XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

The usb ports on the opposite side work ok. The problem is the ribbon cable which connects the daughterboard to the mainboard. I think either the ribbon connector or the socket on the mainboard has been damaged. They do seem to be quite fragile. Think I have no choice now but to log a hardware fault with Dell.

 

I am just wondering if anyone is using the calibrated color profile on notebookcheck.net or not? if so did you see anything different?

 

I called Dell about my display issue.
The tech on the phone wanted to rule out it was not driver related.
He reinstalled the standard display drivers - same issue.
He had me go in to the bios to see if the lines were still there.
Unfortunately the screen is mostly bright colored so the issue did not show up.
They used this sole factor to rule that it was OS

He had me boot to safe mode.
The lines were still there.

He then got his "supervisor" on the call - who then told me they believe it to be an Operating System fault !!!
I told him I disagreed and he said they did all they can over the phone - and to check my "support agreement" - as that is all they can do is try and diagnose over the phone.
I argued with him about this for a while and then he punted me back to the tech - who then told me that they would either have to send me a CD and reinstall the OS all over again (I would have to then re-install everything - all apps, etc again) - OR I would have to ship my pc to them to be diagnosed/repaired in their own repair shop - which would mean I would be without the pc for at least 1.5 weeks !!!

At this point - having been through 3 system replacements - and being incredibly frustrated - demanded to speak with the supervisor about this - as neither option is acceptable.
The "supervisor" gets back on the phone and was quite abrasive with me - telling me that they would NOT send a tech to my home - that I must ship the pc to them. Once again he said to check my warranty support agreement - which apparently states they don't have to fix anything at your home.
I again expressed my dissatisfaction in this - and compound that with the fact they were very quick to diagnose this "clearly HARDWARE" issue as an OS problem - I was not willing to go through all of these inconvenient hoops and time to only be left with the same conclusion - that it was a faulty display.
The "supervisor" then clearly became even more abrasive and it was obvious that customer support is not either his mandate or attributes - as he made no real attempts to even come up with any other solution for me.
I then said I was fed up and wanted my money back - as I have been through enough troubles with this pc - at which he almost seemed happy to tell me to call another department who I could discuss that with.
I think he was just happy that he did not have to deal with this anymore - and that my case would be given to someone else !

So, he once again (almost angrily this time), punted me back to the original tech - who gave me their 1-800 number to call to request a refund. I asked if they were open now - (it is Saturday) - he said yes - but when I called - they were NOT open !
I eventually reached a tech support person via that number and was told I had to call back on Monday.

I have NO idea what to expect when I call on Monday - as I will basically be demanding a refund - and I will ship this piece of garbage back to them to do with what they wish.
I asked the original tech if he had ever dealt with a case like this before where a customer was so dissatisfied with the product that they actually "got" a refund and he said he has heard that this has happened before - but I have no idea what to believe at this point.

If I could sum up my tech support call today it would be this.
Dell does not care very much about supporting their products after sale.
The tech was just following his "script" of troubleshooting rules - so it was not his fault - but his "supervisor" was in a different league of being UN-helpful and abrasive - and did not care if I was a happy or an unhappy Dell customer.
The supervisor's treatment of my situation was a clear indication that he did not care whatsoever for making me a satisfied customer.

In any event, I am going to call that 1-800-624-9897 on Monday and see what happens.
I had purchased an extra year of warranty - which I am not sure what will happen in this mix - but I just want my money back - and this laptop OUT of my life already.

Dell - if you are reading these posts - WAKE UP.

 

I decided to come back to this forum after 6 months. And I see that everyone is in the same boat as me !! - Dell seems to be having spectacular problems with this Xps 9530 !! I don't know if there is any other laptop which had so many issues !!
My History of issues if it benefits someone I seemed to have some issues apart from those I could read through.Perhaps others also had similar experiences.
Story started in April 2014
mid tier option --> Nvidia card was detected intermittently in GeForce experience. Later it stopped showing up.
-Diagnosed HW fault in MB.MB replaced.
-Ended up with terrible coil whine.
-Promised a MB replacement for coil whine issue. MB replaced with "fixed" coil whine . Still emitted strong whine.
-Machine returned for refund. Refund issued after a month.
-Bought Top tier machine ( I know I am an idiot what was I thinking -"Aha the first machine where the GPU did not work did not have coil whine what if I get lucky" )
- No coil whine Yea !!!!
- After a month GPU fan died. Fan replaced in machine.
- After a few months my laptop decided not to wake up/get charged irrespective of what ever I do. It was dead !
- I called up tech support they said known issue laptop dies some issue with the charging module that can fry MB . Hence they had to change the MB !! .
-MB changed and return of the horrible coil whine . (Sure MB from a refurb unit amazingly does not even have the Dell logo at startup)

Its been such an experience that I have forgotten half the issues! For this post when I checked my Dell account I seem to have had in total 3 service tags and I mention 1 replacement ! .
I know I received another replacement but cant even remember the problems now! there have been so many !!

Now the laptop decides not to wake up from sleep and keeps crashing once in a while while waking up from sleep ( No Rapid start not enabled. Hibernation disabled. )
I am scared to ask for a replacement even if Dell agrees for it as I heard about the horror stories of the 4K panel and the pain of the wireless cards in the new ones.
I cannot swap the ssd also since the drivers different and would need to go through a re-install cycle ! . My warranty is now coming to a close and I am not sure what to do !!

But as someone said its a love hate story some how no one has another product like this ! .

I have a Vaio which is 8 years old now . I may have an old screen but it does what it did on day one. I can't believe that there can be so many issues with a Laptop !!!

 

Sorry to hear that you and others are having problems. But to put the records straight, not everyone is having problems. Mine is fine (touch wood).

 

Mine was fine for a while, but got coil whine after a motherboard replacement due to issues with the GPU. Now it has a bright spot in the middle of the screen, and a noisy fan.

I don't know if I should call them to replace the motherboard, fan, and screen, or do it piece by piece. I am so tired of dealing with them...

 

Called Dell today to raise a service call, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised - was put straight through to a tech who had me run the diags, then advised they would have an engineer out to me tomorrow. Total call time around 15 mins. I suspect when I said both the wireless and the usb ports on the right side don't work, that this flagged up pretty quickly on their system. From looking at how flimsy that ribbon cable is I doubt I'm the first person to call up with this problem.

 

Hi, everybody.
I want change my frequence of my PLL whith SetFSB.
What is the name of the clock generator of the XPS 15 (9530) ? ICS......., or other ?

 

good luck with the 2nd hand screen lottery, at least they seem to use new fans!

 

hmmm we Dell engineer visit today and it's not good news - daughterboard ribbon connector is damaged as i expected, but also the motherboard connector is damaged, and also one of the wireless connectors as well as one of the points on the wireless card believe it or not... *sigh*... i dont care so much about damage to the wireless card but apparently they can't just replace the wireless antenae cable they have to replace the whole screen as it comes as one part (!?) I must have mashed it when i put the lid back on.

I had alook online and on ebay but not many spare parts available after-market for this model. I thought if i could just get one of the ribbon cables i could try that, motherboard might actually be ok, but can't find anything. Dell called back and want to change me £600 for the repair. They won't sell me just the daughterboard cable. At that price its worth considering stripping out the ssd and memory and selling the rest for parts/repair.

Let this be a warning to anyone attempting opening up this laptop for any reason - be very very careful.

 

As a update to my own sad story saga.
I called Dell back to see if they would refund my money.
Short answer - no, they won't.
I ended up calling back premium support for my screen issue.
THIS time, they did not tell me I had to re-install my OS, and they did not tell me I had to ship it to them and wait weeks for them to figure it out.
THIS time, they said they would send a new 4K screen and new motherboard to a tech, who would then schedule a visit to my home to install them when the parts arrived.
What a difference in treatment of the issue. Mind boggling.
I will reserve my calls to premium support for the normal M-F work week from now on - as it seems the weekend crew are bad news.

So, we will see what happens when the parts arrive and get installed. I will provide my update at that time.

Oh, and by the way - the fact that the original tech (and his "supervisor") both tried to convince me it was a driver and/or OS problem still bother me. What a stupid conclusion they came to. In any event, I plugged my pc into an external display and the lines were NOT there on that display, but WERE there on my laptop. So THERE ! NOT a Driver and NOT an OS issue !!!

 

So I think what I'm going to do with my broken XPS15 is get it repaired and sell it, my wife doesn't want to use it, she says its too big and heavy - which I suppose it is compared to my XPS13. I think I will pass down my existing XPS13 to her (its the ivy bridge model, a couple of years old now) and pick up one of the new XPS13 developer edition ones with ubuntu pre-installed and the improved screen, they look pretty sweet. Just gotta call Dell tomorrow and see if they'll put it all on the one invoice for tax purposes.

 

takes the piss m8, I know what I would do about the antenna cable, simply splice in a new one with heatshrink and solder, it will cost about £2 to do that repair and will be as good as new! assuming you cannot repair the bent part with a pin as I have done before. That way you need one cable from Dell if you are unable to find it online.
If you are near Derby I would be willing to take a look and give an opinion on what really needs doing as I have found the Dell engineers are just untrained self employed people that know a lot less than me about the laptops they fix. They do not like having a factory trained laptop engineer looking over them while they work

 

yeah if that was the only thing wrong i would just buy a new internal antenae off ebay, or strip one from an old laptop and snake it around the inside the case. the main problem is the motherboard connector for the daughterboard, that is a really small and really delicate connector - really easy to damage, and it means a complete motherboard replacement.

 

have you confirmed this as I would not trust a dell tech to do anything other than a quick exit to get paid, a high res image of the board and cable should show the issue. the cables designed to break before the board.

 

The dell tech did say the mainboard might still be ok, the only way to get a good look at it is to zoom in with a mobile, it's so small but it does look like one of the pins is damaged. I wish I could source that ribbon connector on its own, I can't find it for sale anywhere. Dell would not sell me just that connector, I assume it comes with the motherboard or daughterboard. The tech did not have a spare with him, if I could just try a working one I could confirm if the motherboard really is damaged or not.

 

I would complain that the tech just wanted to go after messing around inside the laptop so as far as you are concerned he caused the damage as it could have simply been a bad connection or a fault that took time to manifest itself, the truth is if he closed the call down the way he did he got his fee, if he had to order another part he wouldn't have got paid for today. I got that from the 1st tech I met from Dell last year.

Not sure what you told Dell on the phone but I hope you didn't admit to messing inside or you shot yourself in the foot.

 

it just irritates me too much that those Dell technicians treat our $2000 baby like a bunching bag every time. They'd never do that if they bought the laptops themselves.

 

nah on this occasion it was my fault and i put my hand up to it... i came back from the pub after a skinful and decided it was a smart idea to open my new laptop. i pretty much shot that horse in the face when i lost that single t5 torx screw... "did you open this up sir".... ummmm yes but...

 

Geez Gentlemen, I was almost decided to either by an XPS 15 or M3800 -- and now I'm reading about the massive problems many of you guys are having with the XPS 15

Would the community advise against buying one at the moment, or have the issues been mostly resolved with the latest revision?

If the former would be valid, it'd be rather easy then for me -- I'd simply go for the HP Omen

 

I would advise against it. My 3 month old brand new xps15 has display issues. The 3 units that preceded it all had major issues. Nothing is fixed in this model. These laptops are ticking time bombs just waiting to fail in some capacity. Buyer beware.

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

 

Ouch! Thanks!

 

The quality is poor, but they are nonetheless excellent machines: great battery life, resolution, stylish, very light, and fast (by 2013 standards; there may or may not be something better now). There are better gaming laptops with worse battery life, lighter and longer-lasting ultrabooks with less performance, and so on, but this is the package that fits better my requirements.

If you buy one, just make sure you get the longest warranty you can get.

PS: On a separate note, I think I'll ask for another motherboard replacement and play again the coil whine lottery...

 

Thanks again! I think I'll really go with the HP Omen.

Btw. what you are saying is still true: I searched for weeks but could not find anything that really surpasses the XPS 15 feature package.

 

That one looks really good. Pity of the screen (I am spoiled after using a HiDPI screen, I'll never buy again a screen with less resolution than that). Now again, when I play games I usually do so at 1600x900 (unless it's an older game which runs fine at 3200x1800). So if gaming is what you are mostly going to do, FullHD will be fine for you.

 

Actually the one thing I will never do on it is gaming

It is supposed to be a powerful desktop PC replacement, and it must drive a 4K TV (again, not for gaming but as multi monitor replacement for office and web).

 

Update.
Well it turns out there is no stock of displays or motherboards so they are doing a system exchange.
This will be system exchange number 5 for me !

I have had so many now - all with problems.
I sincerely hope this one is a winner.

I cant imagine the hell I would be going through had I actually sent my laptop to Dell to be diagnosed and repaired as I would have been without a laptop for all this time in limbo.

Fingers crossed on this one.
After all I have been through I deserve it !

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

 

The guys I spoke to last week who gave me the repair quote did also say they were short of motherboards, but at the time I just dismissed it as sales-speak... but I notice you can pick them up new on ebay for £200...

 

Yes but doesn't it make you wonder about how dell will be able to support warranty repairs in the future if they don't even have parts in stock to do it NOW while the model is actually still in production ?
What good is an extended warranty if there are no parts to fix it when it "does" break ?

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

 

they'll send u the latest model, by any chance?

 

Yup, just have to wait out the old stock.

 

So something VERY VERY BAD just happened: my SSD just bricked.

Samsung PM851 512GB (840 EVO equivalent) I was just running some speed tests on. More specifically it was Samsung Magician.

BSOD and restarted only to find that the drive wasn't bootable and not even showing up in BIOS. I've ordered a cheap mSATA to regular SATA adapter to see if I can't recover some stuff but it doesn't look good if the drive isn't even showing up in BIOS, right?

 

No you are screwed with ssd failure. Hence using a backup.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

What reminds me that I haven't done a backup in at least 3 or 4 weeks. Well, I have something to do this evening...

Edit: done

(posted this with the intent to remind everybody the importance of doing regular back-ups)

 

After you try the adapter and backup whatever you can, you can try messing with the SATA/AHCI/IRST setting in the BIOS - I have seen similar behavior when Rapid Start was acting up, and this setting didn't match what the system was installed as.

 

All I can say is screw the 840 Evo series and all derivatives thereof. I suspect my drive was already suffering from the notorious degradation associated to that entire product line. A new 500GB 850 Evo is only $200 from amazon so I think thats the route to take.

Dell put together a pretty solid machine for me, just a shame it had to be THAT particular SSD to muck it all up.

 

Windows 10 installed and working ok, I would suggest you backup then do the upgrade install to activate with the M$ servers then clean install. Most drivers are pulled down post install including touchpad .
Do not put in a key when asked during install and setup as it will activate once it is online so long as you did a successful upgrade prior to the clean install.
You can use missing drivers from the 8.1 downloads such as intel management interface & the thermals package, the rest should already be installed via M$.

I doubt dell will post windows 10 drivers for a long time if ever.

www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

Windows is "validating Windows 10 for my PC"

 

Why not avoid the brand entirely? It's not like they're the only game in town.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

It seems to be for all SM841 models, can't see any reference to 256GB only? My drive is a 512GB SM841 and according to firmware versions, my drive is compatible.

Samsung SSD SM841 SED mSATA Firmware DXM47D6Q

Anyway, I haven't done it yet as the instructions say the tool will delete all data on drive. What an absolute nuisance. Has anyone upgraded the FW yet?

 

If I remember correctly, when you look at the "read me" in the download, it lists the relevant serial number(s) that the firmware is for - they're all 256GB drives.

 

Really annoyed about the fact that Windows 10 needs to validate for my PC, while you lot all have it!

 

You can download the set up exe and install it yourself.

 

is it safe to install windows 10 yet? are all the drivers working or are there any trouble?

 

I 1st upgraded with the ISO to activate the new licence so go for it. You may have to wait a few days for activation as the servers are being battered due to the preload most people have.

 

Just upgraded to Windows 10 using the upgrade tool from Microsoft website:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

So far so good, everything is working fine, no drivers problems.

 

Did you have to reserve a key or anything? My system didn't get the Windows 10 upgrade app in the icon tray.

Can I just download the upgrade tool, upgrade to Windows 10 and it'll stay activated?

 

Ah yes - you're correct. My mistake. The firmware versions match the 512GB also, but the only compatible SSD is the MZMPD 256HAGM-000D7.

 

download the ISO from the link in my earlier posts and create an ISO then use RUFUS 2.2 to setup a USB install and use that to upgrade, (pick GPT option in rufus) once upgraded check system for activation status once online (can take a while but should be seconds) then backup and clean install as you will end up with thousands of errors in the event viewer otherwise.

 

Not yet but I am also curious about the fw update seriously deleting all data? I am slowly thinking that I should just sell the SM841 and get a real SSD for my dell xps 15..

With all the windows 10 installation questions I got a different one for you: Has anyone tried installing and running arch linux on the dell xps 15 9530 (haswell) yet ?

Thanks !