S-XPS 1645 Throttling Info. and Updates

lol it told me definitely. The ball seems as confused as dell.

 

Please join us at this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=440493

 

Question: Is Dell Computers looking into the throttling issue from all angles?

The answer was: Yes

Things have been going on for so long now that I got crazy and I am now talking to the Magic 8 Ball to get my answers.

 

It told me, we are looking in to the possibility of screwing all owners of 1645 systems because of the costs.

 

LoL! I went through half-a-dozen questions getting no's and ask again laters, but by the last one, "Does God exist?" It said yes! Wow. XD

 

I asked "Will Dell solve the throttling issue?" it replied "Definitely"

 

whoops thanks for yor addidtion Unclewebb.
my bad. did play MW2 on high brightness. but after a few minutes the crackling starts over again.
I collected 12K+ datapoints. and Excel doesn't realy want to coöperate...
tomorrow I will feed this data to a analysis program @work. maybe something shows up. maybe not

unclewebb: your solution works, but for me only temporary this time.
hope I can inform you later on with some data.
maybe DELL still did put a hard limit somewhere in the A03 BIOS, but that's just guessing

 

They already solved the throttling problem. The endless lies, half truths and delay tactics for the last year from Dell made me almost as frustrated as all the people that have spent good money on a Dell laptop. That's why I created ThrottleStop. To provide some hope for users.

GDOG1986: Make sure you use stand by mode first before playing a game to get around the other Dell keyboard bug. Put a check mark in the Clock Modulation box and set that to 100% and check the Set Multiplier box and set that as high as it can go. 13 for a Core i7-720 and 14 for a Core i7-820

 

My brother had a spare so he's sending it.

 

Nice. good call on the Magic 8 ball . Im sure thats what the reps have to get the answers anyway. The manager is just a larger magic 8 ball with a tie.

As for the adapters I will buy one of the 130W listed on the first page. Any clues as to which is the better one ?

 

PA-4E, if size is a consideration. If you're hiding it under a desk, the PA-13 will be okay (and can be found for less money), but keep in mind that it's big (and the PA-15 is even bigger). I'm using a 60W adapter for my Toshiba tablet now, so even the size of the PA-4E surprised me.

 

Thanks for answering that mate, ye size does matter despite what my girlfriend tells me. So I think as long as they perform just as well I will opt for the smaller one at a higher price makes sence ?

 

@fluffyuk

I bought a 130w adapter from ebay...I'm from the U.K too.

here:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/P25-GENUINE-DELL-PA-4E-SLIMLINE-LAPTOP-ADAPTOR-CHARGER_W0QQitemZ350283373140QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_LaptopAccess_RL?hash=item518e841a54

you wont find a better price and free P&P
mines works fine
hope this helps

 

By far, lower price than here in Argentina... DAMN! I would trade a 130w adapter for an Argentinean Barbecue... anyone interested??

Hopefully my laptop arrives tomorrow... i can´t wait to see what problems y may have...

 

Do report if it affects you at all. Power consumption is soo variable, it affects almost each person differently based on config, applications, environment variables etc, its almost a dodging target. If it does or doesnt have problems, even if its repeat information of the same apps etc, report the details

Has the magic 8ball replaced the normal dell reps at this point? lol

 

Lol ye they seem to be of more use .

@IamScotish: Thanks for that mate thats spot on !!! your a ledgend.

When my laptop arrives I will report what I find. Do I need the extra apdapter to be able to check if I have the throtteling issues.

 

I will, it`s the first thing i`m going to do...
BTW, i ordered a 1557, same specs as most of you have, only in a 15 hinch... maybe less power consumption by the smaller screen, but i think it`ll have more heating issues... bah, just speculating. Tomorrow i`ll do the testing and i`ll be posting as soon as i get all the logs and info.

 

But OTOH when I asked it about Thunderbird, it said 'No Way!':GEEK:

 

I'm guessing the lack of posts today means there has been no updates.

I hope Dell are not delaying in the hope people get tired of complaining and they get let of the hook!

 

I highly doubt it - if anything it's just causing more frustration!

Having been using mine for about 3 days now, other than the throttling issues and the fact that Dell won't provide a larger AC adaptor, here are my negative observations about the laptop itself:
- Light bleeding on edges of screen (more than i would have expected)
- Subwoofer that just makes the whole chassis vibrate with the music (sounds much better disabled)
- And the fact that the screen keeps making contact with the keyboard. Not only does this leave marks on the screen, but over time these will become permanent.

I just want to take this opportunity to say that despite what people may think, the Dell technical reps (well at least the XPS ones) are very helpful, very understanding and very well spoken. When i called earlier on at lunchtime to book my return, they even went as far as logging all my concerns about the laptop itself and said they'll pass them on for future reference. Furthermore, the chap (Indian) even appeared to know about the Throttling issue. He also agreed they need more power in these laptops and that the current 90w adaptor is not sufficient. For obvious reasons he said he wasn't going to advise getting a larger adaptor and that Dell currently don't support the use of one purely because it has not been tested and so they are not sure about any potential long term damage that may arise. So those of you with only 12-months warranty and not using stock power adaptors, just bare it in mind.
Well anyway, he put me through to Returns dept, the cow (please excuse my French) i spoke to said the technical rep mentioned nothing about the Throttling and that i was only returning it because i was unhappy about the screen making contact with the keyboard. I said "fine, log whatever you want for return purpose" but then she said i would have to pay the return costs. Urmm, yeh right! On questioning this, she said there are no faults with my laptop, and the fact that the screen touches the keyboard - well this is a design feature and it is my fault for not cleaning the screen! Yup - that's the level of service you get from their returns dept. Well anyway that was the final straw for me! I asked her for her name and staff number, she refused. I asked to be put through to her Manager - she cut me off!

So i just called again now after work. Again technical dept were very helpful, after spending a few minutes explaining the issues, they processed my return straight from there (bypassing returns dept). They've issued me a full refund including return costs. Laptop will be collected in two days time.

Sorry for the lengthy post but just thought i'd raise my concerns for the benefit for all those reading (including Dell reps). As for the rest of you, just something to bare in mind if/when returning your laptop - just ask that the technical dept process your return. Returns dept are just a waste of time and ask you to explain everything again and then argue with you.

I think i'll be looking at a customised Sony Vaio F Series now.

 

i ordered at the same shop. After two days it stopped working while TS was enabled...

I contacted them for a new one and send the it back yesterday.

 

The Studio 1557 is a fairly nice model. My brother has one of the duo-core models and its pretty slim and doesn't have the fingerprint smudging like the SXPS 16. I wouldn't be terribly concerned about heat or throttling since you won't have to contend with RGBLED or the more powerful GPU (which are really what is supposed to make SXPS 16 better/unique in comparison to the Studio 15). At least from what I can best tell it shouldn't.

 

@ M@nny. I think the service tends to vary from person to person. I don't think the laptop is supposed to even be rubbing the keys though. (Although I've heard of this complication/complaint before.) Anyway thanks for your post, I felt it was rather enlightening, and yeah it makes sense for them not handing out more powerful adapters if they can't verify it can be used safely in conjunction with the machine. (Although it shouldn't have any problems.) Its probably to avoid any potential lawsuit that could occur if some idiot blew up his computer while using one that was 'included' with his machine. Blah, blah, blah. . .and I'm rambling. Anyway, yes, thank you! I thought it was a good post. B)

 

Ive got an HP elitebook 8530w and its only got a core2duo 8600 with an nvidia graphics card (too lazy to find out what it is) ... and it comes with a 120w power supply,which is a total brick ...
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

this laptop is hot as hell... just downloading drivers (3 tabs open on chrome), and msn.... i don`t want to think how hot it`s gonna get when i use solidworks or hypershot to render some images...

 

Which laptopare you reffering to ? the XPS16, Studio15 ?

 

Seriously? Then I suppose seeing a rep' is the way to go. I wouldn't hold onto it if it is getting that hot.

 

Forgive me for not having read all 108 pages, but has anyone else also had their laptop switch off on them when running Furmark + Prime95 whilst on AC power?

I only had the two programs running for about 30 seconds when it just switched off completely. Had to boot up again by removing battery and then reinserting - then it booted up fine.

Interestingly, the 90w power adaptor went completely dead too - wouldn't recharge the battery and the blue ring on the connector was out. Again - that had to be switched off from mains and switched back on to 'reset'.

Seriously makes me wonder about the power design of this kit now! The worst thing is, i'd only just started using the laptop for about 5 mins so all components were still stone cold.

 

Has it only happened just the once ? It could have just been overloaded, I dont see why but thats the only reason I can think of. To much to handle at once maybe you should have let it run for 10 min after unboxing it, before running the programs?

 

I think you, and others who are doing the same, are mad to be putting your systems under this kind of load!! It's not realistic operating conditions and your asking for trouble!!!....in my opinion of course

 

@m@nny

Yeah, it happened to me before. I don't run that combo very often now, LOL.

@magt

Well.....it wouldn't shut down......unless there were some issues with the laptop. I'm sure most laptops can run that combo decently well. Sure, some might get some high temps and throttle due to heat, but at least they won't shut down.

~Ibrahim~

 

No sorry, i've had it since Friday. What i meant was i'd just turned it on for the first time today - ruling out any possibility of it already being heated up.

 

@ magt1000, i agree to an extent, but i also agree with ikjadoon. This is a performance machine is it not, with SOME high-end components? I've paid a lot of money for it. Even if a machine is overloaded, it shouldn't shutdown so drastically - at least it should clock down first... - OH THE IRONY!

 

Hmm no idea, I would like to say run it again and see if it was 1 time thing but I wouldnt like you to damage your laptop. Ikjadoon seems to be the man around here maybe hes got a better idea.

Sorry I cant help you out dude.

 

Oh no worries bud - it's going back anyway. I was just curious to see how bad the performance actually is based on what the rest of your guys are saying. I guess i got the worst of a bad bunch of apples.

The worst thing is, i still very much like this machine despite all its flaws - it's just one of those things. Kind of like supporting the underdog in a competition but you still know it still has something about it. Also reminds me very much of my old car (Peugeot 306 GTi-6) - it had its flaws, but it still had some things about it which made it truley unique to own and drive.

If i was offered an extended warranty for free i probably would have bit the bullet and just purchased a larger power adaptor myself. But i didn't purchase an extended warranty so i don't want to risk potential long-term damage to an already expensive machine. The keys leaving marks on the screen were the final nail in the coffin for me. I know that's probably being anal as i could stick some extra rubber protectors on myself but point is i shouldn't have to. Quality control has gone amiss somewhere.

 

I agree whole heartedly mate you should get what you pay for and in this case you didnt, so does this mean your getting a replacment or looking for a new computer all together?
Maybe see if you can get a replacement with extra add-ons for your time and effort ? If you are thinking of going else were what do you have to loose.

As for the GTI lol loves that car although the Astra GTE would of kicked its a** all over the place .

Good luck with what ever you decide to do. Keep me posted.

 

Furmark + Prime95 is a hell of a load but just for the record, a new 1647 with an i7-620 Dual Core was able to run that load while maintaining a 20X multiplier with no throttling. It's not a very positive sign when a computer just shuts down and calls it quits.

 

m@nny, let me guess you loaded the cpu cores, then hit furmark? that would shut off my 90w adapter too. If you had a kill-a-watt adapter on it, you could see the wattage spike around 130 for a split seconded before being throttled down. When ya do it in that order, The bios isnt fast enough to catch the instant spike and i assume overcurrent protection or something similiar was activated in the 90w adapter.

Although the laptop itself shutting down didnt happen to me, but unclewebb is right its a heck of a load. The i7's are beasts.


notes: furmark+prime95 put a 130w load on the 130w adapter i had with my config(when i enabled throttlestop). But usually it ran around 100-110w during gaming. The highest i ever saw.

Just thought i add that extra info if it helps any.

 

No problem. Use a larger adaptor and your warranty is toast anyway, if Dell suss you're doing this.

 

@ atlstang - correct! Yes it was all cores. As quite a few of you have said, that's a lot of load, but then as unclewebb has also pointed out, the 1647 deals with it fine. The fact that you have clearly pointed out you are able to run both fine on a 130w adaptor is living proof itself that not only the machine is capable, but that a larger adaptor is definetly needed. I don't know what Dell are playing at as they have seriously choked the machine in current form. Fair enough it's still could be an excessive load, but then in that case, the CPU should throttle down as your set up is - not just shut the machine down!

@Midnight_Voice - i know, hence why the only option is to send it back.

DELL, are you listening???

 

@m@nny: What do you mean that the keys are leaving marks on the screen? Which keys? I haven't noticed any marks other than the rubber wedges to the right and left of the keyboard, which leave marks off the viewable portion of the screen.

 

@n3verm0re - yes i have the rubber 'wedges' on my machine too but they're obviously not protruding high enough as most of the keyboard (yes i'm talking about all the keys) are touching the screen when closed. So when you open it up again and start up - especially on a white background all you see is like a brickwork pattern on the screen made up of rainbow colours where the light is reflecting through the grease (i hate to use that term) left by the keys.

Eventually this will wear into the screen permanently.

And for god's sake, the stupid cow at Dell's Returns dept today had the cheek to tell me there is nothing wrong and that i should clean the screen. I spoke to a Manager later and raised all my concerns - have asked her to listen back to the recording of the convo too - i very much doubt anything will be done though. They probably sat there together having a little giggle later blowing malteasers across the desk through straws.

Oh what a tainted view of the world i have today! HAHA!

 

As far as I'm concerned any component should be able to run fully loaded indefinitely otherwise I consider it defective. If you have to say "only fully load this component for X amount of time", it shouldn't be running at that level to begin with.

 

lol at the malteasers !!!! haha like the advert! For all you US peeps they are candy.

 

Maltesers? With a (throttling) figure like theirs?

 

Just in case no one has gotten to these yet: http://www.examiner.com/x-23513-Bal...updates-to-fix-throttling-issues-in-notebooks

http://apcmag.com/dell-releases-new-firmware-for-notebooks-with-throttling-issue.htm

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/12/03/throttlegate-dell-covering-up-laptop-issue

http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=9847

http://ub-news.com/news/dell-e6400-...aving-performance-issues-dell-users/7063.html

http://blog.laptopmag.com/dell-issu...7-with-core-i7-core-i5-now-default-cpu-choice

I thought it would be nice to have these articles all in one post.

 

Too bad that all of those stories are old news and none of them have done any follow up. A lot has happened since then and now it's very easy to test for throttling issues. Too bad investigative journalism doesn't seem to exist anymore. I guess every computer news site must toe the line or else they won't get any new stuff to test from these corporations.

 

Im totally speculating here but if there is no fix for this, is throttle stop the answer ? Will that and a new adapter solve the issue?

 

Hopefully we'll find out Friday. Then again, this isn't the first time Dell has announced (whether it be to many or few) a date for a fix/update/sign of life/acknowledgement of our existance.

 

Just to be secure; witch settings and checkboxes do i have to apply in combination with an i7 720QM?

Thanx!