XPS L502x no operating system, stuttering/lagging

Hello everybody.

I recently got an xpsl503x i7 2670q with a gt 525m bios revision A07
Win7 64 bit 4 GB ram.

The machine keeps failing to boot with error message "no operation
system" operation not operating lol.

Removing the mains power,then the battery for a second seems to solve this problem, it then boots into win7 as normal.

Peformance is very laggy e.g with delays before your typing appears into a browser search, and using the scroll bar, in everything else as well, and and any other program operations also.

I managed to solve the browser typing problem by setting nvidia tools
to use the nvidia card only for that browser.

3Dmark 06 on default setting seems to give a decent score of about 8500,
but the online score page says 32MB video ram, Sandra confirms 1GB.

SC2 starts, but stuttering badly, and unplayable.

I would be very grateful id any one here has any experience of these
problems or any ideas to try please.

Kind regards.

 

Rather than trying to figure out an issue with something so new, get it replaced. Assuming it is still inside 30 days, then they will give you a brand new replacement rather than a refurb.

All the time you have the choice of a brand new replacement, take it. As later on you would be forced either to get it patched together, or the lottery of a refurb.

As to what I believe is the issue, it sounds like a faulty hdd. Also the memory could be duff. Anyway, don't worry yourself and get it replaced ASAP!

 

Hi Risco. Thank you for the fast reply, and sorry for the delay in aknowleging it, i should have said in my post that it is a refurbished machine.

I've already done a chkdsk, memcheck (kubuntu disk), sfc /viewonly system file check etc, reduced the sound settings from studio quality etc.

It hasn't done the no operating system problem today yet, firefox delay
seems intermittent, but the main thing the sc2 stuttering persists, i might
try re-installing it.

 

If you can run the dell diagnostics on the laptop.

Even a refurb has a return / exchange period I thought

but it does have warranty and you may have to use it.

I would consider a clean install of the OS to start though,

 

sounds to me like a faulty hard drive or a problem with your sata controller on the laptop, if you have any spare hard drives try them or even try a full format of your current hard drive, and reinstall all the latest updated drivers from dell i also see that you state you are on the a07 bios try updating to the new a09 bios as it may ease some of your problems

 

Never update the bios on a system that is running flaky. You could end up with an doormat.

 

yea sorry kinda forgot that as risco states skip the bios update until you atleast have things running stable, but i world bet money on it being the hard drive as the slowness could be down 2 the failing of ur hard drive n therefore your seek times and read and write speeds to the hard drive being affected

 

Hi. Than you everybody for taking the time to reply, i think i agree about the
hard drive, or controller, i've done some more testing and set windows to
performance first, and disabled anything that may slow it down, reduced audio quality, still the same.

A strange thing i found is that the boot error message only seems to come
on when it is running on mains, and then :

Press F12 at startup and select HD and it boots immediately, into windows.

Set boot order to HD first and boots immediately, otherwise there seems to be quite a delay before the windows splash screen.

I'm beginning to wonder about the sata controller now, or one of the other
bootable device controllers, or dvd drive even.
Perhaps a corrupt or infected bios (but did a scan), the MBR seems to be ok.

Perhaps there is more than one fault.

 

hi again sorry to hear you are still having problems try this link http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20624&ProdId=2991&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%207%20(64-bit)*&DownloadType= click download on the 1 at the top and let it install this is the latest controller driver for your system install it and restart your system to see if it makes any changes to your system

 

Try to use this HDDScan – free HDD test utility with USB flash and RAID support and check RD-read opt. , check HDD SMART.
I also have such problem w l502x WD500, there was a lot of 500ms sectors and many CAN errors in SMART.
I did HDD replace w dell support - now all OK

 

OK, this will seem like a dumb question....

You don't by chance have a USB external or USB thumb drive connected when it fails to find the operarating system?

 

I was going to ask the same thing. I get a similar error if I boot while a non-bootable flash drive or external USB HDD is connected.

I'd expect that the BIOS should check those devices for a bootable OS, but that if one isn't present the BIOS would move to the next device. Apparently that isn't the case with this BIOS.

 

Hey, in bios boot menu set 1st boot HDD and oll be OK

 

Risco, dave-p , daryld1988 , LoYaL_RUS, mpalandr , toronto
sorry for just the one post, the reply takes me so long i have to put the password in again.
lol.

On the boot problem, i had nothing in the USB slots at all, as LoYaL_RUS says, i can set the bios setup to boot hard drive first, as a work round, but the default setting is external drive first, and i agree that somehow intentionally, or because of some fault it isn’t looking any further than the first device that it comes to.

This only seems to happen when i am on mains power so that is yet another mystery .

I haven’t yet downloaded that intel sata driver, or the disk utility, but i’ll add them to my collection anyway thank you.

Just downloaded it, good program many thanks

As dave-p says time to send it back i think, it was supposed to have had a clean install before it was despatched.

I tried about everything now, and the windows lagging and sc2 stuttering is still there, so i am more or less convinced that the hard drive is faulty.

Thank you everybody for your help and suggestions, i’ll post again with the outcome.

 

I might not be grasping what you're saying here, but I don't understand this.

Are you saying you doing a one time change to the boot order using F12 or whatever the key is to change the boot order for just the next boot?

Unless your BIOS is different than every other modern Dell, you can set the default boot order yourself in the Boot Priority Order section of the BIOS setup.

See image here
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9707/bios4l.jpg


For fastest startup times, set Hard Drive as the first device. If you do that, the order of the remaining devices doesn't matter unless you have a hard drive problem.

If you occasionally want to boot from a USB thumb drive or CD-Rom, set USB Storage Device or CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive first, then the hard drive.

I'd say that for most users, Removable Drive doesn't mean anything, and should be near the bottom of the list.

The image doesn't show it, but somewhere on that BIOS page you can move items up and down in that list.

 

Hi mpalandr. The origional problem regarding booting was that whenever
it was running off mains, i got a "no operation system" message.

I first found that i could get in by pressing F12, so then i knew that the
MBR was ok (i'd already established that the files were still there and there
-fore the partition table using a kubuntu cd).

Then i found that i could get in by setting the boot sequence to hard drive first, it wont boot at the bios default setting, or my normal cd/dvd , usb,
hard drive settings.

It appears that the bios is giving up if it doesn't find that the first device is bootable, there is a few seconds delay before the "no operation system"
message comes though.

 

Sorry, got sidetracked by the whole boot order side issue. I think the BIOS is behaving correctly. Hard drive is set at the top of the boot order, and the hard drive is present, so it tries to boot from that, but for some reason finds no OS and stops. Same thing if you have USB at the top of the boot order and start with a non-bootable thumb drive inserted.

So... why does it not find the OS on AC power? Sounds like its probably hardware and you'll need to contact Dell support.

A desktop PSU can cause flakey behavior if it's not putting out the correct voltage.

Does anything odd happen when you boot on battery power and then plug and unplug the power supply? That might be a clue.

Can you find another power supply to try? If nothing else, chat Dell tech support, tell them you believe you have a bad PS, and they'll eventually agree to send one out.

If there's a power problem it could also be in the connector in the laptop, which would mean having a tech come out and replace the connector/motherboard, which ever is appropriate. They may even insist on replacing the PS before trying a motherboard.

 

Hi mpalandr. The bios default is external 1st, but i found that if it is set
like that, or my usual: cd/dvd, usb , external then it will not boot on AC
power, i have to set the hard drive first. If this is a common problem
i think that there'd be more people asking about in in here, because a
user without any computer knowlege would think that the machine was
broken, or at least the hard drive or windows faulty, as i did at first.

It could still be the hard drive or controller, or windows because of the other problems, but i hadn't really considered the power adaptor, the advert said that it was new, so thank you for mentioning it .

 

Um, not a solution for those of us who often want to boot from optical drive or USB.

Removable Drive is what is in effect when I boot from an Xboot bootable USB flash drive.

 

Does not seem to be any progress in this thread, so I will chime in on my experience with the same issues you had. For me, I eventually found out the hard drive was failing on me. The hard drive temps would reach 55C in idle! All the dell diagnostic test showed the hard drive was performing normally. I download a bunch of hard drive monitor programs and most of it were telling me that the hard drive was performing 100% but the life of it is decreasing. Eventually after a week I got a message from windows stating it will eventually fail and needs to be replaced. That was enough information for dell support to replace my hard drive. I don't know if the hard drive is really at fault of if it's the xps 15's design/cooling system. I hope this hard drive replacement will be the last fix. I would recommend downloading a system temperature or hard drive monitor program to check if you have the same case. Hope this helps.

 

Interesting. I don't have the L702x with me now to check, but I'm pretty sure I have USB Storage device at the top of the list to boot from USB. I'lll try to verify that when I get home.

Edit: order is CD, USB, Hard drive, Removeable Drive, Second hard drive.

I do boot to a WinPe bootable USB rather than Xboot, but I wouldn't think a different bootstrapper would make a difference.

 

Hi. The place that i got it from asked for it to be sent back, which i did, they
couriered it back the same day as they received it, and now all seems to be well.
They gave no explanation, and i have lost my notes on 2 pages of A4, so i
can't compare to try and see what the problem was, that is why i haven't
written sooner.
The boot order is still as i left it set at default, with removable drive, then
hard drive etc etc, only difference is that the desktop somehow looks different than when it came, perhaps they have used a different recovery disk to re-install the O/S, i don't know Win7 well yet. it. I don't know if the
O/S that it came with was the origional dell install, or if the place that i got
it from did it, it was bought as "As New" condition which according to their
site would mean probably unused.

I'll post again when i am able to find something out that may be useful.