XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

The drivers you can find by just going to the Synaptics website: Drivers | Synaptics. You also could have found it by just Googling "XPS 15 Haswell Synaptics driver" because the top hit takes you to a page in this thread that talks about it and where to find it.

Chrome is known to have more blur than IE and Firefox, both of which apparently scale well even when the panel is at its native resolution with DPI scaling on.

Update the Wifi drivers with the ones from Intel's site, not Dell's.

And please PLEASE do some searching to find answers before just asking to have everything handed to you, ESPECIALLY since you know the answers are already available if you would just take the time to find them. I know I'm killing the chances of that by obliging you here, but if you're feeling daunted by how long this thread is, part of it is because people keep having to say the same things over and over again due to other people's laziness. Just sayin'.

 

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm just saying it's really high, even compared to a Mac.
Once you hit 90% of the Tj, the processor can throttle to prevent damage to itself. If you still manage to hit 125%, it'll shutdown completely.
In fact, I'm doing the exact same thing you mentioned, running prime95 torture test on an rMBP right now and you're right on, mine is currently sitting at 92-96 per core with the fans at ~6000 rpm. This MBP has the 4850HQ in it though and not the 4960 or 4702. I would expect the 4850 and 4960 to run hotter than the 4702 as they're 55W TDP vs the 4702's 45W TDP.

The major difference I'm seeing here is the processor is still sitting at 2.7GHz solid and 48W. It's not throttling at all, but it's definitely not running the turbo. Hell, as I'm writing this, it's jumped back up to 3.08ghz. so it's still pushing the turbo a bit.

 

As I mentioned in the M3800 thread, my guess is the screen is the same as the M4800 (with the exception that the M4800 has a matte non-touch screen, while the XPS15 has a glossy touch screen), which has been reviewed by notebookcheck:
Review Dell Precision M4800 Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

That might be the best place to look until some reviews come in for the XPS15/M3800

 

The 4702 has a 37W Nominal TDP and the 4850 has a 45W Nominal TDP. The 45W and 55W which you mentioned are the " cTDP up" values. I'm pretty sure the Dell enforces the Nominal TDP value (otherwise they would have used the 4700), and I would have thought the same about the rMBP... but your post is puzzling. Are you saying the 4850HQ draws 48W in full CPU load at 2.7Ghz? It seems like a really high value, even for an Iris part.

 

I'm sorry if I this has been answered already (I tried to search with the thread search and googled but can't find the answer).

What size screwdriver do I need to take of the bottom of the laptop? When I receive my laptop (hopefully tomorrow, but realistically Friday) I will be swapping out the 32Gb mSATA for a 240Gb and installing windows 8.1 on it. Second question: Are the screws on the inside (holding the mSATA and all the other components possibly in the way) the same size?

 

Guess I'll get to it before jphughan does . Here's your search: xps 15 haswell screws site:notebookreview.com

Eighth one down shows T5 Torx at least for the outside . . . that same post shows you exactly the steps you need to take to do the swap you're proposing . . . from seancho #419 . . .

 

Yes and Yes. I can two finger tap and start to scroll all the way from the bottom of the touchpad. I can even start scrolling from the wrist rest and the touchpad picks it up as soon as I touch it.


As far as the battery I just ran the battery report from the powercfg command.

 

:thumbsup:

 

So some of these touchpads are defective then?

I don't get it. If I install the Synaptics drivers, I get the result that you do. But with the Dell drivers it's just horrid. Anyone know what's going on?

 

If different drivers give different results.. just means bad software.

 

Please refer to this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/737514-issue-screen-new-xps-15-a.html

 

My battery report says estimated capacity based on all observations at full charge is 6hr 38min. At design capacity it says 7hr 14min. I'm at 83,540 mWh down from 91,000 mWh designed capacity.

What are your numbers exactly?

 

Based on your link, we're talking about the same thing.
I'm using Intel's own power/clock speed app for the Mac to determine this, btw, so if the numbers are off, it's them.

And yes, the 4850HQ is drawing 47-48W full load at 2.7GHz.
According to the chart, that's about right: cTDP 47 W / 2.3 GHz cTDP up 55 W / 3.3 GHz
It was up at 50W at 3.08GHz.

 

Right but krayziehustler is reporting that his works fine with the Dell drivers - mine only works with Synaptics and a lot of fiddling in the registry.

 

Has -anyone- managed to get 8hrs out of the claimed 11hr 91Wh battery yet?

Wondering if it's working just fine for some and mine is defective or if they're all currently bugged.

 

Hi, could you tell me what power profile and brightness you're at?

Also, what does the power indicator in Windows normally tell you about your battery remaining? Is it consistent with the battery report and actual experience?

Cos I use Dell power settings, changed brightness to 20%, set Wifi on max performance, disabled sleep when the screen is closed. And it shows me just over 3 hours to 5 hours on full charge.

 

One guy said he got 5 hours Skype with the screen off, then 2 hours on top of that of web surfing.

I'm also seriously concerned about this but Dell's response wasn't good. Hoping it's a bad battery that can and will be replaced. No way other people are getting 6 to 8 hours and I'm stuck at 3 to 5 at best.

 

Got a random FedEx ship notification for my address.. I signed up for like the FedEx @ home so they email me whenever something is headed my way. Hoping it is the Dell laptop I ordered from Costco, it is signature required, and supposedly weighs 8 lbs. Can't think of anything else I have shipped (course could just be a random box on it's way to me since it is from Georgia, and we have some family in Georgia, but since we driving their next week, why would they do that?)

8lbs sound about right?

 

I'm using the Dell power profile and my brightness looks to be at 30%. The power remaining indicator (hovering over the battery icon in the system tray) seems pretty consistent with the battery report. Right now it says 58% remaining with 3 hours and 30 minutes left. It varies with system load though. Right now I have an small Linux VM running in the background and four tabs in Chrome open - one being Facebook which seems to use a little more CPU that most websites. Right now my wireless adapter is set to max power saving on battery and maximum performance on AC. I'm about 15-20 feet from my router (at Netgear WNDR3700v2) with an open doorway to it, but not exactly line of sight. I have 5 (all) bars on the WiFi indicator and the Intel driver says I'm at ~25mW transmit power (which it claims is 100%). In the wireless adapter status, it reports that I'm connected between 240 and 270 Mbps. I just pulled down a Debian ISO from my desktop over WiFi that was ~600MB. Windows reported a transfer rate of about 15.9 MB/sec and it took a little over 30 seconds.

 

Right, thanks. So I just used an hour on battery (surfing, messaging) and it drained ~20%, so 5 hours seems about fair. And each time I use this thing on battery it gets worse and worse. Your indicator suggests nearly 6 hours, which isn't that much better than mine.

 

anyone else lose their sound and visual notifications for new emails? at one point a few days ago, I would hear a nice chime, as well as a green notification bar on upper right hand side of screen notifying me of new email, but now I get nothing. all settings are set to receive audio notifications in app, but I got butkis. anyway, after an annoying 30 minute convo with useless dell premium service rep, I told him I needed to get off phone...he obvi didn't find anything wrong, however he couldn't tell me why...so he sux, im tired and this is really frustrating...btw, my deafault mail is Hotmail.

anyone? chime? beep? anything....bueller?

 

8lbs of dell heading your way

 

I fully understand everyone here wants to test/benchmark/debug their new XPS15, and that's what this forum is all about... but if everyone would just take a few days away from here and actually USE the machine instead of benchmarking it, I think most of you would realize just how GREAT this machine really is.

I guess what I'm trying say, (as a 25yr veteran of the IT industry) new hardware like this will always be buggy and temperamental... its part of the agreement between you and the manufacturer when you buy the latest and greatest available. If you sit back and really consider what you're able to do with this hardware that wasn't possible in the highest end home systems just a few years ago... it should change your perspective.

BTW: yes, mine makes a static noise and the trackpad is not "terrific" but there are sacrifices to be accepted in every device man has ever made.

Enjoy your XPS, I sure do!

 

I couldn't agree more I'm loving mine the past week or so and I've personally never put hands on a nicer PC laptop. My touch screen works 95% of the time and they'll fix it with a firmware/software update in the coming weeks. With the 91kwh battery I was hoping for 7-8 hours and getting more like 5-6 but also haven't played with the power settings, keep my screen at 100% output all the time etc. May be as simple as optimizing the drivers between Intel/Nvidia as if the 750M is kicking in more than it should that would def be part of the lower power drain

One other item: take every comment on this thread with a grain of salt. This is the internet and people will say all kinds of stupid sh*t based on their own agendas, bias etc. I would be my that there's more than a couple Apple fan boys on here typing sh*t to sway people from this truly top tier laptop. If you're in doubt wait for the reviews and don't be an early adopter where there's always kinks particularly with a new model revision. My overall rating for this laptop would be a 9 out of 10 and I've gotten exactly what I've expected out of it so far (i.e. great balance of power and portability)

 

When did you place your order? I did mine 11/12 and it hasn't shipped yet.

 

I'm no Apple fan boy... I want to see the open architecture of PCs continue to thrive. I want to see Microsoft succeed as well as Dell. But I have a 5 year old Dell Studio XPS that has an AWESOME trackpad. Other than the fact the thing won't boot anymore - it was a great machine. My question is "why have we regressed?" Putting a quality trackpad in a laptop is of the utmost importance... It's the primary interface to Windows for Pete's sake. This should be settled science and they continue to screw it up - alienating more demanding customers like me. I didn't pay $2000 for a laptop to get a half-baked touchpad when *I know* this is something they could get straight on day one. There is just no excuse.

The battery life is fine mostly. I'll take 6-7 hours. But Dell shouldn't be allowed to advertise 11. That is complete B.S.

 

Well i let the battery drain and charged it up.. unplugged and and started the countdown. brightness in middle, and light browsing (homework) it lasted for me about 3.6 hours.. pretty bad i'd say, quite dissappointing actually.. i have the mid tier one (1TB)

 

I don't use the touchpad much on any laptop as a mouse is a far superior interface IMO (I love the Logitech Anywhere MX I've purchased a few of them over the years). But for what I have used of this one I haven't experienced any issues with it. I did delete the Dell drivers before installing the Synaptic drivers once I heard other users having problems with it. Sucks that people are having issues but I'd be shocked if they couldn't work it out in the next driver update or two

I'm very curious to wait for the full reviews from outfits like Anandtech who systematically know what to test for, proper configurations and settings etc to make a balanced unbiased and educated decision related to stuff like battery life. All manufacturers exaggerate their ratings for battery life and it represents the best case scenario. But yes I tend to doubt any config is going to get this unit to run at 11 hours. With that said this is a powerful machine and I'd rather have something a little harder on battery than deal with inferior performance

That is one thing that Apple historically has done very well (up to the latest rMBP anyway) is to not ship their devices until they've gotten the software/hardware tweaked correctly. The PC industry is pretty brutal as a whole at shipping units and tweaking them over a few months to get it running correctly including optimizing software for battery life etc. But Apple has the luxury of only building a handful of devices and only needing to tweak/optimize accordingly. I've always been in awe of how there's literally millions of possible PC configurations out there and how consistently driver/software support in general has on Microsoft OS over the years

 

I have been using it for three days home and office, not once did i notice any glare or reflection. Beautiful screen.

 

So guys is it normal for them to take 1 month to ship the laptop? I am in Toronto, ordered mine Nov 9, and its expected ship date is December 6th. As of now its still in production stage. Tried to speak with a Dell sales support agent who gave me some pre-written answers with no more information than what I already knew by looking at the site. I had read there were different stages while in production and that you could call a number to find out but it was apparently not for Canada, anyone know? Just seems like an awful long time waiting for it.

 

11/12/2013

I don't see any shipped status or anything from Costco site, just the fact I have signed up with FedEx and they email me when any package is headed my way.

I have pretty much convinced myself that this is the Dell though, the more I think about it. The Signature required doesn't fit with anything else I would have coming my way.

Just checked the Tracking number: Estimated delivery :
Thur 11/21/2013

Dang.. too bad I am busy at work this week, but the FedEx hub is only a few miles away, so I can probably pick it up tomorrow night after 6pm. There is only one other thing that I should have on the way, and that should not weigh 8lbs, nor require signature.. so I guess I will know tomorrow.

 

How did you get that deal?

 

Does anybody have dust behind the glas? I have three bigger specks that can be easily seen from the normal distance. And if I set a white wallpaper and look closer I can see lots of smaller dust particles. It's really annoying.

I'll try to get the screen replaced. It just bothers me this could happen on a 2000$ machine.

The other problem is that Windows just won't let me run an external 24" 1920x1200 monitor at 100% scaling when the laptop's screen is at 200%. I hope they'll fix this soon.

 

Thanks dlang for reporting your situation. I also ordered from Costco on the same day you did, and so find myself now getting excited that I'll get mine soon.

 

I ordered mine on 11/11 and 11/12 and they show delivery 12/6 and 12/9. Not what I hoped for, would have loved to have it by Thanksgiving but probably isn't going to happen.

I did order 2 extra A/C Chargers and those came already.

 

Are you still having issues with the calibration?
Ive had my dell for two weeks and I just cant seem to get the colours right. I wonder if I need the spyder software

 

Normal? I don't think so. On this forum, we saw very different experiences for the time to delivery. Someone got it inside of 9 days. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for the different delays. Some ordered after me and got theirs before mine shipped. I ordered on Oct 28 and should be getting it today. (It left the Toronto depot early last night... I'm in Ottawa).

 

Run an OCCT test during 12 minutes to see about throttling.
1 minute idle - 10' at full load (GPU CPU MEM) - then 1' idle
At you see on pictures, didn't notice any throttling issues.

CPU Usage@100%


FPS stable during whole benchmark


Frequency CPU - Same speed for all core start at 2,8Ghz for 1' then stable at 2,6Ghz


RAM almost full during benchmark


Temp core 1/2/3/4





Voltage stable

 

Can anyone tell me if their SD card slot is "springy" like many other laptops? That is, you push the card in, and it goes in, clicks, and springs back just slightly... to remove you push it in, it unclicks, and pops out slightly.

That's what I expected, but mine doesn't do that, the SD card just slides in without feeling very secure, and I have to pull it back out... also, Linux isn't recognizing that the SD card slot even exists, so I don't know if mine is broken, or if it's supposed to be non-springy and Linux is just not recognizing it for whatever reason.

Thanks in advance.

 

@gugus I think it was noticed that the gpu throttles. As far as I know the cpu has already been tested with the m3800 and no throttling was found. Thank you for the numbers anyway! Should help anyone who was in doubt.

Would be nice to see a stress test for gpu.

 

On my benchmark both GPU and CPU was on load. I havz already made a stress test of the GPU with 3DMark and frequency of the GPU was always on turbo and GPU temp around 74°

 

I'm sorry but this test does not proof anything, because it completely leave out the GPU.
I have posted many times the correct way to make a reliable test about throttling, it's the same methodology used by Notebookcheck.
Both CPU and GPU must be on heavy or full load at the same time to say something about throttling (this happens in most demanding games) for example Prime95+Furmark can reproduce that situation easily, to monitor the test you need a program like HWinfo that can record all parameters while the test is performed.

 

Are you sure it is not death pixel? mine screen got 3 death pixels and I am returning it

 

Not normal, but on a new model with lots of fairly rare components (QHD+ display, 512GB mSATA SSD, etc), I expect there may be parts shortages that are causing delays, which would explain why some orders go through quickly and others get held up.

I agree with you on trackpad quality on principle, but if your trackpad is your primary Windows interface, your efficiency is being killed no matter how awesome the trackpad is. An external mouse would be a world of difference, but better yet would be learning your keyboard shortcuts. I said a while back that whenever my friends/colleagues/family watch me work, they're always amazed by two things: how quickly I get around Windows, and the fact that I can move that fast without almost ever touching the mouse. I keep explaining to them that I can be this fast BECAUSE I don't use the mouse. Compare the time it takes to press a key combination to the time it takes to move your hand from the keyboard to mouse/trackpad, move the cursor to the object you want to click (let's say it's a menu), then moving the mouse down that menu to the submenu you want to open, then finally clicking the option you want to activate, and then moving your hand back to the keyboard. It might not seem like much, but those seconds of difference for each thing you click on that many times during the day really add up.

Here are some keyboard shortcuts I use day in, day out:

F2 = Rename (files/folders in Windows, or cells in Excel)
Alt-F4 = Close app
Ctrl-F4 = Close the window in that app (e.g. tab in a browser rather than the entire browser, or an image in Photoshop)
Alt-Left/Right = Back/forward in Web browser
Ctrl-Tab or Ctrl-Shift-Tab = Cycle the windows within an app forward or backward (e.g. tabs in a browser), as opposed to Alt-Tab which cycles entire apps.
Alt-S = Send email in Outlook
Ctrl+Enter = Send email in Thunderbird
Ctrl+R = Reply in Outlook or Thunderbird
Tab/Shift-Tab = Cycle clickable options (hit Enter to select the desired option), which is useful for choosing options in cases like Yes/No/Cancel dialog boxes or Save/Open file selection windows without having to move your mouse to them to click on the option you want.

There are TONS more like that. You can pick up a lot of them by just tapping the Alt key in an app. The letter that gets underlined in each menu's name is the key you can press with the Alt key to trigger that menu -- and then the letter underlined in each function of that menu is what you can press next to trigger that. So for example in Firefox if I press Alt-T, then let go of Alt and press "O", I can call up the Options menu.

And best of all, learning more keyboard shortcuts makes you use the keyboard faster, which in turn raises your typing speed and makes you more efficient EVERYWHERE. I'm currently around 140 WPM.

 

My high end version that I ordered 11/11 is now showing shipped from NJ and scheduled to be delivered by tomorrow. I am in western NY.

 

Well done gugus, this is how you make a proper statement about performance/throttling, you show graphs.

Although some GPU stats would be nice too.

 

Did you even bother to take a look at the graphs Gugus posted? He did a "Power Supply" test in OCCT, which will stress CPU, GPU and RAM at the same time.

 

When i have made the test GPU was on load as well ...
The report i got from GPUZ is :

All the test at : GPU Core Clock [MHz] : 1058.2
All the test at : GPU Memory Clock [MHz] : 1249.7
GPU Temperature : vary from 65°C to 74°C

I don't understand what you expect more ?

 

I am sure. If I press the screen on that point a circle of discoloration forms arround the particle.

 

i had 9 days from order (mid-tier machine) to ship (west coast). Many are taking longer