XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

I played skyrim on FullHD with high rest pack and high settings.. no overheating.
I played Quakelive for 4 hours... no overheating.

My laptop is sitting on the black box where it got shipped in.

 

I simply went to the Dell Driver page and installed the RST Driver + Application. Note that I did not remove the RST parition when I went to re-install Windows 8.1 - I simply removed the 900GB'ish partition (which was the Windows install). I just checked in BIOS and it is set to enabled - I did not try to disable it however.

I have not bothered with Intel Smart Connect, as JP said, its an optional install and I would not use it - waste of space .

 

During my research i found this thread and applied the registery fix to my xps, but unfortunately the coil whine has not changed. But thanks anyway!

 

It sounds like you didn't follow the instructions correctly, then. There's a note that if you want to use both Smart Response and Rapid Start, you need to set up Smart Response first. Did you do that? If not, you'll need to delete your hibernation partition, extend your OS partition again, then set up Smart Response, and THEN go back and set up Rapid Start.

However, do you have 16GB of RAM? If so, you won't be able to use Smart Response and Rapid Start at the same time. You'll have to choose one or the other, and frankly I'd recommend Smart Response.

Either way, since you have an HDD+SSD cache, to enable either one first you need to make sure Smart Response is enabled by setting the SATA Operation mode in the BIOS to Smart Resposne rather than AHCI. Then just follow these instructions (which were the top result when I googled "Install Intel Smart Response", fyi...): http://download.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/intel_smart_response_technology_user_guide.pdf

To see whether your BIOS is in UEFI, check the BIOS Mode option and see whether it's set to UEFI or Legacy.

If you have further trouble, please PM me rather than filling this thread with one-on-one troubleshooting.

 

I have the SSD model. I did a complete resinstall of Windows yesterday. When I tried to play Battlefield 4 (with nVidia GeForce software recommended settings), it played smoothly initially. Within 5 minutes, the game became slow and I quit the game. For some reason, I decided to check the power settings. The power plan was on 'Dell'. I changed that to 'Balanced'. I also checked to make sure that the 'Processor power management' when 'plugged in' (under 'Advanced power settings') is set to 'Active'. There was also a Intel HD graphics power setting. I changed that to 'Performance' (I think) while 'plugged in'.

After this, I played the game for almost 20 minutes without any slowing down. Please give this a try and let us know.

Edit: I still have the throttling issue. It turns out that throttling doesn't happen if laptop is on level surface. The laptop was on a table when I played for 20 minutes.

 

The Intel settings I don't think would matter while the NVIDIA GPU is in play, but if the System Cooling Policy was set to Passive rather than Active, that would absolutely explain it since that would tell Windows to manage temperatures by throttling rather than actually turning the fans on. That's the default setting for the Dell profile even while plugged in??? If that's the case, not only is it stupid, but I'm surprised more people haven't been affected.

Fox5, when your system bogged down, were the fans still off? Or did they take a long time to come on at least (in case the system tried throttling first but still couldn't keep temps in check using that measure alone)?

 

it should be noted that the owners do not indicate throttling did a fresh install (jphughan and zakazak)

 

I tried with both the dell power plan and the high performance power plan. The fans are on and audible and at higher speed, but air flow feels weak and cold. I guess it's an intake.

Flipping the laptop upside down extended the time until throttle but didn't eliminate it.

Switching to the Intel igp has no throttling and performs better than the throttled geforce GPU, but nowhere near the geforce GPU at full speed. No issues with steam big picture mode with the Intel igp either.

 

Hello all,

Does anyone know of a desktop widget that will display turbo boost/current operating frequency for the core I7 processor at a glance (without having to open an app)? . . . I used to use the intel widget for this but apparently this isn't compatible with haswell/4th gen core i7:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=19105

Thanks,
N123

 

Well done Sherlock ! How are you enjoying your laptop so far? Everything as expected?

 

There are about a million of them, but Rainmeter is a popular app that can do that and a whole lot more. Note that if you're running Hyper-V, some tools may not be able to show dynamic clock speed adjustments since even the host OS is running on top of the hypervisor and thus with a virtualized CPU which always presents the same clock speed to its guests. For example, Task Manager always shows my CPU at 2.2 GHz, but CPU-Z is able to see the true adjustments. It seems to depend on what mechanism the app uses in order to look at clock speed.

 

Is anyone using ultramon or displayfusion when using an external display? I like the features of displayfusion but it looks like neither my external monitor not the laptop monitor are the nvidea video card.

 

I am using displayfusion and everything works well and as expected (just like it did on win 7). what exactly is your problem ?

 

I use UltraMon, though Windows 8.1 already built in some of the features I used UltraMon for (mostly the Smart Taskbar). I still like having the button to quickly send a window to the other display, though.

The NVIDIA GPU isn't directly connected to any of the displays. When it's used, it renders the display content and then sends it over to the Intel GPU, which passes it through to whatever displays are in use. Somewhere in NVIDIA Control Panel you can see that all available outputs are wired to the Intel GPU.

 

Ahh! That makes sense. When I look at the monitor configuration for displayfusion it shows both monitors using the internal intel 4600. If I am paying a premium to have a dedicated graphics card I want to make sure it is being used!

zakazak - Does yours show both monitors as intel 4600?

 

It will be used when the drivers detect that an application that would benefit from it has been launched. You can customize/add application profiles using the NVIDIA Control Panel and also tweak a lot of more advanced settings there for how individual apps use the dedicated GPU. As with all advanced tweaking stuff though, I would try it out with the default settings and only tweak if you really see a problem, since sometimes the computer does a better job than we do of managing settings to achieve optimal results.

You can also force a certain app to run on a certain GPU once by right-clicking a shortcut on the desktop (not the Metro Start screen) and choosing what you want to use under the "Run on graphics processor" menu.

 

Have a fresh install too and no throttling issues. Only some scaling and coil whine..

Gesendet von meinem HTC One mit Tapatalk

 

Don't game with the laptop closed - it'll overheat every time if the lid is closed. May as well put it in the oven.

 

I game on this thing exclusively with the lid closed and have never experienced any throttling or overheating. Seems like the common wisdom may not apply to this box.

 

I know the FHD display is lower quality than the QHD+ display (less viewing angle, etc.).

However is it really that much worse than the QHD+ or even a normal IPS display?

Also is color accuracy and contrast ratio a lot worse than the QHD+ display?

 

I don't think anybody here has seen the two side by side. I also haven't seen any calibration numbers presented for the FHD panel, so you may not get much of an answer to this question.

 

Closing this laptop doesn't block any exhaust ports. They're on the bottom.

Also, it wasn't closed. Even when I flipped it upside down, I balanced it on the edge of the screen.

 

in step 3. Select the setting for Chipset SATA Mode and change the value to RAID, in my bois I only have ATA, AHCI and Intel Smart Response, how to change RAID? what should I choose to reformat?

in UEFI mode.

yes I have 16GB of RAM.

 

You want Smart Response there. Older BIOSes just list RAID, but newer ones explicitly call it Smart Response because technically the chipset doesn't support full RAID functionality.

If you have 16GB of RAM, you can't have both Smart Response and Rapid Start running off of the 32GB mSATA cache, so I'd recommend using only Smart Response since it will deliver a larger benefit than Rapid Start.

 

But after I set to Intel Smart Response in bios and installed the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software, in my bios the Intel Rapid Storage Technology still in gray and can't enabled, may I ask what have i miss?



when I re-installed the window 8.1, there are only two partitions, one is 900GB, another one is 8GB, the 8GB partition I couldn't delete, what should I do for this 8GB partition? should I create as new?

 

After installation of the newest drivers my WiFi issues are gone. What stays is this ANNOYING coil whine and Dell is not responding to any of our questions :-/

 

As to coil whine I think I was one of the first people to receive this laptop and one of the first to notice to coil whine.

All I can see is that the coil whine was ridiculously annoying when I first received the laptop, especially when scrolling through documents as in PDFs.

I spoke to a number of good people within dell pro support who were surprised by the noise but did everything to help.

After two tech visits I had a motherboard replacement and the noise is now 99% gone. I can hear a very small noise sometimes if I put my ear right up against the left hand side of the keyboard but it is no noisier than any other laptop I have had

 

Just got my XPS 15 (today) and have been following this thread.

Dutifully went to install all the drivers, including the touch screen which worked pretty well... aaand killed it. I wonder if there's some new touch screen hardware after the shortage which is now incompatible with the current drivers?

Tried running the firmware update for the touch screen again but it says it's already installed (after failing the first time). Even did a factory store on the whole laptop but that firmware is staying put.

Anyone else had a similar problem?

 

I assume you meant Rapid Start is grayed out in the BIOS, not Rapid Storage. Be careful with terminology because they're not interchangeable.

Rapid Start is still grayed out because you haven't created a hibernation partition properly for it per Intel's setup instructions. But as I said in both of my earlier posts, if you have 16GB of RAM, you won't have enough capacity on your mSATA SSD to use both Smart Response and Rapid Start at the same time, and therefore you won't be ABLE to create a proper hibernation partition. You could do it if you only had 8GB of RAM (and thus only needed an 8GB hibernation partition), but not 16GB. Therefore you should simply accept that Rapid Start isn't going to be usable on your system. Or if you really wanted Rapid Start, you could get it by disabling Smart Response to free up more capacity on your mSATA SSD, but considering how much more of an overall improvement Smart Response delivers compared to Rapid Start, I wouldn't recommend that.

The 8GB of unallocated space you're seeing is likely the remaining capacity on your mSATA SSD after enabling Smart Response, which would be used to create a Rapid Start hibernation partition if you only had 8GB of RAM; that's why it's 8GB in size. Since you can't use it for that purpose, I would actually recommend going into the Intel Rapid Storage application and allocating that remaining space to be used by Smart Response for increased performance. Or if for some reason you have a need for an 8GB partition on an SSD, you could create a regular partition on it.

 

What are these touchscreen drivers you're talking about? I see touchPAD drivers and touchscreen FIRMWARE, but the only touchscreen DRIVERS I'm aware of are the ones built into Windows 8.1. As for the issue itself, is it possible you're referring to the intermittent dropout that might (apparently) still not be fixed after the firmware update, or is it totally dead even after reboots and such? If the former, have you tried the fix of going into Device Manager and unchecking the "Allow the computer to put this device to sleep" option?

 

I'm thinking about buying this computer for my brother for his Birthday. He's a windows guy and this seems like a good system. However I'm a little worried about the build quality of this system. After reading a few reviews it seems good and then I came across this review: Dell XPS 15 Touch review by aminoli - Engadget

"I'll start by saying my review is not about the system; in that regard, this computer is a beast! The touch screen laptop combo is an innovation that makes it hard to go back to non touch computing. (I'm looking at you apple)

This review is about the user experience of owning this product and some of the headaches you might face.

First day out of the box and one of the hinges was already loose, squeaking and jiggling all over the place - two hours later it was broken. The parting lines where the aluminum meet the carbon or plastic are weak and already splitting apart. The right hand corner has a gap of about .1 inches' wide enough to let you see into the machine
The laptop aims for a premium look, which I think it achieves thanks to the designers at MNML, but on closer inspection, that illusion falls apart - literally. it's a fragile device which suffers from poor assembly execution.

After dealing with Dell on the phone, they sent a tech to replace the broken parts (I wanted them to send a new laptop) The tech repaired the computer after a lengthy operation that involved swapping every component out and relocating it to a brand new XPS 15 shell with monitor. The tech confirmed my suspicions; the computer was poorly assembled, as evident by stripped screws and broken plastic bosses.

Unfortunately, the repair parts Dell sent the tech were in an even worse state than my original parts. a broken monitor with no touch support or network connectivity, and a broken track pad. I became frustrated when yet again, Dell insisted on sending a new tech to repair the, machine instead of replacing my laptop, so I demanded a refund. A fact that makes me sad, because I really wanted to like this computer

I understand that this problem might be unique to me. If it is, then I absolutely would recommend this machine, that is if you can deal with Dells poor user experience.

for the brief time I owned this machine, it was fantastic."




Basically, I just want to get some quick responses about the accuracy. I haven't purchased a dell since my dell M1530, which I traded away for a Dell M1730 way back. But half of the dell's I've owned have had some type of hinge issue, so it's not of a huge surprise for/to me. Alot of the earlier square hinges that were put together via riveting had issues for me.

 

I would say build quality is the best i have ever seen on a non-windows laptop. My previous dells were pretty ty but I have had this one since release and no issues

 

That reviewer is either absurdly unlucky or straight up lying. While I concede that it's POSSIBLE that his particular unit arrived poorly assembled (though the extent of what he describes leaves me highly skeptical), that's certainly not the norm. Additionally, if you have a hardware issue of ANY kind immediately after receiving the system, you are ALWAYS offered a system exchange if you'd rather do that than get replacement parts; you don't even have to ask. There have been people here who were offered brand new systems because they complained about Wifi issues (even though the actual fix turned out to be drivers newer than what Dell was offering). The only way I can imagine him getting a system exchange denied based on what he experienced was if he received the system long before he actually opened it and thus was no longer eligible for the no questions asked system exchange by that point; I'm not sure what the cutoff threshold is for that though, or even if there's a firm one.

I think the build quality on this system is top notch. This laptop isn't perfect in every way (my niggles are coil whine and track pad apperance after even light usage), but I don't know of a perfect laptop, and this one is as close to perfection as I've found anywhere. The fact that it's got a fantastic feature set to go with excellent build quality and nice looks just seals the deal.

The one part I have no trouble believing is the subpar experience with Dell repair techs. Sadly I've had my fair share of similar experiences over the last few years, though typically it's not because the replacement parts are bad, but rather the tech doesn't reassemble the system quite right or something. It's a shame because they were awesome until a few years ago, but unfortunately I think this is a product of Dell just not having any competition in the at-home warranty service space. Apple requires you to go to an Apple Store, and everyone else I'm aware of requires you to ship your laptop in.

I assume you mean on a Windows laptop, or a non-APPLE laptop?

 

I think the first thing that concerns you is delivery delay. It can take 2 months after you placed the order.

Galaxy Nexus Tapatalk

 

I ordered an XPS 15 top model on Dec 27th and it is taking forever!! Asked around and found out that there are issues with the QHD Display. Not enough display panels are available so the assembly line in China can't send out assembled products.
By the way, my location is Korea.

 

You probably won't see your laptop till mid February.
I ordered mine on Dec 19th and it's ETA is Jan 31.
The delay is painful. Using my wife's little MacBook air while I wait, and it just feels like a toy, lol!

 

Hi. Does anyone know if XPS 15 9530 is compatible with a charger of any other Dell laptop? It uses a slim 5mm pin connector, while the old generic dell chargers have 7.5mm pin connector. Thanks

 

Works fine if you order this: Dell DC Power Dongle for Dell XPS 12/ XPS 13/ XPS 13 MLK System : Connected Classroom | Dell. That's also listed as an accessory option when ordering the system itself. I'm using it with two different generations of 130W power adapters and it's totally fine. Ignore that the XPS 15 isn't listed and that it only mentions 90W; that's just because the description hasn't been updated for the new system, which I expect is the first one to use a 130W power supply with the slim connector.

What I'd REALLY like to see is an adapter that lets you use an AC adapter with a slim plug in a laptop with the standard connector, i.e. the reverse of this. The reason is that the 130W adapter for the XPS 15 is only $40 on Dell's site, whereas the regular (and heavier, bulkier) 130W adapter is about $100. Or, you know, Dell could fix that enormous price gap, hopefully by dropping the regular size price rather than jacking up the slim version.

 

I love the build quality of my XPS 15. I don't agree with this reviewer at all. Check out other reviews here. Published Reviews - XPS 15 Wiki

 

Dell is selling an adapter for that:

Dell DC Power Dongle for Dell XPS 12/ XPS 13/ XPS 13 MLK System : Connected Classroom | Dell

Edit: Too late, didn't see the answer from jphughan.

 

Sorry you're right it was the touch screen firmware update.

Doesn't work after reboot, or after diabling "Allow the computer to put this device asleep".

Bricked it? Word of warning to others, if it ain't broke maybe give the firmware update a miss.

 

Hmm, this is the second report of a touchscreen bricked by the firmware update. That's rather disconcerting. My update went ok, for what it's worth. I just redownloaded it and confirmed that the installer does trigger a UAC prompt, so my theory about an update bricking the touchscreen by somehow failing partway through due to lack of admin privileges seems to be incorrect. No idea what could explain that behavior then. Sorry!

 

So I got the startech adapter today. For some reasons the anker USB 3.0 to Gigabit now works flawlessly. But I thought I would still give the startech adapter a try. It looks like the anker adapter is faster than the startech adapter (the results could be manipulated by many factors such as my HTPC's HDD).

Do you see any real difference between those two adapters specifications?

Anker:
Anker USB 3.0 to 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN Network Adapter [ASIX AX88179 Chipset, USB to RJ45, LED Indicator, 18 Months Warranty]

Startech:
USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter | StarTech.com Europe

I think they both support the same stuff so I should just stick with the cheaper/faster/more reliable one?

 

It's faster consistently even under repeated identical tests under the same controlled conditions? That's surprising. How large a performance gap are we talking here? When I tested mine, I noticed that it was significantly slower on READING synthetic data from another machine than writing to it -- I'm talking 750 Mbps write and maybe 250 Mbps read. But then I tried flipping the client/server roles in my test app and I was able to get 750 Mbps in, confirming it wasn't an issue with the adapter.

And don't you hate it when a problematic part starts working flawlessly right when you basically commit to replacing it?

I think it's a toss-up. If your Anker adapter spontaneously just started working after constant issues, I'd be inclined not to trust it. I also bought the StarTech adapter that includes a passthrough USB 3.0 port, but if you didn't, then I guess that wouldn't be a factor.

 

Hmm I guess I will keep the startech.. I kinda lost my faith into the anker adapter.

Btw my setup is: Anker 9 port usb 3.0 hub -> LAN + DAC + Keyboard + Mouse + external HDD.

I tried running all of the connected ports on their maximum while playing a game. I couldnt notice any mouse lag or sound lag (DAC) and the transfer via LAN was still at ~100MB/s

For my Gigabit adapter speedtest: I just download ~50gb of files (each 3gb size) from my HTPC to my XPS15.

 

Using nearly the same configuration, but with 7 port hub. Anker wrote me that the hub should be my problem, since other devices make problems on it too. So they will replace it and then everything should be fine.

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I posted earlier about some hardware issues I noticed, but Dell's customer service has been very helpful and I should get an offer for a replacement soon.

I've owned the laptop for a week now and it's been very nice. The only game I've really played on it yet is Team Fortress 2, but it easily maintains 60 FPS at 2048x1152 and maxed out settings, so I doubt there's any serious throttling going on.

The one thing that's still bugging me about this machine, and I don't know if it's just mine, is the ghosting on the display. I'm seeing 'trails' of 1 cm in length if I'm just dragging something around against a dark background. Any other owners care to comment?

 

With regards to build quality my original machine is fine, although the screen has some dead pixels & dust behind the glass. It's developed a slight creak when handling it near the power button but nothing major.

However, I recently finally received a replacement machine, due to the screen and I originally complained about the whining noises, which has some issues. The screen is just as bad with dead spots and more dust. The chassis was not put together well with the palmrest not seated properly at the back left where a tab is poking out towards the screen bent the wrong way. Also, the metal service tag cover won't lie flush due to the bit underneath being bent/curved upwards.

I have immediately rejected this as a replacement and because I described three faults they said they'll send another one. I think with less issues they look to do part swaps. Not best pleased as I was hoping to get a conclusion and instead I've got another two month wait for a replacement replacement!

Will see what comes but if it's no good again I might simply ask for a price reduction and live with my original one...

 

If I had to guess I would think the touchscreen would 'brick' if you tried using the FHD firmware as opposed to the UHD+ firmware. Might prompt to ensure this can't happen though

 

I am the other person whose touchscreen bricked as well. I 100% used the right file. And in the beginning of the installation it even checks if you have the right hardware if I remember correctly.

I am waiting for a system exchange.