Dell XPS 13 9365 2-in-1 Kaby Lake Owner's Thread

Starting an owner's thread for the new Dell XPS 13 9365 2-in-1 (Kaby Lake).

I switched from a Kaby Lake 9360 to this and so far loving it..

It seems that either Dell or it's the Y series processor, that the Core cannot be undervolted at all.. Even though it allows me to set an extreme -1000mv on the Core, it doesn't change anything.. Even though it shows the change was made and has been applied.. However, the Cache undervolting does work. In addition, the Intel GPU undervolting is also blocked/not working.

It's a shame because you would be able to extend the boost time with an undervolt :/

Otherwise, it's a great machine, and yes CABC sucks but it only seems that it works at lower brightness levels.. If you run at half to max brightness, it seems to not do anything.

I'm not sure that i'll return it based on CABC alone.. It's pretty annoying yes, but not so much that it ruins everything.. Dell will likely NEVER fix it since for over 2 years, they never fixed it on FHD units of the previous XPS 13.. They only fixed it on QHD panels.

Battery life isn't too far off from what my experience was on the normal XPS 13.. So far I streamed a movie on Netflix that was about 1 hour, 45 minutes, from 99% and it only drained my battery to 80% using 50% brightness.

More to come!

 

I'm currently trying the QHD/i5/8GB/256GB model, so far I've wiped the SSD (SK Hynix PC300 NVMe) and reinstalled Windows but struggling a bit with the battery drain during standby, despite the recent BIOS update that was supposed to fix it drained 50% in 6 hours with WiFi off, which is basically the same as being fully on and idling

These new models seem to have the full Modern/Connected Standby, unlike my 9350, and with it the much reduced power plan options (like the Surface Pro 4) so there's not much tweakable there. It doesn't seem to provide the usual diagnostics for Sleep Study so it's hard to track the problem to its source; also BIOS startup time doesn't show in Task Manager, so I think there's probably still something funky with Dell's current BIOS for now.

I'll post some more when things stabilize a bit.

 

I fixed the standby or at least minimized it by disabling the "On battery power, stay connected to network while asleep" under Power settings.. And then also enabled Hibernation after 30 minutes of sleeping. Maybe only lost 1% overnight last night doing this. Maybe 2%.

 

I keep getting huge lag in Edge when just trying to go to websites.. It just thinks about it a while before going to the page I type in the URL bar. My other laptops in the house don't do that :/ Not sure if it's the Y series or what but it definitely lags a bit more than i'm used to.

 

Both Dell and Intel should have several blocks that prevent extreme undervolt (-1000mv) from getting applied. Some of those blocks may disappear for say a -50mv undervolt, making the undervolt easier to execute.

Will Intel XTU work? Why don't you visit the ThrottleStop thread to see if they have some suggestions.

 

The recent Windows 10 update did the same thing to my Edge Browser (Dell 9550). Edge worked fine before that Windows update

 

About to try XTU.. Already posted about it in the ThrottleStop thread. My previous XPS non-2in1 worked fine with Throttlestop with i5 Kaby Lake so i'm not sure if Dell did something to this model or if it has something to do with the new Y series since their voltage is extremely jumpy and wild.

 

OK, so Sleep Study stats seem to be functioning now, and the culprit is the Synaptics VFS7552 fingerprint reader. It shows 100% activity during sleep, preventing any DRIPS time at all (whether set up for Windows Hello or not). To test, as admin run this command:

powercfg /sleepstudy

Disabling it in Device Manager results in decent DRIPS time and about 1% per hour drain, which is way better. Reinstalling drivers didn't help. Power Management option for it is seemingly ignored.

Wish we could just have plain old S3 sleep

 

Well you can disable connected standby via the Registry.. I *think* that puts the machine in normal S3 sleep like a non-modernized machine.

 

Sadly, S3 isn't available when S0 is disabled, leaving S4/Hibernate as the only option.

 

I'll just have to stick to my Hibernate after 30 minutes of sleep; downside is how freakin' long this Dell takes to post and start loading Windows.. I have no idea why Dell did this (same situation as the previous XPS 13 non-2in1s as well).

 

Yeah, around 5 seconds here before the Dell logo even shows, which is long enough for me to wonder whether I actually hit the tiny power button properly or not.

While on the subject of the power button: I've noticed that when hitting it to enter sleep, its LED will go off when the screen goes off, then switch back on for 5-10 seconds, then switch off. Sometimes does the same when closing the lid, not sure if this is expected behaviour or what it actually means.

 

Haven't noticed that but I have noticed that the light just stays on for a while even though I closed the lid.. I'm assuming it's figuring things out before it sleeps, not sure really.

My complaint list:

-Slow posting behavior (takes about 15 seconds to boot this machine)
-CABC sucks but only seems to be most annoying on lowest brightness notch
-Standby drain is still an issue from the previous XPS units, but perhaps not as extreme?

Otherwise, battery life has actually been nearly as good as what I got on my previous i5 Kaby lake XPS 13... I really don't see much of a difference despite the smaller battery.

Screen is phenomenal; zero backlight bleed, inky blacks.

Build quality is amazing, top notch materials.. Runs cool after it's indexed/updated fully (although I did a fresh Win10 install land recommend doing it).

 

Performance lines up closely to the i5-7200U as well; single threaded benches actually beat the i5-7200U on most occasions. Multi threaded benches are slower, but not drastically.

Since most people will likely be on battery power using the device, that's where the BIOS really limits the speed of the machine and why it feels less snappy but plugged in feels pretty much the same as all other machines with dual core full power CPUs.

 

Good news, CABC Firmware update utility has now been released for both QHD and FHD models:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...5-2-in-1-laptop&languageCode=en&categoryId=AP

The notes don't mention it, but it definitely has folders for FHD too, installed fine on my QHD+ and now backlight is blissfully restful.

 

Hi, I just received my 9365 with i5 7y54, 8 GB RAM and the QHD screen. There's definitely a difference in performance when the machine is plugged versus on battery.

Here's the Geekbench 4 score while plugged in, https://browser.primatelabs.com/v4/cpu/1937758

Here's the Geekbench 4 score while on battery, https://browser.primatelabs.com/v4/cpu/1938357

The big problem for me is that while on battery, playing 4k videos with VLC is a slideshow and 4k youtube videos is not even watchable on battery. Also, there's quite a bit of coil whine while plugged in, but coil whine disappears while on battery. I'd appreciate any tips to fix these problems. Thanks.

 

I have the exact same model and can play this fine at 2160p in Chrome and Edge, with some network buffering on my crappy home connection being the only limitation (just need to pause now and then):



But 1440p looks just great on this screen as well, which is of course only 3200x1800 anyway so there's not much point pushing much beyond that.

 

Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify, 4k videos work fine for you on battery? Because for me, 4k videos play just fine while plugged in, but they stutter every second while on battery. While on battery, my CPU is being both thermally throttled and power limit throttled, despite the temperature being only around 65 C.

 

Yes, that was on battery, it's fine for me, not sure what's causing your issue. Note that I clean-installed Windows and fully updated Dell drivers including BIOS (they've posted quite a few updates in the last fortnight).

 

Yeah, I also reinstalled Windows 10, updated the BIOS and installed all the drivers from here, http://www.dell.com/support/home/ca...ort/product/xps-13-9365-2-in-1-laptop/drivers

I don't know why I'm having so many problems. Maybe it's just a faulty unit.

 

I'm having a horrible time with my 9365. Stock OS, spiked at 100% whenever I use Chrome on battery. Really disappointed so far. Anyone else?

Video is great, however, but frustrated by performance issues under relatively minor loads.

 

I've had this glorious laptop for a few days. Has anyone found a non-Dell USB-C external rechargeable battery that works with the 9365?

 

I've just picked up one of these earlier today. I have a regular XPS 13 that I've been enjoying since summer of 2015. No issues to complain about really after updating drivers and bios but I do notice when I was using the machines side by side earlier that the new 9365 appears to have slightly off colored whites/lower luminance maybe in the upper portion of the display. My regular XPS 13 (9343) is a tad more uniform. Anyone else notice this on their 9365 on sites with mostly white background?

 

Well the screen backlight has evened out which is nice, but I'm finding the toshiba ssd to be a bit noisy/chattery at times? It's not the coil whine as I also have a little bit of this but it's not bad. Anyone else have a chattery hard drive at times?

 

Has anyone replace the SSD m.2 drive? Can you get off the market brand? What does Class 40 means?

Is the memory removable by user and get a bigger memory?

 

From what I've read - SSD yes but ram no.

 

I found a good place about replace SSD:

http://www.myfixguide.com/dell-xps-13-9365-2-in-1-disassembly-and-ssd-ram-upgrade-options/

Anyone replace it for a Samsung m.2 ?

 

I order me a refurb at the Outlet and it will be here this Monday.

Its a i7, 16GB memory and 512 NVMe for $1112 with tax.

 

Anyone here did a clean install of this machine? What files are not needed to install? Any tips?

Thanks.

 

Cross post from another thread .. sorry ...

Has anyone successfully clean install of a retail Windows 10 for the Dell XPS 2-in1 13" laptop, the 9365 model?

What are your steps?

Can I use a bootable micro SD card that I create using Rufus and put it on the microSD slot and do it?

Any settings I have to change in the BIOS or do in the Boot Screen (F12) ?

Thanks for your help.

 

I did a AS SSD benchmark on this original NVMe drive that came with laptop and the numbers are really bad! It is just a little better than a SSD This is a NMVe drive! I wonder what Dell is doing?

One thing I didnt like is why is the laptop comes in RAID config?

 

WOW. There has been no new posting on this laptop!

My XPS 13 9365 died on me last week. The BIOS keep on saying that the hard drive is missing. Tech support confirm it is. I sent it in. Its 1 day overnight, 1 day at the repair center and 1 day shipping back.

And this time it comes with a Samsung nvme instead of the Toshiba. Ran a AS SSD benchmark and it is a little faster.

 

BIOS 1.1.0 is available.

 

Ahh updated - got a weird bug.

Whenever I click "shut down" - no matter on AC/battery - it switched quickly back on.
Had to disable fast shutdown - seems okay now.

 

How is it compare to non 2 in 1 ..?

 

BIOS 1.2.1 is available.

 

Can someone do me a favor and tell me the model number of their power supply for the 9365? I won one on ebay and it doesn't have one.
Thanks!

 

So far I really like this little 2 in 1. It's small enough for me to take everywhere with me and for having an ultra low voltage CPU it does well. It even holds 1.8ghz on prime95. I'll probably undervolt and repaste it tomorrow.

 

@custom90gt check out throttlestop thread over past few months as some people (including UncleWebb have gotten some of the newer lower wattage chips to run long-term at ~30 watts. Not sure if that trick will work on your 2 in 1 but worth a look.

 

Wow that's interesting, I'll have to search for that. I wonder how they are doing that...

 

BIOS 1.2.1 has been withdrawn from Dell's website.

 

Interesting, must be because of intel's patch. Wonder if I should downgrade...

 

I’ve run it since my post without any of the problems being discussed about Intel’s microcode problems. I use this machine 8 to 10 hours a day running Word, Excel, Acrobat, and other work type software without issue. I’m not going to downgrade just yet.

 

COIL WHINE! EXACTLY WHAT I HAVE ON NEW UNIT! DELL SUPPORT REMOTELY RE INSTALLED BIOS, ETC, BUT STILL EXPERIENCE WHINE ON AND OFF. THEY ARE SENDING REPLACEMENT UNIT. ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED

 

sorry for the caps

 

i also have the coil whine.

 

BIOS 1.3.1 is available on Dell's website.

 

Anyone use dell's pen with the xps 13 2 in 1?

 

BIOS 1.4.2 is available on Dell's website