Dell XPS L501X - Slow Startup - New Laptop takes more than 2 minutes to boot up

Echoprima -

Buyer beware.  My slow startup time was a sign of a faulty hard drive.

After less than six months, the hard drive imploded, and Dell techs had to come out to replace it.This was the first time I ever had a laptop where the hard drive fried - and the fact that it happened after less than six months, tells me there was a problem with the drive from day one.

In the past month, the laptop slowed down considerably more, where it would take up to a minute or two to load pages. There is a hard drive test you can do to see if your drive is about to fail.  Ask "Terry" - the Dell rep on this forum, and he'll direct you to a link to do the test.

In the meantime, you might want to make sure all of your files are backed up as it sounds like your drive is about to implode. Good luck.

XPS L501X - Mine has been slow to start since I bought it, and the time to start increased to 15-20mins after about 3 months. Laptop has now been returned for Hard Drive to be replaced. If you are having this problem, test the HD by running the Dell Disk Self Test before your warranty runs out.  

I have the same problem.

i7-2630QM 

8.0 G RAM

Windows 7 home premium

720G 7200rpm HDD

my  dell xps is startup from the ''welcome'' page to be extremely slow. please help me .

                                                                                name   tikam meena  

                                                                                iit --roorkee

        thank you                                          

My Dell XPS was still having problems starting even after it went back to Dell for a hard drive replacement. The problem appears to have been the  Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller not enabling the network adaptor and the computer freezes up. When I removed the network cable from the laptop before starting it, the laptop would start with the network icon crossed out in red, and then I could plug in the cable and the laptop worked fine. I have just updated to the latest Realtek PCIe GBE Family controller driver No:  7.48.823.2011, and this appears to have solved the problem, as I am now getting fast startups even with the network cable plugged in. Hope this helps.

I spoke too soon. The problem started gain yesterday. I tried to print a webpage to the laptop via adope pdf printer, but came back printer not accessible. Same when I tried to print to cute pdf. Switched off laptop from start button and restarted. Took 5 attempts before I got it to start trying both with and without network cable. Finally started without network cable and then plugged in after. Today it has taken 3 attempts before I got it to start - the network adaptor is again not enabling. When will these companies get this product right?

Hi madison i do have the same problem with L502x. It takes more than 2 minutes at startup.

The problem from my end is with the Network Adaptor Realtek PCIe GBE Family controller driver. I am currently using  No:  7.48.823.2011. If the laptop is switched on while a network cable connects it to a router, then the Network Adaptor driver becomes corrupted (this is not happening with my other computer, so the problem is with the Dell Laptop). Once the driver becomes corrupted, then I experience slow startups or often several attempts at starting whether i start with or without the network cable plugged in. The only way I have found to stop this is to uninstall the driver and then reinstall. Then never start the laptop whilst the network cable is plugged in. Start without the network cable, and once the network icon in the taskbar shows the red cross through it, you can plug in the network cable and the network takes a few seconds to go live, and the computer can be used. I have tried to contact a Dell rep who said I should contact her about it on 2 occasions and have had no response. I am a bit busy at the moment and need to use the laptop, but I am likely to return it and get a refund before my warranty runs out.

I am using XPS L502 x. This machine's startup times drove me crazy and i got frustrated. It used to take 2-3mins to get the desktop and 2+ mins to connect to network.

I called DELL rep, i was kept on hold for 5mins and I ended the call. Surprisingly they called back and the rep was finding the issue. When I was explaining the issue they hanged the call. Again I mind got crazy.

Steps I did to reduce this startup time and network connectivity issue:

1. I did a disk cleanup with cleanmgr.exe (open this RUN window)

2. I installed CCleaner (downloaded from cnet). This tools is more efficient than cleanmgr.exe

3. Then I defragmented the disk (C:\)

4. Opened msconfig.exe and disabled the programs that i dont need to run at startup. Also, select all cores to be used in Advanced options.

Now I checked the startup time and it reduced from 2+ minutes to 75secs. And the network issue was still there.

Then i uninstalled Network Adaptor Realtek PCIe GBE Family controller driver, turned off the machine then restarted again and installed this driver back.

Now the startup time has reduced to whopping 25secs.

I am planning to instal SSD to increase the performance.

i have bought a l502 and it is pretty slow at startup i have return it to the factory setting some times age and the problem still exists!launch the pc health and no problem found!i think one off the device drivers doesnt work properly!

Hi Amiramiru

I have been having problems with my XPS15 L501 slow starting or freezing on starts since I bought it last year. The problem seems to be the network adaptor not starting, and this can freeze the laptop. Look at the bottom right taskbar when you startup for the network adaptor icon. If it is not there or has a blue circle inside it, then the network adaptor has not yet started. I have tried many things, some listed in earlier posts here, but none have worked long term. The last thing I have tried came from this link: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/24080-17-onboard-realtek-rtl8168-8111-gigabit-ethernet  

The relevant post is the one by Anonymous 10-18-2010 at 04:57:33 PM. The way I did it with the laptop was to remove all power and network cables, remove the battery, press the on switch, leave for 10 minutes, then reinsert the battery and other cables and start as normal. It has only been a couple of days, but so far it has been starting ok - but I'll need to watch it for a couple of weeks to make sure. 

Have you ever check the hard drive, it seems that sometimes broken hard drive may cause long start up time.

I uninstalled Zonealarm firewall and started using the Windows firewall about a month ago and have not had the start up issues since.  

My  xps l502x has been having the same "slow boot" issue since the day I got it  out of the box. The HDD was dead and replaced just after using it for 3 weeks and still having this problem even after replacing the HDD !!!! I don't have any Dell support around here to go to :( . Please guys if  anyone got this problem figured out, share it with us here :)

Hi Zack

I had the same problems for months. Ran the HDD test and it was shown to be faulty so replaced after about a month, but problem continued. After months of slow or non starts, came across this article: Try Disabling NetBios on DHCP server before uninstalling ZoneAlarm, as indicate at http://forums.zonealarm.com/showthread.php?t=72970  But eventually I had to uninstall Zonealarm completely, and I haven't had any serious problems since then. So if you are using a firewall other than the windows firewall which came with the laptop, I'd try uninstalling it and using the windows one.