XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

I have AO8, didn't have issue updating. machine works fine. not sure what the issue is with others.

 

Well my new 15 with 512 SSD arrived yesterday. So far so good. No coil wine. It came with A07 installed and all the drivers appear to be up to date.

I guess I will be afraid to update with new drivers when they appear, nowhere to go but down.

PS. Hope this post doesn't jinx my machine.

 

And they just got rid of A04 - down to A03 now. Maybe tomorrow it will be gone as well. Really, really weird!

 

But why do you guys even upgrade the bios? Its not like it will improve the performance or add new features or anything. Only thing it can give is the satisfaction of running the latest and the newest.

 

I belive that it can improve the system overall, uEFI doesnt work the same way as the traditional BIOS did. It could be small changes that brings more stability or the way the cooling fan spinns.

 

Hi,

I've been long time absent from this forum. The reason I write because I can not find aniy information what's up with the bios updates?

They had published already A08. Which update worked fine for me. Some people report that they broke their 9530 with the update. Because of this (?) Dell seemed to removed the download of the bios A08. It's wired because after going back to A07, some days later, they went back to A05, then now recently to A04 and since yesterday to A03!


Wow. - Do they have a problem with an automated script on their servers, or did the recently found a bug and now identify from bios to bios revision, that it is included there?


Before (I had one of the first XPS's (preordered before release)) bios A03, (e.g. A01, A02) I had severe stability problems regarding USB, hanging reboots, not working battery charge limiter and such stuff. Or no wakups after sleep with certain usb-sticks attached

Since ~A03-A05 the system got more and more stable. Still if you use Linux, they have some hidden faults with the thermal management (wrong active thresholds, ACPI conflicts). Therefore I'm very willing to have a new bios version, but want to know what is the problem. Why do they downgrade the bios: Security, risk to brick under certain conditions, stability, fan-management (somehow change in-between A02-A05 to earlier start) ?

As alrady others noticed this point, is anyone in contact with any dell technican?
Anyone any information about this?

BTW some nice mods I renty did on my XPS:
- unlock bios adv. settings. mainly to activate TinyLake feature. diable nfc, ... (no vcore settings):
http://www.tonymacx86.com/yosemite-laptop-guides/144351-guide-dell-xps-9530-using-clover-uefi.html
- manufactures are always (even with A08) years (year really the firmware is partly from 2013) beyond intels firmware upgrades. For half-atutometed bios-patching, see:
http://www.win-raid.com/t154f16-Tool-Guide-News-quot-UEFI-BIOS-Updater-quot-UBU.html
Used these two mods for bioses A05, A06, A07, A08. Now since I was afraght of security/stability issues, donwgrades to A04 this week. .... But now A03... hmmm, I'm waiting until it's cleared why to hell this downgrading!?!?

 

I've thought about doing the first mod, but wasn't sure if TinyLake actually makes a difference. Do you notice any improvement in battery life? I assume you use an SSD. Though I think you also need Intel RST installed as well to make use of TinyLake.

the second mod, I suppose you only update the microcode? any differences notice? w/ heat or fan?

thxs.

 

No coil whine? very lucky.

Mine actually came back, but it is sporadic, so I think I'm ok.

 

Has anyone played Cities: Skylines with their rig? I am having some issues with throttling and poor performance.

 

So after living with my repaired computer for only a day I noticed that they replaced my screen with a used one. It was obviously one that was used on a display model to sell these things as it has burn in with text describing the computer. I've notified Dell and they admitted that they are just replacing screens with refurbished ones. Now I wait for them to approve and send another one. This is a pretty frustrating!

 

Geez, i am speechless - but not surprised. This really devalues the quality of the warranty - (and everything else).

 

So I guess the real answer to your question is that they have plenty of used ones to replace yours with. I'm hoping for a new one the second time around but not holding my breathe

 

To answer shortly to your question:
- No, I did not recognized any differences with updates of internal intel raid, video driver and raid/sata controller firmwares.
(I did this because I expected to get rid of the wrong ACPI tables. Over the months/years I've had a lot of trouble with my samsung 840 ssd and these descibed problems on usb-devices attached (no resume from windows/linux, bios hangs and such stuff). Approx 1/2 year ago by this hang's my samsung ssd (replaced the mid-tier hdd) got completely corrupted within the partition table. Also smart reported failures. I replaced by another (MX100) ssd, but later in my desktop pc I several times wiped the ssd and reflashed the bios (thought the samsung 840 is not reliable anymore, wantet to use it as a temp drive). Since then the ssd works fine and also the smart failures gone away. - all very wired. - But never had any trouble again with bios's >03.
- The microcode update does not influence the fan speeds. They are controlled by dell specific code. Intel just published a work around for a problem with virtual OS'es. - In 99.999% of cases not important.

-Concerning the fan speeds: unfortunately the thermal trip point settings unlocked by bios settings do not alter anything. More: It seems Dell some-when made the fan to turn of at lower temps. ... some-when inbetween A02-A04 bios I don't remember.

- Concerning tinylake: I did not tested battery (bcause I'm working in 99% cases on AC). But as it is suggested to help to increase the SATA bus throughput on battery use, why not use it if our HM97 chipset can handle it.

->> So no real benefit of bios modding on this machine (if not using MacOS (or overclock (I do not do) with (just by software!) intel OC tool (because you can unlock msr register)). - But I'm happy to change at least C7 latency to low and being able to disable nvidia and nfc on hardware level.

Hope that maybe some-when someone publishes a proposal for changing fan speeds and UV of CPU and RAM (puh DDR3 really gets hot and is also shown to be one of the most watt consuming elements in this machine).

--- Back again to the bios-downgrade run by dell:
I'm not at the dell forum, twitter, facebook or somewhere. But may somebody may ask an technician because of which reason Dell removed all newer bios's? If something, a certain condition which they found recently can brick my system, I want to know!

 

UPDATE on my dead laptop.
A Dell tech was (supposed) to call me today to schedule installation of a new motherboard.
No calls.
I called Dell and they told me that the motherboards were on backorder and (maybe) they might have some available on March 30th.
I told them that this was completely unacceptable.
I went on to express my dissatisfaction with the fact this was their premium product, I have the premium warranty, and having to wait this long because they don't have any spare parts is a gross misrepresentation of their product and its support.

So, after all of this, they are going to ship me a NEW (system exchange) unit, that is supposed to "ship" on March 22nd.
When I receive the new computer, I am to contact them to have a technician come out and swap the SSD from the dead one to the new one.
(I would do this myself but am unsure how the expresscode/service tag would be affected by simply swapping the SSDs - there might be some other "thing" that must be done to transfer my warranty, etc to the new laptop - using the (old) SSD.)

In any event - it would seem it is faster to get a completely new laptop than to get a new motherboard.

This whole experience is completely unbelievable.
This will have been my SECOND system exchange.
My original laptop kept blue screening all the time - so within my 30 day return period I chose to do a system exchange.
My next laptop seemed to work fine until a month ago when the FANS and the VIDEO started to go bonkers on me - until last week when the laptop decided it would not turn on.
So now, onto laptop number THREE.
I just hope that this new replacement is trouble-free, and that the swapping of my existing SSD to the new unit does not screw up something else.

What a nightmare. Good thing I have another computer that I can use, because this XPS15-512 has been an unreliable mess from day 1.
When my (extended warranty to 2016 - that I paid extra for) expires - I will back up my data and look for a different manufacturer to spend my money on.
In the case of this Dell machine - spending top dollar did NOT align with receiving a top-end machine.

None of this has been worth it, no matter the restitution.
I wish I could get my money back, and also the money I paid for the extended warranty.
Then I could go shopping for something else that I can count on to actually "work".

Now I wait......for strike THREE to arrive.

 

Wow, All I can and want to say is, your Whole Disgraceful and Unfortunate scenario and situation along with the SAD Shameful others on this Great and Gracious Forum, has Definitely Opened my eyes to DELL and the future of ever doing business with them again, as I had said in my previous Reply, They Need a Powerhouse Company, such as Apple, to come out with a True and Affordable State of the Art Touch-Screen unit, that is PC Compatible and Friendly and just Knock them on their Rightful Proverbial Disgraceful Game Playing A_____!

IceManKent, I just do not blame you One Bit to feel the way you do, as when a Hard Working someone, such as you, puts down their Hard Earned Dollar$ to Buy So-called Quality then they expect Nothing but and from you entire and very gracious Nightmare Descriptive Detailed Disgraceful Merry-Go-Around issues, they should Honorably and Professionally just offer you a Refund and Hope that it will One Day have you return for a supposedly TRUE TOP TIER QUALITY PRODUCT if They are in fact Capable of making One, especially with their very Obvious High-Profit and Low Quality mindset!

Kind Regards,
SD

 

I'm still waiting to hear what they are going to do with mine. I sent them pictures of the burn in and they said it would take a day to evaluate. Maybe the only way I'll get a new screen is by getting a completely new system.

 

Without quoting the entire post above, swap your own hard drive rather than let some part qualified idiot loose in your new laptop.

It reads service tag info from the BIOS so it will see the serial and asset changes.

I am amazed you think they know what to do

 

Wow. My xps 15 9530 is already on its way back from the repair depot. I hope they replaced my screen with a new one. But given the speed, I have a fear nothing was done. I wish Dell would email a summary of what was done prior to sending the computer back to the customer. If it turns up fixed however i will be very delighted.

 

Look for burn in on the screen when you get it. I didn't notice it at first but it is very clear on a dark grey or blue background. They are still thinking about what to do I guess as I've not heard from them. I'm giving them until the end of the day. It's been two weeks now since my computer broke on a next day warranty. One wrong part sent to do an in home repair - the mother board. One part on back order at the depot - the mother board again. And one defective part installed - the screen. At least now I can use it until the issue is resolved!

 

Ok I will swap the SSD myself (I am assuming it is in the same place as the mSATA - as per the Dell User's manual) ?
Also, is there something that must be done to "register" the new express service code and service tag to "me" or does Dell already do that in their system when they ship the new pc to me ?

 

Needless to say, A few pages back I pointed out an issue I had with CPU throttling and I believe it is related to your problem. Check to see if your CPU locks at certain speeds.

Otherwise my system was doing this as well before and after the technician left but it was only after the technician left that I discovered that the charger port was pushed back into the system. Before that I suspect that is was just slightly pushed back and the charger and the port was not making full contact.

As I wait for my replacement unit I had no choice to open the bottom of the laptop and kinda position to port in a way that it wouldn't move. It is normally held by a plastic piece to the motherboard but it has snapped.

I'll upload photos of the piece before sending this broken unit in.

 

The exact thing happened to me today!
Updated to the damn latest fixpack for windows 8.1. Restarted couple of times and everything was fine. Closed the lid for the night and try to start it up this morning and nothing. Press the power button and the light turns on for 5-8 seconds and nothing. No fan noise, no disk activity.

To add to my problem, I bought my system in Canada and am part of the Canadian support policy and I just landed in Australia few days ago at a client site. Dell Canada can't do anything other than to tell me that they can switch over ownership to Australia which will take 7-12 days then Australian Dell can do the next day support.

Dell Australia can't send the technician over because it's a Canadian laptop but they will agree to pick it up and repair it at their facility. This will take 7-12 days and for all this time, I'm out of my laptop and all the supporting software that I need for work.

After complaining to everyone and escalations, the only option available is for me to send the system for remote fix in Australia and hope they get it back to me faster than their 7-14 days. All this on their "top of the line" "flagship" product! Shame Dell! As much as I despise owning a bloddy Mac or Lenovo, I'm at my wits end. But this would be the last Dell product that I'd ever buy.

Word to the wise, there might be correlation with the latest windows 8.1 update and this permutations for the xps 15 9530.

 

You can ask your laptop to be changed countries. I did that just in a few minutes on the phone with Dell Support.

 

Strange. When I called the Canadian support line they told me that the process will take 8-12 days. The Australian support didn't even mention porting over the contract.

 

I made the change on the phone with the support of the destination country (in your case, Australia).

 

Just got off the phone with them. Since the regions are diff between Asia pac and NA they're still not willing to do next day service. The last guy I spoke to said he will talk to his upper management but whatever. At this point I'm just going to buy a cheap acer while I'm down here and call it a day.

 

Update to the the 'bios downgrade run' by dell:
Now the official support page is down to bios version A02.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/555/product-support/product/xps-15-9530/drivers
On this page all bioses until A06 are still download-able:
ftp://ftp.dell.com/published/Pages/xps-15-9530.html

So I'm confused. Just two options: A scripting failure removing the downloads on official support page. - Or they explored serious security/hardware-safety bugs in the UEFI down to bios version A02.

As many people here have many troubles with their system: Maybe someone has chances to squeeze some information about this out of an dell technician?

 

Ok, that makes sense. My transfer was between 2 European countries.

 

So just got my new exchange unit with the updated 4k display. Going to be testing it all weed but of course as soon as i plugged it in to test coil whine it was still there screeching away.

I need some advice. What should I do? Just live with this? Email my rep and tell her this is till not fixed? I don't know what more she could do. Maybe I should just complain at a later date? I was able to to my rep to extend my warranty for an additional two months but I'm going to ask more as this took far too long.

 

The tech I talked to last did escalate to the upper management and now they're sending a tech over. I'll let you guys know how it goes with the tech. I guess pestering and pleading does work

 

Yes it Definitely Does and as I have said once in this Great and Gracious forum already, "The SQUEAKY Wheel Definitely Gets The GREASE!" especially when it comes to DELL and this PURE ABOMINATION of a Computer!

Good Luck with your unit and Outcome!

Kind Regards,
SD

 

Hi,

I did in fact Reach Out to DELL Tech Support for you and All The GREAT forum members and for whatever it is worth, Below is the response I received regarding the inquiry I sent on their recent BIOS Versions FIASCO!

Kind Regards,
SD

Thank for the feedback and being proactive about this issue. We appreciate it. Here at technical support team, we couldn't do anything about the Dell Webpage to update the drivers or so since out IT Department are the one who's handling the website progress and maintenance. But what we could do is to inform my supervisor about it where he could send an email to our IT department to check on this and will be updating you on this progress.

We appreciate you patience on this issue and we hope to also have the Dell Drivers page to be stable as I say for drivers post or displayed to it to avoid confusion in the future.

We are hoping to get a favorable response from you on this.

Regards,
Josh
Technical Support Specialist
Hardware Warranty Support
Dell | Small and Medium Business Technical Support Group

 

As I still continue to Pursue the Definitive answer, for All you GREAT forum members, as to Why the Sudden Game playing in BIOS Versions, Below is another updated response I received.

Kind Regards,
SD

This is Josh from Dell XPS Support. I'm sending this email in behalf of Teo, your point of contact person on this incident/case, who's currently out of the office.

I do apologize if there are recent changes in our support website especially the drivers that are being posted on it. I believe our IT team currently updating and run a maintenance check on the drivers on our Dell Webpage. We'll continue to check and follow up on this. We'll let you know if there are further updates on this.

Regards,
Josh
Technical Support Specialist
Hardware Warranty Support
Dell | Small and Medium Business Technical Support Group

 

If anyone is interested, I have installers (downloaded from Dell) for all BIOS versions upto A07.

 

Very cool thank you SDeP58 !

Ok, let's see that means that A08 (A08 was reported by some to brick system; also brick warning for A07 http://xps-15.wikia.com/wiki/XPS_15_Wiki) is still the latest.
Just maintenance on their web page and no brick or security flaw? .... hmm then let's wait and see if the downloads shows up again by the next days!?

I have my system very long time, personally I give the people the advice not to downgrade below A04. Many troubles (not booting USB devices, hanging bios boot (had to open and remove battery + cmos battery) from time to time) before A04.

Thanks again!

Edit: I also have from A04-A08 all collected + also modded (unlocked adv boot menu). But for last: Please people don't ask. I don't want to be responsible for any bricked system of any other. follow the links to the guides I gave if you really NEED this (just for 'hackintosh' really interesting; (no OC no UV) (hope some experienced bios modder will help by time for the old XPS15 a lot of cool bios'es exist))

 

GNUDell, you are very Welcome as it is the least that I can do for The GREAT members of this Forum and if I receive any further responses from DELL Tech Support I will be sure to let you and the rest of The GREAT members know!

Kind Regards,
SD

 

My xps 15 9530 top tier laptop got misdelivered by Fedex on its way back from the Dell repair depot. The tracking states that it was delivered at 11:55am today. My front door cam did not record any activity between 9am and 2pm today. It was signed for by a Kevin K, whom I do not know. The delivery address shown on the proof of delivery was an area hospital even though the destination address was my house. Up in arms now.

 

Wow when things go wrong they really go wrong.

 

Unfortunately that is the way with Dell. It seems almost everyone, including myself, have our own horror stories when dealing with exchanges, repairs, ect

 

Geez, that's terrible. I had a system misdelivered and Dell were less than helpful. They kept saying 'but sir, it was delivered to you'. Um, no it wasn't and it was difficult to even express this to Dell CS. Fortunately, the person who had it delivered to them came by the same evening and hand delivered it to me, saying this was delivered by UPS (who were for depot returns in UK). I was lucky and I was very unhappy that no one at Dell followed up to even ask how to rectify the situation, despite it being escalated to a 'supervisor' to see what could be done. Therefore I hope you can get this sorted ASAP. Keep us posted if you can.

I mentioned a few pages back that my own laptop wasn't charging (probably some kind of loose connection). Anyway, I phoned Dell last Friday (7 days ago) and the technician was quick and helpful - to fix it will require a new charger, the part connecting the charger to the laptop, and a mobo. Anyway, that was a week ago. I was told on Tuesday this week that the power connection part is out of stock and only now been told it should be in stock on the 24th, technician scheduled for 25th. So that'll be 10 days with the issue - I pretty much can't use it as it's my work computer using it on battery so once the battery discharges to under 10%, it won't recharge. Also, if the charger is connected, it doesn't come on. It only starts when you take the charger lead out which is weird. It's such an annoyance and if this repair doesn't work it's going back. With all the other issues and complaints people are making, it's worrying to see the direction Dell are taking.

 

If you open up the laptop you can position the charger closer to the carbon body so that you can keep your charger plugged in without pushing back that port. I was in the same situation except mine broke in the hands of the technician who said sorry wait 2 weeks. Obviously none of us can wait that long and still have a job after it so I had to open mine up and get the port in a position where it stayed in place.

 

Well, I'm hoping that my story with Dell is not extended another chapter but as I am using this brand new replacement laptop and listening to music through my headset I am noticing that randomly I get a random garble of static. Not sure what causes it but it is worrisome. I have tried multiple headsets and they seemed to all do the same thing and I cannot pin-point what it is. If it is just a defect I cannot deal with something like this.

Has anyone had experience with this??

 

Yes - check about 6 pages back (or so).
I had/have this problem - exactly as you do - random garbled/static audio.
I have tried everything. I don't have a solution. Don't expect a BIOS update to solve it, however.
Since my laptop is dead - awaiting a new replacement - we will see what happens when I swap my SSD from the dead one to the new one.
I sure hope that works.
Good thing I don't need this computer for "work", or I would be SOL - having to wait almost 3 weeks for a new computer.
If this (parts shortage) is any indication of Dell's ability to support their warranty (in the future) then we are in big trouble.
My advice - do regular backups of your data and have an extra PC to use when the XPS (and Dell) inevitably lets you down.

 

The tech just came and replaced my screen. It's another refurbished one but the color is great and no burn in like the last one they put in. Took awhile but they got it right!

 

Hi,

Just a quick suggestion from a Definite computer Novice who Really and Sincerely wants to Hopefully Help.

Have you tried going to realtek audio drivers download website (see below) as they have a Self installing scan tool that scans your your system for your present drivers and possibly will recommended an Updated driver for your present audio card?

Kind Regards,
SD

http://www.official-drivers.com/downloadcenter/realtek-drivers/

 

That is GREAT News and I am So Sincerely GLAD you Finally got what you Rightfully Deserve and Deserved!

Kind Regards,
SD

 

Hi IceManKent,

I want to kindly suggest the same thing I sent to another Unfortunate member with the same problem, Have you tried going to realtek audio drivers download website (see below) as they have a Self installing scan tool that scans your your system for your present drivers and possibly will recommended an Updated driver for your present audio card?

Kind Regards,
SD

http://www.official-drivers.com/downloadcenter/realtek-drivers/

 

Wanted to give everyone an update on my misdelivered Dell. I called the hospital and got through to the person at the hospital loading dock who signed for my package from the Dell repair depot. He agreed to hold it until my wife could come to pick it up, which she did and now I am already typing on my repaired XPS 15 9530 top tier. As to the repair I am very delighted and happy that I can post a positive message about Dell amid many negative ones on this thread. The repair was done so quickly I thought perhaps they deemed my bright spot too small to fix. But no, the LCD was replaced and looks new and flawless to me. Also they left the contents of my SSD intact. I think it helped that I created a guest account to facilitate reproduction of the problem. So many thanks to Dell. My 1-year warranty is now over so I hope the system will last for years to come.

 

As I once again will Happily say Now to you,
That is GREAT News and I am So Sincerely GLAD you Finally got what you Rightfully Deserve and Deserved!

Kind Regards,
SD

 

Sorry I thought that your issue was with the speakers of the laptop not the audio jack. I'm going to try and update drivers and listen to as much audio as I can wit has many different headsets I can. I do use this computer for work and occasional audio mixing so this issue for me is unacceptable. Has anything else worked for you?

Honestly, I feel as though if I tell my Dell agent that she will not believe me. What else could they possible to???