Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

Sorry to pester about another question on the next version of this great laptop, but can we at least expect 1 BT port?

 

Another question about this laptop; I suddenlydid lost any ability to control the palm problem. It used to exist prominently under the cypress hardware. I recently had a tech rep do a complete reset of this laptop so now I'm going back and reloading everything. It did however fix the problem, but sadly it has started some new ones. This palm one is the worst though. It makes me hate typing.

 

Any word on the refresh?

 

I just received my XPS 13 from the outlet today. It came with BIOS A03. I had been reading on this forum about the fan problem. I'm worried the fan is not even running. I hear alittle bit of noise but not like the fans you hear on most laptops.
How hot does this laptop normally get on the bottom? It felt alittle bit warm when on my lap.


Also I was trying to go through all these posts for more info. Can we change the mSATA 128gb to the 256gb?

 

It can feel a bit warm on the lap as these will run a little hotter than larger laptops. However my temps generally stay between 65c and75c.

I am on BIOS A06 and have had no issues. A04 and above have ben pretty good updates.

Yes you can switch out the mSATA as it is no soldered on. You can go as large as you can find. These typically come with the Samsung 830 series which are really good, but unfortunately you can't buy them via retail. I have a friend that installed a Mushkin 256GB and he has had great luck and performance is on par.

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks for the info. This seems to be a pretty good price for mSATA 256: CT256M4SSD3 - 256GB, mSATA Solid State Drive , from Crucial.com

Does Dell plan on supporting Windows 8 on this laptop?

 

@ Bill

I just had my refurbished xps 13 delivered yesterday, but there seems to be missing the usb to ethernet dongle in the packaging. how do i proceed further? i bought this machine via ebay and i am not sure who i am suppose to contact in order to get one. any advice would be appriciated. I am living in Norway so i have not yet been able to register for the ownership warranty transfer,will this be an issue in order to get a new one shipped to me in norway ?

 

No such dongle ships with this laptop. You are confusing it with another brand.

 

External Display question:

I seem to have 50/50 luck getting external projectors/TVs to work with my laptop. I have tried rebooting and of course different resolutions when in extended or duplicate mode with no luck. Anyone have any sure fire suggestions? I am usually at a customer site ready to do a presentation and I don't have 30 minutes to troubleshoot.

Thanks for any suggestions - BTW - using the mini-DVI to VGA dongle.

 

Dont forget to check the dell support site for a batch of new updates to their driver database,their are a number from the 27-07-2012. Including new video drivers,chipset,audio drivers,USB etc..... No issues since installing all of these.

 

So i just got this piece of engineering marvel 2 days ago and so far i am really pleased with it,my only concern is that i have two things that kinda bothers me

1: in bios the option for intel rapid start is "greyed out" does this means that it is disabled by dell? and is there a way to re-activate this feature in some way ? this is a refurb machine. Using bios V. A03 that came pre-installed

Any reason for me to update Bios to A06 by any means ?

2: touchpad is constantly freezing version : 2.3.6.34 using OS that came pre-configured with the machine, any other versions that may work better for me,cause i cant stand for it to freeze,any other working drivers would be greatly appriciated. i can say that the toucpad driver that came with the machine was Version : 2.3.6.25 and it worked but 2 finger scroll and multigestures was not working so i updated to the latest via dell.com, newest version works great when working,but freezes once in a while all the time.

 

Anyone got a suggestion on how to clean the palm area of this laptop?

 

I'm not able to install the 7-27 dell video driver, it says "does not meet minimum requirements". Is it because I'm running windows 8?

 

Yup, that "rubberized" coating on the palm/touch area of this laptop is the only thing I don't like about it. They should have just left it brushed metal (like the MacBook Airs). The rubberized stuff picks up dirt, oil and dead skin from even the cleanest of hands. The way I clean mine is with a little Stoners Invisible Glass. Stuff works wonders on that area and the Gorilla Glass.
-joe-

 

I was reading in the posts where someone couldn't start their laptop and was told the battery was not removable. Looking at the first page of this thread there are pictures of the bottom of the laptop taken off. The battery looks like it could be removed with 2 screws. Hopefully this is the case. I would hope that this battery could be replaced in the future when it gets old.

 

What trackpad drivers are people using on windows 8? There still don't seem to be any that function fully for on either windows 7 or 8, something is always broken. I've resorted to using the 15z drivers on 8, scroll and two finger right click work but it'd be nice to have the fully functioning trackpad.

Bill are there going to be any more trackpad driver updates?

 

Hello,

I was one of the first people to get two of these the day they were available from Dell. I work in I.T. and we have 2 XPS 13's for Executive management.

Both have exhibited the same problem this week. The first XPS13 had this issue on Monday, and now the second XPS13 had this issue today...

When booting up, Windows 7 automatically went into the "Startup Repair" screen for fixing the computer. I held the power button down and then turned it back on and the boot screen said that windows could not start, option 1 was startup repair (default) and option 2 was continue loading windows normally. Well the people just let it time out and that's why it went into startup repair. I selected option 2 and it booted fine.

Why would it do this on 2 Dell XPS13's within the same week? Bad lot? Failing SSD? Failing RAM/Motherboard?

After booting the one today Windows did inform of a system crash and I grabbed the memory.dmp and crash dmp files and ran them in WinDbg. This is what I get after running an analyze!v


BugCheck 3B, {c0000005, fffff9600018315b, fffff88004011ea0, 0}

*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for mssmbios.sys
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export symbols for win32k.sys -
***** Kernel symbols are WRONG. Please fix symbols to do analysis.

*************************************************************************
*** ***
*** ***
*** Your debugger is not using the correct symbols ***
*** ***
*** In order for this command to work properly, your symbol path ***
*** must point to .pdb files that have full type information. ***
*** ***
*** Certain .pdb files (such as the public OS symbols) do not ***
*** contain the required information. Contact the group that ***
*** provided you with these symbols if you need this command to ***
*** work. ***
*** ***
*** Type referenced: nt!_KPRCB ***
*** ***
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
*** ***
*** ***
*** Your debugger is not using the correct symbols ***
*** ***
*** In order for this command to work properly, your symbol path ***
*** must point to .pdb files that have full type information. ***
*** ***
*** Certain .pdb files (such as the public OS symbols) do not ***
*** contain the required information. Contact the group that ***
*** provided you with these symbols if you need this command to ***
*** work. ***
*** ***
*** Type referenced: nt!_KPRCB ***
*** ***
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
*** ***
*** ***
*** Your debugger is not using the correct symbols ***
*** ***
*** In order for this command to work properly, your symbol path ***
*** must point to .pdb files that have full type information. ***
*** ***
*** Certain .pdb files (such as the public OS symbols) do not ***
*** contain the required information. Contact the group that ***
*** provided you with these symbols if you need this command to ***
*** work. ***
*** ***
*** Type referenced: nt!_KPRCB ***
*** ***
*************************************************************************
Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+ba57 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

2: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION (3b)
An exception happened while executing a system service routine.
Arguments:
Arg1: 00000000c0000005, Exception code that caused the bugcheck
Arg2: fffff9600018315b, Address of the instruction which caused the bugcheck
Arg3: fffff88004011ea0, Address of the context record for the exception that caused the bugcheck
Arg4: 0000000000000000, zero.

Debugging Details:
------------------

ADDITIONAL_DEBUG_TEXT:
Use '!findthebuild' command to search for the target build information.
If the build information is available, run '!findthebuild -s ; .reload' to set symbol path and load symbols.

MODULE_NAME: win32k

FAULTING_MODULE: fffff80002c5b000 nt

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 4fd6b298

EXCEPTION_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at 0x%08lx referenced memory at 0x%08lx. The memory could not be %s.

FAULTING_IP:
win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+ba57
fffff960`0018315b 488bbd58010000 mov rdi,qword ptr [rbp+158h]

CONTEXT: fffff88004011ea0 -- (.cxr 0xfffff88004011ea0)
rax=0000000000000000 rbx=0000000000000020 rcx=fffff9600036d200
rdx=0000000000000000 rsi=0000000000008802 rdi=0000000000000000
rip=fffff9600018315b rsp=fffff88004012880 rbp=0000000000000000
r8=0000000000000010 r9=0000000000000080 r10=0000000000000001
r11=fffffa800a5c9ac0 r12=0000000000000000 r13=0000000000000000
r14=0000000000000080 r15=0000000000000010
iopl=0 nv up ei pl nz na pe nc
cs=0010 ss=0018 ds=002b es=002b fs=0053 gs=002b efl=00010202
win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+0xba57:
fffff960`0018315b 488bbd58010000 mov rdi,qword ptr [rbp+158h] ss:0018:00000000`00000158=????????????????
Resetting default scope

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0x3B

CURRENT_IRQL: 0

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from fffff9600017950d to fffff9600018315b

STACK_TEXT:
fffff880`04012880 fffff960`0017950d : fffff900`c00e5300 fffff880`073ebb60 00000000`000088b8 00000000`000088b8 : win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+0xba57
fffff880`040128d0 fffff960`001768fa : fffff900`c00e5300 fffff880`073ebb60 fffff8a0`00f59c50 fffff960`001845f8 : win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+0x1e09
fffff880`04012940 fffff960`001817c0 : fffff900`c00e5300 fffff8a0`00f59c50 fffff8a0`00f59c50 00000001`00000002 : win32k!memcmp+0x1f0a
fffff880`04012980 fffff960`00185c69 : 00000258`00004000 0000003c`00000000 fffff900`c00e5300 fffff900`c00e5300 : win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+0xa0bc
fffff880`04012a00 fffff960`00185e86 : fffffa80`0a5c9a01 fffff900`c00e5300 00000000`00000001 fffffa80`0a5c8960 : win32k!memset+0x419
fffff880`04012a50 fffff800`02f790dd : fffffa80`0a5c9ac0 fffffa80`0a5c8960 fffff6fc`40039f28 fffff6fc`40039f58 : win32k!memset+0x636
fffff880`04012a80 fffff800`02cd1aba : fffffa80`0a5c9ac0 000007fe`feb70000 00000000`00000020 00000000`76e526e0 : nt!PsSetThreadWin32Thread+0x172d
fffff880`04012ab0 fffff800`02cd961f : fffffa80`0000023a 00000000`7739140a 00000000`00000000 00000000`0012d258 : nt!KiCpuId+0x2ea
fffff880`04012ae0 000007fe`fee8b5ca : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KeSynchronizeExecution+0x3bef
00000000`0012d258 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : 0x7fe`fee8b5ca


FOLLOWUP_IP:
win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+ba57
fffff960`0018315b 488bbd58010000 mov rdi,qword ptr [rbp+158h]

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0

SYMBOL_NAME: win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+ba57

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

IMAGE_NAME: win32k.sys

STACK_COMMAND: .cxr 0xfffff88004011ea0 ; kb

BUCKET_ID: WRONG_SYMBOLS

Followup: MachineOwner
---------




Any idea what is wrong with 2 Dell XPS13's?

 

Malware could be the issue. I would not expect a hardware problem to hit 2 machines at the same time, but software or malware is fairly common.

Are you running the factory build?

 

Wonderful... after almost a month of use, I have suddenly developed the dreaded fan noise problem....

Anyone have any tips????

Bios and everything are totally up to date..

 

I use a DRY microfiber cloth that is for drying cars. They are big and a tad bit more coarse than ones sold for electronics. Of course there is no danger of scratching but I find that these do very well for getting residue off the palm rest. They do get dirty and will need replacing but they are cheap.

 

I bought the XPS13 the first day of release through my Dell business rep. We have two very active Dell business accounts so I thought that I would get fairly high priority when/if it came time for service. I purchased the highest level of service agreement including accident coverage (thank goodness).
My XPS13 was in a Timbuk2 bag in an airplane overhead and someone must have had an open container of water in the overhead because my bag and laptop were soaked at the end of the flight. I thought the Timbuk2 would have protected from water but it didn't. When I opened the laptop it had water on the screen and keyboard. I did not turn it on until it had air dried for about 30 hours. When I did power it up the screen was clearly damaged.
Our IT director called Dell Support assuming that I could get "onsite" service while travelling. That's when we found out that "accidental coverage" requires shipping the laptop to Dell. I had to wait until I arrived back at the office 5 days later to receive the shipping box and ship it off. It was shipped on 7/23/12. It is now 8/8/12 and no one can tell me when I will receive my repaired computer back. At first the status said they were "waiting for a part". About 10 days later it said "part has arrived and it is being repaired" and "should ship back on 8/2".
I have tried all avenues including hours on the phone with support staff (clearly in India) with 2 different people promising to call me back within 24 hours. Neither called. I did gather from those conversations that first they ordered the LCD screen and it was backordered. When it arrived, 10 days later, they decided to order the "hinge". It was also backordered and they are still waiting for it. I asked if screen replacement always requires a hinge replacement. "Yes." I asked why they didn't order the hinge in the first place. "I cannot tell you that."
I have called and emailed my Dell rep and his manager with no luck: "Unfortunately we just cannot make that part arrive any sooner." He actually told me that the XPS13 is "not a business machine" and "if you had a Latitude I could get it repaired a lot sooner for you." I reminded him that Dell is certainly pushing the XPS13 to businesses and he said, "Well, don't get me wrong, it is a good machine and can be used for business but the parts are all backordered."
I have posted used Twitter and Facebook to "message" Dell as Bill_Dell suggested on this forum. I did receive two messages from the Facebook message and that person promised that she had "expedited" it but she said there is nothing she can do to get the part either.
I love(ed) my XPS13 and was using it as my sole computer for business and home use. I fing this level of support, especially for a Dell business user to be outrageous and very disappointing.
Lastly, I am still travelling and have ben without a computer for almost 3 weeks. I am writing this post on a colleagues MacBook Pro. Ironic.

 

Yes, factory build. We did the Windows Anytime upgrade to make it Windows 7 Professional so it could join the domain.

I doubt its malware. They are both very smart executives and the machines run anti-virus, not to mention we have a web filter and e-mail filter that also scans anything going in and out.

The AV console has not alerted us to anything. We also contract a 3rd party (Dell Secureworks) and any time there is any type of malware trying to make an outbound connection, we are alerted immediately.

 

@tmphelan, thats unlucky your laptop got soaked. And the service you recieved obviously hasnt been top notch. But i guess thats just how it goes as the sevice ive recieved before has been excellent. Yeah quite ironic where your typing this from. Good luck anyway in getting your fixed laptop back

 

So is it still worth buying this notebook given the release of ivy bridge, zenbook prime style high res screens?

 

there are rumors of an XPS 13 refresh in the next few months that will likely add ivy bridge and an improved screen. I'm currently waiting for that refresh or for the big xps 15 problems to be resolved and its price to come down.

 

I am now officially furious about my laptop purchase....

The WiFi connection is absolute garbage. EVERY OTHER COMPUTER I HAVE OWNED IN THE PAST 6 YEARS has not had a problem connecting on the second floor of my house, except this one.

That's right, my brand shiny new computer connects worse than any other wireless device I have ever owned... and that includes my apple TV, my POS HP touchpad, etc. etc.

Seriously, how is this even fair to release? Will I be able to get a replacement when the refresh comes out???

 

If there is a problem with your wifi card ring dell, it could just be faulty and a replacement card could solve it. Or if it works and your just unhappy with the range, then you will not be given a refresh unless the whole machine needs replacing. You may be able to get a refund if your just unhappy with it. But the only thing dell will do is replace the wireless card or give you a refund.

 

@eggy

I use mine for business and connect to numerous wifi hotspots... no issues with wifi for me.

 

Here's the problem... Wifi works. but the range is really, really, REALLY bad. I'm talking bad to the point where anyone would agree that this is a horrible design flaw that has hindered performance and would not be acceptable on any other kind of device. I will look into having the wireless card replaced, though I doubt that will help because it does work.

Hopefully Dell will just refund my money if this persists...

Again, it's not so much a problem with the wifi not connecting, but rather the very poor range when any type of obstacle is present. I sit in the room adjacent to where my router sits, and then up one floor, and my connection is intermittent at best. What the fudge...

 

If the Wi-Fi card is functional and truly working 100%, then the next logical suspect would be the actual antenna leads and/or the small IPX connectors. If there is a short in the mini coax, a connector, or an antenna itself, the impedance of the antenna system can be compromised. This can result in poor range, intermittent card RX/TX activity, and/or complete RF circuit failure.

If you have a digital Ohm meter, see if either antenna lead has a direct short such as 0.0~0.5 Ohms. A normal reading for these Wi-Fi antennas would be approx. 5.0 Ohms at the female IPX connector where it snaps on to the Wi-Fi card. If the connection to the antenna is not complete, a higher reading of 50-300 Ohms will be present.

Scott-

 

Thanks for that info scott. I wish I something to read the antenna but unfortunately I do not...

I'm just praying that my new apartment doesn't have these problems. I'm going to have to put my router right in the middle of the room

 

I just starting having a similar issue with mine. I don't know if it is the same issue or not but it sounds like it. I'll see if I can get some dumps to compare if it happens again.

 

There are no drivers that work on the Windows 8 RTM, I was using the 15z ones on the RC cause the xps 13 ones were worse but nothing works in the RTM. Has anyone been able to get the trackpad working (aside from pointing and clicking physical buttons)?

 

The antenna is routed through the display, if I'm not mistaken. I'm guessing the next logical part to replace if the cheap one (wifi card) is no fix would be the hinge up display assembly.

 

I recently got a XPS 13 Ultrabook. I was surprised that the SSD is a Liteonit, model: LMT-128m3m and not the Samsung PM830.
does anyone else have this SSD? Is it better/worse than the Samsung?

 

I have no first hand experience with that specific SSD, but it "appears" the Liteonit performance should be just as good if not better than the Samsung. See below for the reference data.

Scott-

 

Correct; the antenna leads run along the inner perimeter (sides) of the LCD back cover and are not user serviceable due to the sealed LCD face assembly. However, he can still get the impedance readings where the leads connect to the wireless card via the IPX connectors on the bottom side of the system. Regardless, testing another wireless card first is best. If the antenna and/or lead(s) are compromised, then a complete hinge-up assembly would be needed.

Scott-

 

Sweet! Thanks for the response Scott.

 

Update: I received my brand new replacement today and I am happy, happy. Thanks to Bill_Dell for his help expediting the process. Once I convinced Dell to issue a new replacement which took time, patience, persistence, and a little nastiness, things moved very quickly. It was painful but it is over. I can give my son his MacBook back.

 

Forgive me if this has already been posted but if anyone is still having an issue with getting the Trackpad drivers to install on Windows 8 RTM. I was able to get them installed by running the executable from Dell support and then after it had extracted the files to the standard C:\dell\Drivers\8W575 I went into the device manager adding the drivers manually to device named PS/2 compatible mouse. (Right click the device and select update driver, then select browse and browse to the
C:\dell\Drivers\8W575\Cypress folder. It will then install the driver.

There is one step I did that may or may not be necessary. In the C:\dell\Drivers\8W575\Cypress\win7\x64 folder there is a file named CyHidMSI. I also set compatibility settings to Windows 7 and ran that. It installed something but nothing worked until I followed the steps above to manually add the driver. My trackpad is now fully functional. It is likely a line in the installer package and not a actual driver issue that is preventing the install. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for posting! I am back on Windows 8 RC after having no luck installing any trackpad drivers on Windows 8 RTM. I will reinstall the RTM later and give this a go!

 

come on!!!! DELL
we are still waiting the xps 13 ivy bridge, 8gb ram version!!!!
give us some news, update, prediction.....

ty

 

I would give it a couple more months.

 

Agree. If they would release one then closer to Win 8 October release. No sense to do it before and deal with updates.

 

I finally gave up and bought a 256gb on the Dell Outlet for $1100 and I'm a heavy graphics user. Couldn't be happier perfromance wise. I think these may hold their values and I could consider selling when the new ones come out, but I'm sure glad I stopped waiting.

 

Wi-Fi won't connect automatically.

This happens on any saved network, so it's not my router. It used to and very immediately, but won't anymore unless I wait up to 2 minutes. So every time I wake my laptop, I need to manually connect to wifi. BTW, it sees all the networks and signal strength is always good. Any ideas?

 

Does any know if it's possible to use an external battery pack to get more battery life from this. Battery life on long flights is the only thing keeping me from getting the xps 13.
Would something like this work for powering it longer (not charging):
link:
Amazon.com: Anker® Astro3 10000mAh Dual 2A USB Output External Battery Backup

 

Yes, this worked for me as well. Thanks again. The second step is necessary, I did the first step restarted and had no cursor (without using a mouse). The second step fixed it, although I did it slightly differently and let windows set the best compatibility settings as Windows 7 wasn't an option in the drop down menu for me. Seems to be working well though.

 

I know this has been covered but I am having difficulty finding the info. I just got a replacement XPS 13 and the touchpad is just not working despite configuring multiple times. Please tell me the best drivers to download for Win 7 Ultimate, how to uninstall the previous drivers, how to configure once downloaded. Thanks!

 

well. you might want to let us know wich trackpad driver version you are using and also what kind of difficulties you are strugling with,i.e multigestures,touchpad freeze, jumping cursor,double letters etc... I am using windows 8 rtm and are having no problems with the latest drivers (2.3.6.34) they work almost flawlessly with W8,wich i cannot say they do with windows 7. So you might run into a different user scenario than me,but feel free to look up additional information in this thread by searcing in the "search thread" almost at top of this page. also there has been a guy from this forum who has posted a user video on youtube that might interest you in "tweeking" the trackpad to yours liking Hope this helps you out

XPS-trackpad.wmv - YouTube