Dell XPS 13 2015 Skylake Infinity Display Owners Thread

I don't think so cause it hasn't usb-c (thunderbolt 3) input, only thunderbolt 2 (or 1) which xps 9350 lacks.

 

Has anyone found a USB-C to HDMI adapter that works? I've seen a few reviews on several adapters that either don't work or are finicky. Has anyone tried the Google adapter?

 

Very true. My guess is they'll come out with an updated Thunderbolt 3 version soon.

This looks like the dock we'd all like.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

 

I've had an annoying issue twice now when the XPS 13 simply refuses to enter sleep, hibernate or even shut down completely. Both times I've not realized this until I opened my laptop and saw that the battery had drained. In each case, it powered back on immediately - even when hard powering off from the BIOS screen. Multiple restarts and full shutdowns did nothing to correct the problem.

It's a very odd issue. Event logs show nothing at all, only that WIndows has resumed for unknown reasons, powercfg shows no reason, neither do BIOS logs have any explanation. Since even shutdown from BIOS was affected, I can only guess at some transient hardware state that prevents powering down. I couldn't isolate the problem to any specific usage of the laptop, but both times it happened over the weekend, which I guess can't be a coincidence.

If this happens to anyone else, all that worked for me was restarting in Safe Mode, then rebooting. Why, I haven't a clue ...

 

http://www.amazon.de/CSL-Adapter-Su...TF8&qid=1447009453&sr=8-4&keywords=usb+3+hdmi

I bought this one for 14€ at the time, but I'm not sure if it's available internationally.

 

I solved this sleep issue by uninstalling TeamViewer

 

Same thing happened with me last night . I dont know what is it.
Somebody please put some light on this issue .

 

I faced anyone with the problem that the touchpad does not respond to pressing, is only the touch panel? And who can tell what is better to install the driver on the touchpad? In support there is nothing for the touchpad for the model 9350

I tested in windows 10 and 8.1.

 

Hello, my computer is due to be delivered today. With the XPS, should I plug it in and charge it full before turning it on or does it not matter?

Or should I let it run all the way near dead before charging? TIA

 

Mine was at about 90% charged when it came. Doesn't matter, just turn it on.

And try to never ever run it near dead. It's not good for the battery.

 

Don't let it run all the way near dead, at least not initially.

I would probably let it charge fully before you use it. But the truth is, it probably won't make much of a difference. Just use it like you would normally for the first week or so, until all the updating/indexing is done.

When things have settled down, use it once on battery until the computer shuts down. That will help calibrate Windows' battery meter. You really only need to do this once. Doing it too often will actually stress the battery.

BTW, when did you place your order?

 

So keep it plugged into the wall for a week straight? Unless I misunderstood that sounds like it would hurt the battery.

And on Black Friday with one day shipping. I called dell and the tech I spoke to actually told me the opposite. Said I should run it down to about 10% then charge it all the way up.

 

No, I said "use it like you would normally for the first week or so." Meaning, use it plugged in when you would normally use it plugged in, and on battery when you would normally use it on battery.

 

Okay, I gotcha now. The first sentence of your second paragraph threw me off haha

 

Does this one really work? It says "not compatible with windows" at the amazon offer.

 

And I am the third that had this issue last night. Sunday evening I put it to sleep with full charge. Monday morning the battery had 5%, so I put it to charger and let it charge, I dont know how could that have happened... Since then one occassion happened that I couldnt wake it up - got stuck with Dell logo and had to reboot (I hope this is the last time). The computer updated some drivers on itself on Sunday.

@touchpad -
I was unintentionally pinching and zooming quite often... I disabled most of its multitouch funcionality and it is better with the scrolling now. Although it is still not always perfect with scrolling (which is all I expect to be perfect with 2015 touchpad, as it was perfect on both my 2009 and 2005 laptops). I hope they will fix the scrolling, I dont mind anything else.

 

Dell XPS 13 review: The best Windows laptop just got better !!!
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/7/9860958/dell-xps-13-laptop-review-2015


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Yes it does. Have been using it for a while now, albeit only with a FHD screen, so I can't comment on 4k.

 

The 12" ATIV 9 is non-touch but extremely glossy and reflective.

 

New third party USB docking station for pretty good price!
http://www.sandberg.it/cs-cz/product/USB-C-Dock-HDMI-Plus-SD-Plus-USB-Plus-USB-C
Also supports charging (meant for 12" Macbook). Does anyone have that?

 

Has anyone who ordered from Dell on Cyber Monday had their XPS 13 ship yet? IIRC, the expected ship date on the website was December 8, but my order page shows my unit is still in production with an estimated delivery date of December 15.

Also, has anyone had their order delayed or canceled? I see several such reports on XPS 15 threads, but none from people who ordered the XPS 13.

 

I ordered on black Friday. It shipped yesterday.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

 

Cool, thanks. By this timeline, orders on Cyber Monday should ship later this week. Fingers crossed...

 

Hey Guys. i have had my xps for about a month now (i7 16gb ram 512gb ssd qhd) and ive noticed some problems and im wondering if anyone has had the same experience.

- sometimes does not sleep when lid is closed
- strange fan clicking / grinding ( basically not smooth ) under heavy load also very hot
-crackling noise from the speakers occasionally but almost with every video when watching youtube videos.
-display driver always crashing (latest drivers and updates installed)
-i guess a chrome issue but will not stream 4k smoothly in chrome( local files and videos on edge do )

these are small issues and shouldn't put anyone off who is looking to buy one but they are annoying and very noticeable, any solutions ? cheers

 

I had the display driver thing, it would go down for a second, then almost immediately recover, went away after an update thankfully.

 

Hello I just bought the Dell Skylake xps 13 16GB i7-512GB last night. I came home and powered it up and within about 10 minutes the device continually would flash black and then "recover" back to what I was looking for.
I was not happy and took it back today and they did a direct exchange for it. In all my years with laptops I have never seen anything like that which didn't turn out to be a hardware issue. However, you make it seem like it might just be a software issue.
Could you point me to where I can download the drivers for the update? I am used to getting my video drivers only with my discreet video cards on my desktops.
Also could you describe the display driver crashing with a littler more detail?
My symtoms were :
1) sudden screen going black
2) either comes back immediately the same resolution
3) or comes back after a brief flash/tearing in the screen display and then it is in a slightly different resolution and sometimes a chime could be heard.
Again, I figured if it was a software problem (display drivers) then I might have seen some sort of blue screen type of error in Windows 10.
Thank you.

 

First point : wait for a bios update coming soon (mid-December estimated ETA).


This next bios update will also add 2 extra hours (battery life) ! here :
http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/dell-xps-13-battery-life-fix


Second point : strange fan ? What do you mean ? yes it gets quite hot, nothing abnormal regarding my fan noise however
Video display driver crash : still not totally resolved but : Download latest Intel driver here follow the instructions to install a NON-Dell driver (but a whql certified intel driver) follow the how to here, it's simple : don't forget to restart after that. This new driver fixes MS Edge crashes and nearly all video driver crash situation (i still have rare crashes on the ECLIPSE ide) :

Regarding 4K => Stream with MS Edge and the latest driver i linked you, Chrome is HORRIBLE with 4K and HTML5, it bottlenecks the CPU whereas Edge uses <10% of my cpu for 4K stream...(compared to ~90% with chrome !!)


@sjankis630 : It's 1000% a driver issue, nothing to do with your hardware no need to change it.
it's related to the sklake IGPU : the intel HD520 and its win10 drivers : a little unstable those problems are also found on the surface pro and surface book with skylake inside. Intel released two driver updates that fixes a lot of crash, (and both are still not published by dell), but there's still some crashes and they're working on it. If you want to install the latest intel driver read above .

 

This addon should fix Chrome issue: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/h264ify/aleakchihdccplidncghkekgioiakgal

But you shouldn't use Chrome anyway if you plan on running this thing on battery for long time, because it drains it faster than other browsers.

 

Go to your device manager and update drivers using online method. Even if you updated all the drivers through Dell, Windows is still able to find updates for some. Also, download the Intel Beta Graphics Driver found here. I've also read that there is a new one that is not on the Intel website just yet when you update it manually. Hope this helps

 

cheers for the help and tips guys !! greatly appreciated . the fan noise is hard to describe . its very random and only under heavy load . it sounds like the fan blades slightly hit something everyonce in a while . if you have ever heard a horribly creaking bearing its pretty much a quieter version of that .i might try catch it on video sometime to properly show the problem.. @
wickette
my display driver mostly only crashes running eclipse also . that makes two of us then . i guess you also experience the horribly scaled ui in eclipse . maybe thats the root of the problem

 

For Eclipse scaling problem, you can try this guide
https://jaxenter.com/netbeans/hidpi-with-eclipse-and-netbeans

It works perfectly for me and I doesn't have tiny icons anymore.

 

I just got the update to Dell BIOS from 1.0.5 to 1.1.7, even though this isn't currently available on the Dell download site or via Dell Update. Here's how:

1. Open Device Manager.
2. Select View > Show hidden devices
3. Now you'll see an entry for Firmware, expand and right-click on System Firmware
4. Choose Update Driver Software, then Search automatically, this will download Dell Firmware 1.1.7 update
4. Plug in to AC and reboot, BIOS update will install

It was an odd way to get the update, but confirmed BIOS is now 1.1.7 ... I only found this update was available by running Microsoft's handy Show/Hide Updates tool: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930

One immediate thing I've noticed is that it currently idles at ~1.7W rather than 4-5W ... I guess this is the promised power-saving feature at work.

Edit: I also had to re-enable audio in BIOS as it was disabled for some reason by the update.

 

It works! Thanks.

Did Firmware also disappear from Device Manager for you? It shows up if I enable "Show hidden devices", but it says "This hardware is not connected".

 

Nope, still shows fine for me with a System Firmware 1.1.7 entry. Try a reboot?

 

OK, I give, where do I go in Windows 10 to see if I've got this update yet?

My XPS 13 (QHD, 8GB 256GB) was delivered yesterday, and I installed all the driver updates from dell.com/support. Window's update has downloaded and installed a few updates and now says it is up-to-date. In case it matters, I have Windows 10 Home, not Professional.

 

Settings/System/About for example.
Two Finger Pinch to Zoom still seems to make things worse though.

 

Thanks a lot, will try this.

 

Yup, rebooted multiple times. Anyway, I won't bother with it. Laptop works fine, so I will just leave it alone. Usually I would try uninstalling and re-installing device, but considering the fact that updating the driver triggered BIOS update, I don't dare doing this.

 

Cool find, thanks, running 1.1.7 now. And thanks for pointing out the fact that it disabled audio in the BIOS, this would have driven me crazy..

 

I wonder why Dell are always late regarding their drivers/Bios....clearly the bios has been out for weeks (in beta testing), and it's now in a release/final state since it's in the windows update database.
Same for video drivers, people are complaining about Video driver crashes but Dell doesn't bother releasing intel drivers that fix a lot of issues..why shoot yourself in the leg ?

 

The noise coming from some laptops may also be coil whine. I have it. It can be heard only in quiet environment in working distance or when you put your ear closer to the keyboard. It is more audible when the CPU usage is +- over 10%, I can hear it even when scrolling using touchpad or keyboard (up, down). It is very subtle buzz like there is a regular hard drive inside performing read or write, but more quiet. I usually have idle CPU usage around 5% (I do lots reading/writing), I am not sure if it is gonna change in the next 1 or 2 years (when Win10 catches more thrash and background apps running), or when I plug in external display (can not try at the moment) cause higher CPU usage may make it audible more often.
This is my first quiet laptop, I wonder if it is normal/usual or not. It is nowhere near the coil whine the previous XPS 13s (2014) had but still dont know if it may get worse or not. Would you contact Dell for repair?

 

I have a i7/16gb/1tb qhd configuration. At 50% screen brightness with no battery saver, the time displayed for the battery is about 3:30 min after charging for 100%. This is my first charge. Where does the 7 or 10hrs come from as advertised in the Dell website? Just over 3 hrs.....Is This a battery issue?

 

Bios 1.1.7 is already available to download on Dell Support page.

 

Wow amazing changelog

They didn't even mention battery life.

 

You could try, however I don't think there is a solution to this. Only thing they probably would do is changing the mainboard which will not have any effects however.

I had three different skylake notebooks the last few weeks (800€, 900€, 1000€) and the two more expensive ones had subtle coil whining. As far as I can see, it seems that this issue is very common. Maybe the years before too, but you could hardly recognize it, as notebooks tended not to be absolutely silent, now talking about the fan. With ultrabooks which turn off the fan when doing normal stuff, it now gets more apparent.

 

chankoedo: True. Could you tell us which Skylake notebooks had the coil whining? Was it Dell or other manufacturers? I guess it has something to do with the motherboard or CPU. I dont know if Dell was solving this issue with the past notebooks (such as XPS 13 2014, which suffered from it), I guess someone here could give us a hint.

 

I had the HP Envy 13 and Asus UX303UB.

 

I have the same. Just had my motherboard, power jack and wifi card replaced. Still there. I'll post back when I've had a chance to use it more with the BIOS updat 1.1.7.


He said he'd get back to me tomorrow with what Dell Said.

Quick question: Considering it was a new mobo, the tech applied thermal paste strip on the fresh cpu. But he didn't clean off some of the residue from the heatsink. Will this matter in practice to my lap temps. (Appreciate this does sound obsessive) The thing I am most concerned about with this laptop is the heat. I want it to be cool on my lap just when idle and maybe typing a word document. Both old mobo and new mobo laptop are abit warm in the lap but quiet. I read a review which had the bottom at about room temp. What are other peoples experiences? Thanks

Here are two pics of the original MOBO. I couldn't see an obvious coil componentin that area on top or underneath.

Album of two pics:
http://imgur.com/mOufnOP

edit: here's the second pic http://imgur.com/z5REV45

 

Can someone tell if the battery life improved with the new bios?

 

Any UK people bought from John Lewis?
They are £50 more for the i5/256GB/8GB/FHD but you get 3yrs warranty included and they are in stock.