S-XPS 1645 Throttling Info. and Updates

Just spent all morning catching up with the thread.
Uk based as well so very curious as to how we will be treated.
I have not ordered yet as have been waiting since december for this to be sorted.
I need this to be sorted by end of tax year or will lose budget I have kept
spare for months now!
Didn't seem like too much to ask three months ago but am getting twitchy now.

 

I have had that problem as well (only happened once) in the one month i have had this laptop.I was watching a movie trailer 1080p on youtube and it suddently went all blue. theres a thread somewhere about this problem and i think someone mentioned it that they replaced the screen twice and still happened.

 

Hi Dell_Bill_B.

I'm sure it's exactly that last thing; it's not quite possible to know from the AC side what the DC power draw is, and so the Dell engineers absolutely have to measure this from the DC side, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

However, this requires sophisticated lab equipment, which I'm sure they have but we don't. So the only simple thing we can do is stick a Kill-A-Watt on the AC side, see what happens there, and try to use efficiency and power factor info to deduce approximately what's happening on the DC side.

Accordingly, if you won't talk about Kill-A-Watt figures, you cut us out of that conversation altogether; we know the DC figures are lower, but we have no easy way to measure them.

But I guess it does mean you don't have to get answers to awkward questions like 'why does the 1645 throttle so exactly to 90w on the AC side, when we know that isn't even the 90w on the DC side that the adaptor is supposed to be rated for?'

 

Bill:
Besides the 90W adapter came with my 1645, I also purchased a spare adapter (90W) to use at home/outside, I called local dell regarding the replacement of 90W adapter last Friday.

Today I received a call from Dell, they confirmed will ship a 130W adapter for me, but did not mention will I get the 90W as a compensation.

But the gentlemen said he cannot guarantee that I will get replacement for the additional spare adapter that I purchased, it will up to the sales department to decide. I did offer to pay the additional fee if there is any to get the 130W adapter, he advice me wait when the replacement is official and then he will try help me to escalate the issue (spare adapter) to the sales department, I may have to call again with them, but he will help with no guarantee.

I hope the sales department can make the replacement of my additional spare adapter a painless one.

 

All the more reason I first want to know if it's woth the bother to let Dell pick up the laptop @ my home.

Perhaps one of the Dell guys can help out what to do ?

 

P=U * I
Adapter output ratings
U=19.5V
I=4.62A
then P=90.09W

maybe you could use an current clamp not very cheap, but maybe someone happens to have one in his/her possesion

 

guys ac adapter rating didnt matter on the 90w to much. As the bios could be seen limiting it to 90w at the wall religiously. Obviously telling us that it wasnt getting a full 90w. But as hot as the adapter got, at least for me and a lot of others, it was obvious again this shouldnt be pushed any farther to get the 90w output side.

Its not about the number, but we could see it throttling to the limit. And with a 130w + throttlestop we could see what it actually needed.

 

I am aware of the memo the tech referred to. That is the latest information he and his team have as of now. Once the process of replacing adapters is defined and implemented, you would fall into the category of "slim 130W adapter owed to this customer." You can watch this thread, and I will post an announcement about when and how to get the adapters from us. We will also start a new thread, so folks can talk about specific issues relating to the replacements. You will be able to keep the 130 brick you have now to use as your permanent desk AC adapter, and have the slim for your mobility needs.

 

I would catch that system in the failing state, connect an external monitor and see if the problem follows the video card or the laptop display. Then I'd call tech support and report the problem. It could be a VBIOS or BIOS issue, or a defective display or video card. I'm pretty sure if you were able to say, "problem seen in BIOS and diags on laptop display, but external monitor looks fine," they would just replace the screen and see what happens. If it happens again on the new screen, we would have to escalate to engineering as a new issue.

 

+1
Sounds like a good plan. Personally, I'm happy to stay on this thread or move to a new one. Wherever you guys want to have a conversation, I'll be there.

 

Just raised the outside US and Canada NBR customers question on a con call. The WW director of executive escalations was on the call, so I asked him if his team could use their international resources to do the dispatches. He said he'd take it up with his boss, but my feeling is exec escalations is overkill, and the core engineering team is still considering proactive field replacement logistics at this time, so we could be putting the cart before the horse if they decide to do the swaps proactively in the end.

*swaps is the wrong word. "Dispatches" is better.

 

Hi Bill,

Would you be able to find out if the above or other technical issue is the reason why we can't order the xps 1645 with an RGBLED screen any more? Or is it a supply issue? Thanks.

 

Perhaps I was initially too dismissive of Killawatt findings. Sorry about that. We are planning a detailed post on Direct2Dell as we get closer to the actual BIOS and AC adapter program launch. We can cover our testing methods there. I will let Lionel know the community would like to hear something about our methods for testing power draw.

 

This is the kind of situation we will cover on the thread in comments when we start the conversation about AC adapter replacements, which will happen when we are closer to the release date of the BIOS and adapter program.

I can personally make sure you get a 130W slim for each 90W slim you purchased with no items to return.

 

I actually had a very similar problem with my XPS 1645 where instead of Blue the screen turned Red without any other colors. Did the same steps and went through the inbuilt diagnostics where again I only saw Red produced from my screen.

When I called tech support the escelations specialaist said that the fix was the A06 bios and that would fix the problem. After installing the problem was no longer reliably reproduced though still appears every now and again. I have since rolled back to the A03 bios and have not seen the problem in the last few days.

 

BIOS revisions before A06 limited the total draw through an IPCC (Input Power Control Circuit) setting to ~75W and initiated throttling accordingly. A06 changed that number to ~85W. A07 will change it once again, and will require a more powerful adapter to both supply the needed power and reduce the heat of the adapter itself at higher levels of power draw.

 

Definitely a supply issue. Same with Bluray. There are no engineering holds on either part.

 

Thanks for this clear and honest answer.

I have been doing some gaming on A06 last night (Dragon Age), and noticed behaviour similar to the unofficial A05 version. It allows more draw at the wall, but still throttles. The difference is between 10W and 15W at the wall, so this totally agrees with your statement.

 

I personally think it would be quite interesting to learn about Dell's testing methods. Purely to satisfy my technical interest.

 

Bill could you also put any updates on progress with the same issue for the 1647's in the 1647 owners lounge thread? I realize the timelines will be different but the problem is there as well albeit not as severe as it is with the 1645's.

 

Yup thanks bill. That is what i think a lot of us were figuring nice to actually hear it from the other side. Good that we are all on the same page, i have full confidence this will be solved soon by what you telling us. Nice that your sticking around too answering questions.

Though a bit surprised the engineers didnt catch that on its way out and it took this long, as im a mechanical engineer and that is even trivial to me. So will be looking forward on any testing methods info ya have, as its interesting like mitchell says. Anyways, thanks for the info.

 

Please add me to your PM list for the 130W. I have been working with Brad also.

 

Thanx Bill, I only have one problem : no external monitor..... Perhaps I can borrow one.....

The XPS of my girlfriend still has the olde BIOS version, I have updated mine to the latest. I'll try that too.....

 

Hope we can get the 130W slim adapter from dell real soon and fix with a new bios update..don't wish to suffer anymore!!

 

Do you guys still love this laptop despite its problem? Can we find similar specs on a laptop like from Sony or HP?

 

I'm still having my i7 locked @ 1000mhz whenever I hibernate a couple of times.. Whatever I do my 720QM will NOT go above ~1ghz. Superpi @ 1 thread wont help.

When i reboot all is fine.
Any known issues about this, Bill?

 

Bill thank you for clearing this up. I will go ahead and send my 90W back and just wait for your word about when I could start getting my my slim power supply. Again thanks for your work in this issue.

 

Definitely. In my staff meeting now, but will hit that thread with the good news I just got. New BIOS coming for 1647 as well. Not totally clear on what will happen with the AC adapter. Still chasing on that point. Release date of the BIOS is going to be in about the same timeframe as the 1645, by pure coincidence.

 

Yes. This issue was specifically addressed on the call last week. Paraphrasing, but the engineer said something along the lines of, "we discovered a problem with a BIOS throttling algorithm that caused a few problems, one of which is the system's problematic response to restoring P-State and T-State to normal levels after the need for throttling subsides. A07 solves this problem."

 

Bill,

Do you know what it will be limited to with the 130W adaptor or will they remove the limiter entirely?

 

Oh, thank you very much, that is comfort to hear that, anyway, I am from Malaysia, I really hope your assurance apply here. If so, I appreciate it very much for your help, Bill.

 

Cannot comment at this time. Sorry. We may get into this on the Direct2Dell post.

 

@Bill: Great to hear the good news about the 1647!!

thanks

 

Bill, When you go through the PM's, do you plan on just addressing the PSU swap, or would you be willing to address other issues.

I only ask because in my PM I sent you a while back I've been having troubles getting those issues addressed. But I understand that you probably have a million and one things to do and might not be able to help.

 

Dell-Bill_B,

What will happen if you plug in the laptop and the battery is empty. Since I am assuming it will require more power to charge the battery and run the laptop and the same time then running it with a full battery and plugged in. Will it throttle the cpu/gpu in order to charge the battery or will the battery charging take a back seat and charge slower?

Thanks,
Marc

 

If you are doing things that require a lot of power, the battery will charge very slowly. Interesting enough, batteries charge fastest between 20% and 80% full. Something to keep in mind.

 

My PM box is full now. What I am going to do is skim through and delete all the adapter requests unread. Then I am going to read through and try to address all the others that would be unrelated to the adapter requests. Then I will go live with a "PM me for your adapters now" post and start a new thread specifically about it. For now, I'm just going to leave it full so the unrelenting flood of premature "put me on the list" PM's will be momentarily prevented. I'm sure there's a feature to turn off PM's somewhere, but the desired result is working now with the full box, so I'll just go with the status quo.

 

I posted on this a long ways back... a little off subject but what i found is the left side of my 1645 is not supported by the 9 cell battery extension. it sags down over time.
(hot side with vent)if you put a straight edge across the back you will see just how big the bow is.I had to put a paper shim between the laptop and the battery to realign the top of the battery with the vent side of the laptop. ya, it was driving me crazy to look at the misalignment. At least now its strait.

 

Just got my 130W in the mail and it's asking for me to ship back the "defective part". Can I just ignore this or do I need to contact the rep who sent me the 130W?

 

Go ahead and ship it back. I'll just send you an additional 130W when we start sending them.

 

I figured when I sent you my PM that it was probably full. But thought what could it hurt. Its better then calling customer service about anything. No offense but I cannot understand most of those people and trying to explain the situation is almost painful.

 

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

 

This is great news

 

Great news finally !
I would also like to receive information (the PB?) about the new bios and psu.
Only thing is that I'm a bit dissapointed that there's already a new version coming with the ATI 5k series... but that's just Moore's law I guess...


EDIT: I just found out I can't use the PM feature yet because I need more replies.... Can we e-mail you instead ?

 

Holy Shnikeys!! The pace has just picked up, and in a big way. The release date of the BIOS has been pushed up significantly. I'm waiting for final confirmation on whether we can go public with the date. I am in a meeting now, but as soon as I get out, I will clear my PM box and start a new thread for handling adapter shipments.

Folks, this is important: Be advised that due to the recent acceleration, the parts planners have likely not had time to get supply on hand for all Studio XPS 1645's in the field. We had notified them last week, but they needed approximately 2 weeks to ramp up. So, please be patient. Our hearts are in the right place.

 

Amazing, gotta keep on this tonight.

 

Great job Bill. I hope you guys keep up the great work.

Marc

 

@ Dell-Bill B,

I just received my 130W Adapter and it did state "No Part Return Required."

Thanks for all your help.

 

hi bill i see your swamped with people asking about the 90 watt psu. Im another one im afraid. Im in ireland i ordered an xps 1645 last week and im just wondering will i get the 90 watt or the 130 watt with mine. im so looking forward to getting it i just dont want problems from the start cos i will be using this for gaming. it has the i7 and the ati 4670 1gb

 

Awesome, Just a question/suggestion. Why don't you copy down all the PM's with proper information requesting the adapter thus far and process them?

Would it be better to send the request on Dells forum ?