XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Windows 8.1 and Local accounts - Microsoft Beta - Neowin Forums

 

22nd September 2013, 12:55 AM
elvis7
Re: XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge


so my display will no longer dim or go brighter. when I check device manager, it says generic pnp monitor. any ideas?

found the problem, it seems that intel's latest driver/display software interferes with the display brightness controls in windows 8... stupid intel.. I uninstalled it and everything worked again, I was running off the Microsoft generic intel 4000hd driver, until windows auto installed the drivers....

so luckily I keep drivers stored in my files incase I need to reinstall windows or etc and I do not have network access or am in the middle of nowhere. I installed the oct 15 2012 driver/software from intel. hopefully it wont be updated by windows..

ill have to wait until intel gets their act together, first their lack of Bluetooth 4.0 driver and now this. it seems to me that intel is heading down the same slope as dell and failing at everything...

 

1.) Can anyone comfirm that the display flickers on fullscreen. The flicker is more visible with 4k resolution (external monitor) but I can see it with the notebook screen as well. I've made a picture with my smartphone, it is not easy to catch it:
Quelle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B Bild - 20131018 124334 - 2,1 MB - Honda Forum & Tuning - MaXReV

I only mean the effect that is visible at the hat. I looks a little bit like a interlace or low framerate problem?!

2.) Did anyone found a LAN-LAN adapter to bypass the nasty socket? Something like this but without crossover:
http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Unlimited-Cat6-Crossover-Adapter/dp/B00030BYJI

If not available I thought using this plus a crossover cable or two adapters and a usual cable

 

mgutt: I've never noticed a flicker on my display and I've had the machine since july '12. After 15+ years of computer game development and more than that playing I'm fairly sensitive to that kind of crap too. I have never used an external display though, merely plugging one in to the machine may change the behavior. Have you been able to determine whether it's the Intel GPU, NVidia GPU, or both that are running when flickering happens?

 

Thanks. I did uninstall the driver dated one 01/10/2013, after restart, checked the Device M and this one is from 26.09.2012. Under this one the brightness it can be adjusted as it should be.
The windows 8.1 had it in its database.

 

Anyone know if Dell ever adjusts the 'analyse system for updates' app, to pick up what OS is actually installed Vs what the service tag records are?

I deliberately bought this with W7-Pro, but it's been upgraded through Win8-Pro and is now on 8.1

It would be nice if the 'auto-detect' function worked for what you actually had, rather than being (in my/our cases...) a waste of time.

 

@c0derbear
It happens with both GPUs and both screens. It is no reason if something is plugged in (external monitor, power outlet, etc.) as well. I'm using the recent driver from nvidia (320.49) not the one from dell.

 

I just tried installing the new intel Win64_15335. graphics driver/software and kept getting an error message saying my system is not authorized for the install...even when trying the intel one.. .

Anyway graphics application Graphic_Intel_W84_X10_A03_Setup-YYXT0_ZPE 9.17.10.2867 works fine and installs fine, I have it if you want me to send it to you.


ok so the problematic intel graphics driver/software are 9.18.10.3165 and 10.18.10.3316 those two will remove display brightness control for some reason.
all other drivers prior and after work fine. and I finally managed to install intel graphics driver/software 10.18.10.3262 without getting an error message from both dell and intel instillations.

I had to install the intel graphics drivers in the following order.

9.17.10.2857
9.17.10.2867
9.18.10.3165
10.18.10.3262

 

Anyone else had a 20-second delay pop into the startup after upgrading to Win 8.1??

I have a 120Gb Intel mSata drive for the O/S and a clean install of Win8. Was originally around 4-5 seconds to desktop appearing, but now with 8.1 is around 20.

Is there anything we can run to see what is happening?

 

Update your drivers, some aren't 8.1 friendly.

 

Yeah... did that. Grabbed these ones...



They were all dated the 10/15/2013 on the Dell site.

 

I got one of these while it was on sale last week and it in the mail came today. Wow just wow. Compared to my old laptop, this is the Rolls Royce. It's the thinnest notebook I've ever had. I don't find it heavy (again considering my old laptop haha). The one thing I found odd was the dell logo was some sort of shiny black. I would have preferred a glossy silver logo but I can't really complain. It looks amazing and the firepower under the hood is just frightening. I can't wait to turn it on.

 

Slightly OT as I've upgraded my desktop and not my L521X yet...but still useful:

To continue using a local account with Win 8.1 during initial setup:

On the screen to sign in to a Microsoft account, choose "Create a new account".

On the next screen, choose "Continue using my existing account".

Setup will advance.

Update to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8 - Microsoft Windows

IMO, they hid it. It makes sense to be on the sign in page, not on the create account page.

 

Hi,

How do you know if the laptop is charging when it's shut off? Does that green light on the ac adapter mean the laptop is charging or just that the AC Adapter is powered?

Thank You

 

Just that the AC is powered.

The LED on the front of the machine shows charge status.

I think it blinks while charging.

 

when its charging the front light is a stable orange,

 

Official Bluetooth driver/software for the intel ac 7260 . windows 8.1 compatible

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...ng=eng&wapkw=intel+dual+band+wireless-ac+7260

 

It appears that the revised XPS model has finally been released. Has anyone with wifi / battery problems attempted to get Dell to replace their model with this new one yet?

 

So at first I thought all the top button's were broken(brightness, volume, wireless etc.) then I just realized you need to press function key at the same time. My older Dell was the opposite. The quick commands were default and the F1,F1,F3 etc were activated by pressing function. Does anyone know how I switch this?

Also how do I get to Bios? The computer boots too dang fast...

 

windows mobility setting.

 

Thanks alot Elvis7, the Dell Tech I spoke with claimed there was no way to change this. But It's the way I like now.

 

Dell tech support is pretty useless, ive dealt with them for 7+ years...

The other way to change it is through the bios but both ways work.

 

The computer has hardly sweat or even been warm but I like to keep my laptops chill. It occurred to me that the vents on this laptop are a little unconventional. What do you guys recommend as to a notebook cooler fan? I'm not sure that will even be effective on this kind of laptop because there are no vents directly on bottom.

 

Don't need one, just elevating it is sufficient. I personally use this stand:
Amazon.com: Griffin Technology GC16034 Elevator Laptop Stand: Computers & Accessories

Has the benefit of elevating it closer to eye level (and thus reducing strain), but pretty much requires using an external keyboard/mouse.

 

I noticed the same thing. I wonder how that can be fixed. Also did anyone else's Desktop Google Chrome go wonky with the resolution? When I switch to view in Win8 mode it goes sharp but Google Chrome in desktop view looks sloppy...Similary if I open the device manager or any system utility it looks grainy. I updated all the drivers as of recent. Wondering whether I should restore back to Win8?

 

Well I fixed the resolution issue. Some kind of fix in the screen resolution settings. Now Chrome and system utilities look sharp in desktop mode. Still wondering about the dramatically slower boot time post win8.1 install with SSD

 

my boot time prior to 8.1 was 4.5s . My boot time after 8.1 is now 4.3s.. The bios initialization takes 4s..stupid dell! I could have a 1s boot time if they'd just release a better bios update.

I have a 256gig msata adata xpg sx300 6gb sata 3.

however, I did notice that my system has slowed down, don't know what to do seeing as you aren't supposed to defrag ssd's...

 

With the discount of 700 bucks, is this one worth buying everyone at 999? Has the wifi been fixed?

 

yeah, *cough*, defragging does nothing (*1) useful for SSD based data.

If your system is "slowing down" then it's likely owing to different running software behavior. New active services. New programs running. Crapware. Silly ISV's sneak in ALL KINDS of CRAP on us.

I dropped about 5s from my cold-boot time this week by going through the startup items and registry and disabling those things I no longer needed to be run every time, and those things that had snuck in (like the NVidia, Google, and Apple background updated services). This also lowered memory utilization, not that I care a lot about that with 16 Gb.

My machine is still using BIOS and I have sub-10s cold-boot times, to logged-in start screen, on 8.1, and my system drive is a cheap- 120Gb Mushkin mSATA SSD.

reminder: Defragging only helps mitigate seek times on HDDs, it does this by aligning data in some fashion (large files get sequential, related groups are laid out for easy access, frequent stuff near the center, yadda yadda). SSDs don't need this because "seek time" is identical (*2) regardless of what data is being retrieved. Defragging on an SSD may give you a happier in-use graph but it really on wears down the memory cells excessively.

*1 If you find yourself needing to realign some partitions for some reason ... shrink, move, etc ... then it may be useful to manually defrag in order to make those operations succeed, but I honestly can't think of any other valid reason to defrag a SSD.

*2 "seek times" may vary in real world because of processing, caching, memory block rewrites that are pending, whatever. It's very internal- and device-specific.

 

I wish I knew what you did. It used to boot 4-5 seconds. Now after getting Win 8.1 its doing this 20-25 seconds. I know that compared to my old HDD laptop this argument is petty...but once you experience a 4 second bootup time you never wanna go back. It's moderately comforting knowing that you were able to mantain 4s bootup but begs the question where did I go wrong... The computer came with no bloatware whatsover. The only two additional programs I added are Matlab and Office. And in Win 8 those didn't effect the boot time. As soon as I got Win 8.1 the bootup time is 20-25s. I'd be interested to know if you did anything different in your Win 8.1 install.

I hope it's not because I got rid of the Intel sticker...

 

False alarm its not the Microsoft account....and I thought I figured something out!

 

it not ignore all

 

I use local login.

I don't use any of the MS services, limited use of their app-store, but that can be separately logged in to just like before.

 

I'm now thoroughly conflicted. I can't tell if it was the action of switching to local user that fixed boot time or the action of switching period that caused it to boot fast. Because after the factory reinstall,using Microsoft account or local account to login, when I say the computer was black screen --> lock screen in the blink of an eye, I'm not even kidding. I don't know what I did. I tell you that last boot up it didn't even show me the dell logo screen. it just went from dark screen to lock screen in what felt like the blink of an eye...I'm a happy camper.


Can someone with Win 8.1 Try swapping from local to Microsoft or vice versa user account and then see what happens to boot time. I'm trying to find out if it's a Win 8.1 issue (most likely) or just an account thing.

 

open task manager and select the startup tab, what is your boot time?

 

I've been checking that all the while and I have seen either 1.9 or 2.3s for the bios boot but that wasn't my issue. Where it used to be slow was when the dell logo appeared that circle scrolling thing would go round and round for 23 seconds typically. But I ditched Win 8.1 to get back to rapid starts. I want to go back to 8.1 because it is an improvement but I need to know why it's causing startup to be much slower first.

 

I'm not sure anyone has had one of these long enough but what's the deal with battery replacement? Can you just order it and replace yourself? Also how does battery performance look a year down the road for anyone who has had it for that long.

 

battery degraded 11% for me in 1 year

 

Also does the silicone material of the palmrest, touchpad, and bottom wear away at all?

 

Mine gets used most days to some degree and there are no visible signs of ear on the pamrest and bottom. Barely can tell the touchpad either.

Keyboard is in fine shape too.

But I'm kind-of nice to my toys.

I've had mine since July '12.

 

Has anyone figured out how to shutdown the demonic sounding optical drive on boot up Other than pulling it out of the machine? I doubt I'll ever use it.

 

It isnt really possible as its a hardware issue. If you don't use it, you can open up the laptop and simply un-plug it (dont need to physically remove the optical drive).

 

Removing it does help with the cooling issues though

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

Maybe some of you can view this video in fullscreen and look for tearing as well?
Video Tearing test - YouTube

Tearing looks like this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...(simulated).jpg/797px-Tearing_(simulated).jpg

I've tested HDMI (Intel GPU) and DisplayPort (Nvidia). The tearing is present on any gpu/cable.

 

Yes, I found the solution! It was simple, but it was a pain to find it. I changed my graphic settings and finally reinstalled all graphic drivers with default settings. But now I'm having the newest Intel and Nvidia drivers:
Nvidia before 320.49, now 331.65
Intel before 8.15.10.2778, now 9.18.10.3257

(but not from Dell )

And the solution? I deactivated the Windows Aero skin a long time ago and through that windows does not use double buffering and vsync anymore causing the tearing. After choosing the aero skin again the tearing disappeared in VLC, Chrome, etc.

If interested you can follow all my steps here (German):
Video "ruckelt" - eine Art teilweise Verschiebung des Bildes (interlace-Probleme?!) - Forum: Computer & Spiele

So if you are using W7 do not disable Aero!

 

Hey Guys id like to know what probems are there with this laptop out of the box, wifi touchpad issues? Is it wifi because of the actual card you get with the laptop or something else?

What is the best i7 chipset you can get on this

 

The CPU is soldered onto the motherboard, so the 3632QM or UK 3540M are the fastest CPU configurations. The WiFi issue is has been speculated to be from unshielded USB 3.0 ports, the antenna design, and the aluminum casing of the laptop. Swapping the card to an Intel 7260-AC helps a little, but many have tried and failed to improve the WiFi up to full performance.

 

I just received my XPS 15 a couple of days ago.

Problems I've encountered:
- GPU Throttling at 80C.
- Weak WIFI network card range.

Other than that, perfect laptop.

Build quality is super solid and

 

Hi Guys,

Got my XPS 1521x last week and have had no problems with it so far. Only thing I'm curious about it the screen "tilting". When opening and closing or just angling the lid it feels like there is a slight.. delay in movement. Feels like it almost bends for the first centimetre and then 'engages' the hinge. Its hard to explain but very obvious when using it.

Just wondering if anyone else has this or If Its something I should get checked out.

Thanks

 

Is anyone else besides me having bluetooth issues as far as being able to send pictures from a smartphone to the XPS 15? I was able to successfully do this with my Alienware m17x but not with this computer. I even bought a separate bluetooth dongle and it still doesn't work.