XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Am I the only one who cant download the new graphics drivers from dells site?

I get "Sorry, the requested file could not be downloaded." for both the Ivy bridge and the nVidia driver...

 

Try from this link posted by other user.
You can find all XPS 15 L521x drivers.
ftp://ftp.dell.com/pages/Drivers/Laptops/XPS/XPS 15 (L521x)/index.html

 

it still says in production, so I guess it's going to be from a new batch

XPS L521X (BTX)
Status: In Production
Estimated Delivery Date: 02/10/2012
Shipping Method: Canada Standard
Order Date: 01/10/2012

 

Are you sure? I see you ordered it on October 1st, 2012 and you "will" get it on October 2, 2012. I think they just grab one from the pile they have in a warehouse. Now if you had 2 weeks for estimated Deliverydate I would think it was possible.

 

dell released the new biso and drivers? is it working?

 

I have the new drivers, but I have failed to find the new A11 BIOS. I don't think it is out yet.

 

Kind of an Update.

Did my back and forth with Dell last Friday evening, they agreed to process a new machine , which he did immediately and it was at my house Monday. Which means they did not "build" a new machine, just grabbed one from the pile sitting. Didn't expect the Wifi to work. Since I just got it yesterday, I have not been able to test too much. I ran SpeedTest.net against the "original", my "XPS 15z" and the "New" XPS 15. My current 15z was consistently faster and the "original" XPS 15 was consistently slowest. There seemed to be an improvement with the "new" replacement. It picked up a couple of neighbors signals and didn't seem too bad campared to the 2 Mb/s XPS 15. It just didn't seem as quick as it should be, a lot of fluxuation in the signal.

What is the best accurate Wifi test to use?

 

Transfer a large file (couple of GB) between two computers, use of ethernet on the other computer is preferable. You'd ideally want to do thing on the cleanest of wireless environment, but that isn't possible on 2.4GHz. Also, do not forget that 1MB = 8Mb.

 

I'd add to what tijo said that you can use the free LanSpeedTest (google it) client to write to/from a remote pc's shared drive, your write-speed should be speed-limited by the "server" machines ability to write files to disk, the read-speed should just be about network speed that you can attain since LanSpeedTest is only reading to memory and not writing to local disk.

To see what the limit of your two machines are, put BOTH of them on wired connections through your router and run a baseline test.

If you still have the other xps 15 it could certainly be the "wired" "server" for this purpose. I would turn OFF the wifi on the "server" if it has any.

note: what tijo said about interference is important. I've run tests at home early on a friday morning when none of my neighbors have their networks up (I live in a rural area) and I can get 100 Mbps up and down over 2.4 Ghz, once *one* of the other networks comes up that drops to at *best* about 60 Mbps.

 

Yes, dell called me a few hours ago to inform me its being built and it should be here in about a week, they started production yesterday. the delivery date is wrong i guess, it said the same thing when i was getting my first replacement, but instead of coming in a day like it said, it arrived 6 days later.

 

Question for you wifi people.

Is the Main issue wifi speed or wifi range?
It is most likely a combination of both.

Reasoning:
For me Range is more important because it is rare that my data is traveling over WIFI past 10MB/s. Additionally I don't have a NAS thus I don't really do any internal data transfers where i need high WIFI speeds. (Wifi speeds should be fixed for a premium laptop)

Most people who connect to the outside world "internet" don't have a connection faster than 25MB/s anyways. Thus loading youtube "should" be adequate if the XPS L521x Wifi Speeds can at least get that from a decent range.

If the main issue is RANGE it sad to see a premium laptop fail in a critical way.

 

Yeh I agree.

In general anything more than 2mb/s would provide a satisfying browsing speed already. 5 mb/s even youtube's gonna be ok. So I don't really care if the wifi speed doesn't reach its *supposed* max.

Stability and range however are my main concern.

 

I would definitely care if i'm not getting the full speed of my Internet connection, for quite a few people, that means 10 to 50 Mbps.

Also, so there is no confusion:

Mbps (Mb/s) = Mega bits per second
MBps (MB/s) = Mega Bytes per second

There is a rather large difference: 1MBps = 8Mbps. 10MB/s is pretty good on wireless, 10Mbps however is absolute crap even for wireless g, it won't make the Internet slow or anything, but it is still abysmal wireless performance for wireless N. Internet connections are usually measured in Megabits by the way (a 25MB/s Internet connection means 200Mbps and that is pretty expensive to get in NA).

EDIT: The last time i checked, the wireless issues meant very slow wireless speed as well as easily dropped connection.

 

Correct! about MB vs Mb Nice Follow up.

Just an FYI for most people:

• Comcast Performance Internet: 20Mbps (bits) which is roughly 2.5MBps (Bytes)
• Typical Wireless router today: 300Mbps -600Mbps (bit) or 37.5MB - 75MB (Bytes)

Thus reaching to the outside world it will MAX out at 2.5MBps so if you are DL anything you cannot expect to get higher than these those speeds. The 300Mbps/37.5MBps wireless router/AP will only provide "external" web content Youtube, Netflix, ETC at the speed of 20Mbps or 2.5MBps. The 300Mbps/37.5MBps is for data transfers on the internal network such as a NAS, Media share, Streaming to TV.

At the end of the Day you can purchase the Premium laptop if you do not plan to do any highrate data transfers on the internal network. (If the Range and Consistency is adequate for you.)

Question for people with Wifi issues:

Do you have Range issues?
Do you have common disconnects?

 

... to add what is hopefully pain-fully obvious to what ReDog said, the internet service provides a TOTAL combined theoretical max ... so for his Comcast example you can have ONE download running at 2.5MBps, or two at 1.25MBps, or some combination thereof.

Also, nobody get's 100% what is rated. Depending on your provider, time of day, interference level (bluetooth mice anyone?), etc., your d/l may be limited in reality to a bunch lower than your rated connection speed.

 

Yes, I have both regardless of range (of course the bigger the range the frequent the disconnects). At 1m from router I get random disconnects of a couple of seconds, yet they're not picked up by Windows because of the duration of them, let's say, but Windows does pick them up when I'm farther away from router (around 8m) which those disconnects last about 10-15 seconds. Aside all that, when I'm far from router the speeds are terrible. Sometimes I need to use my old computer (L502x which the L521x was a replacement for that) as a router so I can conect decently. I still don't get full speed even using the other computer as a router because if I get too close with the L521 to the other one, the signal for the old one scrambles and loses connection.

Note: that signal scrambling has happened to me quite often at college. One day I was sitting next to a friend and neither of us had conection, yet when I moved farther from her, she now got conection, but then after I got closer to her again, she lost it again. I actually find that funny, but really sad at the same time because it's really starting to annoy me. Has anyone had an issue similar to this one?

 

That's really an inherent weakness of wifi.

Some devices may be better or worse at handling the noise level though.

 

Ouch.

For the Americans (Myself):
1 Meter = 3.2 Feet
8 Meters= 26.24 Feet


Followup Questions:

• Was it direct line of sight for the 8 Meters? Walls in between?
• When you have signal are you able to watch Youtube/Web Content. (Speed Question)
• When does range really become a issue? With walls or without?

Thanks for the Feedback...

I want to be able to use the Notebook when I travel where Access Points are not in the same room. ie Hotel Room, Hotel Lobby, Airport, ETC.

 

Checking in guys. I'll just say I'm sorry for not holding up my side of things. It's not what I intended.

I have more work to do tonight to finish up on other things. Will stay up after that to get an update posted. No big updates coming unfortunately. What I can tell you is to make sure you have the latest BIOS (A06), the latest Intel 6235N Wi-Fi driver and updated video drivers. I'll be more specific later this evening. I have an early unit for tonight... still need to do these updates on this unit and see what it does to my speedtest results.

The other thing I can tell you is unfortunately, I don't have the bandwidth to keep up with things here. My day job keeps me too busy these days... we've had changes that impact things there too. I thought I could make it work when Bill and I chatted about this weeks ago, but it's just not realistic. I'm working to get help from another person so we can do a better job on that front.

More coming later tonight.

Thanks,
LionelatDell

 

You have talked of early unit, this means that there are hardware differences between early units and actual/next units?

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

My thoughts exactly....wonder if he accidentally let the cat out of the bag... this could be what the sales reps were talking about when they say the new units are fixed


then again the reps could just be referring that the new units will ship with the current updated wifi driver

 

A lot of us have already flashed A09 that was pulled because it was causing windows not to see the Nvidia graphics card. Lucky for us someone found a work around but it won't allow us to flash the older version of bios so were stuck without Intel rapid start until a new version of bios is released. Any info in a new bios version or a way to flash older bios versions? Thanks for dropping in and i'm looking forward to your updates.

 

re:early unit vs current

"duh" - like we knew there had to be hardware revisions

hopefully once things stabilize there will be a "fix" path. ;^)

 

Nice try, but not enough info considering the money AND ESPECIALLY TIME WASTED that people have laid out for this problem laptop. Do your CUSTOMER SERVICE first then your Dell management reports. CUSTOMERS come first and we deserve the truth on the fix.

 

You know, while I appreciate your frustration, give the guy grief does NOT help induce him to spend time making updates and posts he probably doesn't really want to do anyway.

It's like cussing at someone over the phone, they just hang up.

 

I've reported this several days ago. Nobody noticed this. Dell recent posts has always been like this. I asked Dell Support and the reply was the website was undergoing a 'upgrade'. Nonsense.

 

Customers may come first but i'm sure he still has work that needs to get done that wont get overlooked by higher above because he was dealing with us. He doesn't need to be here and anyone higher up in dell would probably just tell him to have us call tech support. I would rather have him give us updates than call tech support and get nothing in the end.

Try them
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...?driverId=5JHY9&osCode=W764&fileId=3008808920

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers...?driverId=2RWDM&osCode=W764&fileId=3008556115

 

We customers need some truth behind. After several months what is the finding (if there is any) about this Wifi issue, together with others, inside Dell? If it is a hardware/design problem will we get refunded or replaced new units? If it is a driver probelm when we will get the fix?
Recently all (yes, all) new driver updates on Dell website have problems to be downloaded. BIOS A09 (fixed later but said be be removed, I didn't check, I didn't update anyway), HD4000 driver, reposted nVidia 640M driver, 6235N driver, all are like this. Why? Does Dell check the post by simply trying to download it like a customer?

 

Sorry, neither works.
"Sorry, the requested file could not be downloaded. "

 

I don't know what to tell you then. Im downloading them both right now just to prove they work. If i had a way to host them for you I would but I don't. Try another web browser

 

For everyone that is having a issue. My upload is around 1.5 MB per sec, so you should get it pretty quick.

Video_Intel_W74_X08_A01_Setup_5JHY9_ZPE.exe
http://mirror.jmckee.net/forum/Video_Intel_W74_X08_A01_Setup_5JHY9_ZPE.exe
MD5: 0ba5301f07b34199252b8ed8f54930ad

Video_nVIDIA_W74_A00_Setup-2RWDM_ZPE.exe
http://mirror.jmckee.net/forum/Video_nVIDIA_W74_A00_Setup-2RWDM_ZPE.exe
MD5: bfeedc236e9a66e39125452334827c9f

 

Good man! I just opened a file hosting account so I could do the same but now I don't have to wait for the upload to finish. thanks:thumbsup:

 

All I meant is that I have an earlier system version than the one we shipped to customers. I have access to file revisions that are posted on support.dell.com. Does someone here have a link to A09? I'll flash to A06, update the other files, do another speedtest will then update to A09.

 

I have it already downloaded. maybe I could email A09? only 4.61MB
Edit.. Just posted it on mediafire. could be a slow download because its the free version
http://www.mediafire.com/?5yrrhyapow3y969

 

No problem. If you need anything else, just let me know. I have my own linux server hosted at my house.

 

Here you go:
http://mirror.jmckee.net/forum/L521XA09W.exe

EDIT: I confirmed that both of ours are the same via MD5 (just in case).

70b75317b01ef9b92dc35efa8208ea11 L521XA09W-smooth_j.exe
70b75317b01ef9b92dc35efa8208ea11 L521XA09W-gixer2000.exe

 

Since I don't think you can go back, try to run some tests with A06 first, then go to A09. I doesn't fix the WiFi issue, but may make a difference with other things like the fan, battery life, graphics issues, throttling, etc.

Edit: Nevermind, I just re-read your post and you already said you would.:thumbsup:

Maybe you could test out the touchpad too. Not everyone complains about it, but I have a lot of trouble typing with it. Like the palm protection feature is working backwards for me or something. Cursor jumping all around, left and right clicks registering, etc.

 

Cool... thanks gixer2000 and Smooth_J. I've got A09 now thanks to you two. Give me some time to run to update some drivers and run a couple of tests. I'll weigh in with what I get.

Still downloading and running tests. Best throughput range I'm getting so far is when I flashed from A01 -> A06. Was able to get around 4.5Mbps on average running the Speakeasy.net/speedtest.

 

Hi Lionel! Welcome, and thank you for your help. It is very much appreciated!

Not to knock the Dell Engineers (please bear with me) but A09 is HORRIBLE. Do NOT update to it. I ran A04 and had very little issues with throttling or fan. I'm not a big gamer and didn't really notice. But, a Dell Tech updated my BIOS in a more recent wifi repair chat. Now, my fan is running constantly and I have a battery life of 2 hours. Now I'm stuck waiting for a new BIOS. Sigh. I love this laptop, but is there a fix expected soon?

 

I had this happen as well, and it was annoying. However this most likely is software, and hopefully a update or a simple setting would fix it.

The wifi issue could be either hardware and software at this point since both were already tried. When I had mine, I tried to isolate the antennas with a black tape and foil roll (removable), so it would not get any possible interference from the TAIMAG IH-160 Ethernet chip (right next to the memory and runs across the antenna leads), however I couldn't really test it fully due to me not being able to close the bottom of the case, and not having more than 1 router to test with.

Plus, my 2.4 GHz band is really saturated from all neighbors, so I could only use 5GHz.

 

I haven't had any issues except with A09 other than the graphics card disappearing. My battery life seems ok and I don't even notice the fan running and my temps are ok

 

Hi Lionel, I also wanted to chime in on not only the plaguing wi-fi issues, but also this palm rest. The cursor jumps all over the place and I've had an onsite tech come 3x to attempt a fix on this. The only possible way to work around the cursor not moving around is to go into mouse settings - Dell Touchpad - Tapping - uncheck "Tap to click". The phone tech & on site tech this is the only workaround. I couldn't believe that I can now never use "tap to click" which is a feature that your most basic laptop can do without fail. Just thought I'd share.

 

Just trying to get Dell to get the priorities straight dude.
It's all about customers, lose 'em and your done...toast.

 

Where should i buy this laptop?, from dell or another retailer like amazon, cause amazon can send my unit to a P.O. box and i think that is more safe and wich one will be more likely to send me a new unit.

 

I would order from Dell directly. Also when Dell ships a pc it requires a signature at delivery so it's plenty safe!

 

Well, if there was a update of some sort around September 12th, then I would say Dell since its made on demand, except for the prebuilt models which could be built before that time.

 

Yesterday I submitted a question about a noise my DVD/BD slot drive makes every time I launch a media application like iTunes or Windows Media player. The noise is like the slot drive is either initializing or is being "polled" to see if a disc is there. It becomes annoying quickly, and makes me wonder if in the long run it will hurt the slot drive, since it can happen as often as 30-60 secs (depending on what you're doing, of course).

I've started a conversation with Dell support over email, it's going slow, so no real updates yet. I noticed today that when I have a disc in the slot drive the sound does not happen, which tells me that the OS is definitely polling the drive to see if there's something there every time I play a video or I'm using a media application, which should definitely not happen IMHO.

So for now I have a workaround and I no longer hear anything (music to my ears!) but I am hoping I can get a permanent solution other than having a CD in the slot drive 100% of the time.

Wondering if I am the only one who is bothered by it as much?

 

So, loaded Win8 and so far it is very promising. Loaded the 15.3 wireless drivers from Dell and used the built in Win8 graphics driver for the Intel HD4000, also on BIOS A09 if it matters. Wireless is where it should be for this laptop now. Consistently getting 53Mbps down, 5.6Mbps up via speedtest.net on a 50/5 cable connection through two interior walls and about 25 feet. From the same arm of my couch with Win7 and all the latest drivers I would get a consistent 15-20Mbps down and maybe 1.5Mbps up. I'll try some lan speed tests either tonight or tomorrow and post the results but so far this thing is screaming. Now the only problem I have is the horrible "palm rejection" on the touchpad that I swear selects and moves my cursor if my palm brushes within 2 inches of it while typing.

 

I can't argue with any of that.. Still will do what I can.

 

I was not bothered, but it just was annoying when it happened.

In your case, it was either a HD4000 problem or a OS issue of some sort, which comes down to drivers once again :/ ...and I dunno what to tell you about the palm rejection. It happened to me as well unfortunately.