New XPS 15z

Has anyone come up with a fix to the trackpad settings reset problem? Since I use a Logitech AnywhereMX mouse most of the time, I'm sure that its software complicates the mouse settings, but I read on the review from engadget that they were having the same problem I was, where the trackpad settings reset after every reboot. Definitely an annoying problem

Also, since I'm sure many of you use Logitech products, I have discovered that the Logitech Scrollapp that is supposed to improve scrolling smoothness and performance, is the main culprit that was causing delayed shutdowns. I literally had to narrow down which startup item was causing the delay, almost one by one - very tedious. So anyway, if anyone else is experiencing a hang on their shutdowns, logitech software might very well be the culprit. Just a tip .

 

We've been told there is a new driver in the works to address the saved settings issue. We shall see. Not exactly sure when it will post.

 

It's a brand new machine.

 

BlueCreek - it's been about a week since your upgrade right? How's everything running for you? Have you had any issues? I think you posted this already, but what SSD did you wind up going with - was it the Intel? Have you run any benchmarks? Just checkin' in to make sure this upgrade is working as well for you as it is for me . My machine is screaaaming..

Hey also - what's your windows performance index score? I'm clocking in at 6.6 after the SSD (coming from 5.9).

 

My hard drive score is at 7.9 - I'm using a Sata 3 drive (Vertex 3). Is your drive Sata 2?

 

Oh no, my overall score is now a 6.6 (from 5.9). My harddrive clocks in at 7.9 too. Now my nVidia card is the weakest link, unfortunately. I think that's my only gripe about this computer; wish we at least got the 540M. Anyway, yeah my drive is SATA 3 ..given that the HM67 board in the 15z is SATA 3 that was a feature I wasn't compromising on. The vertex 3 was my top choice, but I've just read too many horror stories about their reliability. And the Corsair Force GT drive came in a real close 2nd to it over all. Wanna do me a favor? Run the ATTO benchmark on it and post your results. Here are mine:

 

Ahh, I see.. I didn't think about that as all "overall" scores are probably the same since they have the same graphics card. I was reading those horror stories as well, but figured I'd give it a shot. I haven't had one single problem with the hard drive/bsod's/etc. It came with the newest firmware at the time as well, so I didn't change anything. I did do a fresh Win7 Ultimate load, thus downloaded all the newest drivers at the time; perhaps that helped. I used the 500GB spinner in the laptop for about 30 minutes.

I was reading that hibernate is hard on ssd's, so I've just been shutting down although I do like being able to leave up websites/programs like you can with hibernate.

What do you think about hibernate and SSD's?

 

What Bags / Sleeves are you guys using with this laptop?

 

I got this in black for my 1645, it fits my 15z even better. DELL Signature Messenger - Fits Laptops with Screen Size up to 16-inch - Charcoal : Laptop/Notebook Accessories | Dell

 

Hi RaMMiT,

Have you published your SSD upgrade guide (PDF or DOC) for Dell XPS 15z ?. I am looking for details steps on how to remove and upgrade based on your experience.

Thanks

 

My wife is looking for a replacement for her old notebook. She wants a metal finish and thin design. I suggested the Asus UX-31 but last weekend I took her to the Apple store and let her play with a MBA 13" which is too small for her liking. She would like a larger display. That basically leaves this unit or a MBP 15".

Those of you who own them, what are the major drawbacks. I see that they have to come apart to put an SSD in there, but she could probably live with a stock 7200 rpm drive. I am not a fan of the speaker placement but I don't have to be since it won't be my computer.

She really doesn't need a dedicated GPU, but it can't hurt. What is the battery life like? Build quality? And, Dell service is ... well ... Dell service.

Last question. Other than the outlet, what is the best price I can expect on a 15Z with a 1080 display? I5 is fine.

 

@Bronsky:

You may want to look at the Sony SE. I had the 15z and was not very happy with it... the Sony is a lighter machine and has a decent display.

The battery life isn't as good as the 15z but it weighs less and has a numeric keypad if that is of any importance to your wife.

 

Lucky you. The first one of these I opened up was my VP's to replace his LCD. Executive IT support wouldn't touch it, so I volunteered. I was sweating bullets when I had to pry the base cover off. I swore I was going to break it. I found I just had to move my plastic prying tool along the edge of the opening and get as close to the point of resistance as possible before applying any force.

Disclaimer: Opening and modding the PC does not void your warranty. Damage caused by such will not be covered.

 

The warranty is actually pretty good on this machine if you know how to talk to CSRs

Battery life is great.. I get around 4.5~ hours when i'm unplugged and i'm usually watching streaming , surfing, editing pictures.. etc. Build quality other than being a little more careful with the chrome trim I would say pretty good. Not mac level but not mac price too obviously. I like the screen a lot too. This is coming from a fully tricked out 1080p Vaio Z. It's been a great laptop for me.

 

If you have the time... Dell support is actually pretty good.

But... that's not saying they're the most efficient. I got passed around a few times, a tech was sent out next day etc etc and my issue was never resolved but at least Dell offered a remedy that was somewhat acceptable. If it was my main computer and I had loaded a bunch of my stuff on there, that would have been a different story... but since I hadn't transitioned yet... it wasn't as bad.

I've only had to deal with Dell support so I'm not sure if any other companies are better.

 

As although I faced this issue, I thought it was due to me touching the trackpad while typing (and maybe trackpad is overly sensitive or something...lol).
I updated the driver and it might have helped...but I cant really tell for sure if it fixed as I haven't typed a whole lot though!

Have you updated driver and still have the issue?

For others, have you noticed it too? if so, is this a known issue? and is it due to Quickset?

 

I have also experienced Quickset problem, and also thought that trackpad was too sensitive...it means not.

And also have another problem with Windows Picture & Fax viewer.
If i open any .jpg picture and for example rotate or enlarge it, then click to the next picture, this previous one is disappearing from the system. Unfortunately it can not be found nor in the recycle bin. :-(

Have anybody noticed it? What should I do? Reinstall Win7?

Thank you for your answers in advance.

 

Hi ,
I have upgraded my XPS 15z successfully to Crucial M4 128GB. It's much cooler and faster now.

Thanks for RaMMiT and BlueCreek for their tips.

 

I got a brand new XPS 15z... the thing NEVER left my desk. I had some of the unevenness issues, and some slightly less than perfect case build (would make noises when wrist was placed on it for typing) ...not to mention that the touch pad is CRAP... but I digress... and these really weren't deal breakers for me because I use a mouse and didn't expect the thing to be APPLE quality

I went to open my 15z and simply upon using my right hand to open the laptop from the right side the screen got a small crack in it which fried my entire screen.

I was told that DELL would do a "thorough investigation" and if no evidence of misuse was present it would be covered under the warranty I had purchased. Anyways... DELL now says it is not covered and will not tell me why. I asked for a full report as to what evidence would result in it not being covered under warranty as I never did anything other than use the laptop as recommended. (unless they now recommend you don't open it and instead use it for a paperweight)

I have also had TWO separate people from DELL tell me not to worry and that it would be fixed and returned free of charge... after a few days when I called back to check in NO ONE could confirm or deny that this was ever said, nor could they transfer me to anyone that I had previously spoken with. I have a name and had an extension for a guy named Rohan but spilled coke on the slip of paper... now DELL refuses to give me his extension.

What should I do... at this point it looks like I am going to file a suit. Well I won't, but my good friend will (he is a former US attorney under W. Bush)

Any advice will be awesome!

 

@drewdixon89 Sorry for the frustration. I will let the appropriate team know about your post. Hopefully someone will reach out to you soon. If you don't hear from someone by tomorrow afternoon, please feel free to PM me so we can take it to email and hopefully get you some help.

 

I just upgraded my harddrive to an SSD last night and I'd have to recommend this as a MUST do for this laptop (There really should just be an SSD option when buying this laptop). The old/standard harddrive in my 15z got SUPER hot really quickly (it was literally painful for me to keep playing games on it after about 30 minutes). I upgraded it to the Intel 320 Series 120GB SSD (I had a BestBuy giftcard so limited to what they had in store), and my heating issues are gone and the laptop is way faster.

I followed Dell's harddrive replacement guide and it was pretty easy. I had similar issues as others prying the base cover off but if you just slide a flat top(preferably plastic) starting from the side with the ports it just pops right off.

 

Hi, I've been reading a lot of reviews about the xps 15z and like what I see! I was wondering how the build quality is? Anandtech took theirs apart and they said don't plan on upgrading the 15z because dismantling it puts marks on the case, so I'm wondering how well its built. Also, I'm coming from an i7 2630qm, do you think i'll notice much difference in the i7 2640m? Thanks!

 

Removing the case on this thing isn't really hard if you have a little patience. It's not as hard it seems like it would be (thin and compact body)

(I've had this laptop since it first came out)
Pros:
- 6-8 hour battery life. Cnet says they got 3 hours but idk what they were doing. It really depends on what changes you make to settings. I put brightness at 30-40% which is actually perfect for me, wifi on (obviously for web surfing) and I set the CPU MAX percent to 60% on all tasks (unless im gaming then i change to 100%) and I don't notice any speed difference since this the 2410m a VERY fast processor. (Obviously not comparable to i7 but still it's faster than previous gen.)
- Good solid keyboard and mouse. At first the keyboard will feel cramped but i've gotten used to this thing and i really like it's design. The Mouse's settings aren't being saved right now but there will be a software update that will fix this dell said.
- Good screen (you have option of 1080p or 720p and i got 720p because the 1080 text is too small for me to read. But i've had the 1080p version before i exchanged it, and the screen is absolutely beautiful to anything else you can compare it to. No MBP can beat it. But the 720p screen is average.)
- Audio quality is GOOD. It's certainly better than the MBP. It's not as good as the original Dell XPS 15 but certainly better than other laptops i've had. It also gives you a nice control panel.
- No bloatware (very little.. i got things like shortcuts for ebay, etc but not much crap installed on there)
- All rounder. This machine is good for me (as a college student) because this way I can play games, and write 10 page papers (without worrying about battery thanks to 64 watt battery) without having to deal with an asus, or alienware bricks. or buying mbp and give up gaming/paying more for less.


CONS:
- IF you're gaming you can't put this laptop on the floor or couch. It needs ventilation. I must say that if you're not pushing gpu and cpu 100% the computer doesn't get very hot. (also for normal use, i highly recommend you set max processor through windows power options to 60% so that way it stays cooler + bettery battery. YOU WILL NOT EXPERIENCE SPEED DIFFERENCE for watching videos/ browser/ms word, etc)
- Plastic line around it. The whole computer is pretty much metal but there's a thin strip of plastic that just annoys me. nothing major but i personally wish dell should have just removed it.
- Mouse settings not saving. I wanted to disable multitouch (which is pretty nice as it has 2,3,4 finger gestures also but i don't use them so i wanted to disable them) and it wouldn't let me disable them. [/QUOTE]

YES! buy 1080p. Best price for outlet on 1080p would be like 950 or 1000
if you want 720p then prolly -$100 that.

to add, the gpu is fine also. I play crysis at 35 fps with some tweaks.

 

Hey can you also mention the plastic silver strip that goes around the system. That's really annoying and makes the computer seem cheap.

Also, can you guys put the air suction thing on the sides instead of the bottom.
Finally can we get an option via bios update to disable hyperthreading... it's really bugging me as some of the applications aren't optimized to use 4 threads/cores and i believe performance is being affected by that. (games)

 

Build quality is great. It's certainly not a uni body frame but it feels solid to me.

 

Hi uchihacg thanks for the info!b

 

Ok how about the xps 15z's performance? I'd be getting the 2640m i7 I now have a samsung laptop with 2630qm would I notice much difference? Thanks!

 

Quad core is only better if you're using programs that take advantage of all 4 cores/8 threads. If you do video rendering and encoding then you will see a difference (about 40%) but if you're running games, web surfing, most common tasks then you won't notice any difference + the 640m would be faster for lighter tasks like that because of it's higher clock rate.

So only reason you should see speed difference is in video rendering. Even most games don't use CPU that much. ex: crysis 2, BF3 are all GPU heavy.

 

Hi uchihacg, thanks for the info. I don't do any video rendering just some conversion from like avi to m4v for itunes, so I guess the xps 15z will be plenty fast. Thanks again!

 

Just got my 15z yesterday. First impressions are good, except for the front of the chassis that was not snapped shut ( required a little force from my side to close the front of the laptop! )

My query is about the screen quality. When i look at the screen, I see vertical bands / checker box patters , all things that should not appear on such a High PPI screen .

Anyone else facing these issues ? Will try post a few pictures tomorrow!

This is the AUO30DE ( as shown in Device manager )

 

Is your 15z new or from the Dell Outlet? I ask because I've gotten some from the Outlet that were not "snapped shut" along the front side, too! Quality Control seems non-existent with Dell sometimes...

Regarding the screen, I've worked with many, many 15z's and if I look hard, I see what people are talking about, but for the most part, if it IS there, it doesn't bother me.

I'm guessing that, unless you become obsessed with it, your brain will get used to it and soon you'll not notice it. If yours is really bad, though, it may be a bad panel.

 

I have a new oddity that is occurring in the latest batch of 15z's (from the Outlet). In attempting to prep some today, I found I could not boot from any of my bootable USB flash drives. I tried both of the USB 3.0 and the eSata/USB combo port. When it tries to boot from the USB thumb drive, it just shows "Operating System not found". When I use the eSATA/USB combo port, the thumb drive is not even seen (looking in BIOS under boot order, there is no USB device listed or in the F12 boot manager menu).

I confirmed this behavior on THREE different 15z's I have purchased for clients. Now, my own 15z boots fine from the same USB thumb drives!! I reset BIOS to defaults, and even updated to A06 (like my own). No good. I can boot to CD, but not the USB thumb drives.

In Windows, the USB drives appear to be seen and work fine. The problem is just at boot. VERY ODD.

Anyone have ANY ideas why this might be?

 

My 15z seems to have the CPU whine issue, a high pitched noise sounds similar to a something spinning. It's not my hdd as I have an ssd and no disc is in the optical bay. Has anyone else experienced this or does anyone know of a fix?

Also has anyone managed to install a second hard drive? I've looking into the optical bay replacement caddys but not sure if they will fit does the 15z have a standard sized optical drive?

 

I read about BIOS issues regarding support for booting up from USB 3.0 ports. Are you using a USB 3.0 drive as a boot device?

Try with a USB 2.0 drive on the eSata port.

 

I searched for such info but didn't find anything. Got a link to the BIOS USB boot issues?

FWIW, I am using USB 2.0 flash drives (new and old models). What is odd is that the USB ports on my personal 15z boot the flash drives fine, as do previous 15z's that I've configured for clients. I've never had a problem until now, yet I tried 3 other 15z's I have for clients, and none of them boot via the USB ports, and the eSATA/USB combo port doesn't see a flash drive all!

This is crazy weird.

 

Regarding the use of USB 3.0 devices / ports , I fear this is the case ...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...s-u36jc-booting-usb-3-0-port.html#post7161189

Were the BIOS versions the same, and were these FAT32 drives or NTFS ?

On an unrelated topic,
Have you installed all the latest drivers present on dell.com? Also, does any Dell/MS utility update all the drivers ? Windows update does not seem to list them ...

 

The BIOS's weren't the same, originally (A05 vs A06) but I updated to A06 on the non-booter, and it didn't make a difference.

Plus, keep in mind that my own 15z plus about 6 prior ones all booted from USB flash drives OK. If it were a hardware limitation, then NONE of my 15z would boot.

Also, the flash drives are images of a Windows 7 DVD, plus one is a really old DOS/Win98 command prompt boot drive that has always booted on anything I stick it in.

 

i have done a fresh install now how i get intel turbo boost antivirus that came along and other softwares..?
also the dell site is not showing warranty when i enter service tag..it says system doesnt have any warranty what should i do?

 

Has anyone experienced this problem?

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/126/intelgraphicscrashed.jpg
This happens sometimes. Happens on both the default graphic processor, and NVIDEA.

If this happens when I'm on Youtube, the laptop will crash and restart.

 

Do crop that image I was stunned to find a webpage wider than 1920 px!

Download OptimusTools_64bit.exe and keep the tool running. This will indicate what GPU is in use .

Which browser is affected ? Only Firefox? Have you updated your flash plugin + display drivers?

 

Sorry about that.

When using Optimus Tool, it says NVIDIA is off.

I will report back to see if other browser is affected.

Yes, I've already updated both plugin and display drivers (both for Intel and NVIDIA from the Dell Download page)

 

Currently I have XPS 15, with i7 chip. Average battery life is like 2 hours maximum. I am thinking of replacing with 15z i7 chip, what sort of battery life can we expect with 15z?

 

Update on my problem: It only seems to happen when using Firefox.

 

Assuming you are on Firefox 8.0 , and your flash plugin is the latest ..

Can you try Restart firefox in "safe mode" .. ( Also

Help -> Restart in Safe mode , then visit youtube / .. ?

 

I've just read your post. I didn't try them though, sorry.

I was searching around, and I may have found a possible solution.

Right-click on any video on Youtube, go to Settings, and disable the Hardware Acceleration. So far, no crashes in two days.

 

hi gyus, I have a problem with nvidia control panel, after 525m graphic card upate I`m unable to change between inegrated and nvidia graphic card for different programs....what should I do
regards

 

This is a problem with the four different 15z's that I've already gone through. The pitch is high enough that most people don't hear it, but unfortunately, I do. It is amplified by the speakers (even when muted) because the case on the user's left side is pushing the wifi card, and thus the internal components right up to the speaker - some sort of electrical feedback, methinks. There is no fix currently so I've given up on this model.

 

Quick question...

...how is the build quality on the newer XPS 15z? I know when they first came out it was said the build wasn't so great, specifically the silver trim comes off quickly. Is this still the case?

 

Hi all,

As a new XPS 15z owner, I find this thread very useful =)

For those of you who have tried replacing the optical drive with a second HDD, does the computer get much hotter with two HDDs? Is the battery life impacted?

 

I don't know if you can replace cd drive with another hd. It's slot loading.