Dell XPS 13 2015 Broadwell Infinity Display Owners Thread

I received my Dell XPS 13 (2015) with Windows 8.1 a few days ago and noticed I didn't receive an Reinstallation Disk with it as I have with my other Dell Desktop computers over the years. Has anyone been able to get one by calling Dell. I was just wondering as I would like have this incase of a hard drive failure. This happened to my desktop once and I used the Reinstallation disk to reinstall Windows 7 on it.

 

Optical discs are dead, better get used to it.
You can download a copy of Windows pretty much everywhere. You can then install the OS via an USB thumb drive.
This is 2015.

 

I called Dell and got a USB with Windows on it.

The only touchpad settings are in Charms / Settings / PC Settings

Same, no noise from mine at all even with dozens of Firefox tabs open. The only time the fan comes on is if im doing video editing.

 

Hi all, got the FHD, 8GB RAM, I5 unit, switched the 128GB SSD for a Transcend 512 GB SATA III SSD. Have had it for two weeks now, and am mostly loving it. The Matte display is the nicest I've had in any laptop- it's great! I also love the size/weight, and the keyboard works well. I have had zero fan noise issues.

Like others, I do find the touchpad a bit finicky. It almost feels like the clickpad is too slippery. I disabled Taps in PC settings (long delay would probably work as well), and have mostly gotten used to it, just occasional mis-clicks.

I also bought the Dell DC PC Power Dongle for my 90V Dell power cords (around $12), this adapter works really well.

 

That deserves to be returned. More importantly, Im really interested on your particular unit, you mentioned you did not notice any automatic brightness changes even when you go to a dark web page and switch to a bright one. NOT AT ALL? Cause I have a service ticket with Dell Tech support already 4 weeks old now and this is the issue I raised to them. I have been bombarding Dell about this issue.

 

one thing that really annoys me is that the touchpad is getty really dirty very quick. how do you clean it? is there a foil to prevent that?

 

and for some reason it wont change audio output when i connect my headset

 

The MST hub sounds interesting. Does anyone have experience hooking this up with their XPS?

 

Shame that the ROMOSS sofun 4 doesn't seem to be available in the UK - are they any other suitable products like this?

 

Following up on this, I would add that I have had the experience of hooking up a newer Dell monitor (U2415M) that supports DisplayPort 1.2 MST to a PC (Intel NUC) that has a HD 4400 GPU. I daisy chained it to another Dell monitor that supports DP 1.1. Ran them both at 1920x1200 rez.

So if you are open to getting a new monitor, you can get this feature for 'free'.

 

Here's a nice review of the club3 MST:

http://www.eteknix.com/club3d-sensevision-multi-stream-transport-displayport-hub-review/

 

Hi guys

Just received my laptop today i7 512 3800x1200.
Everything nice, no bad surprise.

One thing changed though, is the SSD which is not anymore Liteon.

It is a Toshiba M.2 2280-D2, M2 connection.
http://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/...ba-SSD-HG6-Series-Brochure-Revision.1.0.6.pdf

The good : low power consumption
The bad : performance sucks... found a review and could not believe the latency on the very high side (up to 10ms... like harddisk). Very surprised.
http://www.storagereview.com/toshiba_hg6_ssd_review

Anyhow I have a XP941 waiting that I will install tonight.
(poor consumption, 80mW idle vs 50mW on Toshiba, almost 5.8W operating vs 3W on Toshiba).

I think it is the extrement power optimisation on Toshiba side that's not good.
Will keep you posted if replacement (and clean windows install goes well)

 

A new intel 5500 graphics driver released 3-8 and it will not install on the xps 13.

It annoys me how Dell cripples your system and makes you wait for their changed driver versions.

 

If you want you can manually force it via device manager.

 

Great! I will try that now!

Thank you!

 

As that´s just an iGPU i don´t know if the driver does "that" matter, so for me as customer it´s ok if dell will have "own" specific drivers for that in the first couple of month´s, they may contain any optimisation which "stock" drivers may not have (but i did not looked into that just thinking about it).

So in my shopping cart is the i7/256GB/8GB/QHD+ for 1399€ as the i5 version (everything else similar) is just 70€ less.

Anyone any kind of complaints (not 100% sure as the specs near similar for both CPU´s i guess the i7 may a little percent faster when needed in future... not sure)

Greetings, aVa

 

I tried forcing the driver and failed. However deleting the dell driver allows you to install new one. Not sure if it will be better,worse or the same? I can always revert back if needed.

 

Yes, please let us know how good the XP941 is working in the XPS 13 and if you had any trouble installing windows on the XP941

 

How do I do a clean install of Windows 8.1 on the XPS 13 2015?

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

 

... bad luck, does not work.
But maybe not far though :

- I made a clean install with the Microsoft tool, and a flash drive (maybe not uefi)
Everything went well, ssd recognized, formated one partition, install going well. Then it said remove flash disk & reboot

- From that point, impossible to finish install :
a/ SSD is absolutely not visible from the setup (whatever option sata3 y/n, ahci on/off)
b/ At boot message "can not find boot devices"

... shame. Putted back the other SSD while waiting.

Need help

 

Maybe this can help: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19622259

 

Does anyone know whether the built in RAM in the XPS 13 is single channel like the one in the Thinkpad X250 (although the one in the Thinkpad is exchangeable) is?
I heard that the single/dual channel thing affects the speed of the internal GPU ...
Sorry if this is a noob question.

 

I saw somewhere it is 2x2GB or 2x4GB, dual channel.

 

Nash -
Read the post on Dell site, then follow the steps here to fix boot record. Mine was not a clean install but rather a system restore.

http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2013/12/how-to-repair-the-efi-bootloader-in-windows-8/

The ssd works great.

 

So I just spoke to Dell and they are going to (hopefully, not fully approved yet) do an advanced exchange on my unit that had the popping bezel and coil whine.

Hopefully the replacement unit is flawless, I'll be ultra <adjective> if the replacement has the same or new issues.

We'll see in a week or two.

 

Have you considered just letting the fans run for a while and let it do its thing? It is very possible that it is doing some updating/syncing/whatever while plugged in. And it wants fans on.

Mine was kinda loud the first couple days. Now, the fans very rarely turn on. And I still use Chrome for most surfing.

 

fan grinding sound issue=solved!
dell has sent out a technician (getronics) for fan replacement. they also changed the display due to unevenly lit screen. very nice guy, no scratches. he only broke one clip on the back of the laptop but no big deal.

i'm happy now

 

@ ericxps, hello, I also think I have same issue as you wrt "unevenly lit screen"

can you tell me more about procedure with screen. I am not asking for replacement bcs I am afraid they will break open the bezzels and the corners of my screen will be damaged

did you see similar things as? http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...screen-color-calibration.772466/#post-9948827

 

you cant just replace the screen as its glued to the top panel. the guy from dell replaced everything from the hinges upwards (the whole top part of the pc).

my screen didnt look to obviously unevenly lit. i just could notice it a bit when scrolling on a white page like youtube comments. all 3 screens i have seen so far had darker spots to some degree. this one is about as good as the one on my first unit which i originally sent back due to fan rattling. hope i answered your question

 

thanks for your answer; one last question. Did have QHD or FHD. The FHD is plastic corners, maybe it is possible here to break it open (whereas for QHD it is impossible)

 

ughh i just got my replacement and it's having the same issue as my original one and the fan is even louder!!

Whenever i move my laptop its making this grinding noise......
I'm wondering if you guys have the same problem.
And how often does your fan turn on?
Mine turns on from just opening one tab from chrome and stays on long period of time...and super loud.

I'm starting to doubt dell's quality. Dell's engineer is working to find a solution which may take 3-4 days. My last day for refund is 3/24/15. If they don't call me by Monday, I'm just going to refund it.

 

Honestly I am very happy with mine, I did repaste the CPU/GPU, I also have the toshiba drive and I dont see any lag the disk mark scores are 468read 448write which is pretty good in my book.

I would like better battery life but for the performance in this system I can live with the 6 hours I get.

 

ahh yes you are right. i have the qhd screen. it might actually be possible to pry off the bezels on the 1080p screens. you could possibly ask them if the could chance the whole lid. i wouldnt mind though, just inspect it after repair if he did a good job.

in my case a fan replacement solved that whereas a replacement unit had the same problem as i stated above.

 

Which cpu do you have, and do the repaste give you lower temperatures and less noise (fan running/not running) ?

 

how often does your fan turn on?

 

I have the i7 and honestly did not check temps, I always repaste soon as I get a new system.

The fan never comes on browsing or emails and lightly comes on during video playbacks. Running 3dmark skydive my temps hit peak of 86cpu/83gpu.

I wish I had tested before pasting to compare.

 

Thank you!

 

New Touchpad Firmware available for Download on the Dell drivers page!

 

I am oddly hyped for this

 

Whats the driver called? Can't seem to find any touchpad drivers on the Dell support site for my product.

 

It's under a firmware tab in my support page.
Direct link: http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER02883019M/1/9343_Firmware_T792T_WN32_18.1.48_A00.EXE

 

Weird. Does not show up. Is it Windows 32-bit? Anyway, I downloaded the file you linked and installed it. Seems to be a huge improvement to me when it comes to precision. No more flimsy mouse pointer.

 

No idea why it doesnt show up. But i also think that it's way better than before.

 

I agree touchpad is now precise. Good job Dell.

 

the firmware is listed on the dell downloads page for windows 8... but when i run it says "a synaptics driver must be installed"...

are you guys running this on win7?

 

There is still a bit of latency/lag if you're moving the pointer really slowly, but if you move with just a little bit of speed, the latency is pretty much gone. Overall it's quite a solid improvement.

@tylerbilbo: I ran it on a Microsoft Signature edition with Windows 8.1.

 

Running on Windows 8.1

The placebo is real. I am enjoying it. It seems more responsive (on firefox so far, just flashed it.)

 

i needed to update intel IO then it worked for me on win8.1
latency is gone but i still find it jumpy as hell gaahhh