XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

I just checked them with a short Prime95 run. If the machine can idle for some minutes CoreTemp reports ~35°C. Full load on all core, including HT, results in slightly above 70°C. The fan stays relatively silent though so I guess it has some reserve left for really hot days or the use of the gpu (clockrate stays at 2.4GHz, no throttling).

 

Not too bad, considering my 50-65 @ idle

 

Yes As I said, I put on some other goop

 

Hi there!

So I finally pulled the trigger for an XPS 14. I decided for the base model, with the core i5 i3337u, Intel HD4000, 4GB RAM and 500GB+32GB mSata. It should be here by the end of the month.. I decided on this config because, even if I'd liked an i7 and 8gb ram, I didn't want the Nvidia card. I decided that I could live with an i5 and, if needed, I'll eventually swap the RAM and get an 8GB stick. Also considered will be getting a bigger mSata, most likely a 128GB one from crucial.

Also, I'll be installing Linux Mint to the mSata drive and also shrink the windows 8 partition to max. 150GB.

I'm really looking forward on getting it! The think that worries me most is the display, followed closely by the wireless card.. I hope I like the display and can stand the wireless card! I'll keep you posted

 

I'll have a look when I get home and report back

 

Using hwmonitor it's reporting temps of around 45 to 55c at idle and low 70s when football manager is running the 3d match engine. The fan doesn't seem to like that game, doesn't sound very nice!

 

Well I charged it fully overnight and left Battery Eater doing it's 'classic test' which is an image of a 3d battery spinning round in the middle of the screen. I had brightness on the second to lowest setting and told the machine not to turn the screen off or engage sleep mode. When I left this morning it had drained 45% of the battery in an hour and was predicting 2.38 hours battery life. Will try it on the 'readers test' mode whatever that is as well as a real time test over the weekend as I've not had much chance to use it for a few hours at a time yet.

 

How do I fixed a failed sata aray? iRST says that the FFS failed and Dev cache also failed. How do I fix this or do I just mark it as normal?

 

Well after having a play with the power management settings and setting the cpu to operate at 65% capacity I seem to be getting much better battery life , a lot closer to the quoted figures and no noticeable drop in performance.

 

Care to share what you did for the benefit of all?

 

Yesterday I received my XPS 14! So far, my first impressions:

The possitive ones:
-Build quality seems very good, it's quite an impressive machine
-This thing is fast!
-The keyboard: for me, it's perfect. I can type really fast and it has a good feeling. Backlighting is also great
-Linux Mint 15 RC installed and it so far so good. I installed it to the SSD (after disabling this iRST thing) and it's really fast. HW wise it seems to work nearly perfect

The not-so-possitive ones:
-As said, the display. It's not really really bad, but vertical viewing angles could be a lot better. However, with my colour scheme it's not that bad. With dark colors and blacks it's worse, with light colours it's better.
-It's missing one USB port. Having 3 would have been great.
-The mSata.. sad it's only 32GB. I guess I'll be replacing it for a bigger Crucial M4, min 128GB.
-RAM: only 4GB. Latter on I'll up it to 8GB, no problem. (The Intel only graphics was only offered with 4GB)
The wireless: here I have mixed feelings. I have a 32mbps connection, and I did a speedtest.net in windows and I got 16mbps. Tried 2 times in Linux Mint and I got 32mbps. I'll have to do some more testing: either the wireless is a bit picky, as it seems, or there was some heavy downloading under windows, which may be absolutely possible.
-The touchpad: for me it's fine. It's big and it works well, however I haven't done any serious work yet, and the size might be a problem when typing. In Mint I'll probably assign some keyboard combo to turn it off when I want.

Seems great but I can't comment on it yet:
-Bluetooth
-Battery
-Memory card reader

 

There is a setting in the power options. Right click on the battery, power management settings and then click edit on the plan you are currently using. Change the percentage setting under 'Max processor state' to whatever you want.

Obviously this isn't what you'd want when doing processor heavy tasks so may be an idea to set for when running on battery and leave the plugged in settings higher

 

Okay I see it now. I was looking there but I couldn't see any such option. It turns out that in Windows 8 if you have Hyper-V turned on then those options aren't present in the power config. Thank you.

 

Does anyone have a definitive answer on what the hard drive height specifications are for the Dell XPS 14 (L421x)? I'm looking to upgrade to a standard height 1tb drive.

Thanks!

 

The Dell techician was here yesterday and exchanged my motherboard, I was out of the office so I couldn't supervise and take pictures of the heatsink
Anyway, nothing changed regarding the temperatures...I'm still at 55-65 degrees (sometimes even 70) when just browsing the internet and doing some simple multitasking (visual studio, chrome, music player). And the fan is then running, making some noise (my 1 year old elitebook never turned the fan on when doing these tasks, not even when watching a video).
The techie found out he has to replace my monitor also, as there are some markings on the left side of the screen which he noticed...so I'm basicaly getting a new laptop witin a week of ownership (the only thing that hasn't been changed is the battery, the keyboard and the outer casing).
I'm now starting to wonder if there might be an issue with the xps 14 with the i7 cpu, although the bios diagnostic is reporting the temperature to be ~80 ish at load, both coretemp and hwmonitor is reporting temperatures of 85-90 when under load, over 10 minutes. I'm gonna ask our Dell representative if changing the goop to arctic silver or similar, isn't going to void my warranty.

BTW:
I thought the computer was not as fast and responsive as expected, so I reinstalled windows 8 and pretty much all of the software I use (office, visio, visual studio, dreamweaver and vmware) from scratch (switched BIOS settings from intel rapid store to AHCI too), it seemed a bit faster and more responsive after the reinst.
Also, the interesting thing: Windows now reports battery time as ~8 hours with my tweaked "power saver" mode (cpu max 50%, everything else, pretty much default). With the dell config, windows reported ~3 hours.

I can also recommend downloading the newest signed synaptics driver for the touchpad ( Drivers | Synaptics), as this fixed a touchpad issue I had (when two-finger scrolling, it jumped around on the page).

 

Hi all,

I'm looking to get a Sleeve for my 14. Does anybody have a good recomendation on what to get?? I have been shopping around, and have seen some 13" sleeves, but those are a bit too tight, and I haven't seen any 14 ones, so I'll be getting it online.

Thanks!

 

I tried several and the 13.3" MBP sleeves seem to fit just perfectly.

 

You may want to try a hard shell case for better protection... no affiliation :thumbsup:

New Mcover® Hard Shell Case for 14" Dell XPS 14 L421X Series Ultrabook Laptop | eBay

 

Why would this device require some sort of hardcover? It's made out of solid metal already. I must admit that I even found most of the sleeves to be too thick already. Somthing slightly cushioning, maybe thick leather or Neoprene, would be ideal.

 

Well, those hard covers look ideal for someone that travels a lot, but that's not my case. Also, this would only prevent the laptop getting scratched, but that's not really a concern for me. Thanks for the suggestion though

 

It does NOT fit a 9.5mm SSD like INtel 510, which I tried to fit.

It DOES fit a 7mm SSD, like Samsung 840 Pro which is in my system right now.

 

Wow, that it only accepts slim 2,5" HDs is a surprise, and not too good IMO. Good info though!

 

So I finally ordered a la robe sleeve, sold as suited for the macbook pro 13,3", and the XPS 14 fits nicely. The only thing is that the sleeve is not neoprene, but a kind of foam, and it's a little bulkier than other sleeves I've had, but it seems it will protect the laptop better than those, so I'm fine with that.

The sleeve is this one: LA robe Graphite - be.ez | bags for mobile life
Code: 101103 Grey/Black

 

Picked up a couple XPS 14 Ultrabooks today at the Outlet using 35% off coupon. Base i5 configs with 4GB/500GB + 32GB mSATA and 900p LCD, Intel 4000 and 6235 WIFI @ $447 each.
Curious if I can replace the 32GB mSATA SSD with a 128GB to boot from and use the 500GB for data? Dell is so willy-nilly on which PC's you can boot from mSATA...

Do the XPS 14 Ultrabooks have wifi issues like the XPS 15?

Thanks!

 

My notebook has developed an annoying sound whenever I adjust the lid. It sounds like a sharp crack. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

As of now, I do not recommend people to buy the XPS 14 with the i7 CPU. The temps are really high (they changed my motherboard 2 times, and the heatsink once), idle temps are 60-70 degrees (20-23 degrees ambient temp outside), and load temps are reaching 95 degrees, even with a coolpad. I'm contacting dell about this issue, as we planned to buy 600 of these computers...Really bad, as other than the temps, I love this laptop!

 

Did you just say six-hundred?
Out of curiosity: You didn't take a picture of the heatsink, did you? The one I got with my i5 is tiny and very light. Most current motherboards, for desktop PCs, have bigger heatsinks for their southbridges.

 

I find it strange that it does happen with the i7 and not with the i5... According to intel, they have the same TDP, one would think that the i7 won't get signifcantly hotter than the i5. Do you have the nvidia graphics card active? Both the XPS 14 and 15 have troubles dissipating a lot of heat, specially when the Nvidia graphics card is active, and that means it will begin to throttle, Dell has tried to fix this in the BIOS, but it is simply an unefficient cooling system.

Idle temps of ~60 degrees are rather on the normal side for this computer, and that should not be a problem, however 95 definitely is. Anyway, since you are buying 600 of them you appear to work for a big company, I'd rather get the Lattitude E5430 or E6430. They're a bit bigger than the XPS, but the same weight and also have 1600x900 screen option.

Wow! Now that's a great deal. I can confirm that you can boot from the mSATA hdd, but you have to enable legacy boot instead of UEFI, other than that it's fine. Also, I think you should look on the internet for 2 Killer wireless-N card with the qualcomm/atheros chip, since I believe the intel card hads lots of troubles with wireless, and it got much better with the atheros/qualcomm one.

 

I wouldn't even say it's inefficient but it just doesn't have a lot of "power". It doesn't seem to be made of solid copper (at least on my model) and it's radiator / heat dissipation surface is really small. There's no magic in this really.

 

Radical_53: Link to heatsink picture: http://db.tt/wUSVsCvJ
and yes, around 600

It could just be this one test computer I have, that something is really messed up, I just sent an email to my dell contact, so I'll probably get a new one to test.
I am running different every-day tests with the nvidia card both on and off, the temps are "nicer" when it's not being used. 95 degrees is when both are active.
We already have around 500-600 of the 5430 and the same amount of the 6430 (though they are only i5), but they dont offer the sleek design of the XPS, and the far more better keyboard, which some people here want
Dell should have offered dual RAM slots though...

I got an reply 5 minutes after sending my email to dell, that this case has been escaled to a level 3 technician...So I'll see what's gonna happen next.
I'll try to keep you updated

I also noticed dell release new drivers for the touchpad (fixes the jumpy touchpad) and the nvidia card as of 30.05 (at least here in Europe)

 

Yes, it seems like that's the same heatsink I have on my machine apart from the second contact point for the Geforce gpu (as my machine only has the Intel graphics). No difference in radiator size or obvious changes in terms of heatpipe quantity.

 

Ok so, anyone have a solution for this damned wifi?

Had documents open on my desktop and started a torrent download last night. Well, I came back an hour later and it was frozen, no response to anything I did and had to hard reboot.

An hour of just sitting there not doing anything.

So far, Heavy load is the killer. Skype, Torrents, Downloads, Etc.

 

Anyone else hoping that Dell announce an XPS 14 Haswell refresh?

If the XPS 11 and 12 is all that Dell have to reveal, I am going to be very disappointed.

 

I hope that the haswell refresh takes some months! Just bough my XPS 14, I'd rather not have a refresh too early!

 

Guys, just bought this unit off the Dell outlet, came with the mSata 32GB drive, why doesn't Dell ship these with the ability to use SSD Caching? I don't even have that as an option in the Intel tool, it's not listed at all.

In the Bios it's set to AHCI mode, there is no RAID option, just IDE and Intel Rapid Storage Technology.

 

They can and do use SSD caching. Rapid storage is what the RAID is called.

 

Yes, I realize they can and I am trying to enable it. What I'm saying, is in the tool, that option is NOT there. I go to change from AHCI to Intel Rapid Storage Technology in the BIOS is computer won't boot.

Why would Dell ship the computer without SSD caching already enabled, that's the entire point of the drive.


I need someone to help me figure this out, it makes no sense.

 

What OS did it ship with and have you done a clean install on it yet? To the best of my knowledge you cannot change from ACHI to Rapid Start without a clean install. I once saw a method with a registry edit under windows 7 but I never got it to work. If you want to enable it you need to change it in the BIOS then re install the OS.

 

It came with Windows 8, I guess I can reinstall, just seems retarded that Dell would do something like that, ing idiots.

 

Well it should have shipped already set up then. Is there not a program called Intel Rapid Storage Technology not installed? If so, check and see if it is saying that the system is accelerated.

 

Yes there is and it's not accelerated and there is no option to do so.

 

Chat up a Dell Rep online and see what they say maybe? You may not have to do a clean install.

 

Just installed Win7 instead and I got it to work fine, big improvement so that was cool.... Already experiencing crappy Wifi issues, without wading through millions of posts on this, is there a solution to this problem as of yet? Simple replacement wifi card?

 

Hello

Base model Xps 14
i5
32msata/500 gb 5400 spinner
nvidia/intel4000
4gb ram

all good all fine i like the build quality screen is not a problem for me .. i upgraded from the xps m1330 so .. its a step up

NOW FOR THE PROBLEMS

right .. ! i can say that since i've got it i did run into some

first thing i did was to upgrade the bios to a13 - any known issues with this bios anyone ?

and then i used easeus to partition the hdd .. its a fairly simple process and im not 100% noob in regards to laptops/software configs etc

during this process i lost my recovery partition .. simply gone .. i mean it was there .. i could still see it in the manager but no letter on it and no options of handling either in manager or easeus ..

ok i said .. no biggie .. maybe i wont need it after all..

first crash it was when .. wanting to properly format the battery i left it to discharge all the way and the laptop to turn off by itself ..

and after that it wouldnt boot up anymore and the intell drivers all messed up .. not working.

i had to go into bios switch to ahci and boot up to legacy to receive some network card pxi error messages .. then turn back boot to uefi - win boot manager - for it to finally boot up.

the boot switch was because win boot manager at first was completely gone and the only way to bring it back - dont ask me whats the logic - is to switch to legacy let it boot once -- get the error

message ' no boot device found press any key to reboot' and then switch back to uefi as after this procedure win boot manager magically appears .

ok ..

went on the phone with dell support to get all this done spent 12£ on the phone

man from dell sent me an usb stick with win 8 on it and after receiving it did a clean install

all good .. drivers from dell .. certified win 8 / a13 bios

only 2 drivers not from them where the nvidia witch i updated trough its control panel- official site
and the killer n 1202 also from their official site .

all good installed programs and all everything was nice .

left it home one day got back pressed the button to start and .. it was stuck at the first dell logo screen

no boot no nothing

went into bios and tried that with intel to ahci and boot to legacy and then back to uefi and got it to boot somewhat ..

that is to boot into a blue screen boot .. you know .. that lovely message .. you pc ran into some and needs to restart ..

and we'll fix it for you .. who's we ? anyways ..

proper mad at this point thinking that maybe i was better of with a 400£ laptop that just works .

only way out of this one was to stick the usb back in and make another clean install

i rolled back the bios to a11 and double checked witch drivers i download just to be 100% sure they are win 8 and not win 7 drivers etc ..

im now up and running with the laptop :hi2:

the thing is now the irst is not working

i just do not have any option to accelerate the drive .

bios setting is set to intel bla bla .. and boot to uefi so all defaults on ..

im starting to get a headache with this laptop

i spent to much time on it fixing it rather that using it.

Thats my experience so far .. i hope it will get better.

any thoughts anyone ?

 

Over the years I've learned something: happens. Sometimes it has been some bad software, sometimes it has been me being to fast without properly reading and thinking and sometimes it's just that I though I knew something while I didn't really have a clue. That of course without entering into the HW area problems.

Yours seems to fit into the first category. It's strange you got soooo many problems, because mine arrive, I disabled the IRST stuff, did the windows partition smaller and installed linux. All trouble less. After that I decided I didn't really like windows 8, so installed 7: again trouble free.

Last but not least: don't let your laptop shutdown without control. Are you sure nothing critical was being done? Think about that... 99 times out of 100 nothing will happen, but that one time.. can screw you.

 

yes i know what you mean ..

usually i am amazed at people having trouble with technology myself

and usually im on the 'no problem' path myself ..

well as i said .. hopefully gets better.

now that you mentioned shutting down without control i remembered that i was actually watching a movie and fell asleep

an external hdd was plugged in as well .

but.. shouldn't it hibernate when it reaches critical level ?

when you installed win7 have you installed the irst back on ?

and yes .. havent been very patient lately

 

It should hibernate when it gets to something like 5% but not if you've disabled hibernation to free up disk space.

 

nope havent messed with the hibernation file .

 

I just got off the phone with a dell techie, regarding my temperature problems with the i7.

According to him, there is something wrong with how they flash the motherboards at the factory, which can issue some errors, also with temperature.
The solution is to downgrade to bios a03, then manually go through each bios version up to a13...

Though my personal opinion is that the cooling is under dimensioned for a i7 with the nvidia card...

Now I told him this is totally unacceptable to do, and I expect a different solution...he's gonna call me back tomorrow.


I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but I see that people are using non dell drivers for the nvidia and killer cards. In my experience, always stick with the dell drivers. I had a performance drop when trying to upgrade to newer drivers (non-dell), and the older ones on the dell site worked better (both in performance and stability). Well, exept the touchpad drivers, but dell updated those last month.

 

i found that the wireless drivers wont install properly for me - the ones from dell - so i had to go to the official site and those installed ok