Dell XPS 15 R2 - L502x - Owners Lounge

My xps 15 came with the advanced-n-6230. I don't notice anything wrong with the speed while using it to surf the web or download anything, but if I try a game the ping keeps spiking up very high in league of legends for example its at like 90ms and spikes to 300-1000ms randomly every 1-2 minutes. My desktop that is also on wireless has 60ms and does not spike.

I dunno if anyone else is having high ping problems. Other than that I am very happy with my purchase.

 

Avast 6 or MSE for AV

Malwarebytes for malware

Ccleaner for other stuff.

 

Uninstall all the Dell support crap, the only thing from Dell that's on my laptop is quicket. Update your video card drivers from nvidia, make sure you have up to date intel chipset drivers as well.

 

Quick tip to use the media keys with iTunes. Load this little app at startup!

iTunes Media Key Fix lost? or simply misguided

Also does anyone know if I remove the dell datasafe crap, will it affect my ability to use recover the factory image?

 

I feel like buying 8gb of ram, "everyone's doing it". I probably don't need it, I have 4gb now. I saw 8gb of Gskill on newegg for $39.

 

I am curious for a solution to this as well.

 

Well yet another device does not work in my USB 3.0 ports. The receiver for a Microsoft Wireless Mouse 4000. How are you guys finding the compatibility of your USB 3.0 ports?

 

Every time I've tried to update my N-6230 from the Dell site it's caused wireless havoc. I always end up having to remove Dell's updates and then install the latest from intel. ZERO problems with wifi when using intel drivers.

I've used WD and Toshiba external HDD's and my Logitech Anywhere MX mouse receiver on both of the 3.0 USB ports with no problems.

 

Yes, you can use a mini-toslink-to-toslink cable to connect it to your receiver.

 

You need the DataSafe program in order to back up the factory image onto DVDs or a flash drive (or a Blu-ray disc if you have the Blu-ray writer). I bought my laptop refurbished off Dell Outlet, and someone had already taken it off. Therefore, I had to do a Google search to find the program to download so that I could make backup DVDs of the recovery partition.

However, even if you remove that program, you can still boot from the recovery partition by pressing F10 before Windows boots. You can then restore factory settings that way.

 

RAM is really cheap now, so you might as well do it. You will notice a performance increase if you use any CPU/graphics-intensive programs. I upgraded from 6GB to 8GB, and then sold my old RAM on Craiglists, thus causing the upgrade to only cost me $17.

 

I have no problems. Make sure you have the USB 3.0 driver off the Dell Support site.

 

Does anyone specifically use a Microsoft Mouse nano receiver in one of the USB 3.0 ports, and not have any problems? For me the connection goes in and out when I wiggle it. Works fine in the USB2 port though. Wondering if I have a bad receiver.

 

I have that same receiver, and it works fine in either port.

 

Cool, I already made a backup to a USB stick. So I am gonna uninstall that crap now! I don't need the 2GB backup as I have unlimited backup with Virgin Media.

 

Anyone else have problems with the 6230? I'm happy with everything about my laptop, except the wireless performance. I don't think it is running as it is supposed to.

 

i'm not to impressed with the intel 6230 either, in fact mine is so slow I've had dell replace it and no improvement. my old xps1340 with a dell 1515 wireless card blows it out of the water. if you watch the speed of the connection it flucuates between 300mbps and as low as 54 mbps. speedtest just barely runs. i'm using a netgear wnr3500v2 router, it is a n router

 

@tbare
I heard that netgear connectivity with Intel Wireless Card is not that good....

The intel Wifi card lose in terms of range compare to Atheros based one, I think, as my friend using Asus laptop can connect to school wifi while I can't.

 

The 6230 is a horrible card. I miss my 5300. I'm wondering if it'll fit in this 15z.

 

A problem occurs: one side of my keyboard, from about the ; key to the right side of the laptop, some of the keys, including the enter key (and thankfully none of the letter keys) are either very sluggish (hard to press, and take their time coming back up), and some of them make a crunchy sound. I had this problem before, but it cleared up for about a week (they keys returned to a more satisfying clacking sound). Is it safe to pry the keys off with a screwdriver? it's very annoying.

 

It can be done, but be extremely careful. You can also buy a new keyboard on eBay for really cheap.

 

I'm going to see what I can do with a screwdriver and compressed air. some of these keys are like rocks

 

is unparking cores a good idea?

i recently started hearing crackling sound from my speaker but the problem is gone once i restart the machine.. why is that?

thanks

 

Hey everyone..

It's been a looong while since I've been on these forums, but I'm back and hopefully soon, with a new Dell XPS 15. My old HP kicked the bucket for the 2nd time, and I decided it was time to move on.

The lovely new fellow has been ordered and I'm waiting on an email with the expected delivery date. Specs are in my sig =)

Anywho, on to the question.. I'm studying multimedia design, but I ordered the XPS with 4GB RAM instead of 8GB 'cause the 4GB upgrade through Dell is ~$80, while I can get a Corsair or Transcend 4GB matching card for ~$30 online at Theitdepot - India's First IT Online Shopping Store (Indian site).
Just wondering if anyone can tell me if it's okay to throw one of these into the other slot available, resulting in Dell's 4GB + Corsair/Transcend 4GB..? As far as I understand it, as long as the specs match up, it should be fine.. Right ?

Thanks in advance =)

 

Actually, when you order 4GB of RAM, it comes in two 2GB modules. That is how DDR3 memory works -- you have two (or three on some cases) matching modules. So in order to upgrade to 8GB, you need two 4GB modules.

It is still cheaper to do this than it is to upgrade to 8GB on the Dell site. I bought mine off Newegg for about $60. I am sure you can even go cheaper than that.

One thing to note, though, is that you really do not need more than 4GB unless you are running applications that demand a serious amount of RAM. If you just use the laptop for everyday use, the performance increase would be barely noticeable.

 

I just tried hooking my XPS 15 L502x to a projector via my mini-Displayport-to-VGA adapter. It did not work. However, I can hook it up to my monitor at home without any problems. And yes, I tried another laptop with the projector and it worked, so it is not a problem with the VGA cable or the projector itself.

Also, whenever I connect my laptop to my Samsung HDTV via HDMI, I sometimes am unable to clone my 1080p monitor with the TV. I am using the latest BIOS and the latest NVidia graphics card driver.

Has anyone else experienced either of those problems?

 

I thought that's how it probably would come, but the website and order listing shows 1x4GB DDR3 RAM, and I think I've seen other users post on here that they got a 4GB RAM module each, as well. (Plus the 6GB upgrade would've been a 4GB + 2GB, which is not dual channel, hence another reason not to get it)

As mentioned I'm a multimedia student, so I'll be getting into video editing and motion graphics which will require the quad-core processor and as much RAM as I can throw at it =P

Being in India, hardware like RAM is still quite expensive, so an 8GB kit is a lil' bit on the expensive side for me. Thanks for the suggestion though =)

EDIT: And in response to your HDMI+TV clone problem, I believe I saw it posted on here that it can't clone or has issues with cloning.. Someone wanna reconfirm this ?

 

I saw this also, but then a new NVidia driver came out that "supposedly" fixed that problem. However, I still have this problem with the latest driver.

 

I found this earlier in the thread:
"Also, I couldn't clone my display through HDMI, either. However, after updating the BIOS, Intel display driver, and NVIDIA driver (all straight from Dell's support site), duplicating has become an option. I'm not sure which one did it, but I haven't noticed any disadvantage to updating yet."

Seems like there was also an update for the BIOS and Intel display drivers, which you may wanna try if you haven't already..
All the best =)

 

@adj
refer to this site for Mini display port problem
Mini-DisplayPort on New Dells: Resolving issues with output to projectors in Windows 7
But if you cannot purchase the adaptor, try to buy some chinese knock-offs, maybe they will work too. (It is actually windows 7 problem though...).

 

i couldnt bring down my c: drive below 245gb . can any one tell me what should i do? i tried through 'cmd' and windows disk management.

i cant play nfs most wanted in full screen even when the display is set to 1200x768..though i don't have any problem in shift-2

i also tried to copy all my files from my pc through ethernet cable(rj45) but m unable to do so despite both are connected at home network. While trying to play on lan it showed me the server created on 1system but it couldn't connect to that server.
even i couldnt share my net connection through this lan connection.

m troubled..

 

I was using a knock-off adapter. I will try the Startech adapter mentioned in the article. I just now ordered it from Amazon.

 

All of these drivers are already up-to-date.

 

Cool.. Well, all the best with the Startech adapter then =)

Also, anyone got advice on whether buying a 4GB RAM stick online would work alongside the 4GB stick coming with my laptop order, if the specs match up all the way?

I'm a multimedia design student, so the more RAM, the better.
Thanks in advance!

 

I could be wrong, but you will probably be getting two 2gb sticks rather than one 4gb.

 

ajd2006 mentioned that on the last page, but I confirmed with the sales rep and it even says so on my order list that they're sending it with one 4GB stick of RAM. Don't ask why, but that's how it is =)

Just wondering how that sets me up for the future.. Can I just buy another 4GB matching stick of RAM and throw it in ?

Also, for any other students in India, I was able to get them to add my college to their educational institutions list since it wasn't already on it, then avail a 5% Student Discount, which I used to get a 9 cell battery and 15 month antivirus (don't wanna bother about that when the trial expires).
Hope this helps !!

 

Cool note for the student discount.

As far as the antivirus I am not sure if this is the best place to comment but I have to give 2 thumbs up to the free-ware microsoft has now the Microsoft security essentials suite is free and not bad at all at detecting most traditional virus's.

For spyware and addware I would still look at a malware protection program but thought I would throw in my 2 cents about paid anti virus software!

 

To answer your question, yes, you can buy another 4GB RAM module. Just make sure it has exactly the same specs. It should be DDR3 1333MHz 10600 (Or 1066 -- that is the same thing).

Regarding the student discount, you need a valid .edu e-mail address to take advantage of this. I am a student at my local community college, and they do not have .edu e-mail addresses, so I could not use this.

 

I use Norton Internet Security 2011. It is one the top-rated security suites on PCWorld.com, and it does not use very much CPU or memory. I got it off Amazon as a download for $30, and it has 3 licenses for 3 PCs.

 

I use avast 6 free edition with custom installation of web shield, file shield, and script shield, along with malwarebytes pro.

 

I am planning to buy a XPS 15 and need help selecting which processor to get. I am not a gamer. I do stream movies, use standard office applications, and do some lightweight programming (e.g., Mathematica). I am guessing that I don't need a quad core processor except perhaps to future-proof myself against upgrades in standard applications or the operating system that benefits from the quad. I see the downside of the quad being reduced battery life: dual cores seem to be rated at 35 W and quads at 45 W. Questions:

(1) Does the higher power rating of the quad suck down the power proportionally (i.e., 28% faster than the dual core) or is the power consumption dominated by the screen and other things such that the processor power delta does not make that much difference?

(2) Any advantages to getting the quad over the dual for my use?

(3) Any advantage to getting the i7 over the i5 for my use?

 

I have the basic i5 processor and this thing is plenty fast for all I do.

 

Yup, I have checked up on the specs from a couple of site's reviews of the XPS and crucial.com, so I'm making sure the specs are a perfect match, but thanks for the confirmation.

And about the student discount, I mentioned that I'm in India, but I did fail to mention how I got my college listed, without having a .edu email ID. I've included a run-through of how it worked out, and put the main parts in bold in case anyone wants to skip through:

Basically, I called up as a new customer - after placing an order - and inquired about season offers and student discount, and I was told my college had to be registered to avail of a 5% discount.

I then called up the sales exec who I had placed my order with and said I learned there was a student discount, but my college wasn't listed. After a bit of talking and he said he'll confirm with his manager about listing my college. I in turn spoke to my college admin about getting our college listed. When he called back he said I needed to send an email with info on my college and what the college admin was ready to provide to get added to Dell's educational institution list. (My admin said they'd send a letter on college letterhead signed by the college director/financial controller with a copy of my student ID)

A while after sending the mail to him listing this out and letting him know about the Raffles college network, he called back to inform me that his manager said I'd need to send a copy of my official student ID card (which has info on me, my college and a signature on it from admin verifying the ID). I did so, and a couple hours later he called to confirm that pending his manager's approval, my college would be added to their list & I could avail of the student discount. Eventually, the approval was given and I got the discount.

Note: I am not aware as to what extent my college's reputation had a role to play in this, since it does have over 8 branches in India and over 40+ across South Asia, but I assume this should work for most other colleges.

Other ways they mentioned you could possibly get a discount ( India):

• 
  Student Discount: A friend at a registered college can place the order for you, but the laptop would be in their name

• Government Employee: You or a family member can work at a government office (or IT Company, but unsure how reliable that is, since I live in B'lore, so it may be city-wise), but again it'll be in that person's name

Oh & as a side note, you obviously can't club the 5% discount with any season/upgrade offer like 'Free mouse when upgrading your antivirus' etc.

Hope this helps anybody, in any small way, and if you find any more info, do let people on this board know, or me so I can add/edit my post.

Cheers =)

 

So my only disappointment with the laptop is the N-6230 wireless card. It has to be something with the signal. If i download a big file I will be getting 1.6 mbps
and then all of a sudden it is down to 200 kbps and then back up to 1.6.

Any cards that I could try to replace it with that work well?

 

Before you do this, Dell released a new driver for your card last month. Download this if you have not done so already and you might see an improvement.

If there is no improvement, I just have the basic Intel Centrino N-1000 card. It does not have dual-band or Bluetooth, but it is more than adequate for my basic Netgear 802.11g router.

 

I got a Mini Display Port to VGA adapter made by Apple, and I tried to connect my XPS15 (L502x) and somehow, it just doesn't detect my projector.

This is quite frustrating as I constantly have presentations. My projector is an Epson EMP822-H.

Any solutions for this?

 

Hi all. I recently decided to properly test my L502X by playing the Battlefield 3 Beta. It looks beautiful, but unfortunately crashes after a minute. Apparently it's a known issue and the people at Nvdia have released new R285 beta drivers which work well with BF3. They work great....BUT...with these drivers my machine is throttling every 20 seconds or so, meaning it can't even keep up with my typing any more! The fan is going nuts as it throttles of course. It's like having a Commodore 64 again. Actually that's unfair on the C64.

Seeing as Dell take forever to release new drivers, does this mean I have to pick between having my L502X able to run a new game, or have it able to keep up with text as I type and doesn't throttle?

The only other option I think is to install and rollback drivers every time I wish to change activity. Seeing as this will be one of the biggest games in years surely they have to sort this?

I've had my XPS for 6 months now and I'm running out of patience. I've had Dell XPS machines for years, but I'm beginning to hate this one.

 

Hey Amberama, I don't have my XPS yet, but people over on this thread have been posting FPS and some issues they're having wth BF3.. A bunch of them with the L502X seem to be doing fine, so I can't see why yours is having such an issue =S

You've probably checked, but just for everyone's info, you've set the game to be using the Nvidia card specifically, right ? Also, do post your specs, so anyone with a similar config could respond/test your issues.

( Just in case you want to know how to set the graphics card, otherwise ignore this: "Nvidia's Control Panel usually helps (right click on desktop). Individual profiles for single applications can be created with "Manage 3D Settings", "Program Settings" (if it doesn't already exist) and the preferred graphics accelerator can be selected.")

Cheers and all the best..

 

Thanks Wraithers. I'm looking through that thread now.

I suppose I never really had issues with BF3 Beta bar the crashing, but like I say Nvidia and DICE accepted that there were issues with various driver sets. In fact it was running with pretty high automatically detected settings (and yes, on my 540m).

Quite happy with the way BF3 Beta looked, just not the constant crashes. Thats when I went for DICE/Nvidias new beta drivers designed especially to fix the Battlefield crashes. Unfortunately, whilst BF3 is now crash free, general use is appalling! I know its a Beta so I'll wait and see what the full game and Nvidia 285 drivers are like, but with Dell not updating their official drivers in Months I don't expect to have my BF3 fix and a stable computer until 2012!

 

I had the same problem with a third party knockoff on the previous page. Apparently, both the Apple model and some of the knockoffs have an incompatibility with Windows 7 because it does not detect non-plug-and-play monitors and projectors. However, read somewhere that the adapter made by Startech works perfectly. I ordered one from Amazon on Sunday, and I expect it to get here either tonight or tomorrow night. It costs about $20.