XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Nice - ty

 

I agree. My suitemate in college has one and the keyboard throws me off every time cause it's off center and the keys sucks. Hate the keypad, doesn't really work unless you have a 17 inch laptop. To be fair, it is a decent laptop given the price and lack of flaws. There's no wifi issue, no screen grid, no odd noise, unsure about throttling though.

However, compared to the xps, the xps wins in terms of display and keyboard. The samsung has some funky display angles due to its matte screen. If Dell just fixes the wifi issue, i would be 100% satisfied. And the screen grid issue for those who have it.

Edit: I don't notice the touchpad problems but it does do some funky stuff sometimes. But that's because I don't understand it's multitouch gestures and always mess some setting up.

 

Dunno if any of you noticed, after installing new nVidia driver the performance index of graphies (2 items) drops from 7.0 to 6.7. Maybe it's because the clock speed decreases?

 

The same here, from 7.1 to 6.7. I installed back previous version and its back up to 7.1

 

While my score remains at 6.7 as well on the new drivers, I did observe the GT640 clocking up to 709MHz while doing the GPU-intensive tasks of the test. Using A04 + Throttlestop.

 

Hi All,

Just wanted to say hello, new to the forums but have been following these forums for quite some time now. I just wanted to chime in and add my two cents regarding the L521X laptops and specifically their WiFi problem since I'm about to receive three of them as replacements for my three current Dell XPS 15 L502X laptops (hardware faults in the L502X causing lockups.. Forced to lower the core clock speeds of the GPU to make them stable, was not happy since I paid for more and in turn Dell is giving me 3 new Dell XPS L521X laptops. Should have them by the 4th of October)

So the spec's of the new laptop's I am getting are:

3rd generation Intel Core i7-3612QM processor
8GB DDR3 1600MHz Ram
nVidia GeForce GT 640M VGDDR5 2GB
750GB 7200RPM HDD + 32G mSATA
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235


The thoughts of the throttling / heat issues do not really phase me because I can rectify this myself with ThrottleStop if Dell have not released an efficient BIOS by the time I get them. However the WiFi issues with the 6235 Intel Centrino worries me since I'm using laptops wirelessly all the time.

However, in the current Dell XPS 15 L502X laptops I have they currently have the Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 adapter inside of them and I have never had a problem with them. Now I looked up the technical specifications between the two wireless adapters:

Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (Came in the 3 Dell XPS 15 L502X laptops)
- Dimensions (H x W x D) - 26.80mm X 30.00mm X 3.10mm
- Tech Spec: Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030 Product Brief

Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 (Coming in my 3 Dell XPS 15 L521X laptops)
- Dimensions (H x W x D) - 26.80mm X 30.00mm X 2.4mm (top) / 1.35mm (bottom)
- Tech Spec: Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 6235: Product Brief


My plan is, IF I have WiFi problems on the new L521X laptops when they arrive I plan to swap out the adapters inside of them.

Here is a screenshot from inside the Dell XPS 15 L521X laptop, wireless adapter can be seen on the right hand side (on a side note, Dell should of separated the Heat Transfer Pipes a little, no wonder this laptop feels like it's cooking having sharing some of it's GPU heat to CPU and vice versa).
- Image: http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m281/downlinx/L521X xps/Cooling.jpg

Here is a screenshot from inside the Dell XPS 15 L502X laptop, wireless adapter can be seen towards the bottom around the middle.
- Image: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/images/Dell-XPS-L502X/disassemble-xps-15-laptop-33.jpg

If you view both product spec's, you will also notice the pictures of both adapters look almost identical except for the depth of the newer Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 is lightly thicker by 0.65mm.

So, if I have WiFi issues this is what I plan to do. And if the problem still exists, then I guess we can start to look elsewhere. Such as a noise problem inside the laptop or antenna problem. From what I have read elsewhere though, I have seen one person go to the extreme and wrap their wifi adapter in foil. Even purchased a different antenna and moved it around inside the laptop to see if they could get better connectivity but this did not help. I also read another forum from the VIP Asus Laptop support where a person has this same problem with an Asus laptop running the 6235 WiFi adapter and apparently they some what fixed the issue by making sure their screen was tilted 70 degree's from being closed and they had much stronger signals (weird but hey, it worked for them. Almost seems like some Antenna issue and noise. Makes me think some of the antenna cable may not be correctly wrapped or protected.).

Anyhow, just my 2 cents and will post the result of whatever happens soon when I receive my replacement laptops.

--
JK

Oh, I just wanted to add for those running the A09 Bios from the Dell site for the L521X laptop, you may want to get it again and re-flash it. Reason I say this is because they released the A09 Bios on their drivers page on Friday the 14th of September 2012, however I have just refreshed their L521X Drivers page and noticed they have an updated Bios available which is still called A09, But the release date has changed and now displays Monday the 17th of September 2012. Re-released the same version? They missed out with something in their build maybe?

 

It's a totally waste of time, if you would have read this thread or others (like WiFi thread about L521x) you would have known that other people has swapped wifi card (other brand and other Intel model) without any good result.

please, stop to post same posts in two different thread, this against forum rules (crossposting).

 

Well, when I checked no one tried swapping it with the "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030". But thanks for the friendly welcome.

 

Maybe because it's illogical to try a WiFi card like Intel N1030 that is 1X1 (means N1030 works with only 1 antenna) in a laptop that has reception problems, while the N6235 is already 2X2 (2 antennas), someone has already try even the N6300 (3X3) (3 antennas).

 

Maybe, maybe not. But RF isn't as straightforward as you think. The 1x1 experiment may work. It's best to exhaust as many possibilities as you can before declaring something a waste of time. Besides, what would it hurt for him to try?

What experiments have you tried, [MAC]?

 

julzk: thanks for the note on the bios up-up-update.

Also, don't expect much change in behavior by changing the wlan card, it's worth a shot if you have the cards handy as it's easy to do (remove case back, disconnect battery, swap, reconnect, close).

I'd not be surprised if there are casing/noise issues as (at least with mine) the antenna leads do not appear shielded any more than is built into themselves, and they do pass relatively close to the cpu/gpu (couple cm at most).

Good luck with your hardwares.

 

Bill (When he still works for Dell) has said that problem it's not wi-fi card, and this is confirmed by many tests that many users has made changing their Wi-Fi card with others cards that they own or others that Dell has sent to test.
The only thing that has worked was when someone has connected the same N6235 that before had the issue to another Screen+Antennas part out of chassis:
(So, no drivers, no others wi-fi cards, no components swap)

The next two links are from L521x Wi-Fi-test results, where all is very clear:
(I understand that owners thread is very long to read, but Wi-Fi test thread it's only 20 pages)

1. http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...5-l521x-wifi-test-results-10.html#post8755238

2. http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...5-l521x-wifi-test-results-11.html#post8756263

 

Just now I am filling a returning form, not for L521x , but for Wi-Fi adapter, Belkin Surf+ N300 USB Wireless Micro Adapter, it is crap, I get 2Mbps from 7M away from router, with 1Mbps more than N-6235 does.
I do not know what Dell, IF, is going to change to the laptop to improve the wireless issue. I have done everything I could to try to see which could be the cause of the poor performance of N-6235 fitted on L521x.
As I said in my previous posts, on XPS 15 z I put the same card as it is on L521x, and I am very pleased with the performance, it is nearly the same speed as the Studio with N-6300 3x antennas. The N-6235 is working very well on XPs 15z, it even catches 6 more hotspots, but on L521x, I do not know.
I have done on L521x that had been collected by courier, lots of tests, none worked.
I am waiting a move from Dell point of view to see what is going to come up with, but in spite of all the mentioned issues Dell still is selling them.

One user has mentioned that laptops coming from China are refurbished. The replacement one it looks new with few exceptions:
1)Under the heat sink , between it and the chassis there is a protective sticky tape, is not well fitted, it covers 20% of the exhaust, when fan stars it whistling, even the tape that covers a part of optical drive and the bios battery is very loose and is waving up and down making noise, when the fan starts.

2)The bottom base /cover is not fitted properly, is not lining straight. I changed it with previous laptop and that one was lining as it should be.

I have no other choice but keeping it, it is not that easy to send it back for refund, for me.
I am confident that Dell eventually will come up with a fix, or the entire laptop replaced with new version, I hope!

 

Yet no one tested it with a 1x1 card which will have a different RF profile than a 2x2 or 3x3 card. The hardware issue that's causing the RF signal degradation may be mitigated by using only 1 of the antennas with a card designed to use 1 antenna.

Again, exhaust as many possibilities as you can. Why not? It's not likely that Dell is coming out with a fix in a week or two given the nature of the issue.

 

I think we have already seen the solution of problem for XPS15 in XPS 14 L421x with integrated 3G:
New XPS 14 Laptop-3G Mobile Broadband & Premium Full Grain Leather Lid | Dell
I guess Dell must change the lid...

I don't know if someone that has payed for a premium laptop can accept to fix the problem with an 1X1 card, but I do not want to prevent to nobody to try new solutions, but I want to evidence that this kind of solutions are already tried.
Moreover I will be very surprised if an 1X1 card will be able to do better than a 2X2 card in XPS15 chassis.

 

I came from that laptop and it has less battery than the XPS, it also gets pretty warm on the wrist and upper left of the keyboard and it has the worst trackpad i've used...i am on Windows 8 and a great trackpad is essential

i'd only give the nod to the sammy for better screen and sound...they both throttle by the way

 

Mine doesn't ever seem to get warm whereas the XPS got really warm on the left side of the keyboard. I use an external mini laptop mouse so don't touch the trackpad. It was just a suggestion because I'm happy with it after having two XPS 15s.

 

I think people are getting confused between the NP700Z 5C and the NP700Z 7C

The 7C is far superior to the 5C with a much nicer 1080p screen. You also get the GT 650M graphics card.
Series 7 17.3" Notebook | Samsung Office NP700Z7CH

 

I have already been experimenting with experimental builds on the Centrino 6235 adapter from the source from Dell. I have had extensive experience with WiFi and routers specifically and modding / creating custom firmwares. Bricking, De-Bricking the works alike over on Linksysinfo.org

Maybe when I finally get my hands on some of these Centrino 6235 from within my replacement laptops; I will be able to break down the build versions provided by Intel and Dell and analyze the data flow. Depending on the chip used, marginally noise levels can be adjusted quite easily from modding the hardware itself.

Anyhow, for the time being; hope Dell come up with a solution, if not I'll see what I can help with when they arrive

 

I don't know how you can really compare that 17.3 laptop to the XPS 15. I don't think anyone looking at the thin design 15 inch form factor is really going to want a 17 inch laptop. They also do not have an MSATA slot or second drive bay in that laptop. Now if Samsung would have put a 1080P screen on the 15" series 7 it might have been an option. However they still don't have the MSATA slot. I really can't believe that these computer companies are putting out 15 in notebooks without at least the option of a 1080P screen.

I have looked at all the other options for 15.6 thin laptops out there and none of them ticked all the boxes except the XPS 15 for me. I just hope that Dell can fix the WIFI issues on the laptop so I can keep it. I was encouraged with Bill here but now I am starting to get worried with no Dell response in quite a while.

There is another that does tick all my boxes coming out from ASUS the U500 but no one knows for sure when it is going to be available. I will be surprised if ASUS can pull it off with that hardware without some serious throttling. Hopefully they can though.

 

I must be one lucky . Since the WiFi driver update mine is working great. I went from 0,2Mbit/s to 15Mbit/s with the Wifi update which is pretty normal in that spot.

I have one 500Gb SSD(Original Dell equiped Samsung 830), 8Gb ram and I'm running W7 Pro 64.

Just updated to the A09 BIOS. I did notice the fans spinning during Windows bootup after BIOS update but once in Windows the fans shut down.

 

Thanks for your offers to help find a solution for the owners of this notebook. Welcome to the forum.

 

Its the closest in terms of spec and design to the XPS 15 because there isn't actually any other alternative to the XPS 15 at the moment. Also if you look at the 17.3" samsung in person its very slim & compact and feels like a slightly larger 15" to me.

Also I forgot to mention that the keyboard is so much nicer on the Samsung.

 

I've come to a similar realization. The U500 looks good but I worry that it will have the same problems all the other thin 15" notebooks seem to have. I think I may end up with something a bit thicker like a Lenovo Ideapad Y500(1.1-1.3") because the idea of 2 Geforce 650s is too much to pass up on.

 

Hi everyone,
I've had my XPS 15 for a little more than a month now and I'm generally satisfied with it, except for, of course, the screen grid issue and the WiFi issue. I can't say anything about the throttling issue, because I haven't played any games yet.

There is one strange thing that I would like to ask you guys about: has anyone else experienced problems with WebGL in Firefox on this laptop? When I try to activate Google MapsGL, it tells me that my computer doesn't fulfill the minimum requirements. With Chrome on the other hand it works flawlessly.

 

ok so , my l521x arrived about 40m ago.. sofar, i have no grid issue and right out of the box it was able to see all my wifi connections.. i am connected to my 5ghz n network now and ran speed test, 48.44d 1.01 up 15ping. im also copying large files off a desktop over the network that is plugged in to the router by ethernet and its transfering at 13mb/s transfering from l521x to desktop is at a stable 14mb/s and my link speed is at a constant 300...

what else should i go about testing?

 

ok so i grabed my studio 1656 n6300 and l521x 6235 and walked around my house.

upstairs both got the same reception strenght and link speed, however, the studio was able to acquire 20mb link speed one room further than the 12 (about 20feet) and when i went outside... the studio had a stable link of 128mb while the 15 had 45 . also outside, the studio saw 12 wifi networks while the 15 only saw 4 (3 of them mine)...

now i am back downstairs where the router is and about 10 ish feet away from it. the studio has a link speed of 405 while the 15 is at its max 300 stable.

in my room (20 feet away, 2 wall) the 15 link speed is 108 while the studio is at 305 flux

 

the U500 does throttle. There are a few videos on youtube from a guy who is a user here who received a pre realese unit from Asus to test. The battey is about 3-3:30 hours too which is a major disappointment.

 

The unit of U500 it's a prototype so I guess could be good to wait until final version will be available specially for battery that is bigger than XPS15, 75Wh U500 vs 65Wh L521x, and in the posted Video I don't see throttling.
Have you more info about throttling of U500?
If you want you could respond in dedicated thread.

 

Well, after putting up with the display issue for a month and a half, I finally returned my L521X today (with much more tolerance from Dell than I expected).

A week ago, I sent it into their "depot" to give them one last chance at fixing it, and I received it back with a replaced screen but still no fix. So, I explained to them that, since I've been very patient with them as they've replaced the screen/computer 3-4 times with no result, I would like a refund. After looking up my history, they acknowledged this and complied, even though the 21 day return period had already passed!

It's a shame that this otherwise wonderful machine has such problems, from the WiFi to CPU throttling to display. Nevertheless, I suppose it's time to start looking at other systems.

Bill, I'm sorry to see you leave. You were a huge help, and Dell needs more people like you working on the social support side of things. Best of luck to you in whatever you've moved on to!

 

I've upgrade my BIOS to A09 this morning and my nvidia graphics card won't load anymore? Dell phone tech uninstalled everything including windows and still no luck. They are coming to replace my motherboard!
any ideas?

 

just got my new xps 15 in today. Checked all the bios and it came shipped with A04. how are people using throttlestop with it? It is throttling. Goes from 200 fps to 67fps back to 200. Fan is always on high

Also, i don't perceive the screen grid issue from normal sitting distance. I only see it when I'm super close.

but I do have the wifi issue.
My roommate's laptop get 55mb/s download in same spot with same ping while I get 23mb/s download. Upload is great though 55+ mb/s. This is on a super high speed university router and the router was only a few feet away. I consistently got lower download speeds than a samsung series 7 and a mbp in the same spot. Haven't been able to test range through a few walls because my university has campus wide wifi and is really good with router placement.
since the wifi issue exists, how do I get a dongle?

Also any suggestions on what settings I should modify? Been playing around with it for a few hours and battery drain is abysmal. Came fully charged but only rated for 3 hours of battery life.

Also my windows 7/intel i7 stickers are crooked, how did you guys remove it without any residue?

 

I had the same issue. Dell was already coming to change the motherboard today to try to fix my wifi issue. When I returned home the error in device manager was gone and the motherboard was replaced. Im going to try the new bios now and see if the same thing happens

Ok i just flashed the new bios and have the same issue again with it not seeing the graphics card. I just realized that I can't flash the older versions of bios to get it back. What should I do now?

 

Excellent! Been meaning to figure that out. Updated the Intel driver to 8.15.10.2761 via Intel's Driver Update Utility. Seems to have fixed the problem for me.

 

I just spoke with Dell tech support again and they have informed me that there is an issue with the new bios version. He said since they were released they have had a flood of phone calls about the display driver error. I would recommend no one updates bios until another update is released.

 

Glad to be of help. Once I found out how to use the reliability history in Windows 7 (before getting this L521X I had been using XP since the Dawn of Time) it was quite easy to isolate the problem driver and give an update a shot. The update seems to have done the trick.

Wifi and throttling issues aside (and I'm definitely going to steer clear of BIOS A09 from what I've been reading here) I'm still much happier with this laptop than the six year old I9400 it replaced. I have been working all day (15 hours now) on a very large, complex Word document that needs to go out to a Client tomorrow and if I had been using my old PC, I would have thrown myself off a high precipice by now. Gamers have their gripes with this machine, but for stodgy old Word and Excel users like me, this machine has more than enough horsepower.

 

Hi everyone.
I have been following the Dell XPS l521x saga for quite a while and have finally decided to jump in. So this is my first time on this forum so sorry if I seem noobish
I currently do not own the Dell XPS but am very interested in buying it. It looks like an amazing laptop but i have been hesitant in buying it because of the issues with it, so:

1. Obviously the main issue is the wifi- Has the new "urgent" driver fixed it or are we still having problems.
2. I am planning on using this laptop for gaming and i know some people have reported throttling issues. Dell have released 3 BIOS so i would assume is has been fixed, is it still present.
3. BIOS AO9- what's new?

And lastly i am wondering about heat. I know that users have and are still reporting about heat issues when the laptop is under stress. I will be buying a cooling board for it and am wondering if the heat issue is a major issue (say it gets too hot to use on your lap or touch or if it actually overheats and shuts down)

Thanks to anyone who replies to this!

 

I have been having random audio issues. Every time I restart the computer it re-installs the audio drivers.
The audio will just quit working till I restart the computer.
It has two listed High Definition Audio Device, and Realtek High Definition Audio. Should it have both? And could deleting one fix the issue?

 

Already install the A09, and at least for me, A09="$"#$#%#% and the worst part is I CAN'T go back to A04!! with A09, I can't play battlefield 3 even at medium settings, it lags a looot!! (just with 3-5 minutes of gameplay) even the cpu throttles and it reaches 90°C!! in 3-5 minutes!! SolidWorks=throttle, Autocad=throttle... Games=hemm obviously THROTTLE!
This morning I recieved a call from Dell and they sent me a new laptop (arrives about in 17 days from now) I guess this is going to be just a waste of time cause I don't see a deffinitive fix (for throttling, screen issue, wifi issue, bdrom noise) I was so much better with A04 how can I install it back!!???

 

Installed the A09 couple of days ago, over A06 which I've used for over a month...
With A09 the fan is constantly on and loud, even if the laptop sits idle. Also the battery life haw dropped to almost half...Skyrim seems to throttle a lot now as well. I had some 6 hour gaming sessions with graphic settings almost maxxed out with A06...
I'll try to switch back, and hope for a better release asap by Dell

edit: Well I can't switch back to A06 since it's an older version...

 

Hi guys, I've just received my XPS 15 from Dell and am trying to figure out if there is digital audio out on this system? I'm trying to connect my Z5500 speakers to it in 5.1 surround sound mode; however I can't figure out how to do it... is it even possible? I know previous versions of the XPS 15 included digital audio out.

 

ASeawrite: there's no dedicated digital audio out, you'll probably need a usb adaptor for 5.1 surround, of one type or another.

Andy5879:

1. Seems like the latest wifi driver helps some, hurt one. For me it's much better than previous but the machine still has connection speed falloff faster than the WNDA3100v2 N600 usb-wifi that Dell sent me to hold me over. For my personal most-used location (about 12 ft from the router) it's about 100 Mbps u/d so good for me 90% of the time.

2. Throttling still a factor. General concensus (sp?) is that the cooling design is insufficient for the total heat generation capability of the cpu+gpu. I personally never run into throttling on gpu-light situations, but then I live in NE PA and right now my household temps are in the 60 to 70 F at most. Ambient environment temp is a factor. Using a laptop cooler can help. Do NOT expect throttling to be fixed with a bios update - it's very possibly a hardware limitation. The best IMO would be for Dell to provide a bios and extension to QuickSet to provide user-controlled tuning to favor cpu or gpu throttling, possibly key it to the foreground application.

3. Nothing release on what was changed in BIOS A09

 

Hello, does anyone know if the Dell xps 15 l521x will be available in the outlet and if so when?
Thanks

 

For the individual looking for the Manual here is the link:

Documentation

Also, I haven't read through all 290 pages but has anyone tried replacing the current wifi card with the Killer 1202? I do not believe they have said if it is hardware issue or software issue. I'm guessing it is an antenna problem and this would not fix it however I'm just curious, I had considered replacing it anyway.

 

So far as I know there's no SCHEDULE for individual stuff going to the outlet, you just have to monitor it and buy it quick if you find it.

I was actually getting ready to buy a precision workstation notebook out of the outlet that would have been over-large but fit my needs, but it was sold out from under me in two hours (while I was arranging monies). Don't go to the outlet unless you're ready to spend immediately.

There's clearly a trickle of returned l521x machines out there, no clue on how long it takes or if they will end up in the outlet at all though.

 

I'm getting really bad battery life, how much is everyone else getting/what are your settings?

 

My battery life has dropped approximately 20% after moving from A06 to A09. I am now seeing approximately 3.5 - 4 hours of battery life on power-saver mode.

Anything under six hours is unacceptable.

 

Same here. Yesterday 40% was leached by just sharing one screen on Skype while calling...that's pathetic.

 

I still have A04 but am only seeing 4 hours of battery life

 

How did you remove the windows/intel stickers without residue?