S-XPS 1645 Throttling Info. and Updates

This is correct.

(For what it's worth, I don't think there's anyone claiming otherwise. The brouhaha centers around people's willingness to settle for a solution involving a user-written utility and an upgraded PSU that you might have to pay extra for. It's a valid complaint, but no matter how irate anyone on this forum may get, it's each user's decision to make for themselves. Personally, I'm happy enough with my 1645 running TS and a 130W PSU that I'm keeping it regardless of what Dell does.)

My understanding is that this is also correct, but I have not personally confirmed it.

 

I have read your posts. That's an unsolicited assumption.

I know where you are coming from. If someone doesn't want to use ThrottleStop or doesn't have a 90+W adapter, fine, yes, this will make your games run faster at lower settings, which should be obvious to anyone who plays games. This is a very simple solution for many users, but they will have to spend time re-tweaking their game to be less GPU-intensive, but that's obvious as well.

I know YOU realize this isn't a correct solution, but I don't want people to misinterpret your posts claiming that you had somehow cured throttling. I understand YOU realize exactly what is happening, but to be honest, there are bound to be some numbnuts who think that will solve the throttling problem and will forget about it. And, truthfully speaking, if you're fine with low-performance, get out of this thread (not you....you are just making do with it, I get it, calm down). But at the same time, we want lots of pressure and people shouldn't accept this solution. I know you want EXACTLY the same thing. I'm just clarifying for people some things that weren't explicitly stated.

But, as I can tell, we're obviously on the same side. And breaking up the community like this doesn't help anyone.

@minority issue on the adapter

You have to be running games on high settings (scenarios when it throttles) for it to get super-hot. Let's not speculate: go play Crysis for an hour on high, 1080p and tell me how hot it feels to you. How long can you hold it on your hand is a fine measurement if you don't have an IR thermometer.

~Ibrahim~

EDIT:

@trim issue

Yeah, I have TRIM on my SSD. I somehow got an encrypted one, though, and they seem to have a different firmware series?

 

sly your arguing with people about the adapter based on your opinions. Heres the bottom line, i dont know if you researched this. it is no secret the 1640 90w's got hot, read any reviews, youtube reviews and forum comments will tell you so. At the beginning of the investigation it was undisputed that the adapter got very hot. Plastic got soft, and some users even melted. For most people seeing this information it is enough to conclude it would be unsafe to up the power enough to run these laptops reliably. That is their conclusion something that shouldnt be argued with based of another opinion, that you are doing whether you mean it or not.

This is the end of discussing this unless someone wants to chime in with evidence etc on why the adapter is. If you want to keep this up make your own thread. For now this post is for learning about throttlegate, solutions and the future.

Throttling on battery still exist, but the limit is much much higher then through the adapter. It is unclear how much of a user impact if any when on battery. Throttlestop will let the laptop perform as its supposed too, but it is not the end all solution. As long as dell is throttling though, it will work just fine for most.

 

We'll, the Clock gateing in the Core I7 is supposed to limit it to 2 cores when only 2 cores are needed.

It throttles even then, so I wouldn't be convinced that this new one will not throttle. But thats just speculation on my part.

 

This is YOUR number one point. so don't tell me this thread as nothing to do with the 90watt adapters and YOUR speculation that its not big enough.

 

No my discussion is done with you, not on adapters. You will not see any more responses from me to you anymore.

You are actively destroying the purpose of this thread, and ignoring the facts and reasoning. Do your research and provide evidence, you will see there is plenty. Most of the information here is a summarization of the original thread. The facts are there and not here due to this thread being about educating, and most people agree after the evidence 90w is underpowered, heat is a very good indicator a power supply is at its limit. If there is new developments like your adapter not getting hot. Investigate and post evidence and to help come to a reason why others get hot and yours doesnt. If you are going to keep arguing against facts without evidence get out. Mitchell im sure can be a lot more helpful on finding the truth then your non-sense.

 

Thanks kviri and slynine for your replies.

I guess the solution is to get a 130W psu and download TS.

One last question: Which psu do you guys recommend? Any brand in particular? 130 or 150?

 

Then you have my appologies, But it was certianly a point I tried to make everytime. But to that end I have picked up my brick after an hour of playing crysis while charging the battery, and yes it is pretty warm, but I certianly do not feel it is in any danger.

 

I have not ignored any reasoning, or facts. I have simply said that my adapter does not get that warm. Then I was greeted with this massive down poor of I'm in the minority.

All I did was ask for proof this was the minority, then provided the logical explanation that this is not a big enough control group to prove either way.

You go on saying how you have these facts, when you have provided only some evidence, which in turn I would say is PROBABLY true, but UNPROVEN. Which is all I have been saying.

All you have done is appeal to emotion, and make blanketed misrepresentations of my arguments. For instance, I agree that MOST LIKELY I am in the minority of people with cool adapters. But that IS UNPROVEN and SPECULATION. I have never stated otherwise, or even implied so but it seems you have taken some implicit meaning, which I never intended to imply.

 

It is recommended by most users here to get a Dell powersupply, but not from dell themselves as they are over the top expensive. Ebay and trianglelaptops was a good source, you should be able to find one for 20-40 bucks depending on the deal.

The adapter models are listed in the FAQ for the 130w and 150w. 130w is really all you need for everyday stuff as most demanding applications draw 100-110w maybe a little more depending on config. The max ever report wattage was 146w under unrealistic stress testing, with system that probably had close to the worst possible power sucking configuration. The decision is yours.

 

I don't think its enough to stop throttling since some people recorded drawing 130 watts at the outlet. and I think it should be a new motherboard since it has a different chipset to support integrated and dedicated graphics

 

One more thing, and maybe someone could chim in on this.

But removing the AC adapter while running Throttle stop has caused some problems, I don't know if thats resolved or not.

 

TS now has a auto turn off feature for that purpose.

 

I've been asked this question before by potential buyers, Its a big unkown to me. The tdp is lower with half the cores so i would expect it to throttle less. As throttling severeness is affected by different configs drawing more power for the 1645. But will it throttle? probably somewhat but i would wait to see tests before buying.

Personally the 5000 series which im sure is going to be updated on these things one day, is something to wait for if you can. The efficiency is amazing, the 5830 which is a more powerful card on the envy's have a TDP of 24 watts vs the TDP of 35watts for the 4670 on these laptops. That combined with an i5 cpu, may be the ticket to have a great system with the 90w limitation.

 

Some more nooz from Dell:

The reason it's getting quiet is that there seems to be some internal discussions about the throttling. The guys you've seen here (Brad/Bill/that other new guy) will definitely release the information as soon as its cleared and are, quote, "on our side." They've gotten some answers from their higher-ups that are questionable to the community and they are just getting, eh, clarification from management.



This is not just a throttling issue, but the engineers certainly have found the problem and are testing their solutions.

~Ibrahim~

 

OK so new motherboard could possibly mean better power regulation? I say this as the new Asus N61 with i7 is also shipping with a 90W adapter! Now considering throttling has not been mentioned ( apart from G51 ) it could be their adapter is more efficient? So what is to say this is not the same with the new 1647?

See my above post, would be interested in your thoughts.

 

Thanks for the update. You have much more patience than I do.

 

Dont know if I like the sound of that. Sounds like they are in CYA mode.

 

Ok, here is the link to the video I have uploaded to Youtube. The last couple of minutes contain the juicy bits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoLw-DkEqnQ


90W adapter was being plugged and unplugged during gameplay and TS was off. All power options were set to maximum performance in windows. I had it set to 720p with everything on gamer apart from shadows and the shaders which were set to mainstream.

Is this similar to what other people are suffering with?

 

Your words bring me hope for the first time in weeks.

 

For reference, I have both a 130w (for keeping in my laptop bag) and a 150w (for permanent use at my desk -- I hate having to deal with unwiring every time I go somewhere). Both were geniune Dell brand PSUs in new condition, a PA-4E 130w from user "deanhemi" for $40, and a PA-15 150w from user "red_planet_trading" for $32 (free shipping on both).

You can get them a little cheaper if you buy used, but I wanted new. The PA-4E 130w is a little more expensive than the PA-15 150w (or PA-13 130w) because it is a "slim" adapter. (I don't know if there's a slim 150w.) Be warned, both are big:

Stock 90w: 5 3/4" x 2 3/4" x 3/4"* (0.43 lbs.)
*not including the little "hump" at one end because the power cord jack is thicker than the brick

PA-4E: 6" x 3" x 1" (1.1 lbs.)
PA-15: 6 1/2" x 3 1/4" x 1 5/8" (1.8 lbs.)

(The above are not official Dell specifications. I measured and weighed the bricks -- just the bricks, no cords -- myself.)

Using A03 and TS, 130w should be enough for whatever you want to do. The "leaked" A05 (it's never been officially released) seems to cause the machine to pull a bit more wattage when TS is on, so that could theoretically make a 150w PSU worthwhile -- but it remains to be seen whether the officially released BIOS update will have the same effect.

 

Wow, towards the end at like the 7 minute mark it's just brutal.

 

It's completely unplayable with the 90W adapter plugged in. Running off battery its silky smooth though as it is when I'm using my 150W adapter and TS

 

Magt1000 great video, i added it under the verify you have a problem on the main page.

kviri i also linked to your post for the different adapter sizes etc under the adapter list in FAQ section.

ikjadoon thanks for the update. if you want i can add to the main page under dell updates. not sure how much it really adds to the knowledge, but it does ease tensions. I may not have a 1645 anymore, but am waiting for this to be solved if it will ever be, as my bro wants one.

 

Rep added, you are the first person to show it in video form. That is utterly disgraceful to slow down that bad!

 

Very good this video !

I'm writting an article about this problem for a french news site, can I join your video ?

 

i had to rep you for uploading and showing us the throttle issue!... great work!

 

I think a link to that video should be added to the main page of this thread.

 

Is anyone a member of the dell forums and willing to add it to the thread on this issue there? I wonder how long it will stay on before its deleted?...

Sorry Yotsumi, I'm new to youtube, what do you mean by join my video?

 

Yup, agreed!

 

Maybe he meant link to your video in his article? I can add it to the dell forums.

 

If that's the case then of course I have no problem it being used in that way

 

I posted the link on the dell forums. I wonder if it will be removed.

 

Not long I'm guessing!! It's fairly damming stuff!

 

Yeah us talking about it was bad enough but that shows just how horrible it is. The first time that had happened to me I thought I'd fried my video card or something.

 

very disappointing stuff to see. i wont be surprised if the link is removed from dell site.

 

Have you got a link to the dell forum thread so I can track the response?

 

hey guys i added it a while ago on this mainpage. under verify you have a problem..

If you think it belongs somewhere, let me know. As i stated before this is your thread mainly.

 

Dell Forums Throttling Thread

 

You should add it to this thread as well. I think that's the main "complaint" post on the Dell site.

 

Just a head's up, the actual YouTube link on the Dell site is formatted wrong and doesn't copy and paste correctly.

 

Fenikkusu, here is another thread at Dell that might be a good place to post it as well.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19306277.aspx?PageIndex=13

 

Weird. I wonder if the dell forums allow links?

Edit: Link amended in a reply.

I'll add the link to other relevant Dell threads that allow new comments (some don't)

 

Toooo bad Dell, currently on the phone in order to return my 1645.

 

That thread is closed to new comments I think, I couldn't post anything.

 

Wonder if this affects the Studio 14 that i ordered from Dell Asia? 720QM with a 512 4530 Mobility Radeon. Just checked the specs and it also has a 90watt power brick. Power requirements seem lower for the 4530 at 8-12 Watt vs the 4670 at 28-30 Watt. Still would like to know so that i can return it as soon as possible. Would check it myself but that would require physically getting the machine from Asia first, then running tests, then returning to Asia for a return. Ideas? Thoughts?

 

They have a Studio 14 with a 720? lol well there's no way to tell definitively if the machine may throttle. However the fact that the screen is 14 inches vs 16 and the GPU is less intense a 4530vs 4670 you might not have the issue. However let it be noted that this is just me speculating.

 

Thanks for that

 

Good thing i didn't get the 960p resolution screen. I'm not a big gamer, I just hope that throttling doesn't affect my cpu performance when i use my notebook for video editing and software developement. I still need to find out the return policy in Asia. Searched everywhere and couldn't find anything on the Dell Hong Kong site. I even tried calling the numbers for support but they all seemed to be blocked from international callers.

Notebook just arrived yesterday in Asia so now i'm sitting on the fence about whether to try for a return or just get it brought back to North America for me.

EDIT: just pondering whether screen resolution actually draws more power or is it just screen size? Should be the same amount of backlighting regardless of resolution given the same screen size...i think?

 

EDIT: Removed, going to be the better man and let that discussion die. Didn't realize it ended a few pages back.