My Dell L502x upgrade experience

Hello, fellas! While I’m so impatient in at least some customization as soon as I receive a new piece of hardware I decided to share my experience with Dell L502x teardown and thermal grease replacement. Hope you enjoy and get something useful from the article.
Before I begin I’d like to point out that I switched my screen as well to an FullHD LG LP156WF1 (TL)(C1) Glossy from stock 1366x768 AUO B156XW02 V2, but everything went not that smooth and I cracked few hinges on a bazel, so It needs to be replaced later on (around 30$ on ebay!). Also a backlit keyboard and i7-2630qm CPU remains in my upgrade list.

***The color profile for FullHD LG LP156WF1 (TL)(C1) Glossy screen ONLY using Spyder3Elite colorimeter you can get here! To install it simply open Color management through windows start button, browse and add to the existing list. All system profiles are located c:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color\

So here come the pictures:
The overall front look with FullHD screen I replaced, due to a flash the quality may not seem that great, but trust me, it’s times better than the stock one!

Here is my cooling pad CoolerMaster U3. I love custom fan placement)


Hdd bay from ebay for 12,5$

The bottom apart:

8GB (2x4GB) RAM Kingston PnP @1866 Modules

Just push on those 2 plastic hinges and the around keyboard top easily pops.


To remove the cables just open those plastic holders and they come out


Same with a keyboard cable

The backlit keyboard P/N is PVDG3 mine is not

All the available screws must be removed from the top

When you remove the bottom it’ll look like this

Here’s the heatsink

HS with pads on it

And without

I used CoolerMaster ThermalFusion 400 grease, because of the lack of choice in my country, but it performs really great with no leakage. Tuniq TX-4 is cool too. I used grain drop method on GPU memory chips and layer on the dies.

My OC session using MSI afterburner and Nvidia 275.33 drivers and CM U3 on max RPM!






Feel free to ask any questions. Thanks for attention)

 

Thanks for the pictures and guide! I have the same cooling pad too!

 

Sure, not a problem!

 

What size hard drive did you put in that bay? Did you change out the faceplate? Would you mind showing a picture of what it looks like with the replacement?

 

I've ordered this HDD bay in it fits just perfectly. I installed Toshiba 640Gb 2.5" HDD that came with a laptop. The thing is that there was a faceplate on the ordered bay. It was black and slim and easy removable! You take a regular DVD drive from your system, detach a faceplate and get it installed in a bay and voila. It fits perfectly! No screws whatsoever)

 

I ordered that exact same hard drive today. Is the drive you installed a 12.5mm drive?

 

Well, it says 12.7mm from the link i gave you..

 

Ah got the U3 as well, awesome cooling pad!

 

Can you tell me which seller you bought the drive bay from? The only ones I see are over $40.

 

I see that you have a 6-cell. You just interested me in purchasing that cooler! I have a 9-cell for my L702X. Do you think it would be too angled with this cooler since it is already lifted because of the battery?

 

Yeah, i know

Here is the link for the HDD-bay! No need to spend more than that)

Yep, it's a 6-cell. Even if it's lifted with a 9-cell it won't make to much of trouble, at least no need to look all the way down while typing It should fit perfectly, i say

 

Very nice, I don't even have one of these systems (or ever will) and your guide intrigued me. +10k on the 3dmark 06 is a nice score for that system. Nice OC, good job man . I have a Zalman NC2000 cooler, but your cooler looks very nice with the customizable fans.

 

Thanks for your support! I'm delighted with my laptop even more now..

 

Just curious, I've heard of the heatsink not clamping down tight enough on the gpu when repasting. From the pictures I'm guessing that maybe it was because the pads on the memory are thicker than paste. Did everything tighten down good? Thanks for the pics, getting ready to do this myself.

 

That might be the reason for bad contact of the HS to the chips, and i mentioned it earlier in the other thread. Now everything seems fine, but the worst part is that you can't check the memory temps on Nvidia cards so i'm not sure if i applied the paste correctly for 100%... At least everything runs smooth, even with a slight OC and 27C room temperature

 

I think I might just leave the pads and just repaste the CPU and GPU then. Makes me a little worried. do they retain their stickiness after removing the heatsink?

 

Oh, i've done it for like 5 times already, so don't worry! You can surely leave the pads. I guess they loose a little stickiness but nothing serious, i doubt it affect the temps. They never came off the heatsink though, unless i decided to get the removed.

 

Great job! I'm wondering, did you have to replace the lcd cable when you installed the full hd screen? Or were you ok with the cable that came with your laptop?

Thanks,...

 

Hey, thanks) well, i had to purchase a seperate cable before i proceed with the screen replacement! The native cable supprts only 1366x768 res... So i went to kuzotronic store in UK and ordered FullHD one! the service and delivery was really fast and in a week i could use my new screen

 

How hard was it to replace the lcd screen? Also, you cracked the bezel around the screen when you were removing it? And do you ever feel like the laptop isn't as sturdy or something once you've taken it apart and then put it back together? I'm thinking of buying the AUO B156HW01 v4 screen for my l502x but just wanted some re-assurance on everything.

Here is a link to the screen: AUO AU OPTRONICS B156HW01 V4 15.6" FHD LED ANTIGLARE | eBay

Also, what were your original temperatures before you did the repaste?

 

for screen replacement you'd better check this thread. It's not really hard, you just need to be patient and everything in order, no rush

My temps dropped around 4-6C after repaste, but i was overclocking my GPU, that's why i needed it, you can leave stock paste if you experience no problems with the system!

The screen is simply gorgeous from your link, but you need to contact that reseller and ask if it's not a LG compatible one they ship most of the time instead of true AUO screen!

 

Red Line,

What's your experience with HyperX 1866MHz modules. If you only had an upgrade of memory cards from stock ones, how much would it differ? How about heating? Would it cause more heat or less battery life? Thanks!!

 

Before i had 1 4Gb stick of 1333Mhz ram and going to 2x4Gb 1866Mhz ram made a noticable difference. The overall system responsiveness improved, so browsing through 20mpx photos and 30Gb Blue-ray movies made it faster an easier)

The heat is not an issue, but it runs a little hot, though. I doubt it affects battery life significant cause it still uses 1.5v as most modules do!

 

Does the machine run the ram at the rated speed?

 

Sure, all PnP RAM memory modules from Kingston runs great on ANY SB i5 & i7 platforms. It uses XMP profiles and automaticly sets the speed the time laptop starts, so no tweaking/seting needed Just plug, play and enjoy!

 

The color profile for FullHD LG LP156WF1 (TL)(C1) Glossy screen ONLY using Spyder3Elite colorimeter was added. See post #1

 

Hey thanks for the color profile!

 

Hi
I've got one problem. I've ordered the same caddy from the same seller for the xps and I can't swap the faceplate. See the picture below showing the faceplate and the caddy. Can you explain me how to swap it?

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/3707/dsc0277eb.jpg

 

There was a faceplate (black&thin) on the HDD caddy wich i had to remove in order to install the one from Dell. Do you see it on yours HDD caddy?

 

Sorry, you are not the first to experience this. I'm assuming you got it from ebay?

Check out this post and the rest of the thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...-xps-15-l502-2nd-hdd-caddy-3.html#post7691159

Apparantly, this seller has recently changed this caddy and the one they are currently selling in that listing does NOT fit and more importantly, its face plate is NOT removable. There is a small plastic tab on one side that is needed to be cut to allow it to fit, and you can't put the XPS face plate on this caddy, so this is not a good option for XPS 15.

However, from this same seller, any other 12.7mm SATA caddy which clearly mentions in the description that the faceplate is removable should work. For example:

New SATA 2nd HDD caddy 12.7mm Universal CD/DVD-ROM DV25 | eBay

 

Yeah, ebay, the same seller, the same auction. I think that's what happened to me. When did you buy yours? I bought it on 28th of June and I didn't have the xps yet. Such a pity :/

 

That sux then, sry for that! I inserted the link dated May 23rd when i ordered mine, but the seller probably switched it somehow. I'll use the one you provided, mazyarjr +repped)

 

Hi,

I know this thread is like 5 months old but anyone has any recommendation to upgrade the DDR3 RAM on a i7 2640m oon the L502x? Right now, I've been refered to Kingston, Crucial, Corsair one but is there any optimal one for my laptop?

Thank you in advance for your time!

 

anyone help me, please!!
icc color profile link was broken, please re-up help me
thanks so much !