New Dell XPS 15z (L511z) Wireless Card Issues

This may be a PSP incompatibility with your router.  I would check with your router manufacturer and see if they have any new updates.  Here is an link from Intel with more info.

www.intel.com/.../cs-006205.htm

Symptom(s):

The following symptoms may be seen if a Wi-Fi access point (AP) or broadband Wi-Fi router does not properly support the Power Save Polling (PSP) feature:

Intermittent loss of Wi-Fi connection

Inability to initiate a Wi-Fi connection

Poor Wi-Fi connection data performance

These symptoms may be more pronounced when on battery power.

Cause:

PSP mode is a feature that provides extended battery life for notebook computers. It requires coordination between the AP or router and the Wi-Fi adapter. Intel has discovered that some APs or routers may not implement the feature correctly or completely.

Solution:

Contact the AP or router vendor for updated software or firmware that corrects the problem.

The lnk goes on to mention some work arounds, disabling the PSP feature.

Use Intel® PROSet/Wireless WiFi Connection Utility to Set CAM

Click Advanced > Adapter Settings > Advanced tab.

Select Power Management and uncheck Default / Auto and move the slider to Highest / Maximum Performance.

If the slider is already at Highest / Maximum Performance, move the slider to another setting and then back to Highest / Maximum Performance.

Use Network Control Panel Applet (NCPA) to Set CAM

Put the wireless adapter into Continuously Aware Mode using the following steps.

Click Start > Settings > Control Panel.

Double-click Network Connections.

Right-click the wireless connection and click Properties.

Click Configure.

Click the Advanced tab.

Select the Power Management setting, uncheck Default / Auto and move the slider to Highest / Maximum Performance. Note: If the slider is already at Highest / Maximum Performance, move the slider to another setting and then back to Highest / Maximum Performance.

Please let me know if this helps.

TB

This did not resolve the problem.

I also purchased a Citrix USB wireless n card and can connect. It set me back 50 bucks but at least I have wireless dell and intel were no help.

LMGuadagna

Are you noticing any different with wireless performance if using battery or AC adapter?  Is the connection dropping out, other than what is shows in the wireless status panel, are you able to bring up websites, and how is internet performance?

Try this and see if it helps at all.  Open device manager, click start, right click on "computer" and choose properties, then click the device manager link on the left column.  You can also click start, click control panel and open system properties and click the device manager link on the left.  

Once in device manager open network devices and find the wireless adapter.  Double-click it to bring up properties and click on the Power Management tab and make sure that "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is not checked then click OK.

If the problem continues, download the Centrino driver from the following link. Uninstall the Centrino driver, reboot the system and then install the newly downloaded driver and see if it helps.

Please let me know if these steps help at all.

Thank you

TB

Just bought the 15Z. Nice in every way but the wireless connection. I have it next to my older Dell 1720, and it shows a connection speed of 54Mb/s in the wireless status panel and the NEW 15Z shows from 5-11 Mb/s. I played around with various wireless settings for a whole day. Giving up. I think the wireless should work out of the box! I would not purchase another of these without a change to the wireless card.

Terry thanks for your suggestion and yes I have tried the above I have even plugged the power supplu in my ear and it has not helped. In my basic opinion it it either the intel card itself or the software. I do not know if this issue has effected anyone else, with the laptop new on the market I have not heard of it being an issue with the same configuration and I don't believe I am the only one, however I did upgrade the card itself on the configurator upon order.

I honostly think that by downgrading the card to the lower end will fix my problem. XPS Support has been no help so far...

Hello Terry,

Thank you for your suggestions, however none of the above (as reported by others) works.

I just bought a dell xps 15z upgrading my inspiron 1720

It seems the issue mostly happens when running on battery.

When using power adapter the issue is not so disturbing, but still the latency and bandwidth are inferior when compared to any other laptop / computer / device (I tested this on 4 different laptops, 2 mobile phones and an ipad, all work much better than the XPS 15z!!)

When running on battery the laptop is nearly unusable, I can't even run the speedtest.net it fails to load.

I have unchecked the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" and did not make any difference

I have also downloaded the above driver, uninstalled, rebooted, and installed again, no difference whatsoever

What does this mean: "Use Network Control Panel Applet (NCPA) to Set CAM"?

I am quite shocked by the terrible quality of the wireless network card on a $1500 laptop.

I can't use the laptop on battery, this is extremely disappointing.

DELL please provide a working solution.

Kind regards

So just to make sure that I understand the issue, both of you have tried multiple routers and the performance doesn't change.  If you have not tried multiple routers, you have contacted the router manufacturer and updated its firmware if they had updates for Intel PSP or no firmware updates was available.  That the wireless works better under AC power than under battery. Changing Intel Proset power management settings to maximum performance didn’t help.  Making sure that the system wasn't cutting power to the wireless card in device manager didn’t help either.  Uninstalling / reinstalling the network driver haven’t helped either.

If this is correct, I am sorry, I know that this must be frustrating, I am trying to help though. Just to make sure that there isn't software conflicting somehow has either of you tried the connection in safemode with networking? Start the system while tapping F8 and select safemode with networking from the menu.  Hop online and try both under battery and under AC adapter and check if there is any difference in performance.  

Other than that the only thing I can suggest is replacing the wireless card.  Shoot me a private message with the service tags of the systems, your shipping and email address, phone number and I will look into getting the wireless cards replaced.

TB

Hello Terry

Thank you for your prompt reply for your efforts in trying to resolve the issue, I do appreciate.

I have tried the laptop with 2 different routers so far,

One the provider wireless router which works very well with all devices and has latest firmware.

the other one is the following:

www.buffalotech.com/.../airstation-high-power-n300-gigabit-wireless-router-ap-wzr-hp-g300nh

It's been updated to the latest firmware available. I have contacted the 24/7 buffalo phone support (which is great by the way) and they don't know what to do about this issue.

As I said I tried several other devices and the only one experiencing extremely poor wireless connectivity is the XPS 15z.

I can confirm the card does work better with AC power.

I have not found any way to change the Intel Pro Wireless settings, in my start menu before and after re-installing I can only find the following:

Intel(R) My WiFi Technology

WiFi Advanced Statistics

WiFi Event Viewer

WiFi Manual Diagnostics

I opened all of the above and there are no settings about "power management settings to maximum performance"

I did however check the advanced tab of the wireless network card under the device manager and tx power is set to maximum changing does not help.

I will now try safe mode and report back, however I must say it's rather strange that of all devices and routers tried the only issue is consistently happening ONLY on the XPS 15z

By the way I am traveling outside of the USA, if the only option is to replace the card, would it be an option to give you an address in italy?

Thanks for all your help.

Kind regards

i heve this problem even when the laptop is plugged in

the problem is not the router or anything to do with our stuff its the dell intel card or its the software from intel.

Right now i am also experiencing issues with the AC adapter.

Terry or someone at Dell could please provide a working solution?

Thank you

My XPS 15z is totally unusable.

After re intalling the drivers posted by Terry above i am experincing conyinuous issues with power settings and the wireless card has started malfunctioning on AC power too.

I would appreciate if DELL could offer a sokution since we spent $1500 on a laptop that does not work.

Thank you

Having exactly the same issue with both i7 and i5 versions of this laptop. Very slow and unstable connection (<10Kb/s). I've taken the steps outlined in the above responses and this has made no difference.This occurs with a variety of home and enterprise routers that are know to be fully functional and up to date. Looks like this is a widespread issue.