XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

I suspect that you're right. From what little I saw it appeared to be an update checker/diagnostic tool. While not critical to the functioning of the machine, it seems as though a dell app should work on a dell machine.

As to the drivers, I think I'm missing something obvious here but I'll ask anyway. Is there any easy way to see only updated drivers on the page? As of now, whenever I pull up the drivers page on dell support, it just shows all of them, there's no filter to see only drivers that need updates.

 

My Dell app runs (ran) a quick diagnostic, it seemed to work similar to Windows Update...but alas, it is a thing of the past...a mere fond memory of better times

 

Yes, I have a "ticket" that is currently being "escalated" to the next level because Dell System Analyzer (or whatever its called) doesnt seem to recognize the fact that my drivers are up to date...and it continues to "recommend" these updates that are already updated

i am sure i will hear back about that issue just as soon as i hear back from them about why my phone cant connect via usb or bluetooth, and right after i hear back from them about where is my gift card i was supposed to receive 10 days ago...

 

There isn't a way to filter by updates because the website doesn't check into your system (which is fine by me, in my opinion). I personally keep all of the installers for the drivers I install and name them with either the Axx release code or the driver version number, and then I can compare what's on the website with what I've already got downloaded and installed. You can also go by release date if you remember about when you went through and installed drivers.

 

I have seen multiple posts in this thread where you guys receive huge discounts by ordering on phone. In some cases close to 20%. How do you get the discounts? Do you have to negotiate? like by telling them you will go elsewhere because dell is just a bit out of your range?

If I can get 20% ish discount I would really like going for the top end model. I am interested in the 91WHr battery against the 61WHr battery in the mid-tier model and I am hoping that is worth the price difference in the two. I am not really concerned about the 512GB SSD and would be fine with the 1TB HDD. Is the battery difference substantial enough?

 

Can someone please clarify the technical support difference of buying from Costco (or other re-seller) vs. buying direct from Dell? For example, if I have a defective screen--Dell will send someone to my house to replace the screen on a Dell-bought machine whereas I'll need to return the entire unit for an exchange for a Costco/reseller-bought machine? Similarly, if I have a driver/software issue for a Costco-bought machine, can I can call Dell tech support or do I have to go through Costco?

 

Yer im not sure, I have the same issue and cant figure it out, as a work around I drop the desktop resolution to 1600x900, then play the game in that rez, I play bf4 on medium graphics at that res and get 35-45 fps.

As for heating issues. Even with laptop pads my gpu will hit 81 degrees Celsius.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

Any warranty repairs or service need to be performed by Costco (it is administered by another company) basically a mail-in service. However you get 2 years of warranty included instead of 1 year, and you can upgrade to 3 years of warranty service + 3 years of accidental damage protection for $99. Much cheaper than Dell's extended warranties. The biggest tradeoff is the lack of in home repair.

Tech support can still be accessed from Dell for the machine, although I think they want you to call the Costco concierge service instead.

 

I changed the resolution ingame. I tried using GeForce Experience's optimal settings with no result. I just discovered that on Far Cry 3 switching to DirectX 9 in the game settings did the trick, so that makes me think it might be related to DX11. Unfortunately there is no such option in Assassin's Creed IV...

Already tried that but that doesn't change anything. It's like even if Windows is 1600x900, when I launch the game it gets back to 3200x1800. The only trick that seems to works is to do that and then while ingame alt-tabbing until selecting the game window back, which makes it like a borderless fullscreen window on the desktop (since the desktop is 1600x900), but when I do that the game starts lagging a lot, as much as if it was using the Intel GPU.

 

Well, here is the review from notebookcheck. Test Dell XPS 15 (9530, Late 2013) Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

It's auf Deutsch, but they ran into the same issue with a few of their game benchmarks as well. Looks like we may need a driver update for the GT750 for a few games. Not a problem with all of them.

Incidentally, the review is overall very positive.

 

That's interesting - thanks for the link. Does anyone have the UK version? Is the enter key that small? I've never seen such a small enter key on a 15" notebook!
http://www.notebookcheck.com/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_IMG_9611_90ac1fe032.jpg

 

Maybe Google has not translated good, but seems that the system has had thermal shut down while performing stress test???
The only serious problem that I have seen in this notebook is the GPU throttling...
Does anyone know if with MSI afterburner can inhibit the turbo mode or underclocks or undervolts GPU?

 

Update: Technician came out today, replaced my mainboard due to coil whine issue.

This has possibly resolved my battery life issue, with BatteryBar now reporting between 6 and 9W (15 to 10 hours) under the same circumstances as it used to draw quite a bit more.

Note: was not a controlled test, I updated multiple drivers yesterday, and I haven't tried running it down yet but regardless, I am very happy - rarely saw it dip below 10W odd before yesterday.

 

Did it fix the whine noise?

 

Can any owners comment on the battery performance of the 61Wrh version with the QHD screen? I looked at the top model, but I think I'd rather have 2 drive bays than a heavier battery - but very unsure about how the smaller battery will perform driving such a high-res screen. It seems most of the commenters in this thread went with the 91Whr version. I think the mid-level XPS version is my ideal, with replacing the mSata HD with a 960GB SSD and putting a 2TB drive in the other bay.

Also - have there been any more comparisons done against the M3800? Currently the US price on the 3800 is the same as the XPS price here in Australia, and I'm not sure if it's been confirmed that the only difference is the discreet video card and the warranty service, or if other things have been found. I was going to ship in the M3800, but if those are truly the only differences, then I'll go with the XPS since a US warranty is useless to me over here.

I'm not a gamer, but I'll be using this system for running Enterprise software (clustered app servers, database servers, JEE application suites) and Adobe Creative Suite and using it as a highly portable dev/demo box - I need to know that it will be able to run VMs with demanding software and not die out during a long presentation when I don't have a power source available. I'm not sure if this type of application would be as demanding as gaming with it, since it should put less strain on the gpu and screen, and just be cpu/ssd/ram intensive.

Thanks for any feedback

 

From my knowledge, there's no 960gb mSATA drive on the market right now.

 

I would not trade dell's in home service for mail-in service. I have had great experience with Dell over that last 16 years! When I need repair, the part is shipped overnight to a tech who is here the next day (two at most) to install.

 

The middle model has just been made available in Spain. Exactly a few hours after Cyber Monday. Coincidence? Hmm, I don't think so. But, what may the reason be? They wanted to promote other products, or the other versions?

 

Depending on how I am using it - my mid-level averages 3.75 hours, can do 4 and under heavy use down about 3 hours.

 

With the mid range you get one msata drive space and one 2.5 sata drive. Right now I think you can get 512gb msata drive but hard to find and expensive. I put a 256gb msata and a 960ssd in my mid range version. It works great. Some day I may upgrade those as capacity goes up and price comes down.

 

Had to wait for my battery to get to 100% to confirm but yes, it did.

EDIT: Mostly, there is still a slight whine but it's no louder when fully charged than when charging, and is quieter and higher pitched than most monitors would emit. Most people probably couldn't hear it/notice it - I only have because I was looking for it. Not a concern.

 

Before I left the country I tested it on my sis and dad to see. My sis could hear it like me, but my dad past his 50's could barely hear the whine noise, must be so high pitched that it must have been stress tested by older people lol. So this machien is great for those who wont hear high pitched noises!

 

Do you remember how much BatteryBar used to report before replacing the mainboard? Mine reports 12 to 18W, now I'm considering replacing it too (I have the coil whine problem too)...

Edit: it also shows only 83 550 mWh capacity out of the 91Wh expected, is that normal?

 

Well I suddenly got an order confirmation.. shipping should be done on 18.12.13... completely weird process. My credit card hasn't been charged yet.

 

I just noticed on the Dell website that the keyboard appears to have an optical disk ejection button on the top row, third key from the right side. Am I mistaken? And if it is actually there, what's the point of that? Another sign that Dell didn't fully think through the design of the XPS 15?

 

There is no such button on the one I got, probably a mistake on the site.

 

Happened in Italy too. Moreover the middle model start with -100€ off, so the new price is 1599€

 

My credit card was not charged until after it shipped.

Waiting a very long time for 2nd ac adapter to ship. Left my adapter at office last night, now I really appreciate the 4 hour battery life!

 

I think you're seeing the Airplane Mode button. But if you check the US website, one of the images in the slideshow gallery at the top of the XPS 15 page is directly above the keyboard and you can zoom in two levels by clicking, so you should be able to tell what it is that you're seeing.

 

I remember being able to downclock NVIDIA GPUs via MSI afterburner but I can't seem to with my current driver/MSI afterburner combination. I think you could do that via NVIDIA Inspector as well. Throttlestop should be able to disable turbo, etc. on the CPU. I don't have an XPS 15, but have been following the thread, considering buying one. I am most interested in the throttling concerns. I have heard some indicating that they have experienced it and others indicating that they haven't. It sounds like NotebookCheck.com experienced some, but really just in stress testing.

 

Thank for Nvidia Inspector suggestion.
Seems that throttling is only on GPU, so maybe we don't need of Throttlestop that acts only on CPU.
If I remember correctly someone has experienced GPU throttling with full load only on GPU.

 

I got an Nvidia pop up last night on my desktop screen to Update Driver that froze my whole system. i couldnt close the pop-up, i couldnt update the driver. nothing. i could switch back to the metro screen using the track pad, but thats it.

anyone have ideas on that? once i hard rebooted, the pop up disappeared...so what gives?

 

i did CNTRL-ALT-DELETE to end program, but that froze as well...i couldnt even close that window...

 

Strange that yours froze. The popup was for an update to the Geforce Experience client update. I got it as well, but it didn't wreak the same havoc on my machine as it did on yours.

Try to go in to the taskbar and click on Geforce Experience and accept the update. Hopefully once it installs that should fix the problem.

I'm also wondering if this update will fix some of the fullscreen issues others are having on BF4 or Assassin's Creed if those titles are optimized through the client.

 

Interestingly, I had a dell rep on my machine via remote login two weeks ago when I got a pop up from Geforce, he told me to ignore anything other than a dell driver update. How can that be? He said never update unless it comes from Dell.

 

Well, a couple things, there. First, it's not really a driver update, but rather a configurator update, so there's that. Second, far be it for me to say that a Dell rep could be wrong . . . but . . . well. It seems as though most posters on here can go off script somewhat reliably and with generally good results. My experience with Dell reps has been somewhat less glowing . . .

All that being said -- you should be safe installing driver updates on your machine (especially video and network). If there's truly a problem with a driver update, it seems like it usually either won't install (new intel integrated graphics drivers) or won't 'take' (like the new synaptics drivers).

I did the update, and had no problems. And had some new options open up for configuration. Seems like an improvement!

 

Anyone know any GOOD expensive covers I can get for the Dell Xps 15? There's only the one on the Dell website which looks good, but I want a good quality leather sleeve or something I can place my computer in at carry it around with rather than in my bad. Any ideas?

 

A word of advice based on recent experience: If you're talking with Dell support about some problem, and they offer to either change the part(s) or the whole notebook, I would exchange the whole notebook.

I went through Dell email support about my speakers, one of which was slightly damaged, the screen, which had a small dust spot under the glass, and the motherboard, which had the electrical whine. Unfortunately, I went for changing out those three parts, and explicitly told the rep I wanted all three changed. The email he sent back said he had arranged a service visit to replace the screen and speakers. No mention of the motherboard. I sent back an email asking for clarification and saying that if they wouldn't replace the motherboard as well, I would rather do the full replacement. No response after a couple days. I sent another email asking him to contact me. Three days later, I still haven't heard back.

I got a call from the technician, offering to come in the late evening yesterday. He never showed up, and offered to come at 6 a.m. this morning. I told him I would get up early and meet him at 6:30; he showed up 45 minutes late, and finally grabbed the laptop to work on at his home while I was at work. He said it would take a while because it had to be done "carefully." Unfortunately, he called me at work and told me that he broke the wifi card while changing the parts. Now, he's going to give the laptop back to me, wifi broken, while he waits for Dell to send a new wifi card, whereupon I'll have to go through this whole charade again, and STILL not have my motherboard changed.

Does anyone know what my options are? At this point I would just rather have a whole new laptop. Would it be easiest just to ask for a return on this one, and do a whole separate order for a new one? There's no restocking fee, right? I'm not sure how easy that would be, since Dell still has scheduled maintenance to do on the one I have now. I would just ask for a replacement laptop, but that seems like it might be more hassle.


Guh. I would really love this laptop if I can just get one without any defective parts. I would also pay Dell extra money just to be able to change out my own parts, since I trust myself much more than any "technicians" they employ. The "technician" also tried to tell me that it was against the warranty to for the owner to open the laptop, which I'm pretty sure is false. Dell-Bill confirmed that users could open the laptop and change whatever parts they want with the L521X, and I'd bet the current policy is the same. Can anyone confirm?

Lastly, I hate to just ask this outright, but I don't have time in the next few days to catch up on the 30-40 pages I've missed in this thread. Do we still think that the source of the electronic whine is the motherboard? I know a couple people earlier seemed to have confirmed that when the problem was fixed with replacements.

 

eBags.com is basically Zappos for bags, both laptop and luggage. Lots of vendors spanning the whole gamut of price points, from bargain bin to over the top opulent. I've always been a fan of laptop backpacks over traditional bags and bare sleeves myself because a backpack distributes the weight much more evenly on your body rather than wearing down one arm/shoulder. I bought a Targus Sport Plus backpack almost 10 years ago for $85 that still looks practically brand new, and I haven't found anything better in all that time. It's amazing how much stuff you can get into it (I once carried a 17" tank laptop and two 15" regular laptops in there plus additional equipment) and the surface that presses up against your back is this really nice gel-filled padded and contoured surface with a breathable mesh overlay, which allows you to carry far more weight with far more comfort than you'd normally be able to. And for incredibly heavy loads, it's even got straps with those clicky latch things that you can wrap around yourself (like outdoor backpackers do) to distribute your load across even more of your body. I've never used those myself, though. The backpack is also large enough that I have many times used it as my sole luggage item when going away for the weekend or on a short business trip as long as I don't need to take more formal clothes.

And of course there are more understated backpacks with more modest capacities if you need/want something smaller and more professional looking. But I'm seeing more and more companies issuing backpacks rather than carrying cases, which I suspect they're doing for the same reason my previous company did: employees would go to their doctors talking about back/shoulder pain and be advised to get a lighter laptop if possible but to definitely stop carrying it in a way that didn't balance the weight evenly across more of their body.

 

Hi I have spent countless hours on my Dell WQHD/SSD/Nvidia GT 750M and I have this annoying problem

1) My NVidia control panel only has 3D settings. Why can't I get all the other settings like display configuration/color etc?

Is this GT 750M even for real???

ANy ideas would be much appreciated.

 

Because the NVIDIA GPU is essentially a 3D coprocessor and as such can't control any of the settings you're used to seeing. That's handled by the Intel GPU, which is directly wired to the output ports and therefore is always active even if it's simply passing through image data that was rendered on the NVIDIA chip. The Intel management app unfortunately isn't as fully featured as NVIDIA's when it's controlling a directly attached GPU, but that's the deal and the reason behind it.

 

All of those config options can be found in the Intel Integrated Graphics control panel. That's the chip that's driving all of the settings you mention. Nvidia will only come into play for graphics-intensive stuff like games/etc.

 

Wow, I've never had an experience anything like this with Dell on-site service! Sorry for the hassles. I think you could get your existing support case changed to a system exchange, which might be less hassle than a regular return and a regular reorder (and might get you the new system faster). I'm with you on wanting to do parts myself and usually Dell will offer to do a parts-only dispatch, fyi. HOWEVER, an experience last night tested my DIY resolve. I was installing an mSATA SSD in a brand new Inspiron 7437 for my sister, which she'll be getting as a Christmas/early graduation present. The mSATA connector unfortunately is on the opposite side of the motherboard from what you see when removing the underside panel, and thus I had to take apart basically the entire system to get to that side of the motherboard. Many of the connectors are practically microscopic with odd connection/disconnection mechanisms not well described in the Service Manual. Anyway, in the process I seem to have damaged the display connector because no matter how many times I messed with it, I never got the built-in panel to power up after putting everything back together. So now Dell will now be replacing it. I've been in IT and working on laptops for over 10 years, and this is the first time I've damaged one, but this thing really felt like brain surgery. Just a cautionary tale of what even we prosumers can expect as a result of everything getting smaller, thinner, and lighter. Sometimes it's better to let someone else do it.

As for the whine, a couple people have mentioned that replacement motherboards fixed it, but it seems most people (myself included) are just dealing with it. It's no different than the whine I've heard on basically every other laptop, and if brand new systems are still arriving with whine, if I'm going to do anything about it I'll wait a few more months until it's more likely I'll have an issue-free replacement rather than exchanging one whiny motherboard for another. You have to be in a very quiet room to hear it, and even then it's intermittent.

 

Are you based in Australia? I have had the company that Dell outsources their replacement/repair to do the same thing to me. It took them 4 visits to fix the problem. The first time they broke the keyboard. Then the didn't install the screen properly, then the keyboard didn't work and finally they got it. This was in addition to the repairmen NOT using any anti-static protection, and he was quite a fat person and was sweating (yes... no joke) onto the insides of the laptop.

NEVER AGAIN. I will ALWAYS go for a new build replacement over a repair. You'd be crazy not to.

 

I have been a lurker even before this thread started at the speculation thread. Ordered first day. Received it on nov 11th. Not much earlier like everyone else. Have had absolutely no problems. No whine, no touchscreen issues. Wifi is fine. My router is a POS. So I chalked it up to that.
Just one deal pixel in the middle of the screen. That's was the only issue I had and was willing to let it be.
I wake up today. My laptop does not power on. It's dead. Power plugged in. Refuses to light up. It usually takes a few seconds. But nothing today. Then I notice that the bottom is warm and hen gets to hot but still nothing on the screen. And to cap it all of I'll be travelling for the next two weeks. I called dell and they want to come replace my motherboard, heat sink and fan. They say that they will do it at the place I am travelling to. My question to you guys. Has anyone had anything like this happen ?
I am worried because this has happened just 3 weeks in. I had my previous studio xps for close to 5 years. I don't know if this would last this long.

 

heres another thing about my phone (samsung galaxy s4, sprint) not connecting via bluetooth or USB, as i said before, i went to best buy to see if another windows 8.1 machine would recognize it...in hind sight, i should have found another DELL to try to connect to...i did not...so now i want to go back to best buy, find a dell laptop with 8.1, and see if that recognizes my phone...my question then is: if i find a dell machine with 8.1 at best buy that recognizes my phone, do i then have my current machine replaced, as has been offered already by tech support...I know @jphughan suggests its all firmware or other such, and that replacing the machine will do didly dink...but after my experiment tonight, id like some thoughts...thx all

 

Do you have any other Bluetooth devices you can test? If you already answered that, I apologize. But testing some arbitrary other Windows 8.1 machine or even an arbitrary Dell machine isn't a good test. The only test that would be meaningful would be finding another Windows 8.1 system that has the same Bluetooth chip installed (the XPS 15's is onboard the Wifi card and just appears as Intel Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 + HS Adapter). Note that you don't necessarily need a Dell system with this Bluetooth chip.

You also mentioned you went to Best Buy to test another Windows 8.1 machine...and then didn't say how that went....

EDIT: I just noticed that you can't get your phone to connect over USB either. At that point I almost have to believe that the problem lies with your phone configuration (external device whitelist?) or possibly Windows 8.1 in general, not a hardware or even firmware-level issue.

 

at best buy, the asus i walked up to, which was running 8.1, immediately recognized my phone via usb without driver install or anything...at that point, i simply walked away...i have connected other usb devices to my machine no problem.

im at a loss for who to call, dell reps cant figure it out, and its getting to the point where i take pics on my phone, which are then uploaded to dropbox, which i then have to download to my machine...unacceptable in my eyes

thx @jphughan

 

I'll think about asking for a system exchange, but my main motive for maybe going the return route is that they contractually MUST give me a return, so I would be guaranteed no funny business from the reps. I'm also coming close to my return deadline, so this might be my only chance to use it.

I wish I had known about the parts only dispatch. It wasn't mentioned to me, or I would have asked for it (whether they would go for it is another matter I guess). Good luck with that Inspiron, BTW.

Edit: Also, I think the whine on my laptop may be worse than what some of you are seeing. The laptop actually seems to be generating two or three different sounds. One of them is a more of a whiny/grindy sound that happens intermittently, but happens constantly while scrolling with the trackpad, for instance. This is the loudest of the sounds, and could perhaps be related to CPU power draw? I'm not sure. Then there's a different, higher-pitched, more constant whine that is pretty quiet. I think this sound is coming from the USB ports. If this was the only sound I had, I would probably just put up with it.

Wow, that's really, really bad. Anyway, I'm in the U.S., though I'm not actually sure who they guy said he was directly employed by. I had somewhat of a hard time understanding his Indian accent over the phone.

I actually don't bother with proper anti-static wrist straps myself when working with electronics like that, and I haven't had any problems. I just avoid doing things that generate static, and touch something grounded periodically. When I was in my XPS 15, I just left the power adapter plugged into the wall, and touched the notebook plug periodically (the outer part is the ground contact). That said, I would advise people to use more safety precautions than I do.

 

I would say if you can get a system exchange, you should do that. There isn't any real room for funny business if the system exchange is approved and set up; it's just a fast-tracked order at that point.

Thanks for the good wishes on the Inspiron, what a frustrating experience. I feel annoyed that someone with my experience broke something during a (somewhat) basic service and of course that my sister's Christmas/graduation present will already have had warranty work done. Sigh.

I have a funny story about system exchanges too, actually. This is totally off-topic but it's a funny story. I bought a Precision M90 way back in the day because that was the only system with a 17" display and a Blu-ray burner and I could get a 35% discount. Well it turned out that even though picking Blu-ray REQUIRED you to go with the most expensive CPU and GPU they offered in order to "ensure smooth Blu-ray performance" (not to mention add about $900 to the cost of the system pre-discount), about a year later when Blu-ray titles started coming out in the more complex AVC/H.264 codec rather than MPEG-2 or VC-1, when the bitrate got high enough, it bogged down! The M90 was replaced by the M6300 which had the first generation of NVIDIA chips that hard GPU-accelerated HD video playback. I did research, confirmed it worked as intended, and set my sights on the Dell Outlet for an M6300 much like my M90. I found one and after determining a selling price for my M90 with a friend of mine who didn't care about Blu-ray, the upgrade was almost a wash (except I got the lower-end GPU and lost a matte display for a glossy one ). My friend used the M90 for a couple weeks and noticed some major graphical issues when gaming, which I'd never seen because I didn't game, in fact I may not have ever even used the 3D capabilities of the GPU at all. Well I can't remember what happened, but somehow because of an inability to provide the replacement parts or something, he got approved for a system exchange. Dell swapped out his M90 for a brand new M6 400, obviously newer than his system but also newer than the M6300 I'd picked up in the Outlet because the M90 didn't meet my needs! To think that if I'd just been a gamer I could've gotten that free upgrade. Oh well.

That friend must just have good luck to spare, because prior to that my Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 THX speakers up and died, and after a couple days of trying alternate sources, checking wiring and the integrity of connector pins, replacing the fuse, and trying the whole "leave it unplugged for a while and hope it fixes itself", nothing helped. So I took it as a chance to upgrade to surround sound and bought the Logitech Z-5500 kit. I took my Klipsch speakers to this same friend who lived in the room down the hall from mine in college and said, "As far as I can tell, these are busted. But if you can fix them, they're yours." Then before I'd even finished wiring up my Z-5500, I heard the sound of a powerful subwoofer coming the adjacent room. I walk to my friend's room, ask him how the hell he fixed them so fast, and he said, "I didn't do anything! I just connected everything and it started working!" To this day I haven't been able to explain how they were dead for me for a few days and then magically started working for him -- but I did keep my word and let him keep those speakers, which he's still using 6 years later because they're still awesome. In fact Klipsch still sells that speaker set all this time later (and for basically the same price) because they're still awesome by modern standards since speaker technology doesn't move very fast.