Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

Is there any battery care software available for this laptop? I read that Dell previously used to include Dell Quickset software so can stop the battery from charging at a particular level - say 80%. Or you can disable charging entirely. I tried downloading a version of Quickset but it said this system is not supported.

 

it's in the BIOS now.

 

Thank you GoNz0! You're very helpful and kind to answer my questions. Really appreciate it.

 

I recommend a Ruckus 7372, it may be an overkill but its a lot better than those consumer routers and you can buy a used one for pretty cheap! you have to have a little bit of configuration network knowledge though.

 

Dell Command Power Manager is what you want. It gives control of the battery charging profiles and a few other things from within Windows:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=3N7TV

 

(duplicate deleted)

 

Yeah, the price jump was a bit high for me too (about $400 at the time I ordered -- there was a bigger discount on the i5 version, and the i7 version might have had a larger drive or memory or something). I had read that in general (not specifically this model), the i7 level is only marginally faster than the i5. If the price were closer, I'd go for it, but hard to justify, especially with that kind of price jump. I think the i5 still has some nice features; this one is quad-core -- compare that to some other laptops.

Also, I have the 256GB drive, and it seems fine. I'm careful to not load too much on it, but so far so good.

 

I'm using an Asus RT-AC66 router, with Merlin firmware, and it seems pretty reliable. I also have different names for the 2 bands. There's also a "guest" network that you can set up. I have a zillion things using wifi here, and the laptop and BT mouse work fine. However, I always use the 5GB band for the wifi, which supposedly will have less conflict.

 

If anyone want to upgrade to 32GB, Newegg has the G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4 2133 for $154.99 - 10% = $139.49. The 10% code is EMCEHFM28.

 

I got my 2nd XPS 15 9550, i7, 1TB, 16GB RAM, 4K from Dell Outlet on Thursday and this one has a 1TB Toshiba NVMe drive in it, model number THNSN51T02DU7_NV. The previous model I had contained a PM951 drive. It appears to be faster than the PM951.

 

I have that toshiba, very fast. shame it doesn't support e-drive though.

 

Do you guys just refresh the Dell outlet all day? I've never seen anything but fhd i3s on there

 

it's country specific so your region will only have local stock.

 

Not sure what you mean pinch zoom issue on photo viewer.. double left click to activate the pinch zoom?

 

may I learn its price? and I could not find also any seller for it

 

Thank you, I'll get that installed ASAP.

 

$1635 shipped with tax included. I used a 30% off coupon. The unit is in great shape, there is one very minor nick on the top cover front bezel, which I may complain to them about as this wasn't a scratch and dent, and see if they will refund me a few bucks, I hear they are very good about doing that.

 

If what you are talking about is a ZoneFlex 7372, from what I could tell its only an 'N' AP, not a router per se. I'm kinda spoiled by the speed and throughput of the 'AC' standard and looking forward the massive upgrade the 'AD' standard is supposed to bring. Thanks for the thought.

 

I am fortunate that in my neighborhood not many have discovered the wide open 5 GHZ range. But in the past year, a few have popped up. Counting all the devices at my place, desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, it can at times come to twenty most of which I have relegated to the 2.4 GHZ band and reserved the 5 GHZ band for main work machines. Thus far, no one is complaining and even though the 2.4 GHZ band is crowded in my area, no serious overlap occurs. As I have said previously, I must be lucky cause my Dell 1830 is hammering away at up to 867 Mbps.

 

I meant your Toshiba ssd, not your laptop I checked but I could not find this Toshiba ssd you bought

 

The Toshiba SSD came with the system from Dell Outlet.

 

Interesting! I assumed it was PM951. Have u got any performance degradation such as issues after sleeping-hibernation?

 

nope

 

5ghz doesn't have the range so I doubt you will see many standard home outers with 5ghz getting more than 50 feet.

 

Yeah, I understand. But, since I don't live in a mansion, I'm okay. The new 'AD' standard is supposed to increase 5 GHZ range dramatically. The problem will be if our new machines will still be new enough that Intel or someone will make a compatible card that fits it just like that other Intel card that doesn't.

 

How the hell do I do that? I have a micorsoft wireless mobile mouse 4000 I cannot detect it though my bluethooth do i need special drivers? I also have a logitech keyboard which is also not detected weird.

 

Ignore my previous message my mouse is not a bluetooth mouse but a wireless one.....

 

Using AC 5GHz, I have one bar, sitting at a corner of the house, but it still says I have 350mbps, which I think is quite alright. Much faster than my internet connection. :-/ I've been wondering if AC is overkill, although I think having the 5GHz band is helpful.

 

Yeah, I think you're probably right. I, too, am starting to see more 5Ghz in the neighborhood, but I don't think it's a problem. I have most of my things connecting to 2.4. Having that extra band, I like to think it reduces congestion, but at some point, I was having enough trouble that I started putting some devices on wired Ethernet. That seemed to take the load off of wireless. I'm thinking maybe the router was getting overloaded with too many devices? Not sure. Anyway, 5GHz works well, and I think I only had weird dropouts when I first got the notebook. I haven't noticed any glitches in a long time, even with the mouse. Really pleased.

 

Depends on the router. Sat here at 1ghz, jumps between that and 1.3 so no complaints from me

 

Guys I find this thread very useful for the many solutions and fixes shown by the community, however I feel a little overwhelmed, to be honest.

I have recently bought a XPS 9550, i7 6700HQ, 512GB SSD, 16 GB RAM (so everyone is in the same page). Immediately out of the box, I started receiving BSOD with CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED etc etc. I donwloadded ALL the Dell Ofiicial drivers up to latest. But still very frequently received a BSOD with UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION.

After this, I tried downloading the new Intel Graphics HD 530 drivers, and Intel RST RAID drivers for my SSD. (previously uninstalling Dell's drivers). I still received BSOD but with different information. One I received was KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED. Then decided to install latest (beta) drivers from Intel for the Integrated Graphics HD 530. Another different BSOD.

In the meantime, I still have the bug that I read on another threads (bug which hasnt been solved yet apparently) that whenever I connect a headphone, the sound dies whatsoever (even if I unplug the headphones), until next reboot.

To sum up, is there anyone who has a stable XPS 9550 running? Which drivers were used? I want to believe that my hardware is all right and the problem is in the drivers / software layer.

Is there an ultimate, summarized answer for this after 164 pages?

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

I was wondering if anyone has tried using a smaller charger/AC adapter with their XPS 15? I realize that the XPS 15 needs a higher wattage charger, but would the XPS 13 one work at all? Or any others? I am just looking for something that is easier for travel with. Thanks in advance!

 

I mean using two fingers in the touch pad to zoom in or zoom out, this supported in Microsoft Edge, but not in photo app. Using pinch zoom, you have more control on how much you want to zoom in and so on ...

 

How are you installing the intel graphic driver? I download the driver from intel's website but it didn't let me install, said use manufacturer provided driver!

 

what do you do that require 802.11AC? honestly AC is cool but if you are not utilizng it then why?

 

A fresh install works well, I have had I think one BSOD about the store but that's a genuine windows fault rather than driver.
I made my own ISO including the needed boot drivers to see m.2 devices under AHCI/RAID and have updated anything from the past month since I made the ISO such as audio (you need to install audio again anyway as the inf install doesn't install all the software)

359.06 is the best nvidia driver, anything after that does cause BSOD issues. It is part of my ISO.

Grab the copy you need out my sig if you are going to do a fresh install.

 

I just uninstalled from "Device Managers" the one provided by Dell and then reinstalled the Intel one.

Thanks Gonzo. I will try this and see how it goes. Should I configure the (1.1.19, latest) BIOS for AHCI or RAID?
Or works both in your ISO?
Should I install anything on top (DELL-wise)?

Just out of curiosity, which drivers do you use? Dell? intel?
And, how is that thing that the Audio drivers get partially installed? I know that it first uninstalls current ones, and reboots and then it's supposed to install the rest, right?

Thanks!

 

I prefer AHCI as windows then used a NVMe driver, Raid should really only be used on this laptop if you use a cache drive.

I use Intel RST v14.x.x for the boot section so it can see any drive connected in any mode. Dell drivers for Audio ,Wifi, Thermals & chipset. Intel for GPU, Nvidia for GPU, Some other Dell specific ones. Some cannot be integrated as they are an exe file but windows update pulls them in at the end of setup when you go online to activate your microsoft account (it's the reboot before you get to desktop)

Audio install hits a wall with the software so it only installs part of it, enough for sound but you then need to go get the latest driver and follow the uninstall/install.

Basically you get to desktop with minimal fuss

 

No special drivers that I know of other than keeping current with what Dell supplies. Begin with the basics: check the batteries, see if they connect to another machine, and then uninstall all the drivers for the Dell 1830 (I presume your machine has it) and reinstall. After that, get after Dell.

 

I can never have enough speed....

 

I upgraded to my 9950 because I do a wide variety of computing and never have enough time to do it. I need the power to plow through anything without having to have a special machine. I need my AC because 'real world' always degrades things and I don't usually have the luxury to download at my leisure and take forever to transfer files between my machine and my NAS. Also waiting for web pages to load is a waste of my time.

 

Great! So how's the optimal procedure for installing this ISO?

1) Changing 1.1.19 BIOS controller settings to AHCI?

2) Booting from Flash Drive with the ISO
3) Installing Windows

4) Download anything else? Or just let windows downlaod updates?


Thanks!

 

4, grab the new audio drivers, otherwise you should be good to go!

 

Does anybopdy know if it is possible to get a replacement battery?
I have got the big one but I want the smaller one.

 

Those drivers that were not properly being installed, as you mentioned before? (The Dell drivers?) If yes, do I have to do some manual procedure for their proper installation?
Or you mean to get the original manufacturer drivers?

Once again, thanks

 

I think you're mixing something, 802.11ad is no successor of 802.11ac. It is for a different scenario because it's communicating on 60GHz instead of 2.4 or 5 GHz and due to that high frequency it can cover only some meters. I expect 5m range. Therefore it's useful for cable replacement in an desktop or conference environment. I'm not sure at the moment but I think it's the tech behind the Dell wireless dock.

 

It is the tech behind Dell's wireless dock as far as I know and yes 60 GHz is definitely too high a frequency to be able to even pass through a wall and also has very limited range.

 

You will find a battery swap thread where members will swap battery, drive cage and ribbon cable for the bigger battery and the other way.

Personally I say get a 1tb NVMe drive

 

Yes, I misspoke when I said it would extend the 5 GHZ band. What I meant is that it would replace it with greatly enhanced speed. As I understand it, the proposed AD routers will incorporate a new technology to extend range considerably. Of course, things change, projections fall short. We shall see. In the meantime, I must be lucky because my Nighthawk living in the basement can reach up to the second story of my home and still be driving at 300 Mbps and out onto my back and front porches at that same speed. If someone makes an AD card for my 9550's I will probably be an early adopter.

 

Ok, just because I wanted to avoid the hassle of reinstalling all my programs and stuff, I still have not reinstalled windows. Though I have not had any BSOD since I installed the original samsung 950 PRO NVMe drivers. So as far as I don't receive any BSOD, I'll keep this.

However. I still have this issue with the sound. So, I'm going to ask again. What is this "hits a wall with the software" that Gonzo mentions? How should I do to properly install the latest realtek (downloaded from Dell I guess) drivers? (because funny thing, they say they are x.x.x.7737 and my driver ends up x.x.x.7628 after installation). As far as I can see, everyhting is installed properly (the old ones are uininstalled and after reboot, the new ones are installed).

Please help! Has anyone fixed the headphones issue (plug and then uplug headphones, then the speakers are muted) without reinstalling windows?