XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Oh you most certainly probably did, and I made the assumption that all SSDs would be one size - silly me !

With regards to your above post re-Windows 8.1 and backing it up - I was simply asking how to get a copy now that DVDs are no longer provided (given the fact I am replacing the HDDs, and won't be able to restore from their super secret hidden partitions haha). I care not for 'cloning' the exact state - but simply having a copy of the stock standard Windows 8.1, is that a possibility as you have said? Is that this Rescue USB/CD you made mention of - I assume its a simple program from within Program Files?

Thanks as always jp!

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

This is how my partitions look like:
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5125/partition05.jpg

What can I remove and what is everything anyway?

Tbh my driver routine is a bit different and follows the experiences I made with windows (check my signature for the tutorial if u want):

From Intel I downloaded and installed the latest:
Chipset driver
HD4600 igpu driver
Intel Rapid Storafe Technology driver + software
Wireless driver

From NVIDIA:
dGPU driver (including driver,physx and hd audio)

From dell:
Intel Dynamic Platform & Thermal Platform (I installed both files.. the update package was installed as second).
Cardreader
motionsensor
nfc

I didn't install anything else since everything else seems to be installed/working (bluetooth driver installed already, dont need wlan/bt software, fn buttons already work, etc). I also don't understand why anyone would ever need to install some touchpad driver when the windows generic driver works just fine.

Since the fresh windows 8.1 installation coil whine seems to be a lot louder. It sounds like I have an HDD constantly writing/reading when charging.

 

The recovery drive doesn't store an image or allow you to reinstall Windows; it includes tools like Command Prompt, Startup Repair, System Restore, and System Image Restore (just the tool, not the image) in order to diagnose problems that might prevent Windows from booting. But if you want to create such a drive, enter "Create recovery drive" into the Start search prompt.

In terms of reinstalling Windows, you have a few options, none especially convenient:

1. Call Dell and have them ship you a free a bootable Windows 8.1 installer on a USB flash drive.
2. If you have access to someone's RETAIL Windows 8.1 key, use it to download the ISO from Microsoft (you can then of course activate with your own). Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decided not to all OEM keys to work on their portal; maybe they don't want people with OEM keys using their bandwidth.
3. If you have access to an MSDN subscription, download the installer there.
4. Or do what I did: Find a clean torrent. Ironically the torrent was even better than anything Microsoft offered, since it's a single installer that lets you install Core, Pro, AND Enterprise (and even the K and N versions of each!), whereas Microsoft's AT BEST allow you to install only Core and Pro, and the ones downloaded from their retail upgrade page are single-edition only. It's sad that the pirates are delivering higher-quality and lower-frustration solutions than Microsoft now, but I used the torrent media to install my perfectly legitimate copy of Windows 8.1 and it worked like a charm.

 

Thanks for your help. I first turned on GPU-Z, which forced the GPU to be turned on. I then ran the Hard Reset benchmark with HWiNFO running in logging mode and it appears the GPU went even above the normal 941 MHz (see attached TXT file, this website wouldn't let me upload the file in CSV or XLS format, for some reason - if you can get it into Excel, I saw the GPU clock in column BL). There must be some issue in how MSI afterburner is capturing GPU clock speed. At least now I know my system isn't throttling.

 

You must be running 32-bit software. Only 64-bit programs can take advantage of bigger RAM. 32-bit programs can't use more than 4GB. Most are limited to 2GB. This is a limitation of the 32-bit CPU architecture.

See if there is a 64-bit version of your program available.

 

That crossed my mind as well, but I didn't post that idea since it seems others are playing Dota 2 without issue, so that plus the fact that it's a relatively recent game led me to assume it was 64-bit. But possibly not, I guess!

 

Can anyone help with this? I got this screen while doing nothing on the machine, and it stayed this way for 2 hours, remaining at 0% complete, until I did a hard reset.

 

lately, ive been watching downloaded torrent videos directly from the machine using hdmi connected to my panosonic 50", i used to burn the shows onto a cd using external drive, but ran out of cd's and figured that was a waste of money anyway..but playing the videos on laptop using hdmi, i get audio.visual errors 100% of the time, usually in the first 4 minutes of a 1 hour show, i will lose picture completely for about 4 seconds...then about halfway through the show, i lose audio only for about 5 seconds. i use windows media player

odd

 

I remember this is exactly what they said a month ago when they announced the availability of 840 EVO mSATA.

 

DOTA 2 is a 32 bit app and there is no 64 bit version. This is certainly not an issue related to DOTA itself. The requirements for that game are nothing impressive. Like I said, I can play DOTA for hours and not have problems. I did so last night even..

 

Update the NVIDIA drivers if you haven't already. This could be a lot of things. If it continues to happen randomly, it could be a bad graphics chip, either intel or nvidia or bad video ram which would obviously require Dell assistance.

 

will do when i get home, dont have machine...but dell tells me only update drivers that appear on their website...and i dont even see nvidia drivers on that list...what do you say to that?

i mean, i understand you all have said before dont listen to those dell reps, and i even had a dell rep mirroring me on the screen when the nvidia driver update appeared, and he said they do not recommend any driver update unless it comes from them

 

Ok, in order from left to right, I'm pretty sure your partitions are as follows:

- EFI System partition (required, though by default Win8.1 makes that a 99MB partition, not 500MB...)
- Dell system diagnostics partition (not required, but tiny and can be useful if Dell techs want you to run it before authorizing repairs/replacements)
- Windows Recovery Environment (required)
- OS
- Dell System Image recovery (can be deleted)
- Intel Rapid Start hibernation partition (can be deleted if you're ok not using Rapid Start)

It's interesting that even your partition sequence is different from what Windows does on a blank drive. I have my 300MB Windows Recovery Environment partition first, then a 99MB EFI partition, then the OS. In any case, there's little point in deleting any partitions to the "left" of your OS partition even if you could because without third-party partition management tools, you won't be able to use free space that's on the left of your OS partition to expand the OS partition -- and they're really tiny anyway. Also, on disks with the older MBR partition layout, deleting earlier partitions on the disk would change the numbering of "later" partitions, so if your OS was later than the partition you deleted, it could become unbootable until the bootloader was updated to reflect that; I don't think that's still the case on GPT-formatted disks though.

You also by default can't use non-contiguous space to extend, so for example if you wanted to keep the Dell System Image recovery partition but not the Rapid Start partition, you wouldn't be able to extend your OS partition in a way that jumped over the image restore partition.

Getting the drivers you did from the places you did is fine. I don't think the chipset driver does much anymore these days, and Dell and Intel had the same Rapid Storage driver version, so that didn't matter. Still, I would install the drivers you're missing:

- Audio (to manage the audio jack properly, though you may want to go into the Dell Audio app and disable the MaxxAudio "enhancements", especially if you're using external speakers)
- Freefall Sensor (even if you're SSD-only, otherwise you'll have an unknown device in Device Manager)
- Intel Management Engine (which is required for the NFC driver installation, otherwise it fails silently after stalling for a while)
- NFC (again after installing Intel Management Engine)
- Airplane Mode Switch driver (to make sure your radios are managed properly)

As for the touchpad driver, people install it primarily to customize it, i.e. to use two-finger scrolling and other gestures (or explicitly disable them), disable tap-to-click (which I hate), etc. That said, I never install the software for external mice, but most of them aren't nearly as customizable as touchpads.

 

I also had to install "Intel Engine Managment Interface" and the nfc driver from the dell website.

My laptop feels faster / more lagfree than before.

 

Yep, those were on the list in my (recently edited) post above.

 

PC Magazine has chimed in with their review of the XPS 15 (9530). To see a listing of currently-available reviews, consult the wiki's review page.

In sum, PC Magazine's reviewer (Joel Santo Domingo) was impressed by the visual fidelity of the QHD+ display but disappointed by the high price, middling battery life, the high reflectivity of the Gorilla Glass, and the inability of games and other 3rd party programs to scale properly. Of interest to some buyers out there is Domingo's addition of the free space left on the hard drive after getting the system running: about 400 GB of the 512 GB SSD remains available to the user. I don't think I've seen that noted by any other reviewer, yet it seems a worthwhile datapoint.

Curiously, he's clearly reviewing the top-tier XPS 15 but quoted the price of the mid-tier without mentioning the price of the top-tier. Let there be no mistake: if you get the top-tier XPS 15 for less than $2k at this point you are leveraging discounts (which you should, of course, be doing, but PC Magazine is claiming this price straight from Dell). Dell has not yet marked it down to that point and it seems mildly sloppy for PC Magazine to mess up such a simple detail. Inexplicably, they also think this pricepoint puts the XPS 15 $300 more expensive than the rMBP and for that reason plus 2 extra hours of battery life on a rMBP without the GT-750M they leave the rMBP as the reigning champ. PC Magazine does not explore driver issues or comment on any other potential points of frustration beyond HiDPI scaling - which on this forum seem to be the principle deciding factors for users selecting the rMBP over the XPS 15, not some fictional price advantage which Apple has never had. Bizarre. I'm not saying the XPS 15 is superior to the rMBP (or vice-versa), but Domingo's logic here completely disintegrates. He's pairing up the XPS 15 with a rMBP of equal pricepoint (but significantly diminished capability, as it is the entry-level rMBP against the top-end XPS 15), then magically awarding that rMBP a $300 price advantage and ignoring its lack of discrete GPU, 50% less SSD storage capacity, 50% less RAM, lower resolution screen, and a slower CPU. No wonder it has 2 extra hours of battery life.

Admittedly, the rMBP does make much better use of its battery than does the XPS 15 (and the rMBP battery is a bit bigger, too), but the configuration PC Magazine used was a crippled variant of the rMBP, not an equivalently-spec'ed rMBP. Which is silly, given that they exist and that a side-to-side comparison of equally-spec'ed laptops is a much more interesting read than the match-up Domingo posted. If Domingo's rMBP is the right machine for you, then the top-tier XPS 15 is over-configured and you ought to be looking at the mid-tier XPS 15, which would be a more even match-up (and, in that case, the battery difference between the rMBP and XPS 15 would be a game-changer in the rMBP's favor, for sure).

I can easily respect a reviewer or owner who concludes that the rMBP (even with entry-level specs) gives the superior *experience* and therefore deserves to remain king of the heap. But it sure ain't because it is the cheaper product.

Thank goodness so many hobbyists take the time to post here and write their own blogs and shoot their won YouTube reviews. The professional press has been consistently missing the mark IMO, almost as if they are looking at different machines than we are buying.

 

Hmm. It just occurred to me that many shoppers start with a purchasing budget and simply are seeking to get the best computer they can at that pricepoint. (Whereas I've always determined what specs I want and then budget my finances or schedule my purchase timing so that I can afford it.) From that perspective, it *would* be valuable to compare a $2000 Dell against a $2000 Apple and a $2300 Dell (plus $300 of extras) against a $2600 Apple. Too bad PC Magazine didn't do that, either. So much opportunity for excellence in journalism, so few examples of it in action.

 

As a heads-up to Costco shoppers, Costco is now offering the mid-tier XPS 15 but has declined to return the top-tier configuration to its current listings, but only at $150 less than DELL's MSRP.

 

Woops I didn't see your post until now. So first of all:

I just deleted the 8GB Rapid start partition (didn't finish your whole post). And now I just found out: I can't extend my OS partition with those 8GB that are unallocated right now... so what on earth should I do with those 8GB ? :/ Same goes for the "recovery partition".. its ~16GB wasted.

I didn't install the freefall sensor and still have no "unknown device".
Audio driver.. meh.. so far everything works as always and I can manage everything via windows settings anyway ?
Airplane mode - I really don't understand why I would need a switcher for smth that is built into windows already?

Thanks

 

That review is laughable... the MBPr costs 600$ more than the XPS15. The review says the XPS15 is 300$ more expensive. Apple lover review?

@edit: Or did that guy just seriously compare a 13" notebook with an 15" notebook? If yes then I will never trust this website's review again

 

You can extend the partition. The restriction is that the unallocated space must be contiguous and immediately adjacent to the right of the partition to be expanded. So even if you deleted only the image restore partition, you could extend the OS partition by the amount you just freed up. And if you delete BOTH the Rapid Start partition AND the system image restore partition, then you can extend the OS partition by the combined amount of those two partitions. The only scenario where you'd have been stuck is if you deleted ONLY the Rapid Start partition, since you'd still have the factory image restore partition sitting between the OS partition you wanted to extend and the freed up space you wanted to extend into.

Interesting about not having an unknown device without the freefall sensor driver. Under System Devices, do you have an STMicroelectronics 3-axis Digital Accelerometer? In that case, Windows may have had that driver (or Windows Update may have supplied it), in which case the Dell driver would simply install the Control Panel applet allowing you to enable or disable freefall protection.

For the audio driver, the main benefit (other than MaxxAudio for those who want to use it) is the prompt that appears when you connect something into the headphone jack. Since it's a unified line out/mic/line in/headset jack, in order for the laptop to use the connected device properly, it needs to know what you just connected (e.g. to know whether to output audio, accept line-level audio, accept mic-level audio, or output on some pins and accept mic audio on another). When the driver is installed, you get a popup when you connect something asking you to specify what it is so that it can work appropriately. Windows does not provide that functionality on its own.

For airplane mode, I didn't test before installing it, but I suspect the driver ensures that the Airplane Mode function toggles the Wifi, BT, and NFC radios -- or maybe the Airplane Mode key on the keyboard doesn't work at all until the driver is installed. But those are just guesses.

 

Oh great thanks !

Just one problem: I can't delete the "Recovery partition".. when I right click it the context menu will only show "help" but no "delete" ?
@edit: nevermind, I did it via cmd.exe 15GB more on my primary partition yay !

Woopsie I made a mistake their.. just checked my "drivers download" folder and I installed "motiondedect.exe". guess thats the freefallsensor driver

Audio: Alright but which driver to install? I only want that pop up then, I don't need any sound effects or dell audio interface or anything. When I got the laptop I had like 15 "Audio" process.exe running in the backround.

 

Hello. Okay... I am loving the laptop but am hating Windows 8 upgrade process. makes me want to go to a macbook pro... no not really!

I bought the mid tier version and replaced the 32GB with a 240GB msata drive. I then performed a clean install of Windows 8.1 pro which installed fine with the generic key. I have a valid Windows 8.1 pro pack upgrade key (the upgrade key for windows 8 core to pro). The microsoft activation does not like my upgrade key nor the OEM key that came with the laptop. What are my option to make this work? I would rather not have to reinstall windows 8 core and then upgrade as I like the clean install. Thanks for your help and insight.

 

It is always a good idea to leave around 10% of the SSD unallocated for the over-provisioning.

 

A casual user with a large-capacity SSD may not need to set aside any extra space for OP. The SSD will naturally use any available free space to perform its maintenance algorithms.

Source: Maximize SSD Lifetime and Performance With Over-Provisioning | Samsung SSD

 

Either driver on this page will work the same way: Driver Details | Dell US. Once installed, open the Dell Audio app (search for it on Start), disable MaxxAudio, then under Advanced > Setting, uncheck the option to display the icon in the notification area. You may also want to switch your audio to 24-bit, 48 kHz if you have any source audio that would take advantage of it, though I know there are some very rare occasions where that will mess up applications. At least for a while, the Google Talk plugin for Gmail didn't support that setting, but I haven't used that in years so that may no longer be the case.

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see that you did a clean install of 8.1 Pro. Yeah, you can't do that. You need to install Core using ITS generic key, activate with your OEM key, then add the Pro Pack key as described here. But having done the Pro Pack install myself and sharing your reluctance to do upgrade installs, the GOOD news is that the switch from Core to Pro is NOTHING like an OS upgrade; it's actually very much like installing Windows updates. It involves two reboots, the first with a "Configuring Windows features" phase that takes only a few seconds during shutdown and the subsequent startup (like you see when you install Windows updates), then it automatically reboots again, and after that second reboot you're running Pro. But before you can do that you'll have to start again from scratch with Core. Sorry!

 

I finally received mine today. First impression is great. The hardware feels solid. I love the feel of the palm rest and the keyboard, although I do miss my dedicated home and end keys.

But it's mostly about the screen for me, and for the most part, I'm not disappointed. It's vibrant and unbelievably sharp. I do notice a slight sparkle to it, particularly off-angle. But it's nowhere near as bad as the other laptops I've tried, so no dealbreaker. Overall it's just a joy to look at.

Or it would be, if I wasn't so distracted by the dead pixels and dark spots (dust?). Good thing it comes with NBD in-home warranty, I guess.

 

That was one reason I thought about keeping the Rapid Start partition even if I wasn't using Rapid Start, especially since I'm using BitLocker to encrypt the whole OS volume. But at the very least Microsoft supports passing TRIM commands through encrypted volumes, so free space on an encrypted volume should still be seen as free space by the SSD, as opposed to earlier implementations where the SSD saw 100% of its space filled regardless of how much of it was actual data.

That and the likely performance gains were why I also wish the SM841 had shipped with eDrive-compatible firmware so BitLocker would have simply used the SSD's hardware encryption -- or that Samsung offered firmware upgrades for the SM841. Oh well, it's probably more an academic than a practical complaint seeing as my usage pattern involves FAR more reads than writes and this SSD is still screaming fast.

 

Doesn't make much sense, since it was a Windows message asking to close Dota, not Dota not working anymore. Could have meant that Windows was 32bit and believed that I had just 4GB of RAM, but this doesn't make sense either.

 

I just saw a web ad for the XPS 15 where Dell ignores the existence of the base model; it cites pricing starting at US$1995 with an i7 CPU. I find that mildly curious, as if Dell realizes what a questionable deal the base model offers, even at $400 less, and how decidedly non-XPS its specsheet seems.

 

Well the base spec doesn't get you an i7 -- or NVIDIA graphics or the QHD+ panel, for that matter -- so I think it was entirely right not to use the base spec price. Dell was being honest and quoting the starting price of the spec that you'd have to buy to get the features they mentioned. I strongly prefer that approach over what you see in car ads where they show you all kinds of cool features and say "Starting at just $20K!" with fine print on the bottom like, "Optional features shown in ad, not included in base price".

I think the base spec is fine for people who just want a slim, light, sexy machine with adequate horsepower for more casual workloads; the nature of the XPS brand has fluctuated between high performance and merely high-end in terms of design, build quality, etc (remember the Studio XPS line?), so it's tough to say what's "XPS" and what isn't. But the fact is that most people aren't bottlenecked by the CPU or RAM (especially when they have 8GB of the latter), and if you don't game or have graphics-intensive work, you wouldn't need the NVIDIA GPU either. In fact given that this machine is upgradeable, I'd actually have considered the base spec plus an aftermarket SSD had I not decided I wanted the quad-core CPU for futureproofing (I buy fairly maxed-out laptops so that I don't have to buy laptops very often) and more importantly wanted the QHD+ panel. The one thing that would be nice to have in the base spec would be a full SSD, since storage usually IS the performance bottleneck on average workloads, but I think casual users are still skeptical that SSDs are worth their substantial per-GB premium over spinning drives. Of course that would change if they ever actually used one.

 

No that can still make sense. Windows can't allocate more than 2GB to a 32-bit process, or sometimes 4GB with a couple of tricks. So Windows could definitely have seen that Dota had chewed through all of the RAM that could be allocated to it and thrown an error. Windows is the memory manager, not individual applications, so it's not unreasonable for Windows to throw an out-of-memory warning rather than Dota itself.

Of course that begs the question why your Dota ran out of RAM when others are running it fine even on this system, for which I unfortunately don't have an answer.

 

Hi, all. I've been experimenting with Fedora 20 on my 9530. Most things seem fine, though occasionally the touchpad stops working after booting. (The touchscreen still works.) Have any of you Linux users out there seen something similar?

Thanks!
Allen

 

Did you manage to get a 91 WHr battery from Dell? I tried but they said they could only replace the type I bought (the 61 WHr version)

 

By your mention of "replace", it sounds like you were working with Dell Service; of course they'll only "replace" (under warranty) what you currently have. You need to ask to be transferred to Dell Spare Parts.

Try to find the part number before calling to reduce time and confusion. It was posted a long way back in this thread.

 

So just got my Laptop - and have gotten to the stage we were discussing last night in regards to a reformat. I have a mate who has given me his retail CDKey for Windows 8.0 (Pro) - it is my understanding that all our XPS 15 Haswell's come with an OEM copy of simply Windows 8.0 64bit Core is that correct? So what I have discovered is a guide ( Solved How to Download a Windows 8.1 and Clean Install) which has me assuming these steps are correct:

1. Download a copy Windows 8.0 Pro (using mates Retail CDKey);
2. Make ISO bootable via USB;
2. Install above ISO with a generic Core key (even though its Pro, it will install Core I BELIEVE?);
4. Activate via our OEM (found via Keyfinder);
5. Upgrade to Windows 8.1.

Does that sound correct? It would be much easier if our OEM could just let us download the ISO in the first instance, or better yet download 8.1 Core directly...

I have not yet, battling with Dell AU - their latest correspondence is that they have FOUND the Part Number, but being so new is not in there 'Sales Backend' and is being added shortly (allowing me to buy it). This was after three tries, in which they tried to sell me a 9-Cell Battery lol... You (assuming your in US) will have a much easier time. Let me know!

Part # was 7D1WJ if that helps .

 

MOST XPS 15s come with 8.1 Core, but at least in the US, if you order it from the Business store, it will come with 8.1 Pro (and cost $100 more) -- but they never come with 8.0, which uses different product keys from 8.1. But if you have an embedded Core license, sadly, your above solution won't work. And the only reason is because Microsoft, again in their infinite wisdom, decided to make the ISOs downloaded from their retail portal edition-specific, i.e. if you enter a Pro key, you get a Pro-only ISO, which can't be used to install Core. They did that even though they provide an ISO on MSDN that includes both Core and Pro in the same file.

However, if you could get your hands on a retail CORE key (either 8.1 for simplicity or 8.0 if you use the 8.1 download trick described in the linked article), your plan would work, and in a MUCH simpler form than you're describing. First, since you listed "Upgrade to 8.1" at the end of your plan, it appears that you're missing a major convenience described in the article you linked, which is that you can use an 8.0 key plus some trickery to download an 8.1 ISO, allowing you to do a direct clean install of 8.1 without having to download and install 8.0 first only to have to download and upgrade to 8.1 immediately thereafter. Additionally, an 8.1 ISO would mean you wouldn't need a generic key at all, since the installer would detect your laptop's embedded 8.1 key -- and come to think of it, I'm not sure you even COULD use an 8.0 ISO since your embedded 8.1 key wouldn't work, and I don't believe generic keys exist for 8.0. The whole reason generic keys came about for 8.1 was to allow clean 8.1 installs for people who had 8.0 keys, but there's no equivalent requirement scenario for clean 8.0 installs. And in any case, starting with an 8.1 ISO is also a huge time saver and saves you a bunch of clutter on your hard drive -- but again, for your purposes you'd need a retail Core key to start with in order to download the right ISO in the first place.

And all of this nonsense (plus not having access to a retail key to use on that portal in the first place) is what drove me to torrents for a solution, where I found a single ISO that has Core, Pro, and even Enterprise, plus the K and N versions of all of them -- not that I need those last ones, but I was more than a little bemused that torrenters are delivering a better product than Microsoft.

With respect to Keyfinder, it only looks for the product key that's in the registry, which at the time you list that step in your plan would be a generic install key (assuming generic 8.0 keys existed); Keyfinder does NOT look in the BIOS. To pull a key from the BIOS, scroll down a bit on this page to the post mentioning RW Everything: http://superuser.com/questions/513904/how-to-extract-win-8-oem-key-embedded-in-the-bios. Chances are you'd never actually need to back that key up since your BIOS isn't going anywhere (and if you get a replacement motherboard, Dell will give you a card with the new embedded product key), but I like to have mine backed up for peace of mind anyway.

But your correct course of action would be:

1. Get a retail CORE key.
2. If it's an 8.0 key, use the download trickery described in the article to download an 8.1 ISO. If it's an 8.1 key, use the regular 8.1 downloader.
3. Make a bootable USB drive based on the downloaded 8.1 Core ISO.
4. The installer will detect your key automatically and install pre-activated.
5. Optionally use Keyfinder to retrieve your key (which will work now because the 8.1 installer will have found and used your BIOS-embedded key).

 

Pictures of internal are already in this thread and M3800 thread...

 

News about competitors:

Lenovo Y40 and Y50
Y50 has a 3840 × 2160 screen (optional) GT860m, 4702HQ, speakers JBL.
Instead Y40 will uses a Radeon M270
Y40 and Y50 will be available from May 2014 and starting price will be 999$



Link to original article (it's in Italian):
http://notebookitalia.it/lenovo-ideapad-y40-y50-gaming-notebook-video-18824

The next notebook is not exactly a competitor:
http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/08/gigabytes-aurous-dual-gpu-one-inch/
But maybe will be interesting for people that are searching for a 17"

 

It's your choice, but I ignore them and have for years without issues. It was highly beneficial with my xps 1730 as the SLI profiles were updated much more frequently than dell released drivers.

 

The reason you're skeptical is because you're misunderstanding how the 91 WHr battery works. The 91 WHr battery requires you to remove the 2.5 inch drive and use only the mSATA port, not the other way around. The 91 WHr battery then fills in the space freed up by removing that drive.

 

It's unbelievably easy. The hardest part for you will likely be finding the right Torx screwdriver to remove the underbody panel. But go to support.dell.com and get the Owner's Manual for the system, which has nice step-by-step guides with pictures for how to remove everything in the system. You'll see that the battery is a trivial matter -- seriously, no electronics expertise required at all.

 

You mentioned that you purchased your xps 15 from the Dell Outlet. I have been checking the US Dell Outlet online site and have yet to see the xps 15 9530 for sale yet. Could you elaborate on your purchase?

 

wow thats actually a really nice deal

 

Actually that depends (or maybe just used to depend) on where you look on the Dell site. Sometimes the 91WHr battery comes up as 6-cell, and sometimes it comes up as 9-cell. I think the XPS said one and the M3800 said the other, though it may have been fixed by now. I just typed 9-cell because it's faster to type than 91 WHr (less moving of the hands to different positions on the keyboard to type it), but having to type this post (and going back and editing my original one for clarity) has of course turned that decision into a huge net loss in terms of time.

 

Thanks again (I think someone else already thanked you for this) for posting that link. The Dell driver seemed workable, but it would cause issues every so often when I would unplug my USB mouse receiver. I would get this bug where the mouse always shows the spinning/wait icon and I couldn't click on anything and had to CTRL-ALT-DEL and sign out to get the mouse to work again. Hopefully Synaptics starts making compatible drivers again. I've always avoided Dell's touchpad drivers due to issues like this and them taking a really long time to open up the configuration window to change settings.