XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Hi guys,

I noticed that my screen flickers recently. Icannot notice it when I play a game for example but it is noticable on desktop and mozilla. It also stops and starts at random times.

Anyone else with the problem?

 

JamesWhite
Can you post a screen shot of your burn-in issue so we can see how bad it is ?

 

Try right-clicking your background, going to Graphics Properties > Power > On Battery, and disabling Display Power Saving Technology. It messes with the backlight and I believe the refresh rate (separate from Panel Self-Refresh), and I've seen it cause the issues you describe on other systems.

 

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...26&authkey=!AHtyyxuhVxg_YWU&ithint=folder,jpg

Sure, I've uploaded three images of the bottom part of my QHD screen. The most noticeable is the tray icons, the FileZilla icon is no longer pinned, but got "burned" in sometime ago.

The others are the Windows 8 start icon, and then faded tray icons on the taskbar. Getting it to show up well on camera however was difficult. The image persistence of the task bar is visible on dark/black backgrounds, immediately visible on boot up with the Dell UEFI start screen.

Apologies for the dust!

 

Has anyone figured out how to put a bios hard drive password on both the msata drive and hard drive. I bought a Crucial M550 figuring I would be able to use it as my main OS drive and then use the 1TB drive that came with the laptop as a data drive. I need to be able to encrypt it and unfortunately I can't get bitlocker to worker with edrive support and it looks like the bios hard drive only works with one drive and it defaults to the hard drive when both drives are connected.

 

While I like BitLocker, I strongly advise against using it with eDrive. Please see the long post I wrote about it in the M3800 thread here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ion-m3800-owner-s-review-261.html#post9649418.

But to solve your issue, if one of them is purely a data drive, encrypt your primary drive either using a password or with regular (software-based) BitLocker, then encrypt the second drive with BitLocker To Go, the same as you would a USB flash drive. One advantage to encrypting the primary drive with BitLocker in this scenario is that you can set the secondary drive to auto-mount. Windows won't allow you to auto-mount BitLocker To Go drives unless the system drive is itself encrypted by BitLocker so that the OS knows the auto-mount keys are stored on an encrypted volume.

If you're determined to use the hard drive password, you could try disconnecting one hard drive, setting the password on the connected drive, and then repeating this process with the other drive connected. The only risk I can see there would be that the system might only bother prompting you for the password to unlock the "default" drive, in which case the other drive would remain locked. But it's easy enough to reverse if that happens. The hardest part about this will probably be getting the necessary Torx screwdriver to open up the system.

 

Saw this in the M3800 thread today, thought it might be useful to a few XPS 15 owners:

I imagine Dell will have a version of this driver on their site after they've completed whatever testing process they have, and of course that version would install using the regular Setup routine rather than requiring the manual installation described above.

 

Unless your touchpad hardware is actually defective, this just sounds like a driver issue. Unfortunately, the Dell driver is very basic and lacks customization and fine-tuning options. They seem to assume everybody will like and/or accept their default configuration.

I'd recommend you try uninstalling it, get the manufacturer's driver directly from Synaptics, and then play around with the settings to get it how you like it. There are tons of options, which can be a little overwhelming at first, but the driver includes nice little demonstration videos that help a lot. And most importantly, the Synaptics driver allows you to use and adjust the touchpad features you actually want, while simply disabling all the junk you don't.

 

IMO, it sounds like he has a hardware issue. The center should be able to click (it won't be a middle-mouse click, but it will click physically) and there should not be a dead spot.

I would open a support ticket to get it addressed by a tech.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your answer. In fact it was an hardware issue. A technician was sent to my place this morning to replace the touchpad. I juste checked with him for this specific issue and let him go... Too bad, i have now my left click who stay stuck when i use it!

Nevertheless, i have to say that the client service is efficient.

 

I just pulled the trigger on a new XPS15 (top tier 512 GB SSD version) - Dell Canada - using a 150.00 off coupon code.
The Dell rep (assured) me that all new units are being built using their newly revised motherboard - so the coil whine issue should not be present.
When it finally (does) arrive, (estimated Sept 19) you can be assured that I'll be putting it through the paces to ensure there are no defects - as there's only so much time allotted to return it for a refund.
My fingers are crossed that I'll get a defect-free machine that I can finally live with.

 

That's the backlight bleeding through. Looks like a dim, fuzzy bright spot behind the actual screen, when white is being displayed. I've got a minor case of this on mine, too. Developed after months of use. I doubt there is any solution other than LCD replacement. I haven't had the opportunity to have mine fixed yet, but Dell should do the replacement under warranty.

 

Good luck. Hope you get a defective free machine.

I'm hoping for confirmation soon that Dell are replacing the original boards with the i7-4702 processor to fix the coil whine via service requests. Seems my unit is from November 2013.

 

The solution for the coil whine seems to be out there, but there doesn't seem to be availability outside the US at the moment...

 

Well, users in US also report non-availability. Not to mention that it does not fix the coil whine in the first place. Just to be clear, by coil whine, I mean the noise in the following videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_dWBdrI46Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5n7T-3iZrc

 

I am planning to buy two 1920x1080 monitors to use with the laptop. Apart from the monitors, do I need to buy any hardware to get them connected? I am under the impression that I can connect one monitor to HDMI and the other to display port. Is that correct? Also, will I be able to use the laptop display simultaneously along with those 2 monitors? Mine is the QHD model.

 

Assuming your new monitors have the correct inputs, you do not need to buy anything extra except maybe the cables themselves -- and if they don't have the right inputs, all you would need are adapters from somewhere like Monoprice. I have this exact setup, and yes I can continue using the QHD+ panel while both external panels are active.

 

Thank you. Which monitor are you using?

 

Dell U2410s

 

Hey guys ....

Is it just me or are the viewing angles of this machine really narrow? Was showing my wife something yesterday and noticed that when viewing from only a 30 degree angle, the screen is unviewable.

Is that how it is or is my machine defective?

 

I have the QHD and mine and the viewing angles on mine are not amazing. The colours change both when looking at the side and when looking from the top/bottom in the way that a TN screen does (with white becoming yellow and light greys becoming "brighter" than white), though its not as acute as typical TN screens. The IPS screen I have on my Vaio Duo is much better - colours remain unchanged at any angle. Notebookcheck ( Review Dell XPS 15 (9530, Late 2013) Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews) noted the same thing:

 

Thanks for the reply Ashers,

Wow ... that's a real bummer indeed. I use this machine mostly for multimedia, and if watching movies with my wife means we both have to huddle in the center for good viewing angles, I think I might have made the wrong choice.

Strange that almost all of the reviews (except the one you mentioned above) say that the viewing angles are 'superb'.

Oh well .....

 

If you have a microsoft store near you, you can just go in and take a look at one on display to see if you experience the same thing as the one you have.

The ones I've played with I would say were "superb".

 

I guess it's all relative. The off-angle viewing on the QHD+ panel is definitely better than your average TN panel that does things like invert its colors and lose all contrast (or even lose all color) when viewed off-angle, but this system's off-angle image also isn't completely stable like a very good IPS panel or a plasma TV. On this panel the whites become yellow and some color shift does occur. For your use case, you could also try putting the laptop a bit farther away from you, which will decrease the effective viewing angle.

Also note that I'm talking about viewing off-angle horizontally. Vertical off-angle viewing deteriorates more quickly if memory serves (can't check my own unit right now), but that's also more easily solved by just adjusting the panel angle.

 

Hey guys, I noticed lately my GPU temp is always atleast 20 degrees (F) than the cpu/hdd. Currently I don't have anything running except the browser and it is clocked in at 117F for GPU, 93F for the CPU. Anyone seeing similar temps on their machine? Can't think of why this happens now though. Previously the GPU temp would be very low and would only really increase if I turned on a game or something.

 

That's the scrolling noise produced when the iGPU is in use. I used to have that one, but it has practically disappeared somehow (updated drivers? BIOS update?). As of now I mostly have the high-pitched one.

 

Supposedly, the new revised motherboards are in the Dell warehouse for US distribution as of this week. I was sent a replacement laptop that had the same older board, so that's going back.

The board should be here Monday. It'll be interesting to see the revision information.

 

How can you tell (for sure) if the motherboard you have is in fact the newly revised one ?

 

I guess you're right in saying that it's relative. Maybe it's cause I'm coming from an old Dell Studio XPS 16, the one with that RGBLED screen. That one had fantastic viewing angles, and I mean fantastic. Heck I could actually look at the screen from the side and still watch a movie. Lol.

Anyway thanks for the response guys.

 

According to Terry B (Community liaison) over on the Dell Community forums, the new revised boards should be in circulation and available for service requests.

XPS 15 9530 - Noise problem? - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

I will probably contact Dell Tech support soon (UK) and get my screen and board replaced and see how that goes.

 

edrive will only work on a clean install after a secure erase with my samsung evo drive. you have to enable it in the samsung software, did you try on a clean install or clone the OS ?

 

For those of you that are discussing laptop sleeves and cases let me direct you here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/737448-dell-xps-15-9530-accessories.html Maybe it'll revive the thread a bit.

For those of you that are dealing with the coil whine issue I have a couple of questions myself. I do believe I have the coil whine issue and am considering getting the boards replaced. My only concern is how long this will take. I am a full time student and in the full swing of the semester. I can't really afford having no laptop for a few weeks. Also, alongside the coil whine issue there is this weird clicking noise that happens by or inside my power button. Does anyone know what that is? Only happens every once and awhile.

 

Assuming you have on-site service (which I believe is the only option, at least in the US), someone comes to you with the replacement parts and installs them there. Mine took a little over an hour, I believe.

Are you sure the clicking isn't coming from the AC adapter itself? It makes quiet clicks and zaps, which is totally normal.

 

Well I had tried contacting dell for another repair once and they said I do not have on-site service and that I would have to send the computer in to a warehouse which really took me by surprise. If it's on-site service I'd do it in a heartbeat

I'm pretty sure. It's like this squishy click sound if that makes any sense.

 

Hi long-time Dell owners,

When I bought my 2 systems I made the mistake of getting only 1 year of guarantee, as I was already expending a sizeable amount of money in them. However, given the quality issues (one of my system's dGPU is broken), plus the coil whine, I should definitely extend it to 2 to 4 additional years, as I plan to keep this system for a few years.

What is the best approach for extending the warranty? Should I just use the inquiry in the website in order to find out the price? Or am I expected to be contacted by Dell and be offered an extension when my warranty period is about to expire? Should I at least wait until I have my motherboard replaced for fixing the coil whine (and the dGPU)?

 

You can get an extension through the form on support.dell.com or wait for the email that your warranty is about to expire (which Dell does send), but that email just directs you to the website (and I think also provides a phone number). I have no idea whether there would be a price difference between extending it now or closer to the end date, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's cheaper to extend earlier. Definitely do not wait until your warranty actually lapses before purchasing an extension though, since that will either be impossible or very expensive (since they'll price on the assumption that some people will be buying warranty coverage to report an issue that "just happened to occur a few days later".) I've extended the warranty on a PowerEdge server online before; it's pretty straightforward.

I don't see why a motherboard replacement would factor into your decision around when to extend your warranty, just maybe whether to extend it. If you meant the latter, there's no right answer. A warranty is just like insurance. People buy it to transfer risk and assume that they'll save money (or at least have peace of mind), and the warranty provider is betting that overall they'll make more money on warranties than they shell out on claims. Statistically the provider wins out, but they have the benefit of a large pool to manage their risk and offset losses. You're just one person, so if you decline warranty/insurance coverage and you're the one who has an issue, it will be little consolation to know that other like-minded individuals who declined warranty/insurance are overall coming out ahead financially with that decision; you're still the one stuck with the repair bill. The one possible exception I'd make would be large companies that buy a huge inventory of laptops, because now they have the benefit of a large pool, in which case it may be cheaper for them to keep spare systems/parts on hand and perform service themselves to deal with issues rather than purchase warranty coverage for their entire inventory.

My personal recommendation is that any system that is mission-critical to the user's work and for which the user does not have a backup machine should have an on-site warranty for as long as the system will be mission-critical. That includes professionals as well as students in college if they don't have reliable access to public terminals. If you can't work or write your term paper for several days because you have a hardware issue and don't have on-site service to cover it, all of a sudden that warranty extension cost won't have seemed so expensive.

 

There's a model, manufacture date, and revision number on the board. It's located behind the left memory module if you pop the back cover off.

If the replacement board I received today is correct, it looks like the "Revised" boards are really just refurbs with a supposed component replacement to address the noise issue. It's the same physical board - Rev A00 09-26-13 .

 

hey guys I got my replacement but they never put a return shipping label inside the box... how do i send it back to them? should i just wait until they contact me? do i get to keep 2 laptops?

 

That happened to me with my replacement laptop. Don't wanna burst your bubble but you'll get a call in the mail to confirm you recieved your unit then they will send you the shipping label in the mail within a week or so. So, no you don't get to keep 2 laptops

 

okay so i have to wait a week for them to give me a shipping label? why didn't they send it with the package?

 

I think they can send you an email that has a link where you can print out a shipping label. With part swaps they include the return shipping label, but I think system exchanges are treated exactly the same as brand new systems, so maybe they just don't have a process for sidetracking one of them and dropping a shipping label in.

 

If you didn't get an electronic one then yes. I received my waybill in the mail about one week after I received the laptop. Oddly enough the instructions to send the old laptop back came with the replacement unit but the shipping label did not.

I believe they can do it either way. If you call Dell then they can probably email you one immediately but will always send you prepaid waybill. At least that's the way it worked for me. I just opted to wait for the mail label to arrive

 

Not sure if this has been addressed in this thread or not but something strange has happened twice in as many days.

Last night I closed the lid and left it plugged in until I came home a couple hours ago (18 hours or so plugged in and closed) and it was scorching hot when I picked it up and wouldn't turn on until I let it cool down for a few minutes. On initial start up the touchpad didn't work but when I rebooted everything worked fine.

Anybody know what might be the issue or what setting changes I can make to keep my computer from frying itself to death?

 

Make sure you don't have an application like Razor game booster changing your power settings to theirs where it prevents the computer from sleep. Otherwise, click on the battery--> more power options-->change plan setting for the plan you are on or want to be on--> change advanced power settings in the bottom left corner-->Power buttons and lid--> make sure that closing lid is set to hibernate, sleep, or whatever you want it to be.

That happened to me last night because I forgot I was on my gaming power settings and the computer does not sleep on those settings.

 

Mine did it. The Mrs closed the lid and left it. I got home to find it roasting and unresponsive. I ended up formatting as something wasn't right after that with standby

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

The XPS 15 Wiki suggests a few things to check: Windows Wakes Up Without Permission - XPS 15 Wiki

 

The laptop not shutting down correctly may also happen if you have a power policy that dictates your laptop should stay on while on AC power if you close the lid. A lot of people have this when using an external monitor/kb/mouse setup with the laptop. If you unplug the laptop while the lid is closed, it won't turn off as it doesn't see the trigger of the screen being closed with the ac power disconnected which will properly put the laptop to sleep.

Another thing to consider is that if the laptop has been baking in an enclosed space for a while and is super-hot when you take it out of your briefcase or whatever, you may have cooked the thermal grease that serves as a conduit from the processor/graphic cores to the heatsink so that heat can properly move from those items to the heatsink and then out of the chassis.

If you notice your laptop isn't cooling as well as before, you may want to consider replacing the thermal paste. Luckily, on this laptop it's a pretty simple affair that consists of taking off the back cover, unscrewing the fan assembly, cleaning off the old crap and applying the new stuff.

 

For anyone outside of the US (especially in Australia) have been speaking with Dell Pro Support who have been dealing directly with Terry.

They have finally got their hands on one of the replacement boards and are going to be replacing it for me tomorrow.

Happy days of hopefully no more coil whine!

 

We look forward for your feedback.

 

In Canada - cannot speak for any other country - I have previously received an email from Purolator (Dell's local shipping partner) which gives me a link for a printable shipping label. I have simply placed the old laptop in the replacement system shipping box, affixed the new shipping label to the box, dropped it off to Purolator. Done.