Dell XPS 15 R2 - L502x - Owners Lounge

thanks! i havent opened it yet so wasnt sure how the current hd setup is

 

Hello everybody, I will buy myself a new laptop for Christmas and and I have more or less decided that it should be a Dell XPS 15 L502x.

Since I don't know that much about about computers, I have a few final questions. I hope somebody can offer me some advice. Dell doesn't offer customising and online ordering in my country, so I am limited to what I can get in shops here (I need a localised keyboard, so I can't simply order from abroad).

1. Is it worth getting an i7 processor (specifically the i7-2630QM, which I could get here) over an i5? The higher price in itself is not an issue, I just don't want to pay extra for something useless. I would use this computer for gaming.

2. A major reason I chose this laptop is all the positive feedback I read about its screen. (I originally was looking to buy a Sony Vaio, which also has a good screen, but then found out that those sold in my country only come with a lower quality monitor.)

The L502x offered here comes with the following screen:
- Display Technology: TFT Active Matrix
- Maximum Resolution: 1920x1080
- Display Features:Full HD

Is this the display I should be looking for if I want the "good stuff"?

Thanks.

 

@morbiczer
1. The choice of choosing the cpu depends on what you are going to do. Can you elaborate more on what you are going to do? Games? etc For normal stuff, a i3 will be good enough xD
2. That is the display that you are looking for.

 

The i7 will not add much for games atm, but you should def. go for the 1080 screen.

 

In terms of performance (perception) I would advise you to go with a SSD instead of a traditional hard drive. That upgrage, if available for you, is more worth it, in my opinion, then a CPU upgrade.

About the screen. That 1080p is definitely the screen you want.

 

Actually, I would recommend the i7 if you want a computer that is more futureproof. In a few years, I'll bet a lot of software is going to take advantage of quad-core processors more than they are now. Also, I am an electrical/computer engineering student, so I am planning to use my laptop to run power-hungry engineering apps in my upper-division classes.

 

If you want an SSD, don't buy one from Dell. Buy a regular HDD, and then buy your own SSD off Amazon or Newegg. You will save $200 that way.

 

Thanks for the advice. I will definetly take the better display, but I think the mid-range i5 will be enough.

Sadly no SSD hard drives available here, or I would have taken one.

 

i second that..

tried by myself the difference between the one i'm writing for (1080p) and the 720p. Just another world.

 

This PC is god damn pissing me off now. My l502x can't even play DVD's! I was going to watch a movie on my PC, but it couldnt run it (!)?. It was so laggy it used 3 seconds to move 1 second forward in the movie o.o. So I thought something had to be wrong with the DVD, and therefore tried it on my 2 years old inspiron 15. It runned smoothly...

Is it something wrong with DVD-scanner? this is my 4th major problem with this PC, and I'm actually thinking of a refund now..

 

Try downloading VLC Media Player just to try it. It has support for playing DVDs. No guarantees, but I've found it more reliable than other DVD software.

 

I also tried with VLC. The DVD didn't even open... :/ I have also tried downloading a movie, and that worked fine.. so i guess it's the DVD tray that's the problem?

 

It takes more power to play back a DVD than to stream a movie online. Make sure that the computer is not on Power Saver Mode if you have it plugged in. Set it to High Performance Mode, and it will probably resolve that issue.

Otherwise, it is probably something wrong with your DVD drive. Contact Dell for a replacement.

 

I'm using the backlit keyboard. It's totally fine, no issues with it at all. I can't comment on the non-backlit one.

 

hi guys. just installed my M4 Crucial 128GB SSD and the difference is unbelievable! absolutely no noise, boot time < 13 sec, and Windows Experience on primary disk is 7.9

quick question. i installed a fresh copy of windows 7. where can i get the following software that came with the system:

1) software to play blu-ray movies
2) the i7 intel icon that shows CPU usage
3) Office Starter 2010

thanks

 

Try pushing down on the area between the arrow keys. I have the backlit keyboard, and there is a little bit of flex if I deliberately push down in that area. And this is my second backlit keyboard because a key broke off the first one. And there was some flex on the old one in that same area also.

 

@MarioxX
I think you may try the "my dell downloads"

 

thanks hanming! didn't know about this site. just googled it, logged in, and got what i needed.

 

Help Plz!!!

I am not able to play Games properly on my XPS 15 (one of the major reasons why i got this laptop)

Games like GTA 4 or FIFA 11, or Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) 2011 run but on the lowest quality. Whenever i try to raise the quality, it says VRAM not enough!

They say my VRAM is just 64MB.. How could that be?
My RAM is DDR3 4GB and 1GB Intel 525m GE Force Graphic card.

What do i do now? How do i increase my VRAM? Can i do it?

I dont see any option in the BIOS either. This is getting really frustrating. Please help

 

Go into the Nvidia control panel and set your games to use the Nvidia graphics.

 

Thanks mate.. But i've already done that. The games use NVIDIA Graphics by default, still the problem persists. Don't know why. And this happens for ALL the games.

 

Did you try turning the "high perfomance" energy profile on??

 

Yes David, The profile is already on "high performance"

 

I found that on my computer, the only way to get my games to use the NVIDIA graphics is to change the GLOBAL profile (not the individual profiles for each game) to NVIDIA graphics.

Also, make sure your NVIDIA graphics driver is up-to-date. That could be your problem.

 

high performance setting in power options does not make the game run with the nvidia card...you need to either set global settings to use nvidia in the nvidia control panel .....or specify the exe. file for a specific game to use the nvidia card, both these options are found in the "manage 3d settings" in the nvidia control panel.

 

please advice me regarding protection from dust and scratches from the laptop...i am thinking of getting a scrnguard and laminating the outershell is it correct.or something else would be better...i am worried about the screen constantly grabing dust particles .....

 

I have exactly the same issue and it even happens on high performance profile. And I am not running any heavy programs at the same time.
I notice when this happens, not only the music or video but the whole system slows down for few seconds.

Any suggestions on whats the problem?

 

Go to Nvidia Control Panel-> Desktop-> check display GPU activity. When you run anything like games, it will show that it is using the Nvidia GPU. Can you use this to make sure that your computer is using the Nvidia GPU?

 

Anybody successfully upgraded their L502x to 16GB RAM? Thinking of the upgrade as the 8GB modules are dropping in prices.

 

if you're upgrading just for the heck of it, getting a ssd would be a much better performance boost. Theres almost nothing that requires 16gigs unless you're into heavy multimedia production.

 

I have a SSD already if you haven't seen my sig. The extra memory will definitely help out the photo post processing software. Also, ability to grant more RAM to a VM without closing out apps.

 

Newegg has the Corsair 16GB kit for $150 so I ordered this morning.

 

Sweet let us know how it goes! I've always been wondering... what can all that ram be used for? My laptop starts slowing down quite a bit when it hits 4.5GB ram usage... would processor speed be a limiting factor with all that ram? I have a i7-2630qm btw.

 

I know that storage speed is by far the most bottlenecking factor in terms of speed. That's why I would say go for an SSD first, then get FASTER ram rather than more ram. If you have 6 gb ram and you use 5.5, then maybe think about getting more.

Source: computer engineering classes

 

I have a vertex 2 and 8gb ram. I'm not sure where the slowdown is from but it doesn't bother me much (I rarely use over 4gb ram) so I haven't looked into it... just that every time it happens I am at a bit over 4gb although I'm not sure if there's a correlation.

 

No, more RAM will be better than faster RAM. If the board does not support beyond say 1066 or 1333, it would be pointless to get 1600 RAM. Also, as many benchmark sites have shown, faster RAM provide minimum gain and that gain is not noticable in the real world.

 

I just ordered a Linksys e3200 dual-band router to replace my three-year old Netgear Wireless-G router. This is because Charter increased my Internet connection from 18mbps to 30mbps, and my old router caps it around 20mbps.

Anyway, I have the Intel Centrino 1000 Wi-Fi card. The dual-band 2630 card is available on Amazon for $27.00 including shipping.

Would it be worth upgrading to the 2630 card in order to benefit from it being dual-band? I don't transfer data to other computers over the network that often, but I want to make sure that I get the fastest Internet possible anywhere in my house.

 

yeah, let us know how that works out. the corsair is back up to 179 now at the egg. i'm looking at running mutiple VMs, SQL server 2008, windows 2008, etc on this machine, and 16gb will make all that run much smoother

 

Still $150. You have to use coupon code EMCJHHD36.

Newegg.com - AFTER-CHRISTMAS SALE: Over 100 deals on just what you wanted this year!

 

thanks! i'll still hold off until someone confirms that 16gb works ... btw, i'm copying your sig style

 

No problem. Newegg said it's shipped today. Just hope USPS don't screw me like last time even though Newegg facility is less than 100 miles away from my home.

 

Just want to confirm XPS15 works perfectly with 16GB RAM. (2x8 Corsair 1333Mhz DDR3)

 

Anyone have the PN for the DELL TV Tuner for L502x?

I must have screwed up my order .... it was not included...

 

absolutly love this thread - Yesturday I tried to add literally thousands of fonts into windows - normal drag and drop method in fonts folder. Basically in the process everything stopped and my fonts folder was completly empty. I tried doing a stystem restore but that froze in progress with the spinning wheel going round nd not being able to move the mouse (left for an hour, still the same).
I restarted the computer and just kept on getting black screen. I got it to the Bios menu and asking windows to start it from "last working boot" or somthing along those lines. Its back working now (well half working really) as now it takes absolutly ages to get to login screen and when I login it takes 10 mins before I can move the mouse "the intel terbo boost process is going like crazy at startup" never did this before. What would you say best option is to get it working again.

The laptop is from factory - normally windows - not modded ext - custom software ext. I dont mind doing a reinstall of windows as I just really want to get it working 100% again. Dell only supplied driver disk so not sure how I would do this.

Any help I would really appreciate it!

 

I got my replacement l502x the other day. I'm very happy with it apart from the intel N 1030 which is only a single band adaptor.

Dell are shipping me a N 6230 dual band adaptor which I will receive tomorrow.

It seems straight forward enough to swap these.

I was trying to DL the latest driver 14.3.0.6, A06 from the Dell website

Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United Kingdom]

But it says file not found, can someone else try?

PS sorry if this has already been asked, I'm only on page 80 of this thread and I did try searching.

Edit: got it from google

 

540is, thanks for confirming. just placed my order!

 

How do you do this - cant find it in Nvidia control pannel

 

oops..nm.......

 

Do any of you know whether the XPS 15 L502x will be compatible with the new Ivy Bridge processors coming out next year?

Mine has one of the original Sandy Bridge processors with the LGA1155 HM67 chipset.

 

Cant find the link/page of all drivers and order when doing a clean intall - can someone point me in the right direction...thank > < >>> <