Dell XPS 15 R2 - L502x - Owners Lounge

Hi All,

Just bought the XPS 15 L502X yesterday.

I was wondering if I can install ubuntu 11.04 on it? Has anyone ever try ubuntu 11.04 on it? Do you see any issue when running ubuntu 11.04?


Thx all

 

Hey guys, to all the 6-cell battery owners on here, what sort of battery life do you guys see with the i5 and i7? I'm thinking of buying this for school and as a pc at home, and in the interest of keeping the weight down I'm considering a 6-cell battery, but I'm worried about terrible battery life with a 6-cell (I know it's a big powerful lappy, but still I'd rather not have to plug in every two hours atleast)

PS. - I don't really plan to game much on this, but I do a lot of word processing and flash video watching, just wanted a rough idea how long the 6-cell would last with the i5 and i7

 

With an i7 go with 9 cell. Wish I had got it for mine, don't give a rats about weight as I'm used to that 17 inch monster P-30, The xps15 feels quite light to me

 

My dad has the i7 with a 9 cell and I just can't see myself hauling that beast to school everyday.

 

I have i7 2630qm with a 6 cell and the battery life depends heavily on usage. Although it is not impossible to squeeze 4 hours from a single charge if you must, a more realistic estimate would be about 2.5 hours.

 

Contact Dell and you should be able to get them to send you one. They sent mine without the coax connection too, but I just bought one off of ebay since they're so cheap and I didn't feel like dealing with Dell's automatons at the time.

 

I have the 2720QM and the 6 cell. I get 4-4.5 hours with light browsing and word processing.

 

I contacted Dell via chat and they will send me a dongle in 2-3 business days.

 

guyz,

are you folks able to keep this laptop on ur laps and work? Mine is impossible. laptop back gets very hot even though cpu temp is in mid 50s.

 

Mine doesn't get hot on the bottom of the case. That doesn't sound good. Are you blocking the bottom vents when this happens?

 

Nopes, I am keeping it on my table and their is enough of ventilation.
Still it gets very hot. From your reply i have decided to contact dell support. Thank you.

 

Weird, mine doesn't even get warm on the bottom, so contacting Dell sounds like a wise decision.

As for batterylife, I have the 2630QM + 6 cell, and with the brightness way down and only very light use, I get about 4 hours. Out in the garden (brightness up) I get 2 - 2,5 hours. Playing a game it's less than one hour. It's not an ideal laptop for travelling and the batterylife of the 6 cell is mediocre at best, but the flush bottom makes it very easy on my lap (the 9 cell would stick out and hurt my knees - I had a battery like that on my previous laptop, real annoying). It's an ideal machine to sit on the couch with for me, but for portability, I'd have to go with my wife's latitude: smaller, more rugged and better batterylife, even though the screen & audio are not as excellent as with the XPS 15, it's still way better than most laptops I've seen and very pleasant to work with.

 

Just for s&g's I shot the bottom with a Fluke IR gun while converting some video and having it off of my cooling pad for awhile. The highest temp I saw was 98 degrees F.

 

I have a 9-cell battery, so that disperses heat better; therefore, mine does not get hot on the bottom. I normally use a lapdesk that I recently bought on Amazon when I use it in my lap.

 

I have a question.

Does the wireless card that comes standard with the laptop use a Mini PCI or a mini PCIe slot. I haven't gotten my laptop yet, but I am planning on using a DIY VIDOCK set up, which will allow me to set up an eGPU. Im going to college, and I can't bring my whole pc, but I thought it would be nice if i could bring my graphics card with me. Since it doesn't have an express card slot I can't just buy a Vidock Village Instruments : ViDock

I have to do it the hard way. http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/418851-diy-egpu-experiences.html

If any of yall have done this let me know how it worked.

 

The laptop has two mini PCIe slots. One is used for the network card and the other is commonly used for either a TV tuner card or a wireless broadband card.

 

Hi everyone,

this is my first post ! I'm planning to replace my desktop computer with an XPS laptop but i'm hesitating between 15 B+RGLED/17 AG.

I'll use it for all kind of stuff including webdesign&development.

I'm actually working on a 17" (1280x1024) ! Which one should i buy ?

Thank you

 

Mine only gets lukewarm in the space between the 2 large vents on the bottom...everywhere else is cold to the touch...somethings up with his

 

Hey guys,


I reordered an XPS 15 today and I added the Soundblaster for 20$ tho I don't know what is it lol one rep told me it was a software.. the other one told me it is a hardware so what is this soundblaster option that comes with the JBL?

 

Software



10ch.

 

Do you know what it is used for? I added it because the last rep told me it was a hardware.. its only 20$ but I want to know if it makes the sound even better than it is lol

 

I've never used it. The included Wave MAXX software is all I've ever used... although I think I might've read that there are some useful external audio settings with sound blaster? Not sure though.

 

Thank you, what are the normal temperatures on idle for the XPS 15, is it true the fan is loud? I didn't notice it on the one that I have returned but the idle temps were around 51 c

 

Temp sounds normal. I've seen it in the upper 40's before, but low to mid 50's seems to be where it likes to be.

My fans aren't loud at all, although I've read about some issues on here, but I think most of those issues were due to monitoring software.

 

Just to clarify these are the full sized mini PCIe slots, and not these so called half mini PCIe slots. And do they have the PCIe pins (23, 25, 33, 35), and not just the usb pins (pin 36+38)

 

I like the X-fi CMSS feature, as it allow the internal speaker, plus 2 additional speaker (set as rear speaker output) to output together. I cannot find the same function in waveMaxx tho (set as rear, but the rear doesn't duplicate sound).

 

Can anyone tell me the width/height of the screen surface (without the screen borders) please ?

I'm not used to laptop (and wide) screens, and i would like to know if the XPS 15 screen could be fine for me.

Thanks a lot.

 

Wow, haven't been here for months, whats upp!!!

one prob I have with my xps is the speakers rattle when I put the volume up, anyway to fix this??

 

xxfl4wl3ss maybe could you make me a favour answering my question in the previous post I'd really enjoy that !

 

Width is 15"(15.6" with the borders I believe) and 10.4" height, if I'm mistaken someone correct me plz.

 

Using a ruler and measuring from the edge of the lighted screen, not the plastic bezel - it's exactly 13.5" x 7 5/8ths". You can add 1.5" in total width for the bezel and almost 2" in height.

 

It's a CD that comes with your box. You hav to install it yourself and once you learn what it is you probably won't. Dell probably doesn't ship it installed because it duplicates so much of what WavesMaxx does. Dell is selling the X-FI MB v1.2 from Creative Labs which is the Vista 64 version with a slight tweak so it can install on Win7. So your actually buying an application that was built for Vista. The Win7 64 developed version is called X-FI MB2 (notice the "2") and is sold by Dell only as an accesory, not as an option on an order. The manufacturer clearly states their Win7 product is MB2. But this is a common theme with many of the apps and Dell partners. They will have a vendor patch up an older version of an application and use that instead of using the vendors most current release. PowerDVD is another example. We get v9.6 but v11 has been out for some time and designed for Sandy Bridge. Anyways,...rant, rant... I found the MB2 software duplicated most of what WaveMaxx3 already does.

Here's my take: It seems there would be two reasons to purchase the X-FI MB v1.2or MB2 software: Gamers with headphones on all the time or someone who uses the laptop to drive a 5.1 or 7.1 surround system. It has some audio effects that could be interesting for Gamers, like an alternate voice. If you are using a laptop to drive a surround sound system then the THX would be handy. I doubt most would do this for any extended periof of time.

WaveMaxx has the EQ, built in sound profiles (Movies, Jazz, etc.) can create custom sound profiles, allows for 5.1 surround, noise cancelling microphone app, day/night sound leveler, etc. The X-FI MB application does come with a few optional plug-ins during installation like a music Juke Box software. Search this thread for more on this topic. Gluck

 

CLEAN YOUR VENTS! Not trying to yell, just a reminder to help with heating issues. The bottom vent for the fan clogs really easy and fast and is hard to see without bright light or a flashlight. It uses a screen with tiny holes and almost seems restrictive. These small holes cause the dust to build up pretty fast instead of passing right through the system like older models.

 

Sagar, in this thread around page 76 is a helpful list of drivers and the proper order for a clean installation. It explains which ones are a "must" and which ones are "optional" and why. It's helped alot of people out. Many get the OS CD's from Dell to reinstall Win7. This too is covered in this thread with the link to the Dell portal where you make that request for free resource CD's. Search can be your friend.

 

Thank you !

 

WaveMaxx automatically disable EQ and sound profiles when using 5.1 settings.

So I just use the RT audio control to go around that.

 

Trigonometry my friend. And before you read below, keep in mind that I'm quite bored right now... haha

The screen is 15.4” diagonally. If width is X and height is Y, then 15.4^2 = x^2 + y^2.

Hopefully you know that the screen is 16:9… this is confirmed by the resolution options (1920/1080 = 16/9). What that means is the width (x) is 16/9 times longer than the height (y) –> 16/9y = x.

Substitute and you get 15.4^2 = (16/9x)^2 + y^2.

Solution:
15.4^2 = (16/9y)^2 + y^2
15.4^2 = 256/81y^2 + y^2
237.16=(256/81+1)y^2
237.16/4.16=y^2
57.00=y^2
7.55” = y

16/9y=x
16/9(7.55) = 13.4”

HEIGHT = 7.5”
WIDTH = 13.4”

 

You're right, i should have tried that... didn't think.
Thank you

 

My XPS 15 fell off my shelf today during the earthquake. It's perfectly fine.

 

where r u from Flipback

 

I've just had a check on my order status online and was slightly confused with having both:

8GFV1 Module,Liquid Crystal Display,15.6FHD,True Life,Au Optronics Corp,NIMOY

02H8F Module,Information,Touch Screen,L502X

I've never seen the option for having both the 1080p screen and touchscreen on the dell website, so I'm not sure whether it's just a mistake on the specs

 

02H8F is just info on the touch screen, not the display. Probably just a booklet or something. Not sure why they'd include that. They had WWAN info "module" on my invoice and mine doesn't have that.

 

SD Card Slot issue...

So, I tried to put a Micro SD Card into the SD Slot (using the SD Card Adapter mind you ) It's a Kingston 8gb Mirco SD. I plugged it in, the detecting hardware thing popped up, but it failed to find the right drivers. Now I installed the JM SD Card Reader Drivers from the Dell site which I guess are up to date. So, now I'm left to two "unknown base system devices" in my device manager. If I'm not mistaken its a 9 in 1 Card Reader right? And the drivers from Dell should work...any ideas from the collective?

Added info, I used the driver install guide from page 74 (I think) in this thread. So every driver other then the nVidia drivers are from Dell. Could there be a driver from JM that I'm missing?

Here's the quote from page 74:

20. R292780 (Optional) Chip Set: JMicron JMB389 Card Reader, v.1.00.55.00, A01 (1 MB) Installing this earlier will trip errors. Balloon will appear showing the errors. This will show up in your "Add/Remove" programs but was not in the OEM shipped configuration.

That's what I installed, and I installed it in the proper Dell Driver order.

 

Anyone had any issues using all eight threads with their i7?

I have the i7-2820QM and by default it does not seem to use all eight cores.


Eight threads are present in Task Manager, but four of them never get used - the eight threads can obviously be divided into four pairs of two threads (two per core) and only one thread from each core is used, unless I specifically change the core affinity to each specific thread. In other words, if I run eight high-processing-loop programs, and each is at default affinity (i.e. to use any core available), only four threads will run and CPU usage will sit at 50%. If I then change the affinities so each program is set to a specific, different, thread, then all eight threads will run and CPU usage will sit at 100%.

Any ideas anyone? I've tried disabling speedstep and changing my power plan, but no luck yet

 

The laptop came today and it seems they've sent me the laptop with the Standard 720p and not the Full HD one.

This is extremely frustrating and hopefully they'll be able to resolve it asap

 

Not SAT!

You ordered an FHD display so they SHOULDN'T give you any problems correcting the situation... but I bet it's frustrating.

 

It clearly states on every confirmation page that I should be getting the Full HD display (see my previous post).

Is there are way to check whether it's a software issue or whether it's the lower spec display ie. the part number on device manager?

 

I got mine this afternoon (6 days before scheduled): i5-2410, 4Gb RAM, GeForce GT525, 6 cell battery, FHD B+ RGLED screen.

I'm a freelance graphic designer, I have a Studio XPS + Ultrasharp 24" wich is where I do most of the work and I use the laptop mostly for testing / internet browsing but sometimes I also do some design / development. My previous laptop was a Toshiba Satellite A200 with a 1280x800 screen, wich was OK for browsing but a little bit too small for development... the thing is, I'm afraid this 1920x1080 may be a little bit too big!! Even with the 125% setting and Chrome default zoom at 120%, text is often too small for my eyes... I don't know, maybe I have to get used to the new res, after all this is my first day

Question is: do you know if Dell would replace my XPS for another one with the same config except for the screen, in case I can't get used to this one? How many days do I have to take it back, 8 maybe?

BTW, I'm using a Zalman ZM-NC3000S notebook cooler that I bought for the Toshiba and everything goes just fine, I can feel a little heat on the touchpad but that's all - the laptop's internal fan doesn't blow!

 

Hi,

How easy can you open your bottom cover?
And how easy is it to remove the RAM?
And when you open the bottom cover, is there some warranty sticker that gets ripped or something.
As you probably guessed, I want to replace the RAM of my future L502x and don't want to lose my warranty while doing so. How easy is it exactly?
My excuses for the possibly double post, I searched for it and didn't find it.

Denis

 

I recall reading somewhere that replacing the RAM and Hard Drive won't affect your warranty. I'm not sure if that was a regional thing or worldwide though