XPS 15 (L521X) Owner's Lounge

Can you take a pic of the back of the hinge for comparison?

 

Mine is metal.

 

I don't understand exactly what you're talking about. Could you please be a bit more accurate? When the screen is opened, the centrale piece at the bottom (light gray like the chassis), is plastic, and same for the rear part of this piece. And this was the case on my v1 and it is still on my v2.

So, I'm not sure if we are talking about the same piece. Also feel free to check the 2 images here to discuss on the same basis.

 

Have you had a chance to test out the new wifi card?

 

In short, yes they can do it. Legally they are offering a solution for the problem. True, not the one expected but at least is a solution.

Rule of thumb in Dell to get a system exchange is to have 3 parts replaced on 3 separate engineer visits. If you get 2 parts replaced on one visit, you still have 2 to go in order to request the exchange. After the 3 replacements are done, you can request a escalation with a resolution engineer (not tech support)

 

Ive so far had 3 tech visits, and 3 send to depot calls... going to have another tech visit.. and a separate part mailed to me for replacement...

 

Request the system replacement man, is too much...if you do not raise the flag they will continue doing replacements on parts and depot...

 

My situation is not that of the norm however...

I originally bought an xps m1530 in 2008, after having it serviced over 20 times until is completely broke down and dell replaced it with the xps studio 1645 and a year before my 3 year warranty expired i called to renew it and i was told I could for another 3 years.. Then the studio was replaced 3 times(due to mistakes made by the person doing the replacement(ram,screen etc)) and repaired over 15 times and the a few times the depot team would send my laptop back with ripped labels windows keys and when I returned it asking them to fix it, they would simply place a peace of scotch tape on it... the last depot repair came back with the windows key label and service tag label curled up and it was not sent to them like that...

So i called and said i had enough then they replaced it with the xps 521.. And said ohh the max years of warranty from date of purchase is only able to be extended for 5 years max and im overdue so they will give me the 521 but cancel the remaining 3 years of my warranty...
Im still waiting for the 600$ that they ow me for the canceled warranty, its been since august.they keep saying they sent it but that bs...

and now, im stuck with a 521 that has bad wifi, went through 3 lcd replacements until I got one without noticeable grids, the lcd also use to push on the touchpad and keyboard and cause havoc, the touchpad was half sticking out of the surface and it was replacement and now that's solved... what remains is the bad wifi and the keys being pressed by the lcd...

 

Whaou ! You've a pretty bad Karma with Dell, Elvis !

 

Hey

I just got my L521X today from dell outlet UK I have checked the problems and this is my view. I was worried after reading so many bad things about it but overall I'm happy with the purchase.

Screen gridlines
I don't really notice anything maybe I got a good screen and it the pixel grids look similar to my l502x if I look close coming from the old xps 15 this screen looks amazing to me. I guess it's like my 22inch IPS screen at times I find the glittery anti glare on the screen annoying but if you don't concentrate on it it's fine.

Wireless
Similar to my l502x when in nearby areas when I go the furthest room there are problems. The l502x also has problems in this room however once it gets a signal it doesn't loose much speed in the test whereas the l521x is very bad. I rang dell and after remote diagnostics they offered me a refund or dongle as it is such a nice machine and my normal usage the wifi is fine I went for the dongle as I can just use that in those scenarios. I asked the guy to give me the a different usb dongle to the netgear rangemax they were offering as it's giant and ugly. This is the one i chose I am yet to receive it http://search.dell.co.uk/1/2/141103-netgear-wna3100-wireless-n-300-usb-adapter-network-adapter-usb-2-0-802-11b-802-11g-802-11n.html. I also asked if I could still get the refund later if I am not happy with the dongle and the inconvenience or something like that and he said ye.

Battery
I'm happy with the preliminary usage it's way better than my l501x so I'm not complaining.

Build
The build is great and I can easily see this lasting many years. I love the black and metal design it's much slimemr than the l501x and the performance is excellent so far. When connected to my external monitor the flow and feel is excellent with the new graphics card compared to my 530m on my l501x

Throttling
Regarding games and throttling I doubt this is a system you should be getting for very heavy gaming but for regular games and games on low settings I hope it will be fine.

 

For my bad WiFi experience, Dell first sent me an ugly USB WiFi dongle then I've had 3 tech visits to swap out display/antenna, motherboard, 6235 card, and 1901 card (also, I asked but they wouldn't swap to the Killer 1202 for some reason). Nothing fixed the WiFi range problem - I was originally offered a complete replacement last month but once it got escalated last week after the last tech visit, they won't offer the complete replacement anymore & offered me a full refund instead after 4 months of usage. Oh well, it was a free 4-month XPS15 rental but a painful waste of time! I don't game but I'll probably try the more-reliable M14x next since it has similar specs in a "thicker" package...

 

Anyone know how spill resistant the spill resistant keyboard is?

 

only one way to find out! Then we'll be calling tech support saying our spill resistance isn't working and they'll keep us on the phone for hours updating drivers and basically doing nothing.

 

Yeah I cannot get a refund, and I would request and alienware but I cannot stand the 900p screen, don't know why dell decided to remove the m15x and have a 14,17 and 18inch only...so dumb... I requested the killer N because I am loosing widi and I purchased a widi box a few month back when I got the 521 exchange and its too late to return it so i told them its unacceptable they take away widi, leave me with 120$ paper weight and not do anything for me...

 

Under battery settings, for "turn off hard drive disks" after X minutes, what's the best setting for this? I'm running a 128gb mSATA so the OS and my programs are on there. My regular HDD I use to store my documents and media files so I'm not always accessing it.

 

I think I have mine set for 20 minutes.

When I'm being lazy at home and reading www or kindle on it, I hear the drive spin-up every 30 minutes to change the wallpaper (my OS is on mSATA SSD also). I'm actually considering moving my "wallpaper" folder to SSD to eliminate that.

Now that I've my machine a "pimped" with memory and os-on-SSD and functional wifi I keep wanting a SATA-3 HDD (or .75 Tb 2.5" SSD - but I can't afford 2k USD for that...).

 

I think my laptop just died...I noticed last night that the left side was getting really hot for no reason and no today it started to get hot again and the laptop just turned off on it own unless it overheated but even when I plug it the LED does not light up or when I press the power button it does not turn on ahhhhhh this is messed up...What should I do wait, or just go for an alienware laptop will it be more stable?....update it just turned back on do you guys think its to do with the heating?

 

wow, that's cruddy.

sounds like warranty return to me, as painful as it is. Is that an option for you?

On the left side back is the cpu/gpu, the left side front is - I think - the HDD. If for some reason the cpu/gpu "cooked out" I'd guess you get a big "nothing" on power-on, but if the HDD croaked you'd get a BIOS level complaint at least.

Any chance you had the exhaust port from the cooling fan blocked while in use - with the minimal venting in the machine it wouldn't be difficult to do that to the back of the device and that could cause problems. The system should have safely shut down though before damage ocurred.

 

Yeah I have like 2 years warranty on this machine (was a replacement for my XPS 1640), thank God it turned back on after a few min not sure what caused it. I will try a system restore to see if it reverses anything causing the system to overheat but I noticed when I turned the laptop back on the fan was pretty loud for 2 min maybe the fan stops working randomly not sure...I had the laptop on a desk so nothing should be blocking it, the only thing that could block the venting is the LCD...when the laptop is overheating do you get a warning message or does it just shut off randomly?...you think I should call dell or see what happens after the system restore...also my hard drive was already replaced once + had a 1901 put in but switched back to the intel card since the 1901 didn't work...

 

Sounds like a heat problem to me.

 

After my experience with the XPS 15 I bought an m14x (and saved about $600 in the process). It does everything well, the battery life is even pretty good (4-5 hours doing desktop stuff). If I were you, and didn't game I would probably look at something with integrated graphics like the ASUS UX31. Each to their own though, the cooling solution on this is overspecced and it doesn't really get hot 70C CPU and 60C GPU after gaming full out for a few hours, a bit less if you prop it up a bit. I'm going to repaste it in a week or so and that should be even better.

 

well, i got dell to change my DVD ROM today because of the sounds we have all been experiencing. The old one was the matsua (something like that) DVD rom (with panasonic labelled on the thing).

The new one is listed in device manager as HL DT ST DVD+-RW GS 30N. Didn't get a chance to look at the brand before it was inserted.

But the thing is, it works like a charm. Only a very short and soft CD checking sound on windows start up, no more CD checking sound on playing music/videos from harddrive, softer and nicer sound on loading CDs into the slot and ejecting CDs. AND, on top of that, windows start up faster by a second or two.



On top of that, with or without card reader enabled, the startup time and shut down times are the same (roughly 11 secs from press of button to login screen fully loaded)

 

MAT....S.....H....I......T....A DVDRWBD UJ167


edit: won't let me write the name properly as it contains a swear word which it keeps editing out leaving MATA.

lulz

 

Thanks for the information. I definitely have to call for this replacement since I get the DVD drive noise opening programs and what not.

Did you request for something specifically or is this the replacement they are offering for everyone now?

Edit: Just checked the specifications for this new replacement drive (GS30N - http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/STORAGE/P272203/en/spec.htm ).

It says it can't ready Blu-Ray discs. Maybe this is the wrong model?

 

I have it and it does the same noise, but not as loud as the other one. It is not Blu-Ray, Dell may have Blu-Ray option as well.

 

After 5 weeks of owning my L521x these are exactly my findings, the Dell UK Outlet has saved me nearly 50% on the new price, an absolute bargain and fantastic machine!.

However I fixed my wifi problems by changing the channel on my router to 3.

 

For anyone who doesn't know, all slot-load optical drives make a clicking noise when checking for a disc when there isn't one in the drive. This is totally normal. Some drives are louder than others and some systems check the drive more often.

The XPS 15 has a louder than average drive and checks more often than most most models. This doesn't mean there is a problem with your computer, it's just a minor design quirk. My m14x does make a similar noise occasionally, but it's not as often. I also have a slot-loading desktop drive from Pioneer and it's been making clicking noises when it's accessed with no disc in the drive for 10 years without any issues.

 

Hey people,
is it me or you also had experienced that when you put something in closest usb port(the fancy one that charges devices 24/7) it sticks out a little bit more then in 2 other. (i mean everything that you put there)

 

Hello guys,

I am sorry to ask this, because I think it has already been posted. But I read back quite some pages already and could not find it... :/

I have the Win7 + i7 + hybrid 32 SSD / 750 HDD, and I'm planning to switch to Windows 8 (clean install) this holidays. There are many different steps to do to achieve that (install BIOS A12, switch to UEFI, install all the Intel Smart/Rapid/I-don't-know-what stuffs, drivers, etc...).

I am really afraid of forgetting a step or doing something wrong by mixing them... Could you summarize all the stages and the correct order I should do them?

Thanks in advance.

 

Roll back a few pages, from 450 to 480 you will find a post with all the steps...

 

I've been using dell outlet for a while now ( this is my third laptop from them) and they've always given me good products. Dell customer service is usually excellent too and they give the exact same care for outlet users. You just have to be a bit patient with the deals though. I got the l521x i7 2gb graphics 8gb ram 1tb drive for around £700 inc vat ( i5 was going for around £600) a while back however yesterday I saw a similar configuration with less hard drive space for over a grand! I'm not sure how they worked that one out but it's probably similar to the brand new cost off the main site.

You should complain about your wifi and get the dongle if it's not normal. You can always keep it for a backup if you ever need to take it somewhere with weak signal.

 

The onsite tech just left. Dell did send me the killer N 1202 card so yay.
Ill install another keylogger tonight to test the ne replaced keyboard

for now, here are some basic wifi test results : I am a floor above the router, approximately 10 feet with floorswood etc inbetween.
I have rogers cable 35mb down 3mb up

2.4ghz wifi test link speed=144
-------speedtest.net
10ms ping
27.40 down
2.94 up

local network transfer speed wifi to gigabit Ethernet connected desktop:
read speed 7-9MBps
write speed 9-12 MBps
------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.4ghz network link speed= 300
speed test results
10ms ping
34.2mb down
2.97 up

local network transfer speed wifi to gigabit Ethernet connected desktop:
read speed 23-28MBps
write speed 20-24 MBps

sofar the results are a lot better than the 6235.. now to test range...
range seems to be better for the 2.4 network, I get 3 bars 144mbps link speed outside my house on the porch compared to 0 with the 6235 but speed test says 10ms ping 2.57 down and 2.97 up . but the 5ghz network drops out a foot outside my doorstep.

currently uninstalling widi ;( goodbye...

 

Did you request the Killer N 1202 or is that what they offered?

 

Anyone get a Blu-Ray drive replacement? Opening programs such as Itunes (especially when I minimized it and open it up again to select a new song) constantly turns the drive on and makes a loud noise. It's annoying.

 

requested but was told there was a 90% chance the dispatch team would switch it out for a 1901 or 6235..

 

This wifi is indeed really bad with the l521x I got. Even in the same room as the router. I was hoping that I would have a better experience after reading a lot of this thread but I get like 0-3 mbps and I have a 50 mbps connection.

Tech support doesn't seem to want to give me a dongle for some reason. Right now, I don't even mind using a dongle, because this is unusable. Amazon Instant Video stays blurry for 5-10 minutes before switching to clear HD. It takes 2-3 seconds with other PCs. Tech support simply said they don't know what to do, and they could swap my card (despite telling them it doesn't seem to help others) and the lady then said that the escalation guy will call me today to "see my options", which he didn't.

I can't download any games because they're all on Steam, so I can't even check the throttling issue. It took 5 hours to grab the Win8 Enterprise Trial ISO. Took me like 10 minutes the last time I downloaded.

 

I ordered the Killer N 1202 on my own through Amazon and am installing it tonight. I'll post results here over the weekend. Terry B at Dell ask me to update him on the change too, he is making sure the information gets to the right people. BTW, Terry B has been great about communicating with me about my XPS 15.
* I have the Dell XPS 15 Windows 7 home full factory reinstall 8GB drive if anyone wants it. They sent to to me when my reinstall of Windows 7 wasn't going well. I don't need it anymore as they replaced it with the Win8 model. Send me a private message and I'll drop in the mail.

 

Hello everyone,

I registered just to post this. First, I want to thank all of you for providing information on the L521x (its issues and fixes). So for me, like one of the earlier posters, I ended up returning the L521x and buying a Sony Vaio S (SVS15). I'd say that Dell does some things better (the aluminium casing was both more solid-feeling and more beautiful, the sound was louder and fuller, and the presence of the mSATA cache), and the Vaio does some things better (IPS screen which has as much of the gridline issue as the Dell, if not more, but has a better viewing angles and a matte finish, a numpad, a stronger wifi signal, a lighter weight, and a cheaper price), So, for me it was a tradeoff where the Vaio's advantages mattered more to me than the Dell's advantages, or the Vaio's disadvantages mattered less to me than the Dell's disadvantages. Partially I wanted also to apologize to Dell, because I was a little bit unreasonable with the gridline issue, which, though they are there on the XPS, they are also on the Vaio. Anyways, I think my journey has come to an end with all of you here, so I shall take my leave now. I learned a lot from you guys, and thought I should at least waste a few minutes of all yall's time to express my gratitude, as opposed to coming and going quietly.

Also, Terry-B is the man. I explained my story to him, and asked for a return on the basis that I would like to no longer waste mine nor Dell's time (after the tech came to replace the screen and wifi with a little improvement to the wifi at close distance, but no improvement at longer distances, and the hours spent with tech support uninstalling and reinstalling drivers), and he was cool with that.

 

This is weird how some of the tech support know about the problem and others don't. Maybe ask Terry B regarding the dongle if you want it. While you wait for the swap just connect to the router with an Ethernet for downloading big files/games.

Nice it would be good for dell to learn from any external fixes and I hope if this helps dell will replace customers cards with the killer n.

 

my final conclusions after many tests with the killer N 1202 is that its 3X better than the 6235 at speeds, but the range of reception is still the same however. after 15-18 feet the speed drops to 1-3mbps down even though the link speed is at 144mb on the 2.4 band, and the 5.0 band disappears after about 16 feet, through 1 wall..

so the speed issues have been solved I guess at close range but the range reception issue still exists.


does anyone know what the average local area network transfer speeds are for the 2.4 and 5.0 bands at close range to the router , going to a gigabit Ethernet desktop computer?
the router is a gigabit router indeed.

ok so I still have the keys being pressed issue the new keyboard didn't help it just added the y key to the list of keys, left the lid closed while I went out... menu= windows button \ ¤ = ctrl or alt

---> 10:22:19 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
¤¤¤¤¤¤ [Menu]
---> 11:04:16 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] [Menu] [Menu] ¤¤ [Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:11:53 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:12:00 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:12:03 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu]
---> 11:12:21 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu]
---> 11:12:32 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu]
---> 11:12:49 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu]
---> 11:12:49 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:12:52 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu]
---> 11:12:56 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
¤ [Menu]
---> 11:13:04 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:13:16 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
¤ [Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:13:36 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] [Menu] ¤ [Menu]
---> 11:13:55 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] [Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:13:57 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu]
---> 11:14:18 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu]
---> 11:14:22 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu]
---> 11:14:34 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] [Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:14:45 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] ¤ [Menu] [Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:14:51 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
¤ [Menu]
---> 11:15:01 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] ¤ [Menu]
---> 11:15:26 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:15:29 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
[Menu]
---> 11:15:51 PM, IN WINDOW "Search" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
¤¤ [Menu] [Menu]
---> 11:16:04 PM, IN WINDOW "Settings" USER "Elvis" PRESSED:
¤ [Menu] [Menu]

on sooo on for several pages

 

Man, check this info. Those are theoretical values, in reality they are close...

IEEE 802.11n-2009 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regards,
Roberto

 

Also, forgot to mention the coma key only works if I practically smash it with my finger..

 

Thanks for the testing - any conclusion about reliability of the connection. There are times when the built in can't sustain a connection even though it can still see the network. I see this at around -60dbm.

Also - Do you have a Win 8 machine or did Dell ever swap out your screen in an effort to improve WiFi?

 

It's been awhile since I have last posted so here's an update - hope it helps for anyone.

Working on my third replacement from Dell. All have been returned for poor Wifi issues. My third current machine has Win8 and the Dell 1901 card. The Wifi is still not perfect. I have also worked with Terry_B who is a tremendous help, even though I am sure he is crazy busy. So this is what I have done.

- Finally installed the Samsung 830 256gb SSD that I purchased 4 - 5 months ago on sale. (now wished I would have waited) The assumption was to buy it on sale to along with my brand new Dell laptop. OPPPS. Anyone finally installed, fresh Win 8 and still slower wifi.
- Installed Adata 128 Msata for extra space. Highly recommend - good way to maximize space and speed especially in my situation where it was too late to return my unopened Samsung. If I waited I would have just went with the Samsung 840 pro 512.
- Followed this thread and read about the Killer - N a couple of weeks ago and immediately ordered one on Amazon, got the last one at the time - Sorry dudes,
- Came in earlier this week and hadn't had time to test until today.
- 1202 Killer N card absolutely has better performance than the previous dell 1901 and Intel 6235 cards. I am noticing consistent up/down speeds that are consistently higher than my previous results. When I am upstairs further from the router the drop off is no where near what it was with the previous cards.
- Of course there is still one bad part to the story - the "new" exchange they sent has bad pixels and seemingly some type of dirt throughout the screen. Terry_B has been working to get it replaced. If that ever happens, I may have the machine that I wanted.

So after 4 months or so - I am close to having the machine I originally purchased. Completely not worth the time and trouble I have gone through in order to get here. But I still plan to deal with the Dell on that. This could have been worth the money 4 months ago - but 120 days of time and effort is crazy.

Hope this post helps anyone in some way.

 

I cant quite figure out where to see the dbm :S .

Its the windows 7 machine first revision. but I have manually installed windows 8 on it.

--sofar the issues I have are: the screen presses on the keys and does a lot of stuff while its closed(opens stuff, resizes etc)--
--the screen used to press on the mouse and zoom in,delete stuff etc but that was fixed with a replacement touchpad that is leveled.
--The wifi is sooo much better with the killer N card. but it still lacks range.
--the lcd has been replaced 3 times due to heavy grid issues and now I have one with no grids
--battery last about 4 hours on power saver, browsing the internet some youtube and stuff. screen brightness at half and keyboard is lit. 91%=4h 22m
--the keyboard was replaced yesterday but keys are still being pressed and now ontop of that the comma key doesn't work unless I practically bash it.

 

Are you selling this un-needed Win7 laptop?

 

Elvis, I use the tool 'inSSIDer' if I want that, but there are probably other options.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

ok so I installed the tool insider and wow if I had the cash id buy the adapter too!
my 5.5 network is at 48 dbm links speed is 300mb and I am about 9 feet from the router.

my 2.4 is at -52dbm link speed 144mb (insider max says 216mb) and im 9 feet away.

 

I found this blog mentioning a possible fix for the wifi issues people have been having. It suggests using the original intel updates rather than the dell ones.

I have no idea whether this will work or not - people on this blog seem to suggest it does. I don't have an XPS15 so I can't test it.

Just thought I should mention it in case it does help someone out.