XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

My bad I thought you were responding regarding the new wifi driver that you didn't need an adaptater.

 

Sent Lorna my information, I tried getting one from @DellCares last week and they didn't help me out sadly. Couldn't follow up since Medical School is so brutal - hope Dell can get me an adapter soon!

 

Hi Bill.
I bought my XPS via DELL France but I am currently living in the Netherlands for a few months.
Is there an easy way to obtain the Wifi USB dongle (DELL France sending it to the Netherlands?) or do I really need to transfer my warranty from DELL FR to DELL NL?

The problem of the transfer of the warranty is that it may require some time (15 day if I well remember) and being able to use the Wifi of my university is essential for me.
Moreover I do not speak Dutch (^^') so it might be difficult for me to contact the Dutch support center...

 

Looks like they are out of adapters for the moment... Lorna never did PM me back but I logged into my Dell account and clicked on Orders (even though it says no new orders) and lo and behold there was an order for an adapter sitting there stating the shipping speed is next day. The problem is that it's been sitting in the production status for a few days now so I guess they are waiting to restock.

 

Mine sat for a few days then shipped day before yesterday arriving the next day. Bill mentioned that they were hitting one model too hard and had to spread them around.

 

Would you mind posting or PMing me your Twitter handle? I'd like to follow up with @DellCares about not being able to send out the adapter to you.

I think there may be a way to get the dispatch to you without a transfer, but I'm not sure. Can you just PM me your details, so I can forward them over to the BeNeLux support team and ask what they can do? I'll need service tag, name, email address, phone number and current shipping address.

We're working on getting another person to help with the dispatches. When we find that person, I will tweak the process a bit. Lorna will be whom to PM for returns, and the new person will be whom to PM for adapters. Remember, this is just a stop gap workaround, and if you don't like it, please feel free to contact Lorna about a return.

 

Thank you, Bill. I just sent you the PM.

 

Found your Twitter handle and got the details from @DellCares. They are working on finding a contact in your country who can dispatch the adapter. It may take a bit, but we're working on it.

Got it and sent over to the BeNeLux team. I'll PM you back when I hear something. Thanks for your patience.

 

Is it possible to get a refund if you have received a replacement laptop?

 

Oh nice I just sent you a PM - Thanks Bill! I'm up in Michigan so hopefully it'll be a quick turnover =) Enjoy the holidays!

 

Dear Bill, any news about wifi fix? Any "light at the end of the tunnel"?

 

You'd have to take that one up with a rep and their management. I wouldn't even venture a guess here.

Oh. Wow. We must have the wrong Twitter handle then? We show you in a country in Asia. I'll check the PM for more details.

 

Excellent pointer. Thanks.

Went to the Canadian Dell Support site, signed in to my account and the USB adapter shipment was recorded there. Also had a chance to chat with Support today, as they were following up on my complaints about wifi performance. They confirmed the Netgear was sent by Social Media, specifically, Lorna. So emails and PMs from Lorna didn't happen for this Canadian owner but the adapter made its way anyways.

 

Got a replacement screen today noticed a "slight" improvement, despite this still 3 x slower then all my other devices including my L502x

Bill - i think at this point i want to initiate a returns process(UK), what can i do to waiver the restock fee if one is asked?

 

Thanks to Lorna and Bill I now have an order being shipped to me for a:
DWA-130 Wireless-N USB Adapter

I don't recognize the brand but hopes it resolves my problem while a permanent fix is being prepared.

 

Recevied today my new XPS 15.
I can't conplain of anything, I have an internet connection so bad that I can't see changes with my previous laptotp (a Packard Bell, btw).
I can see the grid of the pixel, but at a "user distance" from the screen it is barely noticeable.
Fell in love with anything else.

Bill, I already contacted Dell via FB in my country (Italy), and they assured me that Dell we post it when the WiFi problem is solved.
In the meantime, to further test the issue and see how it works on my university, who do I have to contact to receive the usb adapter? Lorna will manage my request too?
Thank you.

 

Has Anybody Got A NEW XPS 15 L521X without wifi problems here?!?!

 

As an L521X owner and engineer (NOT in the computer industry), if one can set aside their frustrations with the under performing Wifi for a brief period, I find this an interesting study in the process to develop new technology and how the outcome is perceived by the end-user / customer.

On one side we have the concept of "quality." This is a simple concept but difficult to quantify in exact terms. Generally one defaults to a definition that quality of a product is it meets it's customer's requirements. Customers don't always quantify their requirements, but generally when you spend north of $2k on a laptop, you expect a lot more from it than if you spend, say, $100 on a used machine from 2003, so quality is related to the cost. In the case of the L521X Wifi, it appears people define quality as an expectation it be comparable in speed and range to other laptops of similar price. This has been demonstrated as not the case.

On the other side we have the concept of design requirements, which a design engineer uses to come up with a design. Here the engineer strives to convert the customer's expectations of quality into specific, measurable statements, such as "The design shall have a weight no more than x kg" and "The design shall have a core temperature of no more than x deg C" etc. Complex systems can have hundreds or even thousands of design requirements. Generally you want to avoid a statement such as "The design shall maximize wireless transmission speed" because this is subjective. How maximum is maximum enough? A requirement "The design shall have a wireless transmission speed of x mpbs at a range of y meters" is better, but then you get in to the issue of what the environmental factors are under which this requirement must be met. How noisy an environment, etc...

Then you come up with a design that you believe will meet its requirements. Next you plan how to verify the design meets its requirements. This is where prototype testing is involved. Generally, for a larger departure from past designs, or for complex designs, more testing is required. This is because in tightly coupled, complex systems, making a design change in one aspect of the system can have unintended (and unforseen) consequences in another aspect of the design. Missing these impacts during design or testing is often referred to as a latent error. The design issue can sit "dormant" for a long time until a time you least want (such as when it is in the hands of your Customers...)

Next, you translate the design into design specifications, which describe the design in sufficient detail for it to be manufactured (much of this may have been prepared for prototype production.) The design specifications are converted to manufacturing specs (yes, they can be different) which describe how to build the product.

At this point you switch to manufacturing, which involves more tests to qualify the manufacturing equipment and processes to ensure the product meets spec. When parts or components are subcontracted, the procurement process cascades the specs and qualification tests down to the sub.

At any of these steps there is the possibility of an oversight, misunderstood assumption, or latent error. As mentioned before, the likelihood of this occurring is greater with bigger changes, complex designs, or "tight" designs (where the margins to failure are very, very small.)

So when the customer's expectation of quality is not met (e.g., wifi is less than desired) you have to work backwards through the design and manufacturing process to figure out first what is the problem, but second, and more importantly for long term success, *why* the problem occurred. There are a myriad of methodologies that can be used to do the latter, including Apparent Cause Evaluations (ACEs), barrier analyses, etc. to get down to the root cause of why the failure to meet the customer's expectation of quality occurred.

Bill has indicated the wifi performance is a design, rather than a manufacturing issue, thus an ACE or other analysis may identify where in the design process a requirement was not written properly or a change to one subsystem was not fully understood as how it would impact another. A contributing factor could be the extent of the design verification (testing) process, which may have needed to be more extensive to reflect the complexity, extent, or aforementioned tightness of the design. Could be as simple as not including a system integration test in a sufficiently noisy wifi environment. Generally a company involved in commercial products will not make its root cause analyses public (it is part of their IP) however in industries where public safety is involved, these analysis are often made public (check out NASA, NTSB and USNRC root cause analyses reports for examples.)

All this is pure speculation on my part, and meant to comment on the capability or dedication of any particular group of people, but interesting to me nonetheless to observe how the engineering design and qualification process is perceived "out here" by the people who ultimately pay for the process: the customers.

 

Looks like it's a D-Link 2.4 GHz only adapter.

 

Mine seems to be ok . My XPS15 is about 8 ft from the router though . I'm thinking I need to take it out in the world and test it on other wifi networks .

 

your not far enough away yet. take a few more steps and get back to us

 

I sent a PM to Lorna yesterday and today I got a mail from Dell US telling about a call that "I made". But nothing related to this forum or Lorna, anyway, I read a few posts back something similar and I verified the status and it says "CANCELLED" =(

The call number is the same on the email.. What happened? I'm from México, that's why? I guess I must talk with a Dell assistant in my region, am I wrong?

Anyway, thank so much to Bill and Lorna for your time and for stay tuned here.

Greetings from México!

PS.-I reached temps under 80°C before, now I've reached temps above 80-90°C. The CNC machine in my university is broken and i haven't build my new design for cooling system. I hope build it soon, but for now, this thing can get too hot with a simple render, that's sooo sad...

 

build 2 so if it works i can have the other one

 

Hi,

I contacted Dell in my country (Germany) with the WiFI Problem on the 19th of August. They did know NOTHING about any WiFi problems, but told me a technician would replace my WiFi card.

ONE WEEK later still no technician, so I contacted their support again (and send PM to Loorna, and no, Loorna will not manage your USB requests outside the US, this at least is understandable). Still nothing did happen.

TODAY: Still NO technician, NO usb wifi, NO call from Dell, just CRAPPY WiFi.

And Gabbo2003 from Italy, I can exactly tell you how the WiFi will work on your university: it won't work at all !

So this is how the Dell support "works" in other countrys!

Thanks Dell!

 

A new XPS? But the problem is not solved yet...

 

A week goes by and still no USB wifi adapter shipped to me. I am very close to giving up on dell and sending this back.


Sent from my New iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

My new NEW replacement unit is on its way, next week I will be getting it.
I am anxious to see if the WiFi has been fixed. It has to be done some improvements since five weeks back when I received first laptop.
I also noticed that the L521x packed with i7 3612 are not available anymore in most countries, just with i5.
If the WiFI is not sorted I will get USB wifi adapter, I am not going to wait to get one for free from Dell.

 

I hope your problems are resolved and i understand your frustration, but I did want to address this comment.

My son has this laptop and is at college. It isn't that the WiFi does not work, it is that it works poorly with a degraded signal. His WiFi (We are lucky) works in his room, and in other more public spaces, so he can afford to wait it out. No one can predict how strong the wireless will be in the places where you need it. It may or may not be OK for you as is. If you get a USB dongle you will likely be OK everywhere - with the inconvenience of the dongle. If you can wait for a fix do so, if you can't then you need to measure the risk and inconvenience.

 

Hi Bill: As always, I appreciate you being on here being a voice from us to Dell and vice versa. As if the issues plaguing this L521x weren't enough given wi-fi and overheating, my laptop turned off and stayed off for nearly 10 minutes. I don't play games. All I was doing was watching a movie online. How on earth does a system this "cutting edge" crap out just like that? Also, am I better with keeping A06 or should I revert back to A04. It's almost like I'm screwed either way. Interestingly enough, "my dell support center" keeps suggesting that there's an update to the BIOS, but when I looked, it was the older A04! How could this thing not realize that I'm already running the latest BIOS? Thanks in advance.

 

Hey,

I've had my XPS15 for a couple of weeks now, and just love it. The WIFI problem doesn't seem as bad for me as some people have made it out to be for them, and I don't have the grid issue with the screen. My battery life is almost 5 hours, using a fairly bright screen and heavy internet during usage.

As far as speed goes, I'm not a tech guy so I can't give you specific measurements of any type, but I haven't run into anything yet that has given this computer a hard time. I use it for recording audio through a USB interface with an astonishingly small amount of latency, I use it for a bit of gaming (DayZ thus far) without problems, and for the last 3 hours I've been transferring hundreds of GBs of data between 2 USB drives while watching HD movies, and it didn't even hiccup.

When I ordered the computer I didn't know what to expect because of the reported issues with the screen and the WIFI, but so far the computer has surpassed all of my expectations.

Hope this helps!

 

A question partially related to the XPS:
how do I set up an ethernet connection to my modem? With my previous laptop I connected the LAN cable and it connected by itself, with the XPS I can't figure out how to connect it. I hope my ethernet adapter isn't broken...

 

Overall I've been happy with mine so far too. I'm an IT consultant, so I do tend to abuse my machines a bit and so far the only issue I've seen is the wifi speeds, which aren't a show stopper for me. I have run 3 virtual machines (2 win7 and 1 xp) on top of the base win7 os at the same time and I gotta say this thing is a workhorse. I haven't seen any screen issues and have not had any noticeable throttling. My battery, usually with at least one vm running, has lasted a good 4-5 hours and usually only gets plugged in if I leave my office and don't want it to go to sleep while running something, or when I go to lunch. I'm confident that a solution for the wireless problem will be found, and I'm ok with waiting a bit for it.

I know it probably won't happen, but it would sure be nice of dell to offer a free or reduced cost extension to our warranties for the issues that people have had...

 

Agree with the two owners above....very good laptop overall. Pleased with the speed and screen (playing CIV 5 and Skyrim on Ultra, FHD)...Not sure about the WIFI as I didn't really go through the trouble of testing it...but will test it later on....

One other small thing that's a problem with my unit (I believe it's just my unit), is the trackpad is a tiny bit loose...that's all. Not a big concern. I can use it well....so I didn't really wanna bother asking Dell to come have a look...

 

A loose trackpad is not common, it should be fixable. Dunno if you want to burn the time on it though.

 

The ethernet connector is there, and a normal ethernet cable should work the same as your other machine. It is the furthest post away from you on the left (as you look at it). It is a bit tricky in that it has a hinge that opens down. Be careful disconnecting the cable as it seems to be a bit hard to get out IMHO

 

Any particular reason the xps15 has been taken off the swedish website? Are the wifi-issues to blame here?

 

Still available on the US site.

 

I has come down off multiple countries sites but always goes back up shortly after. I don't think anyone has figured out why yet

 

I know how it work, but even if I connect the cable it say that no cable is connected. I already tried with two cables and both did not work.
I will try to update the drivers, the OS sees the hardware but can't detect the cable.

 

Your cable modem may require a crossover cable. Not sure if your modem or the xps have auto-mdi/mdix but that would be my first guess. Do you have anything else you could plug into to see if the port is good (switch, router, etc.)?

 

I connect at my office with an ethernet cable. Had no problem with the XPS.

 

Anyone else having a problem with the headphone only jack? The volume is really low for me and the sound crackles. When I plug my headphones into the headphone/mic jack it's much louder and more clear. I am using the headphones that came with my iPhone. I'll test it later with a different pair.

 

Headphone jack is good on mine.

My issue comes from the touchpad. I've been having all sorts of trouble with it since I opened mine on Friday (first instance was actually my fault, accidentally disabled it through the software, spent an hour trying to find the command key to enable it).
Occasionally during use, it'll start acting up. When I say acting up, I mean the cursor is either nearly non-responsive or jumps around, won't right or won't left click (even tap-click), or won't scroll. All too often, when I go to click on a link etc. the cursor moves just as I touch my finger to the clicker so that it doesn't hit anything, then reverts back to where I originally wanted to click (as if I had another finger on the touchpad... I think it's messing with me).
The first time all of this happened, it only stopped acting up after I took a damp paper towel to it and cleaned it off. That seemed to have fixed it temporarily. Today, however, cleaning the touchpad did absolutely nothing to its non-functionality. Eventually I couldn't even get the touchpad to move, click, scroll...anything, so I gave up and went back to my laptop it's supposed to replace.
I've tried everything I could think of. I've adjusted every setting in both Windows and Dell Touchpad, I've tried updating the driver, I've tried rolling it back...restarting the computer appears to have no effect oddly. I'm thinking the unit itself must be defective. Anybody else have similar problems? I've searched, haven't found anything like what I'm going through.

Also, I'm sure it's old hat in here, but despite my best efforts to ignore the suggestion that the wireless is subpar, while I haven't been disconnected, I have had trouble streaming even SD videos over N-wireless (N>Router>Ethernet-connected server) if I stray too far away, get less than 3 bars wifi, it all-too-often needs to pause and buffer.

My XPS is essentially unusable at the moment. I'm thinking I'll try to send it back this week, either get a replacement or get something else (I purchased from Microsoft Store online). This is a shame, because despite being a poor value for its specifications, I really liked the notebook. It looks great, has great build quality, superb fit and finish, nice ergonomics, and wow--that screen is stunning! Everything looked almost 3D the first time I fired it up..and the colors! Of course, these were exactly the reasons I wanted this unit despite the fact that there are far better values out there (HP Envy and Vizio come to mind). These characteristics are of sharp contrast to my current Lenovo Y570 which has horrid build quality, less-than-stellar ergonomics, a pitiful screen, and old business-laptop aesthetics. Other than that it's been a good laptop, but not something I feel would last more than a few years of even casual use.

If I can't get my XPS worked out, I'll be giving the Vizio a try, which was the reason I started looking at new notebooks in the first place (problem is, it's been sold out since it has been out). If HP ever worked out the orange-gate issues, maybe take a look at the Envy 15, though I have to say I hate the Beats branding all over it.

Sorry to be so negative in an owners lounge, just want to know if I'm the only one having these issues and if I should give the XPS 15 another chance. I love the machine, I just can't live with a faulty touchpad, and don't want to live with questionable wireless performance.

 

I tried to plug it to another laptop, but I did not work.
Actually, according to the OS, it is running but when I connect a cable it won't detect it, and my other laptop connected to the router it works without problems!

 

I don't remember reading about that behavior, but it sounds like a faulty trackpad - or trackpad connection to the system board - to me. I'd get with Dell support on that for a fix. It's not right.

Your Wifi issues sounds like "the" wifi issue that a number of us are waiting for a fix for. If you're getting sub-par performance but no disconnects it may be livable for you right now, but you should report it and get on Dell's radar as needing the fix.

If you need better wifi performance right now you should either use a USB dongle adaptor or return the notebook. There has been no official word - or report unofficially - that Dell has fielded a fix for the WiFi either in the production line for new units or any in the field, so exchanging for a different unit in the hope of getting one w/o wifi issues is sketchy-to-useless, at this time, in my opinion.

For the record, mine has the wifi performance problem and I am using it with a dongle until Dell can get a real fix out to me. In all other ways my notebook works to spec and I am very happy with it.

 

Call Dell Tech Service to report the problem and get help.

 

Assuming that this is hardware related, do you suppose Dell will perform the fix under warranty? Are there any ideas as to when a fix might be released?

I'd love to keep this notebook if Dell is willing to work with me. I'll contact support today or tomorrow about the touchpad and notify them about my wireless radio acting up. Thanks for the response.

In the mean time, I guess it's back to my bulky, flimsy Lenovo

 

yes, absolutely.

but you need to report it as a problem, which may entail some frustrating work with CSR staff.

You should read back through this thread to find Dell_Bill-b's offer (not too far past) on how to request a USB wifi adaptor (on Dell's check) to mitigate the problem until the final fix is received.

No.

Dell_Bill has stated words to the effect of "future production builds will be coming out corrected" - as in at the manufacturing level the engineering staff has been able to resolve the problem. BUT, the "field fix" had not yet been solidified and no timeline has been promised.

I think that that people need to keep in mind the possibility that machines in the wild MAY require complete replacement for a fix to the problem, which I assume Dell will honor under the hardware warranty.

I am personally hoping that it is a more limited fix, as in lid replacement and maybe antenna wire re-routing, other minor hardware change, but nothing has been promised.

 

Okay, well due to POOR response on Lorna's and Dell's part, I am returning this laptop. I shouldn't have to BEG for a fix, or a temporary solution on a WIFI adapter. I went to look at some MacBook Pros w/Retinas and not and have decided I am going to get one of those and put Windows on it.

Dell needs to get their act together as I refuse to purchase another Dell product till they do.

 

While not the fastest response, Dell WILL fix it. Every laptop has issues and few if any companies even bother to fix.


I've owned quite a few in the past few months, and Bill's response to the issues are the reason I will stick with Dell. I don't know what you were expecting but I hope you are happy with you MB Pro. Do some research first because I cam from running Windows 7 on a Macbook Pro myself and it was a bad experience. You are better off running OSX and parralells rather than Windows natively as Apple driver support is lackluster.