XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

Hello again ladies and gentlemen,

I just wanted to post an update on a previous issue I had. I posted that shaking my laptop would produce a noise that sounded like something loose inside near the speakers. Someone suggested that the speaker was loose and that this was normal. After some thought, I still felt that a brand-new laptop should not have anything loose inside. So I contacted Dell and after some time on the phone, I finally got an appointment for a tech to come out and fix the issue. When the tech open the laptop, we found that one speaker was screwed down without any grommets installed. Luckily the tech had a couple with him. After installation and reassembly, the noise was gone. I guess there are still some issues with Dells Q&A so be aware some things don't get install the way they're supposed to.

Again thank you for your time and help.

Ren

 

I just wanted to take a moment and comment on my new XPS Ultrabook 14 that I just received yesterday. I was a little worried after I had ordered and found this thread, with a lot of negativity in it. I must say, I'm very pleased with the laptop I received.

I ordered the i5 3317 with 4gb of RAM and the 512gb spinner drive. At the time, I also ordered a 128gb Samsung 830 SSD and an 8 GB upgrade for the RAM. The laptop and parts all arrived yesterday, and after a little trepidation with what looked like a daunting task of swapping out the parts, I dove in and got everything upgraded in just under 30 minutes. I clean installed Windows 7 Pro and loaded most of the drivers from Dell's website, then followed a lot of the advice found in this thread and the Sean's thread linked earlier in this thread, and I'm very pleased with the results.

My laptop boots up from cold off in 15-17 seconds, and resumes from hybrid sleep almost instantly. By boot up, I mean from the time I press the power button to the time the login screen appears.

The laptop came with BIOS A09 preinstalled, and I downloaded all of my drivers yesterday. The drivers I downloaded and installed (I forget the order I installed them in, sorry) were:

Dell Quickset (needed this to change from "splendid color" to "generic color" in the Win+X dialog)
Realtek Audio
Intel Bluetooth
Realtek Card Reader
Intel Chipset
Intel IMEI
Realtek LAN
Synaptics Touchpad
Intel USB3 Controller
Intel Video Driver
NVidia Video Driver
Intel Wifi
ST Microelectronics Motion Sensor

I haven't had any issues with Wifi range yet, but I also don't have much interference in my house. When I get a chance to field test it in the coming weeks, I'll provide an update.

My screen is crisp and bright, and this laptop is a major improvement over my dead XPS M1330 that it's replacing.

It's heavy, everyone is right about that. Also, the touchpad takes some getting used to. I would like to see if there's a way to make movements on the bottom of the touchpad (where the "clicks" are for LMB and RMB) not be detected. I think there are, I saw some areas in the driver from Dell that I may play with to tweak it, but I already have both a BT mouse and an RF mouse that I was already intending on using with the laptop, so I'm not too worried about that just now.

Now, I understand, this laptop is only a day old and I haven't gotten to extensively test it, but so far, I am very happy with my purchase.

 

Thank you wcselby for the info. For clarification, does the XPS 14 you have contain the Intel or nVIDIA graphics card?

 

Mine (Core i7 with HDD) arrived last Friday -- I unfortunately only kept it two days, due to a defective fan. (I was AMAZED at how quiet it ran! LOL). In any case, my impressions/experiences were the same: strangely dense and heavy (but acceptable), exceptional build quality (overlooking the speaker issue, of course), excellent display (vivid and clear, no significant horizontal viewing angle problems).

I was especially attentive to wifi issues, and found that I not only got 20Mbps (1 floor away from the router) with speedtest.net, but regularly got 15-18Mbps transfer speed between the XPS and other machines in my network. I'm sorry I didn't look closely at the drivers before returning it, my bad.

I've been "on the market" since May, and this was my fourth or fifth machine -- I've lost count (Asus, then Samsung, then Sony, then Asus, then Dell...). I decided to replace an aging HP with a sub-$400 Samsung, which I'll use for the next several weeks to ride out the end-of-October post Win8 announcements. If nothing else as gorgeous as the XPS 14, with a 630m or better, pops up on the horizon, I'll pick up a new one and report back!

-Matt

 

Something is amiss, my 128 Gb 830 takes approx 16 seconds to ready desktop from the time the BIOS bar finishes, no password.

Just shy of 22 seconds from pressing the power button to ready.

 

The boot times are due to the BIOS and it's interaction w/ windows. I think it's been discussed before and somewhere in this thread or the XPS 15 thread, someone commented (true or not, dunno) that Dell even admitted that it was what it was and they never intended on these machines booting blazing fast (huh).

That being said, if you have flashed the latest BIOS, there is now an option in there to switch from legacy to UEFI boot. Once you do that, and I can't speak to Windows 7, but Windows 8 boots in around 8 seconds. I'm also running a Samsung 830 SSD (128gb) in tandem w/ the stock 32gb Samsung mSATA. I'm booting from the 128gb drive.

Windows 7 will install from UEFI boot, but you'll have to start from scratch. Keep in mind 2 things if you go this route.

1 - UEFI is only 64-bit, so x86 Windows 7 will not install.
2 - In UEFI mode, booting from USB for the install, the USB thumb drive needs to be FAT32. UEFI cannot boot from NTFS. I just formatted my thumb drive as FAT32, mounted the ISO for Windows, and copied the contents to the thumb drive. It booted and installed windows from there.

I don't know what boot speeds will be with Windows 7, but they should be pretty stinkin' fast.

 

Mine has the nVidia 630M card, but it uses the special technology (I forget the name of it now) that allows it use both the nVidia and the Intel based on performance requirements.

 

That's a good point for folks w/ the NVidia and still have wifi issues. You actually have the capability to be using either/or video at any given point. So your wifi issues could STILL be a result of the Intel video drivers. Update both NVidia and Intel and then see what happens.

 

So right now I'm running Windows 8 Preview, if I switch to UEFI do I need to reformat?

Do you think I would see any improvement in performance although I only have the mSATA paired with a 500Gb HDD?

 

Yes, switching to UEFI boot requires a reinstall (clean) of Windows.

What kind of boot times are you getting with the existing combo of the mSATA and spinning HD? I went from ~25 second boot times running the Samsung 830, legacy BIOS booting, on Windows 7 to an 8 second boot time under UEFI boot w/ Windows 8 on the same Samsung 830. So that's around 3 times faster. Will it be that much w/ the hybrid drive setup, dunno. It will be faster, just don't know by how much.

Unfortunately, I have 2 variables at play on my end. Windows 8 boots faster on the same hardware. Plus I switched to UEFI. I expect 80+% of that speed increase is UEFI, but I can't answer that definitively. I never installed Windows 8 on this machine w/ the BIOS set to legacy.

You might Google UEFI and hybrid drives, or standard harddrives and se what others are getting in regard to boot times. It won't be exact, but at least maybe some points of comparison.

 

Great! Thanks for your answer.

I guess I'll wait until I get a full license for windows 8 and reformat to check it out. Maybe I'll get very similar boot times to what I'm getting now but it can't hurt.

 

Jesus that's tempting...so much to re-install though....

 

Thanks but I think I'll rebuild with EUFI BIOS enabled, or install Win8 later this month so will leave for now. Cheers.

 

Tell me about it! I'm still rebuilding. It'll take me days in between more important work stuff that I have going on. I did the bare minimum to get going. Windows, Visual Studio, SQL Server, Office. Thankfully, my files were all on the mSATA or external. I only keep OS and apps on the C-drive these days.

The nice thing, is doing installs from USB these days it's FAST FAST. I don't think it even took 15 minutes (more like 10 minutes) for Windows 8 on a SanDisk USB key to install Windows 8 over to the Samsung 830. My other apps were equally as fast from ISO to SSD. If you've ever had to wait for Visual Studio or SQL Server to install, even ISO to spinning drive, you know what I mean.

I think I had myself back up and running, functional, w/in 30 minutes.

 

After replacing swapping the spinner for an SSD what use does the mSata have? Does anyone know what model hard drive the SSD config comes with? I recall reading somewhere that it is a Samsung?

 

Mine had Windows 8 on it for about a half a day before it got banished back through the ninth gate into the pit where it belongs.

Might be a future home to some distro of Linux, not sure. Most of my storage is cloud based.

It's a Samsung PM830.

 

Thanks Handsome Rob, is anyone currently using there XPS 14 Ultrabook with 2 external monitors plugged in? Is it possible to use the laptop as the main screen and the 2 externals as desktop extensions?

 

The A11 BIOS is now available for download on the Dell Support site. Has anyone tried it yet?

 

I'm all 'cowboyed' up after the wifi fiasco. I spit in the face of adversity. Installed A11 just now, so far so good.

Don't notice any difference, anybody have any ideas what's new?

 

All I get is "Sorry - the requested file could not be downloaded". Classy...

 

Dell support are working on the single download links but the BIOS is downloadable via the Download Manager option

 

Thanks - I tried both, but with the download manager just get an error message to the same effect (i.e. nothing to download).

Is it just a regional thing - being based in the UK, does it mean that I just need to wait a bit?

 

Had no issues with the BIOS download off the US site. Seems to boot faster, but since I rarely boot, usually just sleep, I may just be remembering it taking longer before.

 

I agree, got the 11 BIOS myself. Had this laptop for a couple days now. Build quality is top notch. No probs with WiFi. I have a dualband netgear. Same reception as my XPS M1330. I did upgrade it to Win8 RTM and moved the pagefile to the 32GB SSD. Screen is good, if not great. I am a casual gamer (Portal or what??) and all the monitors I own are Ultrasharps, includes my 2711U. Trackpad, very touchy and still getting used to it. I plan on replacing the mSATA with a mSATA 256GB and keeping my 500GB drive for storage. Best laptop ever and thank you Dell outlet and 25% off coupon.

 

I'm still having issues downloading files from the site.

Earlier today I uninstalled the download manager and reinstalled it. Retried and it seem to work but by accident I changed pages and the download stopped. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling again but it didn't work.

Also, there are two net session processes going on the background because of the download manager.

Oh well...

 

I bit the bullet and wiped my SSD, switched the BIOS to EUFI (disabled legacy BIOS) and re-installed Windows 7. Had a bit of a faff booting off USB stick as (a) it must be FAT32 not NTFS (as hylton pointed out) and (b) you also need to copy a file from \microsoft\boot\eufi folder to \microsoft\boot\ in order for the installation files to be picked up (I'll post a link to the article I found if I remember when I get home!).

Windows 7 still refused to go on, so I had to set Legacy BIOS to 'enabled' even though EUFI was still set as the primary. It then installed fine - BUT, I am not seeing any performance gains. It still hangs for 10+ seconds on the Windows flag logo at boot up, it should disappear the second the animation finishes.

Going back into the BIOS, I set 'enable legacy bios' to 'disabled' and rebooted. This time, once Windows boots, the whole screen is stretched so I only see 50% of the 'actual' screen but it fills the entire width of my display if this makes sense?

Anyone else seen this?

Am wondering if I need the new Intel HD video drivers (that I STILL can't download - sort it out Dell!!!!)?

On another note, still can't download BIOS A11 either. And while on the subject, what the hell happened to A01, A02, A03, A05, A07, A08 and A10??!!

 

Hiya - sorry back to being down again - I raised this as a non-US issue with Dell Support on twitter and the are looking into the dead links - I think it sounds like its OK in the US but I have tried both the US site and UK and the new downloads are all dead!

 

Similar to this?
Prepare an usb thumb drive, to boot windows 7 in U... - Lenovo Community

Spent 40 minutes on hold to Dell tech support last night regarding broken download links:

Me: "I just want to make sure Dell has acknowledged that there is a problem and will fix it.
Him: "Are you using support.dell.com?"
Me: "Yes"
Him: "Hold Please"
(10 Minutes)
Him: "Which browser are you using?"

Frustrating. But I did manage to get the address to Dell's FTP:
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Browse_For_Drivers/Laptops/XPS/XPS 14 (L421x)/

Slow, and looks mostly out of date but perhaps useful for a thing or two.

 

Great link - thanks - given up talking to Dell TBH on twitter as if you don't reply within about 30 mins they think you are a different person!

 

Guys and Gals,

Just had a request from CowboyCoder to put some of this up. So, it's up for now, not sure how long as I've got it in my Azure Storage account. It's probably super cheap, but I don't typically keep much up there.

If you guys need others, let me know. As long as I can get them DL'ed, I can pump them up to Azure.

15.1.1.0 wireless drivers
http://magnolia.blob.core.windows.net/drivers/WiFi_Intel_W74_A01_Setup-FHVG4_ZPE.exe

A11 bios
http://magnolia.blob.core.windows.net/drivers/L421XA11W.exe

8.15.10.2778 video drivers
http://magnolia.blob.core.windows.net/drivers/Video_Intel_W74_X11_A02_Setup_76RR4_ZPE.exe

15.3.0.16 wireless drivers (from XPS 15 ultrabook downloads)
http://magnolia.blob.core.windows.net/drivers/WiFi_Intel_W74_X09_A02_Setup-4KND4_ZPE.exe

 

I didn't have to do the file trick when booting off USB, maybe that's been changed w/ Win 8. I never tried Win 7 w/ UEFI, but I did try Win 8 on my E6510 last night w/ UEFI and it wasn't as seamless as the XPS. After Win 8 installed, I have to actually hit F12 each time I cold boot and choose to boot to the Windows Boot Manager or it won't boot, just hangs on a black screen. But otherwise, Win 8 runs on the E6510. Boot isn't that fast, so definitely something going on in ultrabook land w/ the XPS that makes it scream.

I can't say why it's still taking longer on Win 7, Win 8 pops immediately, there is a second or two of displaying the windows logo then the Win 8 lock screen and clock display. It's literally 8.5 seconds or less from power to keying in my password.

Older BIOS versions are there, but you gotta jump thru hoops. Click on previous versions, but then it'll say 'no previous versions', but there is ANOTHER previous version link/dropdown there...pick that and they should show up, unless there are more regional issues.

Again, if you guys need prior versions, etc...just post what you need and I'll try to get it up on Azure.

 

Thanks Hylton !!

 

Sho' Nuff...

 

FWIW, fixed my boot issue on the E6510 this evening, boots fine now, still not as fast. Takes around 20-25 seconds to cold boot. Older hardware, slower SSD (Intel 320 Sata II). All in all, still pretty impressive.

No suprise, still MUCH better reception and faster wireless speed test results in the same location compared to the XPS 14. So there are still issues, just not as bad as before. At this point, I might even attribute it to 2x2 card/antenna in the XPS vs 3x3 in the E6510.

 

I just want to say to anyone on the fence, I just got a core i5 XPS 14 with the dedicated GPU off the Dell Outlet for $814. It's certified refurbished. There is a 48HR 25% off coupon that's currently in play. It is hsk7qdkd24t4w3. There are only about 4 systems with the Nvidia card left so get to tha choppa now!

 

I can't download the last BIOS too. I always get the same error

Is there another way to download this stuff?

 

If Dell UK's outlet had an XPS 14 for half that price, I'd probably snap it up. Unfortunately, they don't.

 

Yup, I did the same deal about 2 weeks ago. You can also get another 2% off if you use your Dell Preferred Account. Laptop is really nice, I have noticed the WiFi is a little weaker when comparing this to my E6410 and older XPS M1330. Both have dual band cards in them and seem to connect at a higher rate at the other side of my house. Not a big deal because its still connecting at over 80mbps. However, I can see how that could be a problem for some people. OTher than that issue, I am impressed with laptop build quality.

 

Just received a couple XPS 14's with 512GB SSD. The order "parts list" showed "PM830" so I assumed I was getting Samsung 512GB PM830's, right?
Instead there is a LITEON 512GB LCT-512M3S.

I don't know much about LITEON SSD's (other than I heard of them being used for the mSATA SSD modules), but how are these things compared to Samsung?
The liteonssd.com website shows the specs...uses Marvell controller and has specs of 520MB/s read and 430MB/s write with 4K IOPS read and write at 56,000 and 33,000 respectively.

Should I push for a PM830? On the order summary page that shows all the part numbers of the components in my order, I did see "PM830" for the SSD part before I confirmed the order.
Therefore, I should get a PM830. (unless, of course, the LITEON is somehow better, which I doubt).

Opinions?

 

The Samsung PM830 is the mSATA model, not the full size 830.

 

My units don't have mSATA SSD's...those are only for systems with traditional hard drives. Mine have just the 2.5" SSD, and it's LITEON, not a PM830.

I don't think I'd gain anything having an mSATA SSD caching my 512GB SSD!

 

I know that. But that doesn't change that the PM830 is the mSATA model, not full size. There is no possible way for you to get a PM830 in 512GB from Dell.

 

Not sure why you say that. From my order:

1 FHYDV Module,Solid State Drive,512G,S3,#1, 7MM,PM830

I've never heard of a 7MM mSATA drive, but I do know Samsung 2.5" PM830 drives are 7mm.

 

OK, OK, neutral corners, please:

Samsung - Business - Components - Storage Devices - Solid State Drives

-Matt

 

Hylton, how exactly did you mount the .iso on the USB?

I've tried half a dozen guides this way and that, moving .efi files and browsing install.win....

Getting ready to give up on this.

 

Okay okay, no need to get hasty.

You could request a change I suppose, but I don't think you would get anywhere and it's not really worth it: the PM830 doesn't preform as well as the 830 http://joseph.jozwik.me/2012/06/10/dell-oem-samsung-pm830-vs-retail-830-ssd/

I think you are looking to create a USB boot drive.... Not mounting the .iso.

Here's something that should work: http://rufus.akeo.ie/ (BTW if you are on UEFI format it to FAT not NTFS)

 

"Hasty" = hurried. Not sure that's the word you meant.

In any case, I'm not here to argue. I know what I have and what the other parts are. My ORIGINAL question was regarding the 7MM 2.5" LITEON drive that Dell DID use instead of the PM830 SAMSUNG 7MM 2.5" drive I was supposed to get.
I do know Samsung is reliable and fast and has a good name in the industry. I (and apparently others here) know nothing about LITEON.

If anybody has an opinion on LITEON speeds and reliablilty, I'd like your opinion.

I did also order a XPS 14 Ultra with the 32GB mSATA option, and the module they installed was also LITEON.

 

hi.

i've read this thread for some time, and now got a xps14 too. i have the version with the i7, 500gb hdd, nvidia and 8gb ram. i never booted the dell-windows and pulled out the harddrive, its screws and metall stuff and replaced the msata with a crucial m4 256gb ssd. so the realy heavy xps14 is now like 100gramms lighter - thats sounds not so much, but its like doing a diet, every gram you save counts :-D ah, and if you want to do the same with your xps, you should leave the sata-cable of the harddrive in the device, because it seems very fragile, so you just tape the other end to the enclosure cause it would fall around if you dont tape it.

after that hardware handicrafts i tryed to install win8 from an usb stick. there is tool from microsoft named "windows 7 usb download tool" or so, wich can create an usb-installer-stick out of an win7/8 iso-file (it works for win8 too). but it didnt boot on the xps14, and i needed hours to figure out why! the problem was, the bios/efi will not boot the installer-stick, if you switch the efi-bios to native efi-mode and deactivate the legacy-extensions! so i had to activate efi-mode and the legacy-extensions. there was no chance to install win8 in another way. the sad thing about that is now, thats its not possible to disable the legacy-extension, because it than wont find the win8 installation. so i also cant use the win8-fastboot option :-(

BUT... my win8 boots from bios to loginscreen in 5 to 8 seconds! that is awesome! i tested a samsung series 9 ultrabook before the dell, and that device boots with the win8-fastboot feature in 2 or 3 seconds.

i wish i could know why you guys out there all could boot your install-sticks in native efi mode without legcy-extensions. :-/

another word to the drivers: there is an updated driver for the intel-graphics available in windows-update. my win8 installed it automatically, and it works perfect. and if you need the nvidia driver, just download it from the nvidia website, its more up to date than on the dell site.

had someone noticed that there is an "eject"-key on the keyboard?! its kinda funny and strange because the device dont have an optical drive! :-D

 

How if your WiFi?

 

Sweet! Thanks. I figured he meant that but he said, 'mounted the iso'...

I've been using Win7 Download Tool, Removing files, formatting to Fat and moving files back...