XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Thanks for the share RottenPop.


Sent from my brain using neurons fueled by glucose

 

Anyone else notice the XPS 15 with Windows 8 is still called the L521X instead of L522X?

 

Its still the same hardware Ivi bridge and Nvidia 600m so not really a revision per say.

 

I think that indeed this might be kind of new revision. They changed some hardware actually. Platform is the same, but that doesn't mean that there are no small construction changes related to wifi issue. We don't even know if there is still the same LCD panel. The reason why they didn't call it L522x is that it will really pisss off many customers and nobody will buy L521x anymore. So Windows 8 release was a great great chance for them to release "silent update" under the same name. DELL obviously can't say out laud that "everything will be fixed since Win8 release" because DELL and different shops still need to sell ready boxes with Win7 they have on stock.

 

some users!? ....

 

Um I just noticed something that's getting on my nerves.. When on battery, the laptop hoes into power saver, that's how I set it, but the CPU frequency stays at 1.8 and that causes the laptop to run sluggish and slow. So I looked at power save options and the minimum state was set to 0% and the max also at 0% .. So I changed min to 25% and max to 50% but nothing. Looked at high performance and its set to max per at 100% unplugged , so I changed it to 80% and behold, the CPU dropped to 1.8,1.9 and doesn't go up, even if I run tests like prime 95, converters etc.. So it's you can either have 1.9cpu or 2.7 at 100% ... Anyone else?

 

Plus there are other things to consider. Dell spends millions on its marketing. Just today I received a small book (ok, large pamphlet) showing their products. To change the name now would mean spending tons more on changing pamphlets, fliers, etc. I had to laugh at their XPS family summation: "Crafted without compromise." Ya, they pass the compromises onto you!

 

Without compromise... Heh, I guess they simply forgot about the throttling and crappy wifi.

Does anyone know a good sleeve for this laptop?

 

If they release a new XPS l521x with all issues fixed, will I be allowed to exchange my current laptop with the newer one?

 

Well, is up to you to try to call them, based on the present systems with multiple issues they might exchange it.
I will definitely request an exchange, if all the issues will be fixed.
I was told/promised that when a fix for Wi-Fi will be put in place, they will "call" me. No calls so far , maybe ever will....

 

When is this windows 8 model due to be release/shipped to buyers?

I recently got home and did some testing against my old XPS L501x and my dads work Alienware 11x laptop, can say despressingly that the downfall in the D/L speed when moving away drops stupidly quickly against the other 2 systems, also, my system was getting the rated Mbps on the wired ethernet connection but only 21 Mbps D/L speed on wifi sitting right next to the router (our rated is 60Mbps), against the alienware with 28Mbps and 54Mbps in the old XPS 15 L501x, the other 2 systems dont really have a downfall in Mbps at range in our house whereas a glass door and 5 meters later my my new xps has fallen to 3.4 Mbps average. Deffinately going to be banging on Dells door on monday morning!

Will probably be extending my warranty if they can do some fixing or offer to replace my system with the Win8 equivelant, i'll have to do some convincing

Also what is the difference with the new I7 core they are putting in the new ones? Does it have better heat managment or something? Being a higher number version I am assuming it just a generally better core? Would I be right?

 

Systems with Win 8 are not yet released so maybe that's why. But anyway I wouldn't expect any call from DELL even when WiFi is confirmed to be fixed. Keep in mind DELL doesn't care about you once you already made money transfer. Now you are on your own and I think it would be better you call them after there are some more details about what's fixed and what not in new systems.

 

is there a reason why my processor management settings will not save after i restart or come out of hibernation?
i dont want the damn processor max set to 0% on power saver unplugged! could the dell extended battery life be changing it? i have it set to change the to power saver when i unplug the laptop but does it ruin everything? help pls

 

I'm just about ready to become an L521X owner. I really want to place a pre-order. But, I think I'll wait for the initial reports from those who get the W8 systems. Stupid waiting. :\

 

Take one for the team. Order a win8 version and do some testing for us. I just sent mine back and am waiting for the same good news so I can order another. Back to the old hp for now

 

The Dell advertisement I got in the mail today stated they are shipping new systems with Windows 8.

 

Yeah i just got a huge magazine like advertisement with all win8 pcs too. I hope the XPS 12 doesn't have any wireless problems, im considering buying that as a replacement for my M1330.

 

Hey everyone!

Just like a lot of others, I have been following this thread to see if Dell would ever address the WiFi issues on the XPS 15. Man, it's been like watching a soap opera with all the drama with Bill and Dell and the whole situation.

Well, after waiting on Lionel et al and reading about all of the driver updates and all, I decided to check and see if any of the hardware specs had changed on the machine. I just wanted to see if they had addressed the issue in any way via internals. Anyway, on the specs page for the new Win 8 build, the details on the Wireless Card still say:

Wireless (WLAN)
Wi-Fi Options:
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235 802.11 a/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0
Intel® Wireless Display ready8
Intel® Smart Connect Technology (with 512GB SSD only)

However, if you go to the actual order page and go the the Review & Checkout tab, it says something completely different:

ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
XPS 15 XPS 15
PROCESSOR 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3632QM processor
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 8, 64-bit, English
MEMORY 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory
HARD DRIVE 1TB 5400 HDD with 128GB mSATA
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM
HD DISPLAY Silver Anodized Aluminum and 15.6" FHD 1080p Truelife WLED Display and Skype-Certified HD Webcam
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
WIRELESS + BLUETOOTH Dell Wireless 1901 802.11a/b/g/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth v4.0+HS
KEYBOARD US English Keyboard
BATTERY OPTIONS 65 WHr 9-cell Battery
POWER CORD PowerCord 125V 3.2 feet C5
SOUND OPTIONS Waves Maxx Audio 4.0
MCAFEE SECURITYCENTER No Virus Protection requested
ADOBE & ENTERTAINMENT No Adobe Elements Software Requested
ADOBE READER No Adobe Reader Selected
WIRELESS DISPLAY No Wireless Display Application and Driver
ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE Additional Software
OPTICAL DRIVE SOFTWARE Cyberlink Media Suite Essentials BD
HARD DRIVE SOFTWARE No SSD SW Required
DOCUMENTATION English Documentation
WIRELESS DRIVER SRV Software for Dell Wireless 1901 and BT4.0
SHIPPING MATERIAL Shipping Material Clear
ENERGY STAR ENERGY STAR® qualified/EPEAT registered
CFI CFI Not Included
LABELS No Palmrest Label Included
FGA PPAN1305_064/CON/BTS/C5

Has anyone else noticed this? I guess I want to know if anyone has talked to a Dell rep that has mentioned this as the permanent fix for the WiFi issue. I know that a swap out of the WLAN card was recommended earlier on, but it never seemed to work out due to technician incompetence or other issues. My mindset is that if this is the "permanent" fix for the problem, then I will be spending my money elsewhere because it indicates to me that they do not intend to address the root cause of the problem in this iteration of the XPS 15. Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

Regen17

The 1901 card has been previously tried as a replacement part and it has not fixed that user's wifi problems

The CPU is definitely an upgraded/later model - has the same TDP but more ghz than the previous model. Dell would have been better off with same ghz and lower TDP if you ask me.

There is no way to tell if the new units have redesigned wifi antenna position or lid/case design to address wifi OR throttling issues.


Sent from my brain using neurons fueled by glucose

 

I hope they wouldn't have changed WiFi card in case they were not sure if that will actually permanently fix the WiFi issue. We need to wait until 29th and look for some feedback from users who purchased Win 8 machines.

 

guys, just a quick question (i do not want to read the 380 pages...): did they fix the throttle problem or not?

 

So you are going to spend a small fortune on a laptop that doesn't work, I don't understand! Have you been reading this thread?

 

Struselix: no


Sent from my brain using neurons fueled by glucose

 

according to dell... no such thing exists... O.O

 

Can anyone else try this out and see if its just me or another of Dell's stupidity
edit: frequency drops to 1197 mhz

 

According to dell we should not judge the screen before we see it. And we saw the screen. It's crap!
This model is a failure!

 

So there's no gaming in mid details possible at all?

 

Again, it's a lottery - my screen is fab.

No clue on the % of good-vs-bad though. No way to get it.

Thus, lottery.

 

Back to the lottery, no way to tell, some people report happy and good results, some have horrid.

My 2c - if gaming is important, look elsewhere. You don't want to buy something that has a non-trivial rejection rate.

 

FWIW,

I'm strongly of the opinion that Dell basically needs to get to the point and put the word out that all machines built after date X are A1A perfect to spec - and gives a streamlined no-bull-crap return (not exchange, return) policy.

The latter should be easy for them to implement, they already have the return system, they just need to get the word out that for the model that is the policy.

The former, now that's a challenge.

Also, you'd have to also still give them liberty to have something functioning to-spec that wasn't up to your expectations ... you don't HAVE their spec info to go on.

So, again, if you can't lay hands on a unit before purchase - it's a lottery.

The thing to remember about lotteries? The house always wins.

 

I just played BF3 on A06 for the first time and I got 5-10 fps with medium settings..... With the same settings, I was able to get 45fps on L502x. This is just not right.

 

bls0620: it's a shame that you would need it, but "Throttlestop" ?

 

I played skyrim at Ultra settings on native resolution with only very minimal lag.
I played CIV 5 on high settings with no lag. Loading time was alright (depends on map size).

 

My screen is great!

 

Dell, you got some serious issues happening. So I got a new L521x. After 3 service visits and a depot repair, the laptop was seriously messed up. Called Dell and told them I was done with the L521x and requested an Inspiron 15R SE. Got it in the mail and was about to replace the mSATA drive with a larger one. One panel off and I discovered existing physical damage to one of the speakers. They shipped it to me like that. Now the service tech will be out again. This is becoming comedic.

On the plus side, the WiFi at 20 feet through 2 walls is 3,875% faster than my L521x.

 

With bios A06 throttlestop is useless, only with A04 that software could be useful.
All L521x bios except A04 have strong GPU throttling, and throttlestop can't handle GPU throttling.
Unfortunately with bios A04 thermal shut down is very probable.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

i sit corrected, we need GeForceThrottleStop. ;^(

 

Hi everyone,

I received a xps 15 three weeks ago and I didn't notice any problem with the wifi until now. However sometimes the reception is ok ( around 10Mbps ) and sometimes it's really bad ( 0.5 Mbs). So I was wondering, when you talk about wifi issues do you experiment these issues all the time or like me it's kind of random ?
Is there any solution found so far ? I didn't do anything except downloading the last driver intel centrino

Thanks

 

I said I'm waiting for initial reports.

 

No, L521x needs a better cooling system from Dell.

 

what if we just lathered the proc and gpu etc with high grade thermal paste... thermal paste isnt conductive, is it?

 

High thermal conductivity? Yes, definitely electrically conductive.

I assume you mean "Lathering" as in coating the parts of the chip that are normally "open to air"? I'd think that would have a more negative effect than a positive one as heat won't be just escaping through the heatsink then, it will be spread out down around the base of the circuitboard as well.

 

just had my screen replaced as the connection was faulty. Seems to be much improved. Wifi is still the same though but it does me. It is pretty damn tight in there. Poor guy had to take about 30 screws out

 

I just spoke with a Dell support guy. Here is a summary of this talk:

Me: On some US forums, people are talking about screen/antennas replacement to fix the wifi, I want this too
D: Just talked with my escalation service, a new wifi driver fixes the issue
Me: I'm using Linux, a Windows wifi driver won't work for me
D: We don't support Linux on the XPS15
Me: No problem, just replace my antennas, "for god sake" (in French for real ) I've bought 2 XPS in 3 months!
D: I can't. Here is what I propose: Install Win7, install the wifi driver I'll send you by email. Make some testing and send me back the numbers. Then, I'll be able to escalate the problem, and send a tech guys to replace the screen and the antennas.

Obviously a nice guy. They still persist to say the driver IS the fix, but weirdly, after taling with his manager, he wasn't surprised at all by this antennas story.

I've just read my emails, and the guy sent me...the Ivy Bridge HD4000 driver 8.15.10.2778, A02 !

Wait and see...

 

So do ALL XPS15 have these throttle problems? A friend of mine has an XPS15 and told me that he can play BF3 without any problems. Could this be?

 

Yes, you are the exception. Unfortunately, all customers would like to have your screen but they do not. Plus it is inferior to the previous model.

 

lottery should not exist on premium pricing models.

 

So far as I know, all XPS 15 L521X share the same thermal management problem as they have the same cooling solution.

There are probably variance in the build quality (e.g. how well heat is being picked up by the cooling hardware and eliminated - how well the thermal paste bonding is between cpu/gpu/heat-sink assembly, etc.) the could account for significant variance.

The thermal environment of the machine probably also plays in - e.g. how warm you keep the household / dorm / office you use the machine it.

Other heat producing factors could also affect it - hdd/sdd heat generation, etc.

Lastly, anything which keeps the processors running above "idle" level would probably aggravate the problem - background tasks running on the machine, service processes, etc. This brings in factors like how efficient the anti-virus is, how much it hits the disk, how it impacts with wifi card usage and how warm *that* gets, whether the wifi card is more-warm (if at all) on 5ghz vs 2.4ghz lan, how warm the ram will get, etc.

If all you're going to do is play BF3 with a truly identical OS/software load to your buddy the you may be fine. There's so many moving parts going on that it's hard to say.

I don't seem to have any issues on my machine, but then I don't play games much, AND I aggressively work to keep number of processing running on the machine minimal - I have many services disabled that I don't use regularly, I have much of the "optional" software uninstalled, I do not run "active" screen gadgets on my desktop and crap like that.

I'm greedy, when I want cycles, I want them *all*

I've even considered not running anti-virus ... but running Windows makes me way to paranoid to not do so.

I keep thinking I should reformat the mSATA SSD and use it as a linux host, about 80% of I what I do I could do happily in Linux, for the remaining 20% I could reboot to be done.

 

The 32 GB mSata module is sufficient to host the whole Ubuntu system + applications + swap.

Just a question regarding your post about installing proper drivers, the version numbers you specified in your message are not visible directly on the file names. Right now, I'm downloading the files from the Dell FTP.

The HD4000 driver file is Video_Intel_W74_X08_A01_Setup_5JHY9_ZPE
It's strange, but there are 2 files for the Wifi on the FTP :
WiFi_Intel_W74_X09_A02_Setup-4KND4_ZPE
WiFi_Intel_W74_A01_Setup-FHVG4_ZPE

Is this correct?

 

Get the ...X09_A02_... wifi driver set to have the current one.