Dell XPS 15 R2 - L502x - Owners Lounge

Need some help as I'm starting to get a little frustrated. I order my Dell XPS 15 inch on 02/26 with a ETA of 03/20... got an email stating that it's delayed for 5 days... days passed no updates. Called dell and spoke to a representative from India and told me that due to parts shortage the "new" ETA is 05/06... c'mon 2.5 months for a damn laptop? He wasn't able to tell me which parts were on back order. Only upgrades I requested was the HD screen and a design on the cover... that's it. I asked the gentleman if there was any way to expedite the order, like changing parts or removing the request for the art design on the cover... He literally told me that there is nothing they can do and that I should be patient... i was really insulted by that comment.

any suggestions?

 

OMG 2.5 months, mine arrived within 10 days or ordering. try to get some discount for waiting so long.

 

Baani, did you order it with LoJack? I ordered mine 22 Feb, and received it 29 Mar, due to LoJack problems at the factory.

 

What songs and HD videos do you guys think I should use to showoff my new laptop to my pals ?

Thanks

 

For HD videoes check out "Pixar's Short Film Collection"
Animation is bright, vivid and always very crisp.
As for the songs..... Well that's persona preference.

 

So I just opened up my L502X and swapped in my Momentus XT 500GB. It's pretty hard to get the palmrests off, I *strongly* suggest (and so does Dell) a plastic spudger. Don't think you can just get this puppy off with just your hands... it's on there good. And you should be very patient getting it off so you don't break any clips.

Anyways, like I mentioned before, my boot time with the stock HD (Seagate 7200.4) and a "decrapified" Dell Win 7 Home install took 1:40. My brand new Win 7 Pro Install on a Momentus XT boots in about 28 seconds.

 

Thats very odd, I'm getting around 60 seconds with the same specs. I haven't even un-installed or disabled anything yet either.

 

Email [email protected] with your concerns, I'd say anything over 2-3 weeks is taking the mick, let alone 2.5 months!!

I'm in the UK but ordered on the 12/04 and it's gone into "production" today so I'm hoping I'll have it by next week or so.

 

mines gone into production today too,hopefully not long now!

 

It's the design on the cover that's holding it up. I had one on order, but ended up canceling it when it was delayed. I reordered same config less the design and it showed up in 8 days.

 

Hello I noticed that your are from the UK - how much did you get your XPS 15 for? I missed all the deals from last week but using the Quidco 7% cashback + 10% coupon I got my config to about 860 inc vat and delivery. Its exactly the same as yours except its without the backlit keyboard (how did you get this?) or the 9 cell battery. I was wondering also - my dad has an XPS L501x with a 9 cell battery can I swap my 6 cell one with his without any problems?

 

Hi AK

I ordered mine for £943 delivered, I had to ring up to get the backlit keyboard added to the spec (extra £30) but obviously you lose out on the quidco. As my company is EPP eligible, I got an extra 5% off (basically the same as quidco).

I also got it with the 3yr in home warranty for my piece of mind on something this pricey

Not sure about swapping the batt over, as the L501X and L502X are identical in shape/size I don't see why it wouldn't fit? Would probably have to compare the part numbers and see. Part number on the l502x 9cell batt is
451-1154.

 

Thanks for the reply how did you find out the part numbers - the dell website doesn't list the L501x or L502x

 

Just got the part number off my order sheet.

Try and build an old XPS15 and add a 9cell batt to it, take it through to your cart and "list detail". Does it give you part numbers then?

 

OK thanks for your help - do you think its worth it to buy the XPS now at this price because I dont think the 10% vouchers will be released again for a while?

 

Really is Russian roulette with Dell pricing I'm afraid! Today it might be that price with a 10% coupon, tomorrow they might slash a few hundred quid off plus coupons.

In my case, they said it had over £450 knocked off, plus I used a 10% code plus I used my 5% EPP. I didn't think it would get much cheaper than that for a while considering the starting price before all discounts was close to £1600(!?)

On my order there was a free 6GB RAM, 640GB HD upgrades and Free delivery as well.

Not sure if it's worth waiting till Easter/after Easter now in case they do some new promotions?

 

I'll play the waiting game I think for now.

 

Hi everybody, I wanted to get everybody's opinion of whether or not they think this is a good deal:

XPS 15
i7 - 2630 qm
Nvdia GeForce 525m
6 GB Ram
750 HD
Blu-Ray / DVD
Backlit Keyboard
1080p B+RGLED FHD Screen
3 Year Basic Warranty
9-Cell Battery

For $1,282.70.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, especially whether or not people think it is worth it to pay an extra $100 for better video card. I suppose the most demanding game I play is Heroes of Might and Magic. Thanks!

 

I have similar specs except for 750gb HDD i have 500gb and 6-cell battery
I got it for $1115(price with tax) - $175 (discount over phone) = $940

 

Wow.. how did you get that price? Was there a special deal or coupon code you got?

 

i think it was a signature event. I was getting it for 1115. I knew dell gives good discount over phone if you try to bargain. I called up and told then I want to cancel the order unless they offer a discount. initially they started with $50 and finally I agreed with $100. then after a couple of days I called up again to cancel the extended warranty (saying I never wanted extended warranty) so they offered me $75 more to keep the order (with extended warranty).

 

Has anyone had trouble getting their laptop to connect to a WPA or WPA2 protected network?

The problem:
When I try to connect to my home network, all I get is "Windows was unable to connect to [my SSID]". It is able to detect the network and the signal strength is fine. It is also able to connect if I set the network to no authentication or WEP. It just can't connect when it's set to WPA or WPA2.

My hardware:
Dell XPS L502X w/ Windows Ultimate x64 and Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 + Bluetooth
Linksys WRT54GL running Tomato v1.28 set to WPA2 Personal TKIP/AES

I have a Dell D630 w/ Windows Ultimate x64, a Macbook Pro 17", a PS3, and a Wii all connected to this wireless network. None of them have any problems.

Anyone have any ideas? I've already tried running a repair install of the drivers freshly downloaded from Dell's site. Intel's site says what I have is up to date.

 

No problems connecting to WPAx-PSK or WPAx-E networks.

The dell drivers are later than what posted on the intel site at the moment.

 

Thanks, i'll call them again... this time i may go up higher to a manager or something. 2.5 months just to get a design on the cover is absolutely obsurd... and 05/06 is just an ETA not a guarantee.

 

New Nvidia Drivers are up Version 270.61, so far nothing on the Dell website.

 

are you using also the access list to identify who can access? I initially had a problem with this until I realize that the 1030 card has two MAC addresses.

 

Maybe it's time to start a detailed "Clean Install" thread. Is anyone up for helping construct a "Windows 7 Clean Install Guide XPS 15 R2"? I would be glad to do most of the leggwork. I'm sure many would benefit over the coming months while this model is sold. We could then add it to the list of L502X Tools and Updates.

My biggest question is about the partition(s). I believe the OEM install has this but unsure of it's use. I would like to replicate an OEM install but not include the bloat.

 

I am not using an access list. Also the laptop is able to connect fine if I change the router from WPA to WEP or No Authentication.

 

I just checked my Windows Experience Index score on my new laptop (factory default set up with no new software other than a mouse driver and windows updates). It has a i7-2720QM yet the processor score is just 4.6! That can't be right can it? Any ideas as to what could be causing this?

 

Ordered mine 4/5 just got the email from Dell, should arrive today - 1 week earlier then initially. Should be fun evening!

 

I just ordered my XPS 15 on Sunday night, I'm pretty excited. However I went to the order status and looked at items purchased and it shows the following:

1 939-4850 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty, Extended Year $0.00
1 939-4860 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty, Initial Year $0.00
1 939-4880 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis, 1 Year Extended $110.00
1 939-4870 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis, Initial Year $55.00
1 950-3338 2 Year Limited Warranty $0.00

So my question is are they charging me $55 for the first year, even though that is the standard or are they charging for the in home service? Plus I didn't have the option for anything less than 2 years warranty when I configured it. Is that something I can try to remove over the phone or maybe get a discount? I've seen some people say they tried to remove the warranty and got a discount. I actually think it may be good to get the two year warranty, but I probably would be fine with the one year. But if I can get $160 off if I just take off the In-home service that would be awesome. What to you guys think? TIA

 

You could get 100 back and keep the 2 year warranty

 

You mean cancel the In-Home service, 1 Year Extended and keep the rest? That's kind of what I was thinking too.

 

I mean, it is possible to ask to them to remove the extended warranty, but they might ask you to keep it and they refund 100 back to you anyways.

 

ordered mine 2 days back .... will get it by 5-8 days...
cant wait ...

moving from dell 1530 .. have been a loyal laptop for years...

 

Thanks, Falco. I just called Dell and they gave me $60 back to keep the extended warranty. $50 for the extended is a lot more palatable to me than $110. They must be making a killing on the warranties to cut the price by more than half. Weirdly enough, I can't get the $60 back until it's delivered, then I call an 800 number and give them a reference code to get it back. I guess they want me to forget about it so they don't have to pay me. Nice try, Dell, I'm too stingy to forget . Good return for 15 minutes on the phone.

 

What are the downsides to canceling the in home service?

 

Thats not right. I get 7.4 on my 2630QM. Make sure all the drivers are installed (they should be on a factory install), close any other programs running, and run the test again.

What are your other WEI scores?

Mine are:
CPU: 7.4
MEM: 7.7
Graphics: 5.5
Gaming: 6.7
Hard Drive: 5.9

 

They didn't take the in home service off. They took $60 off to keep the extended warranty.

Edit: This was in response to claudenm.

 

Just want to verify something. Does anyone elses windows 7 take a lil while to load after booting to desktop? like i can just let it sit there and the hardrive light is still going crazy and checking in the performance manager svchost.exe is doing some heavy stuff. This is a clean install too 57 processes on boot. Wish it was quick like macs are ( I am anti-apple too but gotta give them credit).

 

tvdang, I went into the bios and did some tweaking after my clean install. Make the HD be the first to start up. I have everything you have but with 8gb ram. Also shut off some windows services and cleaned up my start up programs. The Bios tweaking helped the most though.

 

I really didn't do much with mine, default settings, my complete cold boot is 23 secs for a HDD. I rarely restart much since I always use sleep.

 

Anyone who installed the new NVIDIA driver have any issues with the display drivers stopping?

 

how much is the battery backup for a 6 cell for normal browsing and for gaming.......9 cell looks a bit odd ?....

 

Anandtech review of the L502x is out - Dell XPS 15 L502x: Now with Sandy Bridge - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

 

I just got my l502x (2720QM, 8GB stock memory, 540M, 7200rpm HDD + bluray writer, N6230+Bluetooth, Xi-Fi or whatever sound enhancer, 6-cell battery, etc). I did a clean install of windows 7 home premium on it. For whatever it's worth, the WEI:

Processor: 7.5
Memory: 7.6
Graphics: 6.7
Gaming Graphics: 6.7
Hard Disk: 5.9

The touch-pad was pretty bad at first, but after going to Dell's website and getting the drivers it's one of the best I've experienced. Planning on putting in an OCZ Vertex 3 at some point too... but anyway, noticed some small things.

1) When I use firefox 4 and change the window size (either manually or with the maximize/restore buttons) the browser acts choppy. Doesn't do this in IE8. Maybe it's a 32-bit browser on a 64-bit OS problem?

2) Even after a clean install I have ~70 processes running by default. (Scary coming from Windows XP where I had maybe 25~30). Is that just normal in windows 7? (Boot time is around 45 seconds from power button to full control of desktop)

3) When I run Minecraft using the 540M I get fantastic results (I think I saw it reach 650 FPS at one point), but the laptop gets very hot and the fans kick in full blast with one processor thread nearly maxing out while the others are low/average. My drivers are up to date as well... why is a simple game like Minecraft maxing this laptop out? Is there any way to have the 540M behave better in terms of only using what it needs instead of having it be full blast or nothing?

4) Turbo Boost seems to activate whenever it feels like it, even during idle sometimes. Makes no sense, and the constant turbo on/off makes me wonder if the laptop is performing worse because it takes time to switch the turbo on/off so often?

Other than those things it seems like a great laptop. Beautiful screen, great sound, I'll be able to make fantastic media with it. But yeah, the heat/fan from trying to use the 540m, occasional stuttering while multi-tasking, etc. kind of have me worried I guess. Anyone have good fixes or ideas?

 

Well, after reading that I don't feel the best about my purchase... I payed around $1,500 after taxes and I find out it has a weaker video card

But then again, I honestly don't play PC games that much... Another upside is that this XPS weighs 5.9 pounds instead of the 7.7 pounds in one of the 15" gaming laptops he compared it to. And HP's dv6tqe series may be cheaper with better video cards, but they still don't have the 1080p screen and sound to match the XPS. And price/hardware wise this still beats a Macbook Pro 15 early 2011 other than video and has higher native resolution. /trying to justify my purchase

 

i was wondering some thing i just got my xps 15 last week. between each key on the keyboard there is some kind off dirty thing dont know what is it.

i don't even know what to call this any body know ?

 

Are you talking about the plastic film? I assumed it was suppose to look like that, can you take it off?