XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

I was using the Dell Synaptics driver and some of the key gestures that Synaptics shows on its WIndows 8 page (ie swiping in from a side) aren't implemented yet. I guess I'm just surprised that there are no beta drivers *anywhere* to be used. Lenovo does have a beta but it seems to be locked to their hardware.

As to the graphics - I let MS Windows Update handle the drivers first and then went to the manufacturers for the betas and still had the same problem.

Either way, I think I'll let the RTM settle a bit more before upgrading.

 

I downloaded the Synaptics drivers for Win7 64 off support.dell.com and they worked just fine on Win8 RTM 64. Did you try those?

 

Gestures are working fine with me.

I would recommend you to wait until full release anyway. Its only 10 days away!

 

The Dell driver has gestures but Win 8 has a different set of gestures if you look on the Synaptics site.

Anyway, I will hold out for the Win 8 release - I'd expect they will update a few of the drivers.

In the meantime I've got a very noisy fan that sounds like a blender which kicks in after a few minutes of gaming. Dell's sending out a replacement tomorrow. Quite usable in the meantime as long as I don't do anything with the gt630.

As always, XPS service is great - 10 minutes on the phone and the part's on the way - no static whatsoever. Probably be fixed by the weekend.

 

I'm not sure that it means much, but when I check the i7/HHD version of the XPS 14 on Dell's site, it doesn't seem to configure with Win 8. I would read that either as "we're not organized enough to update our listings in time," or "we're not ready to list this item with Win8 because we can't guarantee that it will ship fully functional."

-Matt

 

Looks like Amazon has gotten wind of a few complaints:

Amazon.com: Dell XPS XPS14-10909sLV 14-Inch Ultrabook Laptop (Silver): Computers & Accessories

I'm 99.9% sure there's nothing wrong with the description.

-Matt

 

I disagree with your statement, Dell never advertised this as one of their key Win8 laptops. Hopefully, when Win8 is officially launched, Dell will have all our Win8 drivers ready to go. Only thing I am lacking is full gesture support, everything else is awesome. I love my XPS14 and don't miss my XPS M1330 at all. This was the laptop I was waiting for to replace my old XPS.

 

Just noticed that the XPS 14 is actually in the European Dell outlet when accidentally looking at Inspirons instead of XPS, for whatever reason.

Might actually consider picking up an XPS 14 if I can get one for around £600-700. Rather than the £1000+ that Dell demands otherwise, because I would not pay full price for one given the reported screen quality.

 

I think the quality of the display is fine, its the wireless you need to be concerned about.

Just another quick report for everyone. While surfing the net is possible now w/ the latest drivers, finally had occasion to use my XPS w/ some semi-big pictures (10 megapixel images) stored on my NAS device, over wireless. So, 4-5mb per pict. Wow, talk about poor. It's utterly terrible. I can pick up the V131 and pop 200mb of pictures over the wire in no time. Can't get 20mb over the wire w/ the XPS 14 in a reasonable amount of time. The transfer rate during the copy is all over the map from a few MB/s to nearly 100MB/s. V131 runs a nice semi-flat line.

On top of that, I am still plagued w/ an issue that whether I clean boot, come out of Win 8 logoff/hibernate, or come out of sleep...within a minute, connection gets whacked. After I reconnect, no more problems. Also, if I go ahead and kill the connection myself and reconnect, I never get booted in the first place.

So, still issues.

 

XPS 14 listing now updated as shipping with Win8:

New XPS 14 Ultrabook backlit chiclet keyboard, HD+ & long battery life | Dell

EDIT: Also seeing updated listings at Amazon and Costco, though the ones at Amazon are rife with errors, e.g,, screen display listed at 1366x768 and 3 USB ports (2x3.0 and 1x2.0).

-Matt

 

I have also experienced the sleep/hibernation issue and I noticed it is faster to restart the computer because when back for sleep it takes a while to reconnect to the network

PD. Do you think this can be resolved with drivers?

 

Would you be willing to run hwinfo or hwinfo64, and paste here what it displayed for the screen's part number? The number you posted is a coded label.

 

Don't know. The initial problem of driver conflicts (video conflicting w/ wireless) made a huge improvement. But now that everything is somewhat playing nice, hard to say. I still think there is a design flaw with the screen and antennas. Could be shielded by the case itself. There is no reason that this card (Intel 6235) should be performing this poorly.

 

Received my L421X yesterday (i5, Intel graphics, 500GB HDD, Win 7). Came preloaded with A09 BIOS. Out of the box the OS could not find the sound card. Tried to troubleshoot for a few hours (not my first rodeo in the computer troubleshooting arena), then boxed the laptop back up and submitted a return request to Dell.

Out of the box, a new computer's basic functions should work. I may end up trying another L421X purchase, but will re-evaluate what the competition has and what the competition is projecting as future builds.

Thx to all the contributors of this thread. Shared knowledge is power!

 

OK folks, new drivers (Win 8). I didn't check Win 7 to see if they had updates as well. But the US support site had a whole batch of Win8 stuff added yesterday and today, including wireless drivers. I just pulled down wireless, wireless bluetooth, wireless display, and chipset. All installed, full reboot to make sure everything loaded up OK (meaning shift+shutdown so that Win 8 didn't do its logoff+hibernate trick). When it came back up, seems tons faster on the local network. Doesn't seem to have improved it's ability to pull in networks in my neighborhood like my E6510 does, but I'm typing this from my WORST location in the house, browsing is faster, just did my NAS picture test, paging thru 5mb picture files across the network from my NAS. That was IMPOSSIBLE before, either the connection would choke or it took forever. Now they pop up and I can click next/next/next w/o much lag at all. So while the jury is still out and I'll report back the more I use it...this might be the next step toward a complete fix. More to come...

 

I'm not sure if this is an error on their part, but the Microsoft store has a XPS 14 w/touchscreen on pre-order for $1149. I cannot find anywhere else online where it mentions the 14 getting a touchscreen variant. Do you guys think this is for real or just a mistake by somebody?

 

Wow, nice find. I normally give microsoftstore a B- on accuracy, but there are actually 2 13s and 1 14 listed with touchscreens (FYI, resolutions are the same): Touch PCs - Microsoft Store Online

I call it "real." Sketchy, but real.

-Matt

 

Even if it's accurate, I'm not sure I 'get' the benefit to a touchscreen laptop that is not 'convertible' like the Duo models. Maybe it's me, but to hold my arm up and swipe the screen is very unnatural and not very ergonomic. Just feels wrong. Never have understood touch monitors and touch laptops. Tablets and convertibles, yes, they can lay flat or be pulled in close with your other to make the movement natural and comfortable.

Just my 2 cents. I wouldn't fork out for anything touch that wasn't hand held and able to be flat.

 

I've owned the OG Asus Transformer for a year -- whether in our out of the keyboard dock, it's so tempting to use the touchscreen that after working on it for an hour, I move over to my laptop and start poking at its non-touch screen too!

But I think you're right -- when you're in "desktop" mode and mousing/typing away, putting your arm straight out is both metabolically and ergonomically problematic. And in my case, I have pretty bad tendonitis in my right arm (mouse-elbow?). That would put too much strain on it. However, as UIs migrate toward predominantly touch interfaces, maybe attitudes/preferences will evolve.

-Matt

 

yea, I agree, I've also got that problem (mouse elbow). Changing how I work helps a lot, but it helped more with my wrist than my elbow. Still problems there. But even in Win 8 start screen / store app mode, reaching to pan/scroll the screen and interact with an app that's built for touch, it difficult at best with arms outstretched. Even beyond the ergo problems w/ it, it's not very precise. You have a lot less control over movement and accuracy with your arm extended vs bent and swiping. Or I do at least. Maybe it's the elbow thing causing it.

But I'm pretty pumped about the Surface stuff that's out, particularly the Dell version (XPS 10). Also the Latitude 10 looks pretty compelling w/ the wacam pen and full Win 8 pro.

I think my BB playbook could get retired for a WinRT or Win8 tablet very soon...

 

Obviously you haven't used Windows 8. ANYTHING is better than a mouse with Windows 8. Just having the ability to tap or swipe is a godsend compared to scrolling with a mouse.

Now that Windows 8 is out, manufacturers are going to stick a touch-something to everything they make...whether it makes sense or not.

 

Have you been under a rock w/ my recent posts (last few weeks) here? I've been running Windows 8 on the XPS for a few weeks now. Ran it under a VM for quite a while prior to that and then as soon as it hit RTM, I pulled it down and started running it native on another machine, put it on the XPS way back on Oct 1st. I'm not disagreeing that touch is nice, on certain hardware, I'm saying, touch on a laptop or desktop is not ergonomic and not comfortable. There is no argument there, it's just a fact. Your point is completely different. Yea, Windows 8 is built for touch, doesn't mean you need it. Use the keyboard. Use the mouse. They both work just fine. I don't notice much difference between mouse/keyboard and touch. I'm just a fast and just as comfortable either way.

 

Hi, I have a question for everyone. Can anyone verify that the two-finger gesture scrolling works on MS Onenote? To me, it's been very baffling that the two finger scroll works on almost every app, but only broken on MS Onenote (which I use a lot).

I've tried both Win7 + Onenote 2010 and Win8 + Onenote 2013 preview. Touchpad drivers are up to date, of course.

Thanks in advance.

 

Win8 Synaptic drivers are out. Lots more gesture swipes are available.

Welcome to Dell Technical Support

 

Were you able to download it? Because I can't download any Windows 8 drivers.

 

I experienced the same issue yesterday. Couldn't download it in the afternoon, but later in the night the download worked. I think it works now...

 

There is quite a bit new out there now. Some mentioned the touchpad, but there is also video now, realtek stuff, etc. Looks like the full driverset for Win8, not sure what is missing if anything, looks to be everything that Win7 had. All good news. I've got just about all of it installed and running now. Even the accelerometer is now installed, even though I don't need it really w/ the SSD.

Great news...

BTW, I also had similar problems w/ the downloads. Then they seemed to work. Not sure what's up w/ that...just keep trying.

 

I still can't get through, if anybody with a fast internet connection would be so kind as to upload the drivers dropbox or a similar service that would be lovely. I'd really like to get my machine up and running.

 

First I have to agree with hylton that "Obviously" was a poor choice of words. In case you didn't read the thread, I usually recommend clicking on a user's profile and reading a few of their recent posts. Turned out you picked THE WIN8 GUY to tease. LOL

Second, I also think we need to be a bit clearer on the options. Win8 works with three "touch" input interfaces: (1) touchscreen, (2) mouse, and (3) touchpad. In the case of the latter -- though I've only had a net 30 minutes of experience with Win8 -- on a laptop with a large touchpad (i.e., clickpad, trackpad, what have you), you actually get decent touch functionality, that is, through the basic actions and gestures (though hylton has expressed some concern about precision). My impression so far is that if you're running Win8 on a traditional desktop, then using the mouse will probably feel quite limiting. On the other hand, with a touchpad as large as the XPS 14's, or even an external touchpad with a desktop, things improve considerably.

-Matt

Probably not newsworthy, but: I check the Dell XPS 14 page a few times a day (I know, I know....my therapist and I are working on that), and it's changed several times over the last week. For a while, they actually offered the mid-level model with either Win8 or Win7, but now that's gone (all Win8). The other thing that has dropped off the listing (at least the "Home" page -- haven't checked small business, etc.) is the high-end SSD model is gone:

New XPS 14 Ultrabook backlit chiclet keyboard, HD+ & long battery life | Dell

-Matt

 

I'm running Office 2013, I can't say either whether this behavior is different in 2010, so YMMV on my comments below.

I don't use OneNote much, I'm an Evernote guy cuz' it's on all the platforms I work on. But I just created a note and I have side to side two finger scrolling, but doesn't seem to work up and down. So yea, not as functional as it should be. I opened up Excel and two-finger scrolling works both directions.

Hope that helps.

FWIW, the Windows 8 OneNote store app (formerly OneNote MX) does scroll both direcitons w/ the two finger gesture. But it's a scaled back version, built for Win8 touch.

 

^ It's the same on the UK site.

The only one that is left is the i5, 500GB HDD.

 

Thanks for the verification. I'm thinking if I should force myself to switch, but then I've got too much already in my OneNote

I also think they changed the memory from 1333MHz to 1600MHz...or at least it's different from mine which came with 1333MHz (got it from the dell outlet actually..so..)

 

Ack, you're right -- I forgot about that.

I think Tabris is one the other people like me on the "XPS 13 Refresh Speculation" thread -- there's a colorful guy on over there who is dropping hints that the 13 is getting an FHD screen (latest estimate is Jan '13, I think). Of course that raises the obvious question of whether the 14 will also see a screen update or other goodies in the next few months.

-Matt

 

I had to come back and report that I found a solution to the server issues. Courtesy of knipoog over on the dell community forums.

"For anyone having problems downloading them, when you click on the download (single link) check the URL in your address bar and go to the last query string in the URL: isUSDownload. Make sure it says:

&isUSDownload=true (not false)

Once you've changed it press enter to go to the URL with the change THEN click continue it will then download. Without doing this you get an error and file not found. Repeat steps for each download link."

Windows 8 Driver Downloads XPS 15z (L511z) - Windows 8 - Software & Operating Systems - Dell Community

 

Nice one Spyda Kat. Excellent tip there.
Just downloading the complete Windows 8 x64 driver set. Will drop 'em on skydrive when finished. Just makes life easier I guess.

Link to follow...

Linkage to torrent file on skydrive: http://sdrv.ms/XFqaXv

 

Just thought I'd pass on some observations after putting nearly the FULL Win 8 driver set on my XPS 14. Some kinda new/different issues to report.

1. Seems that I now have the typical issue w/ many laptops of not having connectivity or a bad/unstable connection when coming back out of hibernate/sleep. It also takes a bit of time to establish that unstable connection in those cases. Problem w/ Win 8 is that coming back out of hibernate is the SAME THING as rebooting or a shutdown/restart...unless you shift+shutdown.

2. In the case of a shift+shutdown, when it comes back up, seems perfectly fine. Fast internet speed tests, stable, able to browse large files (picts) on my NAS at distance.

In the short term, I may have to give up my quick boot capability in Win 8. If I disable hibernate, it'll do a full shutdown/restart/boot each time and I should be OK. Other alternative is to rollback everything I installed since 26th October 2012, 02:18 AM and see if I get back to where I was that night.

For the most part, I think my late week configuration (see my 26th October 2012, 02:18 AM post here) was/is the most stable Win 8 combo. That's basically Win 8 clean install + only the wireless drivers, bluetooth, widi, and chipset currently on the Dell support site. That basically says that SOMETHING they put up after that, that I've installed, has caused instability when coming back up from hibernate/standby. What it is, not a clue. The other things I installed in addition to the stuff from 26th October 2012, 02:18 AM was: video, free fall sensor, card reader, lan, touchpad, and audio.

So, once again, Dell has release a bunch of junk w/o testing it. Will be very interesting to hear from a new XPS 14 owner w/ factory installed Win 8 config.

 

Installed full Win8 Pro yesterday. Everything seems to be working for me so far. Though i did use video drivers from intel and nvidia. No wireless issues (although i never had them on win7 either)
The only thing that isn't working for me is my screen brightness control.

Hylton; do your brightness controls work? I get the slider animation come up and the actual slider moves up and down but no changes to the actual brightness.

 

I installed all the Windows 8 drivers and utilities yesterday (once the download site started working again), and so far, I have not had any issues with my Wifi after a restart. It reconnects right back up in about 5 seconds.

I did install the Intel video driver from Dell for Win 8, but I got the nVidia driver direct from nVidia and installed that one. My brightness controls work fine (I get the brightness graphic in the upper left, and my brightness DOES change).

Did you guys install QuickSet? That is necessary, I believe, for certain things to work. I did NOT install the free fall sensor driver as I have a SSD and didn't need it.

 

Yeah, quickset is installed. just uninstalled and re-installed it and still the same. Gonna try a few more things and report back...

 

Not sure if it makes any difference, but i'm set for UEFI boot, not legacy. How do I tell if i'm using UEFI and not BIOS?

 

Fixed! Uninstalled intel video driver and used the Dell version instead. Brightness now fully working.
I have legacy disabled and booting via UEFI. You'll notice if booting with UEFI the Dell logo during post looks a bit different to BIOS mode.

Ok, I have Office 2013 release preview installed and read your posts so thought I'd give it a go. No problems with two finger horizontal or vertical scrolling here!
I'm using the Win7 touchpad driver from synaptics if that helps you...

 

Yah, I've tried that also. The generic Win7 touchpad driver from synaptics works, but the one provided by dell break the scrolling in OneNote. Thanks for the verification. I might have to talk with dell about this.

 

Why bother? I've been using the synaptics driver for years (used it on my alienware lappys before I got the xps) AFAIK if provides full functionality. Can't you just use that and forget it?

 

Yes, they do. But, it doesn't look or function the same way it did under Win 7, which was installed in legacy bios mode. I'm under UEFI now, and I suspect that's why I see something different. I now get a vertical bar in the upper left corner w/ 10 positions for brightness (if memory serves, I had 16 positions for brightness under legacy bios w/ Win 7). Volume has the same UI w/ 100 positions. What appears is obviously a windows UI, it's 'metro-fied' with a Win 8 appearance.

What I think is happening is Win 8 is providing that functionality and talking directly to the hardware...but that's just an educated guess b/c of the UI change I'm seeing and knowing that I'm on UEFI boot now.

OH, just saw your 'fixed' post. cool. I'm also running the latest Dell download for video (for Win 8).

 

Well first of all I think that I deserve to have a functional touchpad that works with OneNote out of the box - I don't know why I have to do my own research and homework to find a solution and having to uninstall a dell provided driver.

I also was thinking I might end up using the swipe gestures supported with win8, but they don't seem that useful anyway...so I'm gonna skip it.

Not trying to argue Again, I'm thankful that you could verify this!

 

Great tip - I found that you can also just delete after the & and remove the entire string and does the same thing rather than having to typre true

 

I had the same problem. After a bit of messing about I found that it's the Windows 8 driver (auto-downloaded via Windows Updates) which breaks brightness. If you download the Dell driver and install it (even though it complains it's older than the driver already installed) it all starts working again.

I have one device I can't seem to find a driver for. I have a feeling it's USB 3.0 the hardware ids are:

ACPI\VEN_INT&DEV\33A0
ACPI\INT33A0
*INT33A0

Anyone have any idea what it is/how to fix?

Nothing annoys me quite like a yellow exclamation in my device manager!!!

Typical... spend 3 days looking for it, post this message then take another look at the Dell website and found it straight off... it's the Intel Smart Connect driver.

I forgot to tick the box to show all drivers for the XPS 14 rather than just those unique to my service tag.

Ah well... sorted.

On another note, despite HATING Windows 8 BETA versions the final version isn't all that bad. Still not keen on 'Modern UI' formerly known as Metro, but nothing WIN + D can't put right. And as for a lack of 'My Computer' options, WIN + X deals with that very nicely. Loving the 5 second boot up too. Much more like it...!

 

Yeah, I'm kind of liking it! Still not convinced though. Installed it at work today too. So I'm forcing myself to get used to it. AND i refuse to use any of those start button apps. Thats cheating! Might just as well stick with win7 in that case. I've only installed it on my mSATA drive on the XPS though. Still not committed enough to take the full plunge and wipe my win7 install! If only this thing had a touch panel!

 

I'm still liking Win8 for the most part. Particularly w/ multiple screens going, which make it much more manageable. One thing I really like, believe it or not, is the PIM stuff (email, cal, people). I have never been a fan of Outlook or Windows Mail. Email should be as simple as texting, and the new UI kinda does that for me. Uncluttered, only what you need right there, nice multiple account support. You can even put each inbox right on the start menu in it's own tile to easily monitor what's coming in where. To do this, when you are in the email app, on the lower left corner the account list is displayed. Just right-click and pin to start. You can change the tile size back on the start menu if you only want the square w/ counts vs the full active tile w/ rotating new messages. Love it!

Add SkyDrive and it's integration into everywhere in the OS now, the 3rd party Pandora 'Modern UI' app, also Evernote and OneNote...I'm pretty much able to devote the XPS 14 screen to the Start Menu for housekeeping and my second screen to development tools. I'm definitely hitting a groove using it and finding it (for the most part) better than Win 7.

Another feature I like ALOT is having the taskbar on both windows with only the apps for that window appearing at the bottom. To do this, right click your taskbar, Properties, Show taskbar buttons on (pick Taskbar where window is open). Very Very nice add. If Win 7 had that, I'm not aware of it.

 

I've been using Windows 8 for months, and I knew it wouldn't be the mess people like to complain that it is. When I got my XPS 14 I had to wipe Windows 7 from it because I could not go back to life pre Windows 8. I just wanted to add for anyone else on the edge that my Wifi seems phenomenal, now granted I'm coming from a 2009 machine, the one in my signature so I may not have the best idea of what is acceptable for 2012, but I'm happy. The keyboard? It's subjective but I think they may be a bit shallow, at this point I've only been using it for one full day really so I will adjust. This is really a phenomenal laptop.