XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

BTW, when you open up the Intel Rapid Storage Technology program, do you see an accelerate button?

 

Check for any dell outlet coupons to lower the price. They typically come out with 25-30% off coupons

 

Just make sure you are aware of the machines quirks before you buy.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

Well, with the Cooler Master Notepal U3 (got it cheaper than the u2 w/ a coupon), speedfan running at 100%, odd drive out, plastic removed I get under 40*C on a consistent basis in balanced mode. I'm not going to complain about that as it is about the same temps as my old Lenovo that it is replacing

 

Hello All!

So I've spent hours of trying to enable the 32GB mSATA SSD to work as a cache for the HDD but the accelerate button never appears!

Here is what I have done:

Registry: I have changed the needed values to 0

Drivers and Software: I have uninstalled and installed the latest Intel Rapid Storage Technology drivers and applications.

BIOS: Tried to change from AHCI to Intel Smart Response Technology. HOWEVER, when I do this change, the laptop goes in a reboot loop. It will do a diagnostics, then will send me to a blue screen which I either restart or click on advanced options. But when I switch back to AHCI all is good.

I really want to make use of the 32GB SSD as a cache but have had no luck. There is no clear guide on making this work and I would appreciate any help I can get.

I REALLY do not want to reinstall windows and everything as I have just installed all my applications and moved all my documents and stuff.

 

If someone wants to use HDMI with 2560x1440 pixel resolution, you can try this:
https://communities.intel.com/message/209163#209163

But 55 Hz does not work without a little tearing and of course the monitor needs to support this. e.g. the Dell U2713H supports it and the Dell U2713HM does not.

Finally displayport is the better choice. Did anyone found out if the L521x supports displayport 1.2 or is it limited to 1.1a? If 1.2 is available it would be possible to use MST:
MST Daisy Chain CES - YouTube

MST is a built-in feature of the Dell U2713H, so it would be really easy to connect multiple screens.

 

My GPU was dead:
20140102 234952 (medium) Bild - 196,86 KB - Honda Forum & Tuning - MaXReV

After a Dell technician changed the mainboard he was so kind to install the IC Diamond paste as well. The paste does not lower the standby temp, but the higher temps are minimal lower.

Of course in Germany the Dell technician is not official staff from Dell, he was a co-worker. Maybe the technician won't do that in other countries.

 

Has anyone noticed any problems with BIOS 15? I have the Killer 1202 card and it seems to have a harder time staying connected to weak signals now. Also, which driver is the best for the Killer?

 

Make sure under wireless adapter properties in the power options you have it set to maximum performance.

As for the driver, they moved/removed Killer Gaming, so I'm assuming the only way you can get the latest drivers is from dell. Maybe someone will be able to point you to another location that has them.

My driver details is date: 11/20/2013
Driver 10.0.0.274

 

Finally caved and bough a Netgear N300 with all the store credit i racked up from 5% cash back I got when I bought the computer. There was literally nothing else worth buying in that dell store that couldn't be had for much cheaper on Amazon. Wi fi issues solved. Works like a charm so far. Connection range and speeds are light years ahead of what they used to be. Looking forward to spending some time outside and see just how far away I can get from a router.

 

I unfortunately did not find this thread until after I bought one of these laptop's off of ebay, however I think I can work around most of these issues as I won't be doing real heavy gaming on this laptop. Once I turned on the unit I started inspecting it for all the issues I've read here in this forum. First thing I found were streaked lines of seemingly dead pixels on the display. Also, the wireless card doesn't even show up in device manager! Other than that this is a really nice looking laptop. Fortunately, I have a 1 year warranty so I immediately got on chat with Dell tech support. They were very helpful and will be sending out a tech to replace the screen and wireless card. I requested the Intel 7260 card that has been recommended here but they said that my system required the Intel 6235 card. Has anyone ever used this card and had success with it?

 

Also, has anyone managed to try what the this user is suggesting at the bottom of the thread?

WIFI problems on Dell xps 15 L521X - Networking, Internet, Wireless Forum - Networking, Internet, Wireless - Dell Community

 

The Intel 6235 is the card that originally came with the L521x. I believe in later revisions (based on posts from others) Dell started substituting their Dell 1901 card or the Killer-N and now the 7260. Some have also had luck getting the cards swapped out through tech support. I kept the 6235 and it delivers average performance at home but I also have 2 APs. Others have reported below average performance with somewhat significant drop-off in throughput after only relatively short distances from their AP. YMMV. If you have wireless issues, take it up with Dell support and be persistent. They may be willing to swap out for the 7260 if troubleshooting reveals the 6235 to be inadequate for your needs.

 

Thanks for the advise. I will definately keep after them if this card does not perform good enough.

On another topic, I have seen people say they have taken out their mSata and popped in a SSD drive of their own to drive the OS. My L521X came with a 128GB SSD for caching and a 1TB hdd for the OS. I would like to explore getting a SSD that can drive the OS and have the 1TB as for data storage. Can someone help point me to some step by step instructions on how to do this for this laptop? Also, what size/model SSD would you recommend for the OS/apps/games? Thanks!

 

Well today I discovered that my wireless USB mouse interferes with my Netgear N300. I am 100% sure the usb mouse ruins the Netgear connectivity. I got the netgear because in the far reaches of my house this killer 1202 wasn't cutting it with the interference it has with the aluminum? Well the netgear is great at longrange when I don't have the USB mouse in.

 

does removing optical drive improve battery life of airflow or anything?

 

Yes, it improves airflow. Several have claimed noticeable temp drops with the optical drive removed.

 

Yes.. (Said tentatively).


I've had my XPS for about 11 months, and its a real ying and yang thing for me.

The power from the CPU and GPU is adequate for what I need (I've virtually never found myself wanting more from either processor), BUT the design of the 15 is at fault, and lets all the good stuff inside down. In the name of trying to look sleek and businesslike the cooling system is really not well designed, and seems to have fallen prey to function following form.



The intakes on the 15 are nearly pointless and like the exhaust, are highly affected by the angle at which you have the screen. MBPs have had the rear laptop fan system for years, but they exhaust up in front of the screen. Why? Because usually, the screen open when the laptop is being used.

Dell, in their wisdom, have placed the intakes and exhaust underneath the screen hinge. So now, the more you open the screen, the further you can restrict the airflow, and although the hinge is shaped to provide an optimal angle for screen and max airflow, its a fairly precise angle.

Add this to the cramped internals, and there is simply no airflow. The CPU and GPU share a heatsink, I seriously doubt if the fan could keep up with the heat coming off the heatsink with just the CPU running 100%, let alone the GPU too.

What I'm getting to, is the dvd drive removal. It does provide space inside the laptop for *potential* air circulation, but this is thwarted mostly by the fan design. I am to this day confused as to why Dell chose this fan design and placed it like they did. It allows for very little circulation inside the laptop (and as far as dust goes, probably not a bad thing) except the fan is tiny. Seriously, the blade height is a few mm, and while there are lots of blades, it means the fan has to ramp right up to its 3700RPM max virtually constantly under load to try keep up.

Add to that the poor intake for the fan given its sealed design, its just not moving the volume of air necessary over the small heatsink radiator fins to be keeping up.

Point I'm making? taking the DVD out for me netted a few degrees loss in temp but nothing fantastic. The reason I never put the DVD back in was because the bay is now occupied with a second SSD (less power draw, less heat).

I've travelled a fair bit with my laptop (dings etc), and dont have a habit of reselling my old gear, so I'm getting a second base plate, which I'll be drilling some holes in to see if I can get that much needed airflow.



A lot of people have commented about drilling the laptop base, in several different laptop designs, but at the end of the day, my Compaq Presario that runs my HDD array has NEVER overheated. And it has a side exhaust and a hole in the baseplate right under the fan.

I'll make a little post up about this project if people want, and see if it nets some meaningful results.



tl;dr You most certainly can remove the DVD to increase airflow, but dont hold out for massive temp drops.

 

At the moment my l521x is completly silent in office usage (several browser windows, word documents, thunderbird mail, etc.).

Is this normal or is it because of the new thermal paste?

I don't know it because I used it in the past with an external monitor and with that the fans ran every now and then. At the moment I'm waiting for a new monitor so I was suprised that there is no noise anymore

 

I would appreciate opinions and advice regarding a very recent purchase of a refurbished Dell XPS 15 L521X notebook off eBay. The system was listed with the following configuration: i7-3632QM CPU, nVidia GeForce GT 640M GPU, RAM 8GB, HDD 750GB 7200-rpm with cached SSD 32GB, optical drive Blu-ray (read-only) and DVD-RW, and Qualcomm Killer N 1202 wireless card. A few days after receipt, I discovered it lacks the Blu-ray reader and has only the DVD-RW optical drive. I contacted the seller and he offered several options: 1) return system for full
refund; 2) keep system and seller would reimburse me $50 for the lack of Blu-ray drive; or 3) return system to exchange for one of three refurbished Dell XPS 15 L521X systems, each configured same as present system with noted exceptions-->system A) Windows 8 professional 64-bit, HDD 1.0TB 5400-rpm with cached SSD 128GB, RAM 16GB, 8X Blu-ray combo (Blu-ray ROM & DVD +/-RW) (priced $200 more than present system; system B) Windows 7 professional, HDD 1.0TB 5400-rpm with cached SSD 128GB, RAM 16GB, 8X Blu-ray combo (Blu-ray ROM & DVD +/-RW); (priced $100 more than present system); system C) Windows 8 home edition HDD 1.0TB 5400-rpm with cached SSD 128GB, RAM 4GB, 8X Blu-ray combo (Blu-ray ROM & DVD +/-RW) (price differential unknown, probably no difference from present system).

My first preference would have been to exchange the present system for properly-configured identical system with Blu-ray combo, but seller is sold out. My next preference would be to accept $50 reimbursement and purchase an internal Blu-ray combo drive (same as the one that is missing from my present system), but I could not find a suitable unit on eBay or on the Dell.com site. It's possible I did not look in the proper place(s) on the Dell.com site, does anyone know if Dell or other sources sell this? EBay has internal Blu-ray internal combo drives for the XPS 15 listed, but only for models L502X and L501X. I'm also curious--has anyone replaced the DVD drive in their L521X with a Blu-ray unit and what has his/her experience been? From the manual, such replacement doesn't seem too difficult, but I'd like to hear people's real-world experience. If I can't find a Blu-ray drive and/or if it seems too difficult to do, I'll probably return the system for refund. I'm wary of the 1.0TB HDD because of their slower speed (5400-rpm) and the price differential for the other systems seems too high for what I get.

I'd appreciate opinions and advice for this situation. Thanks much for reading and any information.

 

Are you really sure that you need a blu-ray drive? Don't you use your Blu-Ray player for movies?

I think its to expensive (>$100) to buy it as a spare part (new or used makes not really a difference as it is very rare). I think the Panasonic UJ167 is the only blu-ray slot-in 9.5mm (ultra slim / super slim) drive on the market. Its not difficult to change the drive, but you need a good and small torx screwdriver.

The Killer wifi module is ok, but the new Intel Dualband Wireless-AC 7260 card is much better if you're having a ac router or plan to buy it in the future. But you won't find a L521x with this module installed. This is only for you information.

You don't need to think about the 5400 rpm drive. The most work is done through the mSATA SSD because you will install windows and your apps on this drive (so 128 GB would be much better).

The RAM amount depends on your usage. I'm having 16 GB and I'm using mostly 3-5 GB in the most of the time by browsing the internet, office usage, etc. But if I cut a video the RAM can't be big enough

I would choose system B) because I don't like Windows 8 on non-touch devices and the rest sounds ok for me.

 

I had wireless issues. 4 x 2-4 hour tech support phone calls, 2 x 4 hour tech visits. Wireless card, motherboard and screen replaced each time. Still had dropouts at >3m from router and speed dropped of by 80% when it did connect to the router. Finally arranged a return and refund (which still took Dell 6 weeks from when they agreed to the refund). Sigh, very frustrating.

 

My new XPS 15 L521x (i5, 3230, w7), takes a full minute or more to boot up and at the same time the wifi is off. Then once on, the wifi connects a few second later. Anyone have this issue?

 

I greatly appreciate your comments and opinion. Your comment about the Blu-ray drive in particular caught my attention. I'm interested in Blu-ray on my notebook PC simply because I watch a lot of movies on it. On eBay, I found a Panasonic 9.5 mm slot-in Blu-ray/DVD drive, model UJ267ds. It could be the successor to the UJ167. Does the Dell XPS 15 L521X notebook PC use a 9.5mm optical drive? Can I presume this model will fit the L521X? Dell sells a refurbished Blu-ray slot-in drive for the L521X for a high price of $170, is this likely the Panasonic w/Dell branding? The Panasonic UJ267ds on eBay sells for $150.

I was mistaken about system B (the one with Windows 7 Pro)--it's the same price as system A (Windows 8 Pro), both are $1250 plus shipping, which is about $300 more than the system I am considering returning. It's moot anyway as system B has been sold already.

Thanks much for your comments and any additional information.

PG

 

Yes, I think Dell uses the Panasonic UJ167 or Panasonic UJ267 with their own branding. The UJ167 was the first drive in the world with this form factor. But I wonder why there are still no alternatives available.

Regarding your pm:

You can use it as a cache or a drive. I recommend to use it as a separate drive as the cache mode does not help much and of course the HDD will never reach the standby status (drains battery, causes noise, etc.).

If you choose the separate drive setup then install windows and apps on the SSD. You should use the slower HDD only for multimedia files and backups. How to disable the SSD cache:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...re-enable-msata-caching-mode.html#post8699751
(or simply disconnect the HDD as long Windows is not installed)

Of course the best is to sell both drives on ebay and buy the Samsung 840 EVO:
Amazon.com: Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE500BW: Computers & Accessories

I'm using a Samsung 840 PRO with 256 GB. But I don't need so much space because of my Synology NAS.

No. But you would notice a huge difference if you are using a SSD only (no noise, longer battery life, boots fast as hell, runs apps fast as hell, etc.)

 

My XPS, which I rebuilt onto 2 internal SSDs, takes 45 seconds to do a complete reboot but I can't remember it taking a minute or more to boot up on the old HDD.


The WiFi usually connects to the known networks within seconds of completing boot up. If you computer is taking a while to boot, you might want to consider a clean up of your OS HDD, make sure the BIOS is updated, and so on.


Just to clarify, are you saying its because the WiFi is off your laptop takes so long to boot?

 

I am looking to invest in a Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB SSD to install my OS and applications on, and use the currently installed 500 HDD as additional storage. Would I be able to swap out the 32 GB MSATA for the SSD, or would it not fit? Would I need to replace the optical bay instead?

 

This won't work as the mSATA SSD is very small. The only possible option would be to remove the optical bay. Maybe then you are able to use three drives in total but for the third drive you would need an adapter cable mSATA to SATA.

But as long you need the optical drive you need to use a mSATA SSD.

 

Plextor m5m is your friend

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

When I plug my headphones into either headphone jack on my Dell XPS 15 L521X, no sound emanates. I tried turning off the PC speakers first to no avail. I also tried finding the topic in the owner's manual and online, both without results. Any suggestions for correcting this? Am I missing something simple or obvious?

Thanks for reading and any advice.

PG

 

Think you're meant to get a pop-up asking where you want to output sound to.

 

Thanks for your suggestion. I tried plugging the headphones in several times with no pop-up. I then accessed control panel and using advanced settings, disabled the pop-up blocker, but that did not change the lack of response to plugging the headphones in either jack. I use Google Chrome as my internet browser, does that affect the pop-up for the headphones? Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
PG

 

I have the XPS 15 L521 second revision that came with Windows 8.0. I let it upgrade to Windows 8.1 a few weeks ago and had all sorts of issues getting that to work but eventually it completed. Ever since, certain applications such as Chrome have blurry text. I checked Google and read something about the Intel display driver needed to be updated, but after uninstalling and reinstalling multiple drivers from both Dell's website and Intel, nothing seems to work. I'm tempted to either attempt a rollback to Windows 8.0 or figure out if I can do a fresh install with Windows 8.1. Has anyone else had this problem and figured out a permanent solution? It's not just Chrome that has the issue, It just the app I use the most and it bugs the hell out of me.

 

I finally have the headphones working. I'm not sure what I did, either to get the headphones to operate or to inhibit them from working, although I suspect I did the latter. It seems all I had to do was plug the headphones into the headphone jack with the PC speakers in "on" mode. Thanks for reading, no further advice needed, and I apologize for perhaps posting a help wanted note prematurely.

 

Blurry Text in Chrome After Windows 8.1 Update (Beta) | Simply Advanced

 

Hey guys I have the first L521X and I was wondering if upgrading the Nvidia 640M was possible.
The computer works fine with me, and I've had it since it came out.

 

Upgrading the Nvidia 640M ? NO

 

Man, that means I need an entirely new laptop. Well that sucks..

 

Hey there,

Did you (or anyone reading this) ever find a way to accelerate the 32GB SSD with Intel Rapid Storage Technology? I, like you, do not have the accelerate tab. I have done a very thorough google search and tried all the recommended setting. My BIOS is set to Intel Rapid Storage Technology, I have tried Hibernation partitions, no partitions, the works.. and no accelerate tab!

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Well, I've been gone for a while, but not without reason. My xps started crashing when going into hibernation and after weeks of testing and reinstalling and etch, I could nit figure it out. Being out of warranty I had no choice but to bring it to my local pc repair shop, canadacomputers. They've had my cps since January and even their lead tech is stumped, they are now taking apart and replacing parts to see if it stops. Yes I tried a windows install with and without driver, software etc..

I went out and purchased a surface rt last week for 280$ 64gb and I love it. I'll update you on my cps' results when I know more

 

Wait, are you saying you HDD with 32GB MSATA came in the AHCI format? Because mine came with the accelerated thing (which was pointless, given I was swapping the HDD for a 256GB SSD and the 32GB for a 128GB Crucial, having the Crucial cache the Sandisk is stupid) and I got rid of it.

I specifically remember having to change TO AHCI when I rebuilt onto my SSD, because thats the standard that works best with SSD apparently, better power management (?).


Odd that you started out with AHCI...



EDIT* Sorry, I thought I'd captured the quote you left in your post, turns out i didnt. My remarks about ACHI are in regard to that quote

 

Yes it started out on AHCI, which is the annoying thing since all "How to's" say you must switch to it. I did however, buy this from the Dell Outlet, so perhaps the technician set this up in the optimal set up? Which is odd why the 'accelerate' tab is missing..

Does anyone know if it's possible to install windows on the 32GB mSATA drive? Bearing in mind that the OS is saved on the HDD? Or would one need to obtain a hardcopy?

Cheers!

 

Unfortunately, for Win7Pro 64 at least, the OS is too big for the MSATA (something like 36GB from memory, I was thinking of the same thing).

When I researched having the OS on an SSD, I read a great bit from some dude on here who made the point that the OS isn't the only thing you'll end up having on your operating system only drive; you'll probably have drivers, program files etc as well, so allow a decent overhead for the drive.

I personally forked out for the Sandisk Ultra+ not so much because of the space because it is my OS and program only drive, and it's nowhere near half full, but because of the read and write times.

*I actually keep all my day to day stuff on at 128GB Crucial MSATA SSD and all the large size stuff like movies and general data on HDDs.

However, the Crucial 128GB SSDs are decently priced, probably better if you live in America, and would definitely suffice as an OS only drive.

So if you bought your 128GB MSATASSD, Casper cloned your current HDD to another as a safeguard, then rebuilt all OS onto the MSATASSD, drivers can be downloaded really easily from the Dell website, spend about 2 hours doing updates (definitely update the USB hub driver, my PowerShare USB didn't work until I did), (making sure you format the SSD in AHCI mode), then wiped the original HDD, you'd be away! (Note, you don't have to wipe the original HDD, I just did to reformat and then use as an external drive in an enclosure, but you could reformat and use it as more internal space, or keep it as is, and put a different laptops sized HDD in or even go SSD like I did).


It sounds scary, and its easy to get hung up a lot on the SSD technology, but at the end of the day, do some research, do your back ups and have your OS codes and drivers all to hand before you set out and it'll be sweet.

*edit* obviously for your OS rebuild, you'll need to download the correct OS IO file from Microsoft, get yourself an USB IO installation creator (pretty sure windows has one), build a USB into a Windows Install USB, plug your MSATA SSD in, take the original HDD out, and start the laptop up. Get to the USB option in the boot menu in BIOS and run the Windows installer. From there, it's easy as: finish install, restart and install drivers, playtimez.

 

Not 100% sure about this but I just heard that as of mid april 2014, windows will discontinue support for all versions of Windows OS excluding 7 (Professional only) and all versions of 8. If this is true, it means that the 7 Home version on these machines will not be supported?!
In any case, I just bought this laptop on ebay and I will be looking at installing a copy of 7 Pro. Will I need to do all of this (read here - dell.com/support-forums)to make room for the OS?

 

Plenty of people (and more other devices) on XP so id not be unduly worried.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

Hi there,

No you have heard wrong.

The windows life cycle sheet says support will continue for Win7 till Jan 2015, and extended support until 2020.

For Windows 8, mainstream support goes until Jan 2018 and extended until 2023.

Heres the link: Windows lifecycle fact sheet - Microsoft Windows Help

If you purchased a laptop now with Win7Pro, you have still several years of support for 7, even though its rumored that Win 9 will be coming out in April of 2015.


Good luck with the new laptop hunting!

 

Got my laptop back.. it sure feels different going back to a laptop after three month of not having one.. to anyone who has an l521x with an msata as a boot and HDD for storage, that's also running 8.1, make sure your secure boot is disabled or it will inevitably cause your system to constantly crash when it hibernates after a restart...

 

Alright, So My 750 Gb Hard Disk makes a weird static + Dial upish noise and my laptop freezes I have tried everything in the book defragmenting it, checked it for errors, I have updated every driver for the l521x including a16 bios. I have finally decided to use my 32 GB Msata as a separate drive and install Ubuntu on it however I have no experience on Linux based operating systems . Now my game plan is to keep windows 7 home running on this piece of hard drive manage some money in the near future to purchase an ssd until then I use Ubuntu for work and Windows for gaming. I really want help if someone has already done something similar with there laptop please advise by giving me step by step clear instructions on how to clean install Ubuntu on the 32 GB Msata. I would also like to know about any other alternatives to Ubuntu if there are any :/
Also I would like to know if I can install Ubuntu from my portable hard drive ?
I don't really care about IRST so I don't have any problems disabling it and turning my SSD to AHCI.
Please Advice ASAP !!!

 

I have Ubuntu installed in an external USB drive in the l521x so it's doable don't worry

Enviado desde mi GT-I9500 mediante Tapatalk

 

Well that doesnt answer my question. How do I install it on the 32 GB Msata ?