XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

duh, double post, please delete

 

Yea, I had only installed windows and left it running doing plain win updates last night. All I had on it, to play, was VS 2012 Express RC. Wanted to see how the IDE was going to look on 1600x900 since it had been awhile. That was my decision point last night to keep it rather than return it and gripe about the grainy display. But definitely THANKS for your help, got me on the straight path and I'm humming along (just reinstalled windows and drivers, back to updates and software).

Anyhoo...

So, fwiw for anyone else needing to do the same.

DISKPART did what I needed per CowboyCoder's suggestion. Set the active disk (the mSATA on Disk 1), just ran 'clean' for all partititions. When I booted back up, full mSATA drive was available to be put into a single drive/partition. So I now have the 128mb Samsung as C and the 32gb mSATA as D. Similar to Cowboy, I put my paging file on the mSATA (D) and disabled hibernate (command line powercfg.exe /hibernate off) to free up the other 8gb of the SSD being chewed up.

At this point, clean windows install consuming 12gb of the 128 (actually it's 118-119 in real space). I've got 106gb free on C.

I did go back and reinstall Windows this afternoon, setting the BIOS to AHCI instead of Intel RST. Don't notice any difference, benchmarks might be higher but I don't particularly care about that.

I also did NOT install any of the following drivers from the Dell support site. Just don't want them in tandem w/ the Samsung SSD.

- AHCI Intel (Rapid Storage Technology)

- RST Intel (Rapid Start Technology)

- SCT Intel (Smart Connect Technology) - really don't need my machine to wake up to do stuff. I'm not in THAT much of a hurry.

- IMEI Intel (Intel Management Engine Interface)
UPDATE: Did go back and install IMEI and that was the missing device/component, all functioning now, even if it's not doing anything.
​

I'm still missing one device in Device Manager, a PCI Simple Communication Controller which is (I think) related to not having installed IMEI yet. I may go ahead and install that, but it won't be monitoring or reporting much since I'm not installing the other stuff above. But it should correct the one non-function device.

All in all, getting happier w/ this now that it's clean and running. Can't wait to get all my work stuff moved over and go live w/ it.

 

Depends on where you live, check the Dell site for your location. US is 21 days (from ship date I believe), but I think some places in Europe are 7 days?

 

Sorry, but I'm confused. You said you just received it but your delivery date is the 18th? As far as that screen flickering issue, I don't believe that has been widely reported, and it just needs to be fixed or exchanged.

I'm reading the Verge review now. So far, not bad. Only about 1/4 through, though.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/12/3117889/dell-xps-14-review-2012

 

Bingo! This is why I've held on to my 14z for so long, I have yet to find a screen that matches it, other than the Alienware RGB panels, or the first XPS 15's B+RG panels.

I love the hardware upgrades this brings to the table, and the storage capacity, since it's doing fine with a 120gb Mushkin Atlas SSD plus 500GB 7200rpm drive. The graininess is noticeable in just about everything except text. I love everything else about this laptop though.

 

Is clean install possible from the "recovery partition".... or are other shenanigans involved?

 

Are you asking if you could copy the win installation stuff to either the mSATA or the existing recovery partition and install from there?

I guess anything is possible, but don't know how you'd do that. It has to be something bootable. I have a 4gb thumb drive w/ bootable win 7 dvd contents on it. I use that everywhere now.

I do not see anything in the BIOS to choose a HD partition to install from. There are 3 choices, 4/5 if you had flash drives in each of the usb slots. But the choices are HD, network, and mSATA, then USB if you have a thumb drive in place when you boot up. If you had a stock system that had the mSATA, then de-raided the mSATA, and then copied bootable contents there for a Win 7 install, then yea, you could do that by choosing mSATA during boot. But that's the same thing I'm doing booting from USB, but more trouble.

Don't know if that answers your question or helps.

 

Wow adding the nvidia card adds 10 days to the ship date.

I think promagma was asking that if you install from the recovery partition (if this laptop has one) if you get all the pre-installed software. With most Dells if there is a recovery it puts the laptop back to factory specs, so it would include any pre-installed software.

Guess the real question is does the XPS 14 have a recovery partition

 

Thanks that helps.

On the the Dell XPS 14 support page, they have a link to information about restoring from the recovery partition (but that might not mean anything).

 

Yes, there was a recovery partition on the spinning drive that I pulled out. What it puts back, I cannot say, but I'm sure it was a full image of the stock system. They used to (years and years ago) not necessarily be exactly the original, but the last two Dells I purchased were exact images of the way it came out of the box.

Could you restore from that to an SSD...ending up w/ just the factory OS on an SSD w/ a single partition...no idea, out of my pay grade. sorry.

Sorry if I misunderstood...disregard my ramblings...

 

After speaking with customer care about an exchange, they quoted me the 18th ship date

 

Whats the Windows rating of your Samsung 830 now you've changed to AHCI? Mine is 7.6 with IRST.

 

I am seeing the same gaming issues described in the Verge review. It sounds like Dell is working on a BIOS update to fix this. Is there an ETA on this? I would like to try it before my return period runs out.

 

Depends on how you define "clean install." The recovery partition restores the factory shipped image. Now, there's another way...Use the Dell DataSafe program to create your own restore image on a USB key. I think this KB article may be a little lacking of detail, but you should be able to play around and figure out how to do it onto a USB key instead of optical media.

Oh. Duh. I should have put that together. Did you go through with the exchange? If so, shoot me the order number or your service tag in PM, and I'll get Lorna to see if there's a more accurate date or if we can slap an expedite on it.

 

Hi Bill, a few pages back you said to give you a shout once my system arrived to see if my employee discount could be applied retrospectively. I sent you some details in a PM but expect you've been too busy to read them of late. If you do get the chance, would appreciate it if you could check for me. Thanks.

 

I've asked someone to look into this. Will post back when I hear back.

 

Does Best Buy carry the XPS 14 I'm stores yet? The one in my city does not carry them yet.

 

Thank you.

Just read the Verge review. Thought the comments on the screen were a bit harsh. Yes, it's vertical angles are a bit poor and it can look a little grainy at times but it's not as bad as they make out. No idea what they're banging on about with regards to heat coming through the keyboard and as for saying the fan whines under load? Mine doesn't. I compiled a few megs of code last night, and it didn't even break into a sweat. I've had it kick in now and then, but its just a feint hum. Either there is some variation between models or some people have wildly differing perceptions. I'm still pleased with my purchase

 

I would if I had that option. Maybe its not available due to my newb status or i'm just not seeing the PM or email link. Please PM me first if you can. Thanks Bill

 

How accurate are those boot times they have? 35 seems...awful, to be honest.

 

You have to have 5 posts and wait til the next day to get PM rights turned on.

I was getting 32, so close enough. I never shut it down, though. Intel pushes their Smart Response Technology (for good reason, IMO), of which one of the technologies is basically faster resume due to the cache/SSD, a requirement for Ultrabook branding. It resumes in like 3 seconds, so I never shut it down. I just set the lid to hibernate it after closing. I think Ultrabooks were intended to be used this way, or at least Intel intended it.

 

Long time lurker here and Dell customer for quite a few years.

I received my machine a couple of days ago, I got the standar config: i5, 4gb ram, 32 ssd and 500 hdd. Here (Mexico) nvidia 630 wasn't an option, it came by default.

My previous machine was an XPS 1647, about 2 years old. It ran pretty good but I was itching for something lighter.

I wanted to get the xps13 but I also wanted something with Ivy bridge so I got this instead.

Quick impressions:

Good:
Build is amazing
Looks great (Although I wish it was all aluminium, the black cover reminds me of old Compaq notebooks)
Feels solid
It's fast

Bad:
The screen. I'm amazed at how bad it looks from above (most of the time the notbook is below me, sitting in my desk) and it looks terrible like that. It does look grainy. Its OK for working but I wouldn't consider it a media capable machine.

Heavy for an ultrabook. It feels slightly lighter than my 16 inch 1647. I was expecting it to be lighter than this.

Battery seems to have good duration. Need to test more on that.

Observations:
I've been seeing in the media that this is supposed to be a Windows 8 ready machine. I'm planning on buying the upgrade with the offer as soon as it is available.

I decided to install the release preview given that I've read that it is pretty stable.

Installing an OS from 0 with the ISRT was a really big pain in the behind. I'm not tech-impaired and it took me about 8 tries to get it right. Finally it seems to be working fine.

Current drivers are not good. The touchpad feels really good but it doesn't work as well. It might be because the drivers are not fine tuned to Windows 8 or whatever.

I think I have installed everything from the support page (except something related to motion sensors, it says that it is not supported on my machine) and I still get an unknown device on the device manager. I have no clue of what it is, it's just sitting there under the bluetooth module.

I wish Dell had better support for Windows 8 drivers. Its about to come out and I think we should be having at least beta drivers. While searching on the net I found links to Windows 8 beta drivers for Lenovo machines...

I haven't really been able to see the advantage of having ISRT so far. It boots from off in above 30 seconds.

IT boots from hibernation in little under 20.

I'm transfering my 90 gb work data back up and will start using it as my main machine starting tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

Also, I got the 14 inch adventure sleeve together with this and I kind of regret it. It is too big for the notebook, it does not fit as I would expect a sleeve to fit. I've had bad experiences returning stuff to Dell so I will keep it but be aware, I'm pretty sure there are better options around.

 

I installed most of the stuff as well with the exception of the things hylton mentioned earlier. I too have one unsupported device, but it's under "Other Devices." Not sure what it is.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I went ahead with the exchange so hopefully they'll ship it asap. Im heading on a biz trip on the 18th and would like to have it with me. Anything you can do to expedite would be greatly appreciated.

 

We have a standard option here(Malaysia) with mSata 128Gb + 500Gb HDD. Anyone knows if Windows is installed in the mSATA?

 

IIRC - no its installed on the HDD - the mSATA by default I think is for file swap etc?

 

128Gb a little big for file swap, no? Wasteful too..

Odd. Found a coupon online but it says 500Gb with 32Gb mSATA.

Bill, is there an option for the 128mSATA or is it a typo?

 

Unfortunately mine is very loud under load, I was trying out a couple of games and the fan noticeably kicks in. For general work you never hear it but gaming unfortunately it was a bit of a let down.

 

Mines arrived - Grainy? can't see it myself. Boot up is pretty fast with SSD - fan kicked n but not too noisy ATM - bit heavier than I was expecting on picking up (I knew what weight it was when I bought it). Overall very happy on initial thoughts

Angles - yes contrast and colours fade but much better than my old M1330 so very happy - very solidly built feels great

 

Did this remove the first screen when you boot up? Not sure what it's all about, but still there after new drive installed.

Did the same thing, all the Intel "rapid" stuff isn't going to make it any faster. With the Sansung 830 and 8GB RAM it wakes up instantly and boots in 28 seconds.

I'm still missing one unknown device under "other devices." IMEI didn't fix that for me.

 

IMEI takes care of the simple communication one but there is another unknown.

 

I think the other is Dell QuickSet


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

It's the STMicron driver.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Bingo. That was it, thought I had installed it already.

 

Damn, damn, damn, when I read your posts, it looks like I will be forced to buy XPS 15 or to wait for something else. Is there anyone, who likes his screen on XPS 14? I was really praying for a notebook like 14z but with higher resolution and now I don't know what to do. I will be buying mine notebook in September.

Currently I am using an IPS panel in my 2209wa so it could be very disappointing when switching to XPS 14. I need my notebook for AutoCAD, net, movies and few games maybe. Should I buy it?

 

returned mine,
if it wasnt for the screen it could have been the best laptop on the market. The build quality and design was phenomenal. felt so well built it was great. But the screen ANGLE and GRAINY issues. are fatal mistakes.

 

Not 'mistakes' just a victim of the market place and what's available. There is a shortage of top quality displays at 14" 1600x900 with support for Gorilla edge-to-edge glass.

I wouldn't mind betting this situation is rectified with a mid-life refresh. In all honestly it's not a deal-breaker for me as I've always had business class notebooks before, which although matte, never had great viewing angles so this isn't any better/worse.

 

I take it back - There is a slightly gridded pattern most noticable in mod-tone grey at certain angles. Very slightly irritating but overall not a deal breaker for me. Other than that its awesome - I only really notice it surfing the web with white and grey backgrounds - a normal textured image I can see it.

 

I've been playing with the display settings in the Intel application and Windows Clear Type font config. Oddly, the 'graininess' is seems to alternate as you move the contrast and brightness bars. Each notch upwards seems to alternate between grainy, clear, grainy, clear. After some tinkering, it's still not perfect but I think it's a little better than it was out of the box.

Also, Dell have an updated display driver on their website - it's dated 2 days after all the others, version A01 8.15.10.2778. Might be worth a look to see whether there are any improvements.

 

Sorry, didn't get on the forum last night, busy installing software on the XPS and prepping for a nasty work day today...

My Windows score for just the drive is now 7.9 under AHCI.

 

Wonder what you guys have missing, very odd. Mine is looking clean. Any other information if you go to properties on that 'Other Device' entry???

 

The more I use it, the less I notice it. But if you want to see the 'grainy' everyone is talking about, plug into a higher quality monitor, open IE, and look at the forward/back buttons in the upper left corner (blue ones) and also the left most tab. Then switch back to the notebook display. It goes from totally smooth, nice gradients, soft looking...to something that looks a good bit grainy. Not earth shatteringly bad, I'm keeping it, just not what it should have been for the price.

 

Yup your right - a quick fiddle with the colour enhancements and there is a bit of an improvement - I'll download the graphics driver tomorrow as still copying over tons of stuff from the old laptop over wifi - Anyhow as I say its not anything I would ever dream of returning it to Dell for - it isn't really that bad - love this machine

 

After I put the SSD in, it started booting w/ a bios post looking screen. Now that I think about it though, first I turned off something in the BIOS regarding RAID. I am on my XPS right now or I'd reboot and check it, but look in there...that should get rid of the post screen. Then you can DISKPART and remove everything from the mSATA.

Still not sure what is showing up 'unknown' for you. I have everything I dl'ed and installed on a flash drive (not with me)...but I'll check that later and post back. I think it was 22 files, but I have them split between installed/notused folders, so I can tell you specifically which files I downloaded.

 

Sorry folks, I was going chronologically thru and responding...seeing now that it seems you all found the missing driver/software for that last unknown device.

I'm going to play w/ the color settings and the Intel video drivers this weekend and see if anything clears up the display...but I'm in agreement that it's not THAT bad. I poo-poo'ed it pretty early after unboxing. Coming from my E6510 was already an adjustment and I think I was looking for a justifiable buyer's remorse return reason...but after using it for a couple days, I'm in love w/ it.

 

Actually I still have the unknown device thing. Apparently that driver refuses to get installed on Windows 8.

Do you know what it is?

Edit: OK so I manually installed the driver instead of using the exe and it worked. Now I only have an unknown bluetooth device. It might be my phone...

 

The reason I ask is that most ultrabooks boot in under 20 seconds. Over 30 seconds is platter hard-drive speeds. (My XPS 15 L502X boots in about 30 seconds.) 3 seconds is actually kind of slow for an ultrabook to wake, too, although The Verge did note that it wakes nearly instantly when the screen is already up (which is how it should be). It sounds to me like the Intel caching technology isn't worth it. If the mSATA SSD isn't booting fast...what's the point? That's half the reason to get an SSD.

 

Then don't use freaking Gorilla Glass. This is not rocket science. If the trade-off is between a feature no one cares about on a laptop (hard-to-scratch glass) or a feature literally EVERYONE cares about (a screen that isn't crap)...it should be 100% obvious what they should have chosen.

 

I honestly think that is the fault of dell. If you look into the intel SRT settings? You'll see that only 8gbs of storage are being use to accelerate the drive. While about 20gbs are being use to store dell's system restore image. That's something someone(who has recovery media) may want to look into. I will once i can get some made. Maybe, anyways.

 

Can anyone confirm if the XPS 14 has 1 or 2 DDR DIMMS? The service manual only shows 1 SO-DIMM slot, but im hoping it has two!