Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

Folks with XPS 15 9550 . Question on the clock speeds of RAM. RAM is listed as DDR4-2133 , however actual clock speed is only 1064~. Why is this? and then what is the point in having DDR4 if the clock speed is throttled.

Does other owners have this same issue?

 

I received my I7, 16gb ram 256GB SSD 4K unit on friday.

After installing 32GB Memory kit from GSkill and Samsung 950PRO 512GB SSD and installing all standard drivers and Windows 10 Updates I must say this laptop runs quite well. Aside from some issues I'm having with the CPU throttling issue (Bios Update Pending) I also have 2 dead pixels on the screen which is being addressed by Dell with a replacement unit.

One thing that surprised me is that my Loewe Speaker to Go Bluetooth wireless speaker would not link up with any of my other laptops, even my XPS13 9350 my wife has won't successfully connect to it, my XPS15 does just fine. I believe this is due to the more recent revision of the Bluetooth chipset Dell uses in their Broadcom/Dell Wifi 1830 Combo card. This alone makes me a happy camper that I have one less wire hanging around when using this laptop with my wifi speaker, which does phenomenal job at home, granted the factory speakers are POS.

Also my wifi speeds to the router and my NAS have increased with this WIFI combo card vs the Intel Crap 7260/7265/8260. Intel always had issues with those cards which would disconnect 5GHz band throughout the few hours time use. I must say I prefer Dell's option for going with Broadcom chipset.

This laptop replaced my 2 year old XPS15 9530 which ran very well, but had some damage done to by my kid, luckily I had accidental protection purchased so it was replaced with the newer one.

I'm sure with future BIOS updates, this laptop will get even smoother than it is already.

 

It is dual channel, so you multiply it by 2x

 

You are not the only one that thinks like this. I've been reading all threads about XPS15 in this forum and I'm amazed at people. Most of the people complaining are reinstalling Windows or changing to AHCI for no reason, without knowing what they are doing, and then saying that it doesn't work and it's Dell's fault! And then there's people complaining about software issues like they were hardware problems.

The Intel HD Graphics that showed up today was actually already available through Windows Update for like a month and since having it I've never had another driver crash.

In what case is Windows doing a poor job with scaling? Most issues come from developers' fault, not Windows.

 

To find the firmware version, click on the Thunderbolt software in the All Apps section of the start menu. This should then put the Thunderbolt icon in the system tray on bottom right and you can close the Thunderbolt attached devices screen that pops-up. Right click the system tray icon and hit settings, then details in the page that comes up. Should list there what you need

 

I've been stable even on the older 20.19.15.4300 Intel HD Graphics version from Dell.

I believe although the latest 20.19.15.4331 version from Dell was available from Windows Update, it had to be manually installed via Device Manager. Windows Update has not automatically updated mine.

 

My specific use case involves using the 27" as my primary monitor - and I know that Win 10 supports per display scaling - so content on the 27" 1440P displays at 100% while the laptop's screen remains at 4k and 200% scaling. When I unplug the external monitor (via the Hdmi port on the side); the laptop resumes it's duty as the primary screen. Most scaling looks ok, however text renders at what looks like an intentionally pixelated resolution (text looks fuzzy). I check both display resolution and scaling and they are still at 2160P and 200% - so the only thing I'm aware of that can solve the way text looks is to log out and log back in. VIOLA, text is rendered at high-DPI again.

I have no idea why this is occurring or other workarounds.

 

Thank you!

 

Do you have Bluetooth mouse? Could you do the following: start downloading something big from a local net over WiFi (like a dvd image from your xps13, so that you can actually saturate the net interface), play musing through your Bluetooth speakers and use the Bluetooth mouse. That Broadcom chip can't handle it all together, I mean mouse gets so jerky its unusable and audio cuts out. Even without large WiFi transfer it still distorts the Bluetooth audio when using the mouse. I have the 'crappy' 8260 on order and will replace the Broadcom card it to see if it is any better.

 

With that older version it got better for me but I still had one or two crashes.

You are right, I did update it through Device Manager. I would like to know why it was available to Windows Update and it wasn't automatically installing it...

All text looks like that? I still haven't connected mine to an external screen to test but I know of another report of problems after using an external screen. This seems like a bug and I hope this gets solved but my point was that Windows doesn't really do a poor job at scaling.

 

Just transferred 8.4GB Iso file from my NAS to my laptop while playing some music in winamp through my bluetooth speaker, all works fine. No cut outs. I use Logitech Master MX Mouse connected via bluetooth. Keep in mind I'm connected to my Wifi on 5GHZ band.

 

Hello!

I just setup this weekend my new XPS 9550 i7 4k 512MB SSD, 16GB ram that I bought from the MS store. I love the laptop except for a couple of things:
1) I got the Arc Touch Bluetooth mouse (Surface Edition) as part of a bundle from MS and I would run into issues that the mouse wouldn't work and if you checked the Bluetooth options it will flicker between "paired" and "connected." Turning the mouse on and off it wouldn't help. Sometimes turning Bluetooth on and off on the laptop would help. I tried turning off "Bluetooth Collaboration" for the WiFi card and did it at least once more. I did some driver updates (Wi-Fi, thunderbolt, BIOS, and some others) and unchecked "allow this device to be turned off for saving power" option in the Bluetooth settings and so far so good.

I did use/test the mouse at work with three laptops (Lenovo, MacBook Pro, and MSI) before I got a chance to setup my XPS and I didn't have any problems then.

2) I find the camera placement a little bit weird; I am still getting used to this angle when I am doing Skype. I wish it was on the top of the screen, but I can live with it. What do you guys think about that?

Question:
I know that I can create a recovery disk I think (I am not sure) that it will restore the laptop with the currently installed software. What I should do if want to restore the laptop to clean, factory, windows? There is no Windows license/serial sticker on the laptop. Do you think downloading Windows from MS will work? I don't need it right now, but I would like to have the option. Nevertheless, I will create a recovery drive as soon as I receive my new USB drive in a day or two.

 

Yes, well at least Chrome and a Word document don't look great. I wonder if it would come through in pictures?

 

Guys, I've found a way to remap the threefingertap action of Microsoft precision driver to middleclick.

- Download AutoHotKey
- Save this script in a .ahk file

Code:

<#<^<+F22::Send {Mbutton}
return

- Run this ahk script
- Enjoy

 

There is just one serious remaining issue: ghosting.
Haven't you guys notice that the response time of the Sharp screen is bad ?
It has been measured to 40ms for the UHD, up to 60ms for the FHD display.
Basically, every moving thing is blurry, for example the windows loading logo makes a trail.
You can test this using this website: http://www.testufo.com/#test=ghosting
http://www.testufo.com/#test=chase
I wish that my display was defective but since I'm not the only one affected by this...

Indeed, FPS game are unplayable, action movies are blurry, scrolling webpage makes trail.
Damn it !

 

Yeah, it's not great, but I'm not that sensitive to it at the 30-45 fps I get in most games at 1080P. I plug into external monitors or TV to game, and it works great.

I haven't been distracted by "blurry" action movies though. Considering most films are 24-30 FPS, it's not quite as important. The only application I could see this being an issue is for gaming high speed FPS games, like CS:GO, especially games with lots of flat color palettes and no texture work (in other words, lots of solid colors).

Consider running the color profile for cinema in most streaming movies, I found it to be a big improvement. I basically run Cinema for videos and games and then AdobeRGB for the rest.

 

When you see this happen in Chrome or Word do you had those programs opened before disconnecting from the external monitor or you opened them after disconnecting?

 

Notebookcheck confirmed this issue, 84% display are better than this.
http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Dell-XPS-15-9550-i7-512GB-UHD-InfinityEdge-Notebook.156262.0.html

 

This is brilliant, thanks. Any chance this could be extended to use three finger swipe left/right for forwards/backwards in the browser?

 

What do you guys do if you want to reinstall Windows back to factory? Are any serial numbers/codes needed?

 

Windows will automatically activate if it was previously activated when you received the laptop and run through windows update.

Activation keys are stored in BIOS now. You can reinstall Windows as many times you need. Just make sure it's same version. If you had Home version only Home version will auto activate, You can't go from home to pro without new key.

 

Just FYI.

They are some new NVIDIA drivers that came out, newer than the ones on Windows Update.
Grab it here. Many 4K fixes in the release notes.

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/361.43/361.43-notebook-win10-64bit-international-whql.exe

 

Maybe I'm blind, but I didn't see any 4k fixes mentioned? What ones did you see? I saw stuff mostly related to VR headsets. Not something the 960 will ever be able to drive!

 

Only going by user base that have installed this on NVIDIA based Laptops, and their experience. I figured something was mentioned in release notes, but took a closer look at them and only see WDDM2.0 as big part of the udpate and some VR stuff which our laptop won't handle most likely very well.

 

Anyone notice ghosting display while playing a 60fps youtube video? Is it terrible?

 

Reaction times black to white: 35ms
Response times 50% gray to 80% gray: 58ms.

I can confirm there is a lot of ghosting

 

Better answer is maybe. I think animated videos might be more of an issue at higher framerates. It's not a great gaming monitor, but it's not as bad as some might make it. I have the QHD version, and for most 30FPS content (to include games) it doesn't distract me in any way. In fact, the screens depth of color and sharpness are beyond gorgeous at times. I was playing Batman Arkham Knight in a hotel room last week and plugged into the Hotel's 32" HDTV at 1080P. While I'm sure that the LG TV in the hotel room isn't the best display either - it was clear that the native Notebook screen looked so much better because of color and contrast - regardless of some minor ghosting you have to be looking for to see.

I'd imagine a game like CS:GO would be a little more jarring though, with it's simple textures and extremely small frametimes.

 

Yes, when I play csgo, it is really noticeable.
It is not an issue in GTA V thought. And it is true that the display is amazing, colors are kinda like OLED display.
But even when watching a 24fps video, I can see the ghosting, and that makes me sad, because, yes, we can watch 4K video, but it ruins the clarity because of that...
Isn't IGZO a fast technology which should have improved the response time ?

 

Thank you, I never see ghosting in any cheap laptops before, so risking 2000+ for a medicore keyboard, display, ssd is too much for me. I will find other laptops with full sRGB then.

 

No problem, wish I had been told before the end of my return period.
I'm gonna sell this laptop after chrismas anyway.
And then wait for a rMBP 2016.

Keep in mind other issue like slow bios boot time, redshift, quite bad speakers, disappointing battery life for UHD.
But I disagree, I've got the 1TB SSD and it is fast (1700MB read / 1000MB write). But never buy 512 or 256GB SSD, they have slow write speed.
Compared to the rMBP keyboard, its keyboard is nearly the same, and trackpad is good too.

 

There are definitely problems with SHARP IGZO panels. Aorus X3 v5 has same problem http://www.notebookcheck.net/Aorus-X3-Plus-v5-Notebook-Review.156356.0.html

 

Dell XPS 15 9550 512gb version bought from Microsoft store recently . Is the RAM upgradeable to 32gb and does the Motherboard support 2400hz DDR4.

 

Motherboard will only support 2133MHZ but you can get lower latency modules. I got this kit and it works like a charm. It is also on Sale as I got it for $229.00 now for $195.00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...skill_32gb_sodimm_ddr4-_-20-232-150-_-Product

 

The response time is really killing me. Do you think that in the future it is possible that Sharp produce screen with better response time and we will be able to ask for a screen replacement ?
This laptop is near perfect, and I would hate to have to sold it for a mbp just for ghosting issue...

 

How did you know that the key is F22?

 

I just recorded the key events with this script and deduced it was that combination

Code:

#InstallKeybdHook
#InstallMouseHook
KeyHistory

 

Hello you fellow 9550 owners.
Longer post ahead, but I would greatly appreciate it, if you read through it. I really need help here.

Bought the 9550 model with i7 / GTX960M / 16 GB Ram / 1 TB HDD + 32 GB SSD in Raid0.
I then entirely removed the 1 TB HDD because its super loud and just annoys me (and I don't really need it anyway).
I also removed the 32 GB SSD and replaced it with the Samsung SM951 nvme 256 GB version ( http://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/samsung-sm951-m-2-pcie-ssd-review-256gb-nvme-performance/).

I then did a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro on the Samsung SSD.
For some time things looked great. The system had the expected performance and everything ran smoothely.
The SSD itself runs with the Samsung-provided nvme driver.

But suddenly, I got about one blue screen of death (BSOD) in about an hour with the following errors:

Critical Process Died
Kernel Security Check failure

The BSODs appeared for example when startin Adobe Premiere video editing software or when playing CS:GO.
Speedfan temperature readings were normal. However, I don't get a temperature reading from the SSD. Other SSD diagnosis tools also say they cannot detect the SM951 (But it seems, this is a general problem of this particular Samsung SSD as it is an OEM drive).

I did several sfc/scannow runs and found out that the opencl.dll file was corrupt. This has (as I found out after intense googling) something to do with conflicts between the Nvidia graphics driver and windows, because Nvidia overwrites the windows-provided opencl.dll.
This error gave me some hope, because it is graphics related, and the BSODs always appeared when the graphics card was in use
(I selected the Intel integrated graphics as standard and allowed the use of the Geforce only for Adobe Premiere and CS:GO).

I was then able to repair the corrupted opencl.dll with the Windows supplied version using Dsim in the command prompt.
After that sfc/scannow did not report any corruptions.

However, the BSODs still appear. For example I now can no longer start Adobe Premiere, because I get an instant freeze and minutes later a BSOD. Also I testes CS:GO and the laptop froze after playing about 15 minutes and then..boom...BSOD.

So I am really at the end of my knowledge here.
--> Did I miss any important BIOS settings for the nvme SSD? (SATA mode is set to AHCI)
--> Has anyone experienced similar problems?
--> If you need anything I forgot to mention, just aks.

Thank you very much in advance!
And plz help me to fix this, because the 9550 is a great machine when it runs smoothly.

 

Keep BIOS in RAID - this works well for all SSD's in the M.2 slot. I didn't change anything when I put a SATA 850 EVO M.2 in mine.

 

Just FYI.

For those having issues with bluetooth, there is actually a newer driver available Ver. 12.01.750
http://www.station-drivers.com/inde...ory&Itemid=352&func=startdown&id=1910&lang=fr

Dell Support page drivers are about 2 months older. ver 12.0.1.731

 

Thank you.

How would one check MOtherboard support for max ram and frequency?

 

http://ark.intel.com/compare/88959,88967
http://ark.intel.com/products/90584/Intel-GL82HM170-PCH

 

It will take faster ram but it will not be able to read the XMP profile so it will run at standard 2133 speeds.

 

Ok, how come I'm getting almost half that speed? Are there drivers that I need to update? I'm plugged in, and confirmed that it is running at 2.30MHz. I've got the i5/256/8GB/4K model.

 

Looks like the sleep bug. Do a fresh boot and you'll get better numbers.

 

Thanks for the tip! Mine was 10.something, dated back in August. Windows Update said I was up to date, but I updated manually through Device Manager, and it picked up the version you mentioned, 20.19.15.4331. I'm a bit hesitant about updating drivers, fearing that you could introduce problems, but wanted to get rid of the random resets and flickering.

By they way, as far as the ghosting/trails, I see them when I use that link. May not be great for fast-action games, but I'll have to try and see.

 

As I mentioned before it will only read 2133MHZ ram so there is no need to spend extra money for faster ram. However You can get lower CAS Latency ones as that will be read into the configuration just fine. I always opt in for lower CAS ram if I can't speed up the Bus option first.

In regards to size, you can only do 32GB Max Ram on Skylake platform laptops. 2x16GB modules.

 

I think there are two issues here:

1) There are random BSODs running in AHCI mode with the default drivers, at least with the PM951. Often this shows up as Critical Process Died. This is likely the case with the SM951 as well. Although I'm stable now in AHCI mode with the PM951, I don't know what stabilized it (I have all latest Dell and Windows Updates). I'd recommend switching to RAID mode so you're stable for now.

2) There seems to be general problem with NVidia drivers causing
the Kernel Security Check failure, which seems to happen when using Adobe photo/video tools. Another person has reported the same issue with the 9550 here. Not sure what to do about this issue except maybe to try older NVidia drivers if you have the latest or bring your driver up to date if it's old. What version are you running?

EDIT: Have you tried switching the graphics card used by Adobe Premiere? For example (resolution of same error with Photoshop on Windows 8.1) see here.

 

Intel HD Graphics 20.19.15.4331 is available from 9550 Dell Support now.

 

2133 is sufficient for the kind of work I do.
However this link " http://ark.intel.com/compare/88959,88967" says it supports 64gb, so where is it restricted to 32gb?

Also SSD is a pcie 3x4 as adverstised, how is it verified that all 4 channels are used?. One way i know is by benchmarking for full speeds numbers.

 

Good deal. Hmm, I'll consider some more updates....

Edit: I'm still getting some driver resets after updating. :-(