XPS 12 Owners Lounge

It was only temporary but it was becoming more obvious so I had them replace the screen. For the premium price it is not an acceptable fault in my opinion. Looking really closely now I can see it is actually beginning to happen already on the new screen (it is only a week since I had it replaced).

If it deteriorates like the last one I will contact Dell again... if it is an issue with all the XPS 12 screens I guess I'll eventually get a refund... I'm a huge fan of the laptop but image quality is everything on a device like this.

 

I have the 512 too Per disk management my ssd is sized at 476.81GB that is the whole drive my os partition is 456.67

 

Anyone here running windows 8.1 beta on their xps 12? I want to install it to check how the new and improved scaling works...

 

I do... you should install the intel 8.1 beta drivers afterwards, but from there it seems to work fine - at least within the context of it being an OS Preview.

The scaling is a bit hit and miss, but the Start Menu/Screen is eleventy times better.

 

Well, on any kind of drive of any size, you only get 93% of stated size because of the 1024/1000 difference. So, you "lose" 36-ishGB right away on your drive. Sounds like you're where you should be (W8 is only 25-ish).

Dell just dropped the price of the i7/8/256 unit by $200 (it now only costs $100 more to get the doubled hard drive from the i7/128 model), so I returned my base unit and have the middle unit on the way. Part of me was tempted to stick with the 128 and put one of Samsung's monster 1TB SSDs in it, but that would still have made the whole thing cost $1900, and that just isn't worth it for functionality that I can easily get from a cheap external drive.

I'm terrified that I just traded a perfect unit for a lottery ticket, though. Fingers crossed the new one has no problems.

Incidentally, for anyone who bought a 256 or 512 unit before the prices dropped -- Dell will usually give you the difference back if the price drops right after you buy a machine. I don't know if they have a policy about how much time is allowed to pass, but there's definitely no harm in calling and asking. My experience has been that Dell CS is pretty loose with minor rebates.

*edit*

Yeah, it's in-home repairs after remote assistance. So, if they can't fix it on the phone, they'll send a guy to replace the part. You might want to give it a week, though -- sometimes fans just need to work out the kinks a little.

 

I agree with what you said about the fans.

I am curious how long do you hve to send it back to get an upgrade on the model with a bigger drive ?

It's tempting but I might have to leave soon so hmm....

 

So you guys think that fans are pretty quiet on the xps 12? I may purchase this, but I'm afraid of the reliability reports of the dell, many problems seem to be having some peculiar problem.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

Doing normal work the fan is hardly ever on - or running slow enough to be silent. If you do some heavy unzipping or similar it does come on and does have a bit of a odd tone to it but I wouldnt call it particularly loud compared to Latitudes or Macbooks I've used.

 

Scalling is ok, not great. The mouse however has gone to ! I cant use gestures now when scrolling in Firefox. I cant hold the mouse button and select a load of files, or text!
Dont know if its the 8.1 upgrade or some kind of driver incompatibility

 

You'll wait however long it currently takes to get a new one. You're just returning the current one for a refund and separately buying another one. Looks like it's about a 12-day wait until it ships right now. I currently have both on my credit card because the first one is still in transit back. The wait is killing me -- I want to play with my new toy...

Try disabling smooth scrolling in Firefox. That fixed scrolling for some people using IE,

 

Also reinstall the touchpad driver after upgrading to 8.1

 

This seems to have worked. I dunno if I will do that then I don't even know mine shipped on the 23rd if I can and I might leave the country soon lol... this one is also GREAT really now so hard to part with it.

 

Hi there. Just got off the phone with tech support for validation of the drives etc and partitions.

The guy at first almost made me hang up on him lol because he wasn't listening but I was glad I stayed on.

Anyway he had to go check to become as knowledge savvy about the system drives as me all I was looking for was validation.

In his mind all the drives except the 11 GIG and 8 GIG are "system drives" and he said that he cannot really know or provide any details as to what they are for and said no one knows.

He also said that I probably won't be able to "remove" those drives and create new ones for space or add to the windows one that is currently there. I told him i wasn't sure that you could do that in windows 8 but I KNOW you can if you if you use third party software, etc.... he didn't seem to think so.

Anyway his solution to the whole is to just to get me to be able to reinstall the operation system and do the partitions myself... so he OFFERED to send me a free USB with windows 8 on it no charge etc. lol


Can't argue with that but I still dunno if i am going to fry my notebook if i nuke the partitions other than the 11 GB and the 8 GB.

My question is well will have to wait until I get the drive and see whats on it but I guess i WONT be able to use that to offfload the recovery drive ?

 

Your tech guy was an idiot. I removed them. It works fine. You can do it easily in Windows.

The 11GB drive is the recovery drive. If you back up your recovery sector onto a USB, Windows will prompt you to delete the recovery drive. If you say yes, Windows does it for you. It's gone, safely.

The 8GB partition is for Rapid Start. If you disable Rapid Start, it's literally worthless. On the apps screen, type "Partition." That'll take you to the partition manager. Choose the 8GB partition, and remove it. Then go the the main large partition and extend it, and it'll eat up those 8GB. Done. You now have those 8GB back in your main partition, and all you lost was a buggy program that turns low-power sleep into really-low-power hibernate.

Note that without Rapid Start, regular hibernate will be active again by default -- you can see this because it's still an option on the shutdown screen. That still uses 8GB, but just takes it out of the main partition instead. Just Google "disable hibernate" for the command prompt to turn that off, and your free SSD space will immediately increase (and decrease again the moment you toggle hibernate back on).

Anyway, I did all of this on mine. It works absolutely fine. I did not remove the tiny partition and the second 500MB partition, but that's only because I sent my machine back the next day. We know what those are. The tiny one is a buffer for Rapid Start and does nothing without it. The medium one is some sort of diagnostic program -- I think it might be the BIOS diagnostic. I personally would probably leave that one, at least until I was more sure I'd never need it or couldn't get it back. But, the machine should definitely run fine without it.

However, DO NOT remove the 500GB EFI partition. There's BIOS stuff in there. That's the very first partition. It probably won't even let you remove it, but don't even try.

See this thread for a useful explanation of things.

 

good post.

 

They gonna send me a free USB stick with a copy of windows on it

Can I nuke the recovery drive if I get that ? Let me know.

 

I deleted the 8 GB and it says its unallocated.. however when I click on the main C: partition it has the extend volume as greyed out. Anything else i need to do first ?

 

Interesting...I should have been smarter than this, but didn't realize that there is both Dell software and built-in windows software that creates a recovery drive to a USB thumbstick. I used the Dell software, but got no prompt to delete the recovery partition afterwards. I am going to try the windows version now and see what it says at the end of the process. Any reason to use Dell's software over Windows? Is Dell's just a way to make money on their backup solutions? Is Dell's backup solution any good?

 

Well, sort of. With W8 media you can always do a clean install. What the recovery backup will do is make your laptop exactly as it was when you first took it out of the box. Those aren't quite the same thing. The clean install won't have the bloatware and other random crap, but it also won't have anything useful in there. But, is there anything useful in there? That brings us to...

Honestly, I have no idea. I was looking at those Dell utilities and trying to see if they offer anything that W8 doesn't already do, and I can't find anything, but I'm not even remotely an expert. I mean, I'm struttin' around like I know lots of stuff, and I called a Dell tech an idiot a few posts ago, but almost everything I'm talking about here I learned from Googling, and a lot of it came from the Dell support threads I've already linked to (so, someone at Dell knows what's going on). Sometimes proprietary software can be very cool -- Samsung laptops and SSDs come with a nifty drive manager, for example. Maybe the Dell recovery software does regular backups more gracefully than W8, or something? I dunno.

Honestly, though, it's annoying to have redundant software on my laptop. It forces me to either research every program to see if it has any independent value, or just nuke the whole thing and assume nothing important was lost. OtherW8 laptops clearly get by just fine without this Dell stuff, so in theory there can't be anything truly important in there. I think if I had the raw W8 media, I'd probably just do a clean install and be done with the extra stuff.

Sorry, that was a bit of a rant

 

just updated to the A02 BIOS and I can confirm Rapid Start now works No more black screens when resuming from IRST-induced hibernate

 

Heard this was floating around, what other improvements are mentioned in the BIOS?

 

I appreciate the honesty, and humor. Aren't we all experts by our own decree? ;-)

I am going through the windows recovery right now...hopefully I can free up 11 GB, not that I'm dying for it with my roomy 512GB SSD just yet. I've loaded it up with games and my huge dropbox folder, and moves, and I am down to 266GB left. Think I'm good. ;-)

 

Part of me wishes I'd got the 512. I suppose I can afford it. But, in the end, for an extra $300 I could just buy a 512 hard drive on my own (and the thread I linked above confirms that installing an outside SDD does not void the warranty). But then another part of me says, "Eh, that's a lot of effort -- just get it now and shut up about it."

But, in the end, it'd be $300 extra just for the luxury of keeping more movies on the laptop itself instead of an external drive. The only media I need to actually have on the laptop are games and music, and 250 is more than enough room for that, at least for me.

Besides, $660 for a 1TB Samsung SSD is awfully tempting, if only for the bragging rights...

Good that they fixed it relatively quickly. You have to wonder how the laptop ever made it to production with such a giant bug in it. That said, turning low-power sleep into lower-power hibernate still isn't worth 8GB of SSD to me. Sleep uses barely any battery to begin with. It would take that 1TB drive before I thought that was worth it, I suspect.

 

Hey guys,

I've found this forum to be very useful when I tried to decide whether or not to get this notebook.
So I thought it might be helpful for some others as well, if I shared my first impressions of the new XPS 12 (Haswell, 256GB) with you.

Why the XPS 12?

I was generally looking for a mobile device which I could use for watching movies/TV shows and reading pdf documents on the go (public transport, mainly trains) and stationary browsing/programming at home/university.
I considered ultrabooks like Asus Zenbook, Samsung ATIV Book 9, Acer Aspire S7, Dell XPS 13, Sony Vaio Pro, etc.
I chose the XPS 12 because of its ability to use it in tablet mode when you have limited space to watch videos/read documents (especially on the train). I didn't like solutions like the Vaio Pro Duo or the Acer R7 because of their fixed screen angle or missing touchpads. I also wanted to have state of the art hardware (Haswell, 802.11ac, NFC...) and a high screen resolution. That's how I ended up ordering the XPS 12 last week.​

Build quality and materials

Looks great, feels good and seems sturdy enough to be carried around in a backpack. The bezel around the display is solid and doesn't worry me too much. You need quite a bit of pressure to flip the screen, so it most likely won't happen unintentionally. The only complaint that I have about the materials: the whole device is an EXTREME fingerprint magnet... even if you think you have clean and dry hands, the unit will look all greasy after you've used it for a few minutes, so you better carry a microfiber cloth with you ​

Size and weight

It's a bit on the heavy side, so you won't be able to use it like a tablet. However, you can use it in 'tent' mode, or facing the other way with a flipped screen, that works pretty well.
It's also not the thinnest, but still slimmer than your regular business notebook. I've also noticed that the power supply is the smallest I've seen for a notebook, so that's a big plus for mobility.​

Screen

High pixel density, decent colors, pretty bright... However, as usual with touchscreens, it's pretty glossy.​

Keyboard

No complaints here. Feels good to type on, keyboard lighting is nice to have and the layout seems pretty standard to me (although there's are missing keys like >right windows< or >context menu<.​

Noise

The XPS 12 stays silent (fans completely off), if you don't do anything. While watching HD videos or browsing complex websites, the fan might kick in for a minute or so. Not very loud, but noticeable.​

Battery life

So far, I've seen numbers from 4 to almost 12 hours of predicted battery life, so I can't really report any reliable numbers yet.​

Sensors

The accelerometer was not designed for gaming or is buggy at the moment. However, that's not a big deal for me.​

Software

I've had some issues with the screen after recovering from sleep mode (fixed with the new A02 BIOS). Also, I've had to modify the energy saving plans for the wireless module, because it didn't instantly reconnect to my network after sleep. The touchpad isn't perfect, but you can certainly work with it (I noticed some jumps while scrolling in browsers). The auto adjustment of the screen orientation didn't work reliably at one point, but I couldn't reproduce the issue, yet.​

I think that's it for my first impressions. If you have any questions, let me know.


Edit: I've noticed a pretty annoying amount of background noise when I'm using my Sennheiser IE80 in-ears (same thing with Samsung headphones from Galaxy S3). It's not that noticeable when using bigger headphones (Beyerdynamics DT 770 Pro 32Ohm). Has anyone else experienced the same thing? Is there a fix?

 

I can confirm from my end the new BIOS A02 fixes the Intel Rapid Start bug. I can also confirm that, while quick to resume from a suspend or hibernation, the Dell XPS12 is even faster to resume from the deep sleep state with Intel RST eabled. Took less than a couple second after my computer had been hibernated for 8 hours.

Not sure what else A02 does.

 

Although I will probably just get rid of it again... if I deleted the rapid start partition and its currently sitting there as empty unallocated space... what do I do to get it back so i can try out the new bios

Thanks

QUOTE=smugpanda;9320875]I can confirm from my end the new BIOS A02 fixes the Intel Rapid Start bug. I can also confirm that, while quick to resume from a suspend or hibernation, the Dell XPS12 is even faster to resume from the deep sleep state with Intel RST eabled. Took less than a couple second after my computer had been hibernated for 8 hours.

Not sure what else A02 does.[/QUOTE]

 

Good evening all. I've invested in one of these lovely little machines and am very impressed by the spec and ergonomics BUT have one gripe. People comment about how good and bright the screen is, but mine appears to be a shade darker on the top right hand side - say the last quarter of the screen. Is this normal with the technology or do people normally have completely even backlighting? I'm thinking of taking this up with Dell, but wanted to know what the experts on here thought. I'd be grateful for any comments. Thanks.

 

Hey guys.

I'm thinking about returning this computer.

I've had it for a few weeks now and I think it's good....but (epecially with W8) it's not quite $1200 good. I have the base model XPS 12. Every time I turn it on there's one of many little annoying, niggling problems. The monitor doesn't resume, the trackpad works funny, the keyboard doesn't work, the touchscreen doesn't work. Internet explorer appears to work well but you can't 2-finger scroll until the entire page is loaded, which sucks on big websites. The "friends" app is wonky, "trending" appears to be basically useless, and overall very few of the Window 8 features end up being as cool as they should be once you start using them.

Can you guys convince me that there's hope on the horizon for Windows 8 and this laptop?

Also, where and how did you guys update the BIOS?

Thanks again!

 

What would you buy that compares for less? The Sony variant is more $$ (but a decent choice), the new Samsung Ativ Q is likely to be insanely expensive at 1400 starting base price (200 more than the Dell).

I don't have any of those niggles you describe outside the initial Intel RST bug and trackpad issue. Both seem fixed in the A02 BIOS update (just checked the trackpad issue in Chrome and I didn't have the "jump to the top" issue on multiple scrolls at medium sensitivity). Suggest updated to remove 2/5 issues right there.

I do not have any problem with the keyboard as you describe at all - and my touchscreen is flawless - you could just have a lemon and I suggest a return to get a replacement if you are in the 30 day window!

The BIOS is easy to find...open the "My Dell" app, go to drivers and downloads and make sure that all files are selected...should be 20 listed (it shows 18 by default without BIOS files).

 

All screens are not completely uniform, especially laptops. This Dell is one of the most uniform, but that's always subjective without proper tools to measure brightness. I don't see the issue you describe...is it really that dramatic?

 

I cant seem to find this answer anywhere. Does the haswell xps 12 have a wacom digitizer?

 

Thanks for your reply, smugpanda. It's not as dramatic as perhaps it sounds - just a slight darkening of the backlight towards the right hand side. I must admit most backlit screens seem to exhibit this - at least toward the edges. Maybe I'm seeking perfection - which of course doesn't exist! I really just wanted other's opinions before approaching Dell - so thank you!

 

@eDiesel No it doesn't, it's just a basic capacitive multi-touch-screen.
@jblythe1000 I've just checked your described problem with a fullscreen white canvas in paint. There might be slight irregularities of the brightness towards the edges of the screen, but nothing really noticeable and definitly symmetrical. You seem to have a faulty unit.

 

@Furion92. I'm most grateful for your comment - it does bug me, so I will contact Dell Support and see if they can assist. Many thanks.

 

t's cool im beginning to enjoy your rants.

I think though that in order to resize the C: drive with the deleted rapid start 8 GB space... im gonna need to install some third party crap.. I could be wrong unless someone can tell me how to ungrey the extend volume

I think ti's cuz there's another partition between the unallocated and the C: drive er somthing... il look into that htird party crap tomorrow apparently some freeware stuff i can use that will do the trick

 

Someone brought up fans again so I'll state what my computer is doing right now...
My notebook is sitting next to me, on but not in-use by me. I have the task manager open and System Idle Process is the top hit. The only app open is the My Dell app (since reboot). The unit is plugged in and set to the standard power settings that it ships with and the fan is running at full speed. It is the loudest thing in my office... maybe 55 spl. (see here for spl graph for reference: Table chart sound pressure levels SPL level normal sound pressure and sound intensity ratio sound units calculation comparison loudness decibel dB scale ratio factor unit examples - sengpielaudio Sengpiel Berlin)

 

I bought a dell xps 12 from dell outlet uk. It has a core i5 processor (ivy bridge) and 4 gb of ram. I have two problems with it:
1. The auto-rotate is not working. I pressed the button and tried all driver updates from dell but still nothing. The rotate lock icon in win8 is grayed out. I also run windows update and installed all possible updates. Do you think updating to win 8,1 will solve the issue?
2. The touch keyboard does not pop up when in tablet mode. This is frustrating as in metro apps I can touch a text field but have no keyboard on screen to type with. I saw that there is a touch keyboard toolbar on the taskbar and I can launch it from there but that is useless in metro apps.
I am quite disappointed as I was looking forward to enjoying this dell xps 12.

 

@wittywon: I can assure you that my XPS 12 is dead silent (no moving parts at all!) when it's idling. There might be 3 reasons for your sound level issue:
1: Windows Indexing Service
2: Windows Defender
3: McAfee
Make sure that none of these 3 is doing anything and it should go silent. Alternatively you could try to change some energy saving options (including passive cooling policy).

@wittywon: I had the same problem. The solution for me was either rebooting, reinstalling the "Dell Quickset Application" or toggling the checkbox in the Screen Resolution settings which allows for automatic rotation. However, now it works

 

I was going to ask if anyone else got the BIOS update yesterday...I did it, but I haven't yet noticed any particular changes.

So, it's okay to turn Rapid Start back on? I won't be stuck after Sleep mode any more?

 

I guess though the computer is so fast to boot up in sleep or regular that I dunno what the point is haha

 

My last unit seemed a bit more solid around the frame than this one. This one also exhibits a "creaky" sound out of of the magnetic/spring loaded locking tabs. I hate to be so whiny, but after my initial complaints on the first unit, I feel like this one is actually the less QC'd unit whereas my first one was solid. Should I ask dell to come out and replace the screen? Or just do the whole return thing? Anybody else have a creaky sound? Mine exhibits this in tablet mode or slate mode, and is audible when i press the windows start button below the screen or apply any pressure to the lower right of the screen.

Also - I think the last unit I had the start button was flush with the screen bezel...this one is sunk into the screen bezel (concave) and a little more difficult to press, with less tactile feedback. It still generally works, just feels different.

 

To all of you with trackpad issues...BIOS A02 seems to solve the "jump to the top" issue - I know I already said this, but it still seems to be fine after more days of use, and I have the sensitivity back at the middle of the slider.

 

And one more question...I don't recall on the first XPS I had in hand, but I don't remember having a ghost trail when I am sliding my finger on the touchscreen (say when scrolling internet explorer). Do others have this trait? Is it a windows option that I just need to turn off?

 

I had a mark on the lid of my 9Q33 and had it replaced. I immediately noticed that the catches for the screen are smoother and the magnets that keep it in place are stronger. It just seems to work a bit nicer than it did with the factory display lid.

Maybe some of them suck?

 

Just ordered the XPS 12, sort of having buyers remorse (or headache). I talked to an agent last week about the model I was purchasing, 4th gen i5 with 4gb RAM and 128 ssd. I asked if it was capable of expanding to 8gb of RAM in the future, and he responded YES.

Now I am reading on the forums (the unofficial sources) that upgrading your RAM for XPS 12 after production is not possible, since the RAM is soldered. Is this true? Can anyone confirm my fears?

I already asked if they could modify my order, one day after placing it, to upgrade the RAM to 8gb and they said it was impossible to do.

 

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...s_laptop/xps-12-9q33_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

The ram is definitely soldered on. Its pretty common in ultrabook class machines.

Cancel the order and order a new machine. Online chat support should be able to walk you through how to do it and how long it will take to get money back etc if you can't afford to own two machines for a little while.

 

I did end up getting one from this Amazon Marketplace seller. Haswell, 512GB SSD, 8GB RAM. Beautiful machine, no hiccups. Wish I'd waited a bit longer now as their price has dropped below $1,600. Oh well, enjoying it.

 

Excellent...so how was the experience...how did you request a replacement screen? A tech just comes out, or did you mail the unit somewhere? I am going to do this next week because the screen build quality on this unit is sub-par. If I hadn't had an excellent crisp and solid screen on the first XPS 12 I ordered, I would just assume this was probably the way it was, but I need this thing to last at least a year or so before the screen is creaky and the touchscreen is finnicky about taps. Never had to take advantage of repair because generally most companies you just return and replace.

 

Just order the unit you really need! Even if you can't cancel your current order, I found that returns were painless...even enjoyable. I got a personal assistance named Ronald who was very attentive and kept in touch, informed me of the refund, tracked my new order, and followed up over phone and email to confirm my money was credited to my bank account. It was fast and painless and no questions were asked. It probably helped that I told them I ordered a fancier XPS12, and wasn't just an "unsatisfied customer".

 

They come out and do it. I submitted a ticket decribing the issue on their web site, they emailed back asking for photos, confirmed my address and then a local tech called to confirm a time/place that suited me and he did the work on my desk. Be aware that I'm in Australia, but I'd expect Dell to be somewhat consistent globally.