Dell XPS 15 L502X Gaming Crash/Overheating issue - Dell refuses to acknowledge service tag

Hi everyone,

I'm posting on the behalf of my partner who is having some serious issues with her Dell XPS 15 L502X.

As the title reads, its gaming and heat management related.

Basically, my partner cannot play games for longer than 20 minutes (regardless of the in game and GPU settings) before her whole unit seizes up (screen freezes with current sound going nuts).

CPU temperatures are exceeding 80 degrees Celsius, while GPU temps exceed 90 degrees Celsius. Both vents on the side burn your hand if you place it near them before and after the crash.

Initially we thought this to be related to a single game (Guild Wars 2) however the issue has spread across multiple titles.

We've already replaced the thermal paste on both CPU and GPU, reinstalled drivers and operating system, cleaned out any traces of dust we could find, and still the same issue occurs.

We've attempted to contact Dell regarding this to have the unit repaired under warranty (still a few months left) and Dell apparently have no records of the unit at all.

We supplied them with both the service tag and the other identifier code (quick service ID?) and Dell say the unit doesn't exist.

Has anyone else had issue like this (both with the overheating crashes and DELL refusing to acknowledge the unit)? Is there a solution for this?

I've read around and seen similar issues but they all relate to different components, and all resort to sending back under warranty - but as I've explained, Dell aren't exactly playing ball with the service tag we have.

Any assistance would greatly be appreciated.

- Matt / hyp3rstrike

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Where and how did you buy this Dell? Was it directly through their website, from a store, or from some other online retailer? Normally if you have a valid service tag, Dell reps will bend over backwards to make sure that you can supply it to them (so they can reference the machine's config, past support cases, etc.). When you gave them the service tag over the phone (I assume) did they say that your unit doesn't exist at all?

If you bought it from a store, I'd suggest going back to them and explain the situation. Their customer service may be able to help contact Dell on your behalf so that you have somebody reputable backing you up. (Something similar happened once to a friend of mine, with Sony, and Best Buy helped sort things out for him).

Also, how did you contact Dell? Did you call the XPS line directly, or just Dell's regular customer support line? I don't know about Australia, but in North America Alienware and XPS customers have their own support line.

Now as for the machine crashing while you are playing games, you said that you re-formatted the entire computer. Did you try playing any older games that don't tax the system as much? Basically, I'm curious to see if less demanding games do or don't crash. If you're not getting BSODs, I suspect that this is a hardware issue.

As for the temps, you'd be surprised to hear me say that I'm not surprised at those numbers (GPU - 90, CPU - 80). In a warm climate, those temps are pretty close to normal, as this machine has poor to -poor ventilation. Even in my office, where I keep the window open all the time (it's currently 7C inside my office according to my thermometers), my L502x is idling at 57C (I do have a Win8 VM running in the background though). On a good day, I idle between 40 - 60C. Even with my eGPU, my CPU still hits 70 -80C when I'm gaming at home.