XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

Hi all,

My laptop is on the truck for delivery and I plan on installing my new SSD when it comes.

I want to make the 32gb mSATA just a plain old drive...

I will be installing windows 8 on the SSD using the dell recovery media (flashed to USB).

Can you let me know what I need to do in the bios to change the 32gb mSATA to just a plain old drive and then if I need to do anything to the SSD drive?

Thanks,
RR

 

Oh wow, I got my laptop today. I thought Dell was going to screw me and cancel it at the price I paid, LOL.

 

Okay guys and gals. I can't get any of the driver software from the Dell site to install. It either says not compatible or when i start it just stops part way through and disappears. Any ideas as to what is going on? Also Dell thinks my service tag is a Windows 7 PC, Yes, I am downloading my Windows 8 drivers.

 

Hi, I've got a dell service engineer coming to replace the touchpad tomorrow. Can someone please confirm if they have the same issues I'm having i.e. is double tap to move/drag items working consistently for them? I don't want to have my laptop taken apart for nothing. Please help.

 

Holy Crap... Where do I begin.

Got my XPS 14 yesterday and was so excited to unbox it.

The machine comes with 1 DVD that contains windows 8 (able to create an ISO for booting from USB drive when installing new SSD)

The first thing I did was tear it down (this thing uses EXTREMELY SMALL TORX screws - i believe it was a torx #5).

I installed my Samsung 840 Pro 128gb SSD as well as Corsair Vengence 8gb 1600mhz DDR3.

Booted into the bios- you need to change this thing to legacy mode (disable the uhfi or whatever it is) and boot from usb first.

Windows 8 installed effortlessly and within 20 minutes I was up and running.

I noticed my trackpad was HORRIBLE, I went on Dell site and downloaded the latest trackpad drivers and NIGHT AND DAY IMPROVEMENT!!! It works flawlessly now.

WIFI is strong and I get a full lock/full bars.

I am actually REALLY liking the new windows 8 start feature... I've removed all the crap and just put my most used apps/folders there so it's very similar to my normal start button, but it has the added benefit that i can just start typing and it will bring up documents/settings/etc containing what i type...

What else...

The screen looks amazing, crisp and VERY bright, I'm often finding i have to turn down the brightness.

Anywho...

Let me know if i can answer anything else for you all.

a couple questions I have...

Does windows 8 need an anti virus/malware program besides the built in tools?

I'd like to keep this thing running clean/smooth and with as little 3rd party stuff as possible.

Thanks,
RR

 

I think you'll be fine with the built in Microsoft Security Essentials. Can you confirm if double tap to move/drag items and highlight text is working consistently for you?

 

I haven't noticed this not working.

Are you referring to double clicking on an item on the desktop for instance and dragging it to the recycle bin? If so.. yes that's working fine.

Also, highlighting text is working ok, or even double clicking on a word which highlights it.

-RR

 

Yes that's what I mean but double tapping rather then actually clicking the touchpad button. Does it work all the time?

 

Does anyone know how to do this with Windows 8 already installed because I don't think mine is correct.

 

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Hi, new to this board and looking for a bit of advice on the XPS 14. Looking to buy a laptop in the next week or so. Currently have an Dell Inspiron which I bought in 2010 (first gen i3), but it struggles with everything now. Seen a refub XPS 14 on the Dell UK outlet for £891 (inc discount). The spec is;

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3537U (4M Cache, up to 3.1 GHz)
Windows® 8
8 GB DDR3 1600MHz Memory (1x8GB)
512 GB 2.5inch SATA Solid State Hard Drive
Display : 14.0 Inch HD+ (900p) True Life Infinity Display with Skype Certified Hi Def Webcam
Graphics : 1 GB Nvidia GeForce GT 630M
Back Up Media Not Included
Windows® 8 64bit (Englilsh)
Wireless : Killer Wireless-N 1202 Card

I really wanted to get the XPS 15 - L521x, but it seems there's way too many problems with it. I mainly use the laptop for photo editing in Photoshop and the occasional video conversion. I did just by an external BluRay player and was planning on ripping and converting my movies to store on a NAS. Is the processor/RAM/SSD going to give me any trouble with any of this?

Cheers

 

Hi, just thought I'd post an update for anyone who's experiencing or experiences the same touchpad issues as me. The dell engineer came as expected and replaced the palmrest and touchpad which took him all of about 45 minutes. The new touchpad works as expected and the double tap to drag is working fine so it seems like it was a dodgy touchpad after all. Only one minor gripe is how the two finger scroll erratically scrolls back up the page sometimes but I think that's a driver issue and can live with it for the time being.

 

How good of a deal is this? Ordered it yesterday, and now I'm experiencing a bit of buyer's remorse. I've been looking at Ultrabook for my daughter, who's starting college this fall. Was looking at XPS 12 and 13; this seems a bit heavier. Would I be able to find it cheaper when the Haswell models come out in a few month?

 

This machine will not disappoint.

The build quality is macbook pro(esque).

I absolutely am in love with mine.

I put in a 128gb Samsung 840 Pro SSD and 8gb of Crosair Vengence 1600 mhz DDR3 ram and this thing flies!

As far as the weight goes... I think it's perfect... It feels sturdy and solid yet light and easy to lug around.

I'd been looking at the 12/13 xps and mac book air... but at 12/13 inches it is just too small... I feel like i'd be cramped to type comfortably.

My only "gripe" is the battery life.

How are they getting the rated 11 hrs? Brightness all the way down? wifi/bluttooth off?

I'm just trying to figure out how i too can achieve that type of battery life, any suggestions?

Thanks,
RR

 

Delete Please.

 

Hi all,

I've placed an order for an XPS 14, but the wireless issues I've read bother me a bit.. are those fixed?? The units I'm looking at come with the Killer Wireless-N 1202 wifi card, if that makes any difference.

The unit I've ordered has an Intel Core i7-3537U, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GT630m and the 500GB HDD + 32GB mSATA combo, but I think it comes without backlit keyboard. I'll be installing ubuntu on the 32gb mSATA and keep Windows 8 on a 120GB or so partition. The rest will

I've applied for a 6 month credit - payment, and I'm still waiting to get al the documentation and it to be approved.

I would have liked an XPS 15 better, with that Full HD screen, but there seemed to be too many throttling issues because of heat and also wifi issues, so I went to the 14. The 13 is also very nice, but I don't need something as small and the extra battery life is welcome.

 

I'm trying to install a new SSD too but having a hard time removing the screws on the base cover, do you know what screw size they are and what tool should I use to remove them? Thanks.

 

where did you buy the screw driver? can you confirm it's Torx #5 screws? did you have to remove the memory card cover on the side first before removing the entire base cover?

when you installed the new SSD, did you have to do anything special in the BIOS? did you leave the 32GB mSATA SSD in the case or take it out? if you kept the 32GB mSATA SSD, did you delete its partition and use it as a secondary storage drive?

I believe Windows 8 already have an anti-virus program (Defender) and you do not need to install a separate one.

 

It was a torx #5.

I'd recommend taking your ultrabook with you to a HARDWARE STORE.

Radio shack didn't have the correct size.

The hardware store i went to he just fitted it into the screw and i was on my way!

 

I just got a torx #5 for my existing screwdriver (you just put the different inserts in the top).

Didn't need to remove the side memory thing to do it... check out this website it has ALL steps you need to do with pictures:

Dell XPS 14 (L421x) Repair Manuals | DIY Installation Videos & Service Guides

in the bios, you have to stop the uefi functinality... just change it to legacy... then select boot order and make usb first. then you can boot from your usb flash of the windows 8 DVD dell provided.

Worked really quickly.

the 32gb drive came formatted as just a drive, not the caching feature.

Through talking to people on here, there is no point of having it setup as a flash caching drive with a real SSD.

If it doesn't already show up in my computer as a 29gb drive... format it so that it does.

Hope this helps.

-RR

 

There are some EUFI files you can copy to your USB stick, which you dump with the Windows files. You can leave the BIOS in EUFI mode then. I think the process is documented somewhere in this thread, it was a couple of months back now.

 

Great, will give it a try at a later time. BTW, did you notice a difference in battery life after replacing the HDD with the Samsung SSD?

Speaking of the battery life, I'm currently getting about 5-hours by looping a 720p video on Balanced Power Plan, I wonder if this is normal or bad. How did Dell come up with the 11-hour battery life claim?

 

just installed a sandisk ultra 256gb ssd, having major issues now. just did a fresh install with windows 8 and its been a nightmare. it takes 15-30 minutes to boot up to windows 8 but after that it seems to run smoothly and very fast. half the time booting up it errors or BSOD and i have torestart. some people told me it might be the SSD, but i checked diagnostics for errors and there was none. anyone have any idea why?

if i throw in the original 500gb hard drive with windows 8 installs the laptop boots up smoothly. i figure it has to be either SSD or bios settings that im screwing up on.

 

@bestco: It doesn't say 11 hours of video playback anywhere. Battery life is great for me, easily lasting for a whole working day (and even evening if I'm using standby mode for breaks). That includes wireless network connection, screen on, but no excessive workload (like videos or such).

 

Hi, would you mind checking again if you missed anything? I will use your summary as a basis for the upgrade, to combat any frustration. ;(

I would like to upgrade the existing Hitachi HTS5450 hard disk with a Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVT and leave the Samsung PM830 mSATA as a performance enhancer. I guess this was, except upgrading to an SSD, your procedure, right?

Anyone else who could come up with a complete guide on this upgrade, one including links to mentioned drivers for example, would be welcome as well of course.

Thank you!

 

Hi All,
Just bought a new XPS 14 and would like to know if anyone had similar issue. It looks like all images on all web pages have applied heavy processing. Looks like there is noise reduction applied, giving the images a watercolor look. I tested FF, Chrome and IE and all look the same. Disabled all image processing settings in Intel HD graphics card, disabled hardware acceleration in IE settings, tried adjusting different screen settings like contrast, brightness, etc, but no luck. The same images look fine on my old sony vaio with windows 7 and Dell Latitude laptop (which i think has much better screen than this xps). I have updated all video drivers and bios to the latest releases and I'm certain it's not a problem with images themselves as I spot this issue on all of them on different websites.

Is this a Windows 8 thing or maybe some settings on the graphics card? What color enhancement settings do you use for intel integrated graphics?
Thanks!

 

Hit Windows key + X. Click on Mobility Center and under "default display color" set it to generic color from splendid color and hit apply and see if that clears it up.

 

Great stuff. Looks much better now.

Thanks!!!

 

it runs much more efficient with a dedicated SSD.

 

I had the same problem with the same SSD Sandisk Ultra 256GB. The Win8 installation took forever and it didn't even finish installation before giving me an error message. Then I tried installing Win7 on it, installation was much faster but it ended up in BSOD before it could be completed. Finally I switched to a Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD and put Win7 on it, everything went smoothly without problems so far.

It seems either the Sandisk SSD is bad or there is a compatibility issue between this SSD and the motherboard/BIOS.

I'll put the Sandisk SSD on my desktop new build to see if it I get the same problem. For now I'd recommend trying a different SSD for this Dell ultrabook.

Hope this helps.

 

Question, I replaced the 500GB HDD with a dedicated SSD, do I still need to install these 3 drivers? will they affect performance (good or bad?)

1. Intel Smart Connect Technology

2. Intel Rapid Storage Technology

3. Intel Rapid Start Technology

 

Doesn`t the XPS 14 suffer the same issues with WiFi Performance and Throtteling like the XPS15?

 

How does the Dell Desktop Mode and Longetivity mode work anyway? Am I supposed to leave my laptop on while it charges for it to work or can I switch it off?

 

Has anybody of you an XPS 14 WITHOUT the Nvidia card, only HD4000? I'm still debating between the XPS 15 and the 14, and now I'm considering getting the 14 without the Nvidia card, because I doubt I'll ever use it.

It's of course no cost thing, because the thing is only marginally cheaper, but I don't like having an unused Graphic card which I won't use. Any insights are welcome!

 

Yes, I'm using one. Performance is no issue for me, battery life is absolutely great and there's no noise whatsoever in combination with an SSD

 

HD4000 is fine unless you play games.

 

did you hear the noise kicking from the extra core when the computer installs something or busy working? that happens to mine.

 

No, only if I keep editing pictures with Photoshop for an extended period of time. As soon as the CPU usage stays at or above 50% for a longer time the fan will kick in. Yes, it's definitely audible. But apart from that I don't ever get to hear the fan.

 

I just purchased an XPS 14 with a i7 3537U, 8GB Ram, 512GB SSD, with Win8 pro and the 630M Nvidia.

First off, I must say I am pretty satisfied with the build and design of the machine.

Now to my issues:
I had some bad performance running games, but that was fixed with tweaking some power settings within the nvidia control panel (changing it from adaptive mode to max performance).

The thing is, my temps are running really high, CPU at around 50-60 degrees celcius (sometimes it varies between 50-70, and the CPU load is between 3-15%) when just surfing in chrome, and the GPU at around the same temps.
When playing dota 2, the CPU package peaks at 95 degrees celcius and the GPU at 81-82.
Before the tweaking of the GPU power settings, the CPU would peak at around 91 degrees and the GPU temp is the same as after the tweaking (doesnt make much sense, exept if this is causing the hd4000 to clock higher for some reason)

I have 4 year prosupport and 4 year damage protection (gotta love my job), so I'm not worried about any issues that this might have in the next 3-4 years, if these temps are normal...

Does anyone have any reference temperatures on their XPS 14 I can compare mine to?

I'm also considering to ask the dell technician, the next time he is around my office, if he can replace the goop that is on the CPU...

Edit 14.05.13

Tried to run intelburntest, just out of curiosity, temps dont go higher than 95 degrees, but the cpu never reaches the specified 3.1Ghz, it reaches 2.9Ghz as maximum, then when the temps go over 90 degrees, it clocks down to 2.6Ghz.
Im gonna call prosupport tomorrow, and get a technician to exchange my fans/goop on wednesday. I'll let you know what the outcome is.
As of now, if I start up BF3, it runs at 40-50 FPS the first minute, then goes down to 10-20FPS (I didnt buy this laptop to game, but BF3 hoggs GPU and CPU power).

Edit 15.05.13

Dell was just here and changed the heatsink, fan and just in case, the touchpad. CPU reaches a max of 82 degrees now, and is running on 50-52 degrees on idle. Gonna test the battery performance now, and do some benchmarking when I get home

Edit 16.05.13

Temps went back up to 92 degrees during last night
Dell are going to replace my motherboard on Tuesday.
Also, my dell technician was kind of sloppy with the applying of the thermal goop, it looked better than before (way too much goop), but still...I almost wanted to ask him if I could do it myself (he applied the goop to the heatsink first, and then pushed it onto the chipset, and practically used the chipset as a hand-rest when working with the computer )
Part of my job is to review how the techicians do their job on-site for the company I work for, so dell is getting a complaint about this one...

 

Here are 2 new video clips from Dell

Desktops Videos | Dell

Desktops Videos | Dell

 

I've just picked one of these up second hand but it's only 3 months old. After coming off a full charge cycle the battery meter is suggesting a little over 3 hours battery life. Id this right, I thought it was quoted at 8 hours??

Whenever I try to disable the intelligent charge or whatever it's called so that it always charges to max capacity it says "The battery meter has stopped responding"

The dell guy on the forums suggests everything is as it should be and the diagnostics all pass.

What sort of battery life does everyone else get?

 

Battery life heavily depends on what you're doing with the machine. Editing pictures, watching movies -> fan might turn on and battery life will be rather short (much longer than 3 hours though).
Surfing the web, typing here and there -> battery life should be sufficiently long (rather more than 8 hours).

My typical usage means wireless network connection, brightness 10-20% (indoors), surfing the web and answering e-mails. When I take a coffee break or don't use the machine for more than 10 minutes I close it so it goes to standby.
Without the standby the machine will keep running for around 8-10 hours, with it I only need to charge it when I go to sleep (and it still has some life left then).

 

My screen brightness is significantly more than 20% but wouldn't have thought that's a huge drain. I've been doing nothing more than transferring files and general set up of windows 8 and itunes etc really. Last night the battery meter was showing 75% battery is 2hr 37minutes of battery time and I wasn't doing anything remotely intensive. I must add that I've got the 512GB SSD and Geforce 630m version if that makes any difference.

Maybe I'll need to make a call to Tech Support as it sounds like the battery is not performing as it should and it's still got 9 months warranty remaining.

 

I'm using a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro, no mechanical disk on my side either. Screen brightness at 20% is around 80cdm and 30% is 130cdm so that's plenty for me to use indoors. On a bright day I might need to increase this, of course, but so far the weather has been quite... well, bad

Check your battery while you're not using the SSD all the time and make sure your cpu usage isn't too high, at least to get some comparative numbers.

 

The 630m card should partially disable itself, thus behave like it wasnt there (battery wise). I'm of course not sure if this is how it works, but thats how I'm expecting it to work.
My windows is also reporting the battery time to be 2-3 hours, but I hardly ever trust that info.
You could try to download battery eater and run the benchmark, or just time it yourself while using it normally (eg. unplug it when its at 100%, then use it untill it drops 10 or 20%, and see how long it takes for it to drop, it should drop ~12,5% per hour)
An alternative is to create your own powersaving plan, which sets the cpu to max 50%. I've noticed that mine goes up to 3Ghz sometimes, just when browsing.
What cpu do you have?

 

The screen is the largest user of the battery when the computer is idle. After an initial install of an OS and applications the computer is downloading updates with a larger than normal usage of RAM and CPU. Give the computer a couple days to get up-to-date with updates and all your apps to get situated the way you want then make a judgement. I find any new gadget I get gets a lot of love the first few days/weeks before falling into a more normal pattern of usage.

Lower the screen brightness to just a couple ticks over its lowest setting. You may find its bright enough. Then see how the battery holds up. And go off actual time and not what the meter says.

And delete iTunes...

 

I've got the i7 chip, supposed to be low voltage and stuff though. To be honest the battery life isn't really a huge issue for me as I'm not likely to use it much on the move. I would however like to make sure the battery is doing as it should whilst its still under warranty. I've downloaded battery eater to see what sort of stats I can get from that. Thanks for the input guys

 

Could you please tell me the cpu temperatures you are having with the i7? (you can use hwmonitor for this, if you dont know how to check
I just want to compare them to mine, to see if this laptop is generally hotter than my old one :/

I would really appreciate it

 

Regarding CPU temperatures: If you're ever going to open it -> could you check the heatsink and make a picture of it?
When I put my SSD in I also changed the goop for something better and was surprised how small and light that heatsink was. I've never seen anything this small and light in any notebook I had before. It does its job well though but I'd be interested in knowing if the i7 came with the same heatsink.

 

I'll try to remember to take a picture on Tuesday, they are exchanging my motherboard then.
But I also noticed that it was really small and didnt seem like much...
What are the temps on the i5?