Dell XPS 15(L521x) with Killer 1202 - Potential Wi-Fi Fix

[Dos_Box]

I'd been having some issues with my new Dell XPS 15 in that the wi-fi would drop out every 20 mins or so at home. It has been widely reported that the XPS 15 (L521x) has had wireless problems ranging from poor speeds to limited range with the original Centrino wireless chipsets and apparently the fitting of the Qualcomm Killer 1202 cards was supposed to fix this.

Sadly it appeares not. In conjunction with my Virgin Media Superhub (v.1) it had a very good connection rate using the latest Dell drivers (10.0.1.242), but, as I've said above, the connection would drop out frequently after 20 mins or so and then regularly after that which then had me having to disable\enable the wireless card to regain connectivity. The symptom of this is that the wireless router would be detected, but you get a 'Limited internet connection' type error.

What I have found to rectify the problem (fixed for one week and counting now!) is to use the official Qualcomm drivers (currently on 1.0.25.1224) which you can get here: Killer Gaming :: Support :: Driver Downloads

Please note I am using Windows 8 x64, and that you will have to manually uninstall the original wireless drivers and tools before installing.

I know that many here will not be using said laptops, but I hope this helps anyone who comes across it.

Edited September 28, 2013 by Dos_Box

[Dos_Box]

*UPDATE*

2 Weeks on and it looks like this is the solution. Connections have been rock solid throughout

[teejay]

Had similar problems with the Dell Latitude E5530 with the Intel Advanced wireless, moved from the Dell provided drivers to the ones off the Intel website and it fixed the problem.

[turkuno]

Dos_Box, how is the solution holding up? Thinking about picking up the XPS 15, concerned about the wifi problems. Other than the wifi issues how has the unit been working out for you?

[MatthewL]

Same problem with Dell Latitude range of laptops, we was battling for nearly a year before we found drivers from the WLAN manufacturer that worked, same with a lot of devices if you are having problems go direct for drivers, always seems to resolve it.

[Dos_Box]

It's going good. No drop-outs in quite some time now. The only other thing to note with this model XPS is that you need to install the Synaptics touch pad driver (Drivers | Synaptics) rather than the Dell one as it has a nasty habit of losing focus on the application you are using.

It's a bit of a strange beast this Dell laptop. The build quality and performance are top notch, however, seeing as it is their flagship high-end model they seem to have dropped the ball as regards to fixing niggly little (and well reported) glitches on it. It's nothing that can be fixed by doping a little looking around and using the component manufacturers reference drivers but I do find it very strange.

[mac_shinobi]

It's going good. No drop-outs in quite some time now. The only other thing to note with this model XPS is that you need to install the Synaptics touch pad driver (Drivers | Synaptics) rather than the Dell one as it has a nasty habit of losing focus on the application you are using.

It's a bit of a strange beast this Dell laptop. The build quality and performance are top notch, however, seeing as it is their flagship high-end model they seem to have dropped the ball as regards to fixing niggly little (and well reported) glitches on it. It's nothing that can be fixed by doping a little looking around and using the component manufacturers reference drivers but I do find it very strange.

@Dos_Box

 

Book a support call and tell them they need to update there downloads page with the correct drivers for Wireless / touchpad and possibly other drivers if the existing drivers that you are downloading from there support / download page are giving all these issues ?

Edited October 21, 2013 by mac_shinobi

[Dos_Box]

*UPDATE*

Dell have just released the 8.1 drivers for the XPS 15(L521x).

Included in these are updated Killer WiFi and Synaptics touchpad drivers.

I also note that Qualcom Atheros have moved the download for the reference drivers to here: Killer Gaming :: Support :: Driver Download Support

 

I have installed the new drivers and will post in a couple of days if they are stable or not. @mac_shinobi Trust me, these issues are well documented all over Dells own support forums. If they didn't know about them after that then God help us. What I hoped has happened is that they have addressed the issues in the 8.1 driver set. All of which are much more more up to date driver version numbers.

[hawc]

At least it is more reliable than my XPS 8500! I have an engineer booked for Friday

[Dos_Box]

At least it is more reliable than my XPS 8500! I have an engineer booked for Friday

 

Erp! What's the problem with it?

[Dos_Box]

As a final note. The New 8.1 drivers for the Killer Wi-Fi card have been very stable and in the past 2 weeks I've had no problems at all. Nice to see Dell finally sorted out this issue!

[jallsop]

Hi all

 

Anyone got an updated link to the newer drivers. all links here are 404s now. I have a student with a Razor laptop with 1202 card, and it simply will not connect to our network. Same card in win 7 work fine. Win 8 or 8.1 is a no go. PITA. (Network is Cisco WPA2-Enterprise, AES and then PEAP v2 second auth) nothing special. We've applied the update to the controller to fix the handshake issue that were reported.

[Dos_Box]

You can get them from here: Driver Downloads | Qualcomm Atheros, Inc.