XPS 15 (L502x) lactency issues on entire computer!

Hey guys and gals,

Needless to say, this is going to be my last dell laptop I will ever buy. I've been a loyal customer of dell and when I need help, they are no where to be found. When I do find them, their customer service is terrible. They're never on the same page, one tech will tell you one thing, while the other will tell you another and in the end, none of them give the right advice to solve your situation. So what is my situation you ask? Well here it is and I hope there is someone out there that will be able to help me solve the delema. Basically I've had this laptop since end of march, 2011 and I've had to wipe my computer twice (and I actually didn't watch on this computer at all lol), my recover drive apparently is corrupted, now in general, my computer seem to lag at times when I type stuff in. Even as I type, im lagging a bit. As for watching Videos on youtube, the videos that I watch from streaming seem to pause for a split second and then continue on. The sound will play through the entire clip without skipping, but the video skips, then returns to where the sound currently is at. Now when I play my online games like World of Warcraft, I've noticed that my computer, at the beginning will start skipping, but as I spend more time on the game, the pausing stops and plays like normal. Does anyone have any clue what is going on? This is my last stand, Dell techs have let me down and this is the only way I can try to reclaim my computer back to its glory days... which was only a month >.<

 

If the issue has been there since day 1, using the recovery partition to recover the system won't help as that is just a factory restore. If you are doing a clean wipe with a Windows disc, then wiping out the recovery partition would be advised. Or, you might just have a bad hard drive.

As for Dell tech support, I agree they don't know what they are talking about for the most part, they read from a script. But, let me tell you, no other PC manufacturer is better in that regard. ALL of their tech support stinks. Dell at least is pretty lenient in sending replacement parts and even replacing systems if they have on-going issues and are under warranty.

Sounds like a gimpy hard drive to me honestly, see if they will send you a new one with the Windows and drivers disc if you don't already have them.

 

I would request a recovery DVD from Dell. Even if you download Windows 7 and do a fresh install that way, I'd still like to have a recovery DVD on hand.

As for over-the-phone solutions, you may be being a bit harsh. There's any number of reasons that you may be having computer issues. It's like phoning a mechanic and tell him that your car won't start. You think he's gonna know exactly what's wrong without an inspection?

I'd be impressed if someone came by this thread and gave you a solution without more details. It's difficult to say if it's even hardware or software related. A very basic thing to check would be the load on your PC. Do you have any memory intensive processes running that you are unaware of? Is your CPU running at full load? There are also diagnostic software tools that you can use to check your HDD too - might want to check into that. Have you tried reinstalling any drivers? Who's to even say why your recovery partition is corrupt? Were you mucking about in there?

What solutions have been proposed to you by Dell thus far? Have you booted in safe mode?

Is your car out of gas? How old is the battery?

 

I've seen a factory new system with a corrupted recovery partition (Inspiron 15, 2010 summer model). It happens. That said, I wiped it out and reinstalled Windows completely from scratch, the system has had no issues after over a year, and it's my sister's, who is not known for being gentle on ANYTHING...

Agreed more details will help diagnose. A system fully loaded doing something in the background will respond poorly. As will a terribly fragmented hard drive.

Try the hard drive diagnostic, but I've found the diagnostic tools are usually worthless at finding problems when there definitely are some.