Dell XPS 13 2015 Broadwell Infinity Display Owners Thread

Does anyone know if this laptop supports encryption out of the box? I reformatted the drive and did a fresh windows install, and now the option for disk encryption on the PC Info screen isn't there. So I'm worried I messed something up by wiping the drive and installing fresh windows. Unless it never was enabled and I'm going crazy, I could be confusing that with my thinkpad tablet. Do I just need to upgrade to 8.1 Pro to have encryption capabilities? This will be required for school so I need to get this sorted out in the next few weeks.

 

What school requires encryption?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

http://www.mghihp.edu/about-us/offi...logy/computers-mobile-devices/encryption.aspx

 

It's the i7 5600 that has a tpm module installed, I haven't seen it listed on other models (dell. Se) without it you need to use either a USB drive E or a password when booting with encryption.

 

The i7 5500 also has a TPM.
You need to be running the Pro version of Windows to be able to enable Bitlocker however and I believe that the XPS ships with the consumer version of Windows 8.1 (mine certainly did) and so you cannot use this unless you upgrade/re-install to 8.1 Pro.

 

Is there a control panel applet or some other place from which I can verify the presence of TPM? I would upgrade Windows Pro if I can confirm the presence of the prerequisite chip.

 

You can just look in Device Manager, Security Devices. If it is there it should show "Trusted Platform Module 2.0"

 

Sorry for offtopic, but theres quoted "or" (be encrypted or password protected) so i would understand you should have to use one of those.

Back to topic: mine XPS13 is shipped now *yay* just 2 weeks left

 

My XPS 13 with i5-5200U, 8GB RAM, and 256GB Samsung PM851 SSD has TPM 2.0.

Separately, A03 Bios just out 30 March 2015:

Fixes & Enhancements:
1. Fix I3-5010 CPU performance issue.

 

If you want TPM and Bitlocker and Windows 8.1 Pro on any XPS (not just the i7) you have to order it from Dell Business, which is what I did and always do with Dell laptops knowing their business support (and options) are way better then the Home department.

 

anyone still having issues with the fan after a02 update? My fan won't turn off while its charging and its really loud. should i even bother with a02 since its for i3 performance improvement? i crrently own i5 qhd.

 

screen was replaced, old one was too dark (white was kinda greyish). The new screen is not much better, but I suppose I can (learn to) live with it... I am not a big fan of screen, since I have to read on white backgrounds all day. All other colors are very vibrant and nice. I guess for other purposes the screen is good.

Dell support on phone was very good, guy who came was also nice

Though something crazy was observerd... when opening laptop, there was a loose screw somewhere on the motherboard inside (suppose it was dropped in the factory); raises some serious questions about manufacture proces

 

My XPS 13 bought from the New Zealand consumer Dell site came with 8.1 Pro. It also came with DVD recovery media for 8.1 Pro, which is a bit useless.

 

Hopefully you'll receive it a lot sooner than that. Mine was at the door next business day when I got the notification it had shipped. (message on Friday, delivered on Monday).

 

Seems Dell is continuosly fixing reported issues on this model. Hopefully they fix next the Content Adaptive Backlight Control which is turned ON by default but no option to disable in BIOS.

 

According to this http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-13-Early-2015-Notebook-Review.139382.0.html

The DELL XPS 13 has a new non-tourch Screen made by Sharp.

Anyone can confirm this? I'm confusing between this laptop and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon gen 3

 

Hello All... new qhd i5 8/256 owner. First dell I have owned in a long time. I hope it to be my daily driver as my yoga pro 2 (which I love) just simply doesn't have the horsepower I need (4gb ram is definitely a limitation).

Couple of notes in response to some of the things I have read (and my 8 hours of ownership)

• I had starscream caliber fan noise from first boot. I tried to live with it...but after four hours and some solid reading, updated to A03 BIOS. This significantly improved the fan speed and spin up frequency...even on charge.
• I too have the light bleed in the bottom corners of the screen...and when brightness is cranked it is pretty noticeable. Though I don't know if it is enough to warrant a a return
• I know that I have read some people having issues with chrome out of the box...just a suggestion: I use canary because I like some of the bleeding edge features (though stability can be questionable)...but it doesnt suffer from the stuttering in scrolling or the hdpi scaling issues that many have alluded to. Just a thought

Finally, I am running the windows 10 tech preview....it definitely has a ways to go, but...it does handle the display density extremely well.

Glad to be part of the community, hope to have some positive feedback over the coming weeks.

 

I got my i7 QHD yesterday. I left Dell to update it as it chose (including bios A03) and also some Windows updates - mostly to my copy of office. I've left all the software running including McAfee and allowed indexing to do it's job on about 40gb of documents.

The fan is now silent both when charging and when doing web browsing - even with my ear to the vent I cannot hear it, so I think it is not turning. The base of the XPS is warm but not more than my other laptops and not annoying. CPU temperature at the moment says 26 degrees C.

When I something CPU intensive such as a benchmark the fan switches on, but never particularly loud. I didn't experience the XPS without A03, but the fan is certainly quitter than on my other Dell and my Toshiba.

As to the QHD screen, no issues at all. If I display an all-black screen at maximum brightness there is a faint glow down both sides, especially if viewed at an angle, but in normal use it is simply not a problem.

Too early to tell on battery life, but last night browsing on WiFi at maximum brightness I got over 7 hours before I switched off, and there was still supposedly 1:42 left.

Well pleased overall.

 

Hi,

Speaking of screws and manufacture process, I also have a story to tell :

I received a i7-5600 / 256Gb / QHD+ last week, and the fan was making a very annoying noise, it wasn't turning all the time, but when it does, it was like the fan was rattling on something. It was very noticeable when moving the laptop during fan activity.

I called the support (very nice guys), and they asked me to open the laptop, just to see if something was touching the inside of the fan. I hung up the phone and opened the laptop, not only to see that nothing was interfering with the fan, but to find at least 3 screws missing (1 for the fan, 2 for the battery) !

I called the support again, explaining that this is not acceptable for the price I paid, and that I wanted a new unit and not a tech having the missing screws added. They totally agreed and adviced me to return it, as they can't make an exchange, just repair it.

I returned it and ordered a new one (just changing the i7-5600 to the cheaper i7-5500), but now i'm afraid to discover flaws in the new unit .........

So for now, I'm totally in love with this laptop, but very suspicious about Dell quality control .....

And you guys ? Any stories of missing / loose screws or rattling fan ?

PS : Sorry if some parts of my story are not clear but english is not my native language.

 

Yes, all the panels are made by SHARP using IGZO tech

 

lol (ironic).. yes agree i also would prefer to receive an replacement if there some screws missing as you never know what else will be missing there too which may generate trouble in the future (and after guarantee).

i´m looking forward that my XPS13 (i75500/256/QHD) will not have any issue.

Regards
aVa

 

I got the top-end model with 512GB SSD from the normal Dell consumer website, and it came with a TPM and Windows 8.1 Pro (and I'm using BitLocker). Although, what may be different here, is that I was chatting to a Dell rep online to confirm that it had a TPM and I ordered it through him, so maybe it did come from Dell Business. He also gave me an £88 discount without even being asked!

 

Is anyone using mDP->HDMI cable or adapter? Which one?

 

the price is not worth it, i would go with DELL DA100 for round about 70 bugs as it contains a lot of further stuff (Ethernet, VGA(Beamer)...)

To your question i guess it does not matter which mDP to HDMI converter you use =)

 

I have used many and they all work. I have this plus a few cables...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00UF8S82Y?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

 

I'll check it out, thanks.

 

Well, I tried http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?item_id=027908 yesterday and it didn't work (HDMI devices are detected but no picture).

 

Random observation, but when I first got my XPS a couple of weeks ago, "Config TDP Level" in advanced power options had two options in the pull-down: 15.0W @ 0.6 GHz, and 15.0W @ 2.4 GHz.

Today I just happened to notice that I now only have the 2.4 GHz option, the other has disappeared.

I've updated the BIOS three times (A00 to A03) since then, is it this that's responsible? Anybody else on A03 still got the 0.6 GHz option?

I was using the 2.4 GHz option anyway, but just curious as to why it's gone.

 

Heads up regarding the A03 BIOS update:

If you have an i5 processor it will always be stuck at 0.5 GHZ.
Had to reflash A02.

That is what happened to me as well. Run HWMonitor or some other monitoring program and use your laptop normally. If you feel like your machine is running slower the maximum recorded frequency will confirm it.

 

Same with i7 went back to A01 for me A02 temps a little too high A03 performance took a huge hit.

 

Have the FHD, i5, 8GB, 256. Came with the A01, and just flashed the A03. Processor performance is perfect, fan does not come on unless really taxed, and temps are good. The big difference I notice with A03 is better trackpad performance over A01, especially in IE. Chrome is still not perfect though. Scaling is better in IE anyways at this point. All other apps including Office are great w/ trackpad. Power consumption seems better too - over 10 hours for me on a charge with mainly office, some adobe acrobat, graph pad prism, mendeley, internet explorer.

 

does run a bit warmer, but not alarming so, with A03.

 

Experienced my audio gremlin again today. I had shut of my mobile connection so my XPS was running disconnected and I heard a very short burst of sound. Then a short while later a second or two of classical music (crystal clear!). Maybe 10 minutes later another very short burst of sound for a fraction of a second. The laptop had been idle for maybe an hour or so before the first sound and continued silent after the third burst. I.e. was not running IE though a look at Task Manager showed that a single Google Chrome process was running.

I ran a malware scan (using a couple of well rated tools) which came up with nothing. This infrequent problem may not happen on a given day, then I may get a few sound bursts within 10 or 15 minutes. No keyboard activity or network connectivity required. Nothing visible or unusual in either IE or Chrome when these occur. I've slowly been reducing the number of processes that I let start at boot.

This problem doesn't seem to correlate with any particular installs I have done and has persisted over driver, BIOS and Windows updates. Never experienced anything like this before on any computer. I expect this is a one off but if anyone else experiences something similar do drop me a note!

It looks like I will need to find a way to monitor all of the processes that attempt to access the sound card and then leave the laptop idling and hope my gremlin strikes. And no, this is not an April fools joke!

 

I am on A03, i5 8/256 and my processor scales under load... confirmed using HWmon

 

Try Chrome Canary from the Dev channel. It scales perfectly with hdpi (on qhd) displays and scrolling is smoothhhhhhh

 

I also had a strange sound like a camera click/scratch when my last Window 8.1 laptop was idle. Turned out to be the Windows search sound from the old search helper/dog. When its idle it scratched itself. Not sure the graphics or dog or paper clip are still in 8.1 but the sound was. Disabling this sound in the Control panel stopped it. I also have it on my new XPS but I cannot find that sound option so for now I also hear it too.

 

On the A03 BIOS my i7 CPU fluctuates quite happily through all the different clock speeds, right up to the maximum. Temps seem fine, the fan comes on sometimes but not very loudly.

 

Hi Ablazes, I just got my XPS 13 and get the same error message when trying to install Intel Smart Connect. Did you find a way to solve it?

Thanks, Claus

 

Woke up to big scare today. Brand new XPS-13. Brand new 4k monitor. Worked on them together for first time yesterday. Everything was fine when I closed the lid at night. Opened laptop lid this morning, and no display. Nothing. Nada.

Fortunately, it looks like the laptop itself is ok. Tested it on a VGA monitor using a DP to VGA adapter, and that works. Plugged Macbook into 4k display, and that fails. Going out later this morning to try and find a new DP cable so that I can hopefully determine whether it is the cable that is failing, or the monitor itself.

Quite a discouraging development, to be honest. Am hoping for just a bad cable. Fearing I may need to warranty the monitor. Glad the laptop seems to be ok.

 

Managed to find a DP to HDMI adapter in town, and am able to run the monitor from that, but at only 1080p resolution. Is it possible to select higher with HDMI? Windows isn't letting me. 1080p is the highest I'm able to select at the moment.

This evening my son will pick up a fresh DP cable, so that we can hopefully narrow down whether I just have a bad DP cable, or whether the monitor's DP interface is shot.

 

Any expected Easter sales on these models?

 

Hi. No, I haven't. Just don't have the proper time to test different solutions either. I'll try to do a clean install of windows later. My computer seems to be running 24/7 now as I don't switch it off or set it to hibernate. I hate the smart connect issues. Hope it doesn't affect my battery wear too much.

 

What's the procedure for updating the bios with BitLocker? I'm still on A00 and I have zero problems, but if I decide to update I don't want to be locked out.

 

Very interesting. If I don't have any luck elsewhere I will trying disabling system sounds (all of them) and see if that has any effect. I did briefly listen to all the system sounds and nothing sounded like what I heard but, well desperate times call for desperate measures!

 

Does anyone know if this laptop has auto brightness via ambient light sensor?

 

It isn't any different. I switched on Bitlocker whilst on A00, then upgraded sequentially to A01, A02, then A03 as and when they were released.

What makes you think it would be any different? The BIOS is separate to the encrypted SSD. To be honest, it never occurred to me that there might be a problem. I've been running my Surface Pro 2 fully Bitlocker-ed for 18 months without any issues.

Well the ambient light option shows up in Power Settings, put it that way. I didn't seem to do anything, though. It was still too bright when in a dark room, if the brightness level was adjusted for daylight. I've found that 40% is about right for most environments, so I've just left it at that.

 

kind of a disappointment for such an expensive laptop if they omitted an ambient light sensor

 

Anyone know why the scrolling is so bad in Chrome? It doesn't make sense that it's so smooth in IE yet so bad in Chrome...

 

This is happening to me, especially since the A01 BIOS update which had some fixes for repeated keystrokes in Linux. Rolling back to A00, the repeated keystrokes seem to happen a lot less in Windows. But of course there are no fixes for the noisy fans etc there.

 

" Updating BIOS with Bitlocker If BitLocker is not suspended, the next time you reboot the system it will not recognize the BitLocker key.
You will then be prompted to enter the recovery key to progress and the system will ask for this on each reboot." - http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN153694/EN

"Disable BitLocker if you need to update the computer’s basic input/output system (BIOS) or startup files. This precaution will help prevent BitLocker from locking the drive and can help avoid the potentially lengthy decryption process. Enable BitLocker again when the update is complete and you have restarted the computer." - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...er-drive-encryption-and-decrypting-the-volume