XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Thanks mate, I already managed to find this gem of a document though: Dell Whitepaper: Intel Responsiveness Technologies Setup Guide - Direct2Dell - Direct2Dell - Dell Community

Got it all set up now, chuffed.

 

Yea, some guy who posts here sometimes wrote that for them

 

Try SBPCLQXJ6H3WC6 - 15% off orders over 2k.

It might be worth upping the order just over $2k just so you can use this, if it still works.

 

I received mine within 2 days of ordering! I was expecting a much longer wait, but it seems there's at least some stock in the UK (the UPS tracker said it originated at Tamworth). You'll get another email from Dell with a link to the courier's tracking number in due course.

Digital Delivery refers to the Adobe Elements software, although I've been trying to sort this out as the app doesn't seem to "know" that it should be downloading these.

 

I've spent most of the evening transferring everything across from my previous laptop to the XPS. I'm a little bit in love with the laptop! It's so well crafted.

First impressions - the keyboard didn't take long to adjust to, and is great to type on; it is backlit, which I seem to remember being a concern of some people's. (I will miss not having separate "home" and "end" keys, which apparently I used quite a lot - but I'll get used to it.)

I've not taxed the machine yet, so have yet to experience any of the throttling issues reported, and haven't noticed the fan being particularly loud. I haven't really been able to hear it, other than when installing programs. I do get the funny "checking DVD drive" noise on startup and launching Media Player.

Startup and shutdown times have been impressively speedy, too. Have currently got the slowish 5400 rpm 1TB HDD, so I imagine swapping that out for a SSD when I get round to it will make it go like stink.

Overall, a great first impression, which is always reassuring when you've invested a fair amount of money! Looking forward to putting it through its paces a little with some heavy-duty spatial analysis later in the week.

 

Little bump, if anyone could help would be great

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ps-15-l521x-owners-lounge-49.html#post8703675

 

got some question directed @ the owners

1) has any one wipes out the 32gb ssd and put windows on it (if so is it significantly faster than the rapidstart mode from the factory)

2)does it come with the facial recognition software the old xps came with (if not did any one get a copy of the software and tested it with this system ?)

and if any one put windows 8 RP on it how is performance so far

 

I placed my reply inside the quote (I had to write a message here or else the forum wouldn't let me post)

 

I got the basic warranty. Basically, I think the premium only offers additional software support by phone call....at least, that's what I gather. There's no option for the excellent accidental warranty like the ones offered in US though

 

@dell_bill I think apart from the throttling issue everyone has talked about there seems to be two other issues:

1) Wireless performance. My iphone picks up a better signal/speed than my xps 15 does. It still says it is connected with good signal but the data transfer rate is terrible. Can't even watch a you tube video

2) Weird "checking dvd" noise on startup/opening itunes/windows media player/installing a program.

Apart from these two issues this laptop is brilliant and really enjoying the purchase.

Any update from Dell on the two above issues would be great. The wireless is a biggy ATM.

Thanks

 

Every Dell with slot-in drive does that.

 

Anyone willing to put up a video today?

 

Every Dell? You mean other producers' laptops don't?

 

My 5-year old XPS M1530 does this when starting up or resuming from standby. Never bothered me really.

 

Every Dell I had with slot it and I think it's related to the drive itself and not the laptop. I have Lenovo with slot-in drive and there was no checking disc noise but after I replaced the drive myself with Blu-ray burner I have it.

The original Lenovo drive had hardware button which was covered because the computer itself had no eject button. I think the drive without eject button makes noise and Lenovo installed drive with hardware button which was not operational to avoid checking noise.

 

Did you put a slot load blu-ray burner? If yes, how much did it cost?

 

Just did some more test regarding wireless speed.
Tested against a NAS that is connected via Gigabit Lan to a dlink 645 router.
Was down/ uploading a 1 gigabyte movie file, virusscanner off
edit - all power options are set to use maximum power, (windows energy options as well es controller options)

1m distance:
Down 5 mbyte/sec
Up 12 mbyte/sec

3m distance:
Down 2 mbyte/sec
Up 12 mbyte/sec

5m distance (with wall between):
Down 0.3 mbyte/sec
Up 10 mbyte/sec

10m distance (and again wall between - in garden)
Down 0.1 max with interrupts/copy error
Up 9 mbyte/sec

Upload matches what I get with a Lati 6320 and a Studio 15.
Download on the other systems is the same as upload at all distances.
Download with XPS15 (and directory browsing) is the slower the more distance is between the router and the system.

My feeling is that there is a driver/bios issue.
Trying to get some live linux system to se if its the driver...

 

Go to Control Panel

Power Options

Select Power Plan - check DELL

Change Plan Settings
Change Advanced Power Settings
A pop up comes in on the screen
Expand the - Wireless Adapter Settings
Expand the - Power Saving Mode
Change - On Battery To Maximum Performance - Plugged In To Maximum Performance Restart your system

Does that work for you?

 

should have noted that I had set all power options to maximum performance, including PCI, so unfortunately this doesn't help, me at least.

 

Ok, what are the Mbps you are getting in each location? Are you seeing good signal strength, but low Mbps?

 

Are you running 40mhz channel width? Secondly, try Inssider and look at look at the wireless connection speed as you walk around the house.

 

yes, running on 20/40 MHz on 2.4GHz band, the connection speed according to windows is varying from 300 Mbit/sec when close to router to min. 240 when 10m away, signal strength between 5 bars and 4 bars. so this is not the issue...
have also tested on 5Ghz but did not change much despite the connection drops earlier

 

Any news on this side Bill?

 

It was brand new Panasonic UJ-235 on ebay and from China and cost me £70 incl. shipping.

XPS15 has slim drive Panasonic UJ-267 and the only one I can see on ebay cost £260 and you could buy much better slot for that.

 

One of the first things I'll try when I get mine!

 

First time poster here and just purchased my XPS 15 (L521X).

Firstly it looks great, whilst I personally think the laptop is a tad overpriced you can definately feel the quality of materials used in creating the laptop, it feels good. Also the touchpad is great, kudos to Dell on that one.

The throttling issue most people are talking about isn't something I've encountered but I haven't really pushed it to its absolute limits, I didn't have trouble running most games out there.

I do have one issue with this laptop however, and it is crippling, like some other posters above me have posted, the wireless connectivity has something weird going on.

Right next to my router the speeds are perfectly fine, the further I walk from the router the more noticable the speed dramatically drops, to the point where I was upstairs sitting on my desk running a speedtest with my iphone 4s and the iphone absolutely blitzed the laptop, at the moment (upstairs), the laptop struggles to load anything but simple html webpages.

And yes I've checked the power plan options and have it set to "maximum" and I've also re-installed updated drivers that Dell have suggested to no avail, I'll have a tech comming around in the next couple of days to test a different wireless card and see if that changes anything.

When the wireless connectivity issue gets resolved however, I'll be perfectly happy with this laptop, well done Dell.

 

I'm noticing the same problem. When not in direct line of sight of the router my downstream becomes abismal.

Is there a possible driver fix for this? Or is it a hardware problem with the wireless card itself?

 

The card and the antennas (actually the whole screen) have been replaced on my system last week Friday so I assume it's not a hardware related problem (it could well be a design related though but then we'd need to wait for a hardware revision with better antenna routing or whatsoever).

 

I have had my WLAN card and antennas replaced by a technician last week but it didn't help...

 

My laptop is turning up tomoz!

 

I have the same problem but what i did was change the power settings from the dell setting to maximum performance and it is not perfect but it has improved it a fair bit.
Try that and see if it makes a difference
I also have the Inspiron 17R SE side by side the Inspiron is a lot better than the SPX 15 in respect to the wireless

 

well if the entire lid is machined aluminum with no plastics and glass on the other side i would assume dell made provisions for the wireless antenna to avoid this issue ...............i wonder if ti could be software or if dell routed the antennas as they would a normal system instead of routing them where the would get the best reception see that its an all aluminum um construction.... the MBPwR has its antennas on the hinge right below the mac book logo since apple made the cover there plastic for better reception wonder what dell did ?? hope it gets sorted out

 

Just wondering if any of the people having WiFi problems have tried a speed test with the back removed and the Wifi card/aerial facing the router. I'm curious to see if the signal is being blocked by the aluminium case.

If so, unfortunately no software update will fix it.

 

if so dell better redesign the antenna placement in the windows 8 refresh or just do it and replace every ones screen

 

Guys, have any of you found a two-finger tap option in the synaptics drivers, or another driver which has it? I'd really like to be able to twofinger right click as well as scroll...

 

I think that included WiFi card is just not top card. My Intel 5300 is working very good on my Studio XPS 1640 but by default my notebook had some other Intel card. So here it's the same - inside crappy 6235 while much better performance can be achieved with 6300 (so full featured younger brother of 5300). I will replace my WiFi card for sure.

 

hopefully Bill jumps on today and has a BIOS update for us and can shed light on the wireless issue which just about everyone seems to be having

 

Thanks, that was very helpful!

 

yes, I use it to scroll, pinch zoom as well as three finger forward and backward in history. works great in chrome.
you have to set it up in Dell touchpad however

 

It wouldn't be. The components available today in the Inspiron R S/E were not available when the L502x was built, so it's impossible to make an exchange line up on price. Generally, the price of tech drops over time, so in an apples to apples scenario, you always see the newer stuff priced lower.

Just send a PM to Dell-LornaM if you need any help. Hopefully you are squared away now.

Check your PM box shortly, please.

I read on and saw you found the whitepaper. Woot.

Wait! Stop! Don't crack that case! LOL. I want your box as-is to see if it's that tape issue. Would you mind doing a new exchange and shipping that unit back to the failure analysis engineers? You would not have to return anything until you have a new unit in hand and verify it works correctly, or at least the same, as the one you have now. Let me know by way of PM if you are interested. Thanks.

I count 2 confirmed and one possible on the tape thing so far. Do I have that right?

I take it you are talking about L521x vs Inspiron R S/E. If so, the quality of the sub and speakers are in the same class. We just went with a different partner, Skull Candy, this time around instead of JBL. The speakers (sans sub) in the L521x are just as high quality as the JBL's and Skull Candy units, but with this premium system, we did not want to do any co-branding and have a bunch of stickers and logos on the box.

I sent a quick note over this morning and will send over more detail from quotes in this thread. Seeing as how some are reporting the problem and some are reporting no issues, we need to eliminate variables outside the box that we can't test for in our labs.
Can everyone update your router firmware and test again? Also, try moving your SSID to a different channel. If you have dual band routers, try both frequencies. This baseline stuff should be done before we really start spinning up engineering on this, which we will and have already. I just want as much of the basics knocked out as possible, so I don't have to go back and forth with the engineers.

I sent the checking DVD thing over already, and I doubt there's a change coming. As far as wireless, see above. As far as throttling, check your PM box in a few minutes.

 

Hi all, I just received my new Dell XPS 15 (i7 + 640M + 750Gb 7.200rpm) and I must say I'm very impressed! but... reading about all the problems i probably have both the throttling and the Wi-Fi

Throttling: no full tests but 3DMark advantage results are 6800 point on GPU and 8000 point on CPU

Wi-Fi: In my studio room I can barely have signal and can't load a youtube video whilst other PCs have no problem (15 meters from the router - small apt.)

Now I'll try to format it cause I need to install Win7 pro (I have the home premium) then I'll do some other test (Wi-Fi only, that is my n. 1 concern right now).

 

FWIW, I have throttling in mine too. I found an easy way to see it too.

I ran 3dmark06 full test- got 4005 on the CPU score.
Let it cool, Run just the CPU tests, got 5,5791.

N

 

@ Bill I bought mine now, but what has happened to UK retail, you said to nudge you!

 

I've tested it with 3 different routers (actually exchanged one with a new model as I hoped it would solve the issue) - no significant difference. I also tested it on 2.4 and 5 GHz bands but no big difference (the download rate is slightly higher on 5 GHz but only if you are close to the router and no wall etc. between).
One thing to note is that the speed the notebook and router are connected according to Windows is always very good - between 240 and 300 MBit/sec in my case, also it is showing 4-5 bars all the time.
This looks to me not like a general connection issue, especially since the upload transfer rates are as expected and very good.
One thing I noted today is that if you switch off wireless and then switch back on, the speed is better for the first couple of seconds but drops as soon as you transfer more data.
I had also reinstalled Windows 7.

I will not be able to test anymore as my system gets picked up these days for a return - much to my regret as I love the system but functioning WLAN is a must for me.

I have seen an article in a German computer newspaper that the WLAN speed is very slow compared to other systems and Dell confirmed to look at it with a BIOS/driver fix. When I called tech support, they where not aware of any issue...

 

Hi Bill, I've done the tests you asked for before formatting:

- Router: Zyxel P-660HW-D1 - Latest firmware already installed (v3.40)
- No double frequency (I think... maybe you can help me watching the specs below)
- P-660HW Series

- Channel 1: barely no signal, 15Kb/sec download / connection lost
- Channel 6: 60 Kb/sec download
- Channel 11: 100-200 Kb/sec download

Generally, I've noted that the XPS starts slow and then the speed increases to the numbers reported.

My other PC has 300-400+ kb/sec download speed (obviously not in the same time) from the beginning

Test done downloading an Office 2010 Image from university server


Hope it helps!
If you need something other test just ask me.
Now I'll format and then I'll be back.. hope to hear from you Bill!

 

Can you guys with wireless issues please try these drivers. They are 15.5 beta from Intel. Also try disabling the bluetooth, but keep wireless enabled, does that make a difference?

 

These are only for Windows 8.

N

 

Might work if the inf is modified.

 

One of my annoying dead pixels.

 

Downloaded and tried but the inf must be modified (win8 required) maybe I'll try it later.

Maybe it's dumb but.... could the problem be related to the proximity of the wi-fi module to the secondary RAM module (the easy one)? I've read the XPS15 manual and seen that the RAM module is close to the wi-fi card.
I have 2x4Gb RAM so both the modules are occupied.

To the other guys with wi-fi problem / no problem: what's your RAM config?