Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

Yes, The are fitting? Thank you very much.

 

Buy a Wera tx5

 

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0001P18N2/ref=ox_sc_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2QRHWMFZCIIVZ
bought this, thx

found this tutorial

 

Dunno if you can cancel that order but I notice they do the TX-HF version for less on the same page, it is actually a better screwdriver for this laptop as it has a magnetic tip to stop the tiny screw falling off!

 

For future reference, I recently purchased the iFixit 54 bit driver kit for about $25. It is for computers and the like so the bit selection is good. The bits are a good balance of price-quality for the hobbyist. The case is well designed but I am careful not to break it every time I open it. A pro probably needs a higher quality kit but this was perfect for me.

It looks like they upgraded to 64 bits now but I still see the 54 bit kit on offer:

https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Tools/64-Bit-Driver-Kit/IF145-299-1

==> Edit 2 - several of the iFixit bits have chipped or bent with minimal use at low-to-moderate torque. Recommended for emergency use only

Or good luck finding the specialized small laptop screws that have worn out...

 

Bought it already, will do it. Thanks anyway.

 

Guys, I have a question. A couple of days ago I posted here saying that Dell sent me a 9550 with a defective screen, a laptop with which I had purchased 3 years of Premium Support and ADH. After talking to Dell, they've decided to send me a replacement laptop, but they say that the Premium Support + ADH warranty from the original order will carry over to the replacement laptop (because the replacement laptop will have the same service tag as the original laptop). Is this a fair thing to do ? Shouldn't the replacement laptop come with it's own separate Premium Support + ADH warranty that has a later start date ?

 

Funny you should say this, with my 9530 is took nearly 6 months to get me a satisfactory unit, they try and swap the remaining warranty over to the new laptop, to such an extent that when I got my 9550 after 18 months it suddenly turned into a 9530 on Dell's warranty page to the date of the 1st ever unit I got ( i got it corrected the same as you will read in the next bit)
That aside. When I got my 4th 9530 that finally had a decent screen I rang up and kicked off that the warranty should commence from the date I received the unit I deemed fit to keep, it took a fair bit of arguing but I got my own way after throwing my weight around, pissing several people off and threatening to bring in the credit card company to claim my cash back. So yes you can get it adjusted.

 

Yeah, that was one of my worries. To me, it sounds like they're doing a swap under warranty, which leads to the warranty transfer. The best situation would be for them to process a full return and create a new order. They should be able to do that if your within the return period, and allow you to keep your old unit while waiting for the new one to arrive. It's a pretty standard process across retailers, Microsoft did it for me, and I think I've done that in the past with Dell. The concern I would have with the warranty exchange, besides the warranty transfer as you mentioned, would be receiving a refurbished unit. This would be allowed under the warranty but not a return/exchange. That might not be a concern for you but something to ask if it is.

 

If you do that they have to have the unit back to process the refund, so unless you have a spare wad of cash....

This is Dell, sod all is standard!

 

The ideal situation would be for them to send a new one with just a credit card on file in case you don't return the old unit. Very doable and I've seen it done before. But you're right, you never know with Dell and it could just be luck with how willing the rep is to help you

 

I had the exact same red tint on my XPS 15 fhd/i7/16/512. Decided to return it.

Maybe all FHD models are actually affected, but the tint is so slight that most people don't notice it?

It took me a couple of days before I really saw it, and then I just saw it everywhere. Especially while browsing since most webpages has a white background.

I work with photographs and film editing, so I couldn't accept it. It had great colors and black levels otherwise.

 

Having an issue with the TPM on my XPS 15 and wanted to reach out for help. For the past couple of days full restarts have prompted for me to enter the Bitlocker key, and I just checked today to find that the TPM is not visible to Windows. It shows as disconnected in Device Manager, and the TPM administration panel also says no compatible TPM is installed. The TPM settings appear normal in BIOS, however the clear option is greyed out (and the only one greyed out). I have had Bitlocker enabled for > 4 months without issue, and have not made any major changes in the past few weeks that could have prompted this issue. I have tried the following without success:

• Reflashing the latest BIOS
• Enabling and disabling the TPM in the BIOS multiple times
• Trying all possible combinations of TPM settings in BIOS
• Enabling/disabling secure boot in BIOS

Anyone have any suggestions to try before I have to contact Dell Tech Support? Hoping for an easier solution than motherboard replacement. Thanks

 

So I talked to Dell, and turns out that if I get an exchange laptop, the return window for that replacement laptop lies within the same 30 day return window of the *original* laptop, plus another 15 days ... This was unacceptable to me, and so I ultimately decided to ask them to cancel the replacement order and then also initiate a refund for my current defective XPS 9550 ...

 

I still really want to get the XPS 9550, and also get Dell's Premium Support with it. Problem is Dell's return policy states that it can take them upto 30 days to refund a return. So if I purchase the laptop from Dell again, and then again receive something defective, I'll have to wait upto 30 days to able to buy one again. The alternative is buying is through Best Buy, and the advantage here is that if a return is needed, Best Buy refunds within a few days, so it will be much quicker to find a working non-defective piece. The problem however with this approach is that after-sales warranty upgrades at Dell are much more expensive then pre-sale warranty upgrades.

Don't know which option to go for :/

 

Would you consider Microsoft Store with their complete warranty? Only two years but their support is so much better than Dell, and the computers always arrived within 2-3 via ground shipping. Plus most credit cards extend warrantys for an add'l year. BestBuy's warranty's and support in my expierence is not as good, although Geek Squad does make house calls

 

I've spent almost a whole day worth of hours speaking with Dell about all these laptop issues, and I've come to the realization that Dell is a *very* subpar company that has very low standards. If it wasn't for the fact that the XPS 9550 is the only decent laptop that by default comes with a 1TB NVMe SSD, I won't have even considered Dell ..

Anyhow, as I mentioned above, I've asked them to completely cancel the replacement order (warranty transfer sounds very very fishy to me) and also refund the original defective laptop. The rep I talked to told me that they've submitted the request to cancel the replacement order, but it takes 24 hours to reflect in their system. He told me to call in tomorrow and they'll initiate a refund for the original order. I just hope they actually do that .. :/

 

I would have definitely considered that, if they sold the 1TB NVMe SSD & 16 GB RAM option too, which last I checked they don't sadly .. They do have the 1TB SSD + 32GB RAM option, that that's too expensive for me.

 

If Dell updates the XPS 15 this year with kaby lake or a better GPU, who here would re-buy?

 

Does a better gpu fit there? A 17 inch would be awesome with those brezels.

 

Ended up spending 3+ hours on the phone with Dell Tech Support about the TPM issue. Long story short, the level of support they provide was below even my very low expectations. Some highlights:

• After asking me what a TPM was, I replied its a part that helps for encryption. They then asked what encryption was
• I was twice transferred to the fee-based software help desk. The second time they claimed it was the advanced support department
• They suggested I call "Bitlocker" and ask what was wrong with their software
• They adamantly claimed the XPS 15 does not have a TPM, despite my assertion that I had used it without issue for the past 5 months. I tried to to send them a link from their website to prove otherwise but they still wouldn't agree
• At the 3 hour mark, the rep finally says I think the Dell XPS 15 does actually come with a TPM. This occurred about 1 hr after he screen shared my computer and saw it in device manager

They're claim they will send me a new motherboard in the next few days but I'm not convinced this is happening based on how quickly the rep shifted from claiming it doesn't come with a TPM to offering to send a new board. Its troubling how little they know about TPM as the Windows Anniversary update basically requires TPM 2.0 on all new hardware, so its going to come up more and more often.
My point being that despite how much I like the computer itself, I cannot recommended for anyone else to purchase it. Too many QC issues, and when they occur trying to get a resolution with Dell is a very trying experience as others have noted. Only exception would be if you buy from another retailer that provides the support. I did, and have the option to work through Microsoft, but thought trying Dell would be easier. I was wrong, and hope no one else has to go through that.

Also, in case anyone is interested in TPM info, here's a few pertinent links. Windows 10 Anniversary Update is supposedly requiring active TPM 2.0 on new hardware. I don't think that applies to clean installs on previous hardware, but here's some info on converting the Dell XPS 15 TPM to 2.0 if anyone needs/wants to go that route
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/enterprise-client/w/wiki/11849.tpm-1-2-vs-2-0-features
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=2105J

 

Received my refurb 9550 a few hours ago. Initial impressions:
PROS
- Staggeringly good industrial design, materials, fit and finish
--- I think it is well ahead of Apple's current products (which I quite like)
--- Makes my buddy's new BMW 5 series interior look cheap

- Very thin and light

- First class keyboard and touchpad - I really enjoy using them

- Excellent screen with good brightness and color. It is the non-glossy version so by nature not as spectacular (or irritating) as a glossy screen. The non-gloss treating is effective

- Flawless operation so far (but just a bit of internet surfing)

- Came in refurb packaging but looks like a new unit without a scratch, blemish or mark. I think this was a new unused unit sold via the Dell outlet

- The power brick had a small scratch (it might be new also as the sticky clear plastic packing protection had the same scratch)

- The slow 1TB HD is pretty quiet

CONS
- Audio is terrible out of the box
--- speakers are fair but placement is flawed design
---Audio out of headphone jack sounds cheap on my good quality low imp headphones
---Audio out (via my DAC, headphone amp and good headphones) sounds cheap (This is a Dell driver/settings issue as the native outboard DAC should be receiving a bitperfect signal with no processing)
---I tried moving from the Realtek drivers to the windows high definition audio device - that helped som
- The 1080 screen has a plastic rim around it which looks like an afterthought

- Apple's rice-cooker "inspired" magnetic power cord connection is better

- 100s of pages documenting user problems with the 9550. . .

NEXT STEPS
- Dump the silly 32GB SSD and slow HDD

- Install Samsung 850EVO SSDs

- Increase RAM

- Clean install Windows 10

- Fix audio drivers

15" 9550, i5HQ, non-touch screen, 8GB RAM, 32GB SSD + 1TB 5400 HDD

 

I had no idea the TPM could be updated, done it on mine, nice one

I bet Asus don't update the firmware on the TPM add on module, they are the worst for support.

 

opp...spoke too soon : (

- The touchpad is not perfectly centered, although the misalignment is significantly less than 1mm

- There are several visible nicks on the metal case; with the computer open, I can feel them running my hand horizontally across the top of the screen housing. I suspect this unit was sold as a second due to this. Or could have been the lousy shipping boxing from Dell..

 

This weekend the macmall.com website indicated shipping on my SSD in a few days; that was not true. They confirmed via phone tonight it is out of stock for unknown period of thime, as it is everywhere I look (well, it is available at a 50% premium to the ~$95 street price).

I've had great experiences with macmall in the past and the customer service guy was a straight shooter so I didn't cancel the order (yet).

Samsung EVO 850 m.2 250GB MZ-N5E250BW

 

Why not get an OEM drive instead?

 

Thanks GoNz0 - I took another look at the OEM drives.

Right now, the $95 EVO 850 m.2 250GB is a great combo of price/performance/size. But that does not matter much when they are not available at that price. . .

I'm in a unique position as I already own a EVO850 mSATA drive (256GB) for the big slot. So my plan was to put a cheap drive in the m.2 slot with more space than I need (additional 250GB). Then in a year or so when prices drop, pick up a large NVMe.

I'll wait a few days and see if the 850 gets restocked. Else I will probably go OEM. . .

 

Hey!!

My 9550 gets hot when i let it for a couple hours in my bag and the battery drains a lot!!
Does somebody else have this issue? I'm wondering if Mcafee is not the source of the problem...

 

quite simple, it is waking up in the bag, google it, you will be surprised how you can find answers that way..

 

Greetings everyone, just bought the 4K 15" XPS 9550 with the i7...looking forward to having some fun with it.

I'm about to order some RAM and upgrade it to 32GB along with the 512GB Samsung m.2 Pro.

I'll definitively be re-pasting it as well....

This will be my daily driver when I'm on the road as my AW17R3 will remain my desktop

Cheers...

 

Well, I did receive my laptop back from Dell repair. (to be fair to them, it was the delivery company trying to deliver it to the wrong office)

The good news is that after replacing the motherboard and bluetooth radio, the audio works (except it's still clicky when I change volume, but ok), and bluetooth performace is bearable. BUT, wifi is horrid - good on me that one open socket runs at 55mbps, but open two of them and the first one drops to 50mbps (with no data on the second). Open 10 of them and the first one stalls.

Oh, and the space bar (or shall I say the space-let) has gotten into the habit of producing two spaces every now and then, and the trackpad seems to be even worse than before (it too was replaced)

I don't know how Dell can sell something like this and not be subject to class action suits.

 

I should maybe back track and look first, but was your unit brand new or was it a refurbished unit? The thing is, I'm curious if Dell replaces parts with new parts or refurbished parts? It just seems strange that you would be encountering that issue if either A.) they did used refurbished parts for the replacement or B.) the tech who put it back together was worthless and not careful..

I'd call them back and get this thing taken care of until it is to your satisfaction. If you start a class action law suit, there will be a ton to support you LOL....

 

Good news - tonight I updated the BIOS to 01.02.00 and sound via headphones and via USB-DAC is much better than it was with BIOS 01.00.07. There is still a slight bit of harshness which could be mid-range EQ boost (in the 6k range?). Also the internal headphone amp quality is a limiting factor. I will try "removing" the sound processing later but am quite happy now.

As noted above, I killed the audio driver and went to the windows driver.

Sound quality is still a bit better on my old MacBook Pro both via headphone jack and USB-DAC; but that MacBook Pro was top-shelf for laptop sound quality...

 

Morning folks, i just received my FHD i7 yesterday. Overall, i am pretty satisfied with the laptop, but there is a certain flaw which might make me return it.
The display shows a shift of color temperature from left to right, seems like the temperature is lower (more blue-ish) on the left than on ther right (more yellow-ish). Are there experiences regarding this issue?

 

Got two months with this laptop now, 4K display 32 gb ram and 1 TB SSD disk. Impressed by this hardware, but not happy with a few things. Precision on trackpad for photo editing. Is better on my Alienware m11xr2 witch is 6 years old. Batterydrain during sleepmode sucks.

Else i got 4404 points on 3dmark Firestrike test, and GPU temp didnt go above 79 degrees celcius. On Skydiver test i score 14 020 points.

Really happy with the screen and performace during photoediting!

 

It seems to be common on FHD screens, no point posting about it, phone Dell.

 

I had the same thing on my first 4K unit - I called dell to return it and purchase a replacement, they didn't give me any problems.

 

Called Dell, they send me a technician tomorrow who will replace the screen. Looking forward to it.

 

Well, I looked this space bar issue up, and the proposed solution indicates the issue is with some tape that's supposed to be flush but isn't:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19662855

Makes me think someone at the factory wasn't being careful. (or that the way the thing is built is so flimsy that once opened it's done)

The only unfortunate aspect of taking care of it to my satisfaction is that my old laptop is a Lenovo W530, which with its extra battery to last me the NRT<->SFO route weighs about as much as I do... already had to take one trip while the Dell was at the shop, and not looking for another.

 

Good luck if they show up with just the panel and not a complete lid, last guy had the hinge cover butchered off and I think for the FHD they will take off the bezel cover and bugger that up as well. If so get on the phone when the tech makes a mess and scream for a replacement NEW machine.

£10 says he makes a mess, £20 says he never read the service manual. (virtual £ )

 

will there be any better notebook with similar weight , design but with better power then the DELL XPS 15 2015 soon ?

was looking at the HP Zbook studio but the tests for that one flopped...

when does a new 15 inch multimedia notebook take the lead ?

 

I'm hoping Dell doesn't go away with the infinity bezel design on the xps.

This is what will determine whether the xps is a must buy now or not. (I have one already, which if I knew the line would lose the infinity display, I would seriously buy another one for the office.)

I couldn't imagine it getting any better by a big margin given that it's a slim profile machine. Personally I would love to see the new Pascal GPU as the 960M in there now is a joke.

The 6700HQ CPU is good too and is plenty for most users, but I'd like to see a 6820HK in there....

There's definitely room for improvement. I just hope they continue with the design language as it is the best out right now IMO.

Powered by: Quad Core Exynos + 6820HK

 

So, the display was replaced. He brought a complete lid, which was a good thing. The bad thing is that the new display has the same defect, but now the cold color is on the other side (right). Even worse, now i have the feeling that the display makes noises when scrolling. Also the fan is constantly running now and every now and then i get an "power surge usb port" error, even though there is no USB item plugged in.
I more and more get the feeling that these will not be the only issues in the future, thats why i decided to send it back to dell.
Maybe i will buy a thinkpad, or wait for the next generation of xps 15.

 

My laptop is having this same issue as well. Reinstalling Windows 10, rolling back BIOS to 1.0.0, resetting BIO settings, and etc. Look forward to whether your new motherboard will resolve this issue.

Edit: Tried to update TPM to version 2.0 and also 1.2, but both terminated returning a message that "System TPM Query Failed". I don't think it's an OS issue either. The TPM option no longer appears in the BIOS menu as well.

BIOS used: 1.0.0, 1.1.15, 1.2.0

 

Have you tried updating the TPM firmware to 2.0?

 

Yup, I tried. Forgot to mention that. I tried to "re-update" with the 1.2 version as well. Both updates terminated because: "The System TPM Query Failed, Aborting"

I don't think it's an OS issue either. The TPM option no longer appears in my BIOS settings as well on versions 1.0.0, 1.1.15, and 1.2.0. (Couldn't find 1.1.19).

 

Sorry if I asked this before but have you tried a full BIOS reset?

 

Could you define what a "full BIOS reset" is? If you mean re-updating the BIOS and / or restoring BIOS settings to factory default from the BIOS menu, then I've tried both.

 

Yep that was it.