Sharing experiences / asking questions for L521X owners

I am starting this thread mostly for people that already own a L521X and are using it. I know wifi is a hot topic but there are also many other things to talk about. I also have wifi problem but I feel I can do nothing about it. I can only hope Dell release a fix for that. But for other issues like those I asked below, probably people can share experiences and make better use of L521X.

As a start I ask 4 questiones:
1. The Dell Battery Meter. It has two tabs saying Desktop Mode and Longevity Mode. However I do not understand how they work.
First, Desktop Mode, if enabled, says 'Battery will only charge between 50 and 100%'. What does this mean? The Battery will not charge below 50%? Or it will not charge fully, but randomly charge to a percent between 50 and 100%? What will be that percent?
Second, Longevity Mode, the whole tab is disabled, I can't select any option on this tab.
2. Following first question, what do you think is the best strategy to prolong battery life? With my previous E6500, I can remove battery or disable charging (Fn-F2) at any time. But now, things changed. Internal battery cannot be removed or replaced easily. If it is always charged to 100%, its lifecycle will be shortened quickly.
Now each time I plug in charger, it starts charging, I set Desktop Mode in Battery Meter, but it seems not working? It is always charged to 100%. There is another tab in Battery Meter called 'Longevity Mode', but it is dimmed.3. The touchpad. To my previous experience with Dell toutchpad, if I need to drag a window, I place the cursor on the window title, tap the pad (not clicking the button) briefly, lift the finger, then tap the pad again and drag the window without lifting the finger. It has been very convenient for me.
However for L521X, I can still can do this, but the interval between the two taps must be very short, otherwise the second tap cannot grab the window (so it only moves the cursor). I don't see a setting in touchpad configuration to adjust this. I tried double-tap speed setting but it doesn't help.
4. The laptop is in sleep mode (lid closed) but the DVD drive operates from time to time (maybe every hour? not sure). It just makes noise as if it is loading a disc.

 

Does the optical drive make noise only when a disc is in it? I have never heard sound coming from it but I have yet to put a disc in it. If it keeps spinning up with a disc already in it that is odd too compared with every other computer I have ever used. Hopefully a firmware update can fix that if true.

 

I just tried, when I plug in a USB disk, the DVD drive makes noise. The drive is empty.

 

I get this - kinda annoys me...what the deal with this periodical optical drive reading and thus mechanical sounds...happens everytime I load itunes and then when I do some random none optical drive related stuff

 

So does this happen only with DVD or Blu-Ray as well?

 

The same problem here, too annoying, so I went in device manager and disabled it. Now it does only at start up, otherwise is quiet.
I am waiting for unit replacement.

 

WRT: DVD-noise

One of the things that has popped up now and again in other threads is how the installed software - like antivirus - affects behavior like DVD read (and network throughput, for that matter).

I (anecdotally) remember seeing a couple people chime in about DVD/BD activity that stopped when they removed the mcaffee software and replaced it with something else (one stated Microsoft Security Essentials, I personally use Avast, Norton has been noted to maybe not-suck either).

If there's spurious activity during "sleep" than I don't think the OS is sleeping. I suppose that there could be a way for some software to have an "alarm" set to periodically wake-up the OS to do something, and then quiesce afterwards, but what really would be the point?

If your system is not going into sleep properly, then the Intel Rapid Start won't function either (to take it to effectively zero-power state).

WRT: Battery charging and longevity

From what I read, and take this not as authoritative, but here's my take on Desktop vs Longevity mode

- In Desktop mode, the machine *should* not be trying to keep the battery at 100% charge, in order to reduce the charge/discharge cycle count on the battery, leading to a longer lifetime (chronologically). This is suitable for systems which are connected to AC most of the time.

- In Longevity mode, the machine *should* try to keep the battery fully-charged, so that you have the longest duration off-AC run-time as possible.

Note that in Desktop mode there is an option for basically "charge to 100% this once" - to support preparing to go off-AC.

WRT:Touchpad tap-drag

This has been discussed elsewhere, but it seems like the time interval is pretty short and not adjustable. ;^(

 

For touchpad tap-drag issue, I cannot find a setting to adjust the interval. It's kind of inconvenient, comparing to my previous experience using other laptops. I hope this can be improved in next driver.
DVD noise, as I mentioned, occurs every time I plug a USB disk. I don't understand why. I do not stare at the laptop when it sleeps so I don't know if it still happens now, but it is weird.
For battery meter, I still don't know how desktop mode and longevity mode work. Each time I plug in charger, it starts charging until full. And the whole longevity mode is dimmed. But what are others' experiences?