XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

Must have been a nice coupon

On another note, I have the "Dell fever" (updating the webpage to see when it ships), but with the Amazon order page.

 

I have it installed on my factory config - updated from the Intel site - I see from the downloads that they say that the core engine etc has to be installed by the manufacturer - so are you doing it in the right order and have all the intel drivers installed before you do it?

 

Does anyone else have issues with the fan?

It seems to me that when I simply browse the internet and perhaps have some music going off of YouTube that the fan kicks into high gear, then back to silent, then barely on to loud, and back to high gear? It just seems very sporadic to me.

 

Edit: Got it. Have to enable it in the BIOS before installing it.

 

How do you get the $100 gift card? I don't see that as an option.

 

Not really - is it doing any software updates in the background - mine kicks in occasionally when the were windows updates or other program updates but not much else - However you are watching videos on the net while your surfing so that might kick the GPU up a bit?

 

Cowboycoder, how do you find the ULV CPU in this for programming?

I'm looking at this with the 4GB RAM option but using Visual Studio 2010 with requirements of a 1.6GHz CPU so concerned on how it might perform.

 

Hi, I'm using Visual Studio 2010 with SQL Server 2012 Developer Edition and both perform very well. The ULV processors from a couple of years ago were hopeless but these new Ivy Bridge CPUs seem pretty decent.

However if I could go back in time, I think I'd have sacrificed the style of the XPS for the functionality and 'brute force' performance of another Latitude.

Although it looks and feels very nice, it's not the most practical for lots of typing - the shallow keyboard takes a bit of getting used to but it's no match for the keys on my E6400.

If you're coding 90% of the time, go for business grade. If it's occasional use the XPS is fine.

 

Cheers.

It would be 100% for coding but only when I'm away from my main PC so maybe 4-5 hours a week. I guess it would be a reasonable stop gap for that.

The shallow keyboard is a concern though. Are you using yours as your main machine and having issues with that?

 

The keyboard isn't that bad - just not as good as the likes of the Latitude, EliteBook or ThinkPad. If I were to rate it out of 10 and the aforementioned models each score a 10, the XPS would score a 6 or maybe a 7. It's on a par with Inspiron keyboards. The Samsung Series 9 that I had and returned would have scored a 5 for the keyboard in my opinion.

I think it will be absolutely fine for your 4-5 hours a week. Mine is used as my main machine (personal use) so gets used for about 16 hours a week, mainly for coding. If I could wind the clock back, I'd probably go for another Latitude as I said before. But it's not so bad I'd consider returning it.

 

My only little gripe is having the 2 USB 3.0 ports on the LHS - some of us are RH thus one each side would have been good - or 2 LHS and 1 RHS

 

Here is the offer page

Amazon.com: Introducing Intel-Powered Ultrabooks.

 

Just got my system in and is pretty sweet so far. Checked and I have 365 days of XPS warranty so pretty happy with that.

Wow, adding the accidental damage is pretty pricey, 240 bucks. I am assuming with a one year extension.

 

@ CowboyCoder and donkey33

fwiw, i actually am growing to prefer the keyboard on the XPS even for long coding sessions in VS 2010/2012 and SQL 2008/2012 over the one on my E6510. i find my keystrokes faster, just have to get used to the lighter action on the chicklet keys. But after that, its becoming my preference.

i don't see much difference in performance between my 1gen i5 in the 6510 and this one. so i have to agree w/ CowboyCoders comment regarding the newer ULV chips. performance is nearly identical (maybe a tad slower) on the XPS running the Samsung 830 vs the 6510 running Intel 830 drives. So the combo of new i5 ulv w/ faster drive = old i5 standard w/ slower drive.

i'm pretty much in Visual Studio and Mgmt Studio all day every day...6-8 hours. not having any issues w/ typing, performance, etc.

 

Anyone use Dell DataSafe to create the system recovery media? It's saying 8 GB minimum size, and apparently an 8GB drive isn't big enough?

 

Do you get the thin blue border around toolbars in VS & SQL? I do when viewed at what I'd consider normal viewing angle but if I lean forwards and look down slightly from above it disappears and looks grey, as it should. I find this very off-putting.


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Dang, looks like I may have a problem. I get an error at boot that the "Battery has been temporarily disabled". In the BIOS it says charging has been disabled and to reseat the power adapter and and wait until the battery has returned to operating temperature. I left it unplugged and off for about a half hour and still getting the error.

In Windows the battery/charging icon indicates "plugged in, not charging.

Any ideas? Or do I need to call Dell already?

 

OK, looks like its working now.

I flashed to the latest BIOS AO4, after a restart still seemed like there was an issue. A full shutdown and then bringing it back up on battery and now it seems to be working (crossing fingers).

 

Hey here's a quick review on the outside and such that I did. Figured I would put it out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2MaRDnmgJU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

If it's just a faint line, maybe I'm seeing it. I can't really tell if it's blue or gray. But as my viewing angle goes up/down, the lines do grow thinner. If that's what you are talking about. If I compare to the 1080p on the 6510, lines between toolbars are consistent across all viewing angles. So I guess yea, seeing something similar to what you are describing. Had not notice it...thanks! ;-)

Doesn't matter much, when 2012 comes out w/ the Metro theme, you aren't going to be able to find anything in the toolbars anyway, it all blends together to a mess of icons that all look the same. Display quality is the least of your worries at that point. VS 2012 bites in that regard.

 

LOL... off-topic, but the day Windows and software development goes Metro is the day I give up coding and become a Postman. Windows 8 will be a failure of gargantuan proportions, I can see lots of back-peddling by Microsoft when it comes to Windows 9...

Back on topic, yes it is those blue lines I was referring to. It's to do with the poor viewing angle, as they were never visible on my Latitude at any angle. It's not a major issue and I'll probably get used to it, but it does give the 'grainy' effect that others have referred to.

Getting used to the keyboard by the way! Weird really, as this morning I was cursing about it but in typing this post, I'm getting a good wpm rate with few typos.

 

Gone back through about half the thread so far and haven't seen an update on this. Int he early part of the thread it was supposed that the mSATA port was SATA II, according to HWiNFO it's SATA III. Is there any reason to think this is wrong?

Also interesting to see that it's a Samsung 830 mSATA drive.

Going to be popping my 256GB Samsung 830 SSD into this beast in a day or so. Want to check it out and need to wait for the T5 driver I ordered through Amazon.

 

To stay off topic...yea, not sure what I think about Windows 8 yet. Windows 8, fine I guess...Metro everywhere, no thanks. Just like Microsoft though, take one good idea in and of itself (good UI design for mobile devices) and spread it everywhere (into Office, Studio, yada yada). Makes no sense whatsoever. Metro looks slick, but it's best on UIs w/ little going on. Things get busy, Metro kills your eyes and productivity. Been playing in VS 2012 and while I'll get used to it, have to, not happy about it.

Back on topic. I don't know if my typing speed and accuracy are up, but I'm easily the same awful typist I was before...it just seems to be smoother w/ this keyboard. I really like this keyboard though, it's probably the best island/chicklet keyboard I've used.

I'm having a hard time getting used to not having dedicated pgup/pgdn keys, but that will come once I can get off of the E6510...still having to use it at one client site until they get the new machine on the 'approved' mac address list.

Still can't get over the battery life. It's great. I can pretty much work all day. I probably code 5-6 hours of an 8 hour work day. Rest is meetings, conversations, design sessions...where the laptop is sleeping. It's just nice to be totally mobile, not confined to an AC outlet. I can work whereever, whenever. For that capability, I'm happy to give up a bit of display quality and even performance to some extent. The 6510 was doing good if I got 3 hours (even w/ a new battery), so I'm a happy camper.

 

You'll definitely like that machine (if you are already past the display issues) once you get that SSD in there.

Be careful w/ those torx and whatever T5 you get. Man those are small torx heads, it'd be easy to totally screw one up (no pun intended). As for the rest of the disassembly, similarly, be careful w/ the screws, some are pretty tight and they have that blue-ish loctite stuff on them. Couple of mine took some effort to break free (particularly the speaker screws). Just get the underneath portion where the screw is centered under you and on something firm and keep down on it while you twist and you should be OK.

It was a bit nerve racking for me, coming from the plug-n-play nature of a Latitude.

 

Have to admit I'm not seeing the display issues others have mentioned. That may be because I am coming from the m11x which has pretty bad viewing angles especially in the florescent lights at work.

So far aside from my brief issue with the battery not charging I'm really loving this machine. It's a definite step up from the m11x, which up to getting this machine I have loved. I was worried about the keyboard, but I have to say I like it better then the m11x, mostly due to the fact that I am finding I fat finger the wrong keys a lot less then the on the smaller machine.

Is the full dis assembly listed in manual really needed? It looks like in the photos that the HD should be accessible without removing the battery/speakers.

 

Has anyone tried using widi to connect to a tv? Any adapters that work well?

 

You could try. Definitely probably the memory, harddrive will be tight to get to the data cable where it connects to the main board in order to disconnect it.

I think the point of the full disassembly is to get the battery out so there is no power. Again, you might be able to get the 'angle' on the ribbon cable for the battery to get it loose, but it's right up against the body of the battery. Worth trying. But you can't get the battery out w/o removing the speakers.

Changing any parts with power (battery) still connected is totally up to you...

It's not THAT bad, just a tigher space and smaller parts than I've typically ben used to. If you are careful, it's a breeze. I did it in about 30 minutes (disassembly per manual, replaced memory + drive, reassembled).

Only thing that didn't jive w/ the instructions was a 'snap' for seeding the memory. It wasn't as pronounced as other laptops where it clicks into place. Had to do it a couple of times before I was sure it was in place correctly.

 

Hello all, just made my purchase on Amazon and is expected to be delivered well...actually today. I'm very excited, looks like an awesome well built machine. I see that everybody is installing the Sammy 830 in this machine. I do have one handy but now I'm seeing this new crucial m4 msata drives hitting the market. My question is it possible to get a 128GB crucial msata and put the OS and relevant programs on this and use the slow HDD for my main storage? Has anyone done this or thought about doing it? Thanks all

 

Yes it is possible. The down sides are that mSATA drives are more expensive and slightly slower than standard SSDs. And some of us wanted to get rid of the traditional drive because it adds weight, noise, vibration and eats into the battery. We sacrificed a little storage capacity for performance and silence.


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Thanks Cowboy, you are a stud on this forum and I appreciate it. I'm a bit worried about swapping that HDD out because it sounds a bit tedious to do. Minus the HDD weight wouldn't my system be mostly quiet if I had the OS and programs on the msata and photos and games on the HDD? Crucials msatas are a pretty damn good price, near equal to the SSDs per gig. I know I'd sacrifice a bit of speed but according to the review on this site not too much.

 

You could set the HDD to power off after say 3 mins of inactivity in the powercfg settings. It would only spin when actually in use.

As for hardware swaps, replacing the mSATA is no less tedious than swapping the HDD.


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Dell has a guy comin out to my
House to replace the network card and the antenna in my L421x.

 

Sent!

Thank you.

 

OK just installed my 256GB Samsung 830 SSD and figured I would give my first impressions.

Overall I really love it so far as an upgrade from the m11x R3. Keyboard is more spacious and I find the "chicklet" keyboard doesn't bother me like I feared it might.

Even before the SSD update I found the responsiveness from disk IO fine. I imagine with the SSD it will fly.

I haven't noticed the screen issues other have mentioned. Not sure if I just lucked out or it's that this screen is a much better one then I had in the m11x. I will say that since I re-installed Windows (I used Datastore to create a restore USB stick) that I ave an impression that things aren't a crisp. Don't know if maybe the out of the box install had some settings tweaked or if it's just in my head.

I really like the touchpad, the one on the m11x was made out of the same material as the case and the material of this touchpad is much smoother.

Only times I have even heard the fan was during the experience index and BIOS update. During the BIOS update I think it may have hit it's top end. Pretty sure it's quieter then the m11x when it's fans spin up.

I will agree working inside can be a bit nerve wracking. The ribbon cable for the battery indicator on the bottom panel nearly made me think I had broken something.

For a case I bought the Case Logic LAPS-114. Not the tight fit that the m11x Alienware neoprene case, but it isn't crazy loose. ( Amazon.com: Case Logic LAPS-114 14-Inch Laptop Sleeve (Black): Electronics.

 

My screen flickers I notice it more when I am changing webpages does anyone else have this issue, it happens on battery and when using the ac adapter.

 

Nope, nothing like that on my end. Seems fine.

 

Ditto, no issues like that here either.


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Newbie here, on this thread and Dell xps. Got my xps yesterday. Nice laptop. The screen viewing angles are really really bad. Nice looking laptop. A little heavy for a Ultrabook. Trying to put windows 8 on this dell. Hybrid hard drive. 32gb and 500 gb. I have not decided if I will keep it or not. Want to see how windows 8 look on there. I made a USB install disk for Windows 8. It boots fine, but I do not see any hard drives to install it one. I am a newbie to Dell, what am I missing? Some bios setting or something? Want to do a clean install. Please help!

 

Cowboy, my bad, I could of swore I read the mSata was more accessible but might of been another laptop thread.

As for the screen I guess I could be in the minority who really like it. Yeah I can see verticle viewing angles are bad, but my head doesn't shift up and down like E.T. I think the colors are really vibrant and sharp. I am not seeing the graininess like some have said. Though I have had it less than a day so I can't come to any conclusions just yet.

Any Bloatware people found useless and immediately got rid of? Erased Bing Bar and McAfee. This is my first Dell so I'm not familiar with the programs they put on. Thanks all.

 

Got Windows 8 and Office 2013 beta installed. No yellow marks in the device manager. The only way I was able to installed windows 8 is to change SATA in the bios to ATA. Then I was able to see the drives. I think I may have deleted the 32gb ssd drive. Only drives left is the c: and recovery drive. I like office 2013. If I decide to keep it I will be ready for the when windows 8 is released in October. Now my main problem is the screen. The colors is way off if you tilt the screen or try changing the wall paper. I love the build of this xps 14. But the screen might make me return it. I have and old Lenovo T61 and Macbook Pro 13 in. No color saturation or vertical problems on either of those. With so many complaint about the screen. Why did dell not see it and fix it when they were testing this xps? Especially for this steep price.

 

I ws able to keep ISRT and install Windows 8 on mine.

If you are willing to reformat, download the F6 drivers from the Intel website. Set the Bios to the right setting for ISRT and then boot from USB. When prompted load the F6 drivers (they can be loaded from the same USB you have the Windows 8 installation files on).

This happens because Windows 8 needs RAID drivers in order to recognize the array on this machine.

Once you have this done, you should have no problems continuing the installation.

Install all the drivers (chipset, video, etc) and leave ISRT until you are done.

 

As said before I wonder if the screen grain was a driver issue and CowboyCoder suggested installing the slightly more recent Intel Driver from the Dell site. I don't really notice it thus I wonder if peoples perceptions were mostly due to an older driver installed with the first batches?

Dell-Driver
Video_nVIDIA_W74_A00_Setup-2RWDM_ZPE.exe (222MB)
Urgent 28/06/2012 8.17.12.96.01, A00

 

Hi All

I have been lurking on this thread for a while and the time has come to upgrade my XPS 14 L401X (pretty sure its fan has been on full from the moment it came out the box, but I still like it).

Before I pull the trigger I wondered if anyone knew what make the 512GB SSD is in the UK models? I am hoping Samsung 830, but don't want to spend the extra money and get something less than lovely.

Any pointers much appreciated.

 

Hey guys,
So I just recieved my XPS 14 and was unboxing it...
Have a question... One of the black cases contains the manuals... and under is the power cord...
Now the other smaller box.. was anything inside it for you guys? (Assuming discs should have been in it?) For me it is completely empty which seems odd..
I also upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate and have no disc for that either, and usually Dell always comes with a few discs...

Thanks.

 

Mine was empty too. I presume it's a generic box they use for all models and considering this comes without the optical drive there wasn't anything to put inside it. Dell don't supply OS DVDs anymore anyway, you'll need to make your own from the recovery partition.


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Good point, LOL.
I thought they would at least ship a disc so you had a chance to recover.

Thanks CowboyCoder

 

Hi all, just got mine two days ago. Haven't had any problems with the screen; however, I was wondering if anyone else has experienced noise other than the fans. I'm getting internal noise (non-fan) when I'm idling and I just want to be sure something wasn't damaged in shipping. Thanks!

 

I occasionally heard what I think was the hard drive, but since I replaced it with an SSD I haven't heard anything.

 

Anybody know what changes they made to the A04 BIOS? I installed it trying to fix an issue I had with battery charging so I'm running it. Haven't noticed any changes though.

They usually list what fixes are in the BIOS on the download page, but there isn't anything listed.

 

Okay thanks that's what I thought it probably was.