XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

This is funny.

Was playing some Dota2 - still have to find the best settings, so suggestions are welcome! - and all of a sudden windows bring me to to the desktop with a warning about "running out of memory, close the following program (dota 2), etc."

Seriously? Am I running out of memory with 16GB of RAM? I have never even seen this warning with my previous laptop (just 4GB), on which I played this same game a lot and used even more memory hungry applications.

 

Great news for Adobe users who are dealing with absurd Adobe scaling problems on the QHD+ display. It's not a proper fix, but someone has figured out how to at least get all Adobe apps to obey Windows scaling settings. This is huge. No more tiny toolbars and menus, and no more logging out of Windows to change resolution+scaling settings for Adobe CS apps. Add a registry key and create a short text file and Adobe apps UI will scale to a manageable size. Details:

Hack makes Photoshop and Illustrator readable on Surface Pro

Note that this hack will work for any Adobe app, not just Photoshop and Illustrator. Just use the Illustrator xml code linked in the article, name the text file to whatever the program is called +.manifest and add it to the executable's directory.

Before you get too excited, this hack does not properly scale the programs at 1800p. Text and icons are now a readable size, but not as sharp as they would be with true scaling. But the result is quite good -- essentially the same thing you get now by dropping the display resolution and scaling at 100%. Unfortunately, in Photoshop, this means that the images are still scaled along with the UI, which isn't good. Unlike the properly-scaled Adobe Lightroom, you lose the display resolution of 1800p. But if you don't need the full dpi of the display, you are in good shape. You can even work on hi-res images with UI unscaled, then switch to scaled for low-res work simply by renaming the xml file and restarting Photoshop. Without ever leaving native display resolution. No Windows logout. In Premiere, Dreamweaver, etc you don't need all that screen real estate anyway, so it's a totally workable solution until Adobe gets their sh-t together and properly addresses this problem.

EDIT: Actually, there is a really easy way to switch the scaling hack on and off. Once the registry and manifest are set up, you can just check/uncheck 'Disable display scaling on high dpi diplays' in the compatibility tab of the program properties.

Also remember that if/when Adobe does release a hidpi update for a particular program, you'll have to delete its external manifest file, otherwise the Adobe scaling won't work.

 

Does Costco US ship to Canada? Or conversely how were you able to get Costco CA to ship to US?

 

No, I am living in Canada. I was just commenting because I have seen posts (and there is mention in the wiki) of the limitation of the Costco warranty, and without this limitation in Canada, it is a very good deal (apart from the fact that the price in Costco.ca is generally 2199$ except that is was on sale for a while at 1999$).
I got the top spec model for 1999$+99$ for the 3 year accidental damage protection.

 

Probably a silly question, but have you disabled vsync? That might be limiting your FPS in full screen.

 

Where did you find that accidental damage protection? I also ordered from Costco.ca and that's a steal!

Also, did they charge you tax? The system didn't charge me tax on the order yet, so my total came to just over $2000. I think they'll notice and update it right as the computer ships, but it's strange that the cart didn't notice it in the mean time.

 

Here is the link for the extended warranty with ADH:
Excellence Plus+ 3 Year Warranty for Computers Over $500

It is such a steal because they have two categories. under 500$ and over 500$.

I did get the sales tax calculated in.
When did you order? when is your estimated delivery date? mine is the 27thof Jan, hope with the recent movement, it comes earlier...

 

This isn't likely the laptop at fault at all, but rather some software you have installed on it (it could even be something from Dell) that has a memory leak. I've played dota 2 for hours on this laptop and my desktop and it never complains about running out of memory. It looks like someone mentioned that the touchpad drivers may even have a memory leak. I surely doubt you're playing dota w/the touchpad, but I also have it disabled when a mouse is plugged in.

I've also noticed a few pieces of the Dell software that will steal the focus from any app you're running which is really obnoxious. That also means they're operating in the background and they could be using up ram.
Either way, check your system and see how much ram is committed (ctrl+shift+esc, click advanced, go to performance).
In the event that you're seeing 10+ gig committed to ram on that tab, switch over to the processes tab and sort by memory and see what is causing it.
Let us know when you find it.

 

Maybe this info could be useful to people that want upgrade the mid tier model.
It seems the Samsung mSATA PM841 is no more available in Europe (it wasn't ever available through regular retail channel)
but though Amazon (.it/.de) a reseller has the PM851 that seem better than PM841

Samsung PM851 256GB mSata Internal SSD Solid state: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

Samsung PM851 512GB mSata Internal SSD Solid state: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

Anyhow I suggest to wait until 840 EVO msata hits the market, because seems that this time Samsung will use official retail channel to sell this unit, while PM851 doesn't seems to come from official retail channel, also the price of PM851 256GB is competitive with the Crucial M500 480GB.

 

Ordered around Dec 8. They got the order in to Dell on the 13th. My eta is also the 27th, but we'll just have to wait and see.

 

I saw it already in a local Dell store here in Singapore.

 

I think I'm missing something obvious to others--how are you (and others I've read) installing any non-Dell synaptics/touchpad drivers? Initially I tried installing the generic ones on Synaptics' site, but that install would fail (even when running as admin). I then came across a post on Lenovo's forums about disabling Windows' digital signed driver restriction and followed instructions there, but I'm still getting the same error of "failed installation." Oh, and of course, I did uninstall the "Dell Touchpad" and associated drivers in Device Manager, then restarted, before attempting to install the generic/custom drivers.

 

Received my top-tier yesterday. Mine does make whining sound that sounds like the sounds others have described when fully charged and plugged in. It was not as noticeable (for me) as I expected. I only noticed when in a near-silent room, while I was listening for it. I think my Clevo makes that sound as well, but I can only hear it when the fans and HDD are off and only when my ear is right next to it. Apart from that, this computer is silent unless there is a load. The screen is amazing. I'm not sure how I feel about some of the super large and super small text I keep seeing when using scaling, so I'm using 1080p with no scaling currently. Battery life has been great so far. BatteryBar reports about 10-11W on idle. It is on pace to get 8-9 hours of battery life with fairly light usage. I did notice the screen yellowing when viewing from the side, however I rarely look at the screen from that angle, so I'm not too concerned about it. I have not tested gaming yet.

My biggest concern is I am having issues with getting CTRL-page up, page down, home and end to register consistently. ALT-page up, etc. appear to work fine. I've tried both CTRL keys and I have the same issue. It is very intermittent. CTRL and FN by themselves work just fine as well. I never had this issue with by XPS 14 previously and I don't recall anyone mentioning this (I've kept up on most of the thread, so I'm not saying this blindly). I've done the A01 BIOS update and the QHD+ firmware update, though this seems like more of a hardware issue than a software issue. Has anyone else had an issue with this? If so, how were you able to resolve it?

 

I perfectly know is not dell's fault. I believe is some windows crap. I checked at the moment the message came up, and there were more or less 2gb used overall. So not even a memory leak, but then I don't know what to think.

 

Yup.. I played with so many settings already :S here is the geforce forum thread in case someone has the same problems:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-1-game-in-fullscreen-lag-window-mode-perfect

 

....................

 

It's f**ked, you need to get it changed.

 

I got my top tier on 30.12.2013 and so far I am very happy with it.

Screen is great and I really enjoy touch. The trackpad isn't interesting for me because I am always using an external keyboard and mouse with two screen setup.

The only problems I have:

1. Scaling doesn't work properly with two screens (internal QHD and external FHD) and some applications are blurry
2. The whining noise is just horrible. Unfortunately my mouse started to do similiar noises and I have to replace it now, because the XPS does enough whining for alle devices here...

Has anyone a solution for Chrome scaling? If I activate the hidpi support under flags I can't use Chrome anymore. See https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=149881#c128

Can anyone explain me how to use NFC? I don't have any idea how to use it on this notebook. There is no application for it and I don't even now where the sensor is. Would love to share links between my HTC One and the XPS via NFC.

 

I also thought scaling with external screen is buggy. Actually all you have to do it let "windows" do its scaling automatically. For QHD + FHD I set:
- Uncheck "Manually set scaling for all devices".
- Put the slider on the 3rd scale (from left).

That works fine for me since windows will detect each display and scale accordingly (so my FHD doesn't get scaled at all while my QHD screen gets scaled).

 

Yes I'm using the same settings, but it is a bit unsharp now on the FHD screen now.

EDIT: It was blurry. But it isn't anymore. Just checked again. Great.

 

The NFC sensor is on the touchpad. To control the NFC chip, go to PC settings and then network. There you will find the on/off switch. To share using NFC, go to the charms bar and select share. Then select tap and send. This will allow you to send data to another device. Took me some trial and error to make use of the NFC chip. Not many apps yet for it.
To get a link from the phone, have NFC enabled and just place the phone on the touchpad with the site opened on the phone.
Hope this helps.

If there is anyone who knows of some apps for nfc file sharing, please post.

 

Got anyone games like Crysis 3 or Battlefield 3 to scale correct from FHD to fullscreen?

 

The newer Synaptics drivers no longer work with this system. You need version 16.3.15.1, which if you Google you can find hosted elsewhere, like here: http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/KEYBOARD-and-MOUSE/Synaptics/Synaptics-Touchpad-Driver-163151.shtml. Just remember to disable gestures you don't need, which will make the touchpad livable. The Edge Swipe gesture in particular led to a lot of misinterpreted motions until I turned it off, and I can always edge swipe on the touchscreen itself if I need to.

 

Very interesting the solutions found by Lenovo for the new keyboard of Lenovo X1:



For example there isn't caps lock, its function is reproduced typing 2 times on shift key (just like smartphone and tablet) that includes a led light, instead Dell cuts the key dimensions in a ridiculous way just like for the Enter Key.

 

Can anyone recommend a notebook cooler thats worthy of the 9530? Been looking at a couple Thermaltake coolers that have gotten some very positive reviews. Only want to use it when doing heavy gaming etc so low dB fan sound isn't as critical but of course would be nice if it's not blasting off

Thermaltake - U.S.A. - Massive 14² - CL-N001-PL14BU-A
Thermaltake - U.S.A. - Allways Control - CLN0043

 

Did a lot of testing... for me it seems like this GPU/Laptop has major bugs/problems with OpenGL. I guess it's because of the driver:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-lag-window-mode-perfect/2/?offset=24#4079951

Maybe someone can try out some OpenGL game? E.g.

QUAKE LIVE (free download + small game), run , join server.. com_maxfps 250.. at fullhd with lowest settings. Normally the XPS 15 should reach 700+ fps.. but I can't even get 200 in fullscreen.

 

Damn it. Dead pixel spotted.

Apparently it is just one, but is pretty in the center of the screen. Is so small that most of the time I wouldn't notice it, but now that I know I will probably look in that area more often. Nevertheless, I am in doubt about asking for a replacement: I don't know how much time it would take to receive it, I am leaving the country in these days - by the way, does anybody knows if the guarantee can be asked even for a different address to the one they shipped to? - and in the end is just one...

 

Will try Quake Live for you.

 

You can have parts and service sent to an address other than the one the machine was shipped to. I do it all the time if I need a tech to work on my system at work (even though the machine originally shipped to home) or if I'm on vacation or have moved. I think it even works internationally (definitely does for ProSupport) but I haven't tested that myself.

 

Thanks, this is pretty much the config which I am using (low graphics config):
http://beasty.bestmail.ws/etconfig/beAsty-q3.zip

just set "com_maxfps 250" and make sure you have fullscreen at 1920x1080
vsync, tripple buffering and threaded optimization should be "off" in nvidia control panel for quakelive.exe , launcher.exe and awesomium_process.exe

 

The warranty is international. My understanding is that if Dell sells your computer in a country then you can have yours serviced there. I don't know if they will actually send an on-site technician in every country.

 

To follow up on this, I have figured out that if I press CTRL first then it works fine. If I press FN first it does not work. Pressing them both is a crapshoot. This is a big relief as I can now use the keyboard with very little adjustment.

The only other issue has been that my right arrow key got stuck twice, but that was kind of random so I'm not too concerned as long as it doesn't keep happening.

 

Did some gaming testing tonight. I played the first level of Hard Reset and then Crysis 2 for a little bit. It is very odd - the GPU runs at 405 MHz (according to MSI afterburner and HWInfo64) the whole time with gaming, but the system still seemed to perform well. I ran 3DMark11 and got right around where notebookcheck did (P2967, see attached screenshot) so it seems like it is performing fine, despite the low clock speed. This seems really odd to me, since I was expecting it to clock at 941 MHz range, but if the system performs well, I guess it doesn't matter. I am using the latest non-beta driver from NVIDIA (331.82) with the power management setting set to "Prefer maximum performance", if that is of interest. Has anyone else seen this low clock speed but expected performance anomaly?



I also got the low memory thing after playing Crysis 2 for 30 minutes or so. I will try playing with the touchpad disabled and see if that makes a difference, but I suspect it is some Dell crapware that I need to get rid of with a fresh install.

 

Wanna see a demo of how incredibly awesome the XPS 15 IZGO QHD+ display is? Install this, then (very important) right-click the program shortcut, go to properties/compatibility and check 'disable display scaling..."

Whorld - Home

Turn up the brightness all the way, F11 for full-screen and grab the pattern with your finger on the touchscreen...

 

Same thing is happening to me when playing LoL, warning message about low memory despite only have 2GB used up. Game still works fine but when the game ends my desktop goes completely blue and the metro interface looks weird. I don't know what's causing it. And it specifically says to close the LoL client, not any other process.

 

It's called thermal throttling, when GPU hits 80°C starts to decrease its clock.

 

U might want to try checking your dgpu clock speeds with gpu-z. For me my dgpu runs at full clock whenever I play smth (e.g. skyrim).

I'm not going for a new fresh and clean installation of windows 8.1... Should I just use the drivers from the xps 15 wiki or directly from intel/nvidia? E.g. the latest HD 4600 driver from intel won't install (not certificated for this laptop).

Also no Dell bloatware on my new installation <3

 

I have both chrome and firefox installed (as well as IE of course) and I switch between them depending upon the webpage. I use firefox most of the time on this machine because the scaling is better for most webpages, but sometimes chrome works better for some streaming sites.

 

Finally after some long delays, I'll have my new XPS 15 (9530) in my safe little hands tomorrow morning! After some previous decisions in this thread (I purchased the mid-tier model - 1TB + Cache) I will be removing both drives, replacing it with my newly purchased 500GB Samsung Evo and replacing the 61WHr 6-Cell Battery with the larger 91WHr 6-Cell Battery (currently in discussions with Dell AU as, as you can imagine an uphill battle trying to get them to sell me the battery without installation fees etc haha).

Note: Has anyone out of interest successfully achieved the above mod that I'm about to partake - will ensure to get pictures for people as reference

My question is, as most of these Laptops no longer come accompanied by DVDs with the OS/Software on them (gone are the good ol' days of drink coasters and actual CD/DVD Drives!) what is the best method (presumably before I remove the original HDDs) to make a 'back-up' of Windows 8.1 for 'future' re-formats?

Outside of that - and I believe the above poster was asking the same question - is it best to still go to the Dell website for Drivers or source the 'latest and greatest' from their respective websites?

 

You can't put a standard 2.5" SSD and contemporaneously put 91WHr battery, because there is no space for both.
With 91WHr battery you can use only SSD with mSATA form factor.

 

For his sake, I hope he meant his newly purchased 500gb Samsung Evo mSata...

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think 840 EVO mSATA is already available on market, it was only announced just few weeks ago.

 

Is it still thermal throttling when it is always running at that speed? The GPU was under 80 for almost the entire time and never ran at 941 MHz (it was at 405 MHz) but still got a good 3DMark11 score.

 

Well the whole "new windows 8.1 installation" process is a little strange.

1. every tutorial recommends to disable secureboot/uefi but I didn't and everthing seems to work
2. I have 5 partitions on my SSD.. what the hell... I have no idea which ones I can delete ?
3. The Windows 8.1 setup has scaling problems
4. dells driver website is strange too.. for some drivers there is a driver and also an update package.. why not just making one file that contains both?!

 

Thanks - I will try GPU-z and see what it gives me.

 

Are you saying that when you have scored 2967points at 3Dmark your GPU was locked to 405MHz?
If it's so then I think there is something wrong in the way you check the GPU clock.
I suggest to activated LOG MODE in HWinfo so a CVS file will be created with all data of your system when you are performing 3Dmark (or any game) just a warning, to be sure that HWinfo detect GT750m you have to run something that uses it before to launch HWinfo.

 

Thanks, I'll try that and see if it sheds any light. It was running at 405 MHz even at the very beginning of the benchmark and stayed that way the whole time, as far as I can tell (from MSI afterburner, using the on-screen display).

 

Well that's a little embarrassing - luckily enough I don't pick-up the HDD until tomorrow so I will promptly cancel it and wait for the arrival of the mSATA versions haha . Apparently they are meant to be arriving this month with comparative pricing to their 2.5" counterparts.

Though I have to ask myself - since I will be using this hardly ever off a power supply (who the hell games and expects good battery life) is the 61WHr that different to the 91WHr? Have we got results in?

 

No one I know of has attempted this upgrade yet, but it should be straightforward. Good luck!

I don't understand why everyone wants to back up their stock Windows 8.1 image. There's nothing special about it other than having all the drivers preinstalled, which you'd likely want to update anyway. But if you do feel the need, one option would be using the built-in System Image tool (buried in Windows 8 under File History....), or a third-party tool like Macrium Reflect, the latter of which is less picky during the restore phase but obviously requires a separate tool for restore, whereas using the Windows function allows restoring using either Windows boot media, a rescue disc/USB drive, or the built-in Windows Recovery Tools partition. But honestly if you're going to take an image of anything, I'd take an image of the system AFTER you wipe it, get all the drivers installed, get everything customized to your liking, and get any apps you want to install set up. That way your image is a baseline that YOU want rather than what Dell provides.

As for drivers, I go to Dell's site for most things. The notable exceptions where I go to the vendor directly are GPU and Wifi. On this particular system, the Intel GPU can't use the Intel reference drivers, but the NVIDIA GPU can. I also grabbed the Bluetooth drivers directly from Intel since Wifi and BT are on the same card in this system. And lastly I'm using the Synaptics drivers rather than Dell's touchpad drivers, though that may change in the future since it seems newer versions of the Synaptics driver don't work with this system, and of course I may want to update those drivers in the future. For everything else I'm running what Dell provides.

1. Because Secure Boot can get in the way and tutorials are designed to ensure the maximum success rate for the greatest number of people. But Windows 8/8.1 work with Secure Boot/UEFI perfectly, so there's no reason to turn it off especially given that both have some benefits of their own. But if you were installing Windows 7, you'd have to disable Secure Boot and unless you applied slight modifications to your Windows 7 install media, you'd also have to disable UEFI since the Windows 7 install files don't have the right files in the right place for a UEFI installation by default.
2. Without seeing a screenshot it'd be hard to speculate, but you'll have at LEAST a small Windows Recovery Environment partition, a required EFI System partition, and the OS partition. From there the Dell image probably adds a factory image recovery partition, and you also might have a Rapid Start hibernation partition. I SEEM to remember that on my out-of-box build there seemed to be two different recovery partitions which I couldn't explain, but I never investigated. I was going to wipe it anyway.
3. Yep, even 8.1 isn't perfect with respect to scaling, but it should get better as apps become more scaling-aware and can take advantage of the new scaling APIs that Windows 8.1 added.
4. The hard-drive package driver is simpler; it just extracts the files and (often) launches an installer. The Windows package is a more idiot-proof package that runs extra checks (like whether this driver is compatible with your system, whether the OS is right, etc) and does everything silently in the background. I personally prefer the former because I get more visibility and control over the installation process, can modify things if I need to (or force drivers to install that I know will work even though Dell might not technically support them on my system), and because I tend to favor less complexity when it's not needed -- but the Windows package might be easier for people who get anxious when they see an install screen with choices. Of course the Windows packages even have an "Extract only" option (which they didn't used to), so maybe the former package will eventually be phased out.

 

Judging by the numbers, the 91WHr should give you 50% more battery life away from an outlet. Although even if you'll be using it for the same amount of time away from an outlet (i.e. not taking advantage of the larger capacity much), then the long-term longevity of the battery should be significantly increased since the fixed amount of wear you're imposing will be spread over a larger battery cell area.

But yes, good thing you were able to cancel the 2.5" order. I thought I remember explicitly saying that in order to use the larger battery you'd have to go mSATA-only for storage when you originally brought this up earlier?