S-XPS 1645 AC Power Throttle Issue Investigation

my screen brightness have been flickering non-stop. it gets even worse when i tone it all the way down. can some1 help me explain this??

EDIT -> sorry, i accidentally post it in the wrong thread.

 

hi guys, this is abit of a stupid Q but i hope u guys wouldnt mind reassuring me. After using throttlestop (just to give it a try, which is awesome by the way!) on my 90w adapter, i've restarted my laptop.
And right now, without using throttlestop, just putting the laptop to sleep, i've again played Sims 3. it seems to work fine still! So i'm wondering if i've yet to disable the throttlestop the last time round or it just happen to not require throttlestop anymore??

And regarding the 130w adapter & throttlestop, i understand in earlier post, it has been reassured that there will be no damages done. But is there anything i should look out for clues that might indicate my laptop is about to get damaged coz i'll normally gamed for 7-8hrs straight! and i hope you could explain in non-technical terms as i have no clue what is clock modulation or multiplier.. i just a simple gamer playing Sims 3, NFS Shift, FIFA 10 etc.
Would really appreciate your advise.

 

First , tnx Unclewebb for throttlestop , will donate a beer or two to you : )
can someone confirm that this adapter will fit to my 1645
http://www.24.se/ac-adapter-dell-original-pa15-195v-77a-150w-p-9062-c-602.aspx

... im pretty much a newbie when it comes to computers so have i got it right when its just to sett throttlestop on 100 with the 150w adapter?

Tnx / Marcus from Sweden

 

"I turned AA off last night and started playing, even still my framerate is on 30fps when I'm not in combat. I wonder what I'm doing wrong"

I don't know, maybe we have different specs on our laptops. I wouldn;t worry about it if I were you though - 30fps for dragon age on max settings is more than enough. Its not a shooter style game, so you don't need 60fps or anything crazy like that. Even at 20fps, the game runs really smoothly, so don't get worked up about it!

 

My desktop does this for some reason as well. It will wake up randomly, figure it out let me know. I dont think it is related to this, as hardware, events, timers etc can wake up a computer. Doesnt do this on my xps 16 tho, update all your drivers to the latest etc from ati and what not. Theirs also some settings somewhere to set it to not wake up from network adapter etc.

AIEE, i wouldnt use throttlestop much on your 90w adapter as it will draw more then the 90w available. Not even sure it would work properly at 100-110w before overheating etc. Sims i dunno might not be demanding enough to throttle your computer depending on your specs. As far as throttling, your computer will lower its speed during gaming/programs that a demanding from 2.0-2.6ghz down to 932mhz, if that isnt enough to lower the power draw it will then start modulation, basically turning off/on the processor in 12.5% increments, it happens so fast you cant tell, but when its on say only 50% of the time its a huge performance hit. It all happens behind the scenes, and its only a big thanks to uncleweb that we can monitor it.

 

Anyone plz ?

 

aiee: There is a slow down problem which might be related to a slow keyboard driver issue. Putting your computer into stand by mode and then resuming might improve the frame rates and smoothness when gaming.

Anyone interested in trying to use ThrottleStop with a 90 watt adapter needs to buy a Kill-a-Watt meter or similar and needs to monitor their power consumption to stay under the 90 watt limit. If you go over 90 watts, you risk damaging your adapter or maybe worse.

I've found on my desktop computer that Sims3 draws a lot more wattage than you would think it should. I have no idea why.

 

Any1 plz ?

 

I just wonder why everybody is paying extra for power supplies to fix a problem that's Dell's fault.

Throttlestop is great but what if the extra power will shorten the lifespan of the laptop.

Everybody needs to return their laptop.

It's the only way that will move Dell towards a solution.

Not returning your laptop is sending a message to Dell that they can get away with this without any consequences, now and in the future.

Complaining to them will not help the situation.

Only by hitting them where it hurts will they take any notice.

We can make a change if everybody does this.

Spread the word, its our only chance.

 

Thanks unclewebb! it's much clearer now! so by buying 130W adapter, is it safe to assume by playing Sims 3, NFS Shift, fifa 10 etc, the power is unlikely to hit 130W without throttlestop yet improving the gameplay? or even with throttlestop?

 

Not sure if this is very meaningful but I thought it might be of some interest. Just finished an online Chat with a Dell sales rep about ordering an XPS 1645. I raised the power throttling, underpowered 90 watt supply issue with him and he said that issue had been tested, and fixed. I pressed him for more details (ie bios upgrade, shipping new machines with 130watt supply) and he said he didn't know the details, just that the problem had been fixed. I was a bit incredulous so I pressed him and he reasserted that he was told the problem is fixed. If anyone is interested I can post or e-mail a transcript of the chat session. Scott.

 

I think it would be interesting to view this chat session, but it sounds like a sales pitch with half truths & mumbo jumbo.

 

OK. Here's the chat session:

Time Details
12/26/2009 11:03:39AM System: "Thanks for choosing chat for your Dell Purchase needs. A chat agent will be with you shortly."
12/26/2009 11:04:35AM Session Started with Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea)
12/26/2009 11:05:47AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "Welcome to Dell's Sales Chat! I hope you are doing well and thank you for waiting. My name is Tim and I will be your personal sales agent today. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or leave me a message at ****-****-**** ext. 2160085, fro"
&nbsp m 8AM CST – 12 CST. Please provide your e-mail address and phone number where I can contact you in case we get disconnected(we dont disconnect you on purpose). How may I help you with your purchase today?
12/26/2009 11:05:52AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "hi there Scott!"
12/26/2009 11:06:39AM Scott: "Hi. I'd like to buy an XPS ****. I have already configured the machine I want online and saved it in my cart. I have just a few questions. First, I really want a Blue Ray drive. Any idea when they will be available?"
12/26/2009 11:07:47AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "the bluray option is currently unavailable, but may return on options around January"
12/26/2009 11:08:03AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "we ran out of stock due to high volume of orders"
12/26/2009 11:08:54AM Scott: "OK. Is it possible to place my order for the machine with a Blue Ray, so that I can be ahead in line (if I pay in full now, but am willing to wait for my PC)?Also, I have been following the issue of power throttling with the 90 watt power supply, and how"
&nbsp a **** watt supply (which Dell has already provided for at least one **** user) improves the problem.
12/26/2009 11:10:40AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "for the bluray, we wont be able to accept advance orders to get line up for the part as we are not certain also on when it will be available. for the power supply , they have tried and tested that with such amount of power supply fixes the problem"
12/26/2009 11:11:38AM Scott: "I'm sorry. I'm not sure what you're saying about the power supply issue. Could you please clarify."
12/26/2009 11:14:29AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "what i meant is whatever problems or issues there has been on power supply, it has been already fixed"
12/26/2009 11:16:17AM Scott: "That's good. Are you sure about that? Do you know how it has been fixed? Is it a bios upgrade, or are the new machines shipping with a **** watt power supply? Also, would it be possible for you to send me an e-mail when the Blue Ray drives become availa"
&nbsp ble. Alternatively, would it be an option for me to replace the standard DVD drive with a Blue Ray myself? If so, how easy is it to do, and would I be sure or not voiding the warranty
12/26/2009 11:18:51AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "for the power supply, im not sure how they fixed it, it would be an info not available to us. for the bluray, you may subscribe for email updates online using your online account."
12/26/2009 11:19:15AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "for the bluray replacement, you may do it but that would mean opening up the system and will void the warranty"
12/26/2009 11:21:58AM Scott: "OK. So I just have to wait. That's frustrating. Do you know how I could obtain more information about how the power issue was resolved. There's a whole community of **** users posting on the Dell forums who will be eager to know about this."
12/26/2009 11:22:35AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "i understand. no , dont have that info accessible"
12/26/2009 11:23:05AM Scott: "But you have been told that the problem is fixed?"
12/26/2009 11:23:13AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "yes, we were"
12/26/2009 11:23:33AM Scott: "OK. Thanks. Scott."
12/26/2009 11:23:55AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "you're welcome"
12/26/2009 11:24:03AM Agent (BE_PR2_Rep_Timothea): "Dell Sales Chat is still a growing program and we want to make sure you get the best experience here with us. If you have about 60 seconds, please answer our 5 question survey at the end of this chat. If you have any additional comments, feel free to add"
&nbsp them to the “Comments” field at the end of the survey. Also, if you need assistance with your order, feel free to e-mail my team at [email protected] or call us at ****-****-**** ext 2160085 address to my name , from 8 AM CST – 5 PM CST. Have a w
&nbsp onderful day!
12/26/2009 11:24:03AM Session Ended
If you require further assistance, please visit us at support.dell.com

 

It just sounds like typical Dell, lying is endemic in the company.

The sales agents are only concerned about their own commission and will readily lie to make a sale.

Nobody pulls them up on this as it seems every department is in the lying game.


How anybody can trust anything they say after this is beyond me.

Send back those laptops!

 

I figured this out. Playing hardware accelerated video will force GPU run at 450Mhz.

 

Plz someone need a answer to my question if this adapter will fit
http://www.24.se/ac-adapter-dell-original-pa15-195v-77a-150w-p-9062-c-602.aspx
live in Sweden and this is the only one i can find...

it stands
Power Cord : European 1M 1
Power Supply : XPS 90W AC Adapter
on my Dell 1645 orderinformation

 

With this & all the issues with this machine as well as Dell's lying etc., has anyone here ever considered the SAGER NP8690 (Clevo W860CU)?

 

A 130 watt adapter won't make any difference unless you also use ThrottleStop. The bios is still designed to throttle these laptops and keep power consumption at 90 watts or less even when you are using a 130 watt adapter.

ThrottleStop is designed to monitor for and reverse any throttling that the bios tries to do. If you are using a 90 watt adapter, that could cause power consumption to go way beyond 90 watts and could damage pretty much anything. Power adapter, battery, mother board, etc., etc.

If you are gaming and using a 130 watt adapter combined with ThrottleStop; most games should not exceed 130 watts. Typical is in the 100 to 110 watt range but you can't assume anything. It's up to the user to monitor power consumption when using an adapter that is not approved by Dell combined with ThrottleStop.

 

Dont believe the reps, if ya go back on this forum all the way to the order issues from the beginning, is just riddled with lies/mis-information/no-information from the reps. Its so bad even if one was to tell the truth, you wouldnt know if ya could trust it or not.

With slrosenfeld chat, how would they know it was fixed if they have no info etc. Been my experience half these reps just talk, and have no idea what your system even is and become obvious later on the convo when ya push and they finally start asking questions like do you have a C2D etc.

It would be one thing if they announced something in the blog or somethin, but so far its been these same people, or "engineers" with weird procedures that dont really make sense. I still hold out for a fix, but they sure arnt acting like a company that is going too.

quietcat is right, for those wanting the 1645, i would suggest holding out til there is a fix. If i had the money etc id go for some of the other alternatives if i had to choose. A lot of people depend on my recommendations etc when it comes to their next computer (family, friends, friends family). For them and myself dell probably stands to lose 5-8k over the next few years as i cannot recommend it. Thats where it will count and eventually hurt them honestly

 

Dell has issues with all their top notebooks:

1. M15x has CPU/GPU throttling
2. M17x has DPC latency issues that cause the sound to drop out
3. SXPS 1645 serious throttling issues
4. Latitudes are plagued with throttling as well.

About the only thing Dell can make are the cheap Studio notebooks and I bet even those have throttling built into the bios. Dell's empty promises on the forum aren't fooling anyone either. I gave up on them when that JohnBatDell guy told us flat out that engineering had determined it was a powermizer issue that caused throttling, what a joke!

HP sucks, so I would never buy anything from them unless it was a budget PC. Asus is okay but they cut far too many corners and ship low quality notebooks. Sager is probably the best alternative of all the companies out there but the problem is they have boring designs with all plastic chasis and no next business day service but at least their computers are reliable.

 

What's wrong with HP? I had a mini 311 for a couple of weeks. It is ok except the touchpad.

 

Did you Retype his responses? Agents usually Speak/type in proper standard English with correct capitalization and use of punctuation marks etc etc I saw a lot of "im" which should be "I'm"

Either way he was just giving you the run around and wants you to spend your money on Dell. He is clearly not well informed, don't trust what he says.

 

Plz someone need a answer to my question if this 150w adapter will fit
http://www.24.se/ac-adapter-dell-ori...062-c-602.aspx
live in Sweden and this is the only one i can find...

it stands
Power Cord : European 1M 1
Power Supply : XPS 90W AC Adapter
on my Dell 1645 orderinformation

sorry for the spam but need a answer so i can buy it

 

M8 its OK Or u can w8 untill ill get mine, it should arive tomorrow or day after tomorrow

I heard as long it is 19.5 v, 150 w, and 3 pin, it should be OK

 

Statistically you're more likely to have problems with HP according to various reliability surveys, like this one: http://photos.macnn.com/news/0911/squaretradenov2009-lg3.jpg

 

I think joker just has high standards. Ive used and abused plenty of hp's running simulations, running constantly outside/garage areas etc, the ones ive had where tough cookies considering what they been through, they are very good for the price in my book. Im an engineer so performance over looks tend to win lol. They are still even in use now as hand me downs 5 years later heh. Though when i broke the screen (my own fault) a few times, the hp rep agents were extremely nice and helpful and to get a warraty and have it warranted quick. thats a plus one in my book.

Dell is plagued with these throttling issues in one form or another on pretty much a majority of their new laptops?! It cant be this hard to make a decent laptop can it?!

as long as it supplies a steady 19.5v any adapter should work. Pretty sure 130w is all you ever need, but others with rgbled screen set seen a peak at 146w. But that is unrealistic under normal use.

 

It seems odd that you guys are getting 90w adapters to start with. That's what they ship with the E6400 which is a 14,1". I'd expect it to need at least the same as the M4400 although yours has some more power saving components. The standard supply should be able to easily supply the highest possible config and then some...90w seems simply to low.

 

Can someone please pm me an updated link for throttlestop? the onle on the main page links to a corrupted zip ... thanks!

 

Try HERE Tested ok for me

 

Thank you.. works great

 

This is based on the last 3-5 years where the main reason for this failure, or at least the reason behind the faulty units i saw, was NVIDIA's faulty chipset which simply burnt the GPU and motherboard. They were used in so many units that lead them to issue a free extension to the base warranty.
I have abused my last hp for 5 years 24/7 and sold it running perfectly.

My new DV6t quad with i7 runs like a charm and more reliable under heavy load than my returned XPS1645.
This doesn't mean that HP is better than DELL or vice verse, each has its own share of problems, but frankly speaking the throttling problem is way too much. I have no doubt that eventually this problem will turn out into a massive recall or a lawsuit if some of the 90w catch fire.

 

Oh god...not that Squaretrade survey again....it's inheretly flawed.
Not because of the reason mentioned above though because that was an issue that affected all manufacturers equally so wouldn't have skewed results too much.

Major issue is that they don't have nearly enough data to say anything definitive on the laptop industry. If you guys don't mind (which i guess you won't ) i'm not going into it further here because there have been countless discussions already....just wish someone could delete it from the internet

 

Finally found an old Dell powerbrick that's 130 watts lying around, works great with ThrottleStop turned on. It runs so much cooler than the new one too. It's silly that you need a piece of hardware from an ancient laptop to fix a brand new one.

 

If the similar spec/cost laptops available didn't weight almost twice as much I would dump this laptop in a heartbeat.

Alas, that is not the case. Throttlestop is not a burden to run, and gives me the performance I was hoping for.

As for Dell, I will never purchase their systems again, and I will spread nothing but recommendations against purchasing them to friends and family.

 

thanks unclewebb! so last Q, if u dun mind. so is there any software recommended to monitor the power consumption. sorry, i'm really a newbie when it comes to this stuffs..

 

Thats how dell won us all over, they built the best i7 laptop "currently" available. Props to their marketing division for their strategic timed release of the 1645. I would like to take a massive dump though on their testing and R&D departments for giving us the shaft.

Thanks again Unclewebb, for the one millionth time

Hope all our negative feedback/experience spreads like a bad disease for dell.

 

When I get a laptop I always comparison shop and end up at Dell because they end up having the best specs per $, and their build quality is acceptable.

Last time I got a laptop from Dell, they had the very first laptops available with Core 2 Duos, similar to Core i7 now, and you could configure with awesome specs for cheap. The laptop worked fine for 3-4 years, even though it was a crappy Inspiron brand. I waited patiently for the next major CPU architecture, and hoped to repeat the experience. But they screwed this one up.

 

A lot of people are swearing off Dell here lol but this is actually my first bad Dell experience, granted they're not handling the situation well but the computer is great other than the throttling. Plus I don't see a plethora of acceptable alternatives, Sony's are complete crap, HP's die,Toshibas are bulky and aesthetically unappealing and Asus and Acer are fugly. So that's how I ended up at Dell and probably will continue to in the future, unless Toshiba learns how to build performance machines that don't weigh a ton.

 

i just tried to ask for the ac adapter but they gave me the veto... they just said they have there experts working on a solution and they have a time frame for it. i tried even saying that in that case of was going to return my laptop that i was still in my 21 days and he just said go ahead here is the number for u to call

 

I have just bought the Studio XPS 16 and have the same problem. I have tried to play GTA IV, but even at the lowest resolution the game lag all the time. If I only run on batteries it is much better.

I have an older Dell XPS (Gen2) with 130 watts adapter and wonder if I can use that one instead of the 90W adapter that came with the Studio XPS.

Output 130W adapter = 19,5 V; 6,7 A
Output 90 W adapter = 19,5 V; 4,62 A

Is it safe to use my old 130W adapter?

 

We've said time and time again that if the voltages match, it's safe.

What do you think?

 

Here's the magic formula to transform your gaming experience.

19.5 volt 130 watt adapter + ThrottleStop + use Stand By mode =
buttery smooth frame rates

 

Why not write the recommendations of adapters etc on first page ? then we dont need questions like is it safe bla bla bla.....

 

True lol, we can't assume everyone has read all 200 pages

 

heh yeah, investigation i think is over. Might be best to just make a throttlestop how to + dell update thread

 

I second that. Perhaps we ought to have a S-XPS Throttling solution thread. First post is a brief description of the problem followed by a link to Throttlestop and a quick paragraph explaining that you need a 130/150w adapter and to put the lappy to sleep after boot up a for a second or two. Job done.

Post a link at the end of this thread leading to the new one and lock this.

 

I can make one later tonight unless anyone else wants too.

 

Sounds good

 

That'd be awesome. It'd be nice to include a description of what the checkboxes in throtlestop do (how to actually prevent throttling). A short list of PSUs would be great too, since lots of people ask everyday what to order (but this can be added as replies from folks).

 

agreed. dell sucks so much now, i frickin' hate them with a burning passion and will badmouth them until i die, but i am somehow satisfied with my 1645. with throttlestop, a pa 13 and a 24" 2408 dell display it games like a monster, at least it suits my needs well.

when i have to call dell that's when the nightmare begins again. i hate dell