XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Chatting with a dell support guy, confirmed QHD displays are driving the delay. Here is what i got

"it says part number 6RGW0 for ASSY,HNG,15.6QHD+,EDP,TCH,YLT, LCD/Display Assembly Service Kit is backordered."

 

Sorry, but unfortunately the delays are caused only by components shortage.
If you knew Dell you'd know that with the previously XPS15 L521x despite being informed of all the serious issues from its reps in this forum, Dell has continued to produce its faulty XPS15 L521x until a few days ago.

 

Hi all,
I am following this topic since the beginning and I haven't seen my issue yet...
I have a mid tier unit for one month now and so far so good! But yesterday I launched a game (WoW) for the first time and......
All is working perfectly for 10mn and then I have a dramatic drop of FPS, from 60 to 2/3. I tried continue playing and after 5 mn all good again.
Sounds like the graphic card was disabled for a moment. I was thinking of overheating and auto shutdown...
I am hearing for the first time the fans and the XPS is heating more than the usual, but nothing unexpected.

Anyone has already faced this? Should I run specific tests to check if this is an hardware malfunction?
Nvidia driver are the last ones.

thanks for your help

 

If you could test the Hyper-V that would be great.

I am probably going to buy the XPS 15 and use my University's free Windows 8 Pro.

 

Just curious, I know that there have been mixed post about the XPS 15 is the same quality as the M3800 and there are post saying its not because it is the business class version.

But it seems like someone in the What Notebook Book should I buy posted this about the FCCID stickers:

"Yup as of 20 minutes ago, ok more of a serious hunch. FCCID stickers saying they are manufactured by different companies ( XPS is Compal and the m3800 shows Quanta ) I haven't pulled baseplates off yet but from Bokeh's thread it seems the motherboards come from different sources as well. ( XPS foxconn, M3800 Elitegroup )

the made in Malasia sticker also does not match the XPS either ( made in China )"

 

Again, I spoke with a Dell product engineer who worked on this project at a company event (i.e. not a sales rep) and he confirmed that other than the GPU, the hardware is identical. He also had one of each with him and I got to handle both of them side-by-side; they're the same. Dell has factories all over the world and is currently working toward Michael Dell's vision of being able to manufacture "anything, any time, anywhere", so it's hardly unusual that these machines might be manufactured in more than one place, or that Dell might have multiple suppliers for the motherboards, especially since the motherboard DOES have to be different because the GPU is soldered onto it.

Not really sure what more I can say. Seriously, you're kind of overthinking this purchase at this point.

 

So Hyper-V doesn't scale -- BUT, if you use the console viewer (i.e. rather than RDPing into your VMs), you can enable DPI scaling within the guest OS and achieve basically the same effect. The only catch is that if you frequently switch between using the HiDPI panel and a regular DPI panel, you'll have to keep adjusting the DPI scaling inside the guest OS back and forth since it doesn't auto-detect what DPI scaling the host is currently running. Not ideal, but workable (especially considering how fast VMs run and restart on this thing!!), especially if you won't be switching between different panels often.

 

I think you have suffered of thermal throttling on GPU (several users have reported that here) even on Notebookcheck review the unit under test has had a thermal shut down while it was performing a stress test.
It's not a driver issue, XPS15 cannot handle the most demanding games because cooling system is not strong enough, maybe a cooling pad could help.

 

Thanks for your reply, I missed this part...
I am not using a cooling pad but I was making sure the machine was not directly on the table to prevent overheating.
World of Warcraft is not really a demanding game, I will look more after thermal throttling solution.

Thanks

 

This machine should use a smarter throttling... Instead of waiting until it reaches extreme heat and then slowing down in such a way, this decrease in the frequency should be more gradual, so that it would never had to take drastic measures that ends up in such low framerate. May a BIOS(UEFI)/driver update improve this?

 

Hi Guys,
having the same problem but worse.My XPS has serous heating problems.Im not able to play F1 2013 on 1920x1080 lowest setting (no shadow,no anti aliasing,no refelctions).
This will trhottle the graphics after 1-2 min. to 135 Mhz.
I had a technician here yesterday,he changed the heat sink and the motherboard.
Interestingly there where clearly burned areas around the downside of the GPU,You could see its almost black there and the technician said this comes from overhesting.
After that it wasmuch better for 3-4 hours now its the same.Also my battery (61wh) i cant get more out the max 1.50h by 100% charge,lowest brightness setting using only chrom with a couple of tabs.
Def something wrong!...

Could you pleae do me a big favour and get me some results with furmark 95.
On Furmark 95 *Settings 1280x720 it runs for about 1.20min before it throttles the graphic card down to 135mhz ( i get than 5fps).
Pleae can you try this seeting and let me know how fast your graphic card throttles to 135mhz.
Doing the same with my 3 years old XPS 17 L702x GT555M i can run this test hours,nothing happens.Same with games,my old laptop is able to give around 200% more power by never throttleing down.

Thanks already for testing...this driving me nut and im short before returning this...im a happy Dell costumer since 20 years but this machine is horrible so far.!!


Thanks a lot!!

 

Both Dell and Apple (and I'm sure others) have issued BIOS/UEFI updates in the past that have updated thermal maps on other models, so it's entirely possible. It's still early in this model's lifetime, after all.

 

I am just trying to make sure I won't have to send it back after I buy it because I can't be without a laptop once it's January 5 2014.

 

I am a little confused by what you mean by HiDPI and DPI panel. I am going to use the veiwer for my Windows VM and remote into my Linux VM and it will all be done only on the laptop (no external monitors)

So does that mean VMs restart a lot on this machine?

 

Not getting any better here.There was at least one user here playing F1 2013.
If anybody is using this game could you make a benchmark on 1920x1080 low settings?!
These settings will throttle my Nvidia after 1-2min down to 135Mhz.Thats not normal.

Thanks

 

Just did a Kombustor Test, Furmark GPU Core Burner @ 640x380.It started with 58fps after 50 sec. dropped down to 4fps.
Same test doing with my XPS L702x GT555M i can run it forever.

Anybody experiencing this lame behaviour?

 

Regarding the display, I think jphughan has the better take on the quality. I am blown away by the display on this thing. It is true that modern IPS screens have wider viewing angles, but you have to turn this display much further than any natural working position to see any fade or color problems. It is nothing like old T/N displays. You won't find such problems while working by yourself on this display. You won't find such problems when having the laptop on your belly watching netflix in bed.

Today i showed this laptop to a photographer friend of mine, and he couldn't take his eyes off this display. He kept on saying that he wanted one - now. We both agreed that changes with viewing angle on this display are more pronounced than modern IPS displays, but the resolution, color accuracy, and especially the depth of the blacks on this display are the best we have both seen.

 

If i turn the display maybe 20 deg horizontally, I get a change in the look of the display. As I keep on turning it horizontally, the change seems to be a bit, but only a bit, yellow. If I tilt the display up and down, I see some gray, but it doesn't seem to me to be yellow, or if it is yellow it is too subtle to be sure.

 

Yours seems to be much more yellow at that angle than mine.

 

I have no noise that i can hear, whether on AC, fully charged, or with the battery run down. I took the laptop to a meeting today with two other people and they also heard nothing. All they thought about the laptop is that it has one of the best screens they have ever seen.

 

Costco product just like that from Dell - Windows 8.1 core, not Windows 8.1 professional.

 

HiDPI is the formal name for a very high resolution panel with a relatively small physical size, like the 15.6" QHD+ panel here. Using Windows VMs through the viewer should be fine after you enable DPI scaling inside the VM itself. The Linux VM experience will depend on how Linux and the remote app work. If the Linux VMs either allow DPI scaling to be used in a remote viewing session (Windows doesn't) OR the remote app itself is capable of scaling the remote session UP rather than just down, you'll be fine. Note that by scaling up I do NOT mean increasing the resolution of the session, but rather stretching a given resolution session across more pixels than the resolution itself, essentially zooming in on the session. Increasing just the resolution would just give you more space for tiny stuff, not larger elements.

No I didn't mean that VMs restart randomly on this machine -- why would you think that? I just pointed out that this machine can run VMs so fast that if you DID need to restart them, it wasn't a big deal because it happens so quickly....

 

I take it you just got your XPS, Snow? Congrats!

I didn't mean to imply that these displays are bad. They are just not quite as good as the very best high DPI IPS (or PLS) displays. I'm probably unusual in that my last few laptops also had high DPI (retina-class) displays with panels that also offered excellent color and sharpness but better viewing angles. However, the screen on my XPS is better than those in other ways. For example, the XPS has very even backlighting with no light bleed at all.This screen on my XPS is also brighter than those. On the other hand, those other panels had a more traditional 3x1 R·G·B subpixel layout instead of the 2x2 W·G/R·B layout used on this panel so text appeared a little bit sharper on those panels thanks to the subpixel rendering used on modern Linux and Windows OSs. Subpixel rendering is designed for the more traditional layout.

 

There is the review about XPS15 9530 on NotebookCheck (English Version), but for some reason the link is broken...

 

I'm really worried from the reports about throttling on GPU, it seems that GT750m is practically unusable and is there only to make cool the specs.
Every user that has played some game reports heavy throttling on GPU just after 10 minutes and even the thermal shutdown in some cases

I see people complain about keyboard font (M3800 thread), whine/buzz noise, HiDPI screen (Software not ready to use it), but they seems to me very light faults respect the incapability to use the GPU as intended.

Moreover NotebookCheck reports an external temp of 65°C on max load, I have never seen temps like this on external surface of notebook, also they confirm the GPU throttling and even the thermal shutdown.
Just for comparison the Razor Blade 14 with same CPU but with GT765m reaches only a 53°C on external surface and it hasn't throttling at all.

The life of this notebook might be very short due to high temps.
Just before a user has reported trace of burns on his replaced motherboard, perhaps this is one of reasons because Dell does not offer the usual 3 years of warranty included in price on Precision series also for Precision M3800.

 

External temp of 65 C seems outrageously high; 65 F on the other hand seems low, so I'm guessing that's some other kind of typo or measurement error.

As for throttling, I played both Portal games (old, but I love them) as well as TrackMania2 Canyon at 1080p with other settings maxed out and never experienced any throttling whatsoever, even in multi-hour gaming. Granted they're not the latest and greatest games, but the fans were always running fairly loud the entire time, so I assume the GPU was working reasonably hard, and I never encountered any slowdown at all.

I can't explain the different standard warranty policy other than this is sort of a new type of Precision; this is the first one that's shared an entire design with a consumer-oriented model, so maybe they're trying to keep them as close as possible. I agree it wouldn't have been difficult to change that standard policy though.

As for the burns, I'd have liked to see pictures of that to determine whether they were in fact "burns".

And the other complaints, well, lots of people complain on lots of forums. Some of it is legitimate, some isn't, and even among the legitimate complaints, there are degrees of complaints. HiDPI is unusable for those who rely heavily on most Adobe apps all the time and thus is a legitimate complaint for them, but it's perfectly fine (awesome, even) for people who use apps that run fine scaled up. Complaining about the keyboard font and inconsistent typography on the other hand I would consider an illegitimate complaint. Sure the font could be be better, but is it really worth bellyaching over -- really? The main keys are all in the same spot as any other keyboard, so it's not like you'll have trouble telling what letter is what. Learn to type without looking at the keyboard; you'll stop worrying about keyboard font, and your productivity will improve drastically. I use THIS keyboard: http://www.daskeyboard.com/product/model-s-ultimate/

With any device with this much new technology all in one place, there are bound to be teething issues and a dramatic difference in user experiences based on each user's needs/expectations because the rest of an ecosystem isn't completely ready for new technology when it first rolls out; that's the nature of new technology. For some people being on the cutting edge is worth some aggravations. For others, it's not. There are merits to each approach.

 

I bought my high end xps from Costco yesterday. Just checked and they have now taken the laptop off of their site. Obviously it is probably due to the delays.

 

I'm concerned about this as well. I don't game that often anymore, but I want it to work when I do. I plan to test it carefully and if needed, down-clock the GPU to quadro speeds to see if that helps. I have read some reports from people that have been able to game just fine or have only had one game that causes GPU throttling. I will definitely share what I find when I get mine.

Being totally unable to game is a deal-breaker for me. I'm not sure whether or not I trust that Dell would fix the issue later.

 

Hi,

as mentioned on notebookcheck.com (german review) it says:

"Lassen wir nur Furmark laufen (100% GPU-Last), startet die GT 750M mit 1058 MHz, reduziert nach einigen Sekunden bei rund 80 °C den Takt auf 966 MHz. Nach einigen Minuten weiter auf 914 Mhz und bleibt in Folge konstant auf dem Wert. Kommt in Folge CPU-Last hinzu (Prime 95) verringert die GPU weiter ihre Taktrate auf bis zu 405 Mhz. Nach rund 20-30 Minuten Stresstest konnten wir wiederholt einen erzwungenen Shutdown des Systems beobachten. Verantwortlich dafür könnten durchwegs die hohen CPU-Temperaturen sein."

Which is translated:

Furmark running, the GT 750M starts with 1058MHz, throttles down after a few seconds at 80°C to 966 MHz, and some minutes later to 914MHz where it then stays. If you add CPU load to that, the GPU throttles down to 405MHz. After 20-30 minutes of stresstest the system shuts down.

They mention later, that the stresstest isn't a real scenario because of 100% GPU and 100% CPU load over time. But they are critical with the thermal concept, as the lifetime of the components like that is in question.

Reading this, there should be something wrong with your unit, if it throttles down to 135 MHz after some minutes, without adding extra CPU load...

 

It's true, stress test is not a real scenario, but many users here are reporting the same situation without stress test, just playing games.

Moreover previously some owners have posted logs of their system made when they are playing games and the situation it's always the same, heavy throttling on GPU.

The owners can check very easily if their systems have heavy throttling on GPU, they have to start HWinfo64 in log mode after the launch of the game or other heavy application that uses the GPU, so a file with CVS extension will be created with all the info about their systems.
If you want someone that analyzes your CVS file, I'm available to do it.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I have experienced no throttling on my laptop. I played Civ5 for like 6 hours straight one day without any issue. I have played other games for shorter periods and never noticed a drop in framerate indicative of major throttling. All of my gameplay was done on a desk surface so the intake and exhaust were clear from obstruction.

I think some people probably have a poorly seated heatsink or bad thermal compound application. As for worrying about temperatures, these temperatures aren't in danger of hurting the lifespan of the device very much. It takes temperatures in excess of 120C to even start to damage silicon.

 

I'm kind of in your boat. Not much of a gamer any more mostly due to lack of time.

That being said, I have played Skyrim in FHD and high settings for, according to steam, about 35 hours now (?!?). I can confirm that I have run into throttling, but only when I've had the laptop on my lap (bad on me). Every time I've had it on a desk/table or with my newly acquired cooling pad, I've had zero throttling and it works like a champ for hours. 35 to be precise. Sheesh.

Also, @ -Mac-, I have yet to see ANY posts of anyone encountering thermal shutdown from gaming. Only one I have seen has been the notebookcheck test.

As always, YMMV, but this is a pretty remarkable gaming laptop considering how light, thin, etc. it is. The GT750M works as advertised and very consistently.

 

Not really an expert, but since the fan of the laptop is visible from the bottom, I guess the cooling system depends on if the fan can suck enough air from the bottom of the machine, which means a cooling pad with enough space in the bottom should be helpful. On the other side, runing the machine on soft surface like bed or sofa which can cover the fan completely will reduces the air flow significantly.

 

So just few pages back I have found an owner with auto shutdown, and If I remember correctly there is at least another owner that has encountered the same problem (too difficult to find in this big thread), also we have an owner with traces of burns on motherboard but even with the replaced motherboard his situation isn't changed at all. This means problem is the cooling system.

 

That user's post said, "I was thinking auto-shutdown". That's all it says. 'I was thinking'. Sooo, that's not any kind of conclusive evidence that it happened. Like I said, this thing will throttle if it can't breathe. Not too surprising there.

 

Ok, but when a user has a significant drop in frame rate usually he stops to playing or he cannot continue to play at 3 or 10fps, otherwise most likely you see others auto shutdown.
The problem is not the auto shutdown, but the throttling on GPU that many users have reported.
In this moment the cooling system of XPS15 has the max performance possible because it's new and without dust, most likely it's winter for everyone in this thread so temps are much lower than others seasons, as time goes the situation will only get worse.

 

1) what intel and NVidia drivers are you using - the dell one or latest one?

2) dell has a new bios I think ... who knows what that'll do ...

but I'm not surprised - I have an XPS 1645 - anyone remember those beast that you can literally cook an egg over?

 

For all you Costco buyers out there, a glitch gave me some curious insights. I called Costco to get the Dell order number, then I used Dell's chat line to link that order number with my Dell account. The Dell account number that the Costco person gave me wasn't the individual order for my machine, but rather a batch order of 300 computers placed from Costco to Dell, nearly all of which took place on 07 December 2013. My order (thankfully) was among them. Because that batch order has been associated with my Dell account, I can see the entirety (order date, model ordered, status of order, anticipated delivery date, shipping address, the price Costco paid, etc).

I've pointed out the error to them and I imagine it will get fixed by Monday. But here's what I've learned:

1. Costco pays Dell $1895.99 for the XPS 15 model that Costco sells for $1999. I saw similar margins on other orders, but did not actively investigate.
2. The sales have the following distribution:

0.3% XPS 12 laptop
0.3% XPS 18 (AIO desktop)
0.66% XPS 13 laptops
1% XPS 15 laptops (all 'top tier')
1% Alienware laptops (2x14", 1x18")
2% 17" Inspiron laptops
2% Inspiron One (AIO desktops)
4% monitors
6% XPS 14 laptops
7% XPS 27 (AIO desktops)
9% Venue 8" tablets
14% Inspiron 660 (desktop computers)
21% XPS 8700 (desktop computers)
31% 15" Inspiron laptops

Roughly half of them have already been delivered. All desktops that were ordered on the 7th have already been delivered, has have the Inspiron 15R laptops. All the tablets are currently in transit, with delivery anticipated on 17 December. Regular Inspiron 15 laptops are all still 'in production,' with delivery anticipated between 23 and 26 December. All the XPS 14 laptops are still 'in production,' with delivery anticipated between 2 and 3 January. The XPS 13 laptops are still 'in production,' with delivery anticipated on 21 January, same as the XPS 15 laptops.

3. The super helpful online chat person also gave me next day shipping gratis (which, in their system, reduced my shipping time by 4 days). So, if you ordered via Costco, there's a 4-day incentive to get friendly with their customer support chatline.

I'm hardly familiar with the way these things work, though I noticed that each model seemed to be treated in batch fashion, where *all* of the Costco orders of a specific model shipped on the same day, regardless of where in the country the computer was being shipped. In the few orders that were not placed on 07 Dec (they were placed either on 10 Dec or 11 Dec), they were synch'ed up with the 07 Dec orders in terms of shipping. I saw no exceptions to this.

I found it interesting how XPS laptops, by and large, take longer than a week to push out the door even for those that aren't experiencing issues.

 

clipcarl - I get your meaning. And i also appreciate your detailed and well-written posts.

My photographer friend and i speculate that the reason the blacks are so good on this panel may be due to IGZO. As you probably know, IGZO allows over-pixel features (transistors and associated wiring) to be much thinner (and smaller), which makes for more transparent features, which allows dimmer backlighting to be used, and this probably leads to less light bleed (as you noted), and thus the better blacks.

 

Interesting...really some inside infor. The batch means Dell is waiting for the parts which are most likely the screen panels. Assembly doesn't take too much time once the parts are ready.

 

Can any suggest a cooling plate for out xps 15's??
Am I correct in believing the intake is from the sides and blows out the bottom
Thanks

 

I bought this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C31HC0/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Not too bulky and fits just right. Pretty quiet. Only $16!

But I think the intake's on the bottom?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Hey guys, someone reviewing the xps on Dell website said that YOU SHOULD NOT use a cooling pad for the xos because the hot air is coming OUT not being SUCKED in from the bottom. I don't know how accurate that is just a warning.
Edit: here is the review

 

REALTEK DOLBY HOME THEATER V4 FINAL RELEASE

For use with XPS 12 and XPS 15

This final release fixes all the bugs and Dolby v4 works perfectly now.

I created a walkthrough in the package. Read it carefully, the instructions have changed tremendously:

LINK: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jh5u4eh5x...Theater v4 for DELL XPS 12 FINAL 12142013.zip

All previous versions will be taken down.

Update:
By the way, the MIC for some reason crashes when the Realtek Microphone Technology turned on. Go into Dell Audio in control panel and turn it off. Most programs like Skype use their own noise cancellation technology, so this is not important to have on.

 

that's a quick capture when I am running furmark

 

That guy is talking rubbish.

The 9530 sucks in from the bottom and blows exhaust out at the base of the screen where you can't see. Perhaps his cooling pad was drawing some of the exhaust from the back of the laptop but otherwise a pad should be fine. Personally I just stick a magazine under the back foot to lift it an extra bit.

 

Hey everyone,
just wanted to post a quick message saying that I am really enjoying my XPS (top config). I do not have most of the issues that others have reported, aside from the touchscreen randomly not working in the middle of a session (for not obvious reason). A quick fix is to open device manager, right-click on Human Interface Devices and scan for hardware changes. This works 100% of the time for me without a reboot, and hope it can help others until a driver solution properly remedies this.
Thanks to everyone on this thread, you have helped me out very much!

 

hi, you can also open a software call "My Dell" in your laptop, it works to me.

it's very useful to display it in your desktop toolbar icon, My Dell > settings (on top) > notifications > under notifications select display a icon with current system status.

 

English version of XPS 15 9530 review by NotebookCheck

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-15-9530-Late-2013-Notebook.107485.0.html

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I'm guessing that opening My Dell prompts the hardware scan that can be executed manually in Device Manager, which is probably why that works. But jschaeff, there is a more permanent workaround that's already been discussed here and confirmed to work. Go to Device Manager, under HID Devices, open Properties for the device called USB Input Device (if you have more than one listed, disconnect external peripherals temporarily), go to the Power Management tab, and uncheck "Allow the computer to turn this device off". That may cost you some battery life (nobody's tested it scientifically to determine how much), but it seems to resolve the intermittent dropouts.