Dell XPS15 R2 (L502) Thread

[dsutton]

I just ordered an L502x to replace my L501x, and I'm curious about a few things:

1. Will my battery life with the 6-cell improve moving from the i5-460M to the i7 2630QM?

2. I've read a lot of reports in this forum about heat issues with the Sandy Bridge i7 2720QM. Does the i7 2630QM have the same issues?

3. I've heard that the L502x is heavier than the L501x, but I don't believe it. True?

[veenie]

what do you call heat problems?
Turbo Boosts just smash out the max of the CPU.

You will see high temps inside of the Core yes. Doesnt mean the outside get as hot as well. You wont burn your legs on it if you think so.

also your not running on 100% load for long periods like they use in testing to overload the system.

About 3: just check out the specs on the site.

[zygotic]

PM'd me some drivers that will enable me to use a non-vodafone SIM in it, so i'll give that a go too.

Interesting if yours is operator locked to Vodafone. Tried mine with an Orange SIM this morning and it worked right away. Worth checking before you try forcing it with the special software.

The Win7 support for it is much nicer than operator specific stuff I had before.

Such a shame about the wireless thing!

[KenNashua]

I've been waiting for a sale like the one going on in EPP now, but some posts on slickdeals.net have given me pause...

Anyone experiencing problems with Optimus and gaming? The nvidea forums are pretty scary to read:

NVIDIA Forums -> Optimus & Hybrid Graphics

[DakkonA]

I've been waiting for a sale like the one going on in EPP now, but some posts on slickdeals.net have given me pause...

Anyone experiencing problems with Optimus and gaming? The nvidea forums are pretty scary to read:

NVIDIA Forums -> Optimus & Hybrid Graphics

You're going to need to explain why some posts are giving you pause, assuming it is separate from Optimus?

[Occams_Cat]

OK - can someone pop the back plate off there L502x and tell me what cable goes where please?! I took the back off to upgrade the RAM and noticed two (!) completely unattached wireless cables. Nice one Dell quality control, nice. Explains my wireless issues!

Thing is - there is only one terminal free to attach the cable too. (See photos)

I have a grey wire and a white wire free - which one do I attach to the free terminal on the WLAN chip? And why does is there no other place to attach the other free wire? What function is this extra one? Thanks

[mkj]

LOL! Looks like you only have the secondary/backup antenna attached (black cable). You need to attach the primary antenna (white cable) to where the white triangle points on your WLAN card. While both antennas are exactly the same, the card primarily uses the white one or, say, the one attached to the white triangle socket.

The gray cable is for TV tuner, which goes, where the WWAN card is. You can get either WWAN or TV tuner, same on L702X.

[pinsb]

OK - can someone pop the back plate off there L502x and tell me what cable goes where please?! I took the back off to upgrade the RAM and noticed two (!) completely unattached wireless cables. Nice one Dell quality control, nice. Explains my wireless issues!

Thing is - there is only one terminal free to attach the cable too. (See photos)

I have a grey wire and a white wire free - which one do I attach to the free terminal on the WLAN chip? And why does is there no other place to attach the other free wire? What function is this extra one? Thanks

White cable to white arrow.

I'm more interested in why there isn't a third antenna for a Wireless N card

IEEE 802.11n-2009 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The third antenna makes a huge difference to signal quality.

[Occams_Cat]

LOL! Looks like you only have the secondary/backup antenna attached (black cable). You need to attach the primary antenna (white cable) to where the white triangle points on your WLAN card. While both antennas are exactly the same, the card primarily uses the white one or, say, the one attached to the white triangle socket.

The gray cable is for TV tuner, which goes, where the WWAN card is. You can get either WWAN or TV tuner, same on L702X.

Thank you MKJ! All issues wifi related are now solved The HSDPA module also seems to work on all networks I've tried, 3, Orange & O2 - all ticking along nicely on the standard drivers that came with the laptop - it wasn't locked to Vodafone only. Just odd that Dell included a vodafone SIM card and absolutely no written reference to it - or how to use it?

Still i'm happy that the WiFi's working, one less thing for Dell to replace. Just a new BluRay drive and i'm all done...for this time!

Cheers, Rod

[jaisimha]

what do you think about Lenovo's Thinkpad series?
Is it worth buying? or IBM is better