E6520 Owner's Thread

If you're comfortable, try opening up the display assembly and reseating the cable.

Or if you got the onsite warranty, then just have a technician come over and see if he can do anything about it.

 

I can do that later today. I can see it causing the lines on the screen but can a problem with display cable cause the system to restart?

No unfortunately I don't have onsite warranty for it. I can either mail it to get repaired or return it.

 

Re: #1
This is normal with Optimus. More info on this subject is here: Dell Community

Re: #2
That is odd, but it is probably (hopefully) just a driver issue. I received a E6520 just this past week as well and the BIOS was not up to date so I suggest doing this:

A. Make sure your internal DDR3 memory stick(s) are seated correctly in their sockets.

B. Make sure you have the latest BIOS A05 installed. You can see the BIOS version when you first turn on the system under the Dell logo on the main splash screen.

C. Turn off the system....then it back on and hit F12 at the main Dell splash screen to get to the "one-time boot menue". Under "OTHER OPTIONS", choose "Diagnostics". This will take you to the factory hardware test environment where you can do a quick or detailed test of the various components in the system. This is a great tool and should tell you if there is an obvious issue with the system.

Lastly, it seems IE9 is not playing nice with the latest version of Flash and that is causing a lot of crashes industry wide. The fix for this until a new updates are available is to disable hardware acceleration in Flash when in the Optimus environment or to revert back to IE8. Another option is using Chrome as a browser, which is fine.

I do a fresh install of Windows with all my systems as soon as they arrive as there could be other factors involved like data corruption, outdated drivers, and/or bloatware. Since the new BIOS and some of the drivers have been updated this past week, I suggest a fresh - clean OS install if you have the time so you have a level playing field to "test" if the above does not fix your issue.

Scott-

 

I'd be unbelievably amazed if your issues are software only. I'd send that sucker back ASAP...get a replacement from Dell....or me

In the mean time...lets flip your lid all the way open and play a game of chess!

 

That is interesting! So you are saying that it is normal that when Optimus is disabled, Win7 can't find the driver for nVidia GPU, but with Optimus enabled, the driver magically show up in Device Manager?

I did check both memory sticks, and removed and reseated them. No difference.

I had A03 at first and updated later to A05. It didn't make a difference. The problem happened in both cases.

I did that first thing. Everything passed, no issue was reported

I didn't install Internet Explorer 9 so this can't cause the problem

I usually do that, but after doing a quick check with the factory image first. After I make sure that the system I received looks fine, I do a clean install. This way if there is a problem, like now, I can catch it early and Dell can't blame it on my reinstall.
Also I don't want to go through all the trouble of doing a clean install only to find out that the problem persists.

 

I agree, I am thinking of sending it back too. It could be a serious problem and I don't want to waste any more time on it. It is amazing that Dell would send a faulty system like this, without thoroughly checking it first.

But aside from this strange issue, I am not completely impressed with E6520. It is big , bulky and heavy; the only truly impressive thing about it is the beautiful FHD screen. Next to it, my E6410 screen looks completely washed out and E6420 was even worse when I briefly tried it once.

I haven't decided yet but maybe I should hold on to my E6410 for the time being.

 

^I upgraded from a e6410 also. I still don't like the extra bulk, but the extra power is nice.

I first tried a e6420, I was/am extremely dissatisfied with the clarity of the 1600x900 screen...so I got the e6520 instead.

Size: e6410>e6520
Quality: e6410>e6520
Power: e6410<e6520
Screen: e6410<e6520

 

Has anyone added another 4GB of RAM to these after the sale? What kind did you get & where did you buy it?

 

Thanks for the info here... my wife and I had both been having problems with the laptops lately on flash stuff.

 

Yes, I have a full 8GB in my E6520. I have tested Samsung, G-Skill, and Kingston and they all work fine. To keep the memory matched (not required), I went ahead and purchased this nicely priced DDR3 from Newegg: Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ

If cost is not a concern, I have found Samsung to have the best reliability. However, these G-Skill modules are pretty nice as well and performance is very good (WEI = 7.6 when used with a 2720QM processor).

Scott-