XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Make sure that it is plugged in ALL the way. It is a very tight and secure fit I had the same problem than finally realized it was out of the jack by an 8th of an inch.

 

Guys here are the new replacement that has arrived today. An Executive Manager from Corporate Office assured me that the new unit is going to work 100%.

They replaced the Optical DVD MATA UJ8A7 with HL-DT-ST DVD+- RW GS30N
Also the HDD Seagate 750 with WD7500BpKT that is a bit quieter
I noticed that the end of the heat sink, the pipe, is shorter a bit, compare with the first one....i had to open the back cover because of strange waving sound coming from the fan. Found black tape that covers a part of the optical drive and the bios battery was bent up, some of the pressure of the fan was moving it up and down, easy fix.

The improvements:
- The Wi-Fi the same problem
- The Optical drive still does the noise, when plug an external drive/SD card/open Media Player.... but very, very quiet
- Throttling, I do not know yet. It came with BIOS A04
It seems that most LCDs are the same. I noticed, when closed to the LCD, the very fine vertical lines most users are talking about; It was better without them, or less noticeable! Most LCDs have them but not as the L521x.

I was told to call back after 2-3 days to see how is going.


So, the fault is still there.

 

I am running Windows 7 in Boot Camp on MBP 17 and I am very happy with it. I do not understand your statement of " Apple driver support is lackluster". Please elaborate.
Thanks.

 

for starters, Optimus won't work in Bootcamp so you will be using the more power hungry GT650 even when surfing the web or just typing a document

also, their drivers in general are not efficient and rather than the awesome 7 HOURS of battery life you get with nativ OSX, you will get maybe 3-4...

gaming is another issue, as you wont get equal numbers (FPS) on games that are native to Mac on the same machine for windows like Call of Duty

If Windows is your main OS, you will get better performance from many other machines. Even the review on this site said the same thing

 

If this user has a MBP 17 means that the GPU is ATI of previous generation, so no problem with Optimus.

It's completely useless to have good driver support for better FPS if the notebook has throttling like L521x.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

the problem isn't so much with Optimus but with the Intel's built in video card from Sandy and Ivy Bridge....i've tried various brands in the past few months and all throttled...Dell was the only one to at least address it...so an A- in my book

 

VMware for me. Either way, I have owned plenty of Dells and they haven't kept many of their promises.


Sent from my New iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

i got way better performance from Parallels on last years MBP 15...especially the feature that windows apps show up in you app drawer

i've owned many Dells and they have always been on point in terms of support...i mean can you imagine Asus,Acer or Samsung sending you a 2012 Series 9 because your Series 9 from 2011 kept crapping out???


Plus we have Bill on our side

 

Actually it's the other way around. Windows has poor battery management vs OSX. That is why many laptops couldn't touch the life of macs till recently.

I ran windows on a few macs and all actually ran windows better than some windows machines.


Sent from my New iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I have parallels. But for my job I need VMware for running stuff like Linux, windows server os, etc.


Sent from my New iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

im going to have to disagree here....Apple designs the software around the hardware and they are premium boxes...999 Inspiron and the thousands of $300+ laptops won't cut it

those $2000+ Sony VAIOs and ThinkPads a few years back had excellent battery


Surely a 1799 MBP on Bootcamp can outperform a $300 core i3

 

Umm those Sonys also had very very large batteries. But its been a known fact windows has poor battery management. Always has. Search the web and you might learn.


Sent from my New iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I do not wanna be a prude but they have already threatened to shut this thread down because we keep getting off topic. If that happens we loose our contact with Bill. So lets not argue about Windows vs Mac please.

 

i do have wifi issue as well....who should i tell in Australia just to log it? I don't really mind waiting...just wanna make sure it's logged...and i don't want the USB dongle either...

 

Unfortunately it probably happens only in USA...
[QUOTE='[-Mac-]It's completely useless to have good driver support for better FPS if the notebook has throttling like L521x.[/QUOTE]
Yes, and because of hardware/disain! So i7/640m throttles, but how about "entry" model, i5/630 with reduced power consumption? Throttles too?
And have you anybody seen now in someplace/shops new xps with mobile broadband (instead of msata)?

 

Bill or Lorna from Dell,
The order you entered to ship me a USB wifi adapter was showing Processing until today. It now shows as Cancelled.
When I chatted with order support to find out why the order was cancelled they suggested I call Technical support. I would rather not have them mess with my machine unless I understand what's going on with this issue.
I don't see any new drivers released since August 15th, has a fix been developed for our wifi issue and if yes is it a hardware replacement or driver download?
Thanks

 

Did you receive your laptop yet? Any problems?
Can you tell me how you got that deal? Who to call/contact to get that too? The reps I'm talking with aren't budging

 

nizmoz has already returned his L521x, because known problems and now he is buying a MBP.


http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=8823158

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

OH didn't know. Sigh I waited out for 2 months hoping for the fixes to be done. But alas, my college classes finally require me to run a real operating system and I have to buy my dell now. (Am running a cr-48 now, can't write python for robotics on that)

I was hoping newer batches don't have the wifi problem as much. Let's hope my chat with the rep goes well tomorrow and I can finally buy the l521x.

 

Bill I sent Lorna a PM regarding the USB last week and haven't had a reply.

Just wondering if we have any movement here. Also any news on a fix would be awesome

 

Hey guys,

I sent Lorna an email a few days ago and didn't get a reply but I'm from the UK and did get this today:

Hi,

I work for Social media outreach team of DELL. This mail is in regards to the issue that you have reported with your XPS 15.

The XPS 15 has issues with the drivers. We are awaiting an update from our specialist team for the fix.

Please watch Direct2Dell for the latest news. Direct2Dell - Direct2Dell - Dell Community . Kindly let me know if you require any assistance.



Regards

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dell | Social Media Outreach |Global Social media & Community

Office Hours Mon-Fri, 5-2 CST

Feedback | email: xxxxxxxxxxxx



Dell are saying it's a driver issue that's currently being addressed....the plot thickens?

 

I thought it was already as thick as it could get.

Everything Bill has shared has pointed to a hardware issue though, at this point I'd be a little surprised to see that be wrong.

HOWEVER, if a drive update fixes it I'm all for that.

Being as this is very late-model hardware, the chipset/cpu/wlan being released by intel in what - march? - I'd not be surprised that there could be a lot of work done to improve driver support.

 

Checked TDP of both models (CPU+GPU). It has not "reduced power consumpiton" (if speaking about i5/630m), but roughly same, so - 99% it throttles too...

 

The gt 630m is the 28nm version, so it consumes much less then the gt 640m.
The i5 is a dual core while the i7 is a quad so even if the limit is the same 35w, during games the quad should consume more. and even in prime95 the i5 core doesn´t consume 35w.
The limits are one thing, the normal power consumption is another.

 

Actually, the GT640M is a Kepler-based chip which is always 28nm. The 630M is based on the same chip as 540M/550M OR 620M and is produced in 40nm OR 28nm process respectively, whichever chip it is based on. So the 630M will likely consume an equal amount of power or even MORE than the 640M (don't know which chip the 630M in the L521x is actually based on).

You can check both cards on notebookcheck.net for reference.

 

Intel wireless driver issues is the line that Dell support has been giving me as well. I tried to ask them about hardware issues but they seemed quite adament that the problem was software.

Dell did sent me a USB wireless stick but there was hardy any improvement so they are letting me return the machine. The odd thing was that I tested the stick with my other machine and actually saw good performance.

Other than that I love the machine, no visible grid lines. Dell support has actually been very responsive, but with no actual solution there is not much they can do.

 

Anyone having any trouble with the optical drive? Whenever I try to eject a disc, it instead plays it. To eject, I have to tip the machine on its side. When I load a disc, it sounds like the machine is eating it Cookie Monster style.

 

The gt 640m consumes approximately the same power as the gt 540m right?
so if you reduce the process to 28nm to make the gt 630m out of the gt 540m which do you think will consume more?

 

Hello, I am in the same situation as the rest. I received my XPS 15 on the 31st of August and contacted the Dell’s support service the very next day. They updated my BOIS to A06 and updated the drivers with no change whatsoever. The temporary fix was to send me a USB wireless device until there is a fix, a USB device that they are sending today! I was called by a tech yesterday to tell me that they will be shipping me the USB devise soon, I asked him about the situation and was treated quite rudely as if I was an idiot and that I did not understand computers and this kind of stuff is normal in the industry. I told him that I have worked with computers for well over 10 years and had a basic knowledge of computers and that the situation was not normal. He went on to explain that not all of the systems were affected and it was a very small number out of the millions being sold. To be honest I could care less about the systems that are currently working it’s the systems that are not working – reading the various threads available on this subject it seems that this situation has been going on for quite a few months and effects other Dell laptops not just the XPS 15. What’s bothersome about this situation is I spent over $2000 on a system that has to have an external USB in order to use the wifi - with no fix in the near future.

My wife’s Dell (insperon) 1 year old can pick up 6 other wireless devices in the neighborhood; mine barley reads the one right down the hall in my office. My wife’s streams video with no issues, I cannot. Both have the same settings.

Steve

 

XPS 14 has throttling and use ULV processors, so I believe not big difference to have i5 and Gt630m.
Risco had i5 with gt640m and he has returned because during game session gpu disappear from resources and he must restart to GPU back in resources.


Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

the xps 14 is much smaller, not really a fair comparison.
Don´t know if changing to i5 is enough to stop the throttling, since the difference should be only around 10w or less during games, but a gt 630m would consume much less then a gt 640m ddr5 which hopefully should be enough to stop the throttling, maybe someone could test it.

 

Hey guys, I'm thinking about buying this laptop. Does anyone know if the wireless issues have been fixed on laptops shipping now? Or do they still have the same problems? If they've been fixed, I'll probably purchase it.

 

There has been no fix announcement, and no confirmed report of a fix arriving in a customer hands.

 

No, they haven't. I really won't recommend it unless it's fixed (which I'm starting to lose hope on that). Be aware of any news and stuff. I'd be looking on to another brand or even model since I've seen the other XPS's with the same design have very similar flaws.

 

Have guys seen that Bill hasn't been as active as before on the forums and that his Twitter has changed to: "BillNOTAtDell"...Does that mean we lost one of the few members that actually cared and gave us news of what was going on?

I definitely hope so. =/

 

Hi I'm a new business customer having never purchased Dell product before.

I placed the order on wed 29th Aug and received it on Mon 3rd sept.

I too have discovered the wireless issue after spending plenty of my valuable time loading all of my stuff etc onto the machine at home.
I was getting a fine signal in my home office (front bedroom 15ft from router(3.10Mbps)) but when I went into the other bedroom (20ft from router)I was getting 0.04 Mbps download!!!

I'll probably return it now but I did notice their business returns policy
is not too friendly:
Dell - Return Policy

I suppose I should chime in with how frustrated/discusted etc I am and how we wont be recommending Dell etc etc but I feel I sum it up better with:
"Dell U Suck!!!"

Cheers and good luck all
t.c.

 

Why you should hope so?? :what:

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

You should be able to return it with a full refund for the wifi issue, Bill confirmed it many times

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

https://twitter.com/BillNOTatDell



Not a good sign, for people waiting for a fix.

 

I just bought the l521x too. Not a good sign at all. Hopefully it's just a joke.

 

I swear if dell fired bill thats a HUGE mistake, I was done buying Dell until I got the outstanding interaction from Bill. I will go back to telling no body to buying a Dell, he was one of the reasons I started telling people to buy dell again. Bill provided great service to all of us. Hopefully this is just something to show a co-worker or his supervisor how much we appreciate what he does because he could have been getting crap for doing this, who knows. Bill does seem like the kinda person who would do that based on how he's played little games to get us thinking on here.

 

I don't think they have any right to fire Bill unless he's violated something in his contract and we all know Bill is very aware of the amount of information he is allowed to give.

 

Yeah agreed, and like you said he was very cautious about the information he gave. Didn't he say he'd check with his lawyers one time to see what information he would be allowed to give us?

 

What's the thing with Bill? Who said he is going to be fired?

 

He changed his twitter name to BillNOTatDell

 

I have a feeling he is on vacation because he still responded to dell related issues on his twitter like 2 hours ago...

 

True, but I think he just recently did that because if you look at his earlier posts people quoted him as BillatDell. His co-worker also questioned his change to BillNOTatDell an hour ago.

 

Also, Labor day weekend...he last posted on Aug 31 which was the Friday of before the weekend...it's midweek lets hope we get a post from him soon...

 

nah his last post was Yesterday in the XPS 13 forum

 

I just realized Bill's last post to the guy with the dell incident. the guy with the problem said this "@BillNOTatDell @Dell****** Called, but no help. Maybe we can sort it out here, if you still work there. I'm confused =/" bills only reply was "Sorry for the confusion". This was 5 hours ago. Bill didn't seem to try to help the guy at all.... so... :/

****EDIT****(since im not able to delete)
That tweet was sent at 3:30pm CST, this tweet was sent 2 min later at 3:32pm, "@****** You may want to let @****** help out with a USB adapter dispatch. Their colleagues at @DellCares can bring them up to speed."

so im confused still...