Dell XPS 13 2015 Skylake Infinity Display Owners Thread

I believe the registry fix above helped.

The laptop still get confused sometimes when I disconnect it and go to battery while it's still on. Then it doesn't know what rules to apply. And sometimes it restarts instead of shutting down.

 

Since the registry fix, mine is working as it should.

 

Yes, after some more days testing I also believe the registry fix above helped.

However the laptop still gets confused when I disconnect the power cord and go to battery while it's still on. Then it doesn't know what rules to apply. And sometimes it restarts instead of shutting down.

Which in reality means it seldom works, since I have the computer plugged in at work every day, unplug it and put it in my bag. And then the battery runs out in a short while, unless I first shut it down first once (turns in to a restart) and then shut it down again. Not so practical.

 

I use only sleep both with battery and plugged in and there hasn't been any problem. Even if I unplug it after sleep.

 

I didn't have any problems for 14 months, but then it somehow appeared. The registry fix seems to have helped, but I've been more weary about the way I use the laptop since. :/

 

Another new BIOS version available. Changelog for v 1.4.14:
Fixes - N/A
Enhancements - 1. Enhance Windows 10 Enterprise RS1 support

 

I'm on the slow Insider slow ring and got a new build yesterday 15058 I believe - and after installing this, I have crazy coil whine. Its like a radio tuner going in the background when scrolling or doing something. It used to quite good and very low.

 

What is "new build 15058" - build of what?

 

Sorry forgot to mention Windows 10 build, coming from the insider preview slow ring. So basically a newer windows version.

 

Got it - thanks. That sucks - my 9350 doesn't have any coil whine that anyone has been sbl to hear under any test and I'm hoping it stays that way. I'm a lucky one on this.

 

I'm becoming the Sleep Issue freak, but... I believe after updating to the new bios, I started again to have sleep issues when unplugged. What solved was doing both the hibernation OFF and the registry fix in BOTH boots I have (I dual boot Win 8 and Win 10). I don't understand why, but that was what did it.

BTW, the register in both OSs was set back to "1" where the registry fix indicates it should be "0" to avoid sleep issues. Wondering if I will ever bother to update BIOS again, as it should be pretty much done after more than 1 year of our XPS release.

 

Honestly I have a love-hate relationship with this laptop now.



In 24 hours, the battery completely died. While the laptop was in sleep mode. With the registry tweak. And the laptop had no idea about it. Damnit dell, why'd you have to make such a beautiful laptop on the outside but a pile of garbage on the inside? This is my first "premium" laptop and the amount of bugs and QC issues is truly disappointing when compared to some of my cheapo $400 Acers.

 

Mine hasn't been that bad.

What'd you use to get that report?

 

Would you all say that this level of backlight bleed is acceptable?

This is an xps 13 9360 that I just purchased. Picture taken in a dark room. Looks much more distinct on camera.



https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3w8aifzZtQxVXB2SW9ORHpDVE0/view?usp=sharing

 

Run command prompt as admin. Run the command "powercfg /batteryreport". Open up the file it generates.

 

Looking for a bit of help with some issues.
I have a 9350 FHD with an i5 6200U.

I am wondering if anyone has experienced a strange dripping or crumpling aluminum foil sound coming from their laptop when tilted to one side under load.
To test this, put the laptop under some sort of load so the fans come on. Hold the laptop vertical on the left side for a few seconds, then swap over to the right. Does anybody get the crumpling sounds or is it just my laptop?

Also, it seems that the GPU regularly hits 100+C under load just before the fans come on. I'm guessing this is not normal behavior?

Any information would be very useful.

 

Mine just jumped from 22% battery to 6% in about 30 seconds. Anybody having any idea what this means for the state of the battery? :|

 

Probably the spinning fan trying to keep its orientation when you move it like that tbh.

 

It sounds like something is interfering with your cooling fan. I'd pop open the back cover and investigate.

 

New BIOS v 1.4.15 available

Fixes - N/A
Enhancements - 1. Enhance System Stability

 

And another BIOS update: v 1.4.17

Fixes and Enhancements - Updated Intel ME Firmware to address security advisory CVE-2017-5689 / INTEL-SA-00075

 

My XPS 13 9350 Skylake i7 IRIS 540 was driving me crazy, because the fan was always kicking in when watching Youtube via external USB-C monitors.
Did a repaste, but the problem is the heat dissipation to the lower cover sheet of the laptop with thermal pads on top of he CPU cooler.
Therefore the advantage of a repaste is gone, when the external body is heating up even more.
The fan will still kick in, only a bit later and maybe for a shorter time.

What i found out:
- The CPU-temperature is not the reason, why the fan kicks in. Had CPU-temps over 80°C with fan at 0 rpm.
With HWInfo64 the "CPU" and "Temp 3" sensors are the ones with highest measurement.
When "Temp 3" gets over 63°C the fan gets over 4000 rpm.
When "Temp 3" sensor going down under 60°C the fan gets slower (3600 rpm)

So the goal is to lower temperature at "Temp 3" sensor and components.
Tried to locate the sensor at the mainboard, seems to be near the CPU and SSD, but couldn't locate it directly.

What i did to make the XPS 13 much quieter (my best result):
- Repaste CPU with GC-Extreme CPU paste
- No thermal pads on top of the CPU cooler and heat pipe (to avoid heat dissipation from the CPU to the body. So more heat capacity left for other components.
- Removed the black sticker around the CPU to add airflow to the surrounding components, left the sticker under the SSD partially.
- Added thermal pads (blue Arctic 1,5mm) to the MOSFETS around the CPU
- Added thermal pads (1mm) on top of the SSD
- Added thermal pad on the silver metal sticker directly upon the USC-C port, near the Wireless-Module, not the square silver encasing.

Now the fan isn't starting anymore then doing low power tasks, like watching Youtube.
"Temp 3" sensor temp sits not at 56°C instead of 63°C, and my room is finally quiet!
Hope it will not overheat any components, but seems to work fine for me.

 

Anyone else notice the touchpad click not registering all the time recently?

I noticed it today but I can't say for sure whether it was the latest BIOS (1.4.17) update or the Windows 10 Creators Update since both were done in the past 3 or 4 days. Tap to click works just fine, but light clicks of the touchpad don't register all the time anymore. Harder clicks seem to register consistently, however.

 

Or simply undervolt the machine. I have the same specs and my fans are never on when undervolting is active. Good luck

 

My 9350 has loud coil whine after rebooting , but once I let it sleep and wake it up the coil whine would be gone.

 

I can report mine has the same issue, I even contacted Dell for a repair since it was getting quite loud once but they refused claiming normal electrical noise. I've learned to ignore it.

On other news, have you guys heard about this? GTX 1070 Gaming Box

I was planning on buying a new laptop for heavier gaming, but this seems a perfect interim solution. Would it work? Do you know of any other worthwhile eGPUs? The other boxes I know of are too expensive sans GPU.

 

Honestly I'd put together a full 1070 rig with a Ryzen 5 instead. Shouldn't be that much more expensive and is much more flexible as well. I wouldn't want to be limited to SFF cards although if you are a laptop-only user I can see how it might appeal to you.

edit: Looks to be a $150 premium or so, here's a real quick list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WfpFnn

Performance might be bottlenecked on the XPS 13 though since Dell only hooked up 2 pcie lanes to the TB3 port iirc.

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Anyone have issues with the 1.4.17 bios? I'm tempted to upgrade but I'll be going on a trip in a couple days and will be bringing my XPS 13. Don't want to have any hiccups with my only computer while I'm away lol.

 

I'm going to update my Dell XPS 13 right now to the latest BIOS and see if I notice any changes/problems.

EDIT: One thing I've noticed, not sure if it's related to a previous BIOS update or what, but I can't hear the coil whine anymore even in the quietest of environments.

 

I just decided to update it yesterday. Living life on the edge I suppose. Everything seems to be working just fine so far.

My XPS 13 still does have a bit of crackling when I put my ear close to the keyboard. Although it's disappointing for a premium laptop, I think I got used to it(still not an excuse for such a pricey laptop, though).

 

I've also yet to experience any issues. I've tried very hard to listen for any coil wine issues. I know when I got it April of last year, the coil wine was definitely audible.

EDIT: I can hear the coil whine from the keyboard, but it is so low I have to be really looking for it in a completely silent environment.

 

After posting I did some research and found that indeed the TB3 port in our machine is a gimped 2 lanes one... Which makes only worth if you use the eGPU with an external screen and even so with a performance hit.

It's a real pity, this laptop would be a perfect candidate for the eGPU usage case

 

Yeah it's definitely disappointing. I picked up this ultrabook literally a week after its release after following the 9343 model for a full year or so. It looked perfect - newest Skylake stuff, ThunderBolt 3, and the great form factor.

Still pretty happy with it now, but there were a surprising amount of hidden drawbacks and bugs that didn't quite make this laptop the solid hitter I thought it would be.

 

Today I ordered a 9350 from the Dell outlet. i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, QHD touchscreen. It was a scratch and dent unit for $839 (+tax). I hope I like it and won't have to return it.

 

Pretty good price. I feel battery life is a bit short on the QHD models when compared to FHD, but now that the majority of the bugs are worked out it should be a decent device.

 

What times are you getting?

 

Heavily brightness and wifi dependent. At 70% brightness or so I get around 6 hours of typical web browsing usage. Drops down to about 5 hours if you're streaming video.

When I had a 1080p panel on mine(Dell swapped my screen to the 1800p when I RMA'd it) i was getting 8-10 hours. It was much better.

 

I connected the Dell XPS 13 9350 to a 24 inch Dell screen through DA-100 adapter and the OpenGl do not work in some programs. What is wrong?

 

Anyone know the screw size for this laptop's back cover? I just know that they're T5. One of the screws closer to the hinge has magically disappeared and the other side has loosened...

 

T5 M2x3mm Torx countersunk seems to be the standard back screw for the XPS line:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DDN6XWO

 

New BIOS v 1.4.18 available

Fixes:
N/A
Enhancements:
1. Fixed a potential security issue with Bootguard code integrity chaining enforcement".
2. Fixed a potential security issue with the Support Assist PreBoot feature
3. Updated processor microcode
4. Update Computrace 957
5. Update Bios boot guard module

 

I'm sure this is an old thread, but I wanted to chime in with my 2 cents on this machine anyway ...

I own the dell xps 13 9350 (2016 model) with the intel iris 540 graphics card. My particular device has the following specs:
----- Intel core i7-6560u processor
---- Intel iris 540 graphics card
--- 512GB NVMe SSD (Toshiba)
-- 16GB Ram (Memory)
- QHD+ Touch Screen (3200x1800)


So there were two models released this year, in 2016 that is, one of the two models had the i7-6500u processor and intel hd 520 graphics, and the other had the i7-6560u processor and intel iris 540 graphics; that is the one I have, and I absolutely LOVE IT!!

reasons why I love this laptop, for one, its extremely durable - I've taken really good care of this laptop regardless, but there have been a few instances where I had dropped something very heavy on the inside where the carbon fiber is (keyboard and trackpad area) and it literally smacked down really hard on the surface, leaving absolutely no wear-or-tear. not even a scratch or mark, extremely surprising as I had expected there to be visible damage from the drop & impact of the blunt device.

Another reason why I am in love with this machine is because of the performance, speed, and usability - this thing is lightning fast (IMO) - I can boot-up the laptop from being shut-down and completely cold in 6.4 seconds flat, with a steady restart/boot-up time not exceeding 6.9 seconds, EVER. And the SSD is extremely fast, loading software and programs/applications is a LIGHTNING FAST process, I love it!

now read & write speeds are pretty good I think, I've read everywhere else that people get a lot less in mb/s, so I'm assuming what mine is getting according to the CrystalDiskMark - Benchmark is pretty good. I honestly don't even know how this translates in real-world usage, other than it determines how fast and efficient my file/data transfer speeds are when transferring data - (not sure if that means when I pull photos/videos off my sd card when plugged into the laptop, and save that bit of photos/videos on my ssd or maybe download speeds - just not sure, maybe someone can verify for me?) - but the write and read speeds on my xps 13 are as follows:

Seq. Q32T1: Read [MB/s] 1575 ~ Write [MB/s] 944.5
4K Q32T1: Read [MB/s] 215.8 ~ Write [MB/s] 167.4
Seq.: Read [MB/s] 1327 ~ Write [MB/s] 1015
4K: Read [MB/s] 41.67 ~ Write [MB/s] 78.79



WiFi is GREAT.
Back-Lit Keyboard is GREAT.
Typing is GREAT.
Graphical Performance is GREAT.
- There isn't much about this laptop that isn't phenomenal really, its excellent all-around.
one thing I did wish was possible, upgradable ram - or at-least the option to put fresh-new ram into the device when the ram that is soldered on the motherboard goes bad..

other than that, this is absolutely one of the best devices I have ever owned, and probably ever will own. I do want to get my hands on the Dell XPS 15 with the NVidia GTX 1050, but that may not happen for quite some time, as I would not opt for anything less that fully-loaded (16gb ram, 512gb or 1TB ssd, QHD + touch screen, GTX 1050, etc.)

Thanks for reading, hope this helps someone out there !

Please visit my youtube channel for some videos on this particular laptop I'm writing about here, you can find my channel by clicking this link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVIb0vZ1vBlDX9x75Uri-Jw

 

Anyone have success with updating to the new TB3 firmware on the Dell page? I did get the driver updated but the firmware says I need the newest driver, except I already did that....

 

Same problem here.
Seems the Updater has a faulty version checking mechanism.
The previous NVM 16 update also said "thunderbolt driver up to date".
Maybe it's only checking NVM version (already 16), but not the newer NVM 16 enhancements.
Hope NVM 18 or 21 firmware update will come soon to fully support Thunderbolt 3 like XPS 9560.

 

Hi there,
I would like to do a clean instal on my XPS13. So far, the hard drive is not recognized by windows installer (usb boot key) because a driver is missing. I'm using F12 to boot on the usb key. Both UEFI and Legacy boot on key does the same result : no hard drive found by windows installer.
I've read somewhere that I should change RAID mode to AHCI mode, in order to have the hard drive found by windows installer. If I remember right, this mode changing could make impossible the reinstallation of intel rapid storage technology.
Has anyone successfuly done a proper clean instal ?
Thank you in advance

 

If you are trying to install W7 see here: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19674383/20898274#20898274

 

Hi, I'm trying W10. It seems to be working with the proper hard drive driver added on the Win10 usb boot key. I did not went threw the whole process but I should work without changing any bios parameter

 

NVM26 Thunderbolt Firmware released!

 

Cannot install it... Says it requires the newest controller driver, which cannot be installed since it says its already installed... I get the remove option only for that one...

 

Uninstall and reinstall. Thunderbolt Firmware Update NVM26 worked for me.

New BIOS Update 1.61 worked too.

 

It seems NVM26 is broken, at least for other models. In our case, it is not available anymore, they rolled back to NVM16. Anyway, in case anyone is experiencing problems in (re)-installing the firmware I was only successfull following the second post in this link:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/20026135?pi41097=1

That said I still miss direct DisplayPort/HDMI. It is annoying to have to wake up my Monitor manually using Thunderbird and an HDMI adapter. I don't know if others get the same. I don't know if this is due to my monitor or else, though.