable for me to expect the computer to be cool to the touch when NOTHING is being run. This is not my first laptop. I don't mind the fan kicking in when I'm using the computer, but my computer has literally been sitting there with not a single program running (clean Win 7 install, zero bloat), and the touchpad is warm, the area to the left of the touchpad is warm, and the fan is running on low speed. For the balanced battery mode, I have the min CPU speed set to 5% and maximum to 75%. You may call this nitpicking, but I call it poor thermal management.

If this was a desktop, I'd be all over it and would have repasted the CPU and GPU heatsinks, but I'm not up for taking this entire laptop apart just to fix this.

 

See, I'm not the only one with this problem either.

 

Well I just watched a hd tv show and my laptop is colder than room temp, sitting on my bed with the fan partially blocked.

 

Just goes to show that there is definitely something up with my unit. On a positive note, watching anything on this laptop is sheer pleasure because the display is the best I've ever seen on a laptop (FHD)!

 

How tightly does your XPS close? Is there any gap between the lid and the palmrest when you put it in the bag?

I am not sure whether mine is defective or not: there is like a quarter inch gap openning when I put it in the bag. It doesn't wake up from sleep though.

Please help me before I request a return

 

I mentioned this on another thread but... my 9 cell gets close to 6 hours with wifi on, 8 firefox tabs and outlook checking email every 15 mins. Also, the only time I've heard my fan running was when I was gaming. Otherwise it's super quiet.

The lid on mine closes tight when placed in a backpack.

 

Is it best to return the laptop or send it in for repair, if having FAN problems? Which one takes less time?

 

Personally, I would return it for a new one if I was still within the 21 day return period. I feel like when you purchase a new laptop it shouldn't have any immediate issues that need a repair.

But, having it repaired would probably be quicker especially if you have in home repair.

 

I'm going to exchange it for another unit. Called them today, the tech support lady said she will call me back on Monday since she can't process it being a holiday weekend. But she did say that based on my problems (fan running constantly and speaker distortion/rattling), I can exchange it.

I didn't really submit a review for it, but there are plenty of things that I love about it. That's why I want another one and I'm not just returning it. The screen is amazing, I like the touchpad's sensitivity and buttons, the keyboard is not bad, backlighting on it is pretty cool, and I like the plain-jane design of the laptop. I also love the USB 3.0 ports, that it has two digital video ports and no VGA (who uses that anymore - glad it doesn't take up space on this). Pretty spiffy laptop, if you ask me.

Reading other people's reviews, our fan behavior is certainly not normal for this model. I'm hoping I just got a bum unit.

EDIT: for kajouma...I don't have any problems with the lid closing tightly on mine.

 

I use VGA. I bought myself a 15$ mini displayport to VGA adapter though, so no biggie. mdp is alot more flexible than VGA, so I don't mind it.

 

Yep but that's the best thing about these new digital ports, backwards compatibility with VGA.

 

They didn't work for me. But i have L501x with GT 420m and Intel graphics with core i5 !

 

Lil' question for everyone here:

When playing music in iTunes for example, I can turn up the volume with the keyboard buttons WHILE doing other things (ie browsing the web). But when I try to pause it, or play the next song, those buttons don't work, only when I have iTunes opened.

Does everyone have this problem or is it only me? 'Cause if so, it'll probably be because I have disabled some Dell services.

 

I wish somebody could help me with the flickering on youtube when I switch to 1080p. Everything from the "Press Esc to exit full screen" prompt to the Play/Pause/Timeline controls start flickering uncontrollably so much so that its really irritating.

I updated to the latest dell drivers for the NVIDIA and Intel cards but the issue is still unresolved. Any help would be great guys.

 

You need to download a plugin, google it. Worked for me to start with then suddenly stopped working, so don't bother anymore, you may have better luck. I use spotify now anyway where it works perfectly as standard. Don't know why its so hard for itunes to do it.

 

Has anyone here ordered a XPS wtih built-in TV-tuner?
If so, what accessoiries come with? I assume a small antenna, an adapter for hooking it up with a full size coaxial cable, remote perhaps, ...
Also, how is the software? Is it buggy, do you get good reception?

Any answers are greatly appreciated.

 

I got my XPS 15 on Monday and have been loving it! I did a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate because I need it for work, and have managed to get all the drivers installed.

However, I can't find the download for Cyberlink PowerDVD on the Dell Downloads page for this laptop. Everything else seems to be listed there. Has anyone managed to find this software for download? Thanks!

 

They don't give out PowerDVD, they give Roxio Burn. Also, they expect you to use windows media center or media player to run DVDs (which works just as well, if not better).

 

Hey MaxGhost, thanks for the reply. Windows 7 doesn't play blu-rays natively. So, if you don't have PowerDVD, then how do you play blu-rays?

 

I got the same problem with my xps 15 i5/gt420m, updated both gpu´s (latest dell drivers)

 

VLC. Plays everything. And it's free

 

Do you still have the problem after updating the drivers as well?

 

My 15 is on its way and I am already thing of upgrading the RAM from 4 to 8. What is the best memory brand available or should I pick up any 4GB memory?

 

I'd go with Kingston. Reasonably priced and good warranty.

 

Would someone with a XPS 15 in hand mind doing me a favor? I'm thinking about buying a second battery, but the Dell website battery selector isn't updated with the new XPS series yet. Rather than give out a service tag, would someone be able to plug their service tag into this site:

Parts & Upgrades | Dell

It should give you the available parts for your system. If the 6-cell battery is one of them, it would be great to have that link! And there is rep for the first taker!

 

My fans are running alot, by using compressed air into the vents, would that void warranty?

Also if I want to return the laptop in future, would I be able to do so as using compressed air on it?

 

Using compressed air would not void your warranty, unless you actually broke something by using it- and I don't see how that could happen.

In regards to returning it, compressed air would not affect a return at all, unless you actually broke something using it (can't think of a way...).

 

Thank you so much! I have called Tech. Support. They are sending me a replacement system; I refused to have a tech come and replace the hinges.

 

I plugged my service tag and got the following message: "service tag not found"

 

Thanks for trying, might just have to wait!

 

I lol'd. For about 5 minutes, my battery life showed 11 hours. O_O
But then it dropped back down to about 6h30m.

 

I've recently tried the Avatar blu ray with my XPS 15 and it's just beautiful with the full HD screen... And the best thing is there are absolutely no hick-ups or anything like that. It runs smooth from the beginning to the end with skipping and scrolling around even with other programms running in the background and encoding videos

 

Finally I was able to fix the issue with the flickering on Youtube. On the youtube video thats playing, right click the video-->Settings--->Uncheck the Enable Hardware acceleration option. This took care of the problem for me. Hope this helps somebody

I think there is some issue between Flash hardware acceleration and Optimus. Thats why people with Core i7 processor don't have this issue whereas people with Core i5 and optimus do.

 

I didn't have the issue after updating my drivers. Youtube works fine now.

 

Which browser do you use? And do you have an i5 processor?

 

I'm about to buy an L501X but I'd like to know if I can install XP on it. Has anyone succeeded in doing this?

 

I know most people coming here already own an XPS15 but just incase the code LXCJRW0HH3MLCK now gives 10% on the £749 i7.740,4gb,500gb,435m config (uk Dell site) making what was £701 (with 5%) now £676 (10%)

 

Chrome, i5-460m, GPU: 420m
Updated drivers from laptopvideo2go.com

 

How can YOU installed drivers from laptopvideo2go for this configuration ? I've the same and it's say that the device isn't compatible. HELP?

 

I am having the same problem. The drivers wont install and I am afraid I will screw up something with the modified drivers anyways. Its simpler to just disable hardware acceleration.

 

I don't understand what you mean ... and maxghost, does the technology optimus still work with theses drivers ? what have you done exactly for install them?

 

With the discounts and coupons
currently available, the XPS 15
is an awesome bargain.

I'm close to ordering the XPS 15,
but I'm undecided with the screen.

I prefer the FHD B+RGLED screen, but I'm concerned
about the native resolution for games.

Can the FHD screen scale nicely to 1366x768 for gaming?
Or is it pixelated, blurry at that resolution?