XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

wifi works fine for me aswell, sitting about 7 meter away with a wall in-between.

 

On wireless G I get 2.5-3 MB/s a floor above my accesspoint (Linksys 610N running DD-WRT) transferring a video to the server. I got 23 down/19 up on speedtest.net on FiOS.

On my e6220, I got the same results in the same location. 2.5-3 MB/s to the server and 23 down 19 up on Fios. It was plus or minus .1.

 

I think I might have found the root of the wifi problem. When on battery, I will pull similar speeds as my desktop does sitting in the same room with a few walls between me and the router. But when plugged in I do experience the drop many others have complained about. Here are the results of some testing I did:

On Battery (Medium Power Savings):


On Battery (Maximum Performance):


Plugged In (Maximum Performance):


Plugged In (Medium Power Savings):


Plugged In (Maximum Power Savings):


My hope was that changing the power option for plugged in to medium power savings would cure the problem, but that did not appear to work. I am not an expert, but I think we can rule out the Ram being the cause. If anybody wants to try to recreate my results that would be great. Hope this helps figure the problem out!

 

Something tel-me it has to do with the aluminum chassis being electrified when plugged in and interfering with the antenna.
Can you pass with the back of your hand slightly trought the aluminum case to see if it shocks a bit, or maybe with your tongue

 

yep i agree sounds exactly like thats the case which is weird idk y that would happen

 

It seems it only happens to some.
My test was conducted side by side using the XPS15 and the Inspiron 17R SE Edition.
Btw my test were done on battery only

 

nice find! ill test it out on mine and see if i notice the same dramatic change when i get a chance

 

May I know whether Intel Rapid Storage or Smart Response is required if your primary hard drive is the 512gb SSD?

 

If your primary drive is a SSD (SATA), there is no point in adding Intel caching overhead with yet another SSD (mSATA).

Just set to AHCI in BIOS.

 

Here's what I got.

On the wire.

right next to the router, wireless.

30 feet away, no LOS.


Strange how the upload stays at the ISP rated 5 mbps. Now to try with battery power settings on max performance.
Edit: not much change on max battery performance. Time of day was off peak. Previous tests were during peak traffic times right after work.


Edit 2:
Hmmm. Maybe there is something to the battery settings, but it still seems like it could be better from 30ft.

 

thanks Bill for testing this out really is good to know that Dell has someone dealing with these issues as like I have said otherwise this is an amazing laptop

 

Next to the router




In an other room XPS 15

Inspiron 17R SE

next to the router




In my room




why the big difference?

17r se

Power connected in my room



SPX15

power connected in my room

 

I think your second edit says that you did check performance on battery and plugged into power, but just in case you haven't would you mind giving it a try and letting me know if you experienced the drop-off. Thanks for being awesome by the way.

Did you try on battery in your room? Same results or better?

Edit: Nvm, understand your past posts now. Maybe it was a coincidence on my part.

 

Basically the same result ..battery or power made no difference to mine at all

 

When You Compare the Inspiron 17R Se to the XPS15 you would think they would be the same...The cheaper 17R SE is better wireless wise

 

I just purchased/ordered the $1699 model in Canada. My estimated time of delivery is July 30. Would it be foolish of me to assume that Dell will be ensuring that the L521X notebooks they are now sending out are free of the issues that have been described in this thread and forum in general? Wi-Fi, throttling, etc?

@Dell Bill B: I would be very grateful for any input you may have here Bill. Thanks in advance; you are doing a great job here on this forum.

 

I know nothing about wireless technologies but could it be that the reason the upload speeds remain fairly constant is because the card inside the laptop can push the signal out but the download speeds suffer so greatly because the router cant push the signal in (like through the aluminum lid)?

 

Been playing a bit with the new BIOS and with Civ5 and it runs without CPU throttling (it does throttle, but does not stick to 1.2Ghz). That is already a big improvement. However, the GPU throttles now where before it seemed to be fixed at 708Mhz Clock - 1000Mhz Memory. It now drops down to 645/1000 and sometimes even to ~450/~400 and in rare cases even in the range of ~200 Mhz going up and down between those extremes. I think they are trying to keep the GPU temps at around 70-72C in order to be able to have the CPU not stick at 1.2Ghz. CPU temps remain at around 80C.

Unfortunately, this causes significant framedrops during this particular game

Maybe some more balancing is required, I'd be happy to NOT play with GPU on 708 Mhz clock and stick with the base clock in order to have a more stable gaming experience. Also tend to agree with what was said earlier = a better cooling design hardware-wise seems the only solution to work with this hardware running at standard clocks.

 

Guys, anyone have an issue with the digital delivery of Adobe Elements and Premiere? Neither of them are downloading for me, says all purchases up to date ?

 

Reading this thread I'm more and more convinced to buy 15R SE rather then XPS 15 L521x. GPU and design is the only difference, while inspiron is about $600 cheaper.

 

And no mSATA SSD, less battery life (6-cell), thicker body.

But I get your point, the cheaper Inspiron unit seems to be a more reliable workhorse. I guess that extra 11mm of thickness allows for things like decent wireless antenna and cooling!

 

Well, 32GB m-SATA is useless for me. It's not even enough for system partition (I mean I can install system on it, but no space will be left). Battery is good argument, I didn't noticed the difference. But since I use my notebook only when plugged in (I don't travel much) then it's not that important.

I'm just wondering about build quality. I hope 15R SE wont be much worse in that part. I hate feel of cheap plastic under my fingers, that's the main reason why I still use my Studio XPS 15 1640, which is very solid model.

 

I have the inspiron 17R SE and i actully like it.
After the hassles with the XPS 15 in my opinion the Inspiron is a better buy.
Not much point in having a machine that looks good if it does not do what it is suppose to do

 

Would this fit in a sleeve designed for the 15" macbook pro? Incase have just launched an andy warhol collection that look really nice

 

I didn't get a link for them at all mate, and in my list of downloads on the dell site after registering the laptop I still just have webcam central and some drivers etc.

 

You, sir, are a true gent. Many many thanks for that, have left some rep mate!

 

I don't seem to be having the wireless issue, otherwise I'd swap my wireless card (i have a few spares) to test. Sorry guys. Does anyone have an intel 6200 or similar to swap in and see if its the card? Also, I know the tape issue isn't wide spread, but has everyone having the wireless issue popped open the bottom of the case and made sure the antenna leads are connected properly?

 

I bought a Knomo leather sleeve for the MBP 15" and it fits like a dream, so yes I would imagine so.

 

I tried that technique but when I searched in regedit for 2fingertapaction I didn't find anything. Then I developped every menu and eventually found the synaptics but once again there were no keys with these actions... Did you manually add them or did I do something wrong/incomplete

On another note I was wondering if there was a piece of software (dell) that allows me to know if all my drivers are up to date or if I need to update them?

 

Bill, what that is telling you is that the transmit side of things are the most likely affected part of the wifi ... and probably something with large packets getting corrupted. Because it is the transmit side getting corrupted the Router/AP doesn't receive the packets and thus the NIC in the laptop has to retry... and most likely is also having to fall back their transmit rates at the same time (part of the normal rate fallback algorithms that most wifi NICs do).

The reverse direction is still somewhat affected as your results show but obviously less so which is why I suspect this affects large packets being sent. When you are in the reverse direction you are mostly sending acknowledgements to the received large packets....

In a previous life I used to work for a company that made wifi chipsets (and was on two projects for Dell supplying components to a Dell USB attached WiFi NIC).

 

Without Beta Bios and the processor i5- 3320M (2.60 - 3.30 Ghz) no throttling issue but very slow wireless.

Also, I capture much weaker signal from the wireless L502x (Intel 6200)

 

The LAN (RJ45) card is Realtec (just google for realtec NIC issues, they are crap)

The Wireless card is Intel.

 

If you are feeling up to it, swap the intel 6200 into your L521X? That way we can see if its an antenna issue, driver issue, or if its the cards that are faulty?

 

@Tom,
Can you try playing the game with 99% max processor state on windows power management.
2.1 Ghz is more than enough for recent games and it helps keeping the temperature much lower with turboboost disabled.

 

FM Vantage

P6009 3DMarks
Graphics Score
4934
CPU Score
17346

Results with new Beta bios. Much better, CPU score before change was 8-9k for CPU.

This was run while on battery, in default high performance mode.

 

Same here. Here's what's strange- I ran speed tests in the same 2 spots on my trusty Latitude E6400 with an Intel 5100 and got pretty much the same results. I forgot to snip the last test, but it was 6mbps down and the same 5 up. Wifey's old Inspiron 1420 with an earlier Intel card was rock solid with only a slight drop in speeds at 30ft.

Well, I wouldn't call it foolish to expect your hardware to function as designed, but the reality is you will have to flash the BIOS to A05 when it arrives (5-10 mins) and implement whatever the WLAN solution will be. Other than that, it's just the standard removing of unwanted programs and tweaking personal preferences. Target web post date for the new BIOS is early next week, and factory cut in will probably happen early the week after. I have a feeling yours will have already left the factory by then. I wouldn't go so far as to cancel the order though. Seems a bit hasty in light of how easy the 2 fixes will probably be to implement.
It will kind of depend on your expectations around throttling. If you want a system that absolutely does not throttle at all, my feeling is you won't see that with XPS. If you want one that throttles within some reasonable range based on load and temps, I think you'll be happy.

Every time there's a "I don't have the issue" post I bang my head on my keyboard. If it's something like leads not properly attached at the factory, it's not so bad, but when everything appears to be equal between affected systems and unaffected systems, it gets more complicated.
Lucky you.

You'll be hearing from me when you get PM turned on.
So, my WLAN expertise is that of a typical level 2 tech support guy. I am wondering if there's any hope for the hardware by way of a driver or firmware that may resolve the issue. What gives me- possibly false- hope is the fact that at 30ft, attenuation does not seem to be the issue for uploads. In simpler terms I'd ask, "Since the antenna seems to be ok with upload speeds, is it possible that something can be tweaked in the driver to get download speeds in line?"

To all affected by poor wireless:
If you are in the US and would like to try an Atheros/Qualcom WiFi/BT card, please send me a PM with your service tag, name and ship to address. I can send out parts only, if you are willing to swap the cards yourself and test for us. If not, no worries. We can certainly validate and qualify the card with our hardware. We just like to add the customer voice to our testing when a system has already been released, if possible.

 

I've actually tried that while i was playing. However it seemed to not improve the situation tha much. I think i'll have to focus on the gpu not going in turbo. Both could prolong the playtime but i want to find the sweet spot. I'll also be trying with the frame limiter to see if i can improve gpu temps however i'm thinking it won't make much of a difference. I'll let you guys know.

 

Nice one mate, another thing to add to my list of pickups when I go to new york in september

 

How do you set this?

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

If you're using Windows Vista or later, go to your power options, change your current plan settings, click the advanced section, expand the Processor Power Management section, click the Maximum Processor State, and change it to something other than 100%.

 

Ive been testing the new bios beta with gaming, and have seen significant improvement from previously. Im not playing the most demanding game, but before the throttling would force me to play on high settings, however watching the system stay mostly betweem 2.0 and 2.8 has shown much improvement. Very happy about this.

 

Well, did some testing using a frame limiter. I can say that my GPU temps stabilize at around 65C when limiting the FPS count in Civ5 to 30fps. Still very much playable. Also the CPU remains stable at around 75C. I've enabled FPS limiter through Nvidia Inspector. When selecting 35 frames, it goes well over 70 and throttling starts on the GPU.

 

I was wondering if anybody tried Civ5 on the XPS15 with Core I5 and GT630. What kind of FPS are you guys getting there and is it throttling? If acceptable fps and there are less issues with heat dissipation on that model, I would possibly consider that model instead. However, it is difficult to find benchmarks for Civ5 on a GT630m. Anybody any ideas how it compares to a GT640m?

As for the GPU throttling, I wonder if it is possible to set the minimum GPU throttle to acceptable levels (500+ Mhz) in some way...

 

gt 630m should perform similar to gt 540m, you can try see benchmarks for that one.

 

I'm a little angered at this point as to why Dell has no explanation for the Wifi issues. I spent over $1,100 on this laptop it should be premium with no issues and if there are any issues this should be Dell's first priority and we want answers

 

@Bill I wonder if replacing WiFi card to Intel 6300 could possibly solve the issue?

 

I Live in australia..What can be done about it here as you have noted there is a problem

 

I am thinking about returning mine and getting my money back..Not to sure what the policy is here though about returns

 

If you are referring to WiFi, the fix will be the same in all regions. You may be referring to my call for US customers to PM me their shipping details. This is for testing an Atheros card. I can check to see if we can ship them to AUS if you want to test one. We don't know if it's a fix until we hear back.

Do you have one? If so, please do try it out, but I don't hold out much hope. I saw similar numbers on my Lati with the Intel 5100. I was very disappointed in that. First time my Lati ever let me down.

 

Bill, if the Atheros is a fix. Can we early adopters expect a replacement free of charge?