Dell XPS 15 R2 - L502x - Owners Lounge

Anyone have scores of either the 525 or 540 on 3dmark11? I'm thinking of upgrading from my 1645 /w ATI 5730

 

The 525M is slower than the 5730. The 540M is about the same speed. So, no need to upgrade unless you're getting a free upgrade.

 

I am getting VERY VERY annoyed with this fan. After every gaming session the fan continues to turn on and off every other second unless i reboot. There needs to be some kind of bios update soon to fix this please!

 

Just ordered mine yesterday, gonna be my first laptop, estimated shipping date is 4/14! The wait begins!

Anyone mind recommending a good cooler for this system?

 

Don't post here, email Dell.

 

Dell has new Nvidia drivers posted.

Version 267.21

I'm not sure what the changes are.

 

It's supposed to fix issues with apps not detecting the Nvidia card due to Optimus is my guess....it's made my system unstable though.

 

It did something different for me yesterday. After gaming it did the on/off thing. Then after another session of gaming, the fan went full blast. Then it went to low speed and stayed there until the temps got into the 30s!!!!!!!
I actually think your power settings in windows may influence it. play around with those.

 

Didn't fix anything. I couldn't get Crysis 2 to detect the Nvidia card with these drivers. Went back to the non-dell nvidia drivers. I think Optimus is complete garbage.

 

Agreed, Optimus is crap, is there anyway to turn off Optimus or have some kind of manual control over it....?

 

Have you contacted Dell? Mine just started doing this as well.

 

Anyone else having a bit of an issue with the brightness of the LCD? Even at the lowest brightness setting it is way too bright. I almost never need to increase the level in daylight conditions.

 

Its very bright...on max you need sunglasses for it

 

Sorry to ask again, but I really could use a big favor here. If somebody is rebooting and can F2 into BIOS Setup, check your Security options and see if there is any 'TPM' related option I would really appreciate it.

I am going back and forth with Dell here. No less than 3 agents have confirmed with me that yes indeed the L502x has a TPM chip which is a requirement for me. Yet there are no BIOS options for it, and that is one of the first things they have me check, and are really confused when I don't have those.

 

I have not noticed it in the bios options. In fact I am surprised how locked down the bios is and how there are very few changable options.

This is a version A01 bios. Will Dell add more options with future releases?

I previously had an Inspiron 9400 and that had a much more configurable bios.

 

Those were my thoughts. It seems like they shipped this out the door before the firmware and drivers were ready, and figure they would just lie and make it up until they magically 'release an update' that fixes it. Sorry if I am sounding cynical, but when 3 Dell tech support workers tell me that my laptop definitely has a TPM chip, but yet it is nowhere to be found, I get frustrated.

 

Yes, do not use Dell's driver. Someone posted a link to the generic Nvidia driver and a modified .inf file that allows install of the generic Nvidia driver onto the L502x

 

would an apple minidisplayport to VGA adapter work? There are loads on ebay which are much cheaper than Dell's official one.

Anyone tried this?

 

I was just pricing ram online. Which of these are compatible with the L502X... and what's the difference ?

DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
DDR3 1333 (PC3 10660)
DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

 

It looks like 2 are rounded or typo'd versions of the third, so technically they are all the same.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it

 

The ports are standard, so there is no reason an Apple branded cable wouldn't work.

I recently had to buy one for a presentation tomorrow because I forgot to select one when I ordered. I hate that I have to attach this ugly Apple white thing to my beautiful sleek L502x

 

I have one, I play Metro 2033, Homefront, World in Conflict, Civ IV and the only heat is from the vent on the left of the touchpad does get a bit warm from time to time but nothing too bad.Also I dual monitor set up, the first couple of days when I would disconnect the monitor the laptop would become unresponsive, talk to dell rep, uninstalled the nvidia driver and installed updated one, was unresponsive a couple of times more after that but now it's good. I also stopped a lot of the services that would start up with the computer don't really know if maybe of them would cause that problem. Hope this helps.

 

Yes, thanks. If you have the time some temps (idle and gaming) via HWMonitor, SIW, CPU-Z etc.. would be much appreciated.

 

Theres a good deal right now on the XPS 15, so I'm thinking of upgrading for sandy bridge and 1080p screen, otherwise its a little disappointing neither are an improvement to the 5730.

 

This is incorrect. I forget which one is which but they are different latency/timing. The lower the latency the better I believe. The 7 cas latency one is the 1066, the best I think.

 

What settings are you using? I have lots of lag when playing SC2 at 1980x1080 resolution on my L502x GT540m.

 

They are all the same. Technically the only one that is correct is PC3-10600. PC3-10600 has a peak transfer rate of 10667 MB/s, so some manufacturers name it PC3-10666. This is probably to make it sound faster since it is a higher number.

The PC3 rating is roughly just peak transfer rate, it has nothing to do with latency.

To determine which memory is faster, just look at the actual timings, and ignore the different ways of writing PC3-10600.

 

Finally got my computer today. I'm very happy with it. The only issue is a touchy touchpad (pun intended). The cursor seems to jump just as I tap the touchpad. Anybody else noticed this?

I went to the Dell Support Center application, checked the Detailed System Info, and it said I have BIOS version A02. The Driver/Download website only has A01. I'm finding it hard to get into the BIOS on bootup. I press F2, but that leads me to the choose operating system page, not the BIOS.

After a few reboots and updates, boottimer.exe shows a best boot time of 51 seconds, with a typical time of 80 to 90 seconds. I haven't uninstalled anything yet, nor have I messed with msconfig's Startup tab (yet). More to follow.

Task Manager is showing about 91 processes running (showing all users). Uhg. (Ugh?)

 

91? Mind posting a list of running processes? Is that normal for Windows 7? Just I'm shocked because my Windows XP machine only has 24 processes on boot.

 

normal for an OEM machine

 

I've just received my laptop. I have an issue with the speakers.

It seems like the sound is coming out mostly from the right (my right) speaker, and there seems to be some buzzing sound from the left when I pump the volume.

Anyone knows how to fix this?

EDIT: Also, at the Dell Audio Realtek program, under the Speaker / Headphone tab on the Speaker Setup, when I test it, the left sound comes from the middle, while the right one is fine. I'm beginning to think that my left speaker isn't functioning at all. HELP!

 

Hey, could you please clarify?

u have problems with high settings or medium settings also?

 

A04 is now avaliable on the dell site, maybe this will fix some fan problems

 

The left sounds like the middle as in is coming from both speakers? Usually that's what would make sound project in the centre. If you put your ears to them, does some sound come from each? Or maybe it sounds like the centre because it's only coming from the sub on the bottom?

It is possible to make the speakers reverberate in the case, by chosing the right music, turning the volume up and turning the bass up. Is it that?

Could use use windows 'balance' contro from the mixer, or the winamp balance control, to check the speakers for sure?

 

File is missing, at least from dell.co.uk. There's a description etc page for it but the download link gives a 404. Missing from the US FTP site too. Nice job!

 

Hmm Delivery Prep stage, maybe wont be to much longer

 

Hey, you finally got yours! Awesome. I had a bit of trouble getting F2 to work--the POST screen goes by too quickly I think. Try hitting it repeatedly even before the Dell POST screen shows up.

That number of processes is normal for an OEM machine. There are plenty of programs to remove, and then startup entries you can also trim.

 

Yes it feels like it's coming from the bottom. When I play music on purely on the left, it's distorted and buzzy. When I play it from the right, it's very much clearer and pleasant.

Maybe it wasn't assembled properly or something, I've got Dell to send an engineer over tomorrow to fix this.

Also, Windows keep showing me this warning that they have scanned a hard disk failure, and bugging me to back up my files. Well I haven't got an external hard disc, but is this warning serious?

I received my laptop less than 12 hours ago.

 

New bios nvidia and intel driver has been out for the past 3 days. I am lazy to do a clean driver install but i will do the bios.

 

Not available on the US site, link is there but file is not....

 

It could be. If hard drives fail, they usually do so either in the first month or years away. You can use a HDD tool to see the SMART data to see what is wrong with the drive, or use the Dell Support Center's diagnostics for the hard drive.

 

Hell yes! I have been running Win7 since before beta and never received this until a year ago. Sure enough within 2 weeks of getting this message, the drive failed.

You can run this to double-check, but I would contact Dell right away Check your hard disk for errors

 

Any recommendations for which usb 3.0 HD would work best with the L502 ?

 

Besides a clean install, what's a good way to reduce the amount of processes that run in the background ?

Is there a program/tool that displays which process are running real time ?

Thanks

 

Like Task Manager you mean?

Also, there's Process Explorer which is uber task manager

msconfig to turn things on and off works.

 

lol. yeah, JUST like Task Manager It hit me after I replied.

 

I have a spyder2 calibrated profile for the R+GBLED XPS15 screen, if anyone wants it?

It's done at 5 blocks of backlight brightness and removes quite a bit of blue tint from the display - warms it up.

 

yes please

 

Also just thought i'd say i love the battery life on this thing.its been 2.5hours and im still at 65% left before my xps 1645 got a max of 2-2.5 hours.