XPS 12 Owners Lounge

Better safe than sorry for sure. I use the auto-rotate feature every day and it's been rock solid on 8.1. Good luck to you!

 

I've been running 8.1 since the day I got it, so for about 3 weeks, and just a few days ago I did start having issues with the auto rotate. It still works fine, but before the screen rotates, it flashes black for half a second and then does the normal rotation animation. It's kind of odd.

 

Now that this been out a couple of years, anyone using a reliable docking stations with the Dell XPS 12? I am interesting in docking it so I can use dual monitor. Prefer docking station wit DVI and VGA port

Any good reliable one out there?

 

Can anyone recommend an easier way of checking for driver updates other than opening the "My Dell" tool and comparing version numbers against what is available on Dells Support site?
Is there a tool or something? - rely on Windows built in update mechanism?!?
Thanks.

 

If you don't mind installing a little program, go to Dell Support and click "Detect my product" then it will take you to your customized Dell support page listing drivers and warranty, etc.... you may then click "Scan my system" and it will give you a chance to one click update your drivers... or show what's out of date for your info. It works well in my opinion.

 

Sorry for hijacking the thread , after reading several reviews of various ultrabooks i decided xps 12 or thinkpad yoga both of which has display problems . Is there any ultrabook without any manufacturing defect?

 

The Yoga problems have been fixed with firmware. The XPS problems are not widespread, many who do have the problems say you can really just barely tell. I have the original Yoga and it's great, but a little flimsy. I have the new XPS 12 and it's rock solid... best laptop I've ever had. I have very minor screen burn in, but can really just barely tell. And it's not permanent burn-in, it's image retention, so the last image slowly fades away... average person that uses my laptop doesn't even see it.

 

I bought an XPS-12 from CostCo on May 31, 2014 primarily due to their 90 day money back guarantee (gives me plenty of time to see if the IR and other issues would be significant enough for me to return) and 2 year warranty. The unit is an i7, with 8 GB RAM, a 256GB SSD preloaded with Windows 8.0. I immediately installed 8.1 and all updates from the Dell website and CLASSICSHELL 4.1.0 (replaced the white start flag with a Windows 7 start button - reduces any IR in this portion of the display). The laptop has been just about flawless from day 1. I do have the IR issue, although to me it is hardly noticeable especially at normal viewing distances. What I like:
- Screen flip
- Battery life (subjectively I get about 7 hours doing normal MS Office tasks)
- Start Up Times around 10 seconds (I do have a 4 year old HP 17" that I've installed Windows 8.1 and a 500GB SSD and it boots in slightly longer times, getting too heavy for me and wanted something lighter and smaller)
- Keyboard
- Rigidity (both display frame and keyboard)
- Display Clarity, Brightness and Contrast
- Touch Screen
- Don't believe I've ever noticed any fan noise
- Runs cool

What I don't like:
- Trackpad has occasionally acted up (left and right swipes have gone away a couple of times) I do carry a mouse with me and use it most of the time.
- IR (while it at present doesn't bother me, I don't like the fact it has any - I keep checking for it (I equate this to "pixel peaking" that some do with their digital cameras).

I have not had any Wi-Fi issues as others have reported. Assuming the laptop continues performing as it has to date, it is a keeper.


Gary

 

anyone know if the XPS 12 will get the Broadwell refresh?

 

I got another screen replacement. Same model number as the last one, which is the newest model. This one showed IR immediately this time, however it's much reduced compared to my last one. I also noticed that after switching from a light image to a dark image (the conditions for IR), the screen brightness will flicker a little bit and the IR will disappear almost entirely.

 

Hi good day everyone.
I just purchased my order i mean placed my order for my Dell xps 12 ultra book convertible yesterday
I saw dells outlet pourchases had 30% off select home laptops and pc's
so i went for it
I also purchased a Dell Venue 11 Pro tablet

I am not going to keep them both only going to keep one of them after i get them and test them out see which one i like best.

But here is a few questions about the xps 12 i got.
I paid 521 after taxes for the refurbished unite on dells website
not sure if this means that someone elses broken unit was repaired and then placed for sale or if someone just purchased a unit and then returned it and they call it refurbished because they can't call it new anymore.

But here is what my set up has
It's got the 80gb m SSD is this Msata ? it think?
it's got the 4 gig of ram
i has the Intel i3-4010U 4 gen
the 50 whr battery if im spelling that curretly

is this going to be a good set up ? i mean i was looking on the dells new website and i don't see the xps being sold with the i3 anymore atleast not as an option
was the i3 no good and thats why they don't offer it with the new xps 12 ultrabooks anymore ?
I understand that the ram is soldered into the Motherboard on the XPS 12 this really kind of sucks
is the CPU soldered in also or if at any date i wanted to can i upgrade cpu to a i5 ? or would that not go over well ?

how long of a battery life am i looking at with the 50 6 cell batter that this has ?



also has anyone compared the dell venue 11 pro to the xps 12 ultra convertible ?
if so how do the two compare to each other

thank you for the help and info here

 

also i am looking up some info here any idea why they didn't put a SD card slot or a micro sd card slot on the xps 12 ? that kind of sucks i wonder why not

does the xps 12 support miracast ? is that something done through blue tooth or is it specific option that needs to be avaialble to be able to use a miracast unit.

also does this offer the NCF option or is it NFC i get those reversed all the time.

Another quetion the screen burn in that i am reading is not really a burn in it's just a issue with the screen that lasts for a little bit but goes away
i see this is still a issue
if i get mind and it does it is it something that is not a issue on newer screens like mine is a Refurbished unit so might have been sitting for a week or 3 or 4 months so if i have the issue
and it's bad i know dell is good about replacing parts that have problems like that
will a new screen elimnate or reduce the issue ?

 

Some of your questions are impossible to answer. No SD Card reader? Lack of space? Wants to be cheap? Who knows? I3 no longer offered? Dell constantly changes its configurations around but the i3 + 80G SSD is its most basic configuration that isn't always available.

Expect 5-6 hours of use at least.

Refurbished comes in a few different types. If it was bought by someone and returned without being opened, it will be sold as Previously ordered new, Refurbished refer to units that were used and then returned by the user for whatever reason, and Scratch and Dent refers to units that were used, somehow dented or scratched (sometimes the tiniest scratch counts) and sold with an additional discount.

XPS 12 does have NFC, but I've never used it.

CPU and RAM are both soldered on.

Your second post is a bit unclear but if I understand you correctly, there's no guarantee that your refurbished unit will be free of any IR. Users have mentioned the new screens to be better for reducing or eliminating the problem.

 

ok awesome thank you for your help here and reaspons
i am thinking maybe after reading the issues with the screen i should probably upgrade me warranty to 2 or more years and not just the 1 year this way maybe in a year from now they will have a new part number and better aware of how to fix the issue or just keep replacing it and they might get tired of it and replace better unit i had this happen once with my xps 1530 model it had to be fixed like 5 times once in 6 months stuff kept going bad they ended up just replacing it with a new updated model
i know i use my warranty cause i pay for it why not use it if needed
after reading some of the reviews not sure i trust a 1 year warranty to be reliable for me

 

Just picked up an XPS 12 from the last outlet sale. I was wondering if anyone knows if you can get 4k @ 60hz from the mimi display port output?

 

I suspect it can, but I can't find anything about intel 4400 outputting 4k. You could try taking your XPS 12 to a store or somewhere with a 4k TV/Monitor on display, and try to connect it if you really want to find out.

 

I just got my XPS 12 on Wednesday
it's the i3 with a 80 gig ssd and 4 gig of ram
wow when i turned it on and set it up it's really freaking cool love it
and every time i turn it on i can't believe how fast it boots up
I am a little disapointed that the USB ports are so close to each other i have 2 thumb drives i can't plug in together at the same time
So i ordered a USB 3.0 4 port hub off ebay for 10 dollars
Will see how it works.

I also ordered a Mini DP to hdmi connector from ebay
i asked the person selling it if it would work for my xps 12 PC not mac but PC he said yeah
so i am covered if it doesn't work

but wondering if our xps 12 can support the Thunderbolt that i feel someone once told me was only a mac option ? anyone know this

So far i don't see any ghost imaging screen retention on mine working great

i am wondering about a stylus i have one with the rubber tip rubber balled tip that i would use on my ipad
but on this it doesn't seem to work properly like i have to really apply pressure to it to work
is their a stylus that anyone has found that will work for the xps that they like ?

thanks

 

For those following this thread I'd just like to confirm that my new screen is still showing no signs of image retention. As far as I am concerned the issue is resolved now.

Cheers.

 

I just had my screen replaced 2 weeks ago. Forgot to capture the part number. NO IR issue so far.

 

Hi djklmnop,

How did you manage to hack the Synaptics driver so it'd work via I2C instead of PS/2? I have an XPS 13 and want to get the latest pure Synaptics (v. 17.0.19) to work so I can access the tons of customizable options the real driver settings have to offer.

Thanks,

Pol

 

Does anyone here know how to disable the screen timeout on the XPS 12 (Haswell) so that the display doesn't turn off after 20 seconds (approximate)?? I just got the laptop a month ago and this is the most annoying feature, IMO. I've tried changing the Power Options "Choose when to turn off the display" time but that doesn't seem to work.

Thanks for the help!

 

My current replacement is showing stronger IR than before and the weird brightness shifts are more noticeable now. Definitely the worst screen I've had so far.

 

Hi guys! Just got my Dell XPS 12 yesterday. I've read a lot of issues with the laptop online, and have faced some myself, like the sleep mode. But I figured that it's a Dell issue and I'll just disable sleep. However, there's something that's kinda annoying me, and that is, even after I've shut down the laptop, the bottom right (when you flip it over and look, it's the left top side), where the vent is, there is still noticeable heat coming from there. I figured maybe it's just after shutting down, so I left it alone. I woke up the next morning, and I can still feel that that particular area still feels hot, and I was in an air conditioned room.

I don't really think it's a issue for now? But I feel that this might be one in the near future. I Google for the disassembly of the laptop, and it's around the SSD area. Have tired googling for similar issues but to no avail, that's why I decided to post here and ask the community.

Have updated my bios from A04 to A06, but the problem persist.

Hope someone could advise me on this. Thinking of calling tech support for their help too.

 

So I just got the 9Q33 version a couple weeks ago and this screen is crazy. Even disabling the ridiculous TrueColor thing that likes to shift your screen colors all over the place all the time it's still making it's own adjustments as the content on the screen changes. I'll load one image for example and it'll suddenly brighten the screen.

I've used dozens and dozens of laptops through the years doing IT support and I don't know that I've ever seen a screen do this before. Is this normal behavior or should I kick it to Dell support? Figured I'd check with real world users first before I get the standard support routine of rebooting, updating drivers, etc to find out if this is just how this panel behaves.

 

Turn off adaptive brightness in windows 8 settings

 

Hah, thanks. Like many, we've avoided 8 here for a handful of reasons. It's not terrible, just annoying more often than not and this is just another example of why.

 

Dis-assembly question:

I'm an IT Pro, have an XPS 12 personally, which is amazing, I love it (occasional IR, but doesn't bother me). One of my clients was unable to boot an XPS 12, so we had Dell out to replace motherboard. They've been back to replace motherboard twice and it's still not booting. The processor and RAM are all on the motherboard, leaving only the daughterboard/IO panel and SSD. It's still not booting.

Anyway, the last two Dell support techs have said they think its in the power switch, which is not connecting properly to the IO Panel, and it's extremely hard to get back on after disassembly. Have any of you had similar experience? Thanks

 

Mine doesn't do this at all. Do you notice the battery reduce significantly while it is off? That would make it clear it's doing something while shut down. You'd want to contact Dell about this.

 

Well, the Adaptive Brightness thing wasn't it - was already Off. Such a weird issue. The screen seems to fluctuate from dimmer to brighter based on the content. Like this site will brighten up and then I'll switch to an image hosted on imgur.com for example that is darker... at first it loads and looks normal and then 1-2 seconds later it brightens the entire panel a bit.

 

Have you checked if the display firmware is up to date?

 

Found it - apparently the Intel HD Graphics control panel has a setting called Display Power Saving Technology under the Power -> Battery area that needs to be set to Disabled.

 

Glad you found the culprit

 

Found out what was it. It was the fast startup thing. Once I off-ed it the laptop shuts down totally and the heat is gone.

Just found out that I'm starting to have IR on my laptop. And my laptop keeps reverting to power saver mode after I restart it.. the sleep keeps going back to 3min, even though I want to set it to Never to prevent the sleep mode issues. Anyone who faced this problem as well, and have any solution to solve it? So annoying to keep changing it after restarting my laptop.

Ahhhhh.. didn't do my extensive research on this product. I'm from Singapore and I got it shipped over from US via Amazon, and the 1 year warranty isn't global. Starting to regret getting this instead of the Taichi 21...

 

Hi guys,
I lost the charger. I need to buy a replacement tomorrow. Can someone please take a look at the numbers on it? Model no. and part no.?
Many thanks!

 

Hope this helps



LA45NM131

In addition, at least some of the latest Targus universal packages have the correct tip... got a refurb for 13 bucks and it works great, albeit not as small as stock. The car adapter in the same package works as well.

 

Does anyone know if the image retention will get worst and worst? And has anyone tried to replace their LCD screen with their XPS out of warranty? Based on this article:

Dell replacing displays on XPS 12 hybrids with 'burn-in' issues | PCWorld

I've seen people who said that they contacted Dell but Dell dismissed the issue.

Edit: I've read online that there's this way of fixing IR, that is by putting a static image of a white screen. Was wondering if anyone has tried this before!

 

Dell does acknowledged the issue and they claim the newest screen fixes it. I believe it does, but there are a lot of bad ones still in circulation that are making it to people.

A static white screen does not fix it. It just goes away on its own after a few minutes.

Personally, I never notice my IR. It bothers me that it is there, but I never actually see it unless I test for it. In the past month I've only noticed it once. However I suspect it might worsen. I still have more than a year of warranty, so I'm going to wait a while and get another replacement when I feel like it. Right now it doesn't effect my usage.

 

Urgh, the latest patch Tuesday introduced an issue where rotating the screen so it locks back into "laptop" position doesn't automatically rotate the display right side up. Rolling back the graphics drivers to Dell's latest version doesn't fix it. Frustrating, and not the first update that's broken things for me.

 

delete, nevermind

 

I don't see any patch. Was it a Windows Update?

 

Patch Tuesday usually refers to windows updates

 

Ah well I just leave Windows updates off. Probably a bad idea but I don't like restating my computers.

 

I'm fully patched and up to date and don't have a problem with rotation.

 

Hey guys, anyone here plays Football Manager? I was wondering if it plays well on the xps 12. Thanks.

 

Brand new XPS12 bought in July 2014, equipped with the new Intel AC7260 wireless card.

Every other time the laptop goes to sleep, after waking it up, it comes up with wifi connection dropped (showing "LIMITED" service). I have to select it, disconnect, and then reconnect to get it back up. About 75% of the time it works on first try, and occasionally it takes two tries.

Any way to keep this wifi card up and going? Dell has been no help. And power management under Control Panel shows nothing in the Advanced section for what to do with WIFI on sleep, so alot of other user's advice is not helping either. :-(

 

Have you tried installing the latest driver direct from intel?

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24220

 

Since I bought this for my daughter to take to college, and got a Dell service plan, I called them and some guy logged in and reloaded some Dell drivers. The wireless is NOW managed by the Dell program, and not Windows, and that helps.

But the fundamental problem is still there, but shows itself more rarely. The problem is the laptop comes out of sleep in all sorts of strange states. It is supposed to force a login after wakeup, but sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, you cannot wake it at all, and have to do forced shutdown by holding in the power slider button >10 seconds. Sometimes the wireless still comes up disconnected.

I just cannot believe that this is the experience others get. I would think the XPS12 would rate far lower in reviews. I just do not know if I have a hardware problem, a low-level driver problem, or a Windows 8.1 problem.

 

Have you ensured that the BIOS is up to date?

I certainly don't get issues with waking up, and I sleep the machine multiple times a day.

 

I would recommend factory resetting it. It sounds like it's software. Just open Settings > Change PC Settings > Update and Recovery > Recovery > Remove everything and Reinstall Windows
Make sure to install all the appropriate drivers again.

 

Does anyone know when the next generation of XPS 12 should be released? I have a feeling it should be before the end of 2014, in which case I want to wait for it, but does anyone have information or a reasonable inference about it?

Edit: I'll answer my own question. If there were a refresh, it should be for the new Broadwell chips, which are scheduled for Q1 2015. I read that Dell scheduled an XPS 13 release with the Broadwell, but nothing for the XPS 12. I also read that the next gen after that, Skylake, is also due by the end of 2015, if you can wait that long.