XPS 15 L502x "internet not responding" and blank YouTube full screen issues

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased a Dell XPS 15 L502x laptop (full specs available below).

I've been consistently having "internet not responding" issues, a problem which is especially evident when I play YouTube videos and other flash media. In addition to that, whenever I go to play fullscreen YouTube videos I get a blank black screen with no video while the audio plays normally. I had a similar problem to this when I purchased a Sony Vaio approximately 2 months ago which I ended up taking back because I couldn't fix the problem. It's an extremely annoying problem that I'm becoming very angry about considering it has now affected two different laptops that I've purchased and I still don't know how to fix resolve the problem. Do I need to do a clean Installation of Windows 7 (I ordered the disc from Dell but I'm still waiting for it to arrive)? I'm not very knowlegeable on tech issues but I'm hoping this is an easy problem for the many knowledgable people here.

Interestingly enough, I read on some internet forum (I can't remember if it was this forum or another one) about people having the same problem as described above. Unfortunately, I for the life of me can't locate that thread which is pretty frustrating since I was actually thinking at the time of bookmarking it just in case I had the same problem. Well lucky me!

Anyhow, I'm very desperate to solve this problem. In fact I'd even be willing to pay someone here who can provide a plausible solution(s) that will fix this problem. And I'm beyond dead serious about that. If there had been an upgrade option in the Dell customization of my laptop that read "No "internet not responding issues" or "no blank fullscreen videos" for $50 I would have payed for it. I'll be happy to give around 20-25 CAD through PayPal (equals approximately the same amount in USD) for anyone who can solve this problem for me. Again, I mean what I say here. I'm not just throwing out a hollow offer for some cheap advertisment to solve a problem. I very much want and need this problem solved and I'm more than willing to credit those who will give their own time to offer a viable solution.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide on this issue

Jeremy

Kitchener, Ontario
Canada

Dell XPS 15 L502x specs
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz
Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
1 Year Basic Mail-In Service Plan
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M 2GB graphics with Optimus
McAfee Security Center with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 15-Months
8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) and Skype-Certified 2.0MP HD Webcam
Tray Load Blu-ray® Triple Writer (reads and writes CDs, DVDs, BDs)
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030 & Bluetooth 3.0
90 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3
Backlit Keyboard - English

 

Are you using wireless connection or wired? If you are using wireless then the first thing to do would be to disable wireless and try using wired connection and see if the problem persists. If there are no issues then it points to wireless connection (possibly router).

 

For your youtube black full screen problem: Right click on a youtube video, click on "Settings..." and make sure "Enable hardware acceleration" is unchecked.

Your "internet not responding" issue is more difficult to diagnose/resolve, as several factors can be involved: you wireless router, the distance to the router, the frequency, how much noise you have in your place, problems with you wireless card or its drivers, problems with your browser, etc, etc, not to mention the problems with flash (guess why apple decided not to support it on their devices?) but before taking extreme measures like reinstalling windows and returning your laptop, perhaps you could try these AFTER trying what reddward said with a wired connection:

- Is it only a problem with youtube or does it happen elsewhere too?
- Does it happen with youtube in other browsers (firefox, chrome, etc) as well?
- How is the speed/quality of your internet connection? Try here select your country and closest city to you and test the speed and quality.
- How is the speed/quality of your wireless connection? Click on the wireless bars on the bottom right corner of your screen, right click on your current connection, and click on the status. Is the connection speed high enough? You usually need to be higher than 5-10 Mbps for good video playback... (Don't confuse this with your ISP speed. This is the speed your wireless card communicate with your router and has nothing to do with your ISP speed). Also, do you have nice 4-5 bars? Finally, what is the connection duration? If you are using your laptop at the same place most of the time with the same router, your duration must be hours/days, but if it's constantly just a few minutes, it can indicate some problems with your router...

There are just a few things to try. Good luck!

 

Well Jeremy, I think it's probably more of a case of you fixing it with advice from people here.

First things I'd be asking myself given you have experienced the same problem with two different brands of laptop in a short time frame is what they have in common:

1. software - did you try youtube immediately after you got the laptop before installing any software, or after a clean install? If not it may be down to an application / or firewall you have installed.

Have you tried using a different web browser? It could be a plugin you have installed that's blocking flash content.

2. Your network - when you had the problem before, were you using the same router / cables etc? It could be a problem with one of those.

If you try connecting through another network (work, a cafe wifi etc) and the problem persists you can be pretty sure it's related to the laptop - the question then becomes is it a hardware or software issue.

Fixing this stuff is usually a process of elimination - you keep narrowing down the things it isn't until you find the one that it is.

Once you've addressed the obvious stuff it may be time for a clean install and you'll find lot's of advice here and elsewhere on that too - search using google though as I've found the search tools here leave a lot to be desired.

Hope this helps a bit. M

 

Hi guys,

Thanks for taking the time to offer some advice. Here's where I'm at so far:

I was using a wireless connection. I disabled it and tried using a wired connection. It had no effect on anything. The fullscreen problem still persisted in YouTube.

This solved the black full screen problem in Internet Explorer 9. The video plays with this option unchecked but isn't there a way to keep this option checked while still being able to play videos on the full screen? I thought hardware accceleration improves the quality framerates of the video so it would be nice if there was a way to keep it checked while also playing full screen videos. Then again, maybe I'm wrong and it doesn't have much effect on anything. In any case I'll consider that problem solved. THANKS!!

1) It doesn't appear to happen elsewhere, at least the black screen problem. The "internet has stopped responding" problem, however, does happen on any site.

2) Thankfully no. I tried Google chrome and it surprisingly doesn't happen there, even with "hardware acceleration" checked. I haven't tried FireFox yet but for now, I'm happy enough with this result. The black full screen problem is solved in Internet explorer by disabling "hardware acceleration" and with Google Chrome there just isn't any issue at all with black screens and therefore no need to disable hardware acceleration. That solves 1 of the problems. The other one I'm not completely sure of since the "Internet has stopped responding" issue doesn't happen all the time, but so far it hasn't occurred yet in Google Chrome.

3) Here is my speed test results. I'm not sure what this means but take a look if you want.

4) My wireless speed is at 54.0 Mpbs. I have 5 bars. If I use the laptop in my basement I don't usually have 5 bars but I brought it close to the router to test whether I would still have the same problems and yes, I still do at this range when using Internet Explorer 9. As for duration it's probably hours/days (I say probably because I just recently shut down my laptop so I don't have a definitive answer. Right now it's been 20 mins since I started it up again and it's still going strong without any apparent disconnections from the Internet).

Concerning (1), I didn't do a clean install. I just used the laptop as it was when I received it. Shortly after I went onto YouTube I noticed the problem in Internet Explorer 9. As for (2), yes I was using the same router on my previous Sony Vaio laptop. But even before that I had an HP compaq laptop for over 5 years that never had any problem with black screens or the internet not responding. Judging from everything I've stated above, it seems increasingly likely that this is not a router/wireless problem but a software problem. If Google Chrome fixes the black screen problem then there has to be something about IE9 that causes it to not work properly.

Edit: Mazyarji, you solved the problem I had with YouTube so I'll be more than happy to pay you for that as stated in my opening post. Just provide me with an link to a PayPal account (or any other legitimate financial online account that allows money transfers) where I can send you something.

 

Hey, thanks and glad that I could help; please don't mention it! If we were supposed to get paid for offering simple help here, there are people in these forums that would have been multimillionaires by now haha!

I don't believe disabling hardware acceleration has any negative effect on quality/frame rate in your laptop. Perhaps it was something useful for old machines, but I haven't noticed any real world differences in modern pcs. Don't worry.

Btw, it's totally irrelevant but just wanted to share it after seeing you're from Kitchener: My brother-in-law used to live there while attending Waterloo university, but due to some sad and unexpected turn of events, couldn't return from his summer break and I had to go there to empty his apartment and sell off his car and belongings... It was a sad trip, but I got to meet some great people - his friends, classmates, department staff, even 2-3 honest used car salesmen (now that's a rarity!). Anyways, it was a nice and lively place. Good luck!

 

Your other problem with the internet not responding sounds typical of intermittent issues to do with the router losing sync/signal with your ISP. It could also be that the laptop is losing the wireless connection with the router. Try using the laptop through wired connection again and see if it occurs. If it doesn't occur then it's a router issue (wireless) otherwise it is likely a signal issues with your ISP.

 

I got a brand new XPS 4 days ago. I experienced the same Youtube issue with the screen blanking out in full screen while audio was on. I installed Adobe Flash plugin from Adobe and all's well after that.