XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Hi all

I've been struggling with the Turbo Boost not working and the integrated graphics tuck at 400Mhz using Dell's provided DPTF driver. The workarounds like using old drivers or drivers for other systems were OK but seem to cause stability issues like random throttling and additional problems with Optimus.

I think I figured out why the DPTF driver is disabling Turbo Boost. I noticed in msinfo that the only DPTF modules loaded were DptfPolicyPassive, DptfPolicyLpm and DptfPolicyCritical. It doesn't seem to matter which power profile is chosen, AC or DC power.

I played a little trick to make the system load the Active module by renaming the Passive Module as Active and vice versa in the ufx64 folder. Upon reboot the CPU was using Turbo Boost properly and iGPU performance seemed normal. The system was also quiet!!

We need to get Dell engineers to provide an updated driver package with proper configuration that will load the correct modules. I encourage you to contact them directly through support or twtter at Dell Cares so that can get a DPTF driver that is properly configured for our systems.

Thanks

Dell Community Thread is here:
http://fw.to/UysSBOD

 

Sorry for being so late man but, here's a replacement on Amazon for $30.

New Genuine OEM DELL Precision M3800 XPS 15 9530 Laptop Palmrest Touchpad Mouse Button Click Upper Keyboard Bezel Cover Frame Housing Trackpad Pad Assembly Case P5GND https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C4WQZ3W/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_RWT9wbY3X4Q6J



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So, guys, after seeing this post...I'm just terrified this might happen to me, so would you all mind sharing with what and how do you all clean your Xps 15's?

I generally use a microfiber cloth and some alcohol cleaner if necessary...but now I'm having second thoughts about putting alcohol on my palmrest

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Used isopropanol a few times without ill effect but tbh the best thing I found was window cleaner, streak free stuff on the screen then use the wet side to do the keyboard/palmrest.

Obviously not the cream based stuff you leave to dry then wipe off as that would be plain stupid to use, but this is the internet so I had better add that in!

 

CaN YoU PLeaSE ExPlaiN YOUrself Mr. EngLISH Teacher as I'm JUst UNfORtunatelY NOt FoLLowing WHat YoU MEan? ThANkS

 

CaN YoU PLeaSE ExPlaiN YOUrself Mr. EngLISH Teacher as I'm JUst UNfORtunatelY NOt FoLLowing WHat YoU MEan? ThANkS

 

Tried it, broke my microphone again so I went back to the original drivers from 2013...

 

Unfortunately you have reason: mic is almost unusable with new driver, I went back to the original driver...

 

Hmm today I got a red line going from the top of the display to the bottom. It is very thin, see the picture attached.

It happend while randomly working with the laptop.. nothing too fancy.
It also exists on the bios screen.. so it isn't software related (it is on windows + linux + bios).
Closing/opening/moving the lid/display won't help.. also pressing at the screen won't fix it.

Any ideas what it is and how to fix it?

 

You can't. It looks like a faulty panel, you will need to replace the lid.

 

Hmm is that do-able at home? How expensive could that be ?
How could it get faulty in the first place?

 

It can be a problem with the display cable. It happens sometimes.

 

erm because things break.
How easy, for me a 5 minute job. You can google the service manual and decide if your technical abilities are up to it. As for price, yet again google it as the price varies per country and 2nd hand panel quality. No new units are available as it is EOL.

You can't split the panel to change the cable on that laptop. And a faulty cable causing a single line fault is about a million to one chance or it would need quite a lot of cables to pull that off!

 

After 2 years already a defective display just "because it breaks after some time" is a really short period of durability lol.

I just found 1 QHD screen on ebay for 800€...way too expensive. I wonder if it makes any sense to call Dell and try talking to them?

 

WOW!, the laptop isn't worth that now!

Are you under warranty?

All I suggest is trying to buy an extended warranty, waiting a month then phoning in the defect, while it may not be the honest way it may be an option.

Phoning for an OOW repair will get a stupid quote as well.

Otherwise, good luck phoning, you may get lucky and be offered a discounted upgrade to a 9550.

 

The new 9550 is no optuon for me (i think) as I need 140Hz display output which I so far did via mini-displayport which the new 9550 doesnt have.

I bought the laptop 2y and 2 months ago. Not sure how long the standart warranty goes but I guess it is only 1 year and so extending won't work now as well?

Thanks for your help !

 

Doesn't the 9550 have Thunderbolt? Thunderbolt can be used to connect to displayport monitors right out the box, no?

 

Hmm I will have to check if 140Hz is also possible with such an adapter.

Besides that.. I wonder if Dell can make a better discount than what my company gets.. I bought the full tier XPS 15 9530 for 1400€ instead of 2000€ thanks to my companies discount (681$ difference or 600€).

 

Hi,

Does anyone in this great forum kindly know how to completely disable the touchpad, as I never use it, and now that I am greatly trying to learn to type correctly and with all 10 fingers, I disable it in the Dell Touchpad control panel but it just keeps on reactivating with the slightest touch of it?

I tried to find an option in Device Manager under Mice and other pointing devices under Dell Touchpad to disable the driver, yet there is only the option to uninstall, which I in fact did, yet when it returns from a required restart it unbelievably installs it back again.

Thank you kindly,
SD

 

You could try keeping a mouse plugged in with the "Disable Touchpad when USB Mouse present" setting turned on. Otherwise, installing the synaptic drivers might give you a "disable" option that works.

 

Thank you kindly as I do in fact have a mouse plugged in always, and the synaptic control panel does have the disable option yet when chosen, it unfortunately & unbelievably goes right back to enable with the slightest and I mean slightest touch of the touchpad, which is just truly frustrating to say the least.

 

OK so I believe I have thankfully solved my own very frustrating touchpad issue by uninstalling the synaptic software & driver, then installing the DELL Touchpad software & driver instead, then going into the DELL Touchpad control panel and choosing disable there, and so far it is not coming on and not working just perfectly!

 

I have really been strongly considering on selling my XPS 15 (9530) and buying their new XPS 15 (9550) with the 4K display, as gracious members from that forum have said that there is definitely a very noticeable difference between the 4K display and my 3200 x 1800 present one when zooming in on photo images, which I in fact do often.

So, for little over a week now I have been closely following eBay sellers selling their XPS 15 (9530) units and seeing what they are getting and I honestly must say that for me and my expectations it has been very discouraging to say the least.

It seems that more and more private and not power sellers are putting their XPS 15 (9530) units up for sale almost every day and they are selling for around $800 - $900, which is just way less then I would want or take for mine.

One would think that having a good amount of time remaining on the warranty would definitely add buying eagerness to the table, yet I am unfortunately not seeing that at all, well at least from the auctions that I have followed from beginning to end.

So with this real eye opener, even though I am very fully aware that not much of anything holds its value forever, I have still decided to extend my warranty for another year to the near end of 2017 for a little over $100, which I just did, and see what the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 will have in store.

Kind Regards,
SD

 

Considering that xps 15 9550 4k i7 512GB can be bought on ebay refurb but essentially new for $1400, this pricing is understandable. I have both 9550 and 9530 and won't sell the 9530 for the same reason. Kids are using it now.

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I could not agree with you more.

Let me ask you if I may, being that you have both the 9550 & 9530 if you zoom in on a HD photo do you see any noticeable difference between the two displays?

I really only was considering on selling my 9530 and buying the 9550 solely for this reason, as I have been led to believe that there is in fact a noticeable difference in the 4K display vs the 3K display and who better to get a gracious & grateful answer to this very burning question of mine then someone who in fact has both?

Kind Regards,
SD

 

To answer your burning question: the 4k is slightly finer than the qhd 3200x1800 for photos. But here is the kicker: the contrast ratio on the 4k is actually worse! Measured by notebookcheck.com. My 9530 has deep, lovely inky blacks which I miss on my 9550. So the display should not be the driver to upgrade. Other advances could: thin bezel, smaller size, nvme ssd, ddr4, gtx960 and skylake. but if you are happy with 9530 enjoy the terrific display.

 

If you are not a gamer, this upgrade doesn't seem a great upgrade.
If you look the review of Anandtech of XPS 15 9550 you can notice that 9530 and 9550 are in normal use at the same level and even the displays are practically at same level, but 9530 has much more brightness: 450 vs 335, and even a better contrast ratio.
The big advantage of 9550 are GPU and Wi-Fi performance, but 9530 has a better battery life.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10116/the-dell-xps-15-9550-review

 

guho,

You just do not know how much I sincerely thank you for such a gracious and extremely valuable response & information , as I was under the great belief & impression that there was definitely a significantly noticeable difference between the 3200 x 1800 display and the 4K display.

After your gracious response and honest feelings I'm glad that I choose to extend the warranty one more year on my 9530, as I really do like this laptop, and the only reason why I was considering selling it and getting the 9550 was for nothing more than seeing HD photos much sharper when zooming in and I was under the impression that it was in fact like night & day between the two.

Thank you so much & Kind Regards,
SD

 

Hi Mac,

Thank you so kindly for this gracious link and the grateful reassurance of the gracious member guho feelings as well,as it is so greatly appreciated!

No I do not game at all and the only reason why I was ever considering on selling my 9530 and buying the 9550 was because, I was first told and finally honestly believed that the 4K display would be like night & day in overall picture quality & clarity over the 9530's 3200 x 1800 display when zooming in on HD photo's, and I just wanted & want the best possible experience doing such, which of course I can afford as well.

Believe it or not, even though I do not game at all, I was personally believing that gamers would definitely want the best possible graphics and viewing experience that they can get as well, so I was seriously looking at the 4K Alienware's also, yet I just couldn't bring myself to buying a unit where an alien head would be constantly looking at me as I try to view photo's.

Thank you & Kind Regards,
SD

 

Hey guys I'm sure this has been asked but, if I get the 256GB XPS15, it says it comes with the smaller battery. Does that leave the hard drive bay open? Basically I want an XPS 15 with 2 bay options where I'm either gonna but a boot ssd and a large hard drive or two large ssds.

Edit: I want 4k touch, 16gb ram, small battery, and 2 drive options, the website makes it seem like its not possible, is that true?

 

The website makes it almost impossible to get certain combinations... and their HDD options are outrageously expensive when you customize them. You may have luck if you call them and talk to a rep.

Having said that, you're in luck because your combo is not that hard. The smaller battery leaves the SATA 2.5 HDD bay open for you to choose a SATA drive for Dell to fill. That will leave the tiny mSATA/PCIe slot open for you to add an mSATA solid state drive later on that you can get from Amazon much much cheaper than from Dell.

What's impossible is to get a larger battery and tell Dell "I don't want your outrageously priced msata."

 

Isn't that because the larger battery only has an m.2 slot not an msata? Or is that new with Skylake? I'm pretty sure some (like the 1TB hdd with 32gb ssd) have msata, while the larger ssds were m.2

Edit: Also does it recognize the boot drive as a normal C drive?
And would an mSata 850 evo be supported, its SATA not PCIe.

 

Dear owners od 9530 with 4k display,

Have it a s creen flickering? On which level of the light.

 

no it is the FHD that has that issue.

 

I think you are confusing the drives. It is my understanding that on both the XPS15 and its twin M3800 there are 2 slots:
1. A regular ol' "SATA" (* not* "mSATA") bay sits in a place where it is impossible to get the larger capacity battery. You MUST get the lower capacity battery. These drives are the regular classic 2.5 inch form factor drives and includes both the mechanical drives and larger form factor SSD's.
2. A "mSATA" slot which frees up the regular SATA bay.

On the newer XPS15's the mSATA slot is replaced by PCIe which is compatible with mSATA and uses the same connector.

I'm not sure the boot order, but no doubt this can be easily configured either via BIOS's Boot Order setting or, otherwise, the Windows Boot Manager. I wouldn't be too worried about that issue.

 

Whoops no I meant to say mSATA not SATA didn't realize I missed a letter. What I meant by the C drive question is there a some weird laptops that would treat a small ssd boot drive as an abnormal drive that wouldn't show up in Windows. I can't think of what did it though. But like if the 32GB one says C drive and then the hard drive says D or E or something then everything is fine, which I believe is the case.

 

The 32gb "SSD" portion in the hybrid drives is treated as a cache by the drive's hardware. It does not show up as a separate drive.

 

Yeah its been a few days so I learned more about it. It shows up in bios as like a RAID Drive or something, so it is replaceable, but I ended up going with a different option, thanks for the reply though!

 

Hello to all,

I've got mid tier configuration (32GB SSD + 1TO HDD). I want to replace 32GB SSD by 256GB SSD SAMSUNG EVO 850 MSATA and keep HDD for extra storage.

Are there Samsung EVO 850 MSATA specific references compatible for XPS 9530? Or as I'm writing from France, any reference sold in our market (ex Amazon) should be compatible for XPS9530?

Many thanks in advance for answers.

Best Regards

Jean-Pierre

 

Same questions keep being asked, try searching the forums m8.

 

Many thanks Gonzo, for links. It will be probably useful for upgrade.

My question was, if any reference concerning SAMSUNG EVO 850MSATA fit perfectly with our XPS, or are there some restrictions?

Best Regards

 

yes it fits as many of us have put one in.

 

Hi Everyone,

Here is an FYI for anyone who’s on the fence to extend their current warranty or not for their DELL XPS 15 (9530), as I recently was.

I have always in the past gone to DELL’s support site and requested and extension of my existing warranty there, and recently I just did the same thing and received an email from DELL outlying 2 available warranty options with one being for 1 year @ $118.00 and the second one for 2 years @ $198.00 and with both being Return to Depot, which is in fact my original warranty plan.

I choose the 1 year plan, as I’m just not sure how long I will continue to hold onto my unit, yet I definitely wanted peace-of-mind coverage while I do, and I also want to have coverage for the one that ultimately buys it if and when I sell it as well.

A short time after completing all the necessary form fields and submitting my payment information I receive an email stating that unfortunately the transaction was cancelled due to a problem on DELL’s side. Well just peachy now what, they changed their mind and are going to charge me more than they quoted me?

Well no it was just the opposite as my order was cancelled because, are you ready for this they unbelievably wanted to apply an unbeknownst to me 10% discount to my order and kindly asked me to resubmit another warranty extension request so they may do so.
Wow who would of expected this certainly not I , so of course I resubmitted everything and I then receive a 1 year quote for $106.20, which of course I took.

Well a short time later I receive yet another email from DELL unbelievably stating that my order was once again cancelled due to a problem on their side and that they are unable to process warranty extension requests at this time.
Wow truly unbelievable!

Forgetting about this for days and tending to my needed work, yesterday I receive an unexpected email from DELL stating, please supply a phone number to contact me now in regards to my requested warranty extension and when I did they called me immediately and said, they have just received a warranty promotion from the main headquarters and would like to offer it to me, which I asked of course what is it?
They said for your 1 year quote of $106.20 it will now be are you ready $57.58 and instead of Return to Depot it’s NBD Onsite repair after remote diagnosis.
Wow…I then asked him how much for the 2 year plan, which he said, your $198.00 2 year quote will be are you ready $97.92 for the same thing of NBD Onsite repair after remote diagnosis and guess which one I no-brainer took , which thankfully went through with no issues or hitches and the unit is now covered until 8/2018?

Don’t ask me what this whole crazy DELL scenario was all about and why, as I am still trying to figure it out , yet all I know is that I believe I got one heck of a super deal, even though I dread ever needing a home tech to repair the unit, especially with all the horror stories I read about them , and I’m letting ALL of you know, who are thinking on extending their warranty, to call now so you can hopefully get a super monies saving deal along with peace-of-mind for your hard earned investment!

Kind Regards,
SD

 

Great stuff, but maybe lay off the red bull next time!

 

my mistake. i somehow got sucked into this thread cause the same person asked if the xps 15 takes an msata in 9550

 

Mystery of vanishing posts.
And then there were none...

Please keep it cool.

 

No thanks I don't drink "red bull"

 

So I've been having an issue with my laptop for the past week. It seems to not be charging whilst the laptop is off/hibernating/sleeping. Basically the only way it would charge is if it is on and running. And if I plug in the adapter while the laptop is off, it would not power back on unless I hold the power button for about 15 secs. I should also note that the battery indicator lights for a second then turns off when I plug in the laptop while off.

Any ideas? Anyone encountered this before? A Google search did not yield any solutions for me

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try reflashing the latest BIOS.

 

GUESS WHAT? Today I went to use my computer and it won't power on. It's completely dead, no lights, battery indicator lights do not light neither does power button led. It doesn't respond to the charger either. I tried the "static flea power" trick where you disconnect battery, hold down power button to remove any electrical charge left and reconnecting battery, several times and that didn't work.

Any ideas? The worst part is I bought this computer August 2015, still got warranty, and my country does not have any Dell support or anything

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