XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Personally, I'd like to know how well this thing worked.

Alternatively, someone (Dell) should design a fan to fit in place of the dvd-rom... Actually I wonder what kind of performance removing the dvd-rom would give anyway (if any).

 

I think other companies have DVD replacements that do cooling, maybe for the 521x too. Worth a google search.


Sent from my brain using neurons fueled by glucose

 

I know but it's still weird that a fresh install would drop the processor's rating by so much.

 

Hope you don't have to deal with the idiot I dealt with yesterday . I'm not sure what he did but the outcome was my keyboard not working after a reboot . The the idiot never called back . It took me an 20 minutes just to figure out how to log back onto my laptop cause it was pass word protected . Thankfully Windows 8 you can access an onscreen keyboard at the log in screen .Then it took me another 30 min. or so to figure out what he did and undo it . Then I finally got the touch pad working and I'm not even sure how . LOL

 

After waiting several months for the promised WiFi fix I'm getting angry now that we are still waiting! Dell has dropped off the map on this subject and have failed to live up to their promise!!! My WiFi has gotten worse with the last two BIOS patches (A11 & A12). Dell what's the status on a fix? Tired of the canned responses everyone has been getting lately on the the forums. I've held off opening a ticket as I don't want to spend hours re-installing drivers that aren't going to fix the problem and dealing with their techs but maybe if more of us open tickets and complain about this issue we may finally see results! Frustrated! 2K for this crap is not worth it!

 

I miss bill

 

Me too, this whole situation is a farce and has put me off Dell for life!

 

You miss Bill because he was giving you guys fake high hopes? Why do you miss him? He is not banned on this forum so he can step by from time to time and write something. But apparently he don't give a **** about it. He was doing his job here - make as many users as possible to believe that WiFi issue will be fixed. Few months ago he said it's a matter of weeks. Now after XPS "second generation" is released you can forget about any WiFi fix. If it's not fixed there, it would never be fixed.

You want Bill? Ok, imagine I'm Bill. Here is what he would write:

"We are aware of the issue, we even probably found the root of the issue but all possible scenarios needs to be considered"

"Engineers are working day and night on the fix, but no ETA yet"

"Yes, there is issue with WiFi. It's confirmed and it will be fixed within few weeks"

Do you feel better now?

If anyone believes that DELL cares about bunch of users on some internet forum then he is naive. Sorry to say that. We are not even the 0,001% of the DELL customers. We are not business customers (most of us). Do you think DELL cares that you won't buy another DELL notebook? No, they don't. 10.000 more or less sold notebooks in one year is nothing. Nothing that DELL can be worried about.

Another thing - 6 months until new Intel's platform is out. DELL is already working on L531x or something like that. It's possible that WiFi will be fixed there, but that's all. DELL will not focus resources on fixing a product that will be outdated in few months. Reconstruction of the LCD will costs much much more then simply returning the money to few unhappy users. And most of those already believed the WiFi fix story and agreed to take USB dongle.

Think about it this way: Let's say not all units are affected. If DELL want to make some construction changes, those must be applied on ALL units. Do you believe that can happen? After 6 months there is L521x with new LCD design. Now - this must be applied to all new units. Old customers would want to replace their old L521x with the new one. Shops will start to return units with older LCD. Result? All L521x with old LCD design = trash. Money loss = HUGE.

 

I tend to agree with Michal. Now my question is: is the wifi issue fixed with the new L521x revision? Because if so, we can negociate a replacement with Dell. I think this new revision is the last one before the new line to be released with the Haswell platform. And there is no way to negociate a replacement of a faulty L521x to a new Haswell laptop almost one year after the purchase.

So, negociating now a replacement, is our last chance to get a fixed machine.

 

Wifi is not fixed in the new revision.

Sent from my HTC One X

 

Source? Do you have one?

 

I haven't heard about that either.

 

Dell changed the WiFi card to Dell 1901 in my system but still the issue exists. So, do not go for Dell 1901 card as an alternative. The newer revision comes with 1901 but I would assume that the newer revision will also have the same issue.

They asked me to send the laptop to depot but I refused because I have a WiFi extender at home and with extender, I get 25 Mbps and most of the time I use the laptop at home since I am working from home. I will wait for the newer model and then send it for repair to get replacement system.

 

Got my laptop today. It was stated as new, but came with two visible dents on the bottom along with scratches so I'm going to call to get a replacement.

My Wifi speeds are perfect within 10-15 feet, even through walls. If I go upstairs directly above my router, the speeds are fine too. When I go to a room in my house opposite to the router (router is downstairs in one corner and I walk to a bedroom in opposite corner upstairs), I get 2-3 bars of Wifi but I can't even browse a website. Speedtest can't even run. I tried devices in this room and they all can connect just fine.

The Wifi issue isn't that bad with me but I specifically bought "Dell Outlet New," not refurbished or scratch & dent. Calling to get a replacement.

Edit: Nevermind. Ran FurMark and had throttling.

 

I have heard others with the cursor jumping around and touchpad problems. Have any of you had problems with closing the lid while it's not sleeping and have the cursor click and open random programs. I've even turned off the touchpad before losing and still get the same problems, anyone experience this and have any solutions?

 

I have. Doesn't happen all the time and I try to close my lid slowly and place the cursor in a safe place...

 

This has been happening to me since I my first 521! it pisses me off, and ive had things deleted and modified because of it . through lots of investigations ive also concluded that the screen also touches a few keys on the keyboard.. to solve this, I initially placed a thin strand of rubber tape (navy) around the edges where the screen's rubber lays and that worked, until the tapes started coming off, now, I went to home depot and bought some of those small thin vinyl bumbers and placed them at specific points around the display to boost it off from laying on the keys and pad.. sofar so good. Btw, there is no way to turn off the touchpad, it turns back on.. your only option of you don't want to go the vinyl route is to plug in an external mouse and select the option: deactivate the touchpad when an external mouse is connected.

Dell argues that there is no mouse problem and etc but its all bs!
here is a pic of how id usualy find my laptop after a few hours with the lid closed.

View attachment 86841

 

my MacBook Pro 2011 did this. I would see grease marks in the shape of keys on my screen all the time. You may have some programs that are having trouble sleeping when you close the lid. Does that happen on a fresh install without any programs installed?

 

so called Dell support today over my WiFi issues. Spent 2 hours on the phone with a tech while he uninstalled and re installed all of the wireless drivers. I kept talking to him and asking if he knew if this was an issue with this model and he said no..... I was surprised. I told him it was all over the Dell support forums and Facebook page and all the notebook forums. Forums that are even supported by Dell tech support. He said he would look it up while he put me on hold. About 10 minutes later he said he had a new driver not on the Dell site to try. I said go for it! Well...it did not work...only maid my WiFi speeds slower.....Then he tried to blame it on my router. It is an Apple Time Capsule. It is only two years old. But he said I needed a new router to make my WiFi card work correctly.. I told him he was full of BS! I have another Dell XPS 15z and a MBP and iPad and phones that connect and never have a problem. I had an appointment so told him after 2 hours of installing and rebooting i wanted to return the laptop. He wanted to continue troubleshooting. I told him no...but he could call me tomorrow morning at 10AM and we can continue of he can process the return. So we will see if he call me at 10 or i call to process the return.

 

Only touchpad problem I have is when I'm clicking down to highlight and paste or to drag the cursor. It doesn't respond until I click it like 3 times or it's very random (sometimes it will work on 1 click).

Also, is anyone else's touchpad click a bit loud? I thought it was supposed to be a soft type click, not like a regular stiff button click with noise.

 

Dell screwed up big time with this XPS l521x. The engineering team should all be fired for even releasing a product of this disastrous magnitude. C'mon man, broken wi-fi, grid, mouse pad and overheating on an elite system like this? I'm done with this non-sense (did I mention how I've received 3 replacements?!). So if I return this thing for a full refund, what would be the best laptop in the 15" to get? (Keep in mind I have the 512 GB SSD configuration so it's the highest grade you can get). Thx

 

... Yes sir,nothing but display and key,pad contact.. I am sooo hatting dell. Plus the lack of wifi range is killing my widi usage

 

Wait unitl the end of the year. November and December are months when new notebooks should be out, some of them with touch screen. I tried newest Vaio series with touch screen and Win 8 + touch screen is really nice. The design of XPS duo 12 is amazing. 15' version of such notebook with good spec and no l521x issues would be good choice. But if you want to quit from dell notebooks I would recommend waiting for Asus Touch U500.

 

I have just received my XPS 15 L521x from the Dell UK outlet and it looks great so far!

Wifi speed is the same as my old XPS Studio 16, and the screen has no visible grid even close up, it is on par with the RGBLED screen in my XPS Studio 16.

If you are on the fence my advice is to get one and try it you have 7 days to return it if you do not like it anyway.

It is a lottery but you may get a good one like me, it is a bargain for the quality you are getting.

 

No vertical fine lines visible at all?

 

Honestly no there are no lines at all.

I will use the laptop for digital photography so the screen is the most import aspect for me, any grid's or line's would be unacceptable.

 

Based on my three previous LCDs, which all were the same in terms of visible vertical fine lines, it's not that easy to believe it, maybe Dell change them.
Can you check the ID of Monitor? I would like to see if is the same with the one I have.
You can use this software:
HWiNFO64_v407.exe

 

Monitor Name: AU Optronics (Unknown Model: AUO00ED)
B156HTF (DELL P/N: 6985X)

Manufactured 2011

 

Yes, it the same like the one I have, except the vertical lines which sometimes are annoying. When I transfer data or installing software, the green bar that indicates the process of it, is very noticeable and weird, like a green cucumber cut in slices …..not that bad but this LCD is not for photography at all. I got used with it, but I would prefer the Mac pro retina screen.
You might have Mac pro retina display fitted on your L521x!

 

LOL I wish!

When were your panels manufactured? mine being 2011 could be a first batch...

 

[off topic] it strikes me that watching the individual reactions to the anecdotal reports of quality/functionality and vapor-functionality on this board is like watching a person with significant bipolar disorder cycle ... lots of ups and downs, colorful metaphors to loving phrases ... almost entertaining at this point.

 

Whaou! Just received a call from Dell, they send me a guy to replace the wifi card and the antennas, probably this thursday. I'll let you know if this changes something.

 

Quick question, I have traded emails with a couple of the Dell reps. that come onto this fourm. But a little over a week ago, it seems like they stopped responding to my emails. Plus I haven't seen anything new from them in this thread. Any of you currently trading emails currently with Dell reps? Or have they decided to pull all interaction and just force people to use Dell Support. Anyone?

 

Please post back and let us know how it goes!

 

you cant replace just the antennas, they sent new a new card and probably a new display...
I just sent an email to my resolution guy, figure id post it here as well..

Hello ******,

I do hope you’ve had a chance to talk to whom ever told you that the rst tech is only for ssd’s and not HDD, it just goes to show that the employees working at Dell , especially the technicians have no clue what they are talking about and that just plainly disappoints me..

In any case, this new display is sooo much better than the previous, although grids are still there, they are 60% less visible Smile as for the touchpad, its flat and works better than the previous one, however, there is still some freaky things going on when i close the lid, it now seems to also be interacting the keyboard as well as the touchpad, so i had enough with the low minded Dell engineers who conceived this ridiculous excuse of a laptop and went out and purchased nylon bumbers from home depot and stuck them around the eges of the display, now that the display no longer rests on the keyboard and touchpad, i have no problems but know that this is not a permanent fix and i do expect something to be done about this down the road.

As for the RST tech, bios A12 fixed the issue with the msata and i now have rapid start and rapid storage working perfectly!! so much for Dell’s tech thoughts on it only being for ssd’s, it was made to be used only with HDD’s , so please go inform them that they are wrong and should consider another job?

As for the wifi, still poor, and its lack of reception and range is killing my ability to use the wireless display and local wifi hotspots...
Any news on a fix yet?

As usual, thank you for your help and time.
Elvis...

 

Ok, Windows 8 seems to have fixed the Wifi issue for me. Very odd. I did a complete fresh install of Windows 8 with A12 Bios. I'm only using the Windows drivers for Wifi (didn't install the drivers from Dell). I'm getting perfect speeds anywhere in my house now. I was on Windows 7 / A12 BIOS before for comparison.

The vertical lines on my display are noticeable but I can live with it. Although the display looks very pixelated. Is this the norm?

 

It might be the norm for the L521x (I returned mine yesterday for a full refund for this very issue) but I have never seen any sort of artefact like that on any other display, ever, and just recently I have been paying very close attention to display quality on any number of laptops from all sorts of manufacturers in the local stores.

Other than having a weakened backlight the display of my six year old 17" 1920x1200 Dell XPS M1710 looks better - very fine pixel grain and no hideous pin stripe effect.

 

i've had about 3 different XPS 15s and none had this problem with the keypad touching the screen. Ask for a replacement keyboard and see if that helps

 

I have only had my L521x for a few hours but one of the problems I found was a setting that applies an artificial looking sharpening filter to graphics, this produces images that look pixelated.

To fix press Windows+X and under Deafult Display Color change from Splendid Color to Generic Color and boost saturation by 10 in the Intel HD4000 tray icon control panel, this will give you a much better image.
,
Also this laptop needs calibrating out of the box, I used a Spyder4elite and the display is now perfect, I can post the calibration ICC if anybody is interested.

 

So I got my second Xps 15 today Both had the new 1901 dell card( old notebook studio 1555 got DL: 15.0 Up: 3.8 )
First laptop got DL: 0.5 UP:3.8
Second DL: 7.8 Up 3.8

So better but not perfect using the a12 bios

It seems to be only the download and not up

 

The same year here, (2011).

I do did some adjustment tweaks and is a bit better, but you could post it to see if I can make it even better.
I tried using Spyder3elite, but I do not like, to much yellow in it.

 

Definitely interested if you could post it please. Thanks.

 

I have the problem with the keyboard too. I see it if my fingers leave some oil or stuff on the keys and i close the lid for the night. Then when I open the lid again I can see the outlines of the keyboards across the screen because the oils/dirt transferred over.

 

The U500 looks awesome!

 

Isn't this it? UX51Vz

Seems to be out already UX51Vz | eBay

 

Totally interested by your ICC profile, thanks!

 

While calibration may be useful, it will not remove the vertical pin stripes, if you have them. The stripes are due to the pixel structure, which has gaps between every six sub-pixels in a GRBGRB sub-pixel group. I think I have the sequence right, based on memory, but certainly the gap every six sub-pixels is evident when viewing up close. In other words the pixels are arranged something like....

GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB
GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB
GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB
GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB
GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB
GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB
GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB
GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB
GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB GRBGRB

So where you see white space in columns above, on the panel you get black space, causing the visible black lines.

 

Me too. Please share it, and tell us how to adjust.

 

@tdodd: I don't think anyone believes an ICC profile would fix the grid issue. But it will help in displaying true colors as the spectrum of the XPS15 is pretty narrow.

 

Yes, but for some people the grid pattern is so severe that trying to fix any other issues is, IMHO, a waste of time. If you have the grid lines then quite simply the panel is unsatisfactory, again IMHO.

Trying to calibrate a display with that grid line issue is like trying to tidy the deckchairs on the Titanic as she goes down. No earthly point.