**The Official Studio XPS 1647 Intel Core i5/i7 "Owners' Lounge"**

Nope...still in build here. Just keep on waiting...hope to get it to ship by next week.

 

By mobolity mod he means using the mobility modder from Driver Heaven to install the lateset drivers from ATI as opposed to the ones the OEM's (DELL in this case) restrict you to.

 

oh crap...i just discovered this throttling problem threads here in the Dell subforums. does it apply to every SXPS? mines a 1647, but its a malaysian version, so it has an i5 and WLED screen as default.

 

Do you notice any slowdowns on your system? It's been reported to be barely perceptible, if at all, under most conditions with the 1647. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you're a very heavy gamer or encoder. A BIOS fix is on its way within a couple weeks to address the issue so it's nothing to go nuts about like with the 1645.

 

i haven't received it yet, if you see my sig but its already delivered (long story) and i just discovered these threads about throttling.

i would consider myself to be a medium-heavy gamer AND encoder (lots of CPU heavy tasks) worse, the Malaysian Dell website BIOS only has A03 as its most recent version

www.dell.com.my

 

lol

 

OK. Let's talk throttling on 1647.

What I know now:

1. new bios that addresses throttling is in test

2. I have not seen any data on how it improves/eliminates throttling

3. we have a fairly firm ETA on web posting.

4. I will have to get with the engineers to get a sense on whether we can go public with the ETA

5. current status on whether to include 130W adapters is in discussion.

6. There is significant customer feedback on the 1747 that points to including 130W adapters based on heat concerns alone, but this point is still being debated.

Should I cross post this to a 1647 throttling thread? If so, can someone post the link for me, please?

 

Thanks for the update Bill - sure would be nice to include the 130w adapter with this -- for piece of mind alone as long as the new BIOS takes advantage of the extra power. Quick question -- what is the web posting you refer to where you have the firm ETA? Thanks.

 

ETA is on the BIOS. At this point, I don't have a feel for any benchmarking deltas like I did a couple of weeks before the 1645 BIOS came out. I will hit the guys up when they come back from Chinese New Year next week and try to get a con call together to find out where we stand. In the meantime, there will not be much in the way of additional detail until then.

When the new BIOS does go live, I'll be checking back with you guys to gauge feedback and get the information aggregated and back to the engineers.

 

Is this a new model, or typo?

 

Not a new model. Same issue on a different platform.
http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19310587/19658908.aspx#19658908

It looks like the new BIOS for 1747 pretty much eliminates throttling (jury's still out), but people are irate about the heat from the 90W adapter. I think the needle is about to move on 130W adapters for 1747, and I would not be surprised to see the same for 1647. Currently the official messaging to tech support is to replace the 90W for 1647 owners with a 130W upon request.

Yes, that's right. I just said you should be able to get a 130W adapter upon request for your 1647. Call them up, give the request a shot, and post back how it goes and what country you called in from. If the request is not honored, it could possibly be they are waiting for the new BIOS to post, which is kind of logical.

 

That's great news about the 130W adapter -- does that mean that the new BIOS takes advantage of the additional power from this adapter or is it just to eliminate heat issues from the 90W? Thanks again for your help with all this.

 

I would have to 1. see engineering's changelog for the BIOS, and 2. get them to allow me to comment, in order to address whether the new BIOS uses anything over whatever the cap is now. But, I can tell you that replacing 90W adapters with 130W adapters, as of now, is for "customer experience issues related to heat complaints." Which makes why they would wait for the new BIOS to release before honoring requests seem kind of pointless.

 

Glad to see yuo have a sense of humor after all you have been through! Really appreciate your help with all this.

 

Bill, we have a whole bunch of folks here who have placed the order for 1647s over a month back now, .. and not yet received the systems! .... and we have been waiting for ever now................. so this adaptoer/bios is our next battle.

Most of us have already contacted you over pm/email... but no resolve yet... the status is - in production-build for nearly a week now.. with no updates what so ever from dell...........

Would help us all if you do something about it. ...

 

Nope, Same S@%t, different day. "Build Stage". Tomorrow at EOB, we'll likely another "EDD Update" to like 3/3/10. Anyone want to wager on it? Just seems wrong waiting 2 months for laptop, a custom-built Porsche from Germany sure, but a XPS 1647 from Dell?

 

Hi Bill, thanks again for your efforts with the 1645 BIOS. As per your statement above, should 1645 owners expect any additional feedback post BIOS build A07? There are a number of people complaining about GPU throttling currently as well as some level of CPU throttling.

One additional concern affects both 164X models; that's the exhaust issue. You mentioned the possibility of a solution similar to that offered to SXPS 13 users. Any movement there?

My apologies for the thread hijack!

 

I repeat, build stage takes a while. Took me about a week and a half for mine to leave the build stage -- you haven't even had yours in build stage for a week yet. Give it time.

 

My 1647 left "in production" stage after 3 days, with a total turn around of 11 days.

 

Hey DW, thanks for the pep-posts. I'll tell you, I have been buying units from Dell since the early 90's and have never seen this long of a wait once an order went into production. The last unit I ordered (the E1505 I am on now) was about three/four years ago or so and production time was a couple of days. Every EDD I had in the past was always later than when I actually got the units.
What happened to Dell these last years?

 

I think with the bad economy, suppliers might have clamped down too hard on the amount of parts they were supplying. Dell might have also ramped down their parts orders as well. However, the demand didn't drop as much as anticipated so both suppliers and Dell were left with their pants down in the past few months. The release of Windows 7 and new processors also helped demand stay up.

 

if you give me all the parts, i can 'build' the laptop in 30 mins. I have done that in the past!

.............. i understand dell has 'thousands' of orders, and they are batch processed.., but i dont think a batch would take more than a week to be processed and be in 'build' stage.

I too have ordered from dell in the past, and typically the build stage lasts for 2 to 3 days......

Having interacted with dell in the past few weeks, i have lost all trust/respect for them. The only exception to this is Bill who is here on the forums co-incidentally for a different reason (throttling)

On or about 2/12 when I got my last delay message, one of the rep told me that my estimated ship date was 2/18 which is tomorrow. Thats the only thread of hope that i am hanging on to.

Right now my order status still says 'build' and my EDD still remains 2/24. Calling the customer care/helpdesk is a nightmare and is a dead end (its like talking to dumb script bots).

Can anyone suggest a 15-16" asus / sager model with specs similar to my signature -- i am starting to seriously start looking for other options - (specific model numbers would help)

 

I went down the same path looking for alternatives and it got me nowhere. Dell is still the best bang for the buck for several reasons:

1. I could not find a competitive price/model with RGBLED. Perhaps Macbook Pro has RGBLED but they are insanely pricey compared to Dell.

2. I tried HP Envy with a really nice 1920x1080 display, buy believe it or not size DOES matter. Those 0.7" in display size are much bigger than one would think (and it is NOT RGBLED). Besides, Envy has only EXTERNAL CD/DVD which I find really annoying.

3. Sager is MUCH more expensive for the config you want.

4. ASUS G51J also comes without RGBLED otherwise seems OK, but won't be any cheaper than XPS (although you do get i7). Another ASUS with i7 is M60J, but it only comes with 1366x768 display.

My XPS is schedulled to ship next week, but I wouldn't be surprised if it gets delayed. I'd rather sit tight and wait than cancel and go for an alternative that would not acceptable in terms of config and/or price. To me, quality of display is one of the top priorities and I just can't find it elsewhere for this price.

 

I fully agree with you on the parts delay, (I posted something on the same lines a while back), but that should mostly concern pre-production.
Production stage all the parts should be available and ready to build (send me the parts I’ll do it).

I think it’s more than that. Dell used to build their own systems in their own factories now they contract most of the work it out the lowest bidder. If you are that contractor, are you concerned with a few online Dell “Custom Build” buyers or a bulk order for 1,000’s of “like units” (same spec. build) that Dell needs built for retail stores like Best Buy? Online “custom build” buyers provide the lowest profit margin and thus get the lowest ‘Build”, "Box" and "Ship" priorities.

I am seriously contemplating NOT authorizing the next delay (which is sure to hit my inbox tomorrow) and just go with a Netbook from Asus for my wife and just keep this E1505 for another year or so.

 

Bill,

My take on what is going on in the Dell forum ( http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19310587/19659141.aspx#19659141) is that the throttling is in no way repaired in the most recent BIOS. Are you talking about A07 or another BIOS that is being tested?

Mitch

 

The ASUS G51JX-A1 looks cool - See specs here:
http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g51jxa1-p-2724.html?wconfigure=yes

It has a full hd display (led)... i7 though... but otherwise pretty good config for almost the same price (with double the ram!)... seriously tempted now. Will look for review of this specific model.

 

Mine was in the build stage for about 5 days or so, It has been in "delivery prep/shipping prep/"boxing" stage for 2 days, i'm expecting it to ship tomorrow, as one of the 800 numbers says "your order was shipped on the 18th" even though it's not the 18th yet LOL.

But they re adjusted my EDD to 2/23, which would coincide with my 5 day shipping and the 18th being the ship day.

Can't wait guys! and dont give up!

 

I callled a few mins back --- spoke to order modification department - the agent told me they are now short of processors (i5 540m), and the screen RGB. So the order is now in build hold.

I asked for a supervisor -- and he told me that they are also short on the HDD! .... i was like .. what the hell you guys drinking!

Then he told me all the three (HDD, Processor and the Screen) are not available.. and expected in 9 to 10 days. ..............

I think i am done with this nuisance. Its worse than dealing with retards.

Looking at ASUS G51JX-A1 right now....

 

Nice (Sarcasm)-
You know you can never believe anything they tell you when you call them, but this is so bad I have to believe they are again short on parts and telling the truth this time. I live in California and I want some of what they are smoking over at Dell.

Whoever is in charge of supply chain management should be fired or resign and commit suicide like they do in Japan.

 

Dell really needs to update their systems. I mean the order system on the website.. it has to contain some of the same code from back in the early 2000's. It really needs a full update to every piece.

And I don't see how hard it would be that when an order is placed, the computer automatically adds the required items to a list of parts needed to be ordered... it can all be automated if not already.

 

Seriously... that person must be fired.

btw, i was just checking other forums as well on dell order delays.. and there is specific website called dellhell (i wont link to it, but u can easily find it if u google it) - where ex-dell employees post quite often.......... and after reading those forums, pretty much all my fears came true!........

one very disturbing fact is .... delaying orders because its no longer profitable for dell (eg: coupons or special sale events or dells vendor bumping the prices).... and hoping that the customer could cancel the order due to delay. --- which explains most of our status right now.


its straight from people who have worked at dell once (kind of forced to follow all such tactics)...

I can understand a week or two of delays for RGB screens -- but .. here we are talking about 6 weeks.... which is tooo much of time to get the RGB screen issues sorted out, specially when you know what your order count it. (its a known demand - not a forecast).

Its disgusting...

I have written to Bill too over this delay issue --- haven't heard back yet from him.



Bill, since you are the lisening czar... it would make sense if you can 'listen to us' -- and escalate this issue with your dell management and help resolve these order delays at the earliest.

 

Hey I haven't been on in a while, been gaming and what not (i can tell you that my system... runs dragon age on high settings flawlessly... aswell as mass effect 2, counter-strike source)

I've played counter-strike source with illustrator, photoshop and aptana running as well.

No throttling that I can see

 

Disgruntled Dell employees who worked at lower levels giving you the "inside scoop." There is some valid information on DellHell, but just like a jury takes the testimony of a felon testifying under immunity, so it goes with disgruntled employees. But it's in the public realm, and I'm not in the business of refuting all claims against Dell, so judge for yourself.

There is nothing I can do about order delays. I am tracking the issue and reporting on it. It has been escalated.

Off topic, but I just answered some questions that may have been asked on this thread over here.

 

Well, not all ex-dell employees are disgruntled, i would guess.. ... but its a fair mix... and some of the information there may be pure exaggeration... agreed..... and yes like you said,.. ... there is some truth as well.

Generally, you nor me would ever know what the truth is.

BUT..... and a big BUT..., when the issue at hand (order delays) and the experience that I and serveral others are going through here (which i would say is nothing short of harassment) match what is being said on dellhell forums....., it is suddenly more closer to truth...

When you read those postings..... your like. yes.. this is exactly what is happening to me... on my end. ........ so. .. what they are saying must be true on the other end too..


Also, the fact is, we the customers are forced to interact with your 'low level' employees.. (your call center folks). So, the inside scoops that they have provided so far on the dellhell forums "match" the experiences that a end user/customer goes through to a large extent.

There is no way for us to interact with a 'high level' or a upper management (or in other words a US dell employee) dell folks. Its only a matter of co-incidence & luck that you are on this forum addressing an other crisis for dell (throttling) and we are grateful for that.

 

I can certainly understand where you're coming from. I don't think there is any conspiracy afoot though. I know all the delays now are supply problems as far as I have been informed. I'm truly sorry for the frustration.

 

@arjunprabhu
Well said ! A rep point for you sir.

Edit: I like that DellHell forum, thanks

 

Well, we understand supply issues for a week, or two.. but ... Bill, don't you think its ridiculous to have supply issues which last for months ?

From this enitre saga, what i understand is, directly or indirectly what it finally boils down to what is profitable to dell - which is the top priority.

Customer satisfaction, ethics, commitment, delays..etc is no where a priority. A sign of arrogance. And the way customer care folks/agents handle the calls or our concerns just add salt to the injury.

This is absolutely nothing done to make the customer happy or solve the problems customer has.

Its been over 2 weeks since I contact you about my order issue along, and so far, nothing --- NOTHING has been done to rectify the problem by the dell management.

Others on this forum have been waiting for months now (people have ordered stuff in December, and not yet received them!)

I have ordered from dell in the past... and it wasn't like this before.. Its a nightmare now.

 

OK. So, it's a supply problem whether it's 2 weeks or 2 months. And yes, I'd say it's far from a good situation. I don't think a lot of conversation about order delays is anything close to profitable for Dell, so if it's all about profit, I think your assumption is off.
I don't know what you expected when you contacted me about your order, but I do not work in procurement, sales, order management, supply logistics, planning or anything close to it. I am sorry for the delay, but there is nothing I can do about it.
As soon as throttling on 1645 closes out, and we're just about there, order delays becomes the #1 issue as far as online traffic on my weekly reporting.

 

Bill, the expectation I had or the frustration that we have here on this forum is not with you. I know you have sent/forwarded the issue to order management or some other teams..

What I expected was, Dell (order management team or what ever the name is) would 'act' to fix the issue by taking some 'out of the ordinary' steps to honor the commitment dell has made to its clients, if customer satisfaction was a priority.

By 'out of ordinary', I mean -- may be look for upgrades (offer better parts to the customer) - or parts which might cost dell a bit more or source parts from alternate vendors which again might cost dell a bit more.

At the very least honestly tell customer what is happening by proactively calling them or emailing them about it -- instead of sending emails threatening to cancel the orders if not replied within 24 hrs (without any reasons given for delay).

Now, if you tell me that parts are supplied/sourced from ONLY one vendor on this entire planet..., that's something that i wont buy. That would be foolish on dell's part to rely on a single vendor....

I can go on on on.......
This is some very basic stuff that I wrote about. No rocket science. Like i said earlier, it all boils down to profit/bottom line - how much dell is willing to spend to honor its commitments/timelines.


btw, i like your job/role!

 

I may come off as a jerk by saying this, but is there an order support/complaint thread that can be started for those who don't have their laptops yet? I know how frustrating it can be to order something and have to wait for weeks, but it is really hard to sift through the few important posts that are surrounded by order updates.

Moving on, I ran another test today on my laptop. I had Throttlestop running in the background while I rendered the building that I have been working on in Revit. It took around 8 minutes to render and all four cores were fully loaded to 100% almost the entire time. The multiplier, according to the Throttlestop log, never dropped below 18 the entire time it was rendering. I'm pretty convinced this laptop only throttles when the GPU and CPU are pushed to extreme limits.

I'll give Dell a call tomorrow and see if I can get a 130W adapter. Thanks Bill for the updates and the information you have been passing along to all of us. I was just about ready to call it quits and send it back.

 

OMG I'm so happy, my system shipped and according to FEDEX it will be here tomorrow before 3 I'm SO EXCITED

 

Matt - if you dont mind - can you tell us how much did you pay for your config ?

I have identical config like yours (except 4gb ram).. and 3 yrs accidental warranty... and placed the order on 1/16.. and they are telling me that the parts are short.

So.. just want to verify ... if dell is holding back orders which are no longer profitable to dell.

Congrats ! on the shipment.

 

Sweet man! I have always been a few hours behind you on status changes, so mine will ship in the next 12 hours for sure!

Can't wait!

 

I am really excited to open it up tomorrow nite. It sucks because I have school all day on Thursdays ): Just glad my dad will be here to sign for it

This may be off subject but since I'm Pro Union I'm all about fairness and technically I should not receive mine when others ordered 10 days before me. That is not fair. I ordered through EPP and after the day I ordered I called in about the RGBLED screen and was assigned an account specialist through EPP. She has been nothing but amazing and put in several requests to have the order expedited. Plus a $75 credit to my account. I am pretty certain since I ordered EPP my order was put through first and expedited before the majority who ordered before me. I guess that is how Dell works.

Having ordered several HP notebooks this past fall I can tell you they don't treat customers like this. Orders are expedited on a first come first serve basis. Not every customer can order through their EPP (Employee Purchase Program) and should still be treated with the same rights. I am truly sorry to anyone who ordered before me. However after reading nothing but positive things about this notebook (with the exception of the throttling) I would assure you to hang in there just a little while longer.

Arjunprabhu, grand total was $1,918.52 which included the 2 year in-home service warranty I think its called. Subtotal was $1,793. This is not including the $75 credit I will see soon now that my order has shipped. So grand total would be $1,843.52 which is pretty damn good for what I got.

Best of Luck to those who are waiting.

 

I hope everyone starts to see their orders ship this week.

 

Congrats on it getting out on time! And the EDD finally being right for you.

As for the rest of us, I guess this proves there's no real logic to Dell's order queue. Best we can do is hope they get to us by next week (2 weeks should be realistic enough for them to build and ship a system). Needless to say, I doubt my system will get to me by my Friday EDD and will most likely have to extend my order again. This time, I'm going to try to ask for a supervisor to give me a credit (maybe $50 or $75) for all the trouble they have been giving over the constant delays.

 

I think i may have hitchhiked on matt's system lol. Mine seriously has been only a couple hours behind him for changing status. Happened when it went into the build stage, and then the delivery prep, etc.

Mine is going to ship tomorrow, EDD for the 23rd.

I hope everyone else gets finished soon too (or started)

 

Did you order through EPP as well? Might explain why they're getting those orders out the door first.

 

I don't believe so, I canceled my online (signature event) order, and ordered through the phone. I don't think it's EPP... but I got lucky I guess lol.

 

Ya know what? Mine was never in Delivery Preparation. It went Build, Box, then ship???