XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

I think I might restore this laptop to the factory image. Then get the intel drivers and install using ISRT. Weymaster, can you tell me where and what kind of drivers you got from intel web site?

 

I wonder if there is a piece of tape on the bottom cover that's loose and rubbing on the fan. I've seen this 3 times now on the XPS 15.

FIFY.
This is what caused the initial delays after launch. An issue was discovered at the fulfillment center here in the US wherein when the system entered S2/S3/S4 by way of the lid being closed, it would not properly resume causing potential customer data loss. This resulted in a stop ship, due to systemic issues causing data loss automatically being sev1. A04 was only to address that issue. There may have been some minor changes added, but I never read the change log.

 

Hi Bill,

Requests for A05 please...

1. Make the BIOS look a bit less 'Mickey Mouse' and more like the Latitude BIOS

2. Make cold boot from SSD in AHCI mode faster (you guys need to trim at least 10-15 seconds off this)

Thanks

 

Cool, thanks Bill.

 

Samsung 830 it is in the UK

 

Yes they do, not as standard - you just have to add it in the customisation for a few extra £'s

 

Only the business models, I think you'll find. Wasn't an option for me in the UK.

 

I mentioned a few pages back, how disappointing I find the speed of booting from powered off on the XPS compared to the Samsung Series 9 (which I returned).

The Series 9 had the awful SanDisk U100 SSD which is one of the worst performing on the market. I bought the Samsung 830 SSD for my XPS hoping it would boot even quicker than the Samsung. Unfortunately because the BIOS etc isn't as optimised as it could be (by Dell), it takes twice as long on a cold boot.

See here for a video clip of booting the S9 - Samsung Series 9 NP900X4C SSD boot - YouTube

The 830 is a vastly superior drive to the U100, so come on Dell - get that BIOS sorted!

 

+1 on the boot speed. definitely could be improved. if my E6510 boots faster w/ slower drives, slower processor...this can definitely be faster.
after a week+ of use. my hopes from dell and intel are as follows.

1. bios tweak to improve boot speed.

2. if it's not physically the display, improved video drivers to smooth out what is otherwise an acceptable display. for $1100 it should have been better, but as i've said before, i'm ok w/ it. the left/right viewing angles are fine. top to bottom, not so much. but improved display quality at the angles that exist would be a HUGE plus for this laptop.

3. bios or driver fix for things not coming back after sleep (sporadic). but i loose bluetooth, wireless, brightness sometimes coming out of sleep.

I'd also like to see someone produce a 16gb sodimm. but that's just crazy talk i think.

the more i've used this for work this week (client got it on the network, got all my dev projects over to it now) the more i'm impressed w/ it. never gets hot, fast as snot, keyboard is absolutely a dream to type on, and the touchpad is far and away better than anything i personally have used to date. probably will do little else to it other than a larger HD or larger mSATA at some point. i was unfortunately at my spending limit at ~$1500 for laptop+warranty, memory, and drive. wish i had 256gb.

 

Has anyone tested a beta BIOS for the XPS14? I'd like to know if it fixes the throttling issues some people have had.

 

Thank you!

Ordering now.....

 

XPS 14 WiFi Problems??? A fatal flaw...

Wow -- the new XPS14 Ultrabook connects at only 50% (and sometimes 25%) of the speed of the old laptops lying around my house. It's so slow, and so noticeable, I'm gonna have to send it back if I cant get a fix. Three oldies consistanetly walloping my 1500 dollar machine! All connecting on N, all sitting next to one another -- and yep, I've got the very latest driver! Any ideas fellow Dell-curious? Thanks anyone and everyone -and forgive me if I missed this subject already -- see, my connection is v e r y s l o w...

 

FYI Sydneypob

 

No issues with my N router - How old is you router? - I wonder if its just an incompatibility as many people arn't, like me, reporting any problems. I have a Netgear N600 Dual Wireless DGND3700 - runs @ 300mbps @ 5 and 2.5 GHz fine - do you need to change channels or other settings ?

 

This is the first report we've heard of WiFi issues on the 14. Can you post back your router model and version number as well as your current firmware revision? Sometimes newer cards will have features added that cause some issues with routers that need a firmware update from the manufacturer.

 

Weymaster, did just what you said. Install went very smooth. Thanks for your great input.

 

Hi Cowboycoder,

I have been following u posts since u got the xps 14...
well , I am working in Singapore and my company just bought 2 sets of XPS 14 and 1 is for mysef...i totally agree with u ... the bios rely did had some slowwwwwww issue!
image u superior sammy SSD can lose out to a cmi ssd in a e6400...

tell u wat, i purchased few latitude E6220 , and mostly E5420 with SSDs - the bootup speed totally own xps ULTRABOOK ........

What i can say is this XPS 14 bootup is almost the same as my existing E6400 with a 7200 rpm hdd.........
I thought that with Msata 32gb ssd bootup is fast, but surprisely dell do not set the OS to install in this ssd, but works just as cache...

u right, booting up, saw the windows aninmated bar.. into login.
and the irritating part is got to wait quite long to write in to windows....

totaly boot up is more than 40s for M32gb ssd with 500gb rpm hdd......

PLS - DELL URGE U TEAM TO come with out with a revamped bios pls.......
in fact i caled up XPS 24x7 and they simply cant do anything but to feedback....... they informed coming monday 23th july there's a NEW A5 bios! - wow no news what it will fix.........

by the way
saw the video samsung s9 with ssd booting into windows in 9 seconds.... awesom....

copy to bill from dell? can Dell archeive and fix this bios issue?.......
we r buying more E6430 now and 9010 all in 1, XPS 14 on hold........ due to slow boot bios...
but we simply love this

ultrabook built!
chicket keyboard with backlit
multi gesture trackpad , scrolling , ZOOM in/out- guys check this out !
using dell touchpad icon @ bottom taskbar
400 nits 900P display - thought very glaring under bright lights....
USB 3.0 is super fast! the superfast variety series! near to 90MB /s writting to usb 3.0 hdd


M32GB with 500GB RPM hdd is a total disappointing.......
imagine a nEW ultrabook losing to a 3 years old e6400 with a Old SSD in terms of bootup........................so sadddd.

A05 OR A06 TO FIX QUICK BOOT BIOS PLSSS- DELLL

 

Nope sorry I ordered it on Small Business - you didn't say which you ordered it from?

 

Ordered mine from business section, didn't see option for the DVD though. Didn't matter for me as I downloaded it from our company MS subscription website. Before anyone says that's illegal, it isn't. Windows is free - its the license you pay for and I activated it with my own key


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You having wifi issues? I am

 

I'm honestly about to throw in the towel with Dell. I've been dealing with rude customer service reps all day not helping me at all. And on top of that, dell sent me a replacement for my xps and that one doesn't even have a working track pad. So let's see here

1. My $1,100 laptop doesn't work on wifi.
2. My replacement has a broken track pad
3. The customer service (besides bill) has SUCKED.
4. I love the laptop yet I can't even barely use it and have to just sit on my butt waiting for an answer from dell to fix the problem.

Fellas I'm not sure what to do here. But I can tell you that I am really in dire need of some detailed info from Bill on what they are planning on doing regarding the wifi fix. My apologies if bill has stated what their solution is already but if he has then I have not seen it and if someone can copy and paste it to me that'd be great.
SOS BILL


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You bought yours from Best Buy, correct? So how does that work when dealing with Dell directly? Are you simply taking advantage of the initial trial period? Did you do the retail product registration on dell.com and buy an extended warranty through Dell directly, or are you merely going through BB's service plan right now?

 

I registered my product with dell I believe. Heck no I am not using bb customer support. I'm going directly through dell tech support by using my service tag.

I'm going through dells one year warranty.

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My XPS14 arrived today so here are my thoughts. I am very pleased with the keyboard, great compared to my old (cheap) laptop. The machine feels nice and sturdy. I actually prefer the extra weight. Like others have said it feels more steady on your lap. The display, pretty much what has already been said. I updated Intel graphics driver to the latest. Maybe it helped. Playing with Intel color enhancement helped. I settled on Brightness=15, Contrast=44, Gamma=0.8, Hue=0, Saturation=2. I think these settings takes advantage of the excellent brightness (Fn-F5 up the max), but the whites are less blinding, and it looks warmer, less stark, which reduces the graininess. Looks pretty good to me now. If anybody else has specific screen tweaks, please share.

 

How is it working with wifi ?


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I think the question for you is; how old is your router?

What make/model is it?

Does it have the latest firmware?

Does it properly support Wireless-N standard?

What frequency is it broadcasting on?

Have you tried the XPS on public wifi or at a friends house?


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Ive tried the xps on multiple routers and company servers and the only one it seems to work somewhat on with being plugged in is Verizon


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How bizarre - I have looked on both the home and business sections and went through to order / spec - backup/restore media option is greyed out - not available - But I have mine in my hand? Weird. I think it was about £4 extra IIRC.

 

With my home router, get 13mbps - slower than wired but the same as my other laptop.

 

While I'm not having issues w/ wifi speeds and dead spots that I didn't expect from moving to a 2x2 card vs a 3x3 card in my old laptop. I am pretty aggravated at the length of time it takes the XPS 14 to connect to the internet on a cold boot. That couple w/ the long boot time to begin with makes this just like having a 5400rpm drive until it's up and running.

Anybody else getting similar behavior?

Any solutions or suggestions?

Once I'm up, I'm good...but getting there is painful.

 

Hi, Bill, thanks for the reply! I've admired your work here and was hoping you might weigh in!

I'm connecting to a Cisco Valet Plus, Model M20, with the most up-to-date firmware. Per suggestions from over at the Dell forum, I've re-installed the Intel 6235 drivers (already had the latest), I've disabled power saving in all properties, and double-checked driver properties and set all according to Intel recommendations. Still, I'm sitting here surrounded by everything from an old Inspiron e1505 running Win8 to an HP Artist Edition (Pretty....heavy, that is!), a Gateway, a 1st gen iPad and a new one, even my iPhone, and all are registering within a narrow 17Mbps-20Mbps range. All of the agree on this tested throughput. But the 14 Ultrabook usually scores between 5-7Mbps, often closer to 3Mbps, and once every 10-15 tests will fight to a high of 12Mbps.

As far as signal strength, not throughput, the new XPS 14 is actually registering one of the strongest connections to the router -- but is a dog compared to actually shoveling stuff down from the internet tubes.

At work I'm using an older linksys 600 series, and have the same shortfall -- that connection is throttled at 10Mpbs, and every wifi device gets all of that regularly, where the XPS14 is inconsistent, bouncing from low but sometimes getting the full 10Mbps, but on average consistently falls about 30-40% short of the rest of the devices using that access point.

If you or any of the folks here have any ideas, I'm game! Though to be honest, I'd rather return the machine before my 21 days is up that spend hours on the phone with low-level techs reading from scripts. Man, this sucks because other than that I LOVE this machine! Great screen, no issues there for me, no fan noise complaints -- it's my dream machine, except I need at least competitive, and reliable, connection!

Sorry... I'll be more brief in the future : ) But thanks, if only just for listening!

-- Matt

 

Reading about the wifi issues in the xps 15 owners lounge, i dread the same issues with the xps 14. Replacing the intel wifi card with an alternative, so it seems a constructional issue...

A real bummer and a showstopper for me to buy the xps 14. Thought I found my laptop.


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Just a quick post before i head to sleep, using speedtest.net, I consistently get 7-9mbps less than my main rig(runs on a wireless bridge connected via ethernet). 20-21 mbps on the main rig vs 12-13 mbps on the XPS 14. The bridge's ethernet connection shouldnt matter, as they're still both wireless connections(or i'm totally missing something and i'm talking out my rear end).

 

You could just have a faulty WIFI card. Get Dell support to replace it.


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I guess the wifi card is why my internet keep dropping on this dell xps 14. I have a Netgear WNDR4500 router. It is upgraded with the latest firmware Version V1.0.1.18.

 

The wifi card is not the issue. People tried other cards in their 14s and 15s an still had no change.

I'm getting 0.5mbps when I'm
Not next to my router. Gettin angry and about to buy an HP if this crap keeps up and we continually get no answers from Dell. Oh well. I guess it's ONLY a $1,200 laptop.

 

I don't see how it can be the chassis when the overwhelming majority, mine included, work fine. If you've tried other wireless cards then it must be a driver issue (and therefore Intel's fault, not Dell) or a router issue.

What security are you using? I've had problems with some laptops if using WEP or AES security. If not already, try switching to AES WPA2.

Also try changing the channel and try using 'N' only instead of mixed mode.

When tinkering I also noticed there are some Intel properties you can play with. Right click the name of your connection in the bottom right corner of the screen & select properties for the menu.

My router is a BT HomeHub2, which I think is a rebranded Belkin. Previously had a Netgear and that was nothing but trouble.


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If it was a security issue then why would it work within 10 feet and then once far away it doesn't work as well.

 

I didn't realise that. I'm only trying to help, anyway. Get the laptop replaced.

PS: HP won't necessarily be any better. Had all sorts of WIFI issues with our ProBooks over the years.


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My wifi isn't as good as I'd expect it either. I have sony vaio VPC series and HP Pro Book that both can connect in my bedroom easily 25ft away from the router but this laptop fails to connect anywhere less than 15ft. Download speeds are always less than these other laptops when at equal distance from the router also.

 

I've tried all these things -- literally everything you've mentioned -- and absolutely no change in performance. This machine's wifi performance is still awful. But I was interested in the idea that it might work better when closer -- and yes, that's it, kind of. If I hold my 14XPS Ultrabook literally a foot from the router, I get 14-15Mbps! At three feet, though, we're back to between 3 and 8Mbps.

Mind you, the very BEST I can get (within 12" of the router!) is 75% of the speed I pay for, as opposed to 90% or more on every other mobile device in the house -- 8 wifi-connected devices, some six or seven years old (3 HPs!), and none has any trouble, on any router. 90% or better of the delivered ISP throughput.

Wouldn't that mean this is definitely a 14 XPS chassis issue -- especially as people report that replacing the card has no impact?

So my question -- should I just return this for a refund, or try to get a new unit that might not have the issue at all, as you, Cowboy, report? Any thoughts? Thanks everyone!

 

Seeing all these wireless issue reports I was worried so I downloaded a program called LAN Speed Test (don't recommend using CNET download, wow they really went downhill with the trying to install crap I you don't want). And so far testing with 100 MB as the file size I actually got the highest write speed from my XPS 14. The 14 is maybe 3 feet closer to the router then my other laptop, the router is in another room. It was only a few Mbs faster, so probably with in the margin for variance.

How is everybody testing there speed?

 

My XPS 14 was the $1499 + tax. That is too much to pay for a lousy screen. Wifi issues and really slow boot. I love the build of this xps 14. But I think I am going to throw in the towel also; and send this one back for a refund. If dell do a refresh and or work out the problems with this one before September I will reorder. Otherwise I will look elsewhere for a better product. The screen issue itself had me wanting to return this xps.

 

I got great results using LAN Speed Test -- but wifi was off! The computer is not connected, in any way, to any LAN, yet this LAN Speed test rated it exactly the same as it did when I was connected via WiFi. And yeah, that's on the full version! This test seems to measure read/write times, and that's about it, unless I've missed something?!?! So I'm not sure this test makes me feel any better about the performance issues we're seeing with this model!

 

I used DSL reports and while I am not getting consistent speeds, on the XPS 14 I did get the highest rate speed from even further away then earlier tests (10Mbs vs 8Mbs). So overall I am pleased with the speeds I am getting.

 

Not sure how you could do it not connected to your network as you have to choose a location to write the file. Yes you can choose a local folder, but that obviously wouldn't show you your network speed. If you don't have another computer on your LAN then the program isn't going to be very useful.

 

Can you request a second replacement? Alternatively, perhaps get in-home repair on the trackpad?

 

Doh, that's exactly what I did. Sorry! I'll use the test to check properly... Thanks JT!

 

My WIFI is great so how can it be a chassis design issue?

Out if interest, those with WIFI issues - are you using the original factory image or did you do a clean install?

I did a clean install and as already mentioned, mine is fine. I'm wondering if you need to re-install the drivers in a particular order?

I downloaded them & copied them to external HDD. I installed the Chipset first, then Video, Sound, then WIFI. I didn't connect to the Internet until all my drivers were installed. I then applied Windows 7 SP1 and rebooted. Connected to the Internet then ran Windows update to get the 100+ pending hot fixes.

Perhaps you guys did it a different way which may affect the WIFI? This is not as daft as it may seem as we had issues at work with HP ProBooks with exactly the same problem, ie; incorrect installation order (albeit they were on XP not 7).



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Are you using infinity? What speeds are you getting in a different room to the router?