XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

These delays are frustrating indeed. I ordered on Dec 7th from costco.ca, and they told me that the expected delivery date is Jan 27th, although this was a couple of weeks ago. They have offered to compensate me $200 for the delay, which would mean that my purchase cost for the top-tier model would be $1999.99 - $200 = $1799.99... Pretty good, but I'm losing hope that I will ever get this laptop!

Does anyone know of another equivalent laptop out there? That's the problem: there doesn't seem to be any. The only one is the MBP, but I want to run linux and windows, so I really don't want to go that direction.

 

Thanks for help.
There is a recovery partition so I thought there was a simple procedure to restore XPS to factory status using that, I want restore to factory status just to erase any personal data that I have entered in this period.

 

OMG.

My coil whine just got even louder today. Earlier it was louder then hearing music at a normal volume. Had to stop working and come back later. Now its like 2 times louder then yesterday but not as bad as earlier today.

Any others experiencing differences in the volume of the whining?

 

Hey, I'm in Sweden too and I've been following this thread since November before I found this laptop I was looking at the Asus n550jv, I don't really need the QHD display but I see it as more future proof however I'm not sure if the price here is justifiable.

Have you looked at other laptops and did you get a discount of some sort?

After three months of looking I'm still not sure if I should go ahead and put my money up or buy the Asus, use it for a year or two then buy a new again. If I get this one I'm probably stuck with it for at least 3 years and I'm not sure that's smart. Tack!

 

Yes... it is fluctuating.... sometimes it's very very loud and there are times it's "ok". But the whine is always there.

 

Unfortunately, that's the best you're going to get. That's how it works on Macs as well. You set a DPI scale factor appropriate for whatever you want to use as your primary display, and then the OS renders EVERYTHING at that scale factor and simply enlarges or shrinks UI objects post-render to fit the secondary display(s) appropriately, thus introducing the blurriness. The only improvement on the Mac side is that you can choose to optimize DPI scaling for the secondary display rather than primary, which can be useful in situations like projecting in a conference room. But if you want things to look good on both displays simultaneously, all of your displays need to have similar DPIs, which means either running the QHD+ panel at a lower resolution, getting a HiDPI desktop display, or (what I do) not using the built-in panel and external display(s) simultaneously.

The reason you can't set completely independent scale factors on separate displays is that applications would then have to be coded to dynamically re-render themselves at different scale factors if they were moved from one display to another (not to mention apps that are run spanning multiple displays). That re-render work could involve loading different art assets to render parts of its UI and would require an enormous amount of coding effort to implement well, which neither OS vendors nor application vendors would be willing to invest because it would be a great deal of effort to solve a problem that will go away on its own anyway. Once HiDPI becomes the norm on both laptop and desktop displays, this entire issue will disappear, so it wouldn't make sense to develop a solution that will likely be ready just before or possibly even after the problem itself no longer exists in the market. Microsoft and app vendors overall haven't even fully implemented support for HiDPI on its own, which is NOT a problem that will go away, so I really don't see them focusing on optimizing HiDPI and regular DPI coexistence.

 

I have looked at a few other laptops, but have not found anything else that really fullfills my requirements (>=512gb SSD, 16 gb RAM, i7 haswell,15 inch FHD or better, a thin design, discreet NVIDIA gpu). In fact, the only laptops I considered seriously were the MBp, and a few asus laptops, including the n550jv. The n550jv certainly looks like a good choice, my problem is mainly that if I buy the best model available here in Sweden, and upgrading the memory to 16gb, and the disk to a 512gb SSD, I am getting very close to the price of the XPS 15 anyways, which then also has a thinner design and a QHD+ screen. But the n550jv would probably be my second choice.

I am pretty much exclusively a linux user, and it seems like the MBp is not a good choice for linux. Furthermore, to fulfill my requirements I would have to buy the top-tier MBp, which hurts the wallet even more than the XPS 15.

I have not got any discounts, but I ordered it the day it became available, and I see that dell has since then raised the price by 1000 SEK.

About if you should buy the Asus, and keep it for a shorter time, depends mainly on your needs. I have owned two laptops in the past, both were high-end machines (similar in price at the time to the xps 15), and both lasted me for more than 5 years. This works fine for me, and if the XPS 15 last me 3-4 years, I am satisfied. But I completely understand that the price hurts, but considering how much I use my laptop I don't mind the high price so much.

 

If there is a recovery partition on your hard drive then you can use that. I put up the recovery images link as many people delete those partitions because they do a fresh install of windows.
This site : Restoring your operating system on a Dell computer in Windows 8 | Dell US has instructions for system recovery using dell backup and recovery software. See first set of steps.

 

Set the 1920 to be the primary display. This will scale down some windows on the QHD+ display which doesn't blur as noticeably.

One caveat though, this will make the taskbar (if using extended desktop) and icons on the QHD+ desktop quite small. You can increase the icon size though it will affect icons on both desktops. You will also need to log out and log back in when connecting/disconnecting the display.

This is an issue with having displays with very different DPI's, and I suspect its one reason why photoshop doesn't officially support it. Hopefully some improvements will be coming soon.

 

I think it might not actually be that hard to work with multiple DPI's once the API gets there. One issue I see is it seems to be that a single window instance can only be rendered at one dpi (seems logical), and some programs that have utilize a hidden parent window that everything lives in (photoshop, even windows' own desktop and taskbar) can therefore only use one dpi at a time.

Some other programs like capture one work ok with high resolutions, but assume the screen is large, like 27" or 30", and don't have a method of tweaking their interface elements for working on a 15" screen.

 

Setting the 1920 display as primary will indeed sharpen the external panel, but it will make the QHD+ display look awful. The reason is that all display objects will be rendered at standard DPI, and therefore to make them the right size on the much higher pixel density of the QHD+ panel, they'll be enlarged without much cleanup. At least with the QHD+ panel as primary, all display objects are rendered with scaling enabled and then shrunken for display on the external panel, which looks better than the reverse and is thus the best solution overall. But if you use the external panels primarily, getting ideal results on that panel may be preferable to having the best overall solution.

And DPI interoperability is no excuse for Photoshop's lack of support for HiDPI in general. It's much easier to support DPI scaling than to support an environment where multiple DPIs have to be managed simultaneously. Adobe doesn't get a pass on this.

That's my point though, there won't BE an API to handle multiple simultaneous DPI scale factors. Imposing a restriction that a given window can only be rendered at one scale factor not only wouldn't be acceptable for all scenarios (such as apps that the user wants to span across displays), but it doesn't solve the problem of how to handle dragging that app from one type of display to another. I just don't see it being feasible to have apps re-render themselves, potentially with different art assets, when they're moved across displays. And seeing as Microsoft still has a ways to go just to get HiDPI fully implemented, I don't see them investing resources in developing a multi-DPI environment. By the time they get HiDPI support dialed in, even if they considered implementing multi-DPI, they'd have to estimate how long it would take to develop and then predict how long after that it would take for third-party devs to support it (assuming they bothered to support it at all). My guess is that the determination will be that by the time app support came about, multi-DPI setups wouldn't be very common anymore -- which means the third-party devs WOULDN'T bother updating their apps and thus Microsoft shouldn't bother developing an API. Apple has had HiDPI support nailed for a while and they're not going back to deal with multi-DPI.

 

I "solved" temporarily by setting the QHD+ screen to 1600x900 when I use an external screen.. I hope someone does something to fix this issue

 

I wanted to share my experience in purchasing the 9530. I wanted the middle tier model. It's currently $1950 (+ tax) through dell.com. Costco has it for $1799, plus $29.99 shipping, plus tax. Problem with Costco was they kept running out. I literally had it in my cart online, got pulled away from my computer for a bit, came back to check out and it was out of stock! I saw where someone here said that NewEgg had the middle tier model, free shipping and no tax - checked it out, $1899 (which is cheaper than costco when you figure in tax). I noticed that they were using a different model number in the description: XPS15-6842sLV

So I googled that and ended up at abt.com where they had it for $1829, no tax, free shipping, plus they are on ebates.com which nets you almost $40 cash back. XPS156842SLV - Dell XPS 15 Silver Aluminum Ultrabook Computer at Abt (I also found it here, but no cash back: Dell XPS 15 XPS15-6842sLV 15.6" Multi-Touch XPS15-6842SLV )

I pulled the trigger and ordered at about 10:30pm Wed night, and it arrived Fri morning! And that was the standard free ground shipping!

So those of you having problems with the big names, try searching for that model number and check out some of the other options out there.

So far I am very impressed with the laptop. I haven't had any of the issues (so far) outlined here. No coil whine (yet). My only complaint so far is no HDD activity light - but I can live with that. Otherwise I really like this machine. I'm coming from a Dell XPS L501x - so it's crazy how thin/light this unit is.

 

I also wanted to post my experience with the top tier version of this laptop. Although I'm sure there are units out there with quality control issues, I have run into none of these--no coil whine and excellent battery life. The screen is beautiful and the build quality is outstanding. This is hands-down, the best laptop I've ever owned . . . those of you out there considering this laptop don't be dissuaded by some of the posts in this forum--every laptop will have some production problems . . . I almost didn't order this laptop because of the posts in this forum . . . what a mistake that would have been . . .

N123

 

Does anyone ordered from Costco get a further delay mail these days?
I ordered top tier from Costco on Dec 10th. And got $100 off for the delay couple of weeks ago. Yesterday I got a further delay mail to feb 3rd without any discount(well I am not expecting one at this time) Original ETA was Jan 23th. The weird thing is when i check oreder status on Dell site, the ETA is still Jan 23th. So I am kind of confused......

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

Not in my experience. Using the QHD as the primary caused unacceptable blurring on the 1920. It's a graphics display and it must be good. If you set the 1920 to the primary, any pixelation on the QHD is only visible (and just barely) if you put your nose 6 inches from the screen. At a normal desktop viewing distance, its not visible. This is my set up and it works. It helps if your apps are dpi aware - Firefox looks a lot better than Chrome does, for example. Chrome's HiDPI support is very rough, the fonts are fairly wrong at the moment.

I think you misunderstood, I believe one problem is that child windows don't behave like normal windows do when passing between displays. (Just an observation, someone who develops this could chime in) There's no reason the API couldn't be updated to address this for programs that are set up to handle it.

Multi DPI is going to be around for awhile in office environments. One nice thing about microsoft is they bend over backwards to provide a measure of years-long compatibility for those core customers. The Adobe threads on the matter suggest a fix from both parties is in the works.

 

I just read on the Adobe forum that Illustrator CC works with HiDPI as of this week - anyone who uses that want to chime in?

 

Had the same thing - ordered on Dec 10th, delayed to Jan 23 (got 100 off), and got an email about further delay for Feb 3rd. P*ssed off.
Further more, I got a letter from National Product Care Company regarding my purchase and the one year "TWG in-home service and remote diagnosis" by Dell - well looks like the service term started on Dec 10, and not when I actually get the item. Gonna call them...

How did you check the order on Dell site?

Thanks.

 

Interesting, when I tried setting my QHD+ as primary, I got blurring on my 1920 display (as expected), but with 1920 as primary, I got even worse blurring on my QHD+ display. I was looking at Explorer folder windows and the Calculator app since that's what Microsoft demoed in their article about 8.1's per-display scaling feature. Actually, maybe blurring isn't quite the right word, but the scale-up required on the QHD+ panel due to having the 1920 panel set as primary completely nullified the benefit of having a QHD+ panel in the first place, since the increased pixel density was wasted due to regular-DPI renders simply being expanded to present them at an appropriate physical size.

As for child windows, I imagine that would depend on programming. For example, with Photoshop you would WANT the child windows to behave separately since you'd only want the UI to be scaled up, not the actual image you're looking at, otherwise you'd lose the benefit of QHD+ for photo editing.

Everything I've read from Microsoft and Adobe on their forums suggests they're still working on getting HiDPI working, not HiDPI interoperation with regular DPI. I don't see multi-DPI necessarily existing in corporate environments. I think they'll simply match their external display choice with their internal display choices and make sure that whenever they start rolling out upgrades, someone who receives a new laptop will also receive a new external display. In the meantime, they can continue ordering laptops with standard displays, which I'm sure will be around for years.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be wrong here, but I just don't see anyone taking the time to get multi-DPI environments supported better than they are now. I agree that Microsoft is great about preserving backward compatibility, but that's not what this would be. This would be Microsoft investing a bunch of new R&D to support a situation that will go away organically anyway, likely before the R&D has actually been completed and then embraced by third-party vendors.

 

You need to contact costco for Dell order number. Actually it is on the service plan if it is by your hand. Put Dell invoice no as order number and your postal code in the Dell order status check page.

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I really am confused. I want to get this middle tier but the model number used throughout other websites are confusing me. Why the heck is another model number being used by others? Is it 100% the same? Also when you said, you pulled the trigger and placed the order, was that from Abt? I've never heard them before.

 

Weird.. I am still getting USB-Controller freezes from time to time with my Startech (or Anker) USB 3.0 to gigabit adapter when transfering files at 90MB/s - 110MB/s... and it its annoying as hell :/

Makes it impossible to transfer big files / lots of files from my HTPC to my laptop or vice versa...

 

Looks like those in UK can claim £200 cashback from Dell, as XPS 15 is listed on qualifying products list:
https://tradetosave.trade-in-platform.com/_Content/en-US/LandingPage.html

 

You might try the Dell docking station D3000 (usb3) it works fine for me (100+ MB/s to/from NAS).

 

I wonder if the situation is better in Linux. Can you configure separate Xservers for the different screens, using different DPI settings?

 

My outlet XPS 15 arrived.

However Dell sent me a PSU that won't fit. Barrel connector is too big.

Can anyone confirm the partnumber / model for the correct version (UK if possible)

Thanks

 

I'll check mine, it turned up just as I was leaving, opened it up and gave it a once over but it had been in the delivery van all night so it had a lot of condensation on it. Left it out to warm up.

 

These aren't the Dell UK links, but the correct PSU is here, and a dongle that would allow you to use your existing AC adapter on this system can be purchased here.

 

:-( my barrel is too big too. Best get onto Dell.

 

No, model numbers refer to different generations. XPS 9350 is the most current gen for 15 inches. Anything other than that would be previous gen. As you want a mid-tier of this model, what you want is a WHD display and 32GB mSATA + 1TB HDD which is what I'm about to receive. I will also replace the HDD with the 840 EVO 1TB

 

I'm not sure what regional market you're looking at, but in the US the mid-spec model that comes with a 1TB HDD + 32GB mSATA cache comes with the QHD+ display, not the FHD display.

 

Good catch. that's definitely a typo. I meant QHD. FHD Is the lowest model.

 

What is the maximum speed that you can reach over Wi-Fi?
It seems that I can't go over 20MB/s, my test consists of transferring a file of around 3GB directly from my desktop PC to XPS (my desktop PC uses a Linksys AE1000 adapter so it's limited to wireless-N standard) the distance between my desktop PC and XPS is around 30cm.
I really don't understand why Microsoft has decided to hidden the setting for Ad Hoc connection in Windows 8/8.1, now you have to use command line.

 

I am not sure if that would help. It will connect via USB 3.0 as well. And for me those adapters (Anker and Startech) simply don't seem to work well. I am kinda looking for some "maximum speed" limitation in the advanced settings or anything to keep it from "overloading".

Just curious: In which port do you guys connect your USB 3.0 to gigabit adapter?

 

Why not replace the mSata with a 840 EVO 1TB mSata and save the 1TB HDD for storage?

 

finally got my mid-tier laptop after a 2 and half month wait. still getting it properly setup before i can decide on if i love it or not.

do u guys know if theres a way so far to fix the extremely small buttons on youtube videos on the 3200x1800. I believe its any flash enable box on websites that becomes really tiny.

also i tried updating the intel wifi driver from dells website. its update date is 1/9/2014 but it keeps saying "unable to delete service" when im updating it. any ideas how to get around that or fix that?

so far everything else seems good, just need to get used to the new resolution and windows 8

 

No fix about the Flash controls. Flash Player is yet another Adobe app that needs to be updated to provide proper HiDPI support. For YouTube specifically I believe there's a way to force it to use the HTML5 viewer instead, which may work better, though that may be browser-dependent since each browser would have its own implementation.

As for the driver, I'd just extract the files, go into Device Manager, and update that way by pointing at the proper folder. Or you could go into Programs and Features and uninstall the PRO/Set Wireless stuff before installing the new one. Or maybe based on the exact error it's as simple as the installer somehow not launching with admin privileges?

 

thanks, i will look into html5 for youtube. i am using firefox.

i had not tried doing the update manually from device manager, i will give that a try tonight.

anything else you guys recommend for me to do with the laptop in terms of updates and such. i read the wiki and updated drivers that were available on dell site, are there any driver updates that i should be doing outside of the dell site? most of the dell drivers i updated were released 1/9/2014 or 1/7/2014. i turned off splendid mode too.

 

That was actually my route. However, since there's not much difference in terms of performance between the 2.5" & mSATA so I rather stay with the 2.5" to save $120 premium ($530 vs $650) and wait until the price drops a bit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I've been seeing similar numbers over a wireless-N connection on a 4 year old Netgear router. Spent a couple hours with a ProSupport tech trying things to no avail. It hasn't bothered me enough to take the time to fiddle with the router to see if that's where the issue is, or if it's the intel wireless-AC card and/or its driver. I do know Intel has had various issues with it they're working on.

 

Right side next to usb2 port

 

The more I'm reading about all of the issues with DPI scalling etc, I am considering cancelling my order for top tier model and going with the base one instead...
Can anyone comment on quality of the standard FHD screen in the base models?

 

So I checked my Device Manager today and the NXP NearFieldProximity Provider has a ! next to it. The device status shows the following:

Code:

This device cannot start. (Code 10)

{Operation Failed}
The requested operation was unsuccessful.

Does anyone know what this problem is and how to fix it? Thank you.

 

Has anyone successfully used a Crucial M500 SSD as an edrive with Bitlocker, with hardware encryption enabled? At

Bitlocker Hardware Encryption issues - Crucial Community

someone reports not being able to do so, and I'm wondering if there are any other users who can either corroborate or refute. Thanks.

 

Any suggestion for a XPS15 sleeve, can I assume that rMBP sleeve are fine even for XPS15 9530?

I just seen the order (made by Dell) for the replacement of my XPS15 and delivery date is 20 March

 

Just checking in again. I'm in the US. Ordered 12/12/13 with an expected delivery date of 1/22/14. Order status still shows that it is in production. Credit card hasn't been charged but the customer service rep said it has completed production and will ship today. I paid for overnight shipping so this is still possible. After seeing all the delays and cancellations on this and the M3800 thread I don't know if I can trust them but I'm hoping it does come tomorrow!

 

I got a few questions regarding the screen

Since this is a not a 4K screen is there going to be a problem if you use 1080 p ?

if you use a lower resolution than the maximum like 1080 p instead of 900p do you put more strain on your video card because there is not an integer to divide between the two resolutions? ( maximum and the on used)

Also Those estimated dates are unbelievable. If I have to w8 till march to get it then i can w8 for the new lenovo y50 although I doubt it will have as good build quality as his one.

 

As suggested by someone else in the forum, I've bought this one myself: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Targus-Pulse-Laptop-Sleeve-15-16/dp/B007IXNF86/

 

it's the same exact model Dell, the 9530, middle tier, it's just an additional model number some sites are using for some reason. i've seen best buy do the same thing with dell laptops. it's 100% the same - but if you get it from newegg or abt you will have it in days not weeks.

 

I was thinking to this:

Neoprene Sleeve Plus for 15" MacBook Pro by Incase

Sleeve Neoprene Pro di Incase per MacBook Pro da 15 pollici - Apple Store (Italia)

You can find it in any Apple store, but I'm not sure if XPS fits fine.