Dell XPS 15 R2 - L502x - Owners Lounge

Hi, does the 5.1 speaker setup work with just the laptop?


I keep changing back and forth between Stereo setup and 5.1 setup, and I can't find a big difference with the songs I'm listening to.

When I click on the Audio Test, it seems to play sounds from multiple directions. I can't notice this with the songs I play though (I even tried flac formats).

 

Well I don't know much about sound but I would assume that your audio needs to be encoded for 5.1. Otherwise, you would need to somehow virtually generate the extra channels.

I think the 'configuration' is just to let the laptop know what type of speakers are attached to your laptop so that when it has to play a 5.1 encoded audio file, it will know whether to send it as a 5.1 signal or to convert it to a 4 channel signal, 2 channel, etc. What it does not do, is take a stereo encoded song that you're testing, and generate a 5.1 encoded audio signal.

Keep in mind this is just a guess... maybe someone more knowledgeable can correct me. If you want to test it properly, try playing a movie with 5.1 sound or a game. Also it should go without saying that you need 5.1 speakers plugged into your laptop...

 

To all who would like to know about this laptop for college:

fan in the library: you'll be fine unless you're in a sound isolated chamber or something, only the stingiest librarian would complain.

Battery life: take a look at the power settings and lower them as much as possible before leaving the dorm. I have the 6 cell and if I let it sleep in between, it can last me a few hours just looking things up. I bring an ipod so that itunes won't keep the laptop awake, and I have the Dell quicklaunch button set to turn the display off. that way I save quite a bit of battery. The 9 cell will give you impressive runtime.

Sound: I brought speakers to the dorm, and I don't use them. This laptop has more than enough sound power to annoy the RA.

Media features: Before we got the television, we used this laptop as our movie watcher. To quote my neighbor, "that screen is pure " and playing Avatar 1080p on it proves that. When we did get the tv, we always hooked my laptop up to it via hdmi because the GT 525m could best handle high res video and games most effectively (out of my friends laptops).

School features: It's an able word processor/document creator (duh), but the i7 quad core made code compiling super fast and it ably handles things like mathematica and matlab.

Overall: Great laptop for the student who doesn't mind carrying around a power cord. It has a slew of good features, but the battery life is a bit low for laptops in it's range (at least for the 6 cell). However, if you want the power of a desktop that you can also carry around with you, this is a good solution.

 

Hi,

My dell xps 15 L502x gets warm to hot on the left palmrest side under normal web browsing.

Is this due to hard drive right under the left palmrest?

Did anyone change the hard drive with a ssd and notice any difference.

Please share your experience.

 

DELL XPS 15 L502x 15.6" CORE i5-2410M 4GB 750GB 2.4GHz BRAND NEW - FREE UK p&p | eBay

New ? Dell XPS 15 L502x ? i5 SandyBridge/4GB/1GB Nvidia/750GB/BackLit Keyboard | eBay

worth paying £25 more for the i2430 (instead of the i2410) and the backlit keyboard? Is anything else difference between the two builds (design, keyboard, etc..)?

 

thanks for that, now im gonna decide between this or a desktop

 

Short and simple: If you want to play games/have more storage and whatnot for the same price (assuming you have a monitor already), get the desktop.
If gaming's not that important, the L502x is a very good choice (I got mine off the outlet, and for the price there for the components was pretty unbeatable). If you wanna buy a new one, as in not off the outlet, I actually wouldn't suggest a Dell.

 

I don't know about you but I play games just fine on my L502x. Skyrim, Saints Row 3, Asassins Creed Revelations. You can't play them at 1920x1080, you just have to turn down the resolution a few notches.

 

Hi everyone,

Just got a L502X from the Dell Outlet (UK):-

i7 2670QM
1080p screen
540M
750Gb 7200rpm
8Gb RAM
DVDRW
Intel 6230 wifi+bluetooth
DVDRW
9 cell battery

£689

Is the stock Dell Bluray drive for these the LG CT10N?
Can i fit any other optical drive as long as its 12.7mm and SATA or is it not as simple as that?
Any "how to's" on how to change the optical drive or is it very easy?

 

I think there is a topic on a complete tear-down but as for the dvd drive itself it was a pretty straight forward task for me. I would take pics and make a topic but I stuffed the adaptor in with some vibration reducing material and I don't want to pull it out again.



ok I found the topic, go here

His first 3 pictures are exactly all you need to do to remove the drive.

edit: for step 2 you only need to remove the single screw no need to disconnect all the cables

 

What material did you use and where did you put it? I had been wondering about such an idea, as when ripping disks the DVD drive vibrates much more than the drive on my old Inspiron.

 

lol i am embarrassed to say... i actually used those asian pear wrappings

I have tried googling about testing its anti-static properties and ran a few tests myself (rubbed it in my hair, then see if it would attract plastic bag scraps, etc..) and then i just decided to go for it. It seems to work well enough... passed my anti-static tests, soft enough to reduce vibration and yet strong enough to not flake everywhere, meshed so it does not noticeably increase temperatures (ssd in main hard drive bay runs at same temps as the hdd in optical bay), and, most importantly, it is available for free from any asian supermarket.

The way I "installed" it (around my optical bay hdd adapter) is first i stretched it as much as i could around, and then cut it so that it just wraps around. Then, holding it to the drive with my fingers, I just shoved the drive back into the bay and used a thin knife to push it in when it started getting bunched up.

Results:
before: normal hdd sounds, vibration sometimes caused some part to make a lot of noise.
after: barely any sounds at all, I think even the hdd sounds have somehow been suppressed. No increase in heat, nothing short circuited in my computer, no flakey bits of plastic falling out

I have had this 'fix' for a month or two and seems to be holding up well... but just be careful if you do try it.

edit:

wait no it wasnt around the adapter, it was around the hdd itself which was seated in the adapter. apparently my adapter was a bit bigger than my hdd.. sorry I wouldnt know how to do it with an actual optical drive.

 

I love it! I've used those pear nest for packing material too. They're surprisingly cushy and resilient, though I'd worrry about static or about them breaking down gradually due to heat and age.

Ah, okay. It's only my optical drive that vibrates. My HDD is fine, so I won't bother tinkering with it.

 

Yea, I meant my hdd inside my optical bay hdd adapter inside my optical bay =P

one layer of the stuff on top of your drive should work.. it wont be secured though just kinda stuck there between the drive and the optical bay

 

Yes you can run games just fine on this laptop, but you can increase power a lot for about the same price with a desktop. I too play Skyrim, DXHR, source games and the like on mine, but I've also played on $800 desktops with GTX cards.

 

DELL XPS 15 L502x 15.6" CORE i5-2410M 4GB 750GB 2.4GHz BRAND NEW - FREE UK p&p | eBay

Just bought this

 

Not bad not bad [insert obligatory rant about the screen] but otherwise not bad at all.

 

yeah, I would love 1600x900 instead

Why did they get rid of good old 1280x800 at least

 

Just saw an amazing deal over at hotukdeals. £699 for i7 2670, 1080P Screen, 8GB Ram and GT540M.

Incredible price!!

Dell XPS 15 - Core i7-2670QM 2.2/3.1GHz 8GB, 750GB, 2GB nVidia GT540M, 1080p 1920x1080 - £699 Delivered @ Dell - HotUKDeals

 

Yes, I am very tempted. On here researching again to see if the fan on/off issues have been resolved, but just found a new post on the same thing for a l702 in this forum. So annoying. It is the one issue stopping me from buying.

 

Sorry that I'm late in, but there is a way to turn off BT while leaving Wireless on.
Go to Windows Mobility Centre (Customized by Dell)
Click on Radio Control Options
Tick the box for the hardware button to only control WPAN not wireless.
Use Fn+F2 to turn Bluetooth on and off while always leaving WiFi on.

Clunky, but it can be done.

W0rm

 

Got my replacement. No problem with memtest this time.

 

might get some more RAM

should I get this from Dell for £32 (4GB)?

DELL 4 GB Memory Module for Dell XPS 15 - DDR3-1333 SODIMM 2R Non-ECC : Computer Components | Dell UK

Or should I get it cheaper from somewhere else?

Does it come with 2x2GB (or does that depend on the model?) and is it already the fastest type that the mobo will support?

 

How many memory slots do you have & how much memory do you have now??. If you have 4 gigs now with two memory slots, you are going to need 2=4GB sticks, which would be cheaper somewhere else..

 

Not sure, the laptop isn't here yet

If it's 1x4GB should I get some Dell memory so it's the same or just match the speed?

I atually thought £32 was pretty cheap for 4GB, hence why I was gonna buy it but looking now...it looks quite expensive

 

Get 8GB from Crucial, guaranteed to work. I have them in mine!

 

Did you get PC3-10600 or PC3-12800 - is there any difference? Also, what's the difference between 1.5 and 1.35V?

Also, two of them say 512Meg x 64 - not sure what that means

Computer memory upgrades for Dell XPS 15 Laptop/Notebook from Crucial.com

edit: I just noticed something...where the hell is the backslash key?

 

I got the 10600 ( 1333 mhz ) paid £47 back in August so dropped quite a bit since then! The 12800 runs slightly faster, but will run hotter due to the voltage ( 1.5 ) With regards the 512 bit, that is just how the chips are configured on the memory.

This machine gets a little hot, especially when gaming. The speed boost is negligiable, so personally I would go for the slower and cooler ram. The single biggest upgrade you can do is a SSD, but for me until 512GB drops in price I am going to wait.

 

Hi,

When i watch like 30 minutes of youtube video and then try to type my documents the left side of palmrest is quite warm and my left hand palm pains.

So i got microsoft arc keyboard. But when keep it after the laptop the screen looks too far for me to write and read the stuff on notepad.

And when i place the microsoft arc keyboard on top of my laptop's keyboard or palmrest then when i am typing keyboard shakes.

How you guys are dealing with warm/hot palmrest.

Note: sometime the palmrest is warm/hot when the doing just web browsing. And i like this laptop for its sound and tv tuner and does not want to change.

Please help.

 

Hi,

My dell xps 15 L502x gets warm to hot on the left palmrest side under normal web browsing.

Is this due to hard drive right under the left palmrest?

Did anyone change the hard drive with a ssd and notice any difference.

Please share your experience.

 

Yes it's the HDD, with an SSD that part of the laptop will only get hot when doing intensive tasks or gaming, still it isn't that hot like when I had a HDD

 

My XPS15 is far cooler than my XPS 1530 (with the same SSD) - looked like there was more room in the XPS15 in the HD bayarea.

 

quick question first

is osx86 talk allowed on here? yes or no?

 

NEW BIOS RELEASE: A09

Does anyone know what changes are in the bios update that was released today. The Bios jumps from A06 which was the last release, to A09. I could only find one post in a gamer forum that said if fixed their Nvidia issue (Optimus).

 

@Rogo
well, the latest bios relase I saw was the A07, I modded some of those bios, and I also got some modded A09 bioses to work today.

however didnt saw anything related of a A08 bios, or the changelist of the A09

so if someone know what are the official changes of the A09 BIOS version I would be happy ^^

dell didnt included a lot of info at the download site -_-

 

Just ordered an XPS 15! Woot!

i7 2.2Ghz, 8GB, 1080p, 540m, Blu-ray and backlit for $1024 CDN.

Can't wait to see that screen!

 

What nvidia bios version do you guys have? I just flashed to the new A09 bios and mine is: 70.08.53.00.04. Just wondering if this is an updated video bios?

 

nope, they still using the same vbios versions at least for the nvidia cards.

gt525m: 70.08.53.00.04
gt540m: 70.08.44.00.11

 

>.> sorry to go offtopic of what you were mentioning. but is there any improvement on swaping out thermal paste? ( I have a tube of artic silver 5) just unsure of if its worthwhile to take the whole laptop appart

 

yep, there is an inprovement, several members have done it including myself and noticed an improvement, I also removed a black sticker acting as dust filter under the CPU/GPU fan, it improved the airflow.

 

Hi,

My laptop runs warm. So i want to disable my discrete graphics card and use only intel's integrated card.

Could someone please help me with a way to disable/enable the graphic card. And also how to disable/enable optimus.

Appreciate your help on this.

 

I don't think you can disable that but you can set your "preferred graphic processor" to integrated graphic so that it will use the intel cpu on all of the program unless you whitelist them.

 

fixed thanks....

 

@bomber1978

I would install as following, or at least I did like this last time I formated the drive:

0 got a usb drive with all the drivers well placed in folders using another computer.
1 install the all chipset drivers (hm67,usb 3.0 ....)
2 reboot
3 install intel display drivers
4 reboot
5 install nvidia gpu drivers
6 reboot
7 install all the other device drivers such as network adapters, 3g, touchpad, audio....
8 reboot

 

Just wanted to say I've finally joined this owners thread. I had my 1640 replaced with a new L502x. I've just switched the HDD to my previous 500GB Momentus XT (way faster then the 750GB that it came with) and have been slowly reinstalling all the software.

I have to say, the audio on this system is pretty wild. As a owner of a few other laptops over the years, this system is quite nice. Still prefer the overall design of the previous 1640.

One concern I have is where the power cable fits into the laptop. Out the back. I much preferred the side port on the 1640. Does anyone know if there is a right angle plug that I can buy that will allow the cable not to stick too far out the back?

 

This has been well-documented elsewhere...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7415385-post736.html

 

Also he could just go to the dell driver page, download everything for the l502x and install them in any order and it should still work... maybe need intel rst drivers loaded first to use ssd but that is all. don't see why he needs to spam his system specs all over the place.

lol

 

Just checked my battery with HWMonitor and it already has 4% battery wear! Just after 24 hours! Should I send it back to Dell or is there another way to confirm?

Also my CPU is at 57*C without even doing anything...

 

sorry double post

 

Well mine is a 6% already but I have been working for already 7 months with this laptop, so you should think on making a call to DELL, because it isn't normal, but before that full discharge it and charge totally twice and check again.

About the CPU, what means doing nothing? Check out the task manager.

P.S. Anyone knows why A09 version for BIOS have been removed? At least for me is gone.