XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Just received my XPS 15 (L521X) today . Sweet machine . Seems to be running really smooth . Picture quality is great and my wifi's working good from what I can tell .

 

I see the same, and I saw no difference between old beta and new beta bios. It was a let down, because I expected a small improvement.

I tried nvidia old "Adrianne" demo (using beta drivers, 30 °C ambient temperature), it can't keep 645Mhz even with low CPU load (less that 15 watt, 13% total usage, 45% for the most used core. Capping the cpu at 2.1GHz seems to improve the experience anyway), and the GPU throttled to 125Mhz right after I stopped logging.

In real games that throttling is not a good experience. Anyway I was able to enjoy Assassin Creed II and GW2, even without consistent performances.
I'm sure playing in winter will be a nice experience.

Maybe I will do other tests with default drivers and different techdemos, maybe not.

It could alleviate the problem, maybe it could solve it. Really I expected that they increased that threshold between the two bios. You can bet that in the Anandtech worthless benchmarks, the GPU was well over 80 °C.

Also, with the A04 bios, when the CPU was put in thermal protection mode when the GPU reached about 71 °C, the GPU was free to reach well over 80 °C. Are XPS15s with A04 bios supposed to explode?

I really wonder what's going on at DELL.

Nominal GPU clock is 645Mhz

 

Nice review from anandtech,
There conclusion is just right.
it's a beautifull and good feeling laptop, but for gaming and other heavy stuff its useless.

Mine will be picked up next monday, but as soon as the wireless issues are solved I think I will buy back the I5 model if this model does not have throtteling issues.
With the saved money i can buy a 256 gb, msata and probbably will have a faster system then the I7 model

 

My two cents about components with boost and thresholds of temperature, just for fun.

I think thresholds of temperature doesn't work well for GPU with boost, and it is problematic if there are two components with boost (CPU e GPU) that share the same cooling system: you cannot allocate the TDP between the two components using temperatures, because you don't know what is heating what.

Maybe, if they can, they should consider to cap the power absorption (Intel variable TDP, nvidia power target), and using a critical threshold of temperature only for protect the system.

Temperature threshold doesn't work well for GPU, because typically GPU doesn't have a "burst" load, especially if the fps is not capped, and so it cannot exploit the thermal capacitance of the system. Getting 709Mhz for the first 12 seconds is worthless.

Also nVidia throttling is not so fast at the moment to be able to cool the GPU by throttling without impacting game experience.

And again: I'd aspect that my pc get a bit hot during summer than winter, and protect itself in critical situation. This is good. But at me moment, the XPS15 gaming experience and general performances depend on the weather. And, if you are very unlucky, you can find an ambient temperature (not too cold, and not too hot) and load that keep the GPU throttling continuously between two frequencies. I think this is worse than keeping the low frequency fixed.

This may be the standard behavior of other Ivy+Kepler laptop. I don't know.

 

They had to let intel underclock the processor gradually once it hitts 95-100 degrees and only underclock the gpu wen it hits the 95-100 mark again, which is what my laptop do, no problems there.
Shared heatsink is the best from both worlds, let say you have an heat sink with a cooling capacity of 70 watts, if you just stress the cpu you have the whole 70w just for it, and vice versa, and if you stress both, you still have the 70 w for them, its perfect.

 

Yes, but you don't know if the GPU temperature is because of GPU heat or CPU heat. You'd slow down the GPU because the CPU is generating more heat.
By monitoring and fixing power (if it is possible), you have a direct measure of who generate the heat, you know how you are spending your 70w.

Also "peak" performance doesn't work well for realtime applications (like games). Intel itself suggests to not consider "boost" for realtime apps. But these are just random thoughts .

 

I believe that's what they are trying to get right with this bios update.
Maybe they can get it right and minimize the damage but the weak cooling capacity will always be there.

Anyway the priority should be gpu full power unless it overheats 95+ and as for the cpu all he can get.
just some thoughts to

 

I just requested my return. I really like my XPS 15, but the throttling issues, wifi issues, and i hate the click pad.

 

It's very sad to read so many unhappy owners We all understood that this is not a gaming machine, but nobody here would play 15 hours per day lol. On the other side, not many people would like to waste so much good money for a Facebook/Office machine... A premium laptop like this would be capable of doing a bit of everything (actually more than a bit, reading the components), and a bit of gaming is not 10 minutes of Backgammon, it's a 2-hour session with an average demanding game...

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

I played Skyrim on my XPS15 L502X for almost literally the entire day on Saturday. I got to work at 6, turned on my computer (I'm in IT and Saturday coverage is...yeah.), played until 3, put it to sleep, got home, and played until 11pm. This computer should be able to game for that long, playing relatively new games. If it isn't meant to play games...why does it even have a discrete GPU?

 

I can second that, I have yet to see a major drop in FPS from throttling. I can see it with a monitoring program however I have yet to see it affect gaming.

 

(If it was unclear, I was talking about a previous-gen XPS 15 and saying that a CURRENT-gen one should be able to do that, or else it's a downgrade. But that's great news, if true.

Don't judge me for playing Skyrim for 16 hours the other day. It's a really good game!)

 

Wow totally misread that well in any case I would not judge you it is very addicting

 

I just received my Dell XPS after ordering it on Sunday (fast 7 day shipping right?). Anyway it is looking good for now just wondering what pre-installed services I can get rid of and which ones i should keep (90 processes at launch really?). Also where do I go again to check the color settings to make sure it isnt over saturated? I am about to send bill a pm about where the download link is for the beta 2 A05 BIOS but if anyone could post it here ahead of time it would be much appreciated. Finally probably tomorrow I will do the wifi testing and see about posting some scores (really hoping its fine but I rather doubt it).

 

Good point.

Off topic. Please I can't login to my tapatalk after locating this forum. Any ideas. I'm using blackberry. It says wrong username/password

 

Slightly off topic, however I have 6 posts and am still unable to private message. My understanding was that 5 posts was sufficient to unlock private messaging?

***EDIT***
Never mind... seems that after this post PM is now active.

 

I just received my L521x and have noticed that the disc drive constantly ejects on its own whenever I do anything. Whenever I open or switch over to iTunes, it ejects. Whenever I install something, it ejects. Whenever I open Microsoft Word, it ejects. Is anyone else having this problem? Is this fixable?

 

Okay i just flashed the A05 Beta 2 BIOS cant really tell if it did much since i didnt do any preliminary testing I am now trying to update the NVIDIA GT 640m drivers from the shipped version to the 304.79 beta drivers but it says it cannot find the hardware. Im thinking its because the card is off right now since im not playing any games how do i force the card to turn on?

I am also trying to figure out what bloatware I can uninstall safely, so far i am thinking:
Skype
McAfee
Microsoft Office 2010 (I have a full version to install)
Windows Live Essentials
Also what is with all the service agreements being listed as programs?

 

Guys, since we kind of know with some certainty the XPS 15 cooling system is not up to the task and CPU/GPU cooling needs to be separated. I vote for Dell to dump the Optical Drive and have a twin cooling system similar to MBPs. You see how it performed with similar specs here : AnandTech - The next-gen MacBook Pro with Retina Display Review

Its not point a having a high speced system if you can't utilize it and one of the reasons why Apply choose not include an optical drive. It was a choice they made based on system performance vs useability. Lets be honest not many of use optical drives and if we do need use we can connect up a external one.

I would happy to buy one without an optical drive.

 

I have also noticed this, for me it happens when installing programs and also iTunes. I'm wondering if for some reason it's looking for a program disc? Either way it doesn't bother me that much.

I would go into device manager and disable Intel HD4000 graphics so that it's only using the dedicated and try and install them.

 

Do not disable the intel hd4000
The display would crash and you would have to restart the computer in security mode to enable it again.
the display is connected to the intel one, you can't disable it.
Try other nvidia drivers or mod the info to make it compatible.

The macbook has a shared heat sink too, actually almost all laptops except the clevos, the big allianwares, razer blade, acer 3820tg, asus G series and some other exceptions have shared cooling.
it just need a bigger heatsink, or a faster fan, or another fan, but the shared cooling is not the problem.

 

Hey guys, just got my Dell XPS 15 (L521x) now. I noticed quickly that there's specs of dust stuck between the LCD and gorilla glass. It is visible on a white background. What should I do now? I only got this unit as a replacement to my Dell XPS 15z.

Also, when the fan kicks in it makes this noise similar to "a cpu fan hitting a wire inside a desktop computer". Could it be it just needs to greased or is this normal? I was expecting the cpu fan to sound like a hair dryer...

It doesn't make that noise if the laptop is on idle mode though.

 

Get a replacement xps 15 L521x cause it's a defect

 

Yeah unfortunately that's what I was thinking... it all started with a Dell Studio XPS 1640 throttling, then the XPS 15z wifi, chrome trim and coil whine issues and now the XPS 15 L521x dust specs inside gorilla glass I'm so unlucky with Dell replacement I guess. They must be sending me a refurb unit?

 

You got the L521x as a replacement to 15z for free?
Not bad. I don't think it's a refurb unit, they couldn't possibly start refurbing the L521x yet. Usually wait till there's a bigger batch.

Probably just unlucky and got a unit made during a day when the ventilation wasn't working and QC was sleeping

 

Yup I got it for free. It's a huge upgrade from XPS 1640 -> XPS 15z -> XPS 15. From XPS 1640 (P8700, 4gb RAM, 500gb HD, AMD 4870, DVD Writer, 1600x900) to XPS 15 L521x (I7 3612QM, 8gb RAM, 750gb HD/32gb mSata, Nvidia 640M, Bluray, 1920x1080)

The fan is really annoying me. I might just fix it myself but it's pointless to fix it because I can't get rid of the dust specs inside the gorilla glass!

 

Just got my L521X (ordered on last Saturday evening.)

I haven't done much with it yet, but some quick testing of the Wifi (with speedtest.net) gives me 50 Mbps down with or without AC plugged in. I'm running a dual-band LAN at home. The L521X is using the 5 GHz band, which is set to 11a&n mode. My daughter's iMac and the bridge to the office in the attic use this band. WPA mode is WPA2 only.

I also run a 2.4 Ghz 11g,n band. Just about everything else in the house uses that (two iPhones, two Blackberries, Wii, PS3, printer, my son's HP, my wife's Vostro and my old Inspiron 9400.) WPA mode is Auto WPA / WPA2.

The router reports a signal strength from the L521X of 90% when sitting 10 feet away and a rate that fluctuates between 200 and 300 Mbps, but I have no idea how it computes that. FWIW, task manager reports the same rate, but I've never seen a wireless connection hit 100% on that scale.

Moving to the opposite end of the house (~40 feet away with some walls in the way) the router reports a signal strength of 81% and a rate that fluctuates between 108 and 124 Mbps. A speed test (on speedtest.net) to the same server as before reports 20 Mbps down. This is a drop in the transfer rate by half, but my old 9400 couldn't get faster than 15 Mbps over 11g no matter where I was, so this is still, for me, an improvement.

I'm not using this as a gaming system, so I'm not as concerned with the throttling. I do like a very snappy computer with a good keyboard and a nice display, so the L521X fits that bill well.

Other impressions from someone who has used a six-year-old Inspiron 9400 up to now...

The screen is glossier, but not distracting. I normally avoid glossy screens, but this one is fine. The screen is also razor sharp compared to the 9400 screen. It reminds me of when I switched from component HD (soft) to HDMI HD (crisp.) I don't see the black lines reported by others, but the sharpness of the screen makes virtually every pixel distinct, which gives a suggestion of a fine "screen door" when viewed very, very close. I don't find this an issue. My eyes are not as sharp as they were 20 years ago.

As a fast typist, I generally hate "chicklet" keyboards. This goes way back to my early experiences with the IBM PCJr (yes, I'm that old...). I can barely tolerate my daughter's iMac keyboard. The L521X keyboard is on the cusp of being accused of chicklet-ness, but I'm finding it quite adequate. The 9400's keyboard is more "old school" but I can live with this "new normal" in keyboard design. Both my kids thought the backlit keyboard was cool. They also thought it was cool because it looks like a Macbook Pro (sorry Dell, but to the under-20 generation, everything is compared to Apple.)

Compared to the 9400, whose fans fire up like a Dash-8 turboprop airplane when viewing any video full screen, the L521X is virtually silent. Yes, the fans did fire up when I tried some graphics demos, but for most stuff they're not needed, which is a relief.

As someone who doesn't push the hardware to its bleeding edge, I'm quite happy with this machine so far, BUT I do want the wifi to be fast. I do a lot of photography (not professionally), and store half a terabyte of RAW files on my NAS. I'd like to access that NAS via wifi as fast as possible. I'll be monitoring progress on this issue with interest.

An aside on the heat / throttling issue. As an engineer with two degrees in computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer, I suspect the top and bottom "rubbery" materials used in this laptop are lower thermal conductivity compared to hard plastic or metals to create cooler surfaces for your lap and palms. As a result, heat is trapped inside this machine -- and because it is so thin, the cross-sectional area for heat removal by forced convection (i.e. air flow) are similarly reduced. Older laptops with plastic bottoms and thicker bodies had less trouble dissipating heat -- part of their cooling involved dumping heat literally into your lap and moving lots of air through. This new laptop appears to be better at keeping the heat away from your lap and palms, but that makes it harder to get the heat out. The Dell engineers, of course, know this as well as anyone, and probably have some very creatively designed heat pipes (copper, etc.) and other tricks to convince the heat to leave quietly out the back, but if you want a really chilly CPU, you need to dump heat out all sides as quickly as possible (including your lap) via conduction and/or push a lot of air (or other fluid) to remove heat by forced convection -- which is noisy. You could reduce the heat load in the first place, but the i7 with a discrete GPU shoves around a lot of electrons. Design is a long series of trade-offs...

 

Make sure you have the notebook version of the Nvidia drivers. They are not the same and the desktop ones won't install. Definitely don't remove the Intel display drivers because it will totally disable the video out from your computer

In Optimus your integrated graphics is always drawing the screen, when the discrete card comes online it renders the image and then draws it to the display buffer of the integrated graphics. This is why there is no way to totally disable the integrated graphics (like you could with old switchable graphics).

 

Wow how'd you manage that? I have a 15z but it has its share of issues too so I wouldn't mind getting a free upgrade.

 

Bill,

I am expecting delivery of my XPS15 in three days. I tried finding a way to PM you, but so far no luck.

Could you contact me, since I am looking for the beta Bios driver.

Thanks..

 

You need to post at least 5 times to get pm.
Just like me. +1 post

 

Also had the specs of dust. I called op customer support. Had to send some pictures and they then ordered a new one and a pickup of the faulty one. Only problem is that it takes a while for the new one to arrive.

 

Speak for yourself, I use it a lot and I'm buying a laptop, not a desktop, so I really don't want to bring with me and plug in a bunch of stuff...

 

You lucky. They paid me full refund (virtual, no paper proof) of xps 16 and I had to add a few quid more. I did not return the XPs 16 yet.
I did not want to replace it, i like it, but they do not want to change any parts of it (needs keyboard and palm rest)...they offered me different replacements, I refused them.
They said that is brand new xps 15 L521X, the same as yours, except mine comes with windows 7 SP1 pro and 1 Yr. Pro Support and Next Business Day on site-service.
I noticed that most XPS 15 comes packed with only Win_7 Premium!

 

You should take that offer of the new xps 15. The Win 7 sp1 pro cost $70 extra if you config it.

 

Unfortunately not quite correct. Apple dropped the OD because it would not have fit in the rMBP housing. That is why they also dropped the RS-45 port, it was just too fat...

Have a look here: MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2012 Teardown - iFixit. There you can see that a normal MBP has two fans AND a slotload OD....

 

Thanks for clearing that one up!
+1

 

i said this if dell ships the xps with an external drive you get 2 fans maybe a 650m since it has its own fan and dell call add a 10W mini sub so the sound would be better + another mSata port and a usb on the right ..... larger battery and that system would be worth it sans wifi issues of course

 

Sounds much better than what others are reporting... Maybe you're not affected !

Thanks a lot... Gives me a good idea how it would look from my perspective! I guess the new XPS will feel much less hot than my Inspiron 9400

 

HAve a look on LaptopVideo2Go: NVIDIA & Laptop News. The reason that you get a message saying that it cannot find the hardware, is because your specific hardware address is not in the INF file. Look for the driver which has a modded INF file..

Good luck.

P.s. I like your definition of "bloatware".. You want to take off Office 2010, and replace it with office 2010?

 

If you guys having Wi-Fi issues haven't tried this yet I just updated to the latest Wi-Fi driver and my speedtest.net download doubled, it's now matching my wired results at 21mbps down 1mbps up. That's with one floor full of metal ductwork and about 30-40 feet in between.

It's enough to go from "like my old notebook's wi-fi" to "I don't care if it gets any better" for me at least.

 

Sounds like a fix to me... Could specify where these drivers come from, exactly (Dell, Intel)? Maybe a link?

 

Which drivers and where can they be had? I'm just wondering if you are talking about ones other than what was released on 6/27 on Dell's website.
Thanks!

 

Just got my Dell XPS 15, updated the Nvidia drivers and did a '3DMark 11 - Performance 1280x720' benchmark.

I'm getting 1955

Seem about right? I haven't done anything else except that. Still admiring it .

 

Result! Care to share with all of us where you found the new drivers?

 

LOL you throw a bomb like this and run away?? link to drivers please!

 

There are 2 places to get "the latest WiFi driver." Eager beavers can try both places: 50% you get the "right" one on the first try.

 

I'm getting my XPS 15 L521x tomorrow! Had my aunt buy it for me in US and fly it around the world to Greece, where I live! It's going to be a great upgrade for me since I've been using a 10" eeepc netbook the last 3 years...

 

WiFi Woes:
Netgear DGND3700 ADSL Dual Band Router (UK based)
5GHz n Wifi

1. Download speed was erratic. In a download speed test using an analogue dial the needle would flick 0.5 - 2 Mbps then slowly nudge towards +10 Mbps. Only in the last second would it reach a maximum value - this could be <0.5 or 7 or 17 Mbps (inconsistent in the extreme).
2. Download speed best sitting next to the router and falling off rapidly with distance and intervening walls (timber/drywall).

My ISP's incoming copper line is about 12 Mbps and most devices will run at 10 - 10.5 Mbps. OK for computers but requiring ethernet RJ45 cable for HD to a Smart TV. In theory, at least, it should be impossible to see 17 Mbps download speed.

All drivers ex Dell's website i.e. home use not Enterprise.
Corrective Action:
Contacted Dell UK and was asked to:
Download and reinstall the BIOS - A04 to A04
Download and reinstall the WiFi driver 15.1.1.1, A01 (209MB)
Download and reinstall the BT driver
Restarted the machine - no change in WiFi performance.

Arranged a next day visit to consider WiFi Card and/or aerial replacement.
Replacing the card was a big improvement but not a complete solution. In a download speed test the needle would now climb to 7 - 8 Mbps at the start of the test and complete at around 10/11 Mbps but with surging around that value. This performance close to the router and now also at a distance (upstairs say 7 metres, one floor, one wall distant from the router). I was much happier and no longer seeing download timeouts i.e. the previous worst case situation.

Extended this by going into Device Manager - Network Adapters - Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235 and setting as follows:

Roaming Aggressivness - Increased from default 3 to maximum 5.
Transmit Power - Increased from default medium 3 to maximum 5.
Preferred Band - Changed from default No Preference to 5.2GHz (there is a 2.4GHz option)
Bluetooth - Default Enabled changed to Disabled.
Restarted the L521X.

This time little change in measured performance but taken together I am, mostly, getting my expected 10 Mbps download speed - replacing the card had the most significant effect. Would that work in all cases...

 

Well don't all rush to tell us if it works with the new drivers