XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

To people having freezes and system hangs on start up, try updating the device drive with this http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...Storage+Technology+(Intel®+RST)&DwnldID=22194
Download the one that says f6flpy-x64.zip (if you're using an x64) system. Unzip it to a folder, go to device manager-->Storage Controllers-->Intel Mobile Express...-->Update driver software. Then click on manual search and point it to the folder you unzipped.

 

Likewise. I'm away from computer in the next few days, but when i'm back I will stick to the USB wireless adapter and see if things get better.

 

Thanks. But is your workaround only for startup freezes? I believe we are experiencing random freezes not necessarily startup ones.

Sorry for posting too much, not my style, but I do love most of the XPS 14 things: form factor, battery life, etc. but these issues (wifi and freezes, specially freezes now, including sleep freezes) are ruining the experience and are incomprehensible in this day and age. Never had this stuff with the15z and M4400 which are older...

 

To be honest I have no idea. I tried to live with it because I was too lazy to do a clean install but then I got fed up and just nuked the entire thing and rebuilt it. Even on a clean install I experienced the Media Check: Fail thing. I was annoyed to put it lightly. But I believe I narrowed it down to some difference in the latest Rapid Start program and the RAID driver I had been using. I checked the intel website and found a newer version and since then I haven't had the same problems....(yet)

 

Has anyone ever changed and/or upgraded the RAM on the xps 14?

 

Well you need to shrink the main partition on your HDD and then accelerate it, then you can expand the volume again. Here is a more detailed explanation

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...-ultrabook-owners-lounge-132.html#post9007374

 

Dell Driver update:

22 new drivers have been listed for the XPS 14 Ultrabook on 2/6/13
I hope they fix a number of the commonly reported issues in this forum

 

Apparently only 2 are really new, the others are repackaged older drivers.

 

Incorrect ... I downloaded all 22 drivers dated 2/6/13 or later, and 11 were brand new, not repackaged older drivers.:thumbsup:

 

I'm only seeing 16 drivers for my service tag and 19 under the W8 option for the 14.

Should I stick to my service tag only?

edit: never mind, downloading the 16 for my service tag. Any others that I should download? 14 specific?

edit2: I was only able to install the NVIDIA utility and the touchpad update, the rest have failed. It will give me an error saying this driver isn't made for this comp.

Anyone else?

 

Hope it is not premature to post this, but it may help others or dismiss my conclusion so far, after a week or so:

- Since I completely turned OFF internal WiFi and started using external USB wireless adapter, I have had no more freezes. Not even in full force, using several programs, downloading simultaneous stuff in browser, torrents, whatever... knock, knock, knock... Frustrating not to be able to use internal WiFi, but I can manage most of the times.

- Concerning, SLEEP, closing the lid still leads to some freezes (screen turns OFF, but PC does not go into sleep mode and you have to power down), but I am being able to get SLEEP pressing power button, and have had no hang so far (after going into Sleep, I can close the lid, and when I open it, it starts the PC normally out of sleep).

 

Funny you mentioned the freeze stuff, it happened to me twice already. Both times on moderate load but always during Skype. I had Skype and a bunch of word/pdf docs open. Curious as to why that happens.

 

Hello again! So I suffered another "Media Check [Fail]" issue over the weekend. Previously I was able to resolve this and boot back into Windows by reloading the SATA drivers using a Windows 8 installation media; this time it did not work. I'm not completely sure it wasn't my fault, as I was getting frustrated at one point and accidentally started a new Windows 8 installation, which may have hindered my progress.. But I'm pretty sure reloading the drivers was not working and I couldn't recover my system.

I've had to start with a fresh installation, also losing some recent files which was very annoying. I back up now and again, but not daily. I'm now going to look at creating another partition on my hard drive, separate from the Windows partition, just to keep a duplicate of my documents and pictures, just in case Windows screws up and I have to wipe the Windows partition and re-install again.

Something I also wanted to leave a note on, in case others are having any issues, this is to do with the Synaptics touchpad driver. I've noticed that the most recent driver releases by Dell have issues for me. The latest driver is causing my page scrolling to jump around like crazy in Chrome. Web pages would jump to the bottom suddenly while scrolling for example, this was on almost every web site, making browsing whilst scrolling almost unusable. The only touchpad drivers I've not had an issue with under Windows 8 is version 16.2.12.17, Touchpad_Synaptics_W84_X11_A01_setup-JGY0F_ZPE.exe.

 

The latest one was doing this to me as well, I reverted to an earlier version which. In response to Media Check. What version of the SATA driver do you currently have installed, is it 11.7.0.1013? That's the latest version.

 

Yes that's the version I have running at the moment, although when I initially re-installed Windows I used an older version of the driver I already had on USB, just to make the drive recognisable for the install. Once everything was up and running I installed the latest driver.

Before the last Media Check problem, I was also having issues with the computer resuming from hibernation. Maybe 1 in every 3 mornings after I had hibernated the night before, it wasn't resuming and freshly booting up instead. The Windows logs were just saying the computer failed to resume from hibernation.

If my system stays stable this time, as long as I'm having no major problems, I'm not going to install any further driver updates. It feels like one problem is just making way for another at the moment.

On a positive note, boot times feel a bit quicker after the combination of this most recent install and the latest drivers. I'm wondering whether updating from old drivers to newer ones has some kind of impact here.

 

That is exactly what I plan on doing for the near future, not installing driver updates besides graphics. We've been shaped into this mold to always update to the latest and greatest drivers but my system is running fine at the moment. I'll let Intel and co sort themselves out before I download new drivers again.

 

Hi guys!
I've already changed my HDD to new Samsung 840 pro SSD but when i start the computer i get this terrible message and i can't do anything. Ok, i paid for this pc, i have no password; where's the trick? I'm very angry!

 

Yes, tried again to use internal WiFi and...it FROOZE in less than 2 hours. Not one freeze with it turned Off in more than a week...

 

I think you need to get on the phone with Dell. I have no idea.

 

Did the same, put the Samsung 840 Pro, but this did not happen. As suggested, perhaps calling Dell is a good option .

 

Problem solved. I called Atservice intel and they suggested me to call "Absolute software". "it's in partnership with Dell and Intel". They put me through a technician and i explaneid the problem(my subscription expired months ago). He suggested trying the password "123456" and then? it worked! everything went fine in the end!

 

And in other news my Media Check problems have resurfaced. This is beyond annoying.

 

I had some Windows updates install the day before the last time it happened to me, I wonder if that's causing some kind of problem? Did you manage to boot into Windows by reloading the SATA drivers again?

 

Yea I was able to. Same procedure. I think I may end up disabling Rapid Storage.

 

When you resume from hibernation, do you get the Dell logo and the little loading circle for a couple of seconds?

On previous installs, I've had the Logo and loading circles pop on screen before it transferred to the windows lock screen. This was when successfully resuming from hibernation. On my latest clean install however, the Dell logo does not appear at all when resuming and the first thing I see on screen is the Windows lock screen.

I'm thinking that something to do with the Intel storage wasn't correctly installed on my machine before, which may have contributed to these problems.

 

Yea the circle loads for about 5 seconds then goes to the lock screen. So you're saying you don't have these problems anymore?

 

I'm not having anymore faults when resuming from hibernation, and the laptop seems quicker to resume from hibernation than it did before - when the logo and loading circle used to appear.

This time when installing drivers after a fresh Windows install, I had a look at these guides http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell/550294-dell-driver-install-order-2-versions.html. I tried following them as closely as possible to install the drivers in the right order.

Basically my laptop just feels a bit quicker on startup and resuming than it did when I was having problems. I'm guessing that something wasn't correctly installed or configured previously.

 

Thanks for the advice. However I pretty much refuse to do another re install at this point. I came across a new version of the RST drivers, beta drivers. I installed them, if anyone else is having problems then you may to choose to install at your own risk. I've only had them installed for about an hour or so but we'll see. Version: 12.0.0.1083 www.station-drivers.com • Afficher le sujet - Driver: Intel Rapid Storage Technology 12.0.0.1083

 

Since I am not able to read all the pages of this topic (stopped around ~70 long time ago) I have to ask you few questions. Sorry if you think it's spam / laziness.
1. Is the wi-fi problem fixed? If no, how high is the % of the chance I get bad one. I suspect not all of them have this issue.
2. Is there any other malfunction I should be aware of?
3. How's laptop going after months of using? How about noise / temperatures? Increased or not?
4. Is it still worth buying?

Cheers.

 

1. The search function exists, also we can't predict such things but mine works fine. I'm almost always less than 10 feet from my router but I've had no issues.
2. Some people have had random BSODs related to the SSD caching feature.
3. Mine is going fine.
4. That's entirely up to you but other than the BSODs I still think it's a fine machine.

 

for 4. Haswell should bring lower power consumption/longer battery life plus superior graphics performance, and hopefully an upgrade to a 1920x1080 14" panel.

 

Does anyone know how to access the Intel Option Rom on the XPS L421X?

I have purchased a bunch of these systems with the hybrid 500GB/32GB mSATA drive setup and need to re-image them. The image was created with Intel Smart Response and Rapid Start working properly. When deploying the image to a new machine with completely blank drives, the laptop will always get a 7b bluescreen when it tries to boot the first time. I'm assuming this is because it's trying to load the quasi-RAID driver that was enabled in the original image, but drives are not configured properly since they've just been cleaned.

Switching to AHCI in the BIOS will boot Windows, but any time the SATA Operation option is changed to Intel Smart Response, a bluescreen will result.

Basically I'd like to configure the drives for Smart Response and Rapid Start outside of the OS, via the Option Rom and Diskpart inside WDS. I've seen the Intel Option Rom (where you press CTRL-I) one time, but I cannot figure out how to get it to appear on demand.

 

Hi
I just got my xps 14 yesterday. Everything seem working fines. I have a question about bios. Im not it guy. My xps 14 currently on a10 ver is that ok if i upgrade to newest version ? I already did up grade the memory from 1600 to 1866 its working normally. So if i upgrade bios to newest version ? What benefits i should get??? Please help me. Thank

 

has anyone here had issues with their xps completely freezing, and becoming unresponsive?

This has happened to me 4 times already, and at all times I had skype running during a skype call. The freeze has happened over long calls or even just 8 minutes into the call.

Every time, I would have to do a hard reset.

 

My only solution to this (and this has completely solved this, no freezes at all in weeks) is to turn off internal Wifi and use an USB wireless adapter. You lose one USB, but no freezes.

 

Hi guys

Having suffered all of the WiFi problems previously discussed in this thread, I thought I'd share my findings and a possible solution.

The basic symptoms were poor speed and range. Connecting after standby/hibernate also took an age. Some people have mentioned the aerials being to blame (or rather their position), so I had a go at connecting a set I bought off eBay which I left outside the case. This made no discernible difference. Next, I replaced the Intel 6235 card with a slightly older 6230 I pulled from my old XPS 15z. This has sorted it for me - perfect speed and range and no problems connecting. eBay has Atheros 300Mbps cards for 13 quid or so which should do the job fine, and disassembly of the laptop is pretty easy.

The only other thing I've had problems with is the touchpad. The latest Dell drivers seem to have a bug with two-finger scrolling where it jumps to the bottom of the scrolling area for no apparent reason. The palm accident check thingy also couldn't be disabled using the Dell utility (changing the setting had no effect). To get around this I uninstalled the Dell drivers and installed the latest Synaptic drivers straight from their website (v16.3.8.8). This has worked for me - all of the touchpad features work and the scrolling bug has gone.

Hope this helps someone.

 

you really think it's the wifi that caused the freezing? I sometimes use a wired connection when I'm at work and I will try and replicate it again to see if that changes anything.

 

I can also confirm that it IS indeed the Intel Centreno drivers. I can also tell you, after hours of looking at this on a brand new unit, that the drivers offered via Windows Update (which are newer then that posted by DELL are far WORSE for me with lockups then the older drivers on dell's driver download site. I can also say that specifically using the 5GHZ spectrum guarantees a lockup within a minute of network traffic using the newest WU provided drivers, and a few minutes under WiFi load using the dell drivers. The short term solution for me is to revert back to 2.4ghz only and avoid a 5ghz connection until someone figures out what bug exists in the Intel drivers shipped for the 6235 and possibly some other newer cards.

 

In my case, 100% sure.

Maybe I'll try above suggestion of using 6230 card. Anyone else has tried this? Thanks.

 

I'll try the 6230 Wifi as I also have the 15z. Did you use microsoft, 15z own dell drivers, or intel's? Thanks

 

Has anyone tried to stick 16GB of RAM into their XPS 14?

According to the specs of the i5-3317U processor in my XPS 14, it can handle up to 32GB in some cases:

ARK | Intel® Core

So a SODIMM like this:
Amazon.com: Corsair 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SODIMM Memory Kit (CMSO16GX3M2A1333C9): Computers & Accessories

(Wondering if 16GB SODIMMs weren't on the market when the XPS 14 was announced and thus Dell stated 8GB max?)

 

Has anyone tried using this:

Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230

to solve the wifi issues?

 

just got my xps 14 and want to downgrade to win7

i cant see a boot to USB option and legacy boot is greyed out in BIOS. any help or advise please?

 

Take 25% off any Dell Outlet XPS 14 Ultrabook or XPS 15 - L521X!
Dell Outlet Home and Home Office | Dell

Enter coupon* code at checkout: FB8PQHBVV6Z8V7
Offer Expires 3/19/13 at 11:59pm CT.

 

Well, my previous XPS is decidedly out of style, and I found myself more and more needing a laptop that can last a full day on a charge, so I'm giving this one a shot.

Managed to score this baby for 900 dollars even after tax:

-- Dell Outlet XPS 14 Ultrabook Windows 8 Pro
Unit Price: $1,119.00
Quantity: 1
-- Badge
-- Silver Anodized Aluminium
-- 90W AC Adapter
-- Certified Refurbished
-- US English Keyboard, 80 Key
-- 8 GB DD3 SDRAM (1x8) 1600MHz
-- 14.0 HD+ 900p True Life Infinity Display with Skype-Certified Hi-DefWebcam
-- NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M with 1GB GDDR5 VRAM
-- Windows 8 Pro
-- 8 Cell Primary Battery
-- 512GB 2.5 inch (SATA3) Mobility Solid State Drive
-- Processor: Intel Core 3rd Generation i7-3537U Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.1 GHz)
-- Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 and Bluetooth 3.0
-- PWA Daughterboard
-- Windows 64 Bit
-- 125V Power Cord
-- English Keyboard
-- Take 25% off any Dell Outlet XPS 14 Ultrabook or XPS 15 - L521X laptop with this coupon!
- $279.75
-- XPS 14 Ultrabook : 1 Year Total Support (Premium Phone Support + In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis)(included in price)

900 dollars for a 512gb SSD + a spare laptop? Hell to the yes!

Question: How good is the DAC on this laptop? What make/brand is it, is there interference on the audio jack? I don't have an external DAC, but I did get an expensive set of headphones for Christmas this year (Klipsch x10), which I freaking love. I have enough left over (SO much left over) in my budget that I can squeeze in a DAC if need be...

 

Congratulations on the awesome deal you found at the Dell Outlet for the XPS-14 with a 512 GB SSD :thumbsup:

 

Hey guys, I recently ordered a Dell XPS 14 Ultrabook and want to go about upgrading the screen. The viewing angles and colors on the stock one are horrendous. I'm trying to find a 1080p or 900p IPS display that would work with this laptop. Does anyone know what kind of monitor is in there? I think it uses a 40 pin connector but I am not sure what kind of signal it uses.Could use some help. Thanks

 

Superstitiously afraid to say so, but...

Last week, Dell replaced my internal WiFi card for a new one. The same Intel 6235. I was very skeptical, insisted on a different card to no avail.

But, since the replacement, it's been a few really full days of use without any freeze. I did some "stress usage" of Wifi, doing the same stuff I did before that was freezing windows a few times a day, but this time I had no freeze at all. Also, Speedtest has been consistently good (ping, download, upload) and stable, range seems to be what it should be. I'm using the Microsoft drivers dated 2011.

I do truly hope it stays like this, so I can now say I like everything about the machine, which I pretty much do (this is a matter of taste and type of usage, of course):

- I do like the screen. 900p is a for me a perfect compromise between the size of things in the 14" screen and definition. I'm in my forties, so younger people my "see"'differently. I did in my 30ies. The more definition and more things on screen the better at the time, no matter how small icons and letters were. Not now anymore... hehe
- I also like the keyboard, size, looks, built quality, and possibility of good disk space with a bigger mSata and a SSD.
- Trackpad still leaps away from Apple's, but I believe this is a Windows issue anyway.
- Weight could be a little lower, but I understand it is a compromise to get more battery time, which I now agree with. It is great not to have to worry too much about the AC adapter, it makes the notebook much more portable and pleasurable to use. Of course, as we all do, I look forward in the future to a lighter notebook with same or better battery time without compromising specs, but for now...
- Lack of touchscreen is not an issue for me yet, as Windows 8 still does not have the same apps and usability as a tablet. This also makes the higher weight less of a problem for now as well, as "lap" time is not as much as it would be if I were to use it instead of a tablet.
- I come from the XPS 15z (screen sucked, rest was good), and don't regret a day the change, even with the Wifi issue.

Hope this helps others.

 

I knew it was too good to be true. After giving me the run around the entire weekend I had to settle for an XPS 12 at 980 dollars. Managed to get them to give me expedited shipping for free though. Apparently the laptop ceased to exist after I ordered it. So mysterious.

Man I am so disappointed. At the very least, this XPS 12 matches the processor and ram with the-one-that-got-away.

 

I havn't read through all the pages in the thread, but any other had issues with that the system will not boot - just giving a continious beep (a couple of seconds between each beep).

Then if I tries to shut it down by holding the power button down until it turns off - and might repeat that for a few times (or even more) it might just boot again and everything seems fine.... Seems like it get the problem also when trying to wake up from sleep/hibernation - i will not start, have to hold down the power button, and then it startes to just beep....