XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

EDIT: Sorry, I accidentally placed that question in the Haswell thread, while it was suppose to be asked in the Skylake thread!

I'm a little bit confused with the SSD M.2 variants for the XPS 15. As far as I know we have:

Samsung PM951
Samsung SM951

Now, Samsung SM951 is better (faster) and it has two variants: AHCI and NVMe.

I guess it's best to use SM951 NVMe. Is there some product/model number of that drive so that I can easily verify what to buy?

 

one small problem, the laptop doesn't support nvme and never will unless someone adds the module to the bios as you can be sure dell has no need to.

 

Is this information confirmed? As I've seen many sources on the Internet saying it's NVMe.

https://twitter.com/dell/status/653574596323639297

 

Once again, my XPS (which has a Precision M3800 motherboard now) doesn't get into sleep properly , and instead it restarts
I thought that turning on "USB Wakeup support" fixed the issue as suggested on the Dell forums, but the issue is back once again.

Any idea what can be done to fix this? Practically If it goes to sleep I loose all the work.

 

if you do your homework you will see the 8 series chipset doesn't support it so of course it is confirmed. feel free to slap one in and you will be limited to sata 6gbs speeds capping just under 600mbs as nvme should support older sata boards. Oh that is provided you don't try and use it as a boot drive as it probably won't work.

We are talking about Dell, this laptop is going to see fek all support once the new ones out so they will not waste money trying to update the BIOS to take an SSD they will not be selling with this laptop as they will no longer be making it.

just buy the AHCI version of the SSD.

 

I posted that question here by mistake. It was meant to be asked in the Skylake thread. Do you have any clue if the 9550 does't support NVMe as well?

 

guys i just upgraded my dell xps 15 9530 to the free windows 10 upgrade.rest of everything is fine but the dell audio doesnt work like it used to work before.the equalizer settings are alll gone of music movies vocal etc...the sound is soo baseless.what shud i do?

 

Windows 10 updates all drivers at the latest version available on Dell Website, even Realtek Audio driver, but unfortunately the latest version available on Dell website loses PRO functions, so you you have to reinstall the default driver, you can find all others infos about this procedure in this thread.

 

I forgot to say that this happens even for Realtek audio driver so you have to install MAXXAUDIO PRO another time...

 

where can i find maxx audio pro from?

 

on the original install image so call it a day and use the windows 10 driver.

 

In this thread there is a link to download MAXXAUDIO Pro, supplied by a xps15 owner.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Hi guys,

I got a few problems with my XPS15.

1) and most important I can see some burnt pixels in a way on my screen. I dont know how to describe it but there is a spot in the middle of my screen which is quit bi where I can see more light coming off than the rest of screen. it is like burnt pixels the other way around. It has random shape and it is mainly visible in white background but it is annoying as I work on documents and I cannot focus. Do you think that this constitutes enough of a problem for dell to replace my screen?

2) I cannot update my nVidia drivers as every time the update fails and when I open nvidia experience I get a message saying cannot connect to nVidia. Now I have used HWinfo and I can see that the cards is turned on when playing a game, but still I have noticed a drop in my FPS for no other reason.

3) The mat surface on the palm rest has created some bumps on a big surface for no reason although I believe it might be form heat as they are directly above the place where the HDD is placed ( bottom right corner).


Any advice for the above I am just afraid that if I dont replace my screen now that the new model is out there wont be any spare parts for me.

 

1, Yes. It should like a pressure problem from something behind the screen that should not be there, poor manufacture maybe?

2, Try downloading the driver like most people do, GeForce experience can cause a problem if you resume form stanby where it takes up 100% of a cpu core causing excessive fan noise so you should uninstall it anyway. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-uk

3, could be a delamination issue and is under warranty regardless of what the support tech on the phone says., the downside is when I needed it replaced for the same reason they sent out a reclaimed palmrest and that was from a dropped unit, I went mental at support and got a new laptop as they came to do the screen & palmrest. Both parts were poor. See this post for more info. http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps-15-haswell-owners-lounge.735403/page-558#post-9670911

 

1) Form what i have read it appears to be the problem you mentioned

2) I have tried to do that but even when I download the drives directly from nVidia or the dell website it still wont install it gives a messag eof a failure and it stops.
Are you suggesting to get rid of nVidia experience altogether and just keep the driver?

3) To tell you the truth I am afraid to request of any new spare parts I would prefer to get a new laptop but then the problem is that new model is out and any laptops they have will be refurbished which is kinda bad.

Any suggetions on how to handle it? I am in Uk by the way

 

Hard to say but uninstall all video for the nvidia and then try again, if it fails then right click on it in device manager and update driver, follow the let me decide and navigate to the nvidia folder c:\nvidia, pick the driver folder (probbaly C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\359.00\Win10_64\International\Display.Driver) and it should have an inf to click, see if that installs it.

 

Installed the latest Realtek audio drivers from the XPS 9550 and MaxxAudio is still not the Pro version but audio does sound a lot better. Better start checking both systems for newer drivers that are compatible with both laptops

 

Interesting, maybe we could ask to 9550 owners to share installation folder of audio driver, so we could have an updated version of MAXXAUDIO PRO.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Hi, I just upgraded the WLAN card from an AC 7260 to an AC 7265 on my XPS 15 9530 top tier. I was having problems with it not connecting and not scanning available WLAN networks. I had the latest Intel proset wireless already installed. But now with the AC7265 everything appears to work a lot better. It only cost me $12 on eBay. A very worthwhile upgrade indeed!

 

Got to call phone support again tomorrow to get a fan swapped for the 3rd time, 1st time it started to make excessive noise due to being on 8 hours+ a day for a year, the replacement started to oscillate a few hours after being fitted and now a couple of months down the line it has started to vibrate at tickover (2400rpm)

Stripped and cleaned but it hasn't helped.

 

Phoned up and they started talking about replacing the motherboard as well as the fan, even though I know it is just a bad fan again as none have had the same issue (1st worn, 2nd faulty out the box and 3rd started to vibrate) I questioned a replacement board due to the inherent issues with noise and me already having 3 laptops before making do with this. Well he threw in a curveball and said due to the amount of service calls and problems that I could have a new system built but it may take 6 weeks.

Well that is a no brainer. I really hope it is the new XPS15 when the specs come through later.

 

Please find the below specification of your replacement system. Please confirm if you are ok with the below specification.


Components

1 XPS 15 (9550)
1 6th Generation Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-6700HQ Quad Core (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)
1 15.6" 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge touch, Sliver
1 81 Key Palmrest
1 16GB (2x8GB) 2133MHz DDR4 Memory
1 512GB PCIe Solid State Drive
1 UK Power Cord
1 130W AC Adapter
1 Dell 84 WHr 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
1 Intel Core i7 Processor Label
1 NVIDIA GTX960M 2GB DDR5
1 DW1830 3x3 802.11ac 2.4/5GHz + Bluetooth 4.1
1 Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard
1 McAfee(R) 30day Trial
1 Additional Software
1 McAfee Live Safe XPS 12 Month Subscription
1 System Shipment Material, 5510
Software
1 Windows 10 Home (64bit) English
1 Microsoft Office 30 Day Trial - Excludes Office License
1 ME Disable Software
1 Additional SW Win 10

 

That's awesome. Now let's hope the new system is fairly perfect.

 

Maybe you could check if Maxx Audio Pro is installed. Would be great if you'll extract the install files so we could get back the nice sound quality of the Pro drivers

 

why don't you go and ask in one of the owners threads as mines at least a month away!

 

It doesn't work like that, besides you can download the 9550 audio drivers from Dell.com. They'll install on the 9530, but still won't give maxxaudio pro, only v3.
The control panel executable (RtkNGUI64.exe) or the one of the service executables seem to decide what version of maxxaudio software runs based on what hardware is installed. I'm guessing at some point, either Realtek made an error and changed a setting in their codebase so with each new driver build 9530 hardware runs maxxaudio 3, or some sort of contract/agreement with Dell for the pro version expired. Either way, you could install the same driver on both machines and interchange RtkNGUI64.exe between 9550 and 9530 and 9550 will always run pro, 9530 will always run v3.

 

About the USB issue, I've found a sort of fix for it...just go in nvidia control panel and switch physx and graphics over to the nvidia gpu only. Then make sure your gpu is active - open a hi res pic or play a 4k video or something. After this, the gpu will stay active until you switch back to intel HD. Anyway, while the gpu is active the usb ports seem to work fine on my xps, with the 750m gpu though. Other users have reported this to work too.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

Guys, need some help. I tried to install linux in dual boot mode but the installer crashed. Anyways, my issue isnt about linux. In the process of installation, it seems my intel rapid start got disabled and I get the annoying popup about this every time I boot into windows(10). The rapid start manager desktop app wont open and I cant seem to find it in control panel. The setup I downloaded from internet says that my pc doesnt meet minimum requirements. When I go to the bios, the rapid start option is disabled but I cant seem to change this as the option is blacked out. Any idea what the issue is?

 

This happened to me and I just did a system restore. It came back normally.

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

OK, so I just realized I deleted the hibernation partition by mistake. While trying to recreate it, I am stuck at the set id part. Its in GPT mode so I tried to set id as "D3BFE2DE-3DAF-11DF-BA40-E3A556D89593" instead of "84", but still its not working. It says "successfully set id" but the disk management tool still says it is primary not hibernation. Also, I uninstalled the rapid start app and reinstalled it from dell's website. Still the rapid start option is now absent altogether from the bios. My boot time is now 20 seconds.

 

Do you have the hybrid storage setup or ssd only?

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

ssd only model

 

Just wanted to warn you guys, after updating to the latest NVIDIA driver (361.43) and rebooting the device, I was stuck in a constant cycle of blue screens of death. Had to restore the machine to before the driver was installed. I'm not sure if this was an isolated incident for me or just NVIDIA scr*wing up, so would love to hear of other peoples' feedback on this.

 

working fine here, get the intel beta drivers installed and try again.

 

No problem here, I'm using latest stable Intel driver.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I'm experiencing the same kind of problems, reinstalling windows now to see if it makes any difference.

 

I am thinking of getting this powerbank. Do you know if it will work with the laptop? Also, what connector will I have to purchase extra?

 

I'm not too sure about that. Maybe someone else will know.
What about this one?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0116...+pack+110v&dpPl=1&dpID=31H59B5CAVL&ref=plSrch

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk

 

Thanks. Didn't know such devices existed. But my charger's rating is 130W 19.5V 6.67A. The ChargeTech link says it supports upto 95W. Will that make it unsuitable?

 

I can't be sure...but I have a feeling it won't work. Because Dell's own power pack ( http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Power-Co...51413066&sr=8-1&keywords=dell+power+companion) doesn't work with the 9530 because it doesn't have enough wattage. It's made for the less powerful laptops like the xps 13 etc...but oddly enough the new xps 15 can work with it. I guess that laptop handles power differently, with a more modern gpu and all.

Here's what I use for power on the go, if you're interested. ( http://www.amazon.com/Outlets-Inver...1413391&sr=8-1&keywords=12v+to+110v+converter)
I keep my laptop topped of in my car always and make use of several power saving features while using it away from the charger...and get around 5 hours of battery life.

 

It will work with lower power chargers using the adapter dell sells, it will give a BIOS warning about the wrong wattage that you can disable but will work just fine, it will charge slower as expected and may even leave it on the battery profile but I don't know what is sacrificed as I don't use one.

 

I installed the custom driver audio package that gave me MaxxAudio Pro on my 9530 (Win 10) - but for some reason it reverts back to a completely non-customisable MaxxAudio v3 (i.e. a blank white screen in the settings menu) after a few days. I don't know why but the Pro drivers don't 'last' on my system.

The sound is atrocious, it actually sounds like the sound that comes out of a set of headphones... when they're not on your head! Zero depth, 100% tin-can mono.

 

You have to disable drivers updating via Windows Update, as detailed in the original post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/posts/10059246/
otherwise, you'll be automatically updated to a non-pro version as you described.

 

2.2GHz Lockdown on Windows 10

There is a problem with latest official version of DPTF (Intel Dynamic Platform Thermal Framwork Driver) on Windows 10
The latest official version released by Dell of DPTF 8.1.10600.147 inhibits Turbo mode, so CPU cannot run over 2.2GHz.
The solution is to use DPTF 8.1.10604.207 released for XPS15 9550, but this brings another issue:
Using latest DPTF driver the HD4600 will run at base clock of 600MHz instead of 400MHz.
This issue was treated in Dell Precision m3800 thread:

 

Warning: seems that for some reason I can't go back to previous version of DPTF, Windows gives me some kind of error when I try to reinstall it.

 

Windows 10 (with the recent Synaptics driver from Dell) has changed the touchpad 3finger-swipe gesture from back/forward to switch between windows. This is annoying as there seems to be no other gesture for the back/forward function any more.
I am not sure if there is already a solution but here is what I found. Go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadSMB2c\3FingerGestures

Change the values of these three entries to "1c" (default action?):

1. ActionID3, 2. ActionID7, and 3. ActionID11

Reboot and you will get back/forward with 3finger-swipe left and right back as before.

 

I also can't seem to update the drivers, even after disabling the updates. What can be done?

 

I tried it -- have to boot to DOS, and then it told me it didn't recognize my drive. I have the SM941 512GB, with firmware DXM43D0Q -- and it's apparently staying on that firmware. Oh well.

 

As I mentioned in response to the earlier message, 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.

 

Hope it isn't against the rules to ask this but I think it is the only place to get an answer.
I have a brand new UK keyboard and a new trackpad that I am looking to sell but I do not know what to ask price wise?

Thanks.