S-XPS 1645 Throttling Info. and Updates

The system should throttle no more with the next BIOS update in conjunction with a 130W ac adapter. Mobo will be fine with 130W adapter, but you will need both the BIOS and a new adapter. How you get that adapter is one of the questions I cannot answer just yet. Working on it.

Official contacts (depending on just what that means to you): Brad L, Todd S, myself.

 

2nd that question....

 

I have a way of getting a 130W adapter, you give it us! Jesus, I mean I pay over $1000 for this system and you cant give me 1 poxy adapter.

 

Easy, killer. I said I was working on it.

 

Question: Does Dell not realize how bad this makes them look? As best I can tell, this model was tossed out there without any design thought and no testing.

 

Sounds like a solution to me, (assuming they do in fact opt to send out the 130w PSU) Those of us who already have them will be able to verify if the bios update does infact fix the issue.

 

-pokes.- You misunderstand my intent. When used properly throttling is an excellent device in terms of conserving energy or preventing it from overheating (why do you think Intel built in their own throttling on their new model if its so bad?) in this particular instance of course YES it is bad because it restricts the machine from its full potential. I hope we got that settled?

 

Dell realizes how bad this makes us look. It is the number one technical issue on my radar by a very wide margin. Studio 1747 customers, your happy joy day is next.

 

I know its not your fault mate, your doing a good job of clearing up a very miserable mess. But you can understand my frustration. I honastly appreciate you coming on here to help clarify some things.

Many Thanks Fluff

 

So if they fix this issue, are you keeping your system?

 

at least this is a huge step in the right direction if they do indeed offer the 130w psu and a bios to un-throttle the laptop to make it work to its full potential.

 

Totally get you and completely empathize. I had to go back and edit in the smiley wink. Without it, it's not clear whether I understand your frustration. You have a right to be frustrated. I would be too. Matter of fact, there have been a few days over the last 3 months when I was, considering my role here at Dell is to listen, aggregate conversations, and get solutions for customers.

 

Well its scheduled for a return mate, I dont knwo if I can cancle. But if they fix and it is a good fix not satisfactory then yes I will keep it.

 

A Unthrottled 820... hell to the ya!

 

I canceled my order with xotic you have 1 week to get me satisfied and I will go back with Dell

 

Thanks for pulling this off dell.

 

@Dell-Bill_B

Why, if you know, was this issue present until users discovered it? Did SXPS 1645 not go through much/if any testing? What made Dell think this machine was marketable to begin with?

 

Wht model did you roder from Xotic ?

 

I'm glad to see you have came to this decision (if you give us the 130w adapter). It takes alot for a big company to come out and admit they were wrong and it seems you guys are going to do that. All companies will make mistakes at some point or another, it's how you deal with those mistakes that you live and die by. It will certainly restore some of my faith in Dell if this is the case. It took a while to get to the bottom of this but I can understand you need to look at it from all angles.

I look forward to hearing the details after your conference call later.

Thanks

 

Get with me in PM, and we'll exchange emails. You need to go ahead and cancel that return at some point. I'll put my UK peeps on it.

 

1 week? For real? Hmm. Let me firm up the timeline after the conference call tonight, and I'll get you an honest ETA.

 

Oh, boy. That's a question for folks way over my paygrade. I did pose it. I guess my official response is I can't answer that. Sorry.

 

There is a big difference between idling and throttling.

Idling save power over running the chip at full speed all the time, when full speed is not needed.

Throttling is when full speed is needed and it gets prevented.

If it helps to understand, think of a car. Lifting your foot of the accelerator peddle idles the motor. Throttling would be like cutting off most of the fuel/air supply while you have the accelerator peddle to the floor.

Throttling the motor back in a car is a great idea if it's overheating.
Throttling a CPU is a great idea if it's overheating.

@Dell reps - good work if is does what you say.

 

I don't expect a fix in 1 week but at least know there is one coming with a date not the usuall "were working on it"

 

Thank you for your support, but I would totally understand if you had taken a less supportive stance. We are going to get this one right in the end, all the way around. There may be a niggling point here or there where we don't all see eye to eye, but on balance, I think we'll all be friends again.

 

The asus G73

 

Well, in that case, give me 24 hrs.

 

I also see in the bios a06 despription that it has support for a "new graphics card" my wishful thinking wet dream is if we get the 5830 thrown in on top of it all. You'd get a 5 star rating from all of us 1645 users plus you can stick an "in your face HP" banner on your front page of the dell website for added measure and we won't mind.

 

Don't suppose there is any chance of getting a bios that runs like A03 did (cooler cpu temps at idle than we see with A05 A06) and the ability to use a 130W adapter?

Some of us are of the understanding that the voltages were tweaked in A05/A06 to make the 1645 more stable (but most of us had stable machines to begin with).

 

Will the new bios adjust itself to utilize witch-ever adapter is plugged into it? (90w or 130w)?
I might want to keep my 90w for the road.

 

Don't get me started on release notes- or lack thereof. I am sure we won't be tossing out any GPU upgrades for free.

See what the next BIOS does first, please. If there are some collateral issues after we solve for throttling, please start a new thread and hit me with the URL in PM.

 

+1 I'm in

 

Thats very good news, the bios letting the use of a 130w adapter is a huge step in the right direction. Which will eliminate the need for throttlestop and be a proper fix. Although it taken dell this long to figure this out is a bit nerving, and wonder how it would of played out if everyone didnt know/stand up to the issue.

I dont think its productive to ask why a laptop like this got out into the open with such blatent problems, as bill already mentioned couldnt say anyway. thats more of a question they can bash themselves with if they cared for the customers.

The remaining/lingering question, will be replacing the 90w adapters with 130w seems to be the issue now. Honestly its not fixed until the normal user can run the laptop at full performance from the parts its supplied with :-/. So please bill feel at home here, many may be angry, but we need information as its been scarce for a long time now.

 

Communication! That was the key (and ofcourse a resolution)!!! You can't have a name like Dell and not communicate with your customers. Thank you for really doing that for once since the inception of this issue. We are all looking forward to the info you will give us after the conference call. Dell should realize that the xps 16 is quite a laptop, and to make it as perfect as possible will most definitely yield its profits. Cutting corners (if that winds up to be the reason for this problem in the first place) will not reap anything... Thanks

 

You should be able to use either adapter. However, bear in mind that under heavy load my guess is that 90W is gonna get really hot.

 

OK. I can't say how yet because I don't know all the details, but customers will have a path to get replacement 130W adapters. I can say that we will be replacing them for NBR customers proactively. Don't flood my PM box, please! Brad or Todd will take that up with you guys tomorrow.

As far as new system orders yet to ship, more to come.

 

Do you know wich Ac adaptor will be provided (free or not) by dell for this system? PA-4E?

 

Will this update affect the 1647 line as well?

I am just curious because I have an un-opened 1647 from Best Buy sitting in my house that I will either return or use based on how this throttling situation plays out.

 

@Dell_Bill B: Does this apply to the Studio XPS 1647? Because some of them, specially the ones carrying the RGBLED screen are suffering from throttling issues too.
The 90 watt adapter is clearly not sufficient for the 1647 either
thanks


edit: Sorry, someone was faster than me, my question is exactly as the post above!

 

Thank you, I had just ordered a 1645 a week ago and was planning to cancel or return it after reading through all these issues. It's not due to be delivered for another 3 weeks, so I'll wait all this out a bit more. I was worried there would only be an attempt at a new throttling scheme, but now that I see talk of allowing power profiles for 130w adapters I think I'll give this a chance. Please keep us informed as to how these 130w adapters will be provided. I was planning to order one off of ebay, but would prefer not to have to do that.

 

Thanks for opening the lines of communication, Its very important. I was, today infant, going to ask for a refund and return.

I know we have a 21 day window for returns, however I would like to give Dell another chance given this greater communication. If the fix doesn't suit me can I return it even tho the 21 day window is up?

Also, I'm a bit naive here. How do I know you are a Dell rep? And how do I know the Retailer thing NotebokReview put under your name means anything? Please don't take offense to that last part. I don't know how this works as I am new to the forums.

 

I suppose you're right if you want to debate the specifics. I was just making a general observation. My emphasis, you could say, is more to the extremes. Throttling isn't a bad thing if implemented correctly and used for the right purposes.

@Dell-Bill_B HeHe. That's alright Dell-Bill_B. I had to ask. It is nice to see someone from Dell around here though being 'involved'. I understand that there have/are/can be a lot of factors that have to be considered throughout the company and it can be a slow process. It is nice to see it look like it is coming to fruition.

 

I even registered during that time too.

 

Thank you Bill, I know most of us have been frustrated, I waited on dell for this one, mostly because my wife loved this computer, and so did I, just not the adaptor part of it.

I very much look forward to the update either tonight or tomorrow, I still need to get my 90w replaced, the 130w I am using is from my work.

 

I sense this will be one of the points of confusion. I think what you guys want is the slim one, right? PA-4E is not a part number that shows up in our Recommended Spares List or in the master description of the part. So there will probably be a little trial and error at first until we figure out what the Dell 5 digit part number is for the PA-4E. I can probably ask around, but I'd prefer to just send a few out and let you guys tell me what's right.

That is a very good question. I will add it to my list. I am not sure the engineers on the call tonight own the 1647, but they will know who does. I will chase on this one and get back to you.

 

@bill
dell part number JU012
or model DA130PE1
As its the pa-4e 130w slim adapter i have and was using. And yeah most of the users would probably prefer the slim as thats that the 90w were.

Also i sent ya a pm, after your meeting would very much like updating the main page with the info.

 

You just have to understand some people have been waiting for months. Some people feel screwed and tempers are high. When people get mad people often reflect there negative emotions off of your comments and derive at the worst possible meaning.

Still though, I think 3 months is to long for an obvious issue, that I believe is occurring with all XPS 1645 notebooks. However I cannot confirm that. I think most people here would agree with my assumption and that is what pisses people off when Dell doesn't stand right up and say. There is a problem, and we are going to fix it.

This new line of communication is great, we can only hope it continues.

My 2 cents.

 

LOL,I sent P.C. mag a good email about our current situation with Dell and they responded by saying they are going to print my email in their "On your side section"lol I better email them and tell them that it seems like dell is coming with a fix.

 

Not yet . Lets wait for the fix and then feel free to do that

 

Willing to discuss this with you if and when it's necessary. This is me. Who would impersonate an ugly mug like that?