Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

Does anyone know if it's possible to change XPS 15's system/BIOS settings such as battery charging profile, or enable/disable touchscreen etc. from Windows? My grilfriend's Toshiba laptop has software which you can use to change almost all system settings from Windows, and I found it very convenient not always having to reboot the laptop.

 

Battery charging profile can be changed with Dell Command Power Manager

 

Hi to all ;-)

I am considering buying a laptop to replace my surface book (too many bugs, and didn't need the touchscreen actually, as taking notes is still worst than on an ipad). I am looking for a powerful but relatively light laptop with decent battery life that I could use at work as well.

I am hesitating between the MSI GS40 ( http://www.techspot.com/review/1134-msi-gs40-phantom-6qe/) and the Dell XPS 15. I am not a hardcore gamer, but would enjoy playing a bit of FPS (would like to try mechwarrior online for instance) and maybe some FIFA after a long hiatus away.
Also, I won't keep this laptop many years, so I am not looking to future proof it. In all likelihood, it will be gone in 18 months tops.

So, my question is: would you recommend the XPS 15? I know the graphic card is much better in the MSI, but is the one in the XPS 15 good enough for my needs? Also, they seem to be close to the same weight (the MSI is actually 1.8kgs with battery on) and size given the absence of bezel on the XPS, which is nice. Battery life seems also rather similar.


Thanks for your help!

 

Battery life, build quality, screen, and style are all much better in the XPS 15. I wouldn't get the GS40.

 

Hi! I just bought the Dell XPS 15 with these specs:
i7-6700HQ
GTX 960m
16gb RAM
512gb SSD
1920x1080 FHD
84 whr 6 cell battery

I hear this laptop has great cooling so I'm planning to overclock the 960m because I have a Cooler Master Notepal U2 which has 2 moveable fans and I can move them right on top of the fans inside the lapotp which should help cool the fan alot. But I wanted to know some facts before I do.
Is it possible to overclock the 960m?
If possible how much should I overclock?

 

The max you can OC the 960m is +135 core and maybe 300 for memory.

 

Wow thank you for the fast reply! (Brofist)

 

Some bugger lied to you if they said this has great cooling, kinda impossible with an ultrabook anyway.
You will find a thread referencing a lot of us repasting and adding a thicker pad to a VRAM chip that needs help to get you going.

 

Ok thanks, anyone else?

And by the way, is the dell external charger a good buy? Looks a bit expensive, but I am thinking that I will probably need a bit more juice from time to time...
And what about FHD screen vs 4K? The 4K is not easily available here and much mor eexpensive. Is it worth it?

 

What program did you use to overclock? Msi Afterburner?
And can you show a picture of your overclock settings? Thank you

 

As a start, take a look at Eason's signature for a link to a detailed guide he wrote

 

Should I wait for Kaby Lake?

 

I don't have my XPS 15 anymore.

Nvidiainspector is the best app to use. The problem with overclocking on a mobile PC is that optimus disables the GPU normally, and so the OC won't be set on wakeup/hibrenation resume. You'll need to use nvidia inspector to OC and they right click the left button (I forgot the name) to say "set clocks at startup". Then you'll need to go to the task scheduler and find the task inspector created - you'll want to set an additional trigger for it on event "system" "power-troubleshooter" id "1". This will make the OC script run every time you resume from sleep.

inspector will throw an error, however, if the card isn't woken up- so to be sure, I make an additional task which opens the nvidiainspector app about 10 seconds before the script to set the overclock kicks in. That seems to get the GPU to wake and makes the clocks stick. Both tasks I would set to "only on AC power", btw.

 

Who knows.

I don't see many complaints around the current i5 and i7 for laptop use. But it took a good six months for users to get beyond all the beta-release problems of the 9550. Mine is awesome but it took a lot of sweat and tears to get it just right. That included a clean install of W10 and the drivers (which did not go as smoothly as planned), repasting the CPU and GPU, and fixing the thermal pads for the VRAM. Some 9550 users threw in the towel; I was sad to just read Eason sold his : (

For the future 9550, I really would focus on GPU improvements (which I am not convinced will make a big leap in Dell's next release given NVIDIAs portfolio and the thinness of the 9550, which puts a real constraint on temps - there are some recent speculative posts around here for more comments). Also you face the risk that Dell releases another beta laptop that takes several months for users to sort out.

On the other hand, maybe KL is incredibly fast and cool running, a top-tier NVIDIA card is used via some trick cooling features, and Dell releases a fully tested 9550 successor. Or not.

 

Yeah I couldn't be assed to reinstall everything to fix BSODs. I'd rather just wait for the next great laptop with TB3.

If it makes you feel any better, the only pascal chip possible for such a thin notebook as the xps 15 would be one that doesn't exist yet. Neither the 1060m not the 1070m would be possible in the chassis (as the 1060m has a 10W higher tdp than the 970m, which is already cooking thin laptops). So if they were go to pascal for the XPS 15 update, it would likely be some sort of "1050m", which wouldn't be too much faster than a 960m.

 

Where are you getting the power figures for the 1060m? The 1070's TDP is near the 970s while the 1060 is the same as the 960 desktop wise. I don't foresee Nvidia releasing a 1060m with a higher power requirement than the 970m.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile...060-Laptop-Benchmarks-and-Specs.169547.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1070-Laptop.169549.0.html

" The mobile Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 is a graphics card for high end laptops(upcoming). It is based on the Pascal architecture and manufactured in 16 nm FinFET at TSMC. The GPU is using the smaller GP106 chip. Compared to the desktop version of the GTX 1060, the laptop version offers the same amount of shaders but slightly lower clock rates. The TDP should also be lower, laptop manufacturer currently talk about a 10 Watts higher TDP than the old GTX 970M (predecessor). It should be launched in August 2016. "



" Instead of the new GDDR5X, the GTX 1070 uses slower GDDR5 graphics memory - but still 8 GB. The TDP is also reduced and rumored to be 10 Watts higher than the predecessor, the GTX 980M. "

 

Will it do the same thing with undervolting?

 

No. As long as Throttlestop is running it will enforce the undervolt, waking from sleep or whenever.

 

So as now there is no way to permanenetly overclock? Like no way jose?

 

No. Only systems that support BIOS OC can be perminantly OC'd without a software solution.

 

Hi!

I got my XPS 15 i7/16GB/512GB/84Whr yesterday. During normal battery use it works great, no heating whatsoever and no sound from the fans unless you get your ear 1cm from the laptop. While connected to AC temperatures raise a bit though, even during idle... Is this normal?
So far the only stress I made it go through was a bit of CSGO. With medium graphics I got about 100-120FPS, only stable (for the most part) at 100FPS. I think this is a bit low, could it be throttling or something? Any ideas/opinions on this?

SSD speeds are good out of the box, I can post am image if you want.

About the battery profiles, should I use Dell profile, or the "High performance" one while on AC and the "saving" (can't remember the exact name) one while on battery? Also, is there a way to automatically use "High performance" on AC, and automatically switch to "saving" when AC is disconnected?

Thanks!

 

notebookcheck is wrong more often than they are right. They were wrong about the power specs of the 970m as well IIRC. There is no way Nvidia will brand a 1060m with higher power requirements than a 970m. If anything that will become the 1070m.

 

I hope you are right and they are wrong.

 

Hi I have been away for quite a while.

Has anyone noticed suddenly screen flickering after the BIOS 1.2.10 ??
Is there a fix. I searched and I think I read something like that from some people, but wouldnt mind a direct response.

Thanks!

 

go back to the older BIOS, it's the only fix.

 

Yeah I've been reading more. How can they screw up something that was already working properly and fixed before?

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

It was already broken, just not a total and utter car crash. It seems it was more of a fix for the FHD not the QHD, I have the QHD and have the odd flicker, with the new bios it was every couple of seconds.

 

Well it never happened to me before. I've just downgraded and doesn't seem to be happening now.

Only thing I dislike about my display is that red shade when seeing on weird angles

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

how can you go into the bios menu of the dell xps 15 with windows 10
BEFORE it boots into win 10 ?

pressing F12 or F8 does not work...

I want to be able to select in the boot menu to boot from hard drive or usb stick

I also want to downgrade it to windows 7 home premium (they only had win 10 as option)
how can I do that ? the win 10 serial key does not work with win 7 home premium...

 

1. BIOS is f2
2. No

 

F12 works.

and boot from USB too now.


But how can I install win 7 clean again on the win 10 install from the factory?

 

F12 works for me?

 

Are you hitting the respective key in time? F2 and F12 should both work. Turn it on and hit that key a few times...

 

Here is a link to a kit that contains many types/sizes of laptop screws, if interested:

http://www.frys.com/product/7229923?site=cemail072916

Use Promo code to reduce the price: 7047316

 

Hi,
Do you guys know if the XPS 15 has any security slot to use a Laptop Lock? If so, which type is it, or what kind of locks would I be able to use?
Thanks!

 

Kensington

 

Hey Eason!
I overclocked my laptop using your guide and it works great!
I'm getting around 74 degrees on my GPUwhen I stress test it with Unigine Valley on ultra settings. The cool thing is that once the fans start kicking in it drops to around 71 degrees.
The only thing that I don't understand is that I'm getting 40 FPS on Valley on High 1920 Res with AA off. Is this an ok result even with overclocking?
Also will overclocking my CPU help with my fps? and should I overclock my CPU?

[/url][/IMG]

 

I have no idea about Uniengine. I am familiar with firestrike- and a good firestrike score would be 4200-4400 with an overclock. Without, you should hit 3900 or so.

You can't overclock the i7-6700HQ AFIK. You can just ensure good thermals so it runs at x31 on all 4 cores. Higher clockspeed helps on some games that are heavy on computations, like city simulations and strategy games.

 

Hi guys, have some quick questions, I just got my XPS 15 - 256gb ; FHD - and I wanted to update the BIOS, but since there has been so many complaints about the last BIOS version I wanted to know which BIOS is the most stable ? ( I think I saw 1.19.00 somewhere but I am not sure at all.)
Second question, I don't have a USB key/drive atm, so I won't be able to clean install W10 yet, if I update the BIOS now, will it stay updated if I clean install W10 later ?
Lastly, is there any advice that I may have missed about the XPS 15 ? ( Clean install, update BIOS, update drivers,that's it basically ?)

 

I have a weird problem with my Audio.

For some time now at certain appplictions. e.g Videos on youtube or BS player and VLC player or a video game that I have all have too low volume. Especially if turn off the enchancments the audio is way too low.

This is visible with he volume mixer turned on too. The bar for things playing from flash player is always higher than other programs wihtout me having changed anything.

I would prefer to be able to deactivate the echancements especially when connecting my laptop to speakers, but everything is too damn low now.

I tried installing the newst drivers from Dell, but it didnt help

 

Similar to my FHD setup. I run 1.2 BIOS with no issues. Earlier BIOS seem to be quite buggy but 1.2 is stable and quite refined for me.

Some people with 4k screens are reporting problems with the latest BIOS so I have not changed to that. I think the BIOS should stick regardless of clean install. . .but I think there have been a few cases where it did not stick. My USB stick has a new install ISO, drivers, and BIOS on it for convenience.

NBR is a staggering resource for the 9550 and anything not answered in the posts people can help with. Just due your homework.

To start, you might study the following threads to make your own preliminary conclusions (note most of the bugs have been worked out at this point):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ean-install-guide-custom-iso-download.789769/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...rature-observations-undervolt-repaste.785963/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/dell-xps-15-9550-power-limit-throttling.793136/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ist-of-hardware-and-software-problems.784691/

 

I've had some problems with the RealTek audio drivers. The Microsoft ones seem to be less problematic, but you will need to figure out how to prevent the RealTek ones from self-reinstalling every day...

 

Try the latest as it seems to be ok on FHD panels, if it flickers drop back to the older one 1.2.0
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=KTR76

Bios is nothing to do with the operating system so it will stay.

 

I think the tool to uninstall video drivers on guru3d.com lets you disbale drivers reinstalling http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

 

1. I'm on latest with no problem
2. BIOS is independent of Windows
3. Yes

 

Awesome! I got Firestrike score 4399!
On your guide it said that I should use NVIDIA Inspector. I felt that with MSI Afterburner you dont have to task schedule it. How does it differ from MSI Afterburner which starts up as soon as you turn your computer? Also do I need Throttlestop window open for it to work?

 

Throttlestop should stay running. Keep it in your tray. It's a good app anyway because it's low on resources and it's handy to check temps.

I don't like using MSI afterburner because it behaves erratically with optimus. Sometimes it won't set the clocks, othertimes, when you check the app, it will have set the sliders to "32767", which, though I have doubts as to whether they'd actually be applied, make me concerned. I have also suffered 2 dead BGM GPUs while using afterburner. I can't be sure that it was afterburner that did it, but it was enough to make me stay away from it.

 

can you excahnge the internal braodcom wlan card wiht a intel wlan card ?

like open the cassis and take out the broadcom wlan card and put the intel one inside

 

Intel AC8260 is fitted to some models. It is only a twin antenna so you have to tape the 3rd out the way.