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230573
XPS 15 L502x Game Crashes
Dell Dissatisfaction letter:
To whom it may concern,
I would like to express my complete dissatisfaction with my
recent purchase of your Dell XPS 15 L502x model
laptop. I am Comptia certified for A+ and Network+ operations so I am
very fluent with computer functions, hardware, software, and networking capabilities.
I work for Konica Minola technical support doing software and hardware support
on Laser printers. I will start here by listing the specifications of the
laptop that I purchased. Components are listed as follows:
Toshiba 500GB 7200RPM Hard Disk Drive/ Since purchase have recently replaced with Crucial M4 128GB Solid State Drive
Drive
Matshita BD-RE Blu Ray Drive
6GB DDR3 SDRAM
Nvidia GT540M 2GB GPU and Intel HD 3000
Full 1080P display
JBL speakers
Regular keyboard/Since has been replaced with the backlit at my own
cost
Intel Core I7- 2720QM CPU @ 2.2GHZ /2nd Gen Sandy Bridge
USB 3.0 ports
Intel Centrino 6230 Wireless NIC w/bluetooth
Webcam
Now Since I got the computer which I have had for
approximately 8 months I have run into numerous problems. When I first got the
computer I was very excited I was finally able to save up enough money to get a
high performance laptop. The laptop worked flawlessly for a while until one day
I was playing a higher graphics video game (League Of Legends) and all of a
sudden the computer crashes. More specifically the screen freezes as well as any audio that was playing through the
speakers instantly became static sounding and continued to play and feedback
through the speakers. This would not reset until the computer had manually been
shut down and rebooted by holding in the power button. After this first
occurred I tried a number of things to attempt to resolve the issue myself. I
first went ahead and uninstalled and reinstalled my graphics drivers as well as
upated the BIOS to the most recent version at the time. This did not resolve
the issue. I then continued to go through a complete format and reinstallation
of the operating system (Windows 7 64-bit). Continued to test on multiple video
games inluding: Modern Warefare, League
of Legends, Crysis 2, Skyrim. Issue continued to persist after the complete
windows and driver reinstallation. I also went in an adjusted the Nvidia
Control panel options to ensure that High Performance Nvidia processor was
selected for both my individual program
settings as well as in my Global preferred graphics processor. The issue
remained. At that point I proceeded to
call Dell Technical Support. Which I had called for in the past to resolve a
noise problem with the fan, a bad blu ray drive and a bad power supply cord and
let me tell you talking with your tech support reps is a terrible experience.
They do not understand half of what you are saying and are honestly not very
knowledgeable when it comes to computers. One time I even had one of the dell phone support
technicians tell me that the blu ray drive does not connect into the
motherboard. They decided to go ahead and send me out a replacement motherboard
to attempt to resolve the issue. A few days later the technician came out and
replaced the motherboard. This fixed the problem for about another couple of
months. More crashes while playing higher graphics games. I tried going through
and lowering my video settings for each game which caused the issue to occur
less however it would still continue to crash occasionally. I called back in
again to dell technical support at that point and got a replacement motherboard
put in again. This time the computer crashed out while playing high graphics
games right from the start. I called in again and they told me that they would
like for me to send my system in to their support center which I declined
because they stated it would take 2 weeks and that they would moniter the
system and ensure it gets fixed. I am a
computer technician and perfectly capable of monitering my own system and
testing to see if the issue continues to occur. Not to mention the fact that the
Dell technician that came on site even admitted that they generally get sent
back out often after customer’s have submitted their machines to the dell
service center. Also I use this computer
on a daily basis and it is necessary that I have this up and running and in
good shape. So I requested they send yet another motherboard to attempt to
resolve it because it had temporarily in the past. This time when the
technician came out I brought some Arcitic Silver 5 heatsync for him to put on
the GPU’s and the CPU because I have now done some online research and
determined that this is in fact a common issue for this model laptop. One
person recommended re-applying heatsync so I tried this. Also another
recommendation was to install a Solid State drive which I have also done and
included another fresh installation of windows 7 64-bit and all the driver
software. The issue still persisted.. So I called back into dell and
they informed me that they would go through and exchange my laptop however they
stated this process takes from 7-14 days. They called me today and offered me
the exact same model laptop however I am apalled again because this issue
seems to be specific to a motherboard/GPU manufacturing defect. I have
had so much difficulty here between arguing with 10 different dell support
techs trying to get this issue resolved to continuing to have to test this
issue repeatedly and repeatedly and reinstalling operating systems and
purchasing the upgraded hard drive. I’ve honestly had enough at this point. Basically what this issue boils down to in the
computer is either the motherboard/GPU. What I want to know from you is first off is this issue going to continue after system replacement with the same model? Is this a specific issue to the Nvidia GT540M graphics? Why can't I get my laptop replaced with a different model due to the insufficiency of these motherboards/GPU's. The whole reason I purchased the laptop was due to the high specs and its capabilities to be able to run these games with ease....At least this was the advertisement.....I have also referenced some links I have located where soo many people are complaining about the same issue. I have also taken a video of the frozen screen with the audio feedback as well as referenced some youtube videos showing the same problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at215ci-6kQ
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/t/19409241.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZgM9mz4Hss
http://boardreader.com/thread/XPS_15_l502x_freezes_during_gameplay_5me5rXbj9l3.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/634912-similar-crash-across-games-l502x.html
http://freedellxpsus.info/freedellxpsusdell-xps-15-l502x-crashing-3d-games-nvidia-gt540m/
http://l502xcrash.blogspot.com/
PapaWhiskey
2 Posts
0
December 5th, 2012 19:00
Hi Terry B,
My name is Josh and here is my service tag: <ADMIN NOTE: Service tag removed per privacy policy>. I have been having exactly the same problems as everyone else with this graphics card. I tried to install the newest drivers but it caused some major system issues and I had to use the restore feature. I have not run a game yet that hasn't crashed on me at some point. Screen locks up and audio makes horrible noise. MUST be hard shut down to correct. I never run any game at full specs because I am more of an FPS hog. The games I have run and had crashes on recently have been Left 4 Dead 2 and World of Tanks.
I was wondering if there has been any progress in fixing this issue or if swapping to another video card may be the answer. I have a degree in Computers and I have run out of options at this point. I have NEVER had the system lock on me during normal operations and have been happy with it other than gaming crashes.
Thanks for your time,
Josh
Galaman
5 Posts
0
December 5th, 2012 19:00
Hello. I battled for many months with video lock-ups and audio looping or skipping especially in games like team fortress 2, oblivion through steam, small freezes in starcraft 2. Dell diagnostics reported all was well. reinstalling windows did not fix it. Eventually I found a generous supervisor through the online chat function who agreed to replace my HDD, Mobo, and RAM (just to cover all bases) As expected replacing my non-faulty hardware resolved the problem and I have had no issues since the hardware replacement. It has only been about 3 months sinsce the hardware replacement, though. If you have done due diligence and are convinced it's hardware push for a supervisor and stress your patience with customer support so far and how long you have dealt with this problem and your potential disatisfaction with dell. Hopefully they will permit the hardware replacement at that point.
KongL
53 Posts
0
December 6th, 2012 14:00
If you still have your warranty I suggest getting all parts that are needed to be replaced, replaced. Motherboard, processor and probably graphics card. Otherwise try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJUVmsP_WYw&feature=plcp if you have not. My current solution for some things..
Dido_SMoKE
9 Posts
2
December 7th, 2012 12:00
the real deal:
guys, you can change your motherboard 10 times, try to contact nvidia, dell, experts,... or you can simply do what i did,, after months of research, there is no way to fix this hardware defect that comes with this laptop, the only way to have it without this freeze is to download and install the latest nvidia driver. run nvidia control panel, and in device settings you have to down-clock the settings, i put the graphic clock to 500, and the memory clock to 700, since then ive been freezless for 3 months now, no problems at all, the the performance is not bad either.
at the end, dell should be ashamed of what happened with the l502x and should offer to REPLACE the damn thing with a BRAND NEW MODEL to compensate this defect, and by the way i have liked all dell products, but since this happened and they didnt even care i tell everybody what happened to me with dell, and it is not a love story..
if anyone from dell read this: i want my damn money back and take back this rubbish for a laptop...
PapaWhiskey
2 Posts
0
December 7th, 2012 13:00
thanks for the info. how does dialing down clock speeds effect FPS?
KongL
53 Posts
0
December 7th, 2012 14:00
Really? What version Nvidia do you have? Mine does not have device settings with down-clock.
Dido_SMoKE
9 Posts
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December 7th, 2012 14:00
not much, it is fine playing (pes 2013), but still it bugs me that i cant use all the power i should have,,
by the way, if you didnt get a temporary battery failure yet (when the battery is between 80% and 100%) then expect it very soon, it is also a defect that dell wont admit, dont buy a new battery cause it will not last much too.
KongL
53 Posts
0
December 7th, 2012 19:00
Last time I did it I got downloaded random on my laptop and completely messed it up. System tools didn't look like anything I heard it was suppose to be. It's just me.
Dido_SMoKE
9 Posts
0
December 7th, 2012 19:00
oh yea you have to download and install: ((Nvidia system tools)) for that tab to appear
get it from nvidia website:
www.nvidia.com/.../nvidia-system-tools-6.08-driver.html
108anup
2 Posts
1
December 7th, 2012 21:00
Like everyone else I was suffering from the same crash even after getting my motherboard changed 2 times.
After doing my own little research, I found out that Shader Clock = 2 * Core Clock. So if you decrease the core clock by 80, the Shader decreases by 160.
Decrease the core clock by 80. There will be no crashes and no lags and less frame drop and more performance as compared to the the latter method.
Default Settings:
Memory: 900
Core: 672
Therefore Shader = 2 * Core = 2* 672 = 1344
New Settings:
Memory: 900
Core: 592
Therefore Shader = 2*592 = 1184
Only decrease the core clock by 80 mHz rest everything is fine. You can do this by nVidia system tools, MSI Afterburner etc.
I have not experienced any problem after making these changes.
KongL
53 Posts
0
December 7th, 2012 21:00
If anyone doesn't mind telling, what would be your settings for the Nvidia Control Panel on High Performance Processor in Manage 3-D settings?
KongL
53 Posts
0
December 7th, 2012 21:00
I heard that from someone somewhere else. Maybe you? It doesn't work for me.
wchuan
1 Message
0
December 9th, 2012 11:00
I thought this laptop is worth buying until i read this post after using for years :( Freeze and sound buzz/looping on Far Cry 3, Hitman Absolute, Assassin's Creed 3(all on medium or lower setting). but seems fine on Fifa 13. After reading all the post seems like under-clocking is the only or high possible of 'solving' it.
- Does MSI afterburner works? Or some other software ( etc NVIDIA inspector)would be better? )
- what is the exact number of core clock and memory clock for best settings for under-clocking it?
- how much does it affect game performance?
- for those who are under-clocking, does the problem come back?
- any other good suggestion other then under-clocking? (even that i know is less possible....)
the problem really frustrate me of wasting my weekends on troubleshooting and researching rather then gaming. It makes me feel that getting a PS3 will be much much better on having a multitask and so-call 'gaming' laptop.
Really appreciate for the help.
Dido_SMoKE
9 Posts
0
December 9th, 2012 13:00
i dont use any afterburn, only Nvidia system tools
best settings:
Memory: 900
Core: 592
i didnt fell any drop with pes 2013, it runs great with full HD settings (also when used with 3D)
the problem never came back, almost 4 months now
the problem is not with PC, the problem is with this particular dell laptop only
KongL
53 Posts
0
December 9th, 2012 16:00
The problem is still on going even with Msi Afterburner. I don't think that I can buy another Dell Xps 15 laptop again. I will probably switch to some type of desktop. From all the posts that I've seen about this problem. Dell has not currently found a working solution for it. All I got to say.