Dell XPS 15 R2 - L502x - Owners Lounge

This is what my goal is...I want to buy a 64gb ssd and replace my current 500gb hdd with it. Then move the 500gb hdd to the cd rom caddy. I'm going to use the 64gb ssd as my windows drive, and the 500gb as my games/music/video/adobe drive. Will I encounter any preformance issues trying to game from a hdd in a cd rom caddy? I would love a 500gb ssd but...sadly they aren't free yet

 

No. The GT525M is exactly the same hardware as the GT540M, the 540 is just clocked a little higher and comes with more memory in most cases, that's it. The 525 will do all the same 2D and 3D tricks the 540 does, the drivers are the same as well.

 

Hello guys, i just bought a Dell XPS 15 L502x with i7-2630QM 6gb RAM GT540M, and i was just wondering how many cores does the processor have. On the Turbo Monitor it never goes over 2.7 GHz, at device manager it shows me that i have 8 cores. I was just wondering if there is a safe way to check how many cores i have or if i should activate the rest of the cores in order to have better performance.

 

4 cores 8 threads, all are in use by default.

 

The i7-2630QM has 4 physical cores and 8 threads. Most operating systems don't distinguish between cores and threads and report them all as actual cores.

You probably haven't seen anything over 2.7 GHz because you haven't taxed the CPU enough for it to boost to it's full potential... at least that's my guess.

 

Whoops...

Last night I got real busy and closed the lid before HandBrake was done converting some BD video and carried the ol' L502x up 9 levels to my stateroom (ship). When I opened the lid again, CPUID had MAX temp readings of 99ºC on the core package. (normal temps when converting using HB are usually in the mid to upper 70ºC range) ...so I guess the lesson learned was that I shouldn't have changed the settings for closing the lid to "do nothing"... especially when I carried it in a way that blocked the bottom vents too. May this computer survive me.

 

You'll be fine, although if you could afford it, I highly recommend getting a 120-128GB SSD - there was a sale for M4 at something around $160 a few days ago and there is only one direction for the price of these things (down). With that capacity, you could really keep all/most of your programs on the SSD as well and that will make the things faster, while leaving the data and multimedia files on the HDD.

I got a 120GB intel 510 and cloned my HDD to it, minimized the recovery partitions and I still have about 50GB free despite having windows and all my programs (including office, adobe acrobat/photoshop, corel, SAS, SPSS, etc) plus ~15-20GB user data on it and for now, I am just using the HDD as a daily backup drive.

There is a little bit of story behind that caddy I linked if you want to know. A few of us bought a caddy for IBM laptops from that seller a few months ago and installed that without any problems. Then folks here started getting a new version of the caddy which had an extra plastic piece blocking it from going all way in the bay, which you could cut, but its faceplate was not replaceable either which was a bummer. Since then the seller has listed the new caddy I linked which is a generic one that can be fit in any 12.7mm SATA optical bay and its faceplate is removable, so you can easily put your XPS faceplate on it. You should be fine. Hope you put the money you saved on some good use!

 

Just wondering if there are any particular benefits in putting the SSD in place of the original HDD! Can't I have the SSD in the caddy, and use the caddy bay as the OS drive...if not anything, at least it will save the hassle of opening up the OEM hdd. Since the higher capacity HDD would generally be used for data, I want this to be as secure & safe as possible.

Given the relatively high failure/incompatibility/recall rate of SSDs as of now, at least initially, I would'nt trust the SSDs to store my critical data. Call me paranoid.

I am assuming the caddy is easily swapable and can be removed/inserted at will.

In L502x, do the HDD as well the DVD/BD drive have Sata III /6GB/s interface?

 

I had a few quick questions.

I got my XPS 15 2 weeks back, and am considering replacing my Wireless card, and potentially my display to matte (both being 1080p).

For the wireless card, I currently have the Centrino 1000, and am considering replacing it with the Killer 1102, or the Intel 6230. My question is, since I have the 1000, would I only have one antenna on my laptop, making upgrading kind of pointless? As well, are the 6230 and the 1102 the same size at the 1000?

And for the display, does anyone have pictures of their laptop like a before/after for matte screen?

 

I swapped out my 1000 for a 6230. Same size cards, both with two antenna. Easiest swap I've ever done.

Can't help with the screen...

 

Thanks

10 char

 

I am about to order the xps 15. I apologize if this is already posted, but should I order the $15 Recovery DVD for Windows® 7 Home Premium OS, $15. I will be doing a clean install of Windows 7 when I get it. If this will make the clean install easier I will order it but I thought I read that I didn't need it.

 

You can download Windows 7 and burn it to a DVD, if you want to save money. Buying it won't make a clean install easier, I dont understand what you meant by that, a Windows 7 disc is required for clean install.

 

Do you guys notice a vibration on the bottom left side? I know the hard disk is there but is this normal? its not that strong but when I put my hand on the case I feel it..

 

It is the hard disk. The entire palmrest vibrates when playing music at full volume also.

 

is that normal? like everybody is having this issue?

 

Hey friends, I need some help.
I have a Dell XPS 15 as well with the following configuration
Processor, I7-2630QM, 2.0, 4C, SNB, D2, P
4GB RAM
2GB Gefore 540 M
750 GB HD
Full HD Screen
Back-light Keyboard
Internal High Definition Audio
9 Cell Battery
Intel Centrino Advanced-N6230 with Bluetooth 3.0

Its been 3 months that I bought it & I've never used games or high performance software's but the temp is exceeding 70 C even when the laptop is just switched on without running any apps. Also the left bottom corner where the hard disk is situated gets heated up, I mean you can feel the heat without much effort.

So is it normal or is there any issue in the laptop.

PS: - I haven't over clocked, updated to the latest drivers & BIOS

EDIT: - Also my battery backup is pathetic even with a 9 cell battery

 

Not much vibration at all from over the HDD on mine. Sometimes I can tell the HDD is active, but nothing to the point of distraction. I have the OEM Seagate 500GB HDD.

None of that is normal. With your high "idle" temps (I'm assuming CPU?), your palm rest getting hot and short battery charge it sounds like something resource intensive is happening.

 

So what should I do..???

I have the same issues on Win7 as well as kUbuntu :'(

So its not OS related for sure

 

The first thing I'd do would be to open up the Task Manager and see what processes are running at idle to see if anything is taxing the CPU and click on the performance tab to see the CPU usage history.

edit - Your idle temps are near what mine are at when I'm using HandBrake to convert BD's at roughly 85% CPU usage.

 

There's nothing much, please check the attachment.

EDIT: - My config is exactly the same as yours except the 4GB RAM & Blue-Ray Drive (I have 750 GB HD)

 

I was expecting higher CPU usage with all your symptoms combined. The only other thing I can think of that could likely cause all three symptoms would be a faulty HDD or software setting making it constantly active. Honestly though, anything further would just be me guessing. Hopefully someone with more computer savvy than me can chime in, and in the meantime I'd contact Dell tech support and have them remote connect to troubleshoot.

 

Well I tried contacting Dell but they say its normal..!!! :'(

Thanks for the assistance..!!!

Just 1 request can you please mail me saying that you don't have such issues, so that I can give 1 benchmark; cause he says don't compare XPS to any other laptop & none amongst my friends has a XPS with Full HD screen.

I would be really really grateful to you..!!!

My email ADD: - [email protected]

 

E:mail sent. Hope it can help.

 

Yup, checked it

Thanks a ton BRO.

I also request other geeks on this forum to help me out..!!!

Thanks

 

Hello, all!

I've had the i7 FHD variant for four months now, but I just started gaming on it the last two days. I've been playing Civ V on medium graphics setting for about two hours each day. Each time my PC has experienced the following issues:

1) The base of the PC gets incredibly, incredibly hot near the exhaust fan. (The fan is going full blast)
2) Windows gives me warning messages that my PC is becoming slow and that I should switch to Windows basic color scheme.
3) My battery will not charge; the icon blinks white and orange. During a reboot, a warning message appears stating that the battery will not charge until it reaches a lower temperature.

This seems to indicate to me that my video card is overheating big time. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

Dear gpufan,
I had exactly the same problem. I used the mini displayport adapter to conect the L502x to a projector by vga, and it doesn´t work, however it worked with a monitor display in my desk by vga conection. I tested this conection in three different projectors, and it didn´t work. The important information is that the projectors were fixed on the ceiling and had a big vga cable with an extension on it, working fine on nay other notebook. So, I tried to use another vga cable and it worked. So, my suggestion is: try to use the cable of your monitor on the projector. The problem probably is the cable. I also tried a long continuous cable and it worked too.

 

This shouldn't be doing this if you are plugged in...

Gaming on just the battery will heat up the battery significantly because of the power draw and it may become too hot to charge for a while afterwards...
If at home, you should be plugged in when gaming...
Also, i recommend that if the battery is charged enough already, to right-click on the battery system tray icon, and go to Dell Battery, and check the box to say 'don't charge when plugged in'... so that it won't wear the battery from excessive charging...

__________________
Dell Xps15, 2630qm, 1080p, 8gb Ram, nvidia 525m, 750gb HD, Blu-ray, BLit Keyboard, 1030 wifi+bt, 9cell

 

That should be doable in theory, but when I cloned my HDD to SSD and put it in the caddy, I couldn't boot the laptop with SSD. I don't remember clearly now, but I know I went into the setup and tried to change the boot sequence, but I think the SSD didn't show there or something... So I just shut it down and removed the palm rest and put the SSD in place of HDD and moved the HDD to the caddy and then it booted from SSD right away... Perhaps I should have given it more time and tried to change the master boot record or something, but I thought it was just easier and quicker to take off the palm rest than fooling around with windows booting, etc...

 

My HDD has slight vibrations that also seem to happen constantly. I thought that was normal. My bottom left palm rest does get warm. But nowhere near how my sxps 1645 did. Is this an issue? Or am I and the other just being paranoid?

 

Can somebody else help me with this..???

EDIT: - grimreefer1967 did help, can somebody else help as well..???

 

Define pathetic in terms of battery life? Secondly I would wager something is eating your cpu at idle, which is then magnified when playing games. Check your taskmanger for cpu, it should be hovering between 0 and 5% @ idle. If it is higher, look for the process that is hogging cpu.

 

Check my task manager
http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...ll-xps-15-r2-l502x-owners-lounge-untitled.jpg

By pathetic I mean 2hr 30 mins on Power Save mode with a 9 Cell battery with notebook which is 3 months old

 

One of your desktop gadgets is sucking lots of cpu. Shut down the sidebar and see if things improve. Also check your battery health with Dell Support Centre.

 

Took a total of 2 minutes, and amazing results. Thanks for the vote of confidence

 

Hey guys, I recently installed the realtek driver for the ethernet, and now my computer takes forever to boot up. It goes to some black screen that says something about realtek and the mac address and it stays there for like 20 seconds then boots up normally. It's really annoying since it used to boot up really fast.

Anybody have a solution?

 

Check your startup programs under msconfig

 

i had the same thing when i got my laptop back from dell.
press f2 when booting and change your boot sequence in the bios. set the hdd to boot first.

 

Awesome, thanks. I'll try that next time I reboot!

 

Does anyone recommend a fan control software? I feel like my fan doesnt run often enough

 

I have the same issue.. its like slight vibration on the bottom left side.. it gets warm.. not hot.. but I also feel it gets hot from the middle too, my tempratures are 55-60c on idle

I have ordered an SSD to test it out and I will call Dell to replace the HDD too..I want to see if I get the vibrations after I install, not sure if anybody else had this issue

 

It's just the HDD, remember its also 7200 rpm, I've had two xps 15's and both have had little vibration from the hdd.

 

oh so that is normal! but do you have any heat in the bottom left side (beside the touchpad) and in the middle of the laptop?

 

I have noticed that a lot of long cables used with projectors have a missing pin (usually number 9), which is fine for most projectors and graphics cards with VGA out. However, if your mini-displayport adapter works with your desktop monitor, then it might be possible to conclude that that pin is necessary for the adapter to work.

 

yes the left side feels hot under normal usage and when gaming it gets a little too hot. Under normal usage the middle of the laptop isn't hot at all.

 

But I don't think it should cause such high temperatures.

 

Hvae you tried closing it?

 

Yes, makes no difference.

 

I have a XPS 15 here. It has a humming noise that comes from left side on the palmrest. Is this normal? I think it comes from a vibrating hdd. When I push a hand on the left side on the palmrest I can reduce this problem. The problem is constantly present: the humming noise starts when I turn the XPS on.

 

hello again

did anyone get to make the HD function work in Skype ? I know it depends on speed and hardware, but I am just wondering why Skype is not offering the HD function if I have enough bandwidth