New Dell XPS 15z (L511z) Wireless Card Issues

Phil

I checked your service tag and noticed that it didn't bring up any driver files. I will file a report to get this corrected.

TB

Looks like the new Intel wireless driver is available.

It may be downloaded from the following link.

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed / replaced from this post by Dell>

Here is the new bluetooth driver

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed / replaced from this post by Dell>

Intel software package to go with the drivers. Install this last after the other two drivers have been installed.

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed / replaced from this post by Dell>

TB

It seems that there are a lot of 15z service-tags that do not work in support. We bought two 15z laptops in Europe and both tags are not accepted by support.

On topic: I have the same issues with the WiFi connectivity on the 15z. Let me explain my WiFi setup and hardware for comparison: I have two WiFi AP's in my home. Currently I have a Latitude E6500, iPad and iPhone that use WiFi. I have excellect reception through my home and garden even on the 2nd and 3rd floor. The 15z only works on the ground floor and no reception in the garden. So clearly there is a problem with the antenna/WiFi card or maybe it's driver related.

I tested the new driver yesterday. First conclusion: WiFi detection is slow. It takes a couple of minutes before I'm connected to my network. While the previous driver had a connection before I could logon. Second: reception is better but still not good enough. I can now use the laptop on the 2nd floor. Still no reception in my garden.

I have a Netgear WNR3500.

I forgot to mention I use a Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH router, which works flawlessly with all devices, including several laptops, ipads, and mobile phones.

Hello Terry,

Thank you for checking in.

Yes, I can confirm that I experience the same issues:

poor signal strength (my iPad does same or better!) and very long time to hook up to the network.

I can also confirm no difference between battery and ac plugged in.

Once it connects bandwidth is OK (but not great), I get about 70%-85% of my actual connection (with other laptops and the ipad I get about 90% - 95% ) latency is fairly poor, usually double as all other devices 100ms - 120ms instead of 45ms - 55 ms with other devices.

I downloaded and installed the DELL driver you posted yesterday, which by the way is the same I had already installed directly from Intel and nothing at all changed.

This last driver is however much better than the one the laptop shipped with. The previous driver made the wifi card totally unusable.

So far there is still a huge issue.

********************my experience with DELL support so far*********************************

And by the way after the technician came and broke and totally scratched my laptop (because he was totally not qualified to do the job and totally unprofessional) DELL has not offered a decent solution yet, I still have a broken scratched laptop after paying $1500. I was offered to have this fixed, but honestly guys, what do you think I pay $1500 for a new laptop and get a defective one which gets broken and scratched and then patched up?

I was offered either a return or exchange but only when I am back in the USA ( I travel a lot for work). So in conclusion DELL broke my new defective laptop and they only offer to patch it up OR return it in 3 months OR exchange it in 3 months. None of these 3 options can be combined.

I wasted endless hours and get treated as if it was my fault each time.

A Senior resolution manager is handling my case and does not answer my emails.

I am again shocked.

****************************************************************************************************

Got the latest driver, done the maximum power and do not allow OS to turn off to save power tricks.. still getting drop outs..  the new driver is a lot better with throughput now though..  comparable with my other wireless devicess...  AP is Asus RT 16-N and no drop out problem with my other 2 dell laptops, a toshiba, a lenovo and a couple iphones

Thank you all for the information regarding the routers and APs that you are using.  I have just heard from engineering that they are working on another driver to help correct this issue with the Intel PSP.  They tell me that it should be released before August.  I will keep all of you posted as soon as I find out more information.

TB

Thank you for the update Terry.

Once this driver is fixed, I will have the laptop I thought I was buying when I first got it. Looking forward to it.

Thank you for the update Terry.

I also wanted to add that I have been travelling for the past 2 weeks and tested the laptop on several known and unknown APs / routers

The issues are always the same AND I noticed a significant delay in accessing the network. When resuming from standby or hibernation I always (really always) need to disable / renable the card and it fails at least once before connecting successfully to the network.

Again, other devices have no problem.

To give an idea from the moment I resume the laptop it takes 3 to 5 minutes to be able to connect to the wifi. My other devices connect instantly.

kind regards

Hi All,

Just bought Dell XPS 15z this arvo. Bought it and took it home, for the life of the laptop, it couldn't recognise ANY wireless connection. All my other laptops/phones doesnt have any problem connecting to the wifi. Even tried connecting it manually and still couldn't get on the internet. I am really disappointing like all the other users because we didn't pay a cheap price for this machine.

I saw Terry's reply and tried it all to no avail. What do you recommend that I do?Get a techie out?

Thanks and sorry for ranting!

I've had this laptop for a few days. I've spent most of that time trying to resolve the issue with connectivity: dropping the signal and taking up to 5 minutes to connect to a network. I've followed every step on this forum, twice even. I've contacted dell support, they connected to my computer and tried everything they could. I've read that people have even had their network controllers replaced.

Is this a problem with every 15z or just a few here and there? There doesn't seem to be a lot of people complaining for how much of a pain this is? If it isn't a problem with every one, how do I return this to get one that works correctly? If it does apply to all of the 15z laptops, how could Dell have not noticed this?

I've spent the last 2 years talking people out of buying Mac machines, and towards Dell machines. I'm a graphic/web designer, so you'll understand how difficult that is to do. This is ow embarrassing me because I have a colleague who I recommended this laptop to over a macbook who is having the same problem.

Please let me know how to resolve this issue or I'll be returning this laptop and selling my studio i7 desktop.

Sorry for the rant, it's just a horrible mess that a phone from 5 years ago gets a better signal than a brand new thousand dollar laptop.

I was recently was called by a Dell Support Agent to see how everything was going. I explained the situation. He offered me a brand new Dell to replace the15z with another NEW and FIXED one. They sent it to me and absoutely No Diffrence at all.

This is what gets me, after I installed and replaced all of the programs and files from my first 15z to the Repaired New one, which took me over the weekend, the problem was not fixed at all and I was told it was.

In setting up my original 15z which I use for business I installed Microsoft Windows Professional "Upgrade" to the first 15z. I called Dell Support to let them know that my new 15z Laptop did not have Windows Professional on it now and they told me that if I updated to Windows Professional it would VOID the warrenty!

Do you believe this?   

I wasted a bunch of time on the connection issue this past weekend.  I bought a new 15z from the Microsoft Store on Saturday.  I love the laptop but when I watched recorded T V over wifi from my home server, the video would stutter periodically.

While the video was running I opened a cmd prompt and ran a ping -t

I noticed that everytime the video was stuttering, the ping was returning a "request timed out"

I called Dell support and the tech did some troubleshooting.  (Checked driver, Disable powermanagement etc) He also booted into safe mode.  In the end he said that it was normal latency and implied I was too picky.  :(  I explained that i had a cheap netbook and another laptop running the same ping and they did not have the issue, nor did they ever have stuttering video playback from my network.  I told him I understand that it could be expected when playing video from the internet, but from my home network, this should not be the case.

He continued to imply it was normal and I just had high expectations.  I asked to talk to a supervisor, and after explaining everythng to him got a similar response.  I told him that I would not be grumpy if they would just acknowledge there is a problem and that they are out of things to try for now.  Instead they  believed it was normal.  argh.

To appease me they offered to send someone to replace the wireless card in the "one day old" laptop.  I told them dont bother and I would switch it for a new on at the Microsoft Store.

The Microsoft Store rules.  When I got there, they assigned a tech to work with me and we setup my laptop and reproed the problem in the store. We were pinging the IP of the wireless router they use in the store.  He also setup the ping repro in the store with a different laptop and saw that the problem didnt happen.  We switched the laptop for a new XPS 15z and again saw the repro.. it was even worse on the new laptop.

I decided just to return the laptop for now (even though I absolutely love it if it werent for this wifi issue)

The Microsoft Store folks didnt give me a hard time at all and promptly refunded me for the laptop and I went home empty handed.  The tech I was working with took screen shots of our testing and was going to continue to look at the issue.

When I got home, I decided to do some searching and I found this thread.  I am comforted somewhat that the Dell rep in this thread says they are working on a fix.  I will likely re-buy the laptop once this issue is resolved.

I am very tolerant of quirky issues with new hardware.  I was just super disappointed that the dell reps I talked to on the phone were not aware of the issue and took a stance implying I should just live with it.  I expect more from Dell.

Anyway.. thats my 2 cents on this issue.