XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

I see 509/426 so it looks fine to me. Samsung would tell dell if it had a problem, then it is up to dell to sort a fw update if they deem it necessary, and judging by the faults it already has they wont do about it.

If you think the 26/65 is the throughput you need to do some more homework m8.

 

Hi. As I bought the system with just 1 year of warranty, I've just called Dell to ask about extending it.

They have told me that the prices are 125 GBP for 1 additional year, 200 GBP for 2 years, and 325 GBP for additional 3 years.

Does that sound reasonable? Is there a way to get lower prices or discounts? (I should have bought extended warranty with discount when I bought the system).

 

Is that for Premium support ?
I just got off the phone with Dell (Canada) and was blown away at how much they wanted to extend the warranty.
They told me the (regular) price is 400.00 CAD PER YEAR for their Premium warranty.
They then offered me 1yr @ 259.00 CAD or 2yr @ 476.00 CAD.
Of course we have to add 13% sales tax on top of that already outrageous price which makes it even worse !!!

I guess Dell must think that home users / (NON-business use) have tons of money to spend on the "what if" scenario.

This is robbery, but based on the issues with this model, we are almost forced to get a further warranty or risk getting further hosed by a future repair !

 

Interesting. My warranty runs out today, but last week when I called to see how much it would cost to extend it, he offered me $299 CAD for 1 year/ $539 CAD for 2 year. That's a joke. I think I am not going to get it and run the risk that if someone happens to my laptop, that hopefully it doesn't cost more than $299 lol

 

Hi adlerhn, IceManKent and desmOnd,

This is just my 5 Cents (Inflation)

Seriously, I had my unit for just over 7 months, used Strictly as a Desktop Replacement, it never went outside and recently he keyboard just DIED, which I just got it back from the repair Depot, and I just Shudder t think what the Cost and Bill would have been if I did not get the 2 year extension warranty when I bought it, as I Always do.

We ALL know that Opinions are like Rear-Ends and "Everyone" has One yet Seriously and for whatever its worth, I would very Definitely take the Least costly extension warranty over NOTHING, as not only the XPS yet ALL these New computers are being quickly mass produced and made much more Now with the intent on saving as much $$$ as the Manufacturer can, so, add that up and you get Cheap Made Materials assembled by Cheap Labor and you can Best Be Sure that things Will Fault and Break at One Point! :thumbsup:

The way I see it is, with an extended warranty "you" have The Peace of Mind of knowing that, while you choose to and own it, that it will be repaired and No Cost if something does occur and if you do decide to sell it, then it makes the Sale So Much more worth it to the intended Buyer knowing they will have the Peace of Mind of an extended service warranty as well, so, I see it as a Win/Win for "Everyone" :thumbsup:

Best Regards,
Sal D.

 

I 100% agree with you that buying warranty gives you piece of mind, but their prices are ridiculous. He's quoting me 1 year at $338 taxes in, and 2 years at $609 taxes in. I don't plan on selling the machine, so I think at those prices, it's just worth it to take a risk and not buy it. I just had my motherboard replaced(because of coil whine) and wireless card replaced so that makes my laptop a bit "newer".

I don't know a ton about computer repairs, but couldn't most things on this laptop be fixed for under $350?

I have called a couple times trying to get different prices on the warranty but they keep giving me the same price. Is there any way to bargain with them?

 

Wow, those prices are Definitely Absurd.

Are you in the United States?

Repairs become costly not because of parts yet because of Labor and that is with most Anything!

Send and email to [email protected] and address it to: Jemika and ask her about the extended warranty prices, as she was very knowledgeable in my recent repair and persistent in gratefully getting it back to me quickly as well.

I informed her of this site and forum and that the Disgraceful issues that plaque the Hard working consumer and their purchases of the XPS 15 (9530) and she said that she was going to view the Forum and Step it up to her Supervisor and although I cannot say for absolute sure if she did or not, as I said, she really was extremely persistent in getting me back my unit from repair as quickly as she could.

Best of Luck and Best Regards,
SD

 

Hi,

I do not know if you tried to get a Warranty Renewal price online yet if you did not, then check out the site below and give it a Try, as that is how I renewed mine!

Best Regards,
SD

Warranty Status | Dell US

 

It doesn't give you a price online, at least I can't find it. I filled out the form and then noone ever emailed or called, so I had to call in.

 

I did the online request thing also. Dell ended up calling me about a week later. They won't reveal pricing online as they would miss the opportunity to "talk you down" after you get the extreme sticker-shock of their high prices. If it was only an online transaction most people would simply not bother to renew when they saw the prices. Dell really should treat our wallets with more respect and not set their pricing schemes to align with business warranties. We are for the most part home users that have already spent a small fortune on these laptops so they should give us a break on warranty extension if they truly believe in their products and their customers.

 

I just could not AGREE with you Greater as it is Truly Disgraceful on DELL"s part to charge their Loyal customers a small Fortune for their Rightfully owned/own Peace-of-Mind!

When I bought my unit it only had 3 months left on the original warranty, which made me feel very uncomfortable, especially after visiting this Great site & Forum and reading the many Disgraceful Horror Stories, so I immediately went to the page, which I sent in the link, and put in the required Service Tag where it then took me to another page with the available extended warranties I was entitled to with prices and all, and when I choose the one I wanted I just paid for it with a Credit Card and I did not have to call DELL at all yet I guess they must have changed that route for whatever reasons!

I guess no other Online outside repair center such as Square Deal or etc., will or can warranty a DELL computer?

I know the $$$ are Hard to come by and I know that DELL is Definitely being Outright Crooks with their Absurd Warranty Extension prices, which they have Unbelievably quoted you and some others here as well, yet All I can say is what I said prior which is, I just Do Not Trust the overall Quality of this XPS 15 One Bit and I just would not even still be using it if I did not have the Extended Service Warranty.

Best Regards,
SD

 

Hello everyone,
I bought XPS 15 a while a ago and I like everything about it, the design, the battery life, it's thinness and everything. My problem is with the screen I find it to be inferior to Dell's competitors. I have no idea why would they not use an IPS panel which is much better than this "PPS panel". I've seen reviews and the vast majority of them embraced the viewing angles even though the color shift is SO obvious even when turning the screen only 20 degrees from straight view. It's aggressively noticeable with white color.
Is it just me or is there anyone else who agrees with the fact that this is not expected to be seen in a premium laptop?

My question here is, Is it possible to buy an IPS panel and replace the default one with it?

 

About the absurd Extended Warranty prices, the thing is you might think it will be cheaper to fix what actually brakes. The problem with this thinking is that you believe you'll actually be able to get replacement parts. I have a refurb, no warranty. Twice now I've need parts and Dell has no stock or should I say they have stock but will not sell me any. Why? it has to do with the absurd warranty prices. one re-enforces the other both leading to more $$'s for Dell who could care less about your problems after warranty.

 

Which panel do you have? For 15" QHD+ screens, there aren't many choices, and I think the reduced viewing angles are a trait of the IGZO panels. The FHD screen may be better, as you can get IPS FHD 15" screens, but I've not seen the 15" XPS FHD screen, so I don't know for sure. Personally I find the viewing angles, while not comparable to IPS screens, are acceptable.

 

That is just a Real Shame to say The Least!

Did you try looking on eBay as I had seen some Sellers selling the parts separately yet I Do Not Know if they were in fact New or from used units?

I just sent a Choice email to DELL Today when they sent me a Customer Satisfaction Survey and I did in fact get a response from a so-called Service manager stating that he was very upset with my email and was forwarding it to higher ups yet who knows how far it or he will actually Go!

Best Regards,
SD

 

Fyi, one of the reasons there are so many motherboard part numbers is because in addition to the different CPUs, replacement motherboards include a Windows Product Key card, so there are different part numbers for the various "MB service kits", which are the key cards for the different versions of Windows, e.g. 8.1 Core vs 8.1 Pro, that are dispatched along with the motherboard itself.

That said, looking on (one of) Dell's internal part number lookup tools, I can't find most of the numbers you listed above. I can only see NWYM9, which is the motherboard and includes a note that it must also be dispatched with one of a list of service kit part numbers. I do see the WKMMW part number you posted later though, which is listed as "MB Service Kit, i7-4702,Discrete,9530 (for Win-8.1 Home)".

Just out of curiosity, why are you so hung up on the default settings for backlight timeout and brightness? Why not just set it to something you're happy with?

I've never paid to extend a notebook warranty after initial purchase, but from what I remember about the cost to extend the warranty at purchase time, that doesn't sound TOO far off after adjusting from US to CAD (ignoring tax) and taking into account normal regional variations in pricing around the world and the fact that buying a longer warranty upfront will always be somewhat cheaper. Expensive machines have expensive warranties. Ever priced out a warranty extension on a car like a BMW? Same idea.

But as others have said, the main cost factor in warranty pricing is the labor, not the parts, so you can't compare the cost of a warranty extension just to the anticipated cost of any parts you might need to replace later. But if you feel comfortable working inside the system, then sure skip the warranty and buy the parts yourself if the need arises. I've never had trouble getting parts like GPUs from Dell Spare Parts before, but evidently someone else here has. Or even if you're not confident servicing this system, you could simply pay for service outside of the warranty period later. I don't think Dell will come on-site for people who don't have a warranty, but they offer depot service to out-of-warranty machines if you want to pay on a per-incident basis. I know because my sister once had an issue inside her warranty period but was too lazy to call Dell about it for a few months. By the time she did, her warranty had expired.

I extended the warranty on a PowerEdge server a couple months ago completely online with no issues at all. Did you confirm that what you encountered wasn't a temporary glitch before proclaiming an evil plot here?

I doubt it. The display assembly is fused together; you can't remove the display from inside the bezel/lid housing and underneath the touchscreen. And even if some other vendor theoretically developed an entire display assembly to replace the XPS 15's OEM offerings (which will never happen), you may still encounter issues. Built-in panels often include BIOS-level support for things like brightness control and the controversial "splendid mode", so I'm not sure how an aftermarket panel would perform on this system. That would be an expensive experiment. Aftermarket GPUs tend not to work on many laptops for the same reasons, though there are exceptions.

 

I have the highest spec model with QHD+ display. According to jphughan it is almost impossible to replace the display so I guess I'll live with it. BTW Asus use IGZO/IPS and it looks as good as the Macbook Pro retina display.

 

I've just been told there is a promotion on warranties that is starting today (25% off) [at least in the UK/Ireland, may also apply to the rest of Europe].

So the new quote is 117€ for 1 year, 178€ for 2 years, 299€ for 3 years, NBD with premium phone support (yeah every quote I get is in a different currency).

598€ (299€ for 2 computers), even if cheaper what some people here have been told, still sounds a bit steep. On the one hand, it's almost 20% of what I paid for the computers, which doesn't sound crazy for a total of 4 year warranty.

On the other hand, in one or two years if something were to happen I could probably buy a whole computer for the price of these extensions. But if both computers were to break, and even if I were to fix the computers myself, I'd probably be spending big monies on parts (from what I have read Dell parts can be really expensive).

 

You could sell it and get an XPS15 with a FHD screen! The Asus has a 4K screen which I think is an IPS rather than a PPS, so I was mistaken to say it was a trait of the IGZO panel. This is quite a useful resource on this info:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-ppi-laptops-1080p-screens-7.html#post9745382

 

Hey guys how do you guys clean the trackpad and silicon palmrest? Thanks

 

windows cleaner.

 

What if you use Linux? (sorry, I had to say it; have a nice Friday! )

 

A few weeks ago my warranty expired on my XPS15 and a posted some questions here but no one replied so it's good to see some discussion on Dell's extended warranty practices. I'm is the U.S. btw.

My case was somewhat unique in that because of business reasons I really haven't used my XPS15 very much at all since I bought it back in November 2013. I intend to start using it as a my primary PC very soon and I'm afraid that when I do, some of the issues that have been disussed numerious times on this thread will start to crop up.

What I couldn't get from the Dell agent is: Would the extended warranty cover items such as a track pad replacement because of discoloration (even though I've only used my a few times, it's already starting to look like crap!) or a motherboard replacement because to the various noises that have been reported (luckly at this point mine is quite but who knows when I start using the thing on a regular basis).

These types of items aren't really considered "broken", they are just not 100% correct so no one from Dell could tell me if they would be covered or not. Great, right? Spend ~ $300 a year on a product (extended warranty) for a product (XPS15) that cost $2.2k and not even know what you are entitled to receive.

The other warranty issues that hasn't been discused here is all the bartering that goes on when you call Dell regarding price. I felt like I was a busy city market place buying t-shirts to take home from vacation. How much, $20, nah too much, ok how about $10, NO, ok my last offer, 2 for $10. Great for purchasing low end stuff but really Dell, is this how you want to represent yourself. Warranty costs are most likely calculated by an actuary based on part costs, labor, reliability, etc.

So why is the cost so variable both within the same phone call and from person to person. Dell really has to become more transparent with this. The way I see it is they have the actual cost of the warranty (one calculated by the actuary) but will try to get you to spend more. If the customer says no, they come down which in my opinion is a dubious business practice. Sell me something for what it costs you plus what you think is a fair profit but don't try to trick me into paying more than that.

I purchased this high-end laptop for its preformance and somewhat expected to be treated like a premium customer but really in the end I felt like Dell was trying to pull one over on me.

BTW, when I called back in November they orginally quoted me over $300 (US) for 1 year premium extention then came down (street market style) to $283. The whole interaction didn't leave me with a good feeling (between the price haggling and not really sure what the warranty covered) so I told the rep I'd have to think about it and he abruptly hung up the phone. Thanks Dell! You got my $2.2k this time but I'll certainly be more skeptical when I make my next PC purchase.

 

Does anyone have this weird stain in the trackpad? I barely use the trackpad/keyboard (one-two hours per week) and I clean it periodically with windex too. How can I remove this stain? Looks like from oil or something

 

Hi All,

I was trying to remap a few keys that I don't use often for keys that I use very often and I found that the shortcure Fn+Insert would put the laptop to sleep. Are there any other undocumented shortcuts?
I'm a bit stuck because I want to remap "Print Screen" to be "pause", but I'm having some trouble with SharpKeys to get the correct code.... and I was wondering if one of the FN shortcuts already includes "pause"


Thanks

 

Hi Jetty,

Wow, not getting your questions answered or addressed on this Great Site & Forum is somewhat alarming as I have Always had someone gracious enough to offer up their own experience or advice.

Well as for me, I have said very repeatedly now that I just cannot visit this site and forum as much as i would like and the weekends are really only when I can devote some time to it either reading some of the ongoing Shameful Disgraces or Hopefully Help Someone!

What I can tell you about DELL's Warranties and the Key word is Warranties as they have a Few and each one needs to be reviewed to see what it covers and what it does not, is,
They have an accidental damage protection which you can add to their outlined warranties yet you need to check and see what it does, what it covers and when, and how, as some cover on-site repairs while others are Strictly Depot repair, which means you Ship it out to them, when they send you the box and Shipping Label, which to be real Fair is Great, and then you wait until they Ship it back to you and very Hopefully repaired with No New Designs (Damage)

I just had my keyboard DIE after 7 month ownership and the 2 year Extended Warranty I purchased was Depot Repair only and it Thankfully covered it all.
I Do Not Think that it would cover stains on the palm-rest or etc., as that would fall under The Accidental Damage Warranty such as dropping it, spilling liquid in it and etc., and I Strongly encourage Anyone who takes it out of their home constantly and or drinks and eats "over it" to Definitely get it as well! :thumbsup:

As far as the Fluctuation in warranty price quotes, as I mentioned in a previous reply to another Forum member, when I got the unit from a Seller on eBay it was New (unopened) yet it only had 3 months remaining on it's 1 year Factory warranty so I immediately went to the My Dell through the Windows Charms and I very easily renewed the warranty through the easy to navigate prompts. It gave me the price for a 2 year Extension and I Paid it 1-2-3, no Phone call needed, so I am not experienced to comment on what I am hearing and learning in the Direct phone call GAMES with DELL!

At any rate, I Sure Hope I Helped you in some way and as for me, I Like the unit and it's features, I Do Not Trust it's Build Quality or Longevity One Bit and I Think the majority of my issues, which just seem to now pop-up Daily, when I was once saying how Lucky I was to have Absolutely No issues, is Stinking Windows and I Hate it :thumbsup:and even though I was Not a Fan of OS X, when I jumped Ship, to me it Beats Windows and it's Daily Crashes & Freezes by a very BIG Mile!

Best Regards,
SD

 

Very GOOD One! :thumbsup:

 

Hello. I am not able to play some video games on my xps. I have the 1tb model. I'm getting low clock speeds of less than 400Mhz. What is the solution to this please. On Need for speed rivals at the default setting i'm getting 11 - 12FPS. Thanks guys.

 

I don't know about the specific game you are talking about. I am currently playing Mass Effect 1 with no slowdowns and maximum settings at 3200x1800 (the fans sound like the computer is going to take off!).

Maybe your game is more GPU-intensive? You may need to lower the settings (resolution and other settings) or you may have some cooling issues (I think there is something in the wiki about that, isn't it?). Personally I tested my computers running Furmark (I think I am using version 1.13.0) at full HD for 15 minutes, and ensuring there weren't any significative slowdowns (i.e. throttling). Performance in my systems is around 15-19 fps (the 4712HQ being just 1 fps faster).

Is there in the wiki a section with recommendations on specific games? E.g. for Battlefield 4, I could only play well with x settings, and so on. Would that be interesting? I don't play much, so I am not sure how useful that would be.

Edit: yay post #200

 

Well I just stumbled on a rather extensive Dell product roadmap slideshow most of which is marked as Confidential/Restricted, but somebody posted it online anyway. Much of it was news to me and there's some pretty cool stuff in there especially for the corporate and education crowds, but more germane to this audience is that part of the slideshow indicates that the next-gen XPS 15 gets released in samples for testing in January and is expected to be released Q4 of 2015. There's also a bit of information about the expected hardware specs compared to the current gen. So if anybody still reading this thread has been on the fence about whether to purchase now rather than wait for a refresh given that this system has been out for a year, looks like you'd have to wait almost another year to get something newer.

 

I placed a part order with Dell that was supposed to be a set of torq screws for the rear/underside panel. What I got was a philips head screw, yes 1 screw. Not only do they not have xps 15 parts available, they send you useless crap and I can't double check the part number because they don't release one to the public. My first and last Dell for sure.

 

Thanks for that Info,do you mind posting the source of your information?

 

Perhaps this is a distinction without a difference, but as a Dell employee, while I'm fine relaying information that's already leaked anyway, posting a direct link to a confidential presentation that seems to have been inappropriately uploaded to the Internet seems a bit more wrong. I only found it while Googling to find out more about the Dell Power Companion accessory I learned about while looking at the new Premier Briefcase and Premier Backpack. Sadly said Power Companion doesn't seem compatible with the current generation of laptops.

 

Does anyone know if replacement laptops are refurbished or brand new?

Thanks!

 

Always brand new. Parts dispatches are officially always refurbs (though sometimes they'll be brand new if a refurb stock hasn't built up yet), but system exchanges are always newly manufactured units. I've even had cases where a system exchange occurred so late in the warranty period that that model was no longer in production, so the replacement was actually a newer model. At least one person in this thread got his new XPS 15 as a result of a system exchange after warranty issues with his last-gen XPS 15.

 

Thanks for the info! They are sending me a replacement for mine so hopefully it's a newer model

 

Well if you already had this generation XPS 15 (Haswell, aka 9530), then there isn't a newer model to send you. And an upgrade as part of a system exchange is a fairly special case, so don't get your hopes too far up. But whatever you do get will be a brand new sample.

 

So why is Civ 5 throttling the crap out of XPS15? I am running the game on medium settings and it is struggling. Any suggestions or workarounds?

 

Has anyone had any success dampening the coil whine noise by applying some sort of material (like thermal epoxy) to the noisy coil?

I find that the noise goes away when I set the maximum processor state to 86% in advanced power settings, but doing this actually hurts performance quite a bit. It also comes back when the GPU gets stressed regardless.

It's clear Dell can't/won't fix this issue so I'm trying to see what else can be done. I've already had my motherboard replaced recently and the issue persists.

 

Really? I thought there was a recent slight update with the 9530... at least concerning the keyboard chassis being solid black instead of dark grey.

 

I'm not sure about that. I heard the touchpad changed, and of course there was the CPU update, but both of those changes are just revisions to an existing model, not a new model.

 

Hello, I had a small accident with my XPS 15

1) I put my new expensive laptop into sleeve. It went accidently out of standby mode, and started heating. When I put it out, it was very warm. All parts of laptop were warm. I am not sure how bad this for a laptop? It was probably inside the sleeve for 4 hours sufficating without cold air. Is it possible that this might have caused some damage to the hardware? Which heat levels realistically have the potential to damage hardware?

2) When I opened the laptop again, I pressed the "on" button. It did not work for 10 minutes. I was afraid my laptop was broken. After it cooled off for 10 minutes, it seemed to work again. Is it possible that the hardware has some fail-safe mechanism, preventing it to overheat, thus not allowing it to be on again?

3) I now feel that the back-side of the below surface of my laptop (I guess where the battery is) is warm. Is it normal behavior that this region is warm? I didn't really pay attention to it before. Maybe I am too paranoid now, or maybe the battery suffered some damage? Not sure what is realistic behavior for this laptop.

 

It's difficult to say whether there's been any permanent damage. It's definitely possible under those conditions, but it varies based on the exact temperatures the laptop reached and of course the laptop itself. I've seen this situation end both ways, and I have no idea what this particular laptop's thermal capacity is. But yes, laptops very often have thermal shutdown capabilities, and while I'm not going to test whether that's true of this system by using my own, I wouldn't be surprised to find that this system has such a failsafe as well. I would say that if everything appears to be fine afterward, then it probably is. Good luck!

The hot zone underneath could also have been the memory chips. They can get VERY hot under heavy usage even when the system is being used in a properly ventilated area. But if you've got the laptop flipped over with the hinge facing away from you (i.e. the opening side closest), then the battery runs along the edge closest to you; it's about 2" tall and spans the entire width of the laptop on a 91 WHr model or the first 2/3 of that area moving from left to right on a 61 WHr model, with the rest of that area occupied by the spinning hard drive, which can also get hot.

 

Thanks for the answer. Everything seems to be working fine.

One small question, maybe you can check easily. It is normal that the top-surface (left/right of touchpad, keyoard etc.) is (significantly) cooler than the back-surface (e.g. location of battery in the back, cooler etc.). This should be normal, right?

 

Yes, normal.

 

Is it normal that mouse starts working only after desktop screen appaered 3sec? There seems to be delay. When the blue login screen of win 8.1 appears the mouse is frozen, it works afterwards though...

not sure if this is normal, and I have to wait some time, or should it work faster? the delay of the mouse undermines a bit the fast boot of SSD

when I do "reboot" it works much faster though... don't know why it delays when doing normal boot

 

Hi guys. I think I've decided on the XPS15 as my next laptop and I was wondering what prices people had been paying recently for the higher model?

I wish it included a 900 series GPU but can't have everything. Has there been any news about an update to include it?

Lastly, any thoughts on the refurb models on eBay? Good prices by the looks of it.

 

Costco has the top of the line one (SDD only with 91W battery) for $1899. There is one for $1999 on their website but I think it just has extra software.

Think the Dell Outlet has refurbs too.

AN

 

Thank you for the reply. Stupidly I forgot to say I am in the UK but I'll be in the US in January so may decide to get one while there. We have Costco here so I'll check there too, thanks.

Any news on a GPU update?

 

I need a new laptop for software development. I've settled on the dell XPS 15 with 512GB SSD. But I still have a few questions:

1) What kind of external monitors can this laptop support? i.e., can it handle two 1900x1200 monitors at a time? Can it handle two higher res monitors at once? (3k or 4k?)

2) Are these refurb sellers on ebay reputable at all? I've see the top-end xps at both Costco and the Microsoft store for $1900 - but the refurbs can be had for $1200-$1400. $500 savings is nothing to sneeze at! Is there any particular reason not to go refurb? warranty? Woot has them right now for $1400: http://computers.woot.com/offers/dell-xps-15-6-qhd-intel-i7-touch-laptop-14?ref=cnt_wp_9_6

3) I have actually demo'd one of these computers in the microsoft store and frankly the trackpad stinks. It is not smooth and sometimes jumps around. Has this issue been fixed with a software update yet?

Thank you.