XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

On the precipice of ordering from the Outlet.

4GB single, and later upgrading it to 2x4GB (if possible) or 8GB single channel and leaving it as is. It's about a £25 difference.

Also, has anybody ever phoned up a Dell (UK) outlet to try and wing a bit more discount, or is that asking a bit much considering how much they've been discounted already.

 

Yes it did accelerate and the BIOS is set to UEFI. All I did was set BIOS to UEFI, set SATA mode to Intel Smart Response, proceed to install, formatted the drives from the Windows install interface, all of them, even the small sized ones that UEFI creates, for good measure. It should be working, I have the exact same setup as you, the stock 5400 and SSD drives and IRST is confirmed to be working. Follow the instructions again, maybe you missed something.

You're welcome good sir. Return the favor to some other poor soul on a message board when you think you can help.

 

Do you really feel a bump in performance with the IRST?

 

after successfully replicating the steps to get IRST from fresh install, i did the same on a xps 15. i was on A04 bios and didnt have option for UEFI. so i proceeded to install on legacy bios with SATA as "Intel Samrt Response". strangely enough the SSD drive was showing up as 1GB during install & post-install. same thing under IRST. did i mess up somewhere? why would the SSD be 1GB? i did upgrade the bios to A12 later on but it still shows up as 1GB SATA drive in IRST software as well as "Computer Management". anyone seen this before? i dont want to waste another hour doing the reinstall on UEFI bio sunless i know its going to make a diff. even though i did buy it used, i doubt the mSSD will be 1GB.

 

It would be nice for someone to document a fresh install of Windows 8 (or Win7) that utilizes the 32MB SSD drive and the 500GB HDD to their best potential. What are the best BIOS settings before starting the install? Which are the best drivers to use during the install? etc......

Anyone willing to do this would sure help a lot of us new XPS owners struggling to "get it right" the first time and move on....

Thanks

 

But....that's what I did....

Yes, in startup and shutdown times for sure. I haven't used it for daily use without IRST being setup so I can't comment on any performance gains there, but I imagine it would fall if I weren't using IRST.

 

Just lowered the price on mine in the for sale section, hoping it sells this weekend, I have a local guy interested but he is trying to secure the $$.

 

Same as what Spyda Kat said. I had windows 7 when I purchased it, didn't like it so I upgraded to Win8, and then I found out that I had the IRST which I wasn't aware was working or not in the Win8. After fiddling around with the settings for a bit, Did a clean install with Win 8 and was able to get IRST working, and then the laptop seems so much snappier. If you're not using it, I think your losing a lot of the potentials of this machine.

I haven't succeeded with UEFI (can't remember how I did the settings), but the consensus here is that UEFI helps in booting the device faster.

 

Okay SpydaKat, I am still not getting it to work. This is the process I went through, let me know if there is something wrong here because I can't figure out what the heck I'm doing wrong.

1. download windows8 to usb.
2. Boot into BIOS, make sure that Sata mode is set to Intel Smart Response Technology and that UEFI is enabled; Also double check to make sure that USB is recognized by UEFI.
3. Boot to USB in UEFI mode. Begin setup.
4. Choose advanced, delete existing partitions on system drive (480ish GB) and any partitions that exist on ssd (30 GB).
5. Select system drive and let windows install. Go through initial setup stuff.
6. Reboot to bios and disable Legacy.
7. Install Dell windows 8 drivers. (Let Windows update do its thing to)
8 Reboot.
9. Install iRST software.
10. Reboot.
11. Click Enable Acceleration in iRST, set up cache[have tried with all cache capacity options], choose to accelerate system drive, and press okay.
a. The software has no issue creating the volumes on the SSD, shows up as data and cache volumes.
b. Then one of two things happens: The software hangs and I get blue screened with the error message CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED or A popup appears and says "An unknown error has occurred please restart your computer and try again".
12. I restart, try again, same thing happens. Over and over again. I have reinstalled the RAID drivers several times to no avail. If you see anything I did wrong please let me know.

 

#6. I had disabled legacy at the start of it all. That way, before Windows 8 is installed, UEFI was the only boot mode enabled. Did you hit go to DiskMgmt and delete the volume on the SSD after the installation was complete? Also, in device manager, are there any yellow bangs which indicate that a driver hasn't been installed? There's an option under preferences that says Auto Rebuild, try enabling that then going back to status and hit refresh button in the top right. Finally, during the install, you had to load the drivers correct? If so, was it the 64bit driver (I'm assuming your Windows 8 build is x64). On the intel download page there was an x64 and x86 driver. Beyond that I cannot see anything that you did differently. What BIOS version are running, A10, A11 or A12?


I took some screenshots of what I've got going on.

http://i.imgur.com/S0uFd.png
http://i.imgur.com/V9Osy.png
http://i.imgur.com/fChxV.png
http://i.imgur.com/1QfiT.png
http://i.imgur.com/voEgW.png
http://i.imgur.com/5AYrf.png

 

^ Looks just like mine. I did the max acceleration though.

 

Hi guys, I'm a newbie. I just recently bought the XPS 14 L421X. I got some wireless issues too, i updated all the drivers listed on dell website and it wasnt improved much. I ran a speed test and I only got 7.2 Mbps for download speed which is much lower than my friend's macbook pro 13 inch 2010 (her macbook got 25mbps). Anyone know how to fix the problem? I did a small research and people said Dell still unable to fix it. Maybe I will just return the laptop and get my money back

 

Bumping this.

 

Is there any way to fix the wireless problem? I receive weak signal, i have heard some Dell agents suggest to use the internet USB adapter to fix it. Any thoughts?

 

It's more of a plaster than a fix. From what I've read, there's no real fix for the wifi problem short of getting a full replacement with a bit of luck.

 

as any one order from the Microsoft store? and can tell how the computer? is it new? and as Guaranteed?

how many ddr slots there is ? and there is a Difference between 1333 MHZ TO 1600?
what better 2x4 or single 8 gb?

 

I can only answer the second question (which has been answered quite a lot of times): the XPS 14 only has 1 DDR slot, but FYI, swapping a 4GB ram to a single 8GB is quite easy.

 

I ordered mine from Microsoft Online Store with discount, the machine looks good, everything is fine but the wireless card. I'm thinking about returning it if the problem is unsolved.

So what do you suggest? Returning it or replace the wireless card, i know it isnt Dell's fault since other laptops using the Intel N 6230 card also face the same problem.

 

the new driver didn't fix the wifi problem?

 

Mine come with faulty HDD, it made noises and crashed early today. I'm gonna ask for a replacement or else I would just return and make new purchase.

 

I also received the laptop a few days ago and only just noticed the wifi problem. Its really bad.

I placed my M11x R1 next to it and performed a speed test (speedtest.net).

M11x got a score of 23Mbps
14 Ultrabook got a score of 3.5Mbps

I'm tempted to perform some tests:

1. Swap the cards around (the M11x has a Broadcom DW1520) and see if the performance is better with the Broadcom card.
or
2. Install Ubuntu and see if it is a driver issue (doubtful).

Has anyone tried installing a different wireless card and get the same slow results?

 

Thanks for answering, So if i have a UEFI win8 installation all i need to do is enter the BIOS, change the SATA mode to IRST (i'm curently in ACHI) and do a fresh win8 install.

Of course later on the setup no HDD will be displayed so i charge the driver posted earlier and the HDD will show?

I ask before trying because it was very difficult to install win8 especially changing to GPT without a disk reader and only 1 USB.

 

hi
i need a answer about the wifi issue, i want to order tomorrow the xps 14
and i not from the us, so warranty may be a little problematic, so in the gt630 i5 there is still a wifi problem??
did it not resolved by the last bios\driver ?

 

Mine has the gt630m and i7 and standard Hd/SSD and No wifi issues here. I ordered mine from the outlet. On speedtest it ran the same speed as my macbook.

 

My WIFI is pretty fine.

Okay first, what's GPT, is it Gparted? You are correct. Just ensure the Windows 8 image is loaded to a FAT32 flash drive, also, use the x64 driver when you arrive at the point to load the driver to get the HDD to show.

i5 and 630M here. No significant WIFI issues. Disclaimer, I'm pretty close to my router most times. However when I'm in public places I get a decent enough signal from hotspots.

 

Lucky you, my wifi card is just so bad. When i put mine XPS next to a macbook pro 13, the wifi card of XPS is just ridiculous. However I think i can live with it since my download speed is approximately 300kbs/sec. I updated all the drivers which available on Dell website, i also called the Dell's support team and they updated mine BIOS to A12 (which is the latest I believe). Anyone here use wifi USB adapter yet? If so does it increase the wifi signal?

 

Is there a button somewhere that says go to disk mgmt during install? Is the auto rebuild option in device manager or somewhere else? And I am on a12, should i be on a11?

 

If anyone is interested, I ran some benchmarks on my Mushkin Atlas 240GB mSATA SSD and my Intel G3 300GB SSD.

I secure erased both of my SSDs in my XPS14 today and did a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on the Mushkin. As soon as installation was done, I ran ATTO Disk Benchmark and AS SSD on both SSDs.

ATTO
Mushkin:
532MB/s Write
559MB/s Read

Intel:
231MB/s Write
283MB/s Read


AS SSD was a little more interesting, though as some reviewers have mentioned, AS SSD shows us our SSDs at their worst.

Mushkin:



Intel

 

No I went into Diskmgmt after install. After installing all the drivers and whatnot, hit the Window key + R and it'll open up the run box. Type in diskmgmt.msc and then look for the SSD and delete the volume on it if it's there. The auto rebuild option is within the Intel Rapid Start application, the program featured in those screen shots. I am on bios A12.

 

Ok so today I swapped by Broadcom card from my M11x R1 and installed it onto the ultrabook. The speed wifi performance was now 3 times faster however it still had issues detecting surrounding networks (it was missing about 8!). Still however, the further I got from the router (2 to 3 metres), the speed dramatically decreases.

I put the Intel 6235 on my M11x R1 and the speed great (faster than the Broadcom), no problems whatsoever and detected even more networks.

Can safely say (with the testing I performed) that there appears to be a design flaw and something is stopping the performance of the Intel 6235 from maximum speed.

Whether Dell will identify this no one knows. I contacted Technical Support yesterday about the wifi issue and they told me that it is a hardware fault and will get an engineer to diagnose and possibly replace any defective hardware. I will wait and see what they say again after I report the results I found...

Edit: typo's

 

i try to order from the dell store and they say that they cant give me the discount!!
what a sucks!!!
there is Other good Discount on it?

 

Ok thanks, and GPT is GUID Partition Table, it is a form in which partitions are managed by a HDD, you cannot install Win8 UEFI in a disk with MBR(the classic one in pc's) and to change it you have to format the HDD.

 

Just ordered mine specs as follow...

Core i5 3317
8gb Ram
32gb msata
500gb 5400rpm
GT630m 1gb

All for £659 inc vat (Dell outlet)

Havent seen the screen yet, but hopefully it's not THAT bad. I'm coming from a Macbook pro 13 so i'm expecting a downgrade in terms of colour, and viewing angles but hopefully its not "terrible". Really would like the additional resolution and the size.

I have some questions about the hard drives...

I've ordered a Samsung 830 msata 128gb SSD. But I didn't really check the following before ordering it..... Will i be able to replace the 32gb cache drive with the Samsung 830 and use it as a full fledged SSD (OS boot drive, programs, games etc)?? If so, are there any "step by steps" to access the drive?

I plan to keep the 500gb drive installed as the storage/media drive.

Thanks for your help all

 

I'm pretty sure the Samsung 830 isn't mSATA (someone correct me if I'm wrong), its most likely a 2.5 inch SSD drive. In which case, if it's thin enough, it will have to replace your 500GB HDD.

The mSATA drive is extremely small and you can boot from it but you will need something on the lines of this product:

Crucial CT256M4SSD3 256GB 6GBps M4 SATA mSATA Internal SSD

I bought this and its very good.

 

Thank you! Saved me from a stupid mistake

So this would work fine right? Crucial CT128M4SSD3 128GB 6GBps M4 SATA mSATA Internal SSD: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

Yes that should work. Although it isn't as straight forward as replacing the mSATA and choosing it as the boot device. You will have remove all RAID settings from the Intel OPTION ROM (to disable mSATA cache settings) then set mode to AHCI.

Some tinkering is required.

 

the cpu is soldered to the motherboard?

 

I believe so.

 

Thanks a lot.

Will pick up the 128gb m4 mini sata and tinker through it. Any step by steps for this?

 

Might get an XPS 14 from the outlet today or tomorrow.

Do you guys think it'd be better to get a 64GB mSATA to boot from and an SSD at a later date, or just a straight up 256GB SSD.

 

I haven't received mine yet but my plan is this.

swap out the 32gb msata cache for Crucial M4 mSata 256gb SSD (OS, Programs, Documents), and keep the 5400rpm 500gb for media storage.

Just a quick one...do I need an additional screw of some kind to secure the mSata?

 

Is there a chance to fix the WiFi issue by installing Windows 8? Anyone fixed this issue that way?

 

I have a Dell engineer arriving tomorrow to fix my wifi issues (not by installing Windows 8 btw). I requested that they try the DW1901 wireless card as some people who have the L521x have reported this to have fixed their wifi issues.

I am hoping they do fix my wifi issue as my outlet model has the i7 3667U CPU and dont wont to have to return it - but I am not confident at all.

 

have anyone experienced peeling on their trackpad? mine is keep peeling like eraser.

 

Good news guys! I finally fixed my serious WiFi issue by installing Windows 8.:thumbsup: The performance is just awesome. So all what I can recommend is updating to 8, if you still have issues.

 

Good to know...plan on installing this immediately

 

So i tried to install win8 with IRST, however after charging the driver the setup wouldn't detect any drive, so i change back sata to achi.

 

Hi All,

I finally got around to doing a clean install of windows 7 on my new refurb XPS 14 using a Samsung SSD from my old laptop. I found so much useful info here, so thanks to all who have contributed. I was hoping that this base config without the dedicated graphics would not have the wifi issues with the latest firmware and drivers. Unfortunately it did. The connection was weak and unreliable and using my ISP's own speedtest tool I got a pathetic 1500 kb/s on a 10 MB/s connection when a previous generation XPS 15 next to it achieved the full 10 MB/s.

Anyway, I recalled one post suggested messing with the WiFi adapter's configuration settings to help things. I messed around for few minutes and suddenly everything was fine. So in case anyone else benefits here is the configuration as I set it (I'm not sure what really made the difference, but I don't have the patience to go through every permutation to figure it out):

-Under Newtowrk Connections I disabled the Microsoft Wifi Miniports that do nothing.
- in the Adapter configuration I disabled "allow the computer to turn of this device to save power"
-Set the advanced configuration as follows:
-- 802.11n Channel Width for band 2.4: Auto
-- 802.11n Channel Width for band 5.2: Auto
-- 802.11n Mode: Enabled
-- Ad Hoc Channel 802.11 b/g : 3
-- Ad Hoc QoS Mode: WMM Disabled
-- Bluetooth AMP: Enabled
-- Fat Channel Intolerant: Disabled
-- Mixed Mode Protection: RTS/CTS Enabled
-- Preferred Band: 2.4 GHz
-- Roaming Aggressiveness: Medium
-- Transmit Power: Highest
-- Wireless Mode: 802.11 b/g

I hope this helps someone.

As for the rest of the laptop: I love the fit and finish and form factor. I think the screen is fine for my needs. With an SSD as the primary drive it is very responsive. I generally like the keyboard but I can see I need to work on my touch typing to use it well. I think the touchpad is unnecessarily large leading to excessive accidental cursor moves and I miss separate mechanical buttons. It also does not respond well to certain gestures like pinch to zoom the way my XPS 15 (L502X) does. One final peeve: Stupid gap between pamrest and case catches and yanks out the hair on my arms every so often, ouch! Overall I give dell a B+/A- on this machine. For about $650 I'm satisfied.

Best,

Don

 

I also got better connection (never bothered about the speed...not to mention that I don't have any other laptops to compare), but at least disabling 802.11a and changing the wireless mode to 802.11 b/g also helped me with the connection issues. But then, it might also be due to my router...so YMMV.