Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

For those of you like me who bought the laptop with only the mSata and are still fighting with Dell trying to get the critical HDD Interposer so I can install the secondary HDD of my choice, here is the latest in the battle; a response I received from a friendly sales rep.:

Hi Mike,


Yes I did get some additional information about the brackets. So, I raised your concern to our Level 3 lead techs and I got some part numbers.


Here is the part for a regular HD brackets.

3FDY3 - BRKT,HDD,7MM,9550/5510 - HDD Bracket,9550/5510


Here is the bracket for the SSD option.

CF4TP - BRKT,32G,2242 SSD - SSD Bracket, for 32G short SSD card only,9550/5510


I was also informed the you would be needing a rubber isolator for the drives.

3XYT5 - GRMT,HD,RBR,9550/5510 - HDD Rubber isolator (2pcs for one HDD),9550/5510


I also saw this cable on the components but I’m not sure if this is necessary to add the HD but just in case here is the part number.

M3HK9 - BRKT,EDP,CABLE,TAPE,9550/5510 - Bracket, eDP cable include tape,5510/



Here are links for installation that may help.

SSD installation:

http://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us/en/19/xps-15-9550-laptop/xps-15-9550-laptop-v1/Procedure?guid=GUID-DF727CA6-99C3-471C-A6CD-D10E40627099&lang=en-us


HD installation:

http://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us/en/19/xps-15-9550-laptop/xps-15-9550-laptop-v1/Procedure?guid=GUID-A7BDDD5A-66DA-491A-A58F-1445E314900B&lang=en-us



I really hope this will help you out. for processing the parts please contact our tech support to see if the parts are available.


In a previous chat session I was told that the CF4TP was replaced by a part number Y5GVV which was wrong and turned out to be some older version of a HDD interposer.

I am hoping that the last part number, M3HK9, is the real deal and will try to order it soon.

 

Call MS they can handle it quickly. I had issues with Windows 8, called them, they fixed it in their system.

Sent from my Venue 8 7840 using Tapatalk

 

I have the 32gb ssd + 1tb hdd model. Do I need these parts if I want to replace the hdd with an ssd (850 eto probably)

Sent from my OPT

 

From the name that last one seems a cable to embedded DisplayPort, so nothing to do with the hard drive.

 

I would think no, that they are already in use in your machine.

 

Looks like the fan only stays on when the battery is charging. Once its charged, it switches off. Probably Dell trying to deal with the heat from the charge.

 

Yes my XPS is up to date : version 1511
I change the key, a window pop up saying it's updating, reboots, comes back to windows to see that nothing changed

 

Thanks for the answer, I will try that. Strangely nothing happens when i change the key to the generic one : the system seems to be downloading and applying the updates, reboots then nothing is changed.

 

See my post from this thread, I think its the part you are chasing:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/part-number-for-the-new-xps-15-skylake-sata-cable.783834/

Edit: part # is XDYGX for the interposer cable.

 

What do you mean with nothing changed? Have you then gone to the same place and inserted your Windows Pro key?

 

I should be receiving my 9550 with the 1Tb HDD and 32Gb SSD on Friday. I should also be getting a Samsung EVO 850 500Gb m2 SSD to replace the 32Gb SSD and a SanDisk Ultra II 960Gb SSD to replace the HDD early next week. I appreciate that these are not the fastest but they are a lot cheaper and hopefully be fast enough for my needs.

I intend to do a clean install on the new drives. I plan to update the BIOS first before replacing the drives and doing the clean install.

I have a Windows 10 1511 USB ready. From what I've been reading here, W10 1511 already has many updated drivers. What should I still update either from Intel or Dell after I have done the clean install?

 

I'm going to lose my mind! I tried to order that part number but was told more than once that it didn't exist. That's why I persisted and wound up with this last guy. I guess I'll have to go back to square one and try it again.

 

Yes, it can be a struggle dealing with vendor support! For what its worth, here in AU the XPS all come with NBD onsite support, I think its a step up from the usual retail/home level support (i.e. - I dealt with a local in-country support rep, not one based in India). The support rep had to confirm/escalate to tech support to confirm the part number for my system, once that was done she put the sales folk in touch to place an order.

 

I bought my dell xps 15 9550 at microcenter and I'm trying to decide if I should buy their extended warranty for accident coverage. It would be $199 for 1 year or $329 for 2 years. I'm wondering,even though I bought it at microcenter, can I buy a Dell premium service plan including accident coverage?

 

Ok, I got my Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Bluetooth mouse connected, and it seems to work OK. However, I'm using a 5GHz WiFi connection.

I just switched to my 2.4GHz network, and the mouse still works. I can't tell if it's slightly laggy or if it's just coz I'm using it on an odd surface. Oh, BTW, this mouse is really nice, with the "BlueTrack" technology; it's probably similar to Logitech's dark-field. Leave your mousepad at home. ;-) Seriously, it's nice to have the convenience of BT if nothing else and the price seemed really cheap for what it is. $20!

 

Thanks for the awesome response! I exchanged my laptop at the Microsoft store yesterday and the new one I received is a bit better. Mainly, the trackpad is far better and does not get stuck, and there aren't any sleep issues so far. I also noticed that the wireless mouse issue seems to have gone away. The spacebar is still pretty wonky, but it's a bit better than the one I previously had. There's some rattling going on when the windows notification sound plays, but I haven't noticed this happening with anything else. As far as scaling - have you tried running Adobe Reader with your monitor setup? That's the one program that refuses to resize until I log out. Also, when plugging into my external monitor, text appears fuzzy on the monitor in some apps (mainly Chrome) until logging out. Once I've logged out/back in, the XPS's screen experiences this issue instead. This also occurs if you set the resolution on the XPS to 1080p - the scaling isn't perfect and is a bit fuzzy. Not the worst thing in the world, and it doesn't seem to affect videos, but it's worth mentioning. Thanks for your advice on the warranty! I'll most likely go with it if I choose to keep this laptop.

 

Looks like you have to move to Australia to get the 2.5" drive cable. See here.

 

Glad to hear your new unit is a bit better. I do not use Adobe Reader. I have Acrobat installed but set all PDFs to open in Edge as its more "lightweight". And no chrome use either since Edge has been working great. However for these both I would guess its an issue with the 4k and Windows 10 scaling not being fully solved in their software, as some of my programs work great but a few have similar odd behavior. Probably will be fixed in the future with an update but if it really annoys you you could consider getting the FHD model from Dell. I've also updated to the latest Intel Graphics Driver directly from Intel (.4352, Windows and Dell have an earlier version) which resolved pretty much all of my graphics issues. These are not Dell "approved" drivers however so I guess results may vary. For the sound try updating your BIOS to the .15 version recently released. Some people report a cracking sound being fixed (at the cost of lower volume). Also, I'm not positive but I think I uninstalled all audio drivers and the Dell application when I first got mine, and allowed Windows to reinstall them on reboot. This reinstalled the Dell Audio app and left me with pretty quality sound for a laptop. So you might want to try the same or update them from device manager or the Dell site if the problem persists.

 

I meant that the upgrade to Pro didn't apply itself when i check the Windows Activation section. Still says home version.

 

Mine arrived yesterday, after confirming it booted I removed the nvme drive and stuck n the 512gb Sammy pro, after spending a day battling to get pro to install instead of home I added an ei.cfg to my USB install and got pro on there skipping the upgrade path, my old win7 pro licence worked for a 2nd time and allowed this new laptop to have the free upgrade to pro (yay)

So far everything seems to be installed ok but some things are slow to open despite samsungs test showing 100% expected speed so I may format again for the fun of it.

Laptop itself has amazed me, screens perfect and the spacebar seems fine. not listened for noise yet but a repaste was done and I can confirm with the latest bios the fans do kick in to low while charging, but that is fair enough as it is moving air around what will be a hot battery.

Rather pissed off that they decided to do away with the ambient light sensor as that was something I did use and like with a registry hack to allow a brighter screen in low light.

Also the case lines up pretty well, I see a small gap and will look into that next time I open it for a spring clean but it doesn't bother me, at the end of the day this is a warranty replacement for a 18 month old XPS 9530.

Bios bug is there on this bios regarding slow restart as it seems to hang for at least 20 seconds before the splash screen.

 

That's weird. Have you tried inserting your Windows Pro key? What does it say?

 

Hey together
I'm currently using an Alienware 17 R1, which is a really nice notebook, but I find it to heavy carrying around lately. Since I'm thinking about getting a more portable, but still powerful notebook, I ended up deciding between the Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) and the Alienware 15 R2. Obviously, the XPS is much more portable than the 15 R2, but coming from my notebook, both would be a huge saving in weight and size. Both would have an 4k display, 16GB of memory, the same i7 CPU and and m.2 SSD + 2.5 HDD/SSD (since I need the storage more than the battery life). The only difference would be the GPU (980m for the 15 R2, 960m obviously for the XPS). Since I plan the use both with an external GPU, via Thunderbolt or the Alienware Amplifier, the internal GPU does not matter much.

I read some bad/negative things on the internet about the XPS (notebookchek review), which I would like to check with real owners of the machine. That is why I'm writing here.

• Palm rest and touch pad getting filthy by body fat from the hands/fingers. They are supposedly hard to clean. Is that so?
• Throttling: some users here report, that this is fixed with the latest Firmware/Bios update. Can someone again confirm, that their is no more heavy throttling (CPU at 800 MHz and GPU at 400 MHz) under full load?
• Some report flickering of the FHD display with < 50% brightness. Does this happen on the UHD as well?
• Is the webcam quality really as bad as reported?

Thanks in advance for your answers

 

Hoi , glad to answer your first world problems just joking !

1) that's half true, it can get smudgy, i'm not lying to you. I'm using mine everyday and I can notice some smudges when I use it but, surprisingly, it tends to go away, not entirely away but i can see it's less filthy. I don't know how, maybe evaporation overnight. Point is : mine is not squeaky clean but not filthy at all. You can still clean it with some moistened cloth.
2) I haven't been experiencing any throttling : being playing COD BOPS 3 in extensive session, I couldn't see any throttling. That's my experience. Don't know if we can call it full load under the latest firmware update
3) I have the UHD and been using it between 10 - 25% brightness most of the time, because the display can be very very bright and I haven't noticed any flickering
4) Webcam is a mere 720p (although quality wise is more like a 480p IMHO). It's not the best, it does its job. Only major caveat is the placement of the webcam, it has been reported in every reviews, it's not the best due to the angle you're getting from its location.

Positive reviews about this unit are seldom unfortunately: I can tell you that the screen & the performance will make your money worth it. I have been enjoying watching 720p series on it and it's magnificent.

Hope that helps.

 

The Dell TB15 Thunderbolt 3 dock will be released on Jan. 28 at a cost of $299.

http://www.tomsitpro.com/articles/dell-type-c-thunderbolt-docking-stations,1-3094.html

 

I guess so. Based upon Kirky's latest post and armed with the confirmed part number I called Dell again and, of course, got India. This time I was told that the part was

 

Sorry, I got so angry I hit the wrong key. This time I was told that it was OUT OF STOCK!.Also, I was told I could not order it and wait for the back order to be filled. NO PRE-ORDERS

 

No, you are absolutely right, those are first world problems . But if I'm going to spend ~2k on a notebook, it has to be nearly perfect. Thanks for you inside very much

 

Made a fresh raid install and no more reboot bug, phew. Now for SST and even longer battery life bios and it will be perfect.

6.5-7 hrs is quite bad imo for 2015/6 premium laptop and Skylake

 

How did you manage to do fresh raid install? Did you install any raid driver prior Windows install?

 

FYI, here's a good read on scaling issues in Windows 10 (mentions the Chrome issue) and future directions in the next update coming Summer 2016
http://www.winbeta.org/news/heres-microsoft-plans-scaling-windows-10-redstone-update

 

Okay, thanks to Kirky, I persisted and was able to order via Dell chat (I hope) which is in Red Rock, Texas as opposed to India, the HDD Interposer using the part number Kirky used. I'll have to wait and see if I get it, but in the meantime perhaps some of you folks can help me what comes next.

I bought my notebook with just the 256 GB mSata drive with the intention of installing my 1 TB Samsung 840 EVO in the secondary bay completely unaware of the raid option Dell provides on the machine. I have been given to understand that set in raid mode, presuming it is raid 0, a secondary drive regardless of size will only access the same amount of space as the first drive. Currently the machine is still set in factory default raid mode. If I leave the machine set in the raid mode and install a 1 TB SSD into the secondary HDD bay, will the EVO show as a full 1 TB drive or, as I have been given to understand, will it only show the same 256 GB as the mSata drive? Considering the complexity of what many of you are undertaking changing over to AHCI mode, it would be easier for me to leave it set as it is, but not at the cost of sacrificing all that extra space on the EVO.

 

I have a W8 Pro 32bit key ... that may be the problem. error code 0xc004f210 I will try contacting Microsoft via the contact support app ! Thanks anyway

 

I have the same system config. I set bios to AHCI, then wiped existing partitions/reinstalled win10. Pretty sure if you leave system as is in RAID mode and plug in the drive all will be fine and you'll get the full 1tb.

 

This is great to hear!

 

Ended up going back to RAID after the bios update. Had to reinstall as couldn't get it to boot into safe mode, thankfully it moved everything to windows.old folder so I didn't have to restore any backup files and could just move them over.

Battery life is better now showing 7-8 hours, although I don't like losing the Samsung recognising my 950pro. Will need to run it down to see how long it really lasts.

Sent from my Venue 8 7840 using Tapatalk

 

Have anyone tried Type-C USB HUB / Gigabit Ethernet adapters yet? I've bought 3 different branded ones from Aukey/WeME/ Bestek.. they all have issues with random mouse/keyboard dying out every few seconds and coming back. Starting to think its the drivers for the type-c port as they all exhibit the same behavior. I've tested all combinations, on the USB hub ports. As long as more than 1 usb device is plugged in, it will fail to respond every few seconds. I have the latest bios/and driver updates.

I have a i5/1080p/installed with 950Pro (Raid)

 

32 bit keys also work in 64 bit. Mine was a Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bits too. But I can't think of anything more so yeah, contact Microsoft.

 

Sorry to hear that. I have a couple of cheap Chinese usb 3.1/c hubs/ethernet combo's, labeld KY-688. Bought @ aliexpress.com. They work properly out of the box, also with the 1.07 ROM. They are capable of concurrently connect to ethernet, serve two buspowered external usb 3.0 HDD's & 1 usb 3.0 stick.
The hdd's are actually 3 hdd, because one of them is the seagate backup plus fast which has two 2.5 2Tb drivers in raid 0.
i7/4k/pm951 1tb (Raid)

 

MikeBravo, you probably know this but to not confuse others, the SSD card slot is M.2, not mSATA. Totally different SSD form factors. Wikipedia has a photo showing both for comparison here.

 

OK. So can anyone tell me whether, for this setup, I should set it to AHCI or RAID. Does it make any difference?

 

Raid, it must be raid for the new bios

 

funny all three of the one i bought have the same label KY-688. Same factory/manufacturer i'm guessing. Have you tried to plug in a mouse and keyboard and use ethernet at the same time, any issues with mouse/keyboard dying out every few seconds?

I've tried to reinstall drivers but no luck... so tired of plugging in 3 different devices at work every morning

 

The smaller dock sounds pretty good too... until I got to the price! I guess for now, I'll just have a couple of adapters, if I need the connectivity. :-/ AC wireless is fast enough that I think I can do without the Ethernet cable, which just leaves me to get the DisplayPort cable and adapter.

 

It is my understanding that if RAID is enabled in BIOS and you install the second drive the computer will just recognize it as a second drive and not automatically assume both drives are in RAID 0. You would have to setup RAID yourself through Intel Rapid Storage software or whatever it is called now. I'm assuming this since I read the Lenovo P70 service manual and they go into detail about setting up RAID separately since the machine comes RAID enabled. I have set several desktop systems with RAID 0 drives and, after enabling in BIOS, there is always a second step in setting up the RAID array. I'm currently going to add an Evo 2TB drive - I have everything except that pesky Interposer cable (have one coming from eBay all the way from the UK).

Anyone else chime in about how the RAID array would work?

 

I think this is accurate. When i installed my 950 Pro, i left the 1TB platter inside with RAID enabled. It just showed up as 2 separate drives. I never changed from RAID to AHCI even when i installed the 950 Pro, i heard this caused many issues. I've never had an issue leaving it on RAID as this is the way to go with the m.2 upgrade.

Also, has anyone else here ordered the 84whr spare battery directly from dell? I found a thread mentioning this, and i am looking to do the same myself. I wonder if they will charge an arm and a leg for a 30whr boost. I barely get close to 4 hours on my i5/8gb/950pro xp15. This is with light surfing and barely anything on the O.S.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3z3krw/xps_15_9550_84_whr_part_number/

 

I am typing this message from een external keyboard. Seems to work. All 3 USB3 ports occupied. Did you flash the novermber thunderbird/usb 3.1c firmware update?

https://www.dell.com/support/home/u...-15-9550-laptop&languageCode=EN&categoryId=CS

 

So just to add a bit more confusion (at least for me) : In order to really be sure that I'm using NVME I disabled RAID AND AHCI in the BIOS, so I disabled both, and its perfectly booting. The Samsung 950Pro drivers still don't let me reboot without "forgetting" the drive though.

 

Okay, my bad for not being precise. I understand that this notebook supports the faster M.2 PCIe standard and I hope to take advantage of that in the future with my own Samsung 950 Pro. For right now, I just want to add my 1 TB EVO and gain the data space while not having to finagle with the BIOS.

 

That's great news. Thank you all.

 

This laptop is weaker compared to Dell XPS 15 but it's thinner, 2 times lighter (1kg), same 15.6" screen, and has numpad! What do you guys think?