XPS 15 L521X WiFi Test Results

I've just received the same system, delivered Monday (July 30th), also w/ the Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6235 & Bluetooth 4.0

I am not a techie, but I know when something is just NOT right.

I have spent several hours with tech support about the wifi issue and it has been one of the most frustrating experiences ever. We have a 150/65 Mb internet package at home. When I explained to tech support that I am getting 4-12 down/12-25 up speeds, he said that I should be happy with those speeds. When I explained what the max package I had was, he at first didn't believe me and started questioning the name of the package, the ISP provider's name, the product number where they could find it online, repeatedly stating that I must be incorrect. REALLY??? When I explained that a Mac sitting right next to me is getting up to 10 times better speeds wirelessly, he said not to compare a Mac to a Dell, OK.

Finally, with a shared screen I showed him my wired speed connected directly to the router (155/72 from ISP's speedtest and in the upper 130/60 with speedtest.net).

Wirelessly:

~Sitting right next to the router upper 70's-80's down/upper 40's-60's up (completely acceptable)

~4-5 feet away in same room- upper 20's down/upper 20's up

~ 40 ft away with no walls - anywhere from 4-12 up/mid-teens to upper 20's down
(a Mac Book sitting right next to me gets 60-70 down/40-60 up)

After a long back & forth, they finally said their engineers were aware of the wifi issue (??) and if I was unhappy I should return the product for a refund. He must have suggested that I return the product for a refund at least a dozen times.

I have been a Dell customer for over 10 years (for both personal & business use). This is ridiculous.

I would like to know where Dell stands on this issue and how it will be resolved.

 

if you feel like the CS is not all there or is giving you a hard time, just ask to be transferred to someone else. It works for me as you can't expect 100% of the employees to be courteous and nice.

 

I just got the laptop today, and I DO NOT HAVE any issues with my wireless speed....... FROM 3M far from router, only

I compared with the xps 16, N-6300 (three antenna) and is the same speed.
I have a router EPC2425, Wireless-G connectivity , 30 Mbs speed.
Through wireles I have 20Mbs (10Mbs down, if not wired), download 2Mbs/upload 3Mbs, the same speed as N-6300 from xps 16 and studio 1537.
I watch lots of TV online and it is working fine.
I am only three meters from router, if i go farther (10 meter),I lose 1/2 lines, but the same with other two laptops.
I will keep in eye for next few days if i will notice any change!
Laptop is made in China

 

And what about speed when you go far?

 

XPS 15
3m far
Speedtest net shows 17.77Mbs/3.21
UPC speed test shows 20Mbs/3.5

8m far
UPC speed test 5.36Mbs/3.21 upload
Speedtest net 2.51Mbs /0.18 upload (second time was worse)

N-6300 (studio 1537)

3m far the speed is the same.

8m far
speedtest net shows 18.17Mbs/3.18 upload
upc speed test the 19.48 Mbs/3.21

Yes, it looks like there is an ISSUE. Its sad that I like the Laptop.
I did not update any driver yet.

 

@HammieDuDe

Can you ask the engineer to test something?
if you put the antenna(hinge assembly) approximately on the same place where it should be but without touching the notebook does it gets the slow internet speed?
want to see if the problem is the case or some form of static electricity passing from the case to the antenna.
Also, did you see the antenna receptors on the hinge when he disassemble the laptop? were they at opposite sides on the hinge the further away possible?

 

Hi, thanks for your post, i've been reading the entire thread trying to know if a software update would be sufficient or if a repair or a redesign would be needed, and as Dell confirmed over the phone that they don't automatically exchange for a new one in case of a hardware problem, trying to repair first, i decided to return the one i just got last monday, to avoid any shipping/warranty problems. I'm very disappointed, i really like this model, great design, but anyway, thanks man.

Not sure i'll buy a new Dell, they are not as pro as i thought.

 

That's awful news, but thanks for posting, Hammie! Please keep us updated on what happens tomorrow!

 

So it is a shielding issue, what he needs to test is where the issue is arising. Did it screen on, but the cable outside? The MacBooks use similar materials. I am going to see if I can find a tear down for it.

 

To make it more clear I made some pictures of the testing today.

Location of the WiFi card:


As you can see, on this pic I removed the SO-DIMM and you as you can see the antenna cable goes to the back and from there it runs against the housing to the other side of the laptop to go to the hinge.

Test with the new part ( new screen with antenna )


As you can see we placed the new screen/antenna next to the notebook. Cables run directly from the hinge of the screen to the WiFi card. This is how everything worked well!

Detailed pic of the testsetup with 'external antenna'


Complete teardown of the laptop to place the antenna cable on the right place, the motherboard also needs to be removed otherwise the cable cannot be placed correctly.


Antenna cable is on the right side of the laptop, this was just before the placing of the cable to the left ( bottom perspective ).

 

Be very careful with the four visible screws on the bottom cover, the engineer said that they don't last long if you open the laptop often.

Going to test this tomorrow, thanks for the suggestion

 

Thanks for the pics Hammie! I just spoke to Bill on twitter, he knows of your engineer visit and sent it to engineering. So it was not wasted, please take more pics tmoz! Also could you ask the engineer tmoz to wire it in to the display, but avoid touching the motherboard as I see it passes the ram modules which I am thinking is causing the interference?

 

Well as you can see, we also tested all the points without the DIMM installed in that socket, because on the other side of the motherboard there's the other one.

It's very difficult to guide the cable through the housing without touching anything like the housing or mobo, as I already mentioned that the space is very little.

Gonna take some more pics tomorrow of all that can be interesting for you guys.

Any ideas what I/we can try ?

 

I don't know if this would be worth your time or not but I am curious to see if having the antenna outside of the casing allows it connect to a weak signal strength. This is the most troubling issue for me where I will only have 2 bars and it won't be able to connect to it.

Major props if you could test that.

 

I am so frustrated, I really like this laptop. Dell customer service and Bill of these forums have been great, but their product fails me, my wireless keeps disconnecting every half hour or so and requires an adapter reset. I think that I may just get myself a MBP. Really is such a shame, maybe this episode will get the powers that be at Dell to test their products more thoroughly.

 

I wonder how long it will take Dell to implement a solution to this problem. I hope we get an update soon on how much time they expect it will take until we see a solution. I'm wondering if we'll be waiting weeks or months.

 

I was wondering if Dell can add one more antenna and install 6300 intel card (3x3). So far you tested 6300 with 2 antennas, maybe 3rd one is needed?

 

Well, since there is no third one provided by the screen, I was not able to test it, but the performance of the 6300 card was the same as the 6235 with two antenna's.

Engineer just called me, he should be in within 2 hours, let's see what today gives...

 

Hi mate, I posted on another forum looking for fix suggestions. Can you get the engineer to try the stuff he suggested?

Any RF engineers on here? Take a look at this - What is causing the interference?

 

I hope they do not use 6300, because it has not bluetooth

Seems promising!

 

Giving up.

Engineer was here for over an hour, we tested the following:
- Cable with a bow out the housing
- Shielded cable with aluminium foil
- Ferrite coil around the cable ( as it supposed to be )
- External display connected, laptop lcd disconnected, including webcam

NOTHING HELPED!

So there is somekind of interference when the lcd/antenna is mounted to the base, but I don't have any more idea left.

Going to call my account manager, he's going to regret that he sold me this one...

Ohh yeah and what I said about a new LCD thing, sure he had one with him, but it was a LCD part for a L502X

 

Well can't fault them for trying, thanks for that! I have requested a refund, and am currently off to the Apple Store.

 

Hey, this may be a noobie question but is the antenna near the screen inverter, and if it is can the inverter somehow interfere with the WiFi signal? Once again, I'm no techie... and I don't really know how the inverter works.

 

Couldn't the L520X screen be used for the L521X? It's a better screen and I would take it.

 

No, other connectors, length of cables, other hinges etc. etc.

 

Better screen? Definitely. Be used for L521X? No. Won't play with Gorilla.

 

Hi, can the wifi problem be fixed by using a usb wifi adapter? tks.

 

That is possible since an improperly shielded inverter would emit a relatively strong local RF interference. But it would have to do so in the 2.4 to 5Ghz range. I doubt they go that high.

Yes, that is one sure way around the problem since you will be using the USB WiFi adapter instead. But you would have to disable the internal Wifi of the notebook.

 

Does the XPS 14 exhibit the same WiFi behavior as the XPS 15? If not, what's different between the antenna path's? What's different from a component standpoint? If the XPS 14 works fine, it's safe to say it's not the chassis design, outside a grounding issue.

 

Someone reported the problem also with XPS 14

 

Absolutely - I've just bought and installed a NETGEAR N600 USB wifi dongle and it's improved download from ~0.5 MB/sec to ~16 MB/sec.

Which puts my XPS 15 on par with my 5 year old ASUS G1

Still hoping for a proper fix though please Dell!

 

And you guys think that it is acceptable to buy a $1500 - $2400 notebook and use external WiFi adapters?

 

It's not acceptable per se, but sometimes in life, one has to make do. I salute those who do this if they have no issues with throttling and/or the screen.

 

For me, the wifi issue is hit or miss. Sometimes speeds are quite slow (about 90% slower than my XPS 1645), but occasionally the XPS 15 will match my 1645. I thought maybe mine didn't have the issue after getting consistent high speeds for about 2 hours of testing with various bandwidth meters. However, when I tested again last night to be sure-- I got slow results again consistently. Dell is sending a tech tomorrow to see what they can do about it. I'm hoping for a miracle.

My past experiences with Dell suggest that they will take care of the issue one way or another, but you do have to wade through all of the drone tech agents to get to one who will actually think intelligently and respond accordingly.

I will return for a refund only as a last resort if they are unable to resolve the issue.

 

No, but the fundamentals of design and components are strong enough for me to do this as a holding action until I see if Dell come through with a permenant fix.

If not, then it goes back very quickly.

 

Kind of like sticking a CB radio antenna on the roof of a Bugatti Veyron... but if you need excellent CB reception in your Veyron and Bugatti didn't build it in, you're going to have to stick that antenna on the roof or send back the Veyron and look for something else.

 

It would actually be fun if the solution was two small retractile antennas coming out from the laptop

Dell could always stop marketing the laptop as having wifi, just as asus did with their gps issue on the asus prime

I really hope they find a solution .
but unfortunately the problem seems to be the antenna design an if so it's gonna take some time from finding the solution to enter the production line and finally reach the consumers.

Someone said a laptop takes 18 months from the designing to the open public, if you are expecting a solution next week, your gonna have a bad time

 

Here's the latest update on WiFi From Bill B @ Dell. : http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ps-15-l521x-owners-lounge-30.html#post8760924

 

Well after being denied a return for refund on day 23 of ownership I fought the uphill battle of getting an exchange. New L521X arrived and I'm sorry to report - WiFi performance is still inferior (yes, even after updating the chipset drivers which shipped outdated, and making sure bios is current).

As you've all likely sorted out by now, especially with the help of posts like http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...5-l521x-wifi-test-results-10.html#post8755238 from HammieDude, plus the updates from Dell_Bill, it's pretty obvious at this point that it's a hardware design / shielding issue that no "driver" or "bios update" is going to fix.

In my opinion, especially after discuss all of this with one of Dell's best techs, this definitely an unfortunate case of the design aesthetics interfering with the performance of the wireless transmissions. Whether it's the awesome case and display with it's thick aluminum shell and gorilla glass and rubber, or even the crowded interior wire routing, this is just really sad.

Really nice looking laptop with so much to love about it, but crippled right from the start by it's own design.

Sending both my original and my exchange back for a refund on Monday. (yes, they approved it now after being denied before). Apparently Dell has finally decided they've put some of us through enough misery and are doing what they should have done in the first place - allow returns without hassle. Maybe the impending PR nightmare is starting to benefit those of us who got screwed around during all this.

Still not a happy ending in any case

 

So what do we do call dell tech support which I am guessing wont help or wait for a dell fix for the wifi issue? They already are going to replace my monitor and I still dont know if a new monitor will even help with the grid lines...

 

As the saying goes, beauty is more than skin deep.

Will you change your forum name, then? (Reminds me of ex-boyfriend's-name tatoo!)

 

Actually I regretted my poor choice of username right after signing up, so a few days later I did request a name change at http://forum.notebookreview.com/sit...name-changed-request-here-26.html#post8753976 back on July 31st, so now it's just a matter of waiting I guess.

 

I just talked to tech support about the wireless...he said he is going to send me a Dell wireless 1901 card he said it should fix the problem. Let see if it works lol...is this card actually better then the one that is currently in my laptop lol???? The tech support rep told me that it is a better card and can pick up signals better what do you guys think? He told me that the wireless Dell 1901 is a superior card is designed to fix the wifi issues with the XPS 15? I spent at least 5 HOURS on the phone with dell tech support lets hope this works...any feedback?

 

So the Aesthetics messed it up? Fail on their part.
MBPs look great and have a similar build in terms of design.
Cmon' Dell. I wrote it on their site. If it weren't for the wifi issue, the computer would be at least 4-5 star by most people. D:


@Above.
So if their new wifi card is "supposeably" the solution to the problem, what happens to the people who already own it? & Why do they sell the computer knowing it's basically defective??

 

I could be wrong, but I think what they're intending to send you is an external USB adapter, not a card that you install inside the laptop.

So my feedback would be - I think maybe the tech's heart is in the right place and he's trying to give you a solution, but in my opinion sticking a 2-inch long piece of plastic out the side of this expensive high-end laptop is not a solution. It's a bandaid, a really ugly one, covering up a gaping wound. (OK maybe not that dramatic, but you know what I mean - this is not the kind of system that you should have to disable the internal WiFi on and stick a USB antenna onto).

In any case I wish you luck and success with it!

(And please do correct me if I'm wrong about it actually being a USB stick and not an internal card - it would be interesting to know if Dell is now sending out internal cards for users to replace themselves, thanks!)

 

^^^ The "Dell Wireless 1901 802.11a/b/g/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz)" is an internal card. It has been used in various Inspiron and Vostro models.

(Regarding the external USB WiFi adapter, there are "nano" 1x1 versions that do not stick out a few inches.

Not that I advocate such a "solution" for a brand-new and expensive notebook.)

 

Hi Lorna, sorry I haven't been able to find a way to PM you (maybe I am too new to the forums?). I've been watching the threads hoping for a fix to the WiFi issue, but it now sounds as if that will be weeks away. I would like to return my laptop but was refused due to being over 21 days (I'm at 33). Can you please contact me to see about returning the laptop.
Thanks,
John

 

To activate PM you need to send at least 5 messages in the forum, so you must wait one day for the activation.

 

Looks like Bill speculated that it will most likely be a hardware fix. There's not definite answer yet because Dell hasn't confirmed it but Bill said it in the Owner's thread

 

I saw that. Lets hope it comes quickly