XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Without a doubt. I'll get one of the @DellCares guys to manage the process especially for the NBR crowd.

 

Great, that is good to hear!

 

Bill has a very interesting way to say "no," but in this case he's cooperative. If the Atheros is a fix, the Intel is problematic.

 

After many hours of lurking, I just ordered the $1699 US configuration for my sister in college. I hope to gain the ability to PM so I can get a hold of the testing BIOS that owners on here are testing to mitigate throttling issues. I also look forward to seeing what Dells engineers come back with in regards to the WiFi issue. I'll be down in FL next week visiting to set this system up for her and that's when I hope to update the BIOS.

I just need to get > 5 posts to get a PM right?

 

I would not be pulling my laptop apart to fit a card as i am not to sure on how to do it.
Will there be a fix?
If there is going to be one I will wait as long as there is a guarantee that if the WiFi issue is not resolved i can return it .
I live outside the major cities so i am not sure how dell deals with cunstomers who are not close to a service centre

 

Bill has said that the BIOS should be out next week for public download:

And yes, you need at least 5 posts to PM, and I think you might need to wait a while for them to be turned on (IDK how the forum upgrade tomorrow will affect this)

Installing it yourself should be pretty easy, even that even turns out to be Dells fix. (We don't know yet). I'm pretty sure Dell will do in-home service calls anywhere-- in the US, anyways.

Which reminds me: Bill, does Dell Canada do at-home service or would someone have to do a mail-in for service?

 

Fandamtastic

 

Thanks, Joshua! That should be fine. I just need to get everything settled next week before I finish my trip back home in FL.

If this was my laptop I wouldn't care about fixing everything by next week as have two ECE degrees and design hardware for a living. That being said, the WiFi Rx issue scares me as it seems like chassis interference with the antenna could be a likely culprit and software/drivers/BIOS at any level would have a hard time mitigating that. Then again, I hated my undergrad e-mag class so RF is definitely not my specialty...that is what I have RF engineers on my team for!

After reading other people's posts in confusion as to when PMs start working and with news of forum maintenance, I don't have high hopes. I suppose I'll be betting on the BIOS being released to the public!

 

Wow this has been a whirlwind.... I am truly enjoying the fact the Bill has been so supportive of these products.

I have been waiting to pull the trigger on this notebook or wait for a future windows 8..... still debating but i am leaning towards the XPS 15...

 

Intel 6300 has three aerials so installing it in laptop with two aerials doesn’t make any sense.

 

For the owners experiencing poor wireless signal has anyone else tried to update the drivers from Intel? I am at school and my connection was horrible, running a speed test was getting about 1Mb down. I went on Intel's site and downloaded the latest Centrino 6235 drivers and now I am hitting between 7-10Mb down about the same as a classmate who has an older XPS 13.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/con...oductProduct=Intel®+Centrino®+Advanced-N+6235

 

haven't been able to test yet but if that is a fix that would be wonderful

 

Will test it out but it's taking a while to download... Buh dum tss!

But seriously I hope this helps.

 

Downloaded the intel drivers, and am not noticing the drop i was before. I only tested on battery but I tested speed in my basement (about 80 feet and at least 3 walls away from router) and was pulling a consistant 15mb/s down and 3 up. This is practically what I was pulling sitting next to the router as well as on my desktop in another room upstairs. Hopefully others will experience this improvement.

@Bill, since things seem to be working fine for me now I think I will pass on the qualcom card and wait and see if this will work for others. If the problem reappears I will get a hold of you.

Those of you with the a05 bios, is the "disc loading" sound on startup gone?

 

Installed the intel driver made no difference at all for me

 

Did you desinstaled the old driver before installing the new one?
This solved the wifi problem on my older computer. maybe it could help.

 

Tried the new intel drivers and also made no difference for me unfortunately.

 

Received my shiny i7/8 G/750 GB/ GT 640M last week - first problem with the Win 7 image fixed with Dell Support - couldn't run Windows Experience test without the machine shutting down. Kudos to Dell - the tech reinstalled from a re-formatted partition remotely, other than me putting in the re-installation DVD, that is

Now that's sorted out and am checking wireless against my M1530 - ancient but still my main machine. Performance definitely poorer as distance from router increases, as tested using Speedtest.net, and as noted by other owners.

M1530 has an Intel 4965 AGN with 12.4.1.4 driver. The new XPS 15 has the 15.1.1.1 driver for the 6235.

Next to the router they are pretty much equivalent (Ping|Download|Upload):
L521X: 15ms | 6.05 Mbps | 0.46 Mbps
M1530: 18 ms | 5.96 Mbps | 0.45 Mbps

About 30 feet away and one floor down:
L521X: 15 ms | 3.34 Mbps | .48 Mbps
M1530: 23 ms | 5.34 Mbps | .46 Mbps

@Bill - I'd can try out the other card, if you can ship it to Canada!

 

are we sure those intel drivers are actually 'new' drivers? they have the same 15.1.1.1 as the ones from Dell? Have the people that have had improvements removed the other driver before installing compared to the people that haven't had improvements? Definitely weird that some have and some haven't

 

Someone really needs to edit that first post and keep it updated with all relevant information about this laptop. Like a quick overview, and most importantly, an update of the issues and the fixes that have been tested and solved to fix them.

 

Could the throttling issue be related to TDP of the chip dell chose. i.e 3612QM tdp = 35 w where is MBP-retina has i7-3615QM = 45W ? Review of MBP-retina. No other major manufacturer is using this version on thinner i7s ?

AnandTech - The next-gen MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review

If it is the chip , is there hope of another version of the XPS15 with different chip. i want to pull the trigger but not if the machine cant perform as per price.

 

Hi there,
I'm pretty new here, even if I've been reading you for few days.

@Bill: you sent me the new Bios through Twitter, thanks a lot. But as I'm using Ubuntu as the sole OS on my XPS, I can't install it. Not a big deal, I can wait for the final release and I'll put it on a USB key.

I also do confirm the wifi issue. My test case: watching a 720p HD movie stored on my nas, through the wifi channel. With my previous XPS15z, no problem, it was smooth and perfect. In same conditions (4/5 m from my wifi router), no way with the L521x, it plays for 3s and then stops.

I'm also experiencing some system crashes I didn't encountered at all with my XPS15z. I suspect this happens when Firefox is running, the system freezes, no more mouse or keyboard control, the fan gets running and finally, I have to switch off the PC. I'll try to investigate this a bit further.

Bill, if there is an exchange of the wifi component, is there a way to get a similar process in France? Thanks.

 

My Studio XPS 1640 had wifi card with two aerials as well, but there are 3 aerials available under the cover so I switched it to Intel 5300 long time ago. I thought that L521x might have 3 available aerials as well.

 

An update from dell australia..
He did a remote test saw the problem and told me thats the way the wireless card is..
He said use lan if you want to use the net in another room.
In summary he basically told me there is nothing wrong with the wireless and i should just put up with it
That is how Dell in Australia deals with it ...marvelous isnt it ...

To bill is this how dell treats its customer from australia .....Will never buy a dell again after that episode...

 

Higher TDP => more heat generated. Thus the 3612QM with a TDP of 35W will generate less heat. If you stuck the 45W TDP CPU in the same thermal design as the XPS 15 L521X, then you would likely have more severe throttling issues.

Thus you should in fact be grateful that Dell chose the 35W TDP chip, assuming the same thermal solution. These kinds of things are typically tested on early on in development of computing systems. Typically a board/system level hardware developer will estimate their worst case TDP for a given chip and then design a thermal solution around that. In fact the thermal design of a system could theoretically be spec'd out and mostly complete before the first rev of the system motherboard is even entered into a schematic, laid out, and built. Some system designers will create what is known as a mechanical test board that has a similar layout to the production board with heating elements instead of lidded chips that put out about the same amount of power as worst case estimated TDP. You then install this MTB in the first cut of the mechanical design and start running thermal tests...throw it in an oven...see what happens.

I am actually just now partnering with dell in a new completely custom computing system, so I guess I'll quickly see how much of what I just said is accurate.

 

This just says to me that the thermal design of the XPS 15 is missing something. Whats missing ? Twin cooling fan 1 for CPU and 1 for GPU as opposed to combined one.

 

I own electrical stuff, not mechanical, but from my experience, I'd say that they wrote up a thermal spec doc and designed their solution around that. It just may be that running a video game and prime95 in the background is beyond what dell thinks is a reasonable thermal performance target for a super-thin laptop. If this were a server or desktop system, I think that maxing out every iota of performance of this machine without pushing any chip junction temps anywhere close to their safe maximums would be a given, but remember we're talking < 1 inches thick and still cost is a factor in design. All features are the culmination of engineering trade-offs.

 

That's an excellent idea. I have been following this thread since I received my unit back on July 6th and it's difficult to keep up with the current status of the various issues being discussed.

The problem comes down to who would be that person???

 

Same thing that I'm seeing. My router is in my basement and when I'm one level up within 20 ft WIFI seems to work just fine. I move up a level and it drops significantly - by 50% or more. I'm verifying against an iPad which shows only a slight drop (10% or less).

Here's the catch - I have a range extender on my 3rd floor and 2 walls away. The iPad picks that up at about 12Mbps while the XPS15 hangs in around 9Mbps on one local server. I switched servers and got 2Mbps with the XPS and 10Mbps with the iPad. This was repeated several times.

I'll snap some shots in the future when I have a chance to run this down in a more controlled fashion. It seems to indicate that there is the reception issue that many are having here, but does anyone have an idea as to why the differences by server are so extreme?

 

No difference with the wireless drivers according to speedtest.net

 

This is strange (and unacceptable), because Bill himself told that they are aware of wifi issue... Actually, using wifi in the room of the router and using LAN in other rooms is pretty stupid, since this is exactly what wifi has been developed for...

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

@Dell-Bill

Dell should step up to the plate and extend the hassle-free return policy from 21 days to say 60 days. I am happy with the machine but the wifi issue is a deal breaker. So let's say I wait it out and the wifi issue cannot be resolved and I am past 21 days. Then what??

 

Yeah, I'm concerned about the 21 days as well. A laptop without good WIFI is like a Porche with a portable spare.

I love this machine and want in the worst way to keep it here, but my concerns are growing.

 

I have just started the return policy.
It seems Dell NL only got a 7 working day return policy (in my oppinioun agains EU law)

Reason?

1. I bought this laptop to do live lasershows ( streaming data); the realtec NIC is giving me stuttering issues.

2. to do some internet in house; wireless is crap, in my bedroom I cant even play youtube video, and downloading in my livingroom is slow.

3. to do some gaming (Why else would I need a I7 with a nvidia 640); the system throttles to 1,2Ghz.

If Dell got a more easy return policy I could have wait some longer for a solution, but unfortunally its not the case.
Probabbaly I will go for a macbook now.

 

I do have to add that I too am impressed with Bill's interaction and the speed at which Dell has been helping everyone out.

We have all Dell's at my work and support has been great. I didn't expect it to be as good on the consumer side, but so far I'll say I may have been mistaken.

 

Use a small USB wifi card?
Not being smart or anything just suggesting.

I know it's another small item to pack and such and you shouldn't have to.

 

I do that with an old Inspiron of mine. With a brand new, expensive machine? Are you kidding? Why spend $2000 and try to bandage it (and lose a USB port)?

 

You should have onsite service, which we would offer to anyone who doesn't want to DIY. In fact, I bet you'd have to insist tech support sent parts only if you wanted to DIY. There may be some kind of exception for users in very remote areas, but I'm unaware of current policy on that.
Of course there will be a fix of some kind. The wireless performance is unacceptable. No other way to characterize it.
Bookmark this comment. I personally guarantee that I will make sure you get a return set up with restocking fee waived if you choose to wait for a fix for the wireless issue, and we don't deliver. If we have a fix that is generally considered acceptable, and you disagree, that's another matter.
This goes for everyone who's placed their faith in us and chosen to wait, but we won't be acquiescing to anyone looking to leverage this post to get an upgraded exchange or anything that resembles gaming the system.

Pretty sure the terms of the CA warranty are at-home service. There are sometimes exceptions for parts that cannot be replaced in the field, but that's rare and certainly doesn't apply to a WiFi card.

You need 5 PM's plus a day for the servers to update, IIRC. I have a question for your RF engineers. I've been on the watch for one here to ask, but since you're here and you mentioned...If the upload speed is the same at 30 ft as it is at 2 ft, does that indicate there's not a problem with the physical antenna, but more likely the driver not putting enough power or whatever to the reciever?

Super interesting and at first encouraging until I read other users reporting it was no fix. Is the common denominator that you ripped the old driver first, then installed the new one where no one else did? Guess I have a trip to the lab in my immediate future with the Intel driver in hand on USB key.

 

@Dell_Bill:

Does the poor wireless performance issue affect new XPS model only, or is the Inspiron 17R SE affected as well? In case the latter is true, any chance there is a newer model with 1Gbit ethernet card in the works?

 

GBit Ethernet is unrelated to WiFi, and don't get me started on GBit on the 17. My hair will catch on fire and head will explode.

I had not seen any issues with WiFi on the 17R S/E. Are there complaints?

 

For anyone who uses Firefox and Chrome you will notice that neither respect the DPI settings in windows. Here is how to fix it:

Firefox:

• Type about:config
• Paste this in the address bar - layout.css.devPixelsPerPx
• Modify the setting to 1.25

Chrome:

• Clicks settings
• Scroll down and click advanced settings
• Under web content choose zoom level 125%

Now it should be much easier to read text!

 

Thanks Bill; no games here; i love the machine and do not want to return it.

 

Me too, I trust that Dell will solve the problem or reach a satisfactory solution

 

You're talking to a guy who has to use a GPS dongle for the ASUS Transformer Prime

As far as bandaging and losing a USB port, I understand. I wouldn't be happy about it either.

Just for me, If I can get it to work in some fashion, I'll make it work. Only if I deem that it's not an inconvenience to me and I can live with the solution. If other aspects of the product are good that I can work around it, I'll do it.. Again that's just me. I can certainly understand people not happy with the solution even if it is a solution. Having paid a premium, you expect everything to be working up to standards of products below the pricing point you pay for.

So, let's hope Dell finds a solution that's good for all of us.

I haven't run into wifi problems yet, but then again I haven't been streaming anything yet. I'll test it out soon though. My quick test shows I have good speeds throughout my house.

 

Not a RF engineer but I try to answer... the upload is fine, so transmitter antenna looks good to me. The problem arises with the receiving antenna... maybe this one is defective...

Also a doubt came in my mind: dual aerial card usually use one to transmit and both to receive, IIRC. Can't be the two aerials cable went swapped when plugged to the card? Try to solve this is pretty simple: unscrew the base cover and swap the cables connected to the wifi card... Just trying...

 

Bill, thanks agin for all your help. It is great that you get personnally onvolved to satisfy the clients' needs. Does your "offer" work only for US customers or are you speaking globally. I live in France and we have a 7 day return policy. I wouldn't want to learn 3 days after the 7 day policy expires that there is no fix and that I'm screwed.

 

@Dell-Bill_B

Thanks for all the help you provides. It's encouraging.

I will order a XPS 15 next week, as I'm currently on the move.

Not a dealbreaker, but as asked by nicob, I'd like to know also if your offer extends to France...

Thanks !

 

i just got my xps 15 yesterday and it is a thing of beauty. the build quality and material is truely a thing of beauty. i do happen to have the same CPU issue as the rest, i often see it running at 1.2GHz.

couple things, laptop came with an oddly high amount of dead pixels . one cluster of about 8-10 of them and about 5-6 other ones scattered throughout (maybe not dead but definitely not functioning properly).

and the one bugging me most at the moment is the colors. changing from "splendid" to "generic" colors doesnt do that much for me, its still way off imo. if you look at the attachments you can tell in the youtube video, when its small he colors appear accurate, however full screen them and they become way off. i wanna say that its the same oversaturation, any suggestions for how to fix it?

also just to check, where can i download the drivers for the 640m? dell has the 630m and nvidia says to go to dell.

 

go here and if you modify the INF you can install any nvidia driver

LaptopVideo2Go: Drivers

That one ^ is from about a month ago and I've tested it to be stable on my XPS, so give that one a try

 

You should have onsite service, which we would offer to anyone who doesn't want to DIY. In fact, I bet you'd have to insist tech support sent parts only if you wanted to DIY. There may be some kind of exception for users in very remote areas, but I'm unaware of current policy on that.
Of course there will be a fix of some kind. The wireless performance is unacceptable. No other way to characterize it.
Bookmark this comment. I personally guarantee that I will make sure you get a return set up with restocking fee waived if you choose to wait for a fix for the wireless issue, and we don't deliver. If we have a fix that is generally considered acceptable, and you disagree, that's another matter.
This goes for everyone who's placed their faith in us and chosen to wait, but we won't be acquiescing to anyone looking to leverage this post to get an upgraded exchange or anything that resembles gaming the system

I have bookmarked the page.I will wait to see if the wireless problem can be fixed as i do not want to return the Laptop as i like it.
But i will return t if it cannot be fixed.
I am not sure if you read my post in regards to the attitude in regards to this by Dell in Australia.
The tech here saw the speed drops via remote connect and told me that it is acceptable and to use a lan cable if I wanted to use it in another room.
At least you have taken the time to try to fix the problem but Dell Australias Attitude has a lot to be desired