Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

Agreed. The Dell Outlet laptops (and eBay etal refurbs) are likely hack jobs by subcontractors.

But....Dell.com also is selling new laptops that don't have the nVidia chips installed.

I see Dell is running some aggressive pricing these days despite skyrocketing DDR4 prices. Part of that aggressive pricing is by "removing" the nVidia cards. Just make sure you know what you are buying...

 

Didn't used to be just the base model?
The other thing is they may be building new configurations to shift remaining stock due to the refresh due out.

 

Intel HD appears to be available across the board from certain official Dell sites even for "top configurations" (e.g. i7, 4k, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD...). Those crippled machines will be a surprise for a few customers!

I also would guess Dell are likely flushing out old inventory with discount by excluding nVidia card.

As a remote possibility, Dell could be ramping up new 9560 board production but just putting a Skylake chip in and not adding the dedicated graphics card. I don't think that is likely as it would require a lot of testing and technically may not be feasible.

I have some experience with big IT hardware manufacturers so have an operating view on 9560 boards. Frankly, I don't think Dell will start mass producing the 9560 boards until Kaby Lake processors start flowing into to factories (or a few weeks in advance at most). This keeps inventory low (no expensive bank loans required for stuff sitting on shelves) and reduces surprises (from late Intel revisions).

 

I know it would only be a guess, but if you were to guess, when would you predict the 9560 board based XPS 15s will be on the market? By elimination, I will most likely end up buying an XPS 15 (1080p non-touch, 84 whr battery, 512 G SSD, 16G ram) to replace the big old M17x I have now. I don't HAVE to have one today, though my current system is failing, but I also don't think I can wait until March 2017, for example. I don't think Kaby Lake is going to add a lot for my use (primarily standard use plus HD video editing, but also need battery life for travel) but if they are going to move to a new 9560 MB I would opt for that if it was going to be fairly soon.

Thanks

 

Better off asking this guy instead.


NO ONE KNOWS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Jeff - that is not public information so nobody knows.

Maybe Dell follows Apple's lead and hangs onto the similar Skylake and makes no 9560 Kaby Lake release.

There are some charts floating around showing expected release by INTEL for the 6700HQ replacement so that implies that Q1 or Q2 2017 might be a target for the 9560.

As the XPS 15 is a flagship model, maybe the 9560 gets an early batch of Kaby Lake chips and Dell releases an update targeting the new year.

Regardless, given the very minor improvements in Kaby Lake performance, the thermal constraints of the XPS chasis for improved graphics performance, and the improbability of Dell changing the beautiful 9550's chassis in the near-term, I would not expect any earth-shattering XPS 15 performance improvements in the short- or medium-term...

 

Thanks. I had been considering the HP Specter x360 also, and saw their 13.3" model is already out with the Kaby Lake so I thought perhaps it was in current rollout across manufacturers.

On that note: The XPS 15, based on the threads here, seems to be plagued with a wide range of issues, many of them "minor" such as coil whine and crackling speakers, but of the kind that would drive me crazy. I was able to try out the x360 13 and x360 15 at a Best Buy (can't find an XPS 15 anywhere to try!) and they were both pretty nice. And they don't seem in their threads to have quite the plethora of issues. However, in a couple of reviews with benchmarks, the XPS 15 with the quad core cpu and discrete graphics option significantly outperforms the Spectre x360 15 and that's a bit of a show stopper.

 

The "lower voltage" Kaby Lake laptop chips are already at retail, including the XPS 13 (9360)

The "higher performing" Kaby Lake chips are not yet for sale. As I noted they are not much higher performing than the current Skylake generation in the current XPS 15 (9550).

The 9550 laptops had some issues for the first 6 months or so but most have been worked out with new drivers etc. as you can read here. The users without problems don't complain here so the sample is biased. The XPS is very powerful given its size and if you are willing to do a bit of simple work under the hood performance gets much better for $20 and maybe 20 hours of learning/wrenching. The 9550 is not really a gaming laptop, however. If you want good performance in ultrabook form factor, there is not much competition.

I can't speak for the HP models.

 

I bet that with the 9560 model SpeedShift wil be activated in the BIOS from the start...

 

Unfortunately, knowing the 9360 model was just released without SpeedShift activated in the BIOS, I would bet otherwise.

There is a SpeedShift thread here for the 9550 which highlights some ways to enable SpeedShift. ThrottleStop is a free program that is easy to launch...

 

That's news to me. Disappointing, though...

 

Yeah, I hear ya on forums and complaints. I remember some years ago looking to purchase a new 50" HD flatscreen TV, so I went to the AVS forums for expert advice. After a month or so reading in the Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, etc. forums I was convinced NO one made a TV that wasn't plagued with poor black levels, ghosting, backlight issues, etc. In fact, they had me so paranoid that when I did purchase, I also spent the time and money to buy the equipment and software to get into the service menu and do a full calibration myself! I suspect had I just purchased the TV I purchased without all of the research from an experts forum I'd have been pretty happy.

I will say that I've been happy with the Alienware M17x R4 that I have today, it's just so freaking heavy and gets so hot and has about an hour battery life, and I realize that today I don't need a "gaming" notebook. I do my heavy duty gaming on my PS4, my light gaming on my iPad. I just want a nice thin, light, well made notebook with a lot of battery life that can handle my video editing of HD videos and the rest is very standard stuff (Office, watching multimedia like HD Netflix, etc., serving as my Plex Media server, etc.) This old M17x actually still works fine for most of this, it is just starting to crash a lot, overheat, etc. And I dread taking it on the road (I'm on the road, car and plane, a lot) and of course it is not usable in a car or plane due to the terrible battery life (and it requires so much power I can't even plug it into the power plugs in my car!)

 

But it does not. The new TB driver did not help.

 

That's a real shame - I hope Dell are able to patch the driver/firmware to allow it to be supported in future although I cant say I hold high hopes they will. I wonder if the Apple adapter's bidirectional capability has something to do with it.

 

Hey guys.... Im în really deep s**t... I just bought this Dell 9550 refurbished from America 3months ago... And today I just pressed f8 to enter to recovery and guess what... It's bricked... No display backlinght no nothing... Just keyboard backlinght and power button light /charging light.... Otherwise nothing is working.... I tried fn+power, nothing.... D+power working
Tried to disconnect battery .. Nothing...
The thing is that I can't use the warranty here and I initiated an ownership transfer but I'm afraid it will not work and I'm ****ed because I'm not linger in America it was just work and travel program ((some ideas would be welcomed

 

F8 has a habit of bricking these i'm afraid, try Dell, the transfer is under way they should sort you out.

You could try taking the battery and BIOS battery if you're happy taking it apart.

 

I still can't understand how is this possible.... 1)No one is warning you... 2)Why is not Dell fixing this... 3)how the **** is possible a pc to be killed by a keyboard key.... This is purposely I bet Dell did this because otherwise I can't find any explanation... 2000$ laptop killed by f8... Damn... Note 7 story is baby compared to this

 

Fr. Bogdan23 -

That looks like a problem I had after opening up the laptop. You can see my experience here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...0-owners-lounge.783377/page-248#post-10276124

You might connect an HDMI cable to an external monitor to see if that works. It might require that you select the proper screen on your keyboard. That worked for me and I figured that the LCD cable worked itself loose under the connector near the battery. Use the proper screwdriver as that is a JIS and a normal screwdriver will strip the scewhead.

 

Hey Guys! Seems long time not be here. So i.ve updated all bios / upgrade to 16gb hyperX and its working like a charm for me. But.

Can somebody make video or instruction or tip on changing termal paste on this machine? I've installed a long time ago GTA V on this machine - and played it a while and after maybe 5 min of playing - cooler start work maximum and air is very hot from outtake - so i tried several times - i buy coolmaster pad for more cold air intake - i changed termal paste and clean pc - but its the same. So im thinking maybe i have done wrong termal paste change procedure. So i will be very happy if somebody who more understand pc "underhood" havee changed termal paste and maybe there is some tip?

All Bios and other drivers are the latest. Windows is fully optimized and last updates. Using this machine for music/video editing and office work - but not played any game in 5 years - and i buy gta 5 and can't play
XPS 9550/16gb ram/256 SSD/FHD/i7 6700

Thanks in advance!

 

If somebody is brave and want Speed Shift enabled on XPS - just read this http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ylake-speed-shift.796891/page-4#post-10397305

 

I can confirm that swapping the wifi card with the Intel 8260 fixed my TB15 problems. Decided to risk it and bought a TB15 on eBay for $109 brand new. Has been working perfectly for a week now. I also am not getting the little random crashes and freezes. Something tells me that wifi card was leaking RF all over the mobo and causing a host of other problems as well. Shame on Dell for not just coming out and admitting the issue / issuing a FRU fix.

 

So not sure if this is a known fact but I have a Kensington SD4600P USB-C dock sitting on my desk and it charges my XPS 9550 just fine. I can't test any of the other functionality since I'm running Linux. Sound, USB and HDMI doesn't seem to work under Linux for example.

EDIT: Actually sound and USB work if it's plugged in before boot. HDMI works 20% of the time and makes the screen flicker, ethernet is no dice. This dock can only send 60W of power which is not enough for the XPS15 but it seems to keep the battery topped just fine if I don't use the dgpu.

 

My 4k 1tb came with the 1tb SK HYNIX PC300 , I am used to samsung in most of my systems. How are the Hynix for reliability? Or is it too soon to tell?

 

FYI YanYang - Regarding the TDP throttle sign in ThrottleStop, click on the button "limit reasons". If the Ring column shows "EDP OTHER" in yellow, I think that is a false warning. It always shows up on my laptop even when just starting up. There was some discussion on the ThrottleStop Guide this summer-autumn regarding that yellow indicator with Skylake processors

 

Laptop is dell xps 15. It has 1920 x 1080 resolution. I connect laptop to an external monitor that is 1920 x 1200 resolution but this monitor no longer works.


I was able to find a used monitor that someone is willing to sell and its called


Samsung SyncMaster T240HD



I checked it out and it does have 1920 x 1200 resolution. Also it is apparently a tv as well but you can use it as a monitor. i checked online and this monitor is very old... made in 2008 or so.


But will this monitor/tv work fine as a primary monitor at 1920 x 1200 resolution? Reason i ask is because i cannot find a monitor with this resolution where im located at. Most monitors are 1920 x 1080 here.

 

Refresh rate would be a concern of it is listing as a monitor/tv, anything less than 60hz would be an issue for me.

 

Hi there. Where im located the guy uses this monitor as his primary monitor. He however connects it to a desktop as oppose to a laptop.


He tell me everything with this laptop works great. He used it for few years already though. He did however say if you try to use it 1920 x 1080 resolution, there are some issues. However, no issues if 1920 x 1200.


If thats the case, would you suggest to get it? also what do you mean anything less than 60hz would be an issue? What do you do that would make it an issue?

 

Anything less that 60hz to most peoples eyes will result in the screen looking like it is flickering, basically you are seeing the screen draw itself. Also, if you try to run the monitor at a higher refresh rate (hz) than what it is rated for it may damage the monitor OR just show a blank screen.

 

hi there.

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-VS24AH-...480532297&sr=8-2&keywords=1920+x+1200+monitor


This is my monitor that i used before it broke. What refresh rate of this then? I believe this is 60hz?

 

Most are 60, I am sure you know how to use google to find out rather than get one of us to do it

 

60hz with a 5ms response time which impacts when playing first person shooters (basically the screen lag, 5ms is pretty decent)

 

hi there. If playing online poker, this shoudl be fine? The thing is i need 1920 x 1200 and this monitor has it...

 

New BIOS is out: XPS 15 9550 1.2.16 BIOS
Only mentions a fix for a Thunderbolt Dock issue.
Nothing about screen flicker haha...

 

ffs

Sent from my SM-G920F

 

Has anybody tried it and checked for flickering? Together with that Intel update.

 

I brought the monitor to the computer place. The guy looked it over and didn't notice the color at all. He had connected the monitor to his computer. I noticed that it looked okay. I then connected the monitor to my laptop. It looked okay but when i showed a chrome page on the laptop and one the monitor, there was a difference you notice but i didn't notice it as much at my place. I then showed pictures of how it looked if i take a picture of the google page on chrome with my iphone. I showed how its clear white on my iphone but on the monitor, you see that yellow thing. He noticed it as well. Then i went to take picture of the monitor and he noticed that there is the yellow. He then tells me he knows why and the reason is because this monitor is an old LCD monitor and LED. He said if you take a picture of it with your phone on any crt or lcd or plasma monitor of a webpage, it will display the yellow. I did not know this. Is anyone of you familiar with this? I had used crt , lcd monitors before but this was a while back. I never noticed this though... then again technology was slower back then.





But the yellow is something i noticed. He said yes everything with the monitor is fine. So does that mean i can just do the brightness/calibrate to try to get the best settings possible? Thus this monitor is like this because its LCD? Also this light isn't that bright compared to my laptop monitor. He said its because my laptop is LED screen and thats why its very bright.





I like to know is there a setting configuration out there for this samsung or any samsung lcd hdtv monitor where it can make the picture and display look the best? Such that what number to put for contrast, brightness and anything else etc.

 

After lurking on the many XPS 15 9550 threads for way toooo long I took the plunge on black friday and ordered an i7/4k/32GB/1TB.

I think I know what I'm for with regards to most issues/performance tweaks and I will consult the posts on this forum. But the screen flicker seems to be one of the remaining biggies and I see despite another BIOS update this week it's still not resolved. I will play around with testing and decide whether to keep it or return and then wait longer still and see how the anticipated '9560' fairs in the new year.

The question I have is that on the threads I see many many references to the 30 day money back return period however my order confirmation docs clearly state 14 days. I phoned dell sales and they confirmed 14 days too. So why is my return period shorter? Any ideas?

Cheers

 

Maybe your shortened return period is a Black Friday special.

If you are waiting for a new and improved XPS 15, I would not expect too much.

Comparing the newly released Kaby Lake XPS13 to the Skylake XPS13, it is hard to ignore nearly identical performance, case, chassis, screens, chipset, and issues...

 

Dell will refund during the warranty period if it has an inherent flaw they can't fix. I have been offered a full refund after 2 years.

 

Thanks guys

Good to know re full refund rights regardless of initial return period. Fingers crossed I get a relatively issue free machine but at the moment 4k screen flicker sounds exactly like an 'inherent flaw they can't 'yet' fix'.

I've seen suggested elsewhere on the web that enabling hyper-v could be the culprit. I dont know how likely that is otherwise I think it would have been picked up on this forum. Using hyper-v will be a major use case for me so I hope not. This is not the right thread I know.

In terms of a new and improved XPS 15 I'm not particularly looking for improved specs/components as the current offering more than meets my needs. More I was hoping Dell might have learned some lessons re quality control and proper component/driver testing so owners didnt have to do so much of the leg work. Wishful thinking I bet

Thanks again

 

Hey guys. Please somebody help me and advice. So last week i update intel HD graphics and Bios and intel management something.
I never specially never look what is in settings in intel HD control panel. Yesterday i found that ( I have multi-screen setup - dell xps 15 9550 + Samsung 27" C27F396FH) and on both te sreen refresh rate is 59p. I set it to 60p on both - and after pc restart or after while Intel HD set in back to 59p. It is correct ? Why is like this? Also i set my 27" screen to FULL RANGE - and its more colorful and brighter but when sun goes down (i use f.lux application) - then screen looks terrible. Should i use full range or Default range? And how to set up 60p on both for all time?

Thanks in advance. I'm confused because spending alot working with computer and don't know which settings is normal ones.

 

> So last week i update intel HD graphics and Bios and intel management something.

For what I know, this is not a good idea currently, at least not with the 4K screen, because the latest BIOS and Intel video drivers don't seem to play well together. Check if you see brightness flicker and/or the black levels issue.

My external display is also at 59Hz, no idea why. But for the laptop panel it says 60Hz. I haven't adjusted this.

Wide-gamut displays tend to look oversaturated with non-color-managed applications. CM programs should be fine, at least if the display is properly calibrated. Set sRGB range if you use non-CM programs, or better find CM alternatives.

 

59hz and 60hz are the same thing
I think 59hz is in fact 59.94 so it is rounded to 60, just some devices insist on seeing 59.94 so 59 is listed.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on why the cursor would lag while on desktop only?
Checked CPU usage (normal). Reinstalled touch/mouse drivers through Device manager, no help.
It only lags on the desktop.

 

I have the same now. from time to time cursor lagging - but in my case is 90% in chrome - before never had this issue.. Reinstalled chrome but the same. Using 64 bit latest. It suppose to be more stable and faster and i got vice versa OR its because new drivers for Intel HD and bios.. i don't know. If anybody will find solution - please tell.

Also problem with multiple screens when back from sleep or just opening xps - the second connected screen don't turn on.. and need every time unplug HDMI cable and plug in - only this helping.

 

It only lags while i'm on desktop without any apps open. No lag in chrome or explorer.
I think its the new Intel or Nvidia driver, most likely Intel but i haven't had a chance yet to go back.
I don't think its related to BIOS because i've been running 1.2.0 without any issues for a while now.

Edit: Updated to Intel 530 driver 45.12 (4552) Beta and cursor lag still present.

Ok it was the Nvidia driver, running 375.86 now and no lag.

It mostly happened after you opened Start and tried to move the cursor but now no lag with Nvidia 375.86

 

I know the TB15 has issues but they are reportedly wifi-related (inadequate shielding). So I plan on turning off wifi when on the dock.

I just scored a TB15 dock for only $80 (not new) on eBay. It comes with a 180W adapter. My 9550 came with a 130W AC adapter. I am not planning to use power-hungry Thunderbolt devices. Now I just came across a page stating the 9550 needs the TB15 w/240W AC adapter. I can't fathom why it would need that much power. Can someone put me at ease telling me that the 180W will be adequate? Thanks!

 

I guess TB15 was recalled mainly due to overheating, and that heating power must be fed by the AC adapter I guess the power requirements depend on what you plug in.
Mind the recent BIOS update declares a TB3 issue.
I'm curious how exactly this wifi relation looks like. I've ordered the Intel 8260, but I've noticed that the card is actually placed in the corner on the opposite side from the TB3 USB-C connector.
Here, the USB and Ethernet is now stable on the WD15 dock in airplane mode but mouse stutters occasionally when on (75% power). While an Aukey USB-C hub + Etherent periodically disconnects Ethernet also in Airplane.

 

Can someone point me to the newest Intel graphics driver? And how to install it?
Thanks in advance!

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26404/Intel-Graphics-Driver-15-45-?product=88345

Use device manager to install if the setup.exe doesn't work.
Device manager > Intel driver > Right click > Update driver > Locate on my HDD > Have Disk > select the .inf file from the x64 or Graphics folder and install.