XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Just a quick note for anyone that has recurring garbled audio or short buzzes in their audio (every 30 seconds or so). This started happening to me recently on both my XPS15 and a Dell 13Z. When I uninstalled the recently (and automatically) installed SupportAssist and SupportAssistAgent, the problem disappeared on both machines.

 

Yes I updated my drivers and it seems to have gone away but still checking to be sure. Last thing I want is my laptop hooked up to large speakers than produce that noise and kill everyones ears. =P

 

It's out the review about updated XPS 15 with 4K display, could be interesting because there is a comparison with XPS 15 with 3K display.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-Notebook-Review.138209.0.html

 

Has anyone gotten a new replacement computer that still had coil whine? I'm at a crossroads at what I should do...

 

nearly everyone.

 

Update. Just had the engineer round to replace the DC-in jack and mobo for my laptop which was giving an incompatible and then failed to come on. It turns out the mobo had gone as it wasn't coming on at all the past few days. Now testing it but appears my laptop is behaving like normal so I'm happy. I also don't appear to have the annoying coil whine which is so prevalent.

 

A quick message: FYI, no BIOS can be downloaded from the Dell support page for this model now.

 

Interesting. Even this page was edited back such that only A02 and A01 are available. I wonder for how long? This remains very odd!

 

Hi all. Been following this thrrad for a long time; few posts because never bought it and all my questions were asked by others and so thoroughly answered by the truly awesome members of the thread.

The reason I quoted the seeming mishmash of recent posts from the thread is to illustrate my inescapable conclusions (which disappoint me greatly as I started out desperately wanting this computer and wanting to believe the many very appealing products - on paper - Dell has been releasing lately suggest it's a "new Dell") but, sad to say:

1) this product is a complete failure. Knowing what we now know about it, one would have to be in complete denial or a masochist to pirchase one

2) Dell's top of class (again, on paper) service offerings do not appear to improve thr ability of owners to get their malfunctioning machines repaired and equipped to serve their needs in any reasonably expeditious fashion - if at all, ever

3) we all know that forums such as these tend to have a bias towards posting problems rather than positive experiences but this thread cannot be judged in such a light. There are so many technically savvy members doing everything in their power and clearly extensive knowledge base to help others resolve their problems - but nearly always to no avail. There is a large enough sample of owners with multiple product replacements and/or repairs, both on-site and at service depots, to conclusively demonstrate that it is a small minority who will end up with a computer that works - if at all - to a standard remotely equal to what the design - and price - lead hapless buyers to expect.

And this leads to my concluding thought:

I've been an NBR member for 5 years and many thousand posts and I have had the great pleasure of being a founding member or a lucky late joiner of one of the many unusually spectacular threads for owners of a specific machine, more often than not, an exceptionally good machine (eg, Sony Z) and not only do these threads become places where one develops something akin to friendships, they are amazing in the synergy they develop of the combined knowledge base and experience the thread-members have with computers generally and with the machine the thread is based on. My observation of this thread is that you have one of those very unusual groups that - if you were dealing with a machine that is, or could be made, a great product - you would have the ability to make it even better by discovering tweaks and hacks to improve its performance, recommend great accessories and, when people had problems, guide them through to a solution, no matter how unsupportive the mfr was (eg, Sony was awful, but we always managed to get people back up and running in no time because the basic machine was superb and even paying for some off the shelf parts and being guided by the "elders" in the thread to diy repairs, it all worked well.

Just a thought: Consider finding the machine you would buy today if you could dump your XPS-15 including those which no doubt many former forum activists have gotten after returning or selling their XPS-15s, first perhaps debating which one to choose - probably in a newly created thread such as: "Dell XPS-15 Refugees: lets debate the best alternative, then create a thread around it with active members of the XPS-15 thread." I'm sure you could post some links to it on this thread as well. If I knew what products to even consider, I would mention them. Truth is, I came here hoping to find that the XPS-15 was finally made right by Dell and I was hoping to grab one of the many refurbs now selling with top config for around $1.200! In any event, for now I use a combo of 13" machines (see my sig) and fortunately for me, I'm not a gamer, though this isn't much of a gaming machine anyway. Unfortunately the trend in notebooks seems to be "miniaturization," in which 11-13" units are getting lighter and thinner and using Broadwell U or M cpus for mostly office productivity and web surfing and anything more heavy duty and at the 15" screen size are more gaming focused, so they have monster d-gpus and quad core cpus but they are heavy and suck battery power like it's going out of style. My sense is the best alternative to the XPS15 will be a machine made for gamers who want reasonable battery life and reasonable portability and will have similar hardware to what's in the XPS15 but hopefully a far better track record of reliability and maintenance. Maybe it means having to go to Sager and one of the great resellers (eg Xtopic) and live with a less impressive looking machine, but one that hits all the buttons and has great support.

Anyway, at the very least, take my post as a compliment to all of you for creating a great community and, if you think I have overreacted to the problem posts and think in the main you can make this into a good machine, please do flame me for suggesting otherwise.

 

Right, and the editing of that page seems to suggest that this is not a script problem: the BIOSs seems to have been withdrew on purpose. But why?

 

Too funny. On the one hand we might consider there has been a security flaw or severe bug discovered in the bioses warranting removal. On the other had we might consider that one group handling warranty issues keeps reporting to another group handling the website to remove the latest bios. So the other group keeps processing the request not realizing the latest bios AO8 has already been removed, hence AO8->null.

Given that the bios for xps 13 is still up and no warnings have been issued regarding bioses at all. Its probably the other hand explanation or something similar with the bottom line being at some point in the chain some Dell employee doesn't really care to understand what they are doing beyond see boss I'm clearing tickets.

 

Hi Jeff (lovelaptops),

All I can say is, what A GREAT and very TRUE thing to say about The Super Bunch of members in this Wonderful Thread and Forum and I am 100% Sure that your precious time to convey what you said didand will not go unnoticed as well!

I consider myself one of the very Lucky & Fortunate ones to have received a unit with absolutely no Disgraceful Coil Whine or for that matter any of the Shameful Carbon Copy issues that i Disgracefully hear occur and I will just go out of my way to do whatever I can to Help anyone that I Hopefully can try and resolve their issue and or Dilemma, because I know from when I First joined this Great site and venue with the Help I very Gratefully got that the feelings are very Mutual as well.

I sincerely Bleed when I hear these constant carbon copy issues that have been very obviously inherited by All these Great and Hard working members and for whatever it is worth I am sending constant emails to DELL on their behalf to not only try to Help them in anyway I can, yet to also let DELL know how Truly Disheartened & Disgusted I am to have ever believed that this expensive purchase was to be for a so-called State-of the Art computer which Definitely falls way short of such a claim.

I could not agree with you more, instead of All these Great Bunch of owners sharing all their latest and greatest Tweaks, Upgrades, Accessories and such they have been spending the majority of their time either waiting for their purchase to come back from the Repair Depot, waiting for the Tech to show up at their homes or on site or SADLY Crying out to Anyone who can help them get their unit to turn back on or just work like it should, and this is Why I have said and will say, DELL needs a Powerhouse like APPLE or such to come out with a unit that not only incorporates the Features that prompted most of us to Buy this very Obvious Abomination, yet to also allow anyone who wants to be able to Decently Play Games without having to sell Their Lungs to Get it and just Knock them on their proverbial A____ where they Belong and make them head back to The Good Old Drawing Board where They very Obviously Belong!

Kind Regards,
SD

 

I appreciate the kind words and the support you are showing us. Sometimes I wish that companies still employed people as their liaisons to forums like this as was the case in this notebooks predecessor the l521x had for some time. Certainly the people in this thread and knowing that you are not alone in your problems is comforting but more importantly a reference when talking to the "unaware" customer service reps over at Dell. I would not have been able to navigate through Dell's horrendous customer service if it not were the past experiences and knowledge of the people in this thread. It is true that there are power in numbers and Dell should know the impact a thread like this can have on them as a company.



Having said that I hope those that have gotten a new system that still have coil whine from their warranty update us on their next course of action. My rep extened my warranty by 2 months but I am probably going to make her aware of the situation and have her completely renew the warranty. Until I get the "state of he art" computer I was promised and free of issues I will continue to use my warranty to the fullest extent. I encourage everyone else to do the same. There is no way they are not aware of the scope of the problem.

 

I know that a number of people have had problems with their machines, and Dell technical support seems far from great, given the reports in this thread. However, I think there are many of us (including me) who are very happy with the machine. Furthermore, you need to consider that technical support from other manufacturers is not perfect (as you'll see from reports in other threads) - certainly my experience of Dell's technical support was better than my experience of Sony's.

 

I haven't had a single issue with this laptop including flashing and running Bios A08. I am not saying that others are not having issues and maybe it is a question of luck, but keep in mind that in forums you will mostly see people complaining with issues, whereas those who have everything running fine will never post. So it might deter readers from buying this laptop so just adding my 2 cents that it's been running flawlessly for more than a year now for me.

 

Hi Everyone,

In my continuous effort to try and help out all you Great members who have unfortunately inherited a not so-called Stellar XPS 15 (9530) unit, I have been due diligently contacting DELL, when I am afforded the time, and constantly hounding them to give a rightful and justifiable reason as to why the BIOS versions were removed one by one until there was no more versions present, along with telling them to Stop taking the role of the infamous 3 Monkeys in regards to the very apparent coil whine issue that obviously plaques this unit as well, and below you will find the 2 recent responses, which I in fact received this morning, and I also provided his direct email contact address (below his sign-off) in case anyone wants to contact him directly as well.

For me upon reading them I just cannot say what is Truth and what is not as I just do not know how their organization operates in within their individual sectors yet I hope at least for some it will shed some light on the issues and more importantly show that it has hopefully not gone unnoticed as well.

Best Regards to ALL,
SD

Hi,


Thanks for keeping in touch. I did check both the recommended drivers for your Dell system as well as the generic 9530 drivers and indeed there are currently no BIOS update or download available from neither sites. We are also aware of the coil-whine noise issue which is currently being worked on, and as much as progress goes, a case I previously handled already showed details about the affected batches as well as he SKU numbers for the motherboards affected, and have began manufacturing corresponding motherboard SKUs to replace its previous counterparts. As for the issue with the BIOS update, the reason why we can't answer directly is because we don't have direct contact with the engineering team that collates the issues with the system and updates the drivers and in this case the BIOS. We can provide feedback about the fact that we don't see any BIOS update available from our support website but the response to us will be through a tech update which should discuss the BIOS version revisions or changes that's supposed to resolve reported issues with that specific BIOS version.


Thanks,
[contact info removed - do not post that in the forums]

Thank you. I've read your email with the suggestion to visit your thread and we'll be including this email in the service request associated with your ticket. I've browsed the XPS 9530 thread a month or two ago specifically regarding the coil noise issue. The thing regarding getting immediate updates from our higher resolutions manager is we don't have direct contact with them. If we are to report issues or feedbacks on Dell services, products, or processes which are beyond our powers, we are to submit an incident report, which will then be reviewed. These incident reports are then collated and are then worked on, which should then trigger Tech updates to us at Tech support providing us with revisions and hotfixes.


Thanks,
[contact info removed - do not post that in the forums]

 

Fantastic work SD! If only the agent knew how pathetic her responses sounded. My translation : "I can't tell you anything about the issues you raise because... (wait for it)... I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING EITHER!" Then the consolation prize on the mysterious disappearing BIOSs, again my interpretive translation: "I can confirm that your eyesight is excellent; all of the BIOS updates are, indeed, gone from our website!" I do feel sorry for this agent, as she has only the options of telling you the truth ("I know nothing and can't speak to the engineering dept. so all I can do is sit on my hands and wait for a status memo from them,") or she can tell any number of lies, always a poor choice.

I will say this - and it doesn't let Dell off the hook one bit - I have experienced this corporate insulation defense from any number of mfrs. Seems to me the best way to cover up the reality - they aren't really devoting any meaningful time or resources to resolving these issues - is to build a 50 ft high wall (physically and electronically) so customer-facing staff have no more ability to access staff or information from customer engineering, manufacturing ("why has the delivery estimate for my order been moved back 3 times?!") or the repair depot.

It does argue persuasively to purchase Asus or Sager/Clevo products from vendors like Xotic or Malibal, as these "resellers" are also capable of performing hardware and software tweaks on products they sell and are apparently responsive and accountable to customers, such that it's almost as if you have your own "boutique manufacturer" but they are selling mass market products at mass market prices. Another huge plus working through shops like these is that very often they can converse daily with manufacuring and engineering departments of the companies whose products they sell and support. Word to wise: if you want products as slick and sexy as Dell XPS models take a hard look at Asus' line, as most of the Sager/Clevo dealers are Asus dealers as well. I'm not read up on their 15" multimedia products, but check out Anandtech's review of their new 13" UX-305 ultrabook comparison to Dell's new XPS-13 phenom. Turns out they are neck-and-neck in performance, quality and style. Major difference, the Asus costs $699 with 8GB RAM, 256 GB SSD and FHD IPS display. Same config of the XPS-13: $1,199.

Sorry, didn't mean to get so far off topic. I'm just so tired of dealing with the likes of Dell and other mfrs when things go wrong and I believe a solution lies in buying brands supported by dealers with their own tech staffs, especially when they sell bleeding edge products at insanely low prices. And no, I have no business interests at conflict here. Haven't even followed the advice I'm giving here, but it's this thread, this product, that has lead me in real time to the idea.
Peace, Jeff

 

Just a 2 second look at the Asus forum reveals:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/my-asus-experience.773434/
Laptops are complicated things - there are always going to be some faulty units out there. I wouldn't let your buying decisions be influenced by a small number disgruntled users which represent the minority of owners (but obviously the majority who post on this forum)! Also, I don't understand the big deal about whether BIOS updates are available or not. The machine works fine with the original bios, so why worry.

 

Oh, Asus *is* far worse than Dell to deal with directly! Of course, all computers can fail. My only point was that Asus computers can be purchased through dealers (same highly acclaimed ones who "build" and sell Sager/Clevo machines) , who have wtty service techs on staff to make repairs and have much better access to the mfr than a retail customer and will intervene with the mfr on your behalf.

I don't single out Dell, because this is an advantage over all other consumer brands. However, this particular Dell model has a dispropotionately large number of complaints - here and on other sites.

 

Well, here are two whys.
The disappearance of the BIOS updates may indicate that there is a (security or non-security) flaw in the BIOS. The unusual way those updates disappeared, reports that A07 bricked some devices, and that Dell has no explanation of any of these, all make the worry more likely to be true.
Besides, even for people who don't worry so much about this, they may want to update their BIOS for the fixes and performance but miss their chance. Now they are stuck to an older version.

I am not saying that anyone should worry about this. Just trying to explain the reasons behind the worries...

 

I have now been without a laptop for 2 weeks.
Dell told me that my replacement was going to ship on Mon Mar 23rd.
Well it is now the 26th and the status on the Dell site still shows it as "in production".

What good is the warranty ?
Am I supposed to go buy another laptop in a local store (30 day return policy) so I can still have a working pc while Dell takes their sweet time to resolve this ?

I emailed them asking for an escalation and status update this morning and so far have reveived no response.

With the number of issues that people have been having with this pc they should be building a stockpile of these that are built and ready-to-ship so as to be able to quickly remedy these repairs and replacements.

Making customers wait beyond 2 weeks is not good for Dell's Likelihood To Recommend status.

From my perspective and personal experience with this product, all I can say is - Never again, Dell.

UPDATE
Dell just emailed me to say they have none in their "facility" and that they "should" be receiving some new ones around April 5th - at which time they would "then" be in a position to ship one to me.

This is completely outrageous.
The XPS15 has turned out to be the most expensive PAPER-WEIGHT I have ever had the misfortune of owning.
I dont even know how to react to this anymore.

 

Well, that is hopeful because I know for a fact that there was a weird problem with the very last BIOS setting HDD password AND ADMIN password. Basically, when prompted for HDD password at bootup, you can enter your BIOS ADMIN password and it works too. You can use them interchangeably.

This doesn't seem that bad... after all, just make sure either password is strong... except that it does mean something VERY BAD:

1) SSD's like the Samsung EVO, are encrypted by default from the factory and are perpetually encrypted. The keys sit on special but still accessible part of the drive. Setting an HDD password via the BIOS, uses your password and encrypts the keys. So the drive can only work if you can enter a password to unencrypt the keys.
2) Entering your ADMIN password should in no way whatsoever be able to unencrypt those keys. That makes no sense. Think about it.
3) The fact that you can enter either your HDD or ADMIN password at bootup means that Dell is storing your HDD key somewhere in the BIOS instead of letting the drive do it.

At least, that's what it seems like to me.

 

I'm looking between XPS 15 and the Inspiron 15 7548. Both offers 4k screen. XPS has sleeker design, bigger battery - at a significant premium.

Chose the Dell Inspiron 7720 over XPS last time - solid machine had it for 2 years now - but the plastic / build quality wear is beginning to show. This time around I want something that's lighter too.

It seems the battery on the XPS is marginally better (larger battery but power hungry quad-core). Having said that it seems the XPS is overdue for a refresh? So should it be a good idea to wait for Skylake? Part of me is thinking if it's too early to buy into 4k laptop.

 

People have been asking whether they should wait or buy now for the last several months, and the advice is always the same: If you CAN wait, then there's almost always a benefit to doing so. Technology continues to move forward, new products are very often better than old ones, etc. The XPS 15 has been out since October 2013, so if you're worried about buying prior to obsolescence and can keep going on your Inspiron 7720, then stick it out. If you want or need to upgrade your system now, then you need to choose from among the available systems. It's pretty simple.

As for HiDPI, the experience largely depends on the applications you use. Some are perfect, others are close enough, still others are serviceable but not ideal or impressive, and finally some are basically unusable because they don't support scaling at all. Workarounds exist, but they're workarounds, not solutions, and using a HiDPI panel at the same time as an external "standard DPI" panel continues to be an issue since you simply can't optimize for both pixel densities at the same time -- but that's true on the Mac side as well, at least for now, even though they've gotten HiDPI nailed in other aspects. So yes, HiDPI on Windows is still in the early adopter phase where it can be great, but people opting for it need to accept that part of being among the first people to get the technology is accepting some of the bumps in the road that come with that territory. If you want something that "just works", then from what I've read, the 1080p display is very nice as well.

 

Seems it has been a false-alarm: Bios A08 is back on Dell's homepage.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/xps-15-9530/drivers
I compared the checksums: It is exactly that version, which had been there for short time, before Dell somehow removed all links. - So seems not to be a security or stability flaw.

By the way Bios:
may I ask someone (experienced !!!) to run and post the output from MEInfoWin64.exe ? - I forgot to write down the original FW.
The tool just does post the integrated Intel ME (handling all bus', temperatures, usb,...) chip.
I played around a lot of with some trial and error bios modding and also updated intel FW (do not try, it is very risky). But before I updated I forgot to write down, which version was originally on this board (not necessary a bios update also updates intel FW). - Just want to know which is the original... just in case. -> so more information + tool here: http://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html
At all normal users: DO NOT FLASH FW files! - It is more risky than flashing 10x bios's. (MEInfo64 is safe because just reading!)

 

My 9530 has now been away to have its motherboard replaced for 2 weeks. I only bought it about a month ago. Part is out of stock and no ETA on when it'll be back in. Any idea how I go about just getting a replacement system? I'm in the UK if that makes a difference.

 

My suggestion is to ask for your money back on the basis that the product was faulty. You can do this in th UK as you bought this less than 6 months ago. You might have seen in other posts, quite a few people have issues with the mobo; Dell will eventually replace this laptop and getting spare parts will become more and more complicated.

 

I recently received my 9530 but immediately noticed a ghosting issue with the display - it is most noticeable when gaming or watching videos but is easy to demonstrate with the windows 8 start screen too when using a bright coloured background. I've made a video of the problem here (watch in HD to spot the issue):


Does anybody else have this issue? Please could somebody check for me?
I have the QHD+ screen (3200x1800) and have tried various different versions of the intel and nvidia gpu drivers!

 

Hi L33,

I just did for you and I regretfully must say that I have absolutely No Ghosting or Shadowing issue as your video definitely depicts. :-(

Kind Regards,
SD

 

I could not agree with member eldaras more as you Need to escalate this issue all the way to someone who can either send you out a replacement unit ASAP or refund you your hard earned monies.

This is just PURE GARBAGE what DELL has been doing to their consumers and wrongfully subjecting them to especially with their so-called State-of-the-Art computer and it just Needs to STOP!

Kind Regards,
SD

P.S. send these DELL customer support service reps (See Below) an email and ask them to kindly call you ASAP!

Chris Angelo - [email protected]
Teodulo - [email protected]
Errol - [email protected]

 

Regardless, it still was done very secretively, shady and unprofessionally to say the least and I certainly have Absolutely No intentions on upgrading to it!

Thanks and Kind Regards,
SD

 

Thank you for trying!
Do you have the QHD+ screen too? Looks like I need to contact Dell for a replacement.

 

OK Now once again with your question I am unfortunately Lost at The Bakery - Old Laugh-in line yet Seriously, I do not know what display I have, I know it is definitely 3200 x 1800 yet do I know if it is QHD and I will check that for you as well?

Kind Regards,
SD

 

QHD+ = 3200 x 1800
FHD = 1920 x 1080

 

Well That certainly clarifies Things!

Thanks a Bunch and Kind Regards,
SD

 

Happy to help! (and thanks for the rep!)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

UPDATE on my saga.

I just received my new system exchange xps15 512GB model today.
I swapped my SSD into the new machine - which was pretty easy.
It booted up ok and seemed to work - although the wifi seems a bit finicky to connect now.

BUT
That is not the biggest issue.

[Issue 1 - Trackpad]
Right away I noticed that the trackpad did NOT work like my old one.
The trackpad is unreliable for taps and clicks, but WORSE than that - it does not track smoothly, and it also jumps all around the place - VERY FRUSTRATING !!!!!
My previous (two) xps15's did not have any trackpad issues like this one has.
I re-installed the Dell drivers and this did not help at all.
As just (one) example - if I slide my finger "diagonally" in a straight line, the pointer almost does a zig-zag across the screen, and while doing so - jumps / skips quickly at times over an area of about 1 inch.
It almost seems that the issue is worse in the center of the trackpad than on its outskirts.

[Issue 2 - Display]
I wanted to check to make sure this had no dead/stuck pixels or image burn-in, etc.
What I found was 2 problems.
Upper right of display has what looks to be a smudge - possibly a "pressure" smudge/smear or perhaps it is a smear on the inside of the glass panel itself. It can be easily seen on grey or white or light blue backgrounds.
Is it a dirty smudge behind the panel or a panel defect caused by pressure ? I don't know.
The other problem - even worse - is on the top - where it almost looks like two small spots that were bubbles or something where there was no glue in the glass panel sandwich - or something.
In any event it is two spots of "clear" discoloration.

[Issue 3 - Keyboard Spacebar backlight]
The spacebar seems to be sticking UP slightly more on the left side than the right - letting the backlight bleed out of the left corner and nothing out of the right side.
This is a minor annoyance, but COME ON ALREADY - this is supposed to be a brand new machine !!

So, I am left with one laptop (my dead one) - that has a bricked bios/motherboard - and a new replacement machine that has 3 problems that my previous one did not have !!!

I am completely furious right now and will need to call Dell tomorrow to tell them about all of this.

Can I scavenge parts from my dead one to fix my new one ?
Should I swap the display from the dead laptop to the new one ?
Is it possible to swap the keyboard/trackpad from the old one to the new one ?
Is it easy enough for me to do this by myself or should I have a Dell tech come and do it ?
OR should I simply call Dell and demand they send me yet another new one ?

I am open to suggestions from others about these issues and my next course of action.

 

"JUST ABSOLUTELY AND OUTRAGEOUSLY UNBELIEVABLE"

"WHAT A REAL SHAME"

Of course you could probably swap out all the Disgraceful BAD parts from one to another and Hopefully make a perfectly Good and Working unit, especially if you have the ability and follow the Service manual yet would I do it, Absolutely Not, as I would get DELL on the phone whenever you can and get them to send you either a Brand New Fully Working Non-Defective unit ASAP (Yesterday) or get your D____ Hard earned monies Back.

You or Anyone should NEVER be put or left in such a Outright Disgraceful situation and it is just A REAL SAD SHAME that you have. :-(

Call those CLOWNS ASAP and tell them you have Rode on their 3-Ring Circus Merry-Go-Around Long enough and you have been Truly SOURED GREATLY with their so-called State-of-the-Art computer and it's now High Time you Finally get one of The GOOD ones, which you know other consumers have definitely received, as you are Sick and Tired of being their Repair Depot, Refurbished Guinea PIG!

Best of LUCK and Kind Regards,
SD

 

Call them immediately and request not only another new unit but also a full year extension of your warranty for the time lost with this bull****.

Could you try to capture your screen issues with a photo? I believe I have the same "smudge" issue thing too but idk why or how that is possible. It was in my old laptop and this brand new replacement. Can only tell it is there on a white or light color background. I don't know if it is worth dealing with Dell again though.

 

Here are some pictures of the smudge issue. You can barely tell with a photo but it should be visible nonetheless

 

We can't see pictures in your gmail inbox!

 

I dunno why, but when I see run on sentences with totally arbitrary capitalization like in your post, it seems more likely to have been written by a crazy person.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

You now have a working laptop. Don't let them take it away from you without a replacement in hand. Flat out refuse anything but a system replacement until you get one that you are satisfied with (this goes to anyone having these sorts of problems). Do not let them tell you to send your laptop to the depot - you have a very strong argument in the fact that you have LOST at least 4 weeks of work because of this fiasco. Stress that every day without your laptop, you are unable to work, and that this interruption has been extremely costly to you. They will get sick of doing piecemeal replacements (or already have) and send complete system.

Stick to the facts, and make sure you have a complete log of every support event you've had. Every time you interact with them, re-send the log of events (indicating the length of time you have been dealing with the issues), and use pictures if it will be helpful. You will eventually get a manager that is sick of seeing your case pop up to the top of the queue that is actually interested in making things right.

 

I don't communicate in forums like I am in High School being graded by an English Teacher and I also Don't Do things Like the Joneses, as I find it makes for a very Diverse and Multifaceted World!

Let me know whenever you have some free time as I could really use some help getting out Legal documents.

As far as a "Crazy" person is concerned, try more along the lines of an Angry and Disheartened individual and not for me yet for the Unfortunate Ones that were Unfortunately Not So LUCKY and besides, if there were A Lot more so-called Crazy people joining forums and trying to Help out others in Need than I Honestly Believe, it would definitely be A Whole Different World!

Kind Regards,
SD

 

Should be properly uploaded now.

 

Turkishdelight
Yes the smudge or smearing I have is just like in your photos !

My previous dead laptop never had that issue and it is unrealistic to expect anyone to accept a high end display which has that defect.

I called Dell today and after I delivered some firm words on the matter they will be sending me another new one.

Originally they wanted me to take a picture of it and send to them but I angrily refused and reminded them that the trackpad is also not working properly and that I have run out of patience with this whole matter so a picture back-and-forth process was not going to happen.

In the mean time i will ship back my dead one and use my defective new one until its replacement arrives.

I have learned to not hold my breath or get my hopes up too high expecting a complete resolution with this product.

 

I'm considering doing the same but not sure.... even if they send me another one I bet that it will be just as bad. I actually just noticed pressure of the bottom right of my screen when i open and close the laptop so I may have no choice...

I'm glad you gave them a call and I hope that your new "new" laptop will be working properly. Did you happen to ask for warranty extension? Instead of dealing with this now I might just request my escalation agent to renew my warranty completely so i can deal with it later

 

No, I did not ask for a warranty extension, but I had (last year) already extended my warranty by 1 year to sept 2016.
When on the phone I had also mentioned that I might just want a refund and they could keep their troublesome laptop.
There was no response on that, but if this does not resolve itself, I may seriously look into going down that road.

 

Could QHD+ (3200x1800) screen owners do me a huge favour please? Will only take 10 seconds of your time.
Open this LCD ghosting test page: http://www.testufo.com/ghosting and tell me on your screen whether it looks like the trail that follows the red body of the UFO in the middle row looks black/dark or red? Examples of both in the attached screenshot (left vs right, middle of the 3 rows. The darker actually looks almost black in motion):

 

Dark Red then black.