XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Take into account that the XPS is slightly wider than the Mac...

 

I know, but maybe that sleeve has enough space even for XPS15

rMBP 15: 1,8 cm X 35,89 cm X 24,71 cm
XPS 15: 1.8 cm X 37.2 cm X 25.4 cm

Difference 0 cm X 1.31 cm X 0.69 cm

 

Try uninstalling the NXPProximityInstaller and then Intel Management Engine, and then reinstall the Management Engine, then the NXP driver. If that doesn't work, maybe the NFC card itself is loose in its connector? In that case check out the Owner's Manual on support.dell.com. It's pretty easy to get to as long as you've got the required Torx screwdriver.

You've got nothing to worry about in terms of display resolution or "strain" on the video card. Graphics cards resize video output for various resolutions all the time, and they're fast enough now that it's just a non-issue, even if you were using the Intel card and even on 4K video files. Higher-end graphics cards can play multiple 4K files simultaneously in windowed form on a non-4K display with non-video content in the same video, which requires a whole lot more computational load than just one at full screen.

In terms of 1080p vs 900p, 900p might look a bit sharper because it will fit onto the panel more precisely, but that doesn't matter to the video card. Unless the machine uses GPU scaling to handle resolution mismatches (which I don't think it does by default for the internal panel), the video card simply renders at the specified resolution and sends that image to the display, and the display's internal scaling chip handles mapping that image onto the physical pixels -- and it won't introduce lag no matter what the resolution is. So technically at that point the lower the resolution, the lower the load on the graphics card, regardless of how well a given resolution maps onto the display -- but again, for modern graphics cards, this is just a non-issue when it comes to the Windows desktop and video.

 

Thank you for your answer. Has anyone actually looked how 1080 looks with that panel?

 

I noticed the small buttons aren't there if you use IE 11.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I am doing my best to get used to windows 8.1 but has anyone tried installing windows 7 on this laptop? Were there any hardware driver compatibility issues?

 

I don't see any reason to use Windows 7 on this laptop, Windows 8.1 has a better support for touch and Multiscreen with different DPI even if still kinda sucks, if you don't like Modern UI you can use software like Start8 or ClassicShell to have the same interface of Windows 7 but an OS slightly faster.
The only reason you might want Windows 7 is for some incompatibly with some specific software.

 

Hey guys!
Has anyone else got the issue of not being able to control brightness? I mean at all. When I press the buttons it shows the little graphic on the top left hand corner but the brightness does not change at all.
I have tried playing with the power settings for screen. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Intel Graphics 4600 driver and tried the older version of the driver. I have tried reinstalling Quickset. I have Refreshed the pc and completely wiped it and have still got no resolution to the issue!
I mean it can't be a hardware issue surely? the screen currently it pretty bright, I'm guessing its stuck on like 80%.

Problem is, I can't seem to find anyone else with this machine with the same issue, there are plenty of people with this issue on the older model (last years, which I also own) and plenty of other machines running windows 8.1.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue or can anyone help find a solution with me?

Many thanks in advance!!

 

If you have already restored your XPS to factory status (using recovery partition) and still brightness does not work then it's hardware issue.
I have a strange issue about brightness control, only with Dell profile I can have the max screen brightness, in the others profiles (max performance, balanced etc) even if I set the max brightness the display brightness is not comparable neither to the half of brightness of Dell profile, the brightness control is still sensitive to setting, but brightness is very limited.

Edit: I just found the solution, in others energetic profiles there is a setting called adaptive brightness that is set to on, if I set to off I can have max brightness on the others energetic profiles.

 

Go into Power Options > Advanced settings and disable Adaptive brightness on all of your power profiles. Took me a while to figure that out. It is NOT a hardware issue; it's a "feature" whereby display brightness is adjusted using an ambient light sensor. My iPhone does the same thing and I appreciate it there, but somehow it doesn't seem to work as well on my laptop.

Hopefully you didn't resort to wiping your entire system JUST to fix that! If so, you should've asked here first.

Windows 7 works fine, you can find the appropriate drivers in support.dell.com by choosing the Precision M3800, except NFC which the M3800 doesn't have, so in that case just use the Win8.1 driver on the XPS 15 page. But as Mac mentioned above, I don't see a need to run Win7 on this machine. There are definitely some irritating things I've discovered about 8.1 (mainly about Network and Sharing Center being feature-stripped and some changes to the Explorer UI and removed keyboard shortcuts), but there are things I like about it as well, and taking everything into account I think 8.1 is an improvement, especially on a laptop that features a QHD+ panel and a touchscreen.

 

Maybe I should have been clearer when I said I had been through the power settings for the screen. This was the first thing that I tried before the drivers and the wipes.
No solution still, argh! Any other ideas?

 

I am struggling to understand why this would be a hardware issue. The backlight is working fine as its stuck on a pretty bright setting. I would understand it being a hardware issue if the backlight didn't work at all, it just won't change intensity. It screams driver issues (as backed up by all the other threads with the same issue on other machines being upgraded to 8.1) but I can't believe I'm the only one with this issue on this laptop.

 

Maybe the circuit that control the intensity of display backlight is not working, so you can't change the brightness, but backlight is still working and so display has still brightness but without any control.
Instead if you have restored you system with recovery partition to factory status and the issue is still there I can't imagine why you think to a driver issue also you are the first to report this issue on this laptop.
People that have lost brightness control when upgrading to Windows 8.1 on others laptop have just lost software interface to brightness control because they are using driver that does not come from its manufacturer.

 

So whoever I talked with on chat didn't know what they were talking about. I just checked again and the order was delayed until February 21st. That is exactly a month from today. Based on others being delayed until March I'm going to assume this is just a guess as well so I've cancelled the order. I wish they had their stuff together as I would like to purchase this computer but not if I have to wait two and a half to three months for them to deliver. I guess I'll have to weigh my options - wait and see what else comes out or perhaps it's time to look at mac again as much as I hate to!

 

If the mid grade tier is acceptable for you then Micro Center has plenty of them. Strangely enough the local store in Denver seems to have gotten another shipment of them in so whatever production issues Dell must be having isn't effecting that configuration.

 

Do you notice a change in brightness immediately upon startup (before logni) and before shutdown (after logoff)? That was the symptom that led me to think it was a software thing. I'm amazed it's not the adaptive brightness setting though, since what you're describing is EXACTLY what we experienced, so I can't imagine why that wouldn't solve it. Are you 100% certain that you turned off adaptive brightness for the active power profile and clicked Apply before giving up? I'm not talking about adjusting the display brightness or dimmed display brightness values. Sorry if that sounds patronizing, but I'd just be really surprised if that wasn't the answer given that your symptoms are identical.

 

One thing worth considering on order delays, apart from screen shortages, is the timing. Assembly is in China, and Chinese New Year (CNY) starts on the 30th, but most manufacturing facilities already start to feel the strain (from rushing out orders and staff leaving early) at least 1 week before. CNY shuts down most facilities for at least 1 week and normal production capacity normally takes 2-3 to resume because many factory workers don't return after the CNY (40-50% is typical), so new workers need to be recruited and retrained.

This is my general experience, I can't say this applies 100% to Dell and its facility, but there is no question that it has an impact on their ability to deliver during this period. So I would suggest that any order that doesn't get assembled and shipped before the 30th, is going to have at least an additional 1 week delay before production resumes and it ships.

 

Thanks for the tip! I hadn't thought about that as I was focused on the top tier. Maybe I'll go that route and swap out the hard drive. I will mainly use it at my desk so battery life isn't that important. But I would probably lose out on Dell's in home warranty if I go that route and with this thing having so many issues I'll have to think about it. Either way, it gives me more options. Thanks!

 

I think Dell is trying to troll me... if I connect the USB 3.0 to gigabit adapter on the right side then everything seems to work fine.. just transfered 50GB at 110MB/s without a problem. So if anyone has troubles with his gigabit adapter: Don't connect it on the left side.. for what ever reason is happening on that side.

@edit: or not.. on my 2nd try it crashed again -.-

 

Hi after searching the thread I couldn't find anything on this. I have the 91Whr model and it takes a really long time to wake from sleep. Like 20 seconds or so every time. Additionally the screen doesn't always turn on and I have to reset it.

Are there any solutions to these problems that I've missed or should I get in contact with Dell and ask for a replacement model?

 

I'm uncertain for laptop motherboards but on tower motherboards you typically have two USB controllers (one for the rear inputs and another for the front inputs). For example on my last two tower motherboards I had/have Asmedia and Intel USB controllers and definitely have seen flakey issues between the two. Not sure if its a similar thing or not with the 9530 but if it is you can often upgrade the USB drivers to a newer version than Dell provides on their drivers page

 

Disable Intel Rapid Start if you have it enabled. Or disable regular hibernation if you're not running Rapid Start to prevent the system from automatically transitioning from sleep to hibernate after a certain period.

I noticed the blank display after resume occasionally and finally got rid of Rapid Start because on a pure SSD system the speed gains are marginal at best. Having used normal hibernate I haven't had the display problem, but I also haven't hibernated much yet.

Also, if you disable Rapid Start you can delete the 16GB partition on your disk that it used and then extend your OS volume to fill it.

 

Cheers! I've followed your advice. How do I remove the partition and extend the OS volume?

 

Open Computer Management, select Disk Management. In the lower half of the center pane, you should see all of your physical media in rows. The one for your hard drive will be broken up into various volumes. One of those volumes should be exactly 16GB. Right-click that one and select Delete Volume. That should then be converted into Unallocated Space. Then right-click the C: volume and choose Extend Volume, and extend it by the amount of the partition you just deleted.

The one potential snag is if you have a volume BETWEEN your C: volume and the hibernation partition you just deleted, in which case you wouldn't be able to extend the C: volume into the new space. You could of course delete the volume between those two and then extend the C: volume by the combined amount of both volumes you deleted, but you'd have to be willing to lose that volume as well. It's would most likely be the Dell image restore partition.

If you're concerned about any of this, post a screenshot of your Disk Management window so I can see what your partition layout looks like and I can be more specific.

 

Haha I don't blame the patronising tone. I only wish that was the case, unfortunately what you explained above is exactly what I tried before anything else. And as for a change in brightness during startup and shutdown, there is none! Totally constant brightness (at what I'm guessing is around 80%) all the time!

 

How bizarre. I'm wondering if you can change brightness outside of Windows, e.g. in the BIOS setup interface or even after booting into a Windows installer environment. But then again I'm not sure that you're SUPPOSED to be able to adjust brightness in those situations on a normally functioning machine, and at the moment I don't have my machine to test with. But if someone confirms that's supposed to work, that would be an easy way to remove a lot of other variables and expedite the support call for a replacement if necessary.

 

thanks for the input!

 

Hello,

Today I received my xps 15 9530 (mid tier).. But there seems to be some issues

The system is fast and I love it ,hopefully this can be fixed..

1. When there is sunlight shining on my laptop (afternoon, when I first got it), I see small circles or squares im not too sure but circle I think lined up in my screen. I hope this makes sense. these circular pixel things are lined from top to bottom left to right in my screen. Well, it got dark out and no sun is shining on my laptop so now I don't see these pixels or whatever u call them. But if I look closely enough, I can see the outline of these square/circle pixel things. theyre like small littleboxes top to bottom , left to right.

2. There is a problem with brightness control. When I start my system, it will be at its brightest, but in about 5 seconds, it dims down (im guessing to 40-50%). from there, I cannot bring it up to its highest brightness. Only way to bring up the brightness is to go to device manager, go to intel 4600, update drivers, choose and let me pick and I have to choose intel 4600 and install that and then itll stay at its brightest, but once I use the hotkey to bring it down or up, it goes back to it being dim.



I don't know hwats going on and this is my first exchange that I received today. Someone have similar problems or fixes? help!


oh yea howdo I make a fresh thread? anyways hope someone can help

 

1. I think you may be seeing part of the touchscreen technology. It shouldn't be very visible or distracting though. It looks like very tiny grid lines that you can sometimes see on a white background, if you look at closely at an angle.

2. Go into your power plan and turn off adaptive brightness. While you're at it, go into Windows Mobility Center and turn off 'splendid' color.

 

hmm I wonder if were talking about the same thing.
yea they are like tiny grid lines but when the sunlight hits it its like circular things from top to bottom lined up if that makes sense.. is this normal? I mean I wouldn't say its distracting but if its notnormal, then it will bug me out. idno how toe xplain what im seeing when the sun hits it. right now I don't see anything like it as its 7:30 in the evening , only if ilook very closely I see the outline of those circular things. its definitely noticeable when I see the sun shining on my screen

2. idno where that is.. also I been playing wit the power plans and if I choose "dell", it lets me control any brightness I want, from high to dim but any other plans I cannot bring it to the highest point of brightness.. currently im at performance plan and it wont let me go at highest brightness.. im so confused.. faulty machine?

3. I switch it to splendid to generic? what the diff?


okay thanks!! I fixed the brightness issue, I turned off adaptive and it seemed to do the work, I can now control. just this circular pixel thing.. do u know what im talking about tho?

 

I tried changing it in the BIOS, as people on other systems with the same issue said they were still able to change brightness in the BIOS, however it doesn't work for me. I've have had rotten luck/experience with Dell's hired repair companies replacing parts with refurbished (often very low quality maintained) parts and brutish hurried disassembly/assemblies so I am having a hard time coming to terms with this possibly being a hardware issue. No other thoughts from anyone in this experienced, intelligent community?

What you're describing is normal, I see it when the screen is black/off when certain types of light hit the screen. As the fellow above mentioned, its just the touchscreen technology.

 

Take a picture?

I shined a flashlight on my screen, and if its at a sharp acute angle, with a dark background, part of the touchscreen grid appears where the glare is. You can see this on an iphone too.

 

Just skimmed through a hundred or so pages. For those that have had the XPS 15 Haswell for a while, would you buy it again? I'm on the verge of pulling the trigger on the top model.

 

As other said, what you're describing is normal and part of the touchscreen. When I first noticed it I thought of the holes on an air hockey table since they seemed to be about the same size and distance apart from each other. Totally normal.

The difference between splendid and generic should have been blatantly obvious when you made the change, assuming you were looking at the built-in panel when you did it. Splendid mode ridiculously oversaturates colors, whereas generic mode (at least if you have the QHD+ display) turns the display into one of the most color-accurate displays available anywhere, including professional desktop displays. Try opening a photo that has people in it and compare how absurd skin tones look in splendid mode and how natural they look in generic mode.

 

Unfortunately I think at this point it's pretty clear that your brightness control simply doesn't work. The only thing I can think to try would be disconnecting and re-seating the video cable inside the laptop, but I seriously doubt that will resolve the issue since if it was even partly loose, I'd imagine you'd have no image at all. But since I've observed the same downward trend in Dell repair techs over the last few years (they seemed to be consistently solid before that, at least in my experience), I'd give it a shot before calling. If the system is new enough they might offer you a system exchange rather than a repair though. Alternatively, you could opt for a parts-only dispatch and have Dell send you the display for you to swap by following the instructions in the Owner's Manual.

I have the top-spec model and I'd absolutely buy it again. I wish the coil whine weren't there (but since I've experienced it on all of the laptops I use with high-wattage AC adapters, it doesn't actually bother me) and the fast touchpad discoloration surprised me a bit, but neither of those are even remotely dealbreakers for me. Plus even if they were, there's nothing else on the market I'd rather have. The closest thing seems to be the upcoming Lenovo Y50, but it's significantly heavier and is still an unknown quantity at this point. I pulled the trigger on this because it was the first laptop I found that had everything I wanted in one package: Quad-core i7 Haswell, 16GB RAM, HiDPI 15" display, touchscreen, discrete GPU, mSATA slot and M.2/NGFF slot for future upgrade capabilities, USB 3.0 with powered-off charging AND high current output (i.e. ability to charge iPads, though that may be standard across 3.0, not sure), DisplayPort 1.2 (for 4K @ 60 Hz) , HDMI 1.4a (for 4K @ 30 Hz or 1600p @ 60 Hz), headSET audio jack as opposed to a regular headphone jack, thin and light, and awesome build quality. I tend not to buy systems very often (my previous system was a Precision M6300 that I upgraded a bit along the way), so I wanted something that had everything I'd need to keep me happy for several years and the right slots to upgrade to newer components as they were released (mSATA and NGFF for faster, larger SSDs and next-gen WiFi cards).

Most of the issues experienced here are either quality control issues with specific units (that's what a warranty is for) or software issues with HiDPI displays that will go away over time, though they can be irritating depending on the apps you use, how important they are to you, and whether you can deal with workarounds like using external panels or running the HiDPI display at lower resolutions when necessary. Otherwise, coil whine and the touchpad discoloration seem to be the only complaints involving the actual design of the system -- though some lucky systems don't have coil whine at all. And like I said earlier, I don't consider either of those issues to be dealbreakers.

 

okay im feeling alittle better after reading some posts but im wondering If we are talking about the same thing.. when you say holes in air hockey , idno wat u mean but in the afternoon when the sun was shining on it, I saw circles very close and compact/tight to each other, top to bottom, left to right.. are we talking about the same thing? and oh yea to the person who said take a pic or iPhone was flashing,, I tried that but could take an accurate one,, it just shows a reflection of myself.. tanks for the replies but if you can further help me id be so grateful. so everyone has this?

oh and about the generic, im a cs go player so I kept my digital vibrance at 90% on my desktop so many it didn't make a notice to me but I get what u ean, I changed it to generic mode.. some fellow on this forums said turn vivid off,, im guessing its that?

can someone possibly go out of their way and look for some pics (or something similar so we can have a reference pic)or a pic of urs so I can actually start enjoying this laptop rather sweating bullets> sorry for the pain guys <3

 

hi guys,

i want to ask why my laptop Clock Rate is 2,195 MHz?

should be 2.20 MHZ right?

what about yours?

 

Well 2.2 MHz would be awfully slow, lol. It's 2.2 GHz. But I would hardly worry about a difference between 2.195 and 2.2 GHz. That's only a 5 MHz difference, or 0.3%, which means it's likely a reporting difference. Task Manager on Windows 8 reports 2.19 GHz on mind.

 

If you can't take a picture of what you're seeing, I don't see how you can expect any of us to do better. But 3 people here have all said that what you're seeing is normal, and I saw the same thing you did under the exact same lighting conditions. Stop sweating bullets and enjoy your laptop.

Vivid mode and splendid mode are two different names for the same thing. It's possible Dell changed the name at one point, or maybe the people who said Vivid just got it wrong.

No idea what a CS Go player is or what the digital vibrance adjustment you're talking about is, though....

 

anyone help out? im crossing my fingers...

OH and one more thing, if I dl a movie and try to watch it, it shows at 1600x900 .. how can I change that?

 

I already replied to your earliest post, but don't you think it's a little unreasonable to post a followup request when your original post has only been up for an hour and 15 minutes? Especially since like I said earlier, you've already gotten 3 separate people telling you that what you're seeing is normal? Relax, man.

As for the movie, what viewer app are you using, and what do you mean it only displays at 1600x900? Are you saying it only shows up in the center of the display with black borders all around? I've tried VLC and Windows Media Player and haven't had any issues with either one on various types of content. If you're saying that the movie resolution is indicated at 1600x900, that's probably because the movie itself is encoded at that resolution, which has nothing to do with your laptop.

 

im sorry.. I didn't mean to be annoying. im just really anxious and nervous cus this is my second machine and I don't wana go thru all that stuff again.. and youre right,, its only been x amount.. ill stop bumping it till later on if no one replies

and the movie was a 1080p movie file but when I opened it with gom player which I been using for years, it goes to 1600 x 900 in the movie, not my screen it self.. my xps 15 (the one with wifi issues, version before the 9530) would open 1080p movies with 1920x1080 and this machine wont, im thinking scaling issues>


EDIT; the playback window size is 1600x900

 

why 2.19 GHz in yours? what did you do ? your 1 GHz go where ?

notebookcheck.com mention Intel Core i7-4702HQ has Clock Rate 2200 - 3200 MHz, I wonder why 2.195MHz in my laptop, 5 MHz go to where ?

is there any proper way to check the Clock Rate MHz?

 

Scaling issues is entirely possible since not all apps have been optimized for it. But even if the playback window size opens at 1600x900, can't you just set it to full screen or manually resize the viewer window? Or worst case use a different player? I don't see why this is an actual issue.

I think you're seriously overthinking this. If one app shows 2.19 GHz and another shows 2.195 GHz, that's a completely insignificant difference. And again, it's not going to be an actual real-world difference; it's probably just a simple reporting or rounding error, or the result of different apps using different code to calculate clock speed. The Intel site is showing the range that can be used in Turbo Boost mode, which only happens under certain conditions. But the default clock is 2.2 GHz, which will be lower if the CPU doesn't have a lot of work to do (in order to save battery life) and CAN be raised higher if the workload demands it AND it wouldn't cause temperatures to run too high.

If you want to watch dynamic clocking, use an app called CPU-Z.

 

I think that there might be some confusion about the decimal separator here (comma versus period...)

UU_Ng, your laptop cpu speed is reported as 2195 MHz. This is basically the same as the advertized 2200 MHz. When intel says 2200 MHz, they are probably rounding anyway. There's absolutely no noticeable difference between the two, since as jphughan pointed out, there's only a 5 MHz difference which is 0.3%.

jphughan's cpu is reported to run at 2190 MHz. That's only 5 MHz different from yours UU_Ng, and 10 MHz off from 2200 MHz.

On a side note, I'm still waiting for my laptop that I ordered on Dec 7th through costco.ca... The dell site still says that the expected delivery date is jan 27, but I'm losing hope that this is true since it's still "in production."

 

Seriously thank you for this. Exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to buy tomorrow!

 

Read some parts of this monstrous thread so please don't crucify me for asking repeat questions.

- Could someone weigh an XPS 15 with 91 Whr battery and post the exact weight?

- Is the whine problem there when on battery too? (adapter not plugged in). How about when charging but battery below 100%?

- Is there intel CPU throttling under apps like AIDA64, NOT Prime95, and can AIDA64 keep the frequency close to 3.2 GHz for along period? I'm not interested if it throttles under Prime95 since Prime95 is known to push the CPU above limits you'd be able to reach normally. I will be using it mainly for work with software like Matlab, which won't be able push the CPU like prime95. I will be running long simulations and I certainly don't want the CPU to throttle ... I'm paying a premium for a laptop like this and expect it to run at full speed 24/7 if I need it to. I disagree with people stating that throttling is normal. Why use a powerful CPU if you can't handle its heat?

- Regarding the nvidia 750M throttling, anyone knows if the Precision M3800 also throttles the Quadro given it's clocked lower than the 750M?

- Anyone knows whether the M3800 has any better CPU cooling than the XPS? They look the same form the owner's manual pictures.

- Anyone knows why the M3800 is 1.88 Kg and the XPS 2.01 Kg (if indeed that's true) if they have the same chassis, screen, motherboard etc (quadro vs geforce doesn't explain it, it's essentially the same chip).

Many thanks in advance!

 

im glad u mentioned csgo, how much of it have you played on this laptop? im wondering what the best video settings are to get the maximum fps and performance for csgo on this laptop. the first time i ran it, i was just getting 70fps at everything default, fps_max is set to 300. im sure this laptop shud be capable of over 150 at least. did u have to change anything in nvidia control panel?


oh and i got this laptop last week, i have been using this laptop for 4 days now and it stays plugged in for 80% of the time. i have not noticed any coil whine noise that others have reported. i listened to the audio file someone posted earlier in this topic and i have no sound like that coming from the laptop. i dont think its a matter of me being above the age that cant hear certain mhz frequencies, im 25.

 

Where is that post I cant find it cause I am interested in that

 

I believe that the 1.88kg M3800 weight is referencing the 61Wh battery and the XPS15 is referencing the 91Wh battery. Essentially the two laptops are the same apart from the GPU (which might not even be different hardware maybe a different GPU firmware).

The way the unit is cooled is the fans pull in air from the bottom and vent towards the screen, if this was blocked then its very likely that it could throttle.