S-XPS 1645 AC Power Throttle Issue Investigation

Nope...mine is supposed to come tomorrow after 4PM (my choice).

I was told of a callback on Tuesday within 48 hours and at hour mark 50 I called them. Then I went through it all over again and was told to wait until Monday for a callback. I don't expect one, but, hey, I can hope!

~Ibrahim~

 

i'm going to call them tomorrow. On the weekend, i keep getting XPS support-Asia.

they keep trying to sell me a cord, or telling me the 130W is not for my comp. i tried explaining not to worry about why i have the cord, i already explained all this to a US supervisor, and got the cord. i just want the slim one. sigh.

and yes, when idle but o desktop the 130W adapter looks to charge faster, i went form 10% to 100% in 129Min.

also, even while charging the battery while the comp is on, the charger only got mildly warm.....i could put it on my face and go to sleep ^^

third point: im running the battery down right now, then ill play crysis for an hour, see how much it charges while under load. this thread is getting full like the last, ill probably create a new one just for benchmarks, my 130W tests, the battery test results etc.

 

Thanks in advance for doing the gaming tests Can't wait to see the results!

 

im gonna throw on some tv, run teh battery down, and do the tests, and then link to them in an hour or two. ^^

i figure ill take it down to 10%, launch he game, plug it in, see what can be done in 60min. you have a better idea, im all ears buddy. =D

 

This is the third time I have contacted Dell and this time they escalated the case to there product group team who design the computers, please allow us 3-4 business days for resolution.

They also still stated that that would not send the 130W adapter and will now have to wait on a resolution after they test both adapters, (This is what I was just told by Dell.)

 

Sounds like a good test

 

Hey I'm writing this from the hospital. I tried putting my face on the 90watt and going to sleep, and then I woke up here.

I kid, sorry for the lame joke. But hey, all in the name of science right? Lol

 

Max420, it may come down to us having to refer Dell to your case, do you think that would be an acceptible option?

I'm just thinking that if we can SHOW Dell your case where the solution was 130watt adapter and they can see with their own eyes that they sent a 130 to you and it fixed the issue, maybe it'll make our lives easier....

Do you have a case# that you could PM me if it comes to that ?

 

Would the 130W Power Supply for the Latitude be compatible. I found one on Ebay no description it just says fro Dell Latitude, are all the latitude adapters the same for all models?...If they are i just need to know if it will work with teh studio xps 16

 

They do have a UL mark on it. I've submitted a case to UL.

I encourage everyone to do so. We really shouldn't let Dell get away with this. Making us wait forever on laptops orders is annoying, having the AC adapter not be powerful enough is insulting, but jeapordizing the safety of its customers by not adequetly testing their products and accessories is unforgiveable in my eyes.

We should create a statement to dell and CC it to engadget, inquirer, and other tech news sites to get some attention on the issues. Inq already reported on the delays that Dell caused us on the 1645s, and i submitted an email to the author about the power issues, but a well-worded statement would likely get some solutions headed our way.

Anyone good with words, or friends with an attorney lol?

 

I would avoid ebay as you never know if you are getting a used adapter or exactly what you need.

http://www.trianglelaptops.com/p-96...spiron-pa-4e-130w-ac-adapter-ju102-pa-10.aspx

was linked by some one earlier, and its a great price. I'm going to order one if i dont hear from dell on monday. I'll end up with two adapters in the long run which would be nice to have.

 

i can call them, try to get the case number, based off my service tag.....i don't know if i made a note of it.....although, i can pm you the order number for my cord, maybe they can find it using that. when they shipped me the adapter, it appeared in the order section of my dell acct.

 

Sounds like they insist on getting a BBB complain. We have already gone through hell placing the order.
In addition, they have been told about the problem for a week now.

Update:
Filed the complain, they really worked hard and persistently to get the complain. Good job retarded technical support team and designer team.

 

I called today to see what they could do. It took 30 minutes just to get on the phone with someone (lol at "You're estimated wait time may exceed 10 minutes). I talked with a rep for an hour and showed her this thread, but she said "they cannot use sources outside of Dell as references." She insisted that only the 90W adapter would be compatible with this laptop. The best she could do is say that my motherboard should be replaced and they will send a tech out to do that, which I declined (why take the chance of having even more problems crop up?). So I am no closer to getting that adapter now than I was an hour and a half ago.

I do get a $100 coupon from Dell for something unrelated, and I couldn't think of anything to use it on, so I'll probably get the $120 adapter (item has to be at least $100.01 of course).

 

I will be on the phone to Dell the second my laptop arrives at my door on Tuesday morning.
I dont hold out any hope at all, that they'll have anyone able to even understand english for long enough to comprehend the problem, and of course therefore no one able to help solve it.
I have obtained details of my local trading standards department, and their consumer direct phone number so I can make an official complaint to them about the brick being unsafe.
I agree with Zlog and others, that we will only make Dell sit up and take action, by taking our own action to report this problem. Any press coverage we can get is always of more use. And maybe someone with good writing skills could create a standardized form (fill in the blanks type thing), that people could use to send their complaints in to Dell, UL, Trading Standards (UK), also the BBB amongst others.
Just my tuppence worth

 

What does it mean when the circular LEDs on the side start flashing on and off, and yellow? It started doing that while I was stress testing. I had 7zip benchmark with 8 threads running, foobar2000 with Milkdrop2 visualization running, hard drive transfer, and Phantasy Star Online running. I was also running DPC latency checker, and the numbers were in the red (upto 34xxxus). My external USB device was disconnected during the file transfer to the internal.

LOL

 

Enablng/disabling wireless causes huge latency increases, and with it disabled it's on average a lot lower. I enabled it and the screen seemed to drop in brightness a few times. o_o

This is just normal operation, no stress testing.

 

This is the results I got, wireless is enabled.

 

Battery results --->>>> http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=438703

maybe i can get a few more owners to post some benchmarks of their choice over here as well.

 

Will this iGo charger work with the laptop?

http://www.igo.com/Laptop+Netbook-Chargers/everywhereMAX-Laptop-Charger/invt/ps001250007

http://www.igo.com/Laptop+Netbook-Chargers/everywhereMAX-Laptop-Charger/invt/ps001250007

 

Hmm, I wonder if it charges slowly to keep the battery from heating up so it wont overheat the system when under full load.

I wonder how a 150 or 210W adaptor would fair charging this system when under load.

 

Based on the results I have a feeling that the laptop's power system is unable to run this laptop on full load AND charge the battery.

 

Found this thread when googling the studio xps 16 i7.

My Studio XPS 16 i7820 was shipped on Friday so I should be receiving it this week. I am now feeling uneasy after reading all your posts.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Does the laptop itself have any overheating issues? Do the palm rests get hot?
2. The Studio XPS 16 with the i7820 was only on the dell.ca website for a few days. I managed to order one while it was on the the site. Does anyone know why it was removed so quickly? Was this do to issues with the i7820?

 

1. Doesn't get hot but warm
2. No problem with the i7 820 so far. I don't own one but max420 does and he didn't mention having problem with it.

 

It doesn't have any overheating issues, palm rests get a little warm when gaming. The only issue is Dell is shipping a 90watt a/c adapter and it really needs a larger one. They're investigating right now, so we'll wait and see what their solution is. Hopefully we'll all get better a/c adapters.

 

To quickly summarize.. (in less than a page)
1. The laptop gets warm, but not hot compared to prior xps16 with Dual Cores.
2. It is mainly a part supply issue on Dell's side.

From this discussion and forum member investigations, it appears that the power supply is undersized, and this needs to be addressed formally by Dell. It appears that Dell did not properly calculate the amount of power being used from the power supply (though it makes you wonder why they spec'd 9-cell battery as standard, it appears that somebody did some work on it).

Users noted during gaming, if you changed screen brightness, it effected framerates when running on AC, but not while on battery. It was strange that brightness effected the frame rate until someone had access to a larger power supply(130W vs 90W) and confirmed that it was actually a power issue, and the system was slowing because there was not enough power to run all out 4 cores, GPU and display with a 90W supply. Similar I7 laptops offered have a larger supply as default for Dell's I7, this is likely something they missed in the introduction.

This is an external power brick, so it is easy to rectify, if Dell step's up and handles it. I imagine it might take a week or two or pressure, but they generally do the right thing.

The main drawback is graphic intensive gaming is slowed down, and time to charge battery is extended.

3. I will finally be able to test this myself, as mine arrives tomorrow. (although with an i7-720)

 

BTW, flashing yellow LEDs on the side means low battery. Someone was asking about that.

~Ibrahim~

 

Thank you for all the quick responses.

I hope Dell can have this issue dealt with asap. I will be calling them the day it arrives to complain about the power adapter issue.

 

First of all i'd like to thanks everyone who investigated the AC power throttle Issue.

I can't understand that Dell is actually shipping laptop with underpowered AC and that some people will actually pay for 130W AC adapter. It is Dell fault and I find this unacceptable that customer should pay.

Just to be sure, does a 130W AC adapter resolve all the performance related problems (bad gaming and cpu performance when plugged in and full brightness)? Are we sure that all the problems are strictly related to the AC adapter?

Thanks.

 

i've been using the 130W since i got it, and the sound has not stuttered once, and the video fps drops are gone.

 

Thanks for quick reply,

I'm suppose to get emailed from my sale rep tommorow. I hope I'll get a free 130W adapter.

Thank you for your help on providing accurate info to Dell rep.

Regards.

 

is this too for studio xps 13??

 

Not that we know of, this thread is specifically for the Dell Studio XPS 1645.

 

Ok guys, I'm gonna make a summary of the findings that I can remember were made so far:

1. Using mainstream benchmark software such as 3DMark the laptop loses about 5-15% performance rating when plugged in the 90W adapter versus when on the battery. - The 130W adapter seems to resolve this issue.
2. Charging with the 90W adapter whilst the laptop is idle takes quite some time. Charging whilst playing a game with high requirements hardly happens at all.
3. Charging with the 130W adapter is faster. However, charging with the 130W adapter whilst playing a highly intensive game is still very slow.
4. The 90W adapter heats up enormously. Whilst playing highly intensive games the adapter can NOT be picked up anymore.
5. Adding up the theoretical maximum power consumption of individual components is > 90W.
6. The HP Envy 18t? with comparable specs (though still less powerful than the XPS 16) is delivered with a 130W adapter.


Anything worth mentioning that I've missed?

 

I've been following this thread since black Thanksgiving day and want to thanks you all for troubleshooting this issue for us owners and future owners. It made me feel comfortable ordering knowing I could watch the progress for these tests and cancel if needed.

Zlog, since we have now tested the 130 Watt adapter can you change or remove this line from the first post? It might make getting a new charger easier since it has now been tested.

Thanks again everyone!

 

fixing it now, Ibuprofen ty for the heads up

 

Depending on how my phone call that I'm (unlikely) to get this evening from the escalated support team I will try and write up a walkthrough of steps to take to help people receive their replacement AC adapters. To my knowledge, Max is the only one to receive one from Dell so far. If you've received one from Dell support or if they are shipping one to you, please let us know the steps you went through. Thanks!

 

I tried this morning but the best I got was a battery & AC replacement (90w). I wanted the replacement because yesterday I was playing COD MW2 only on the battery and after my game session Windows 7 and Bios was not able to recognize my battery and I was not able to recharge. I had to unplug the power cord and remove the battery for at least 10 minutes to be able to boot properly and charge my battery.

On another note what can I do to know how many FPS I have playing COD MW2?.

Regards.

 

I talked to Dell order Customer Service and they wont sent me one until I get my machine and talk to Tech Support. I was hoping to get on sent early like Troutbum99 so I can bring this with me on vacation without spending $100 of my own money. They agreed to send one if I proved that they sent an adapter by giving them an order number so they could see that one has been sent for this condition. If one of you would please post an example or PM me I would really appreciate it.

 

So we have a few more people that have been supplied adapters by Dell then? Excellent. When I talk to them later today they really wont have any way around sending me one.

 

Well so far I have been denied 3 times for that 130W Adapter and the last time was just yesterday (11/29/09). I was told that it is not for this model laptop. Good luck to everybody else, I will keep trying.

I have also explained to them that other Dell Techs have sent them as replacements for the 90W and they still would not send it.

 

okay, so this is my dell order screen:



if i can point you to the item that is $58.00, that says 130W, that is the cord, the 10.00 charge is the section of the cord that goes from brick > wall.



i checked with Dell financial, the prices listed are just for their system, i haven't been charged, that is the cost they billed to dell exchanges or w/e.

as you can see form the next shot, the computer listed in my orderes section is a Dell Studio XPS 16 model:1645.




if this doesn't show them i got one, i'll pm my order number for it......anyone see any privacy issues from me doing that?

 

Well i got the laptop today. Running prime95 i couldnt exactly reproduce max420's results, but when i put a cd in or do something that draws more power (via usb etc) the multiplier dropped all over the place.

i did the 3d mark 06 real quick and got the same results for full brightness and min brightness
max bright/min bright
score 7040/7037

Ill do actual game testing etc later tonight, as steam is still downloading. The specs of the system is probably less power hungry then max's i7 820 and the rgbled screens. should be in signature now.

edit: studio xps 16: i7 720qm, ati 4670, 1080p Wled, 4gb ram, 250gb hd, dvd drive

 

So you had to buy your adapter? i thought they comped you one.

I'm not interested in paying even a single penny for it

 

huh? they did send it for free. I'll probably end up buying a slim one, since they seem to be fine with teh fact that they sent me a 130W.

 

I was on the phone today with a rep from Dell Denmark about a flickering issue with my screen. He asked me if anything else was wrong with the laptop and i started explaining him the adapter issue and forwarded him to this thread.

Long story short, either tomorrow or wednesday a repair guy will come to my home address with a new screen plus a 130w adapter . It's my first Dell, and so far I'm loving the level of service they provide.

So atleast for any danes who will want to exchange their adapter, there should be hope.

Btw. a big thanks to anyone who have contributed to resolve this issue.

 

Well I am going to try the Chat route and see what happens. All else fails, I am just going to buy the one for the M15x since I need two adapters anyways. Does anyone know if that one will work?

Update:

Well the chat route failed. She assured me that engineering would be looking into things. I think the easiest thing to do for now is ebay a new PA-4E.

 

"Jay" from escalation called....30 minutes early so I was still in class. UGH! Calling back now to see what I can figure out.

@Zlog

That is just how much it costs. Even free things show up as having a price, but you don't get charged.

 

sounds good, I still havn't received a phone call yet >.> im half expecting them to call me at 4:45pm today (I'm off at 5pm) and then I'll be unable to reach them.

but lets be honest they wont call at all.

 

they were quick in replacing my laptop, sent me the creativeMB disc, the 130W cord, etc all for free, but they have never returned one of my calls.