XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

IsLNdbOi - Glad I could help.

The numbers are kind of weird - 405 Read is in the SATA 3 range (3gbps = 375 MBps) but the write speed is less than SATA 1. I'm not sure if there's some sort of bottle neck on the PCI-e side or if it's the mSATA. Either way, using the mSATA for storage seems the best idea.

Remember if you're using UEFI that setting up the Rapid Start (which I strongly recommend) is a bit of a PITA because id=84 (as shown in the Intel guide) doesn't work for the partition on the UEFI. If you can't find the id, give me a shout.

 

Yes. Oh, I also disabled the legacy BIOS, so only UEFI was up and running. In terms of Rapid Start, the only thing that happened on my system was that the dell driver would not install, but then out of the blue I saw that a driver came in through Windows Update, I ran it, set it up and it says that it's working. I should note that I am using the stock drive setup, the 5400 spinner and the mSata. I did wipe both of them though. Besides that, be wary of Dell BIOS A12. It's breaking the track pad for some people although the generic synaptics drivers instead of the Dell ones should remedy that.

 

I'm close to pulling the trigger on this with the Microsoft Store option... I may want to wait a few weeks to see if Black Friday has any killer deals, though. One question I had was piqued by a comment earlier in this thread: are the 500GB HDD and 32MB SSD separate, such that I could replace the 32MB SSD with a 256GB one, and still have the 500GB for movies and music? If so, that would be awesome. I was planning to get an external, but an internal drive with that amount of storage would be perfect.

Thanks.

 

Black Friday is 10 days away -- closer than it seems! Also, the 32GB SSD is on a separate, mSATA card. Check out the pictures here:

Review Dell XPS 14 Ultrabook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

-Matt

 

I was going to be listing my i7, 8gb ram, nvidia gt630m, 32/500 hdd for about the same price as the microsoft one. I am just waiting on tech support to come replace the flaw on the screen (there was a speck of dust behind the gorilla glass). I am still w/i the 21 day return policy but figured I'd pass my deal on to a fellow member before sending it back to dell. Mine has the one year door to door concierge service that we don't know if the microsoft store will offer. Oh yea, I have win8 on mine too... either way, pm me if you are interested.

 

Hey guys, I need your help. Just bought my xps 14 and wanted to install windows 8 to hopefully help with the problems people have been reporting. The only thing I've done since first setup is install a11. I went in and enabled UEFI and then tried to install W8, but neither of the to internal drives are being recognized by the install program. I disabled UEFI to see if that would fix it but it didn't help. Any ideas?

 

I just purchased an XPS 14 with an i7 processor and a 500GB HDD. From what I have been reading here I can replace the 500GB HDD and the 32MB card with larger and faster SSD drives?

Possibly a 256GB SSD in place of the 32MB for the OS?

If so I would like your recommendation on what to replace these two storage units with.

Thanks

 

Are you doing a clean install or doing an upgrade from win7?

 

Is the flash drive you have the W8 image on formatted in FAT32? UEFI cannot install from NTFS media. Check that and let us know.

 

The Samsung 830s are popular in this thread. Amazon.com: SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7PC128B/WW: Computers & Accessories

 

Yes, it is formatted as Fat32. I was trying to do a clean install, but when that didn't work I tried the upgrade option. But even then it wouldn't work. In UEFI bios my hard drives aren't recognized. So I can't boot windows 7 when I disable legacy. It just stays at "checking media" until it fails and reboots. Maybe that's the real problem.

 

It's not. Microsoft occasionally has these stellar deals.

 

How did you set up the W8 image on your flash drive?

 

Just followed the directions on the install assistant or whatever its called. Kept nothing and chose to install on media. I don't think anything is wrong with the setup itself. I think that the bios just isn't recognizing my hard drive. When I click on UEFI to set boot order there is nothing there, is that typical?

 

Not to sound like an idiot here... but is it an ISO image.... I know when I followed the instructions, it gave me an exe file that I had to start in win7.

 

Try re-enabling the legacy bios and going at it again. If possible if you have the W8 ISO, just copy it's contents to your flash drive. I think I remember disabling the legacy boot after I had done the install.

 

I had an ISO :S. You did the upgrade assistance thing? I got a straight ISO from Microsoft DreamSpark.

 

I don't have an ISO, i got mine as an .exe. I factory restored to see if that would help and it didn't. I've tried all I can think of in regards to the setup. Should those drives be showing up under UEFI in bios? I feel like it has to do with my bios and not with Windows 8.

 

Yes they should be showing up. Okay what all did you change, you wiped the drives, you installed A11 and what else? Also, since you have the exe file, in what form is it, external drive, flash drive? And did you change the boot order so that it would find your install file?

 

If its an exe file, don't you have to just run it...

 

Maybe I should fall back on this one then, I'm not familiar with that method since I didn't do it.

 

Its intended for a walk through upgrade... its not actually a fully clean install but will give you that option if you so desire. This is different than booting from an iso file on a USB drive.

 

So, I was looking through my brother's newest Dell catalogue when I noticed it said that the XPS 14 with W8 came with a Full HD display.

Then again, the same catalogue says that some of the desktops have 6 MB] of memory. So take that as you may.

 

But I'm sure I read somewhere that it gives you an option to do a clean install. Anyway, I misunderstood the parameters involved here.

 

I know this is an age old question, but I never really bothered to look into the reasoning behind it.

i5 vs i7. There's about a £80 (~$130) difference between i5 and i7 models on the Dell Outlet. Would it be worth getting the i7, or just use the saved money and put it towards something like a 256GB SSD.

I'm at least aware that the i7 will only really see advantages in things normal people wouldn't do, like media encoding and the like.

Depending on Dell's next releases, I may sell it within the year, so that's another factor to perhaps consider.

Also, is there any way to have the minimum clock speeds on the processor to be a bit faster, say a minimum if 1.9GHz.

 

An i5 is plenty for most people. 130 for an SSD can get you a decent msata and you are likely to get more use from that than you are the .2 mhz

 

Do I need to wipe both drives before doing the install?

 

Tell us the current state of your system, does the Windows 7 Install still exist and can you boot into it? You're using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant exe, correct?

 

Well, I got it to work by changing to ATA in the BIOS. Although I wasn't thinking and did a clean install which the upgrade key doesn't work with to activate. Anyways, thanks for the help guys.

 

After returning a badly repaired HP Folio 13 (taking a detour with an Envy 6) and switching to this sweetie about two weeks ago, a few observations and a question:

- After having first powered it, I heard strange clicking noises, as if something was literally switching, I imagine it could be a GPU switch or the harddisk?
- The machine featured an "i5" sticker, although the software says it's an "i7".
- The "4" key needs a tad more pressure than all others.

Can anyone recommend a step-by-step guide to upgrading to an SSD? I don't mind reinstalling everything and I have an external optical drive (well, and Windows 8 on a DVD), reading about the USB hassles folks on here were having.

 

Have you guys faced wifi issue ?

 

The sound is the hard drive head locking into position, well I imagine that's what it is. The Dell manual for this model tells you how to go about opening up, there are also some posts in this thread, around page 70 through 80 I think.

 

I'm a new XPS 14 owner, which I bought from the Dell Outlet.

A few questions (that are probably answered in this thread, but lost in the volume):

1. I got a 500GB 5400 HD. There's no mention of a 32GB mSATA drive. Do all XPS 14 with this drive have the mSATA?
Can I fit an mSATA drive anyway? Any parts needed (apart from the drive)?

2. Comes with Windows 7, but would like to install a Linux distro that needs minimal tweaking. Can you recommend one?
I'm trying Debian, but having WiFi issues.

Cheers
Seb

 

Nope... none here. There were talks of wifi issues on the XPS15 and I had a 15z in the past and I know the headaches there. The xps14 has been great as for connecting to my house and even local hotspots.

 

You know life is so ironic it isn't even funny. I just got hit with this same problem today. I did nothing. I just restarted my computer and then bam, blue screen. Not being afraid of nuking my install I go to do so, and then I see that it doesn't detect my drives.

 

Im sorry, although I'm glad i'm not the only one facing problems. Do you guys know of a way to get IRST working after installing w8? If I change the mode back to IRST in BIOS I get blue screened. Do I need to be on IRST before I upgrade to W8?

 

Throwing a plug out there for me... I posted my XPS14 for sale in the sale section... Long story short, Christmas bills, student loans, and a retina macbook pro... Either way, its cheaper than the one on the microsoft page and has win8, 8gb ram, full dell warranty, and discrete graphics GT630m

 

I'm not sure. I'm looking at the IRST program inside the Windows install right now and it says its working. But I'm pretty sure if I check the BIOS it'll say ACHI.
Looks like it needs to be set before hand http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/278410-32-intel-smart-response-technology

 

Okay. Life sent this problem my way for me to figure it out and help others, here is how you enable Rapid Start Technology. First things first, if you already have a Windows install and in the BIOS the SATA mode is not set to Intel Smart Response then you have a clean install in your future. I found no other way. Change that and start installing, on my system, it did not recognize the drives, it asked me to load the driver. Download the zip file here and put it on a flash drive and plug it into the system and load the driver when requested. http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=21730

I formatted the SSD for good measure during the install.

After the system has installed, install all the relevant drivers on the dell download page. and what not. Open a command prompt, and type "diskmgmt.msc" Look at the drive for the SSD and delete it's volume. What we're doing here is ensuring that the drive is not showing up under My Computer as location you can access and store files on.

This is the meat of the matter, make sure you install the Intel Rapid Storage driver. Found here.
Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

After you reboot, open up the Intel Rapid Start program and you should now see the option to accelerate your drive, thereby achieving all your wildest dreams. If it does not work, I am sorry. Re read this and reference google. I hope this finally puts this horse to rest.

 

Hey yall, I got my XPS today and was trying to install Windows 8, while booting, blue screen came up with error: "Inaccessible_boot_device" then it shut down.

What should i do

btw here is the list of incompatible drivers, wonder if it has anything to do with it.

 

Did the zip just show up for you when you browsed for it? i downloaded the f6flpy-x64.zip but it isn't showing up when I look for it.

 

On the topic of SSD installation, on this topic, I've found only this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...4-ultrabook-owners-lounge-88.html#post8861883

Outside of here, there's this:
Dell XPS 14 (L421x) Ultrabook Hard Drive Removal and Installation

 

You will need to unpack the zip file either to a folder on your bootable OS USB stick or any other usb drive. Then browse to it during install process.

 

Since I didn't really like the presentation over there, here's an easier to print version of their info.

Sorry but the attachment manager on here isn't any better.

 

Yes this is true.

 

Yes. I just sent my XPS 14 back today due to terrible WIFI. I was getting about 0.44Mbps on speedtest.net.

I tried to remedy the problem by using a mini usb wifi dongle, but I tried three different ones and the speeds on those were terrible too. There was also a problem with my screen, it had a white spot about 1/4" in diameter. It wasn't dead pixels, it was more like a problem with the backlight.

 

I installed Ubuntu on mine. Everything ran great including touchpad scrolling (Wifi Signal was weak but that's not Ubuntu's fault).

The only tweaking did was install the newer video drivers for HD 4000. Ubuntu came stock with an older version that worked fine but was a little sluggish. Here's the thread I followed to do the update: [ubuntu] 12.04 64-bit and Intel HD4000 - Page 2 - Ubuntu Forums

 

Are you sure you were using the newest drivers? I have been really impressed with the wifi rates...

 

Hey Spyda Kat, could you actually accelerate your drive once you got it all set up? I keep getting blue screened each time the software tries to accelerate the HDD. Also, did you install Win8 on UEFI and GPT?

EDIT: Alright, did some research and it looks like IRST doesn't play nice with EFI because of the extra partitions. I am going to try to move those partitions over to the free space on the cache ssd and see if it will work, but most likely not. Will report what happens.

 

Thanks for making my life MUCH easier. really appreciate your detailed steps. saved me so much time as i was about to embark upon the journey myself to fix up a few xps 14 & 15s.