Dell XPS 15 R2 - L502x - Owners Lounge

The "screeching" could be your hard drive, power supply or maybe even your video. If you've got only six days left, call Dell NOW! Really just do it. You paid for the warranty when you bought the machine, use it!
-joe-

 

Ok so an update on my problems. I send the computer to the depo and they changed the motherboard and fan and the problem actually got worse in games. I have had 100% crashes in Starcraft 2 and Black Ops that I tried but managed to play Dota2 for 5h straight without a crash. So I was on the phone and Dell made me do a factory reset and reinstall the newest drivers, but the problem still continues. The interesting part is that stress tests and 3dmark06 does not crash the computer but games do. The CPU and Motherboard still goes up to 95 degrees in stress tests or playing a game and streaming with xsplit.

The interesting part is that the computer does not crash if I unplug it from the wall and play on battery power. At least not the one time I tried after reading from another user that this must help.

I have an depo warranty and they wanted me to send the computer in for another motherboard replacement but I refused. I managed to talk to a manager and they will send a technician to my place to replace a second time the motherboard, fan and heat sink. I really pray that guy will be good and the problem will disappear. I will keep you guys updated.

 

Ok thanks man just trying to isolate the problem. If I have to send back to Dell what would you recommend on doing with my laptop and not being the pre-installed windows OS if you catch my drift . Will I get any problems? And if so how would I wipe the OS I currently have as I don't have a disk for OEM that originally came with laptop. Thanks

 

If you didn't do the Datasafe DVD creation thing and you don't have the OEM restore partition on the machine, just back up your stuff and send it anyway. The software isn't the problem.
-joe-

 

I have a factory reset image on my computer. Press F8 while the computer is starting and select the last option which is "Dell restore" something. It will wipe everything and reinstall so the computer looks like the same way it came to you the first day. I think every computer has it built in that ships from Dell.

 

Does anyone know which SSD drive Dell uses for their 256GB SSD option? Is it reasonably good?

 

excellent thanks

 

In the past they've used Samsung and Liteon, both good. Certainly there are faster, but these drives are reliable and also very fast.

 

Does anyone know a program that controls the fan? I need to run it full tilt to see if mine work right.

Just spend the last three hours unraveling my laptop to clean out the fan. Now I packed it back up but I'm 70% sure the fan isn't working right. There was heat slowly blowing out of the exhaust but the touchpad was hot like I'd been gaming for several hours without rest(it'd been on 10 mins). I had it set to high performance, but usually the fan is running hard for that. It was running on the slowest or second slowest speed it had. I tried to change to power saver to see if the fan changes, but it didn't. I shut it off to let it cool down, I'm using another computer now.

On the plus side, the fan "click" sound I was aiming to fix no longer happens, haha.

 

Use Furmark, but DO NOT run for longer than is enough to test the fan. If run for long periods it can damage the GPU. A quick run should be suffice for you to get the answer you need.

FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net

 

Try Speedfan: SpeedFan - Access temperature sensor in your computer

I'm not at my desk with my XPS15, but i believe there is a checkbox on the main tab that says something like "automatic fan", and you if disable it you can set the value to 100%. maybe that will work.

 

Computer shut down spontaneouslY about 90 seconds in. I'm thinking its Nvidias fault. Installed the new GPU driver right before I shut it down earlier to fix the fan. Many of my programs like firewalls, ad aware, etc didn't launch on startup. I'm gonna try speed fan in an hour or two (when I'm sure its cool) and if that works I'll install the old driver.

 

Shut off spontaneously after just booting up speed fan. Almost certain its an anti-heat measure. Gonna rip her apart tomorrow morning and try to reconnect the fan wires.

 

Hi all,

I hope this hasn't been asked before.

I'm looking to buy this adapter from Monoprice. It is a mini-DisplayPort -> DVI+HDMI+DisplayPort (only one can be used at a time which is fine with me).

I'm wondering if I use this adapter in conjunction with the XPS15's own HDMI port, can I multi-monitor and use the nVidia card to drive all the displays (2x 22")? I know that the miniDP port is driven by the Intel iGPU, but what I'm not clear on is if the nVidia card is in use over HDMI (e.g. a game or hardware accelerated Bluray playback) will the mDP port also make use of the nVidia card or not?

I hope I presented the question clearly.... Thanks!

 

So, I'm an idiot, I didn't reconnect the fan wires. Ugh.

Anyways, even though I cleaned out the fan and the surrounding area very well, it's still making a clicking/quick grinding sound. I'm almost positive it's the fan because it didn't make that sound when my fan was disconnected.

Any ideas? How cheap are XPSL502X fans?

 

@Caesis

according with what LoYaL_RUS said

the fan part number of the fan is W3M3P

you can see some prices with a quick search on google

New Dell XPS L501X LAPTOP CPU FAN W3M3P 4JGM6FAWI00 | eBay

 

Normally something like this requires public humiliation, and of course pointing and laughing. However, we've all been there, and self-realisation is humiliation enough.

Good job. But I'm glad you figured out the problem (might want to check for any potential damage the heat may have caused. hopefully not!)

 

The display port thing confused me a bit. It's an adapter that plugs in to a mini display port and allows for different extensions?

And as for the second question, do you mean "If I have monitors plugged into both HDMI and mDP, will it use the Nvidia card for both?" I myself didn't know that the integrated card is the only one that can power the miniDP, so that could be incorrect unless you heard from an expert or read about it for sure. First impression is that this isn't possible, assuming that the miniDP goes through the integrated GPU.

Half an option would be to use an HDMI splitter, but I think the screens will be mirrors, and I don't think you can send more than one feed through HDMI. I hope what I said made sense I'm not an expert at all.

Another option half worth looking into is a USB3>HDMI. Ideally, you could find one that uses both USB3 ports for best picture. I'm skeptical of this, but here's an example on Amazon if you want to look into this. I doubt that one, let alone 2, USB3s can feed information fast enough to 20 inch monitors for gaming, though.

Thanks! They're actually cheaper state side. $20 shipped for some on ebay. I'll look into getting one and putting it in when I have a few hours and my blood pressure is nice and low.

Thank you.

It seems to be running fine, I have it running with the wires hanging out and computer all opened with high performance on. Nothing is usually hot, but I'm gonna run a GPU test to make sure the temps are OK under heavy load. Will this tell me if there's heat damage? If not, how would I check?

 

Triple posted, fixed, not sure how to delete these.

 

Triple posted, fixed, not sure how to delete these.

 

Yes, think of it as a mDP-> all-in-one, where you can use HDMI, DisplayPort, or DVI. And if you have one of those DVI->VGA adapters (that ship with every desktop GPU now), you have an adapter that should allow you to hook up to any monitor out there. I am grossly missing the VGA port (I often hotel at different desks, and having a monitor with only DVI/VGA ports makes it impossible for me to hook up them right now).

You summarised my question better than I did: "If I have monitors plugged into both HDMI and mDP, will it use the Nvidia card for both?"

I've read from previous posts that the DisplayPort only uses the Intel GPU, but I hadn't heard from anybody if they had hooked up a display to the mDP port and was able to play games/watch movies off the nVidia GPU.

I considered USB solutions, but none of them use the GPU, so it would do me no good. I used to have a Matrox, but the lack of proper extended monitors was getting to me.

I'm not one who does hardware benchmarking/testing, but I do know that lots of people use stuff like Furmark and 3DVantage. After about 30 minutes of running each, and if your computer has not crashed, I would call it a good day and say the computer's just fine. I'm quite certain that if any hardware was actually damaged, your computer would be complaining to you even before you run any tests and benchmarks.

 

The Answer is YES with regards to multi-monitor.

You can power 2x22 LCD (HDMI and m-DP) and your laptop LCD. This would give you 3x LCD multi-monitor.

Generally:
DP --> HDMI, DVI (passively)
HDMI,DVI --XX> DP (unless you get an active converter).

 

Thank you, this relieves me a bit as I was afraid that the Optimus setup would prevent 3 individual monitors (just like how you cannot use Windows to extend an external monitor, it must be done in the nVidia COntrol Panel).

But does anyone know if the mDP will output to the monitor through the nVidia GPU?

 

I had that same problem with my fan. If you are still under warranty, you can just contact Dell and have them send over a technician to replace the fan. They won't charge you anything if you are still under warranty.

 

This is wrong. Be careful. DVI has lanes for analoge VGA signal, and with the DVI->VGA adapter these lanes are directed to the proper ports. BUT the mDP is only giving digital signals and the mDB->DVI is very unlikely creating the analog signal also since DVI is mainly a digital port. The result is that you will not get any signal to the VGA-monitor.

 

The mDP->DVI is not creating an analog signal. But, there are mDP->VGA "active" adapters that use the 3.3v source that mDP provides (or external power) to generate an analog signal.

 

Yes, you need an active adapter to create the analoge signal with mDP. Theoretically there could exist mDP-DVI-adapters which provide digital and analog signal, but it is highly unlikely. So the DVI-VGA adapter is useless in this case.

For VGA I use the following active adapter:
Mini DisplayPort Male to VGA Female Adapter (1080p) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

 

Thanks for the heads up, you two, about the DVI > VGA not working. Lugging around a VGA adapter would have been a bonus for me, but not a necessity as all monitors around the office will at least have a DVI port (but VGA was for hopefully working with projectors if necessary).

I thought the DVI > VGA would have worked, as I have successfully used a HDMI > DVI + DVI > VGA combination before (not my monitor, but someone else's). The DVI > VGA adapter was indeed the very one from a desktop XFX graphics card package. The HDMI > DVI dongle, on the other hand, was powered by a USB cable and had a sort of "transformer" type bulk near the input end - perhaps that was one of the active adapters. I figured that mini DisplayPort and HDMI wouldn't be that far off.

My concern, still, lies in whether or not the nVidia card will drive a display running through the mini DisplayPort (over mDP->DVI).

 

If I recall correctly, the NVidia card outputs on the HDMI port, and the HD3000 outputs on the mDP port. So, no.

 

Are you concern that you may not be able to output nvidia gaming to the monitor driven by the mDP?

If this is the case, I'll let you know tonight when I fire up a game and check for nvidia output through the mDP external monitor.

For what it's worth, the l502x is always using intel 3000 gpu for display. The nvidia 5xxm goes through intel 3000 for display on the notebook LCD.

I'll let you know later if gaming with nvidia gpu is a definite or not through mDP.

btw, why not use the hdmi attached monitor if you need to utilize nvidia gpu?

 

precisely my concern. SOrry if I've been horrendously vague and unclear with my question. I've been having a great (and by great, i really mean horrible) week so my thoughts aren't translating into plain English well these past days.

That would be great if you could test this!

I understand this, but I was wondering if the system was smart enough to determine that if the nVidia card is already being used (through HDMI and the built-in LCD panel) that it would carry it over to the mDP if multiple monitors are in use.

I already do have that going (via HDMI->DVI-D cable). I'm hoping to have two external monitors (22") going at once, on top of the built-in 15" panel, all powered off the nVidia card.

 

Just fired it up with LA Noire.
L502x and HP L2201x DP only monitor.

The game used nvidia gpu and dual monitor can be also used with only Intel 3000.
If you set global setting to nvidia gpu only, then nvidia will be active.

I suspect that the multi-monitor function in the same manner as the L502x LCD in which nvidia will output through intel 3000 igp.

 

So you were able to output through the mDP with the nVidia card?

Fantastic, thanks very much for your help! Rep +1

 

I am getting this blue screen frequently..please help!!!

 

there is an application called WhoCrashed that will analyse your latest crash(es) and try to determine what caused it. Often times it will at least point you to which hardware/software caused the crash and you can troubleshoot it from there. I highly recommend it. And it's free!

 

Mee too, up to 5 times a day, intel graphics and nvidia are the cause, driving me mad!!

 

Ok, this fan is starting to drive me nuts. With the A10 bios (and NVidia GPU not active), the fan goes on/off/on/off/on/off/on/off/on/off, then pauses for 10-15 seconds, and repeats the sequence. I was going to shim repaste, but I haven't found copper shims that fit the quad-core yet.
It so annoying that I'm considering opening an app that uses NVidia just so I can force the fan on continously. Are there any other tricks I can try?

 

Hi All,

Just purchased a Dell XPS and love it! Is there there is an updated Driver for the Touch Pad, I think I saw a post about this earlier but for the life of me, now cannot find it!

I find the two fingered scroll a little 'hit and miss' and I wondered if there is an update or alternative?

Many thanks in advance,

 

Most likely you must have some sort of program that is monitoring the GPU (either temp/load etc) which triggers this pattern. Closing the program or running another application which utilises the GPU permanently will prevent it.

 

Only thing I can think of is MSI Afterburner that I use for overclocking. I'll try without that for a while and see if it makes a difference. Are there other apps that can overclock the GPU that does not exhibit this behaviour?

 

Yep, that would probably be it.

I just had a quick go at it and under settings > monitoring; disable all monitoring selections and it should stop the fan cycling/intermittent GPU activity while allowing the program to run.

 

Great, I'll try that.

Does anyone know where I can buy a copper shim that is large enough for the quad-core CPU? Preferrably 1.2mm thick.

 

The drivers are specific for this laptop, every time I try another driver the scrolling and sensitivity is off. When you say it is hit and miss, what do you mean exactly by this?

 

I'm using Afterburner as well, but I don't have that on/off problem with my fan. Mine tends to remain on for a minute or two, then turn off for a while, and then on again for a minute or two.

That said, I'm used to having an active fan so I don't find it bothersome. Also, these computers are packing portable space heaters in a very confined space, so you should not be expecting an extra quiet laptop by any means.

 

Has anyone used a 512gb SSD in this laptop?

 

I'm not expecting a quiet laptop with a quadcore and pretty good graphics card. I'm just expecting it to either be on for a while, or off for a while. Not going crazy switching between states

 

You could also do what I do, I have speedfan keep the fan on all the time. I have it set to 15% min, so that it's always going at a lower RPM. Helps keep it quieter, and also because it's on all the time (that SF is on), it makes you subconsciously block it out after a while.

 

That'd be nice, but speedfan doesn't appear to discover any fan. I see the speedfan author has done some work on dell support the last few versions. What version are you running?

 

Latest one I believe - v 4.46

There's a tab "Options" in the "Configure" menu. Under Options there's a checkbox called "Enable DELL Support". Once you enable that, restart SpeedFan, and it should start to detect your hardware sensors and fans. Before I did that, SpeedFan was not detecting anything for me either.

Then you can go to the "Fan Control" tab and play around with the values. I have never used SpeedFan to actually control fans before (I only ever used it as a temp sensor list), but I started out with higher numbers and worked my way down.

Or you can just use the value on the front panel and set it to whatever value you want (e.g. 15%)

HTH!

 

Just my 2p. Had the same fan on/off issue, using 295.73 nVidia drivers.

I just updated BIOS to A10, and .... so far, so good. Was on/off before the BIOS update, applied on reboot and all nice now.