XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Well after using mine a bit more I am definitely sending it back.
Mine might very well be defective, but it really is not usable.
When I click the mouse gets stuck. Like not frozen, the actual trackpad gets stuck in a 'click' position.
It is also very hot. Compared to the rMBP at least. I didn't bother testing it under load, but on a table browsing the rMBP is silent and cold to the touch, whereas the xps' fans are quite audible(still quiet, but audible nonetheless.) It's also quite warm when doing very little.
The screen looks great, except for that it has horrible backlight bleeding(even at relatively low brightness.)
I had it on a table next to the mac with a single tab open and everything else closed, both on an equivalent relatively low brightness. The mac showed 15 hours remaining, the xps 15.
So yea, not impressed. Maybe mine is defective, the trackpad issue seems to have never been reported before, but it is unusable IMO.

Sorry for the poorly written post, writing on my phone after studying for 10 hours today.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

So can you have stereo with your headset while using the mic?

 

So every game I play I have to set my res to 1600x900, im newish to nvidia, is there a way I can set resolution profiles so I can swapp from max res to gaming rez?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

Post was based on a misinterpretation of the quote, removed.

 

Well i alwqys use a DAC connected to my laptop via USB.. So i could use the one connector on the xps 15 for an external mic...but do i even need one or is the inbuilt quality fine? And if i connect an external one, will there be a lot of noise or should i go for an usb mic?

 

on the metro page, is there a way i can see battery status and also, where is everyone seeing the temperature readings from?

 

Don't have mine yet so I can't test, but if it's anything like other Dell laptops, it will be acceptable for VoIP chats and such, but probably not what you'd want to use if you were recording something for even somewhat professional usage. The noise in the onboard audio I'm referring to actually refers more to the audio I hear from headphones, not noise introduced on the mic, though I suppose mic noise might be noticed by people I talk with; I just haven't asked them. Another reason I like using a USB unit is that it appears as a separate audio device which allows you to keep certain audio coming out of your speakers while other content is redirected to the headset -- for example, if I don't want to wear my headset all the time, I can program Skype to ring and play the IM sound on all audio devices (including my speakers) so I don't miss the call by not having my headset on, and then I can just pick up my headset if I actually need to take the call. It's easier and less error-prone than disconnecting and reconnecting the headset IMHO.

 

The built in mic on the XPS 15 is excellent. I was just playing with using a phone headset with and without a mic, and the sound quality (as judged by using the test call feature in Skype) is better (warmer & richer) with the PC mic. The flexibility is actually pretty useful. If you have a good set of headphones, you can use them for gaming or skyping as long as you are seated in front of the laptop.

 

for me, the touch screen stopped working, on two occasions, as i was going from screen to screen...so im not thinking its a sleep issue

 

No problem. It is from SquareTrade and not Dell though, but something is better than nothing.

3 TOTAL Years (For New Computers $500 & above)

Gives you a total of 3 years warranty and ADH.

 

Hmm, I'd be inclined to agree, but if you've still got yours it couldn't hurt to test and report back.

 

Can confirm this works

For whatever reason, either dells drivers or the windows 8 power management logic decides to turn the touchscreen input off in order to save power.

I've left the switch on, because i'd rather some power saving over having the touchscreen on all the time *shrugs*

 

Yes, I tried listening to music and it was still stereo.

 

It's UEFI. I don't think Dell builds any BIOS devices anymore.

 

I made the guess at power management based on an issue I was having with my SSDs on my desktop. Intel's Link Power Management driver on Win 8 would put my SSDs into a low power state. Unfortunately, they're RAID 0'd so when one of them would go into a low power state, the whole system would freeze on the next write and I would have to power the whole machine off to get it out of LPM.

I'm glad this worked. I'll give it a shot myself when I get home.

 

Let me clarify. This was a stereo headset with mic that I used. Etymotic model hf3 headset + earphones.
Etymotic Research, Inc. - hf3™ headset + earphones It has a 4 pin 3.5mm headphone connector.

When I plugged them in, the Dell audio driver popped up a dialog that asked me "What did you plug in?" There were several options, one of which was "headset" another was "headphones". I selected "headset" first. Then I tested Skype and checked that the internal mic was dead, but tha the mic on the wire of the headset/headphones worked when I ran my finger over it. I also tested some music with some instruments I knew were hard panned left and right. I confirmed that stereo imaging was working correctly.

Then I unplugged and replugged, but I selected "headphones". This time the mic was not active on the headset - but they still worked as a set of stereo headphones. When I used Skype it used the laptop's built-in internal microphone.

 

NICE! So you CAN use a headset and have both stereo audio and the inline mic active at the same time, or disable the inline mic if you want to keep using the mic on the laptop itself. Way to go Dell!!

I wonder if the Apple headphone+mic kit and others designed to work in Apple products will work since they Apple apparently reversed the mic and ground pins on their devices (unbelievable....) Maybe the driver and hardware are actually capable and clever enough to detect that and reverse the pin mapping? Otherwise at any rate it looks like headsets wired to the standard will work.

 

But what if I want to use headphones + mic and not a headset ?

 

That would appear to require some sort of breakout adapter that will split a 3-connector jack into a 2-connector jack for stereo audio and a 1-conncetor jack for a mic. I don't see one on Dell's page anywhere, but I'd imagine they'd have to exist and could probably be found at Monoprice or Amazon. At that point you'd plug your equipment into the adapter, plug the adapter into the laptop, and then select headset so it enables both audio and mic input, I'd imagine.

EDIT: Found one! Can't guarantee it will work, but for $7, http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-...dapter/dp/B004SP0WAQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

I've recently order an XPS 15 after purchasing and returning a late 2013 rMBP with a 4960HQ Haswell quad core and the 512GB PCI ssd and I thought I'd share my experiences for those deciding between the two.

I returned the macbook because I found it too hot to actually use as a laptop. Normal use for me is rather light multitasking using the 15" laptop display and an external monitor connected via HDMI. Under Bootcamp, running Windows 7 the dedicated graphics in the macbook are always on and the laptop got far too hot to use as a laptop in short order... e.g., ten minutes and the keyboard area would be 80C. That was obviously untenable. Windows 7 and Windows 8 in Parallels 9 worked very well, and would not use the Nvidia card unless an external monitor was plugged in, then again, the temperatures would sky rocket. Windows via Parallels without an external monitor didn't heat the machine up to the same extent, and was similar to running OSX Mavericks natively. When it got hot, the fans would cool it back down quite aggressively, but they would not spin up until the processor passed 100C. It would spike to 100C, the fans would roar, it would drop temperatures down at the processor to 60C then ignore it again until it passed 100C. So, if you were working it, the keyboard area would sit at 80C all day while the fans would keep the processor from killing itself but would not try in anyway to keep the laptop itself cool. I did try third party software to run the fans manually, but under a moderate workload, to keep the keyboard deck cool enough to use, i.e., under 45C, the fans had to be run at a steady state around 3800/4000 rpm which I found quite a bit to loud for office use. I considered keeping it, adding an active cooling pad and living with the fan noise when using an external monitor in the office, but it was also not usable as a laptop for watching YouTube videos and general web browsing. I'd already abandoned the thought of using Windows, so I only attempted to use it running Mavericks natively, but siting at home, with the laptop on a table, or on the armrest of a couch with no obstructions to the ventilation intakes, it would still get too hot to use comfortably after approximately 15 minutes.

I took it to the Apple Store and had it checked out and it passed their thermal test regime and I was told the heat was just something I would have to put up with. The fellow at the genius bar said he gets several people a day complaining about the heat, and they are simply told they have to put up with it.

I bought the macbook for it's processing horsepower, and it was my first Apple product purchase. There were several things I rather liked about it, chief among them the display and the track pad, but the laptops heat issues I could not accept. I come from a history of owning nothing but Thinkpads where heat has never been an issue, and perhaps that colors my perspective, but I could not deal with the severe usability limits imposed by what appears to be an inadequate cooling solution in the macbook.

Everything I've read on this forum has lead me to conclude the XPS 15 has no cooling issues and only suffers from a mild performance loss relative to the rMBP (~ 14,000 versus ~11,000 in Geekbench scores) so I've ordered one and will now have to wait patiently for an early December delivery.

Cheers,

 

thanks really much so the comment, I am one of those guys who is thinking about returning the dell and go with MBPr, but again, if heating is the problem like you said, I rather stick with dell.

Anymore comments regarding your decision?

 

Is there anyone else that ordered before November that hasn't received theirs yet? I getting frustrated. The ship date is 22/11 for 7 day shipping. It's still in production, therefore, I most likely won't get it before Friday. My old Acer is really slowing me down lately and I'm really impatiently waiting for my XPS. Ordered it on 28/10.

 

Hey guys, about the audio jack... my speakers when plugged in are humming, whether I play any audio or not. This only just happened today or I would've noticed before.

My old Dell didn't have this. Any idea how to stop it?

 

Anyone tried running Windows 7 x64 on it yet ?

 

Hmm, pretty much EVERY laptop I've used has caused headphones to buzz or hiss when connected, and it's because onboard audio circuitry doesn't have good noise isolation from the rest of the electronics in the machine -- which is why I've used USB headsets whenever possible since their audio circuitry is outside the laptop. But speakers are usually better about that. If your speakers have independent volume controls, you can try lowering the volume in Windows somewhat to reduce the work the internal amplifier does and then raise the speaker volume to compensate. Otherwise, check to see whether the cable from the laptop to the speakers is near any power cables or other potential sources of electromagnetic interference? And of course sometimes just fiddling with the connector (including just turning it around inside the jack) can reduce/eliminate that.

 

thanks for the reply

- my volume in Windows is very low, I keep the speakers' audio level high
- it wasn't buzzing before, I just noticed it a few hours ago
- the speakers sometimes get interference (like when I get a text message) but they're not new, they never buzzed when connected to my SXPS
- Beyerdynamic headphones have no buzz when connected
- yes I tried unplugging and turning the cable but I wouldn't normally have to if it were properly connected

I noticed this happened after I left the thing idle. could it be that it somehow "turned off" and that made it buzz, and then even when I played audio it continued buzzing?

Also I can't understand the fix for the touchscreen turning off that you posted... do you mind explaining how to switch it back on? Isn't it weird that the touch screen doesn't wake up like other components?

 

Hmm, not sure what else to suggest with the speaker buzz then, that's very strange. Does it continue buzzing after a reboot? If not, I too would wonder if there was some power saving measure that was having that unintended side effect.

As for the touchscreen, that fix isn't designed to make the touchscreen start working again if it's already stopped responding; it's supposed to stop it from becoming non-responsive in the first place. So after you go into Device Manager and uncheck the option to allow Windows to put it to sleep, if it had already cut out you'll probably need to restart the computer to get the touchscreen back, but after that point it shouldn't become non-responsive again if the fix works. PM me if you have more specific questions about implementing the fix.

Yes it's strange that it can't be woken back up, which is why I'm thinking either a firmware update to the touchscreen or an update to the generic Microsoft driver would solve this problem once and for all without any preference changes; the former would allow the touchscreen to enter and exit sleep state correctly, or the latter would default to not allowing the touchscreen to sleep if there's some reason the touchscreen CAN'T sleep and resume properly.

 

This question is to all the owners of XPS 15 9530,

This has been asked but in 118 pages i havent seen the answer.

Battery life 61Whr vs 91Whr?

I am trying to decide between models, If i get mid tear model, and upgrade mSata to 512 i'll have 1TB for storage (Dont ask why someone would need that much in laptop) But i would.

But battery life is also important to me. So if i get extra few hours on 91Whr then i rather go with that and use external drive.

Also has anyone had luck getting 11hr's as advertised on dells website?

Thank you guys.

 

An extra few hours is almost guaranteed.

Assume the 61Whr gets 5 hours, then simply by capacity the 91Whr will get 7.5 hours (or more). The hardware is identical, the only difference is the larger one doesn't have to power a mechanical hdd so it probably uses a tiny bit less power.

 

I said earlier: If you want both storage and battery, ALWAYS get the version with the larger battery. mSATA capacities will continue rising; I'd bet 1TB mSATA drives aren't more than a few months off given that Samsung is already getting 512GB onto a single-sided mSATA card (the PM841) and the mSATA spec allows double-sided cards -- and if you need more storage before then, use an external drive in the interim. The battery, on the other hand, will not get any upgrades. If you pick the 61WHr battery, there will never be a higher-capacity battery that you'll be able to install in that space. So maximize the non-upgradeable components and upgrade the other components later as upgrades become available and needed.

The only exception to the above would be if you really needed 1TB of internal storage and weren't willing to pay what it would cost to get 1TB of storage in SSD form, since obviously it's much more expensive than 1TB of spinning storage (using the 840 Evo as a reference for a 1TB SSD).

 

As Erasmus said:

The 91 Whr will get approximately 50% more battery life than the 61Whr.

Now the battery life claims have been varying wildly in these posts, and so I don't really know which to tell you.

Some people were claiming about 6 hours out of the 61, and then others claim only 4 hours out of the 91, so a lot depends on usage.

If I am encoding movies on mine, I expect much less, but if just web surfing I am hoping it can hit the 8 hour mark. The previous battery stats posted appeared to be 6 hourish for the 91Whr, which would lead me to believe that the 61 would be only about 3.5-4.

 

Thank you Erasmus354 and jphughan

Looks like i am going with top of the line from Costco for $2,000 + $99 for SquareTrade 3 year warranty from Costco + Shipping/Handling $29.95 plus 2% back for Platinum membership. Total $2086.35 no taxes if shipped to Portland.

Thinking though if i should wait through Holidays:
1. Maybe a better deal from Costco or somewhere else?
2. Maybe more hardware/software fixes on Dells side?

Anyone has any comments?

Thank you

 

Some good stuff here about the touch screen and a link to the buzzing problem:

No screen after resume from Sleep, XPS 12 9Q33 - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Seems like its a common problem for the other dell laptops. I haven't been able to test it out yet, as mine hasn't arrived yet

 

Here is the link about the whine noise:

Xps 12 High-Pitched sound - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Seems related to the SSD....

 

Sigh, that's extremely discouraging - I was hoping you'd find some silver lining in this cloud of a laptop !
I'm not an apple fan, so there's never going to be a MBP in my future, so now I'll just wait this whole Dell thing out for a bit.
If things improve, I may pull the pin and get one - and keep my fingers crossed that its quality issues have been solved.
Thx

 

can i keep the laptop(top config) always plugged in? or will that damage battery at some point? 90% use is in same place at home

also, still looking for suggestion for cpu/gpu/ssd monitoring...hwmonitor?

thx

if someone talks to dell rep today...two words: touch screen - fix it...thats 4 words, but you get what im talkin bout

 

If you read a few posts/pages back in this thread you'll find that I addressed battery questions AND found a potential fix for the touchscreen that one person says has fixed it. If you're having issues with it and want to test it, it'd be great to get a second confirmation that it works.

Battery posts start on Page 112 and go for a while, touchscreen fix that I found posted on Page 115, assuming you're using the default posts per page setting.

 

okay, so i read this, and forgive me, but its still not clear if damage will occur if machine is consistenly plugged in

nor do i see what application/software is being used to monitor temps of unit

sorry, could you please clarify?

 

In the past, keeping batteries constantly connected to a charger would cause the charging unit to try to overcharge the batteries, i.e. the charger would keep trying to feed current into the batteries when they were full. Some crappy AA and AAA battery chargers still do this. But laptops for several years now have had circuitry to detect when a battery is fully charged and stop additional current from being sent to the battery, so you can keep laptops plugged into the wall as long as you want without damaging the battery. However, you still should let the laptop run on battery power at least down to 40% or so on occasion to keep the cells exercised. I'm not sure if this rephrasing helps any because it sounds pretty much like what I said before, but hopefully it's clearer.

I don't use an app to monitor battery temps; my post is based purely on the chemistry of lithium-ion batteries and how laptop charging units work these days.

 

you made it more clear, thank you

 

Great! Any word on whether that touchscreen fix works for you since it sounds like you're currently having issues with it?

 

i am currently not at home, when i get home i will give it a try...but my touch screen issues are intermittent, so i may reply that its a fix, then 2 days from now come back and say its busted again

 

Just a quick note on battery life. I have the mid level version with the smaller battery. This morning I was running a virtual machine with Remote Desktop in it and while that was running I was downloading and installing software. I have 2 SSD drives a 256 msata and a 940 sata drive. The battery lasted 3.5 hours before I got the less than 10% warning. I'm running a clean install of Windows 8.1 pro.

 

3.5 hours to 10% (which would be 3.9 until dead) on the smaller battery while running a VM sounds pretty good! I would bet you could have gotten 4.5 or even 5 hours out of that battery with a more casual workload, and that would be before things like dimming the display.

 

It seems that Windows 8.1 has some issue on power consumption.
I have already posted a link about a test by Anandtech on a comparison between W8.1 and W8 about battery life on Sony Vaio 13 Pro:
AnandTech | Sony VAIO Pro 13 Battery Life with Windows 8.1: Largely Unchanged
The result was that W8.1 has decreased the battery life respect to W8.

Moreover I'm also following the thread of Samsung Ativ Book 8, users who have upgraded to W8.1 complain about the battery life of W8.1.
Keep in mind that the touch screen has a certain impact on battery life maybe around 10% less, so I wonder if it's possible to disable the touch screen to increase the battery life when you need it.

 

Just read from the Dell reviews:

For those not interested in the touchscreen, I wonder if that would help the battery life.

 

You should read the follow up that Anand did to that article. Basically Win 8.1 doesn't have issues with battery, drivers and software optimization does. They were able to hugely increase battery life simply by changing the media player they were using in their video run down test.


For people with poor battery life, what are you doing for screen brightness? The screen is probably consuming the most power on the system, and turning down the screen brightness can have a huge impact on prolonging battery life.

 

I have even read the article about the consumption of media player softwares on W8.1, but I think that they have used the same softwares on W8.1 and W8 in their tests, so this does not change the worse power consumption of W8.1 respect to W8. The application "Video" (the best in power consumption) is available on W8 too.
Moreover I assume that they are enough reliable to make tests in the same conditions and using the same softwares.

 

Just wanted to update you all on the wi-fi problem I posted about last Friday:

I had a Dell tech come out today to replace the Intel AC wireless (the connection was crapping out as infrequently as a couple hours to as frequently as a couple minutes). We booted the machine back up and I lost signal within 60 seconds. He said it's a problem he's seen on a number of Dell models. It could be the antenna -- which is essentially the screen -- or the motherboard. I don't know if I got a lemon, but I decided to call Dell and just ask for an entirely new machine. Very disappointing.

I'm curious if anyone else has run into this kind of problem. I updated drivers, removed the Dell / Intel wi-fi management programs, no dice. Since many people haven't even gotten their *first* order, I have no idea how long I'll have to wait for a replacement, but this time I'll start with wireless stress tests before I even think about installing my own software!

 

It shows mine at 7:53.