XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Most modern games are typically optimized for somewhere in the 30-60 fps range, depending on the game type, I'd say 140 fps is way above and beyond what you'd actually need for incredibly fluid and responsive experience, with any game. What does it matter if you're not hitting 500 fps?

As long as the game is fast, fluid, responsive and you're enjoying the experience, why worry about fps at all?

 

Does anyone know what the "Battery-charge status button" is for? Pressing it seems to do nothing.

 

If you press it when notebook is off it display the actual charge of battery.

 

Get a lap desk

 

I think it already has the latest drivers, but how can I tell?

 

Download and install the latest ones. Worst case you just reinstall what you already have.

 

Any ETA updates guys? Mine is still stuck in preproduction. :/

 

That's an excellent suggestion!

 

I had one of these for use with my L702x

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0026RL6P8/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

Kept the temps low and just as importantly, stopped the big lump of 9 cell battery digging into my legs

 

Dito, ordered on 2/21, got order confirmation on 2/25, preproduction since then. ETA 4/03. When did you receive your order confirmation? There is a 15-20 days leadtime casued by one part of the high config (ssd, qhd+)

 

That game is made for higher fps. The standart fps rate is 125fps (quake3 engine). Higher fps gives you an advantage ingame. It is a bug with the nvidia driver and it really annoys me :/

 

I ordered on Feb. 2nd, but mine's been in production since the 24th. Should I be expecting the laptop to ship any day now?

This is really getting on my nerves. Why do I need to wait more than a month just to get a laptop!!!

EDIT: hey zakazak, I understand how you're trying to benchmark quake, but I think this has more of a problem with the driver limiting fps, and not the driver limiting performance.

Anyways, you say higher fps gives advantages in-game, and that is true, but that is only for the 1-40 fps range (40-60 if you're a pro gamer). higher than 60, and it becomes very hard for the human eye to distinguish the difference. 125-140fps wouldn't make a difference unless you're super human (but I still understand if you're just trying to benchmark)

 

Probably the fans not rotating properly at those angles. Like when a top is unstable when it is tipping but stable when it's straight up. I'm not an expert, just a guess.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

That makes sense. I'd say it's entirely possible that's the thing.

 

What's your ETA on the laptop? Shouldn't it be coming up any day now?

 

ETA is 3/17 but I'm hoping it's before

 

Still trying to find ways to tinker with getting better battery life out of my system. I have the model before the top-tier (smaller battery - more storage slots). It was worth it, but sometimes the battery irritates me thinking about how new of a system this is and how mediocre the battery life is. I know that it requires the power due to the internal components but it's just always bugging me in the back of my mind thinking about when to plug in the charger (especially when gaming -- battery life is practically slaughtered).

 

The fans are so lightweight that should have nothing to do with it, plus none of the reports actually see a temperature increase.

 

My guess is that when positioned at an angle, like in one of these stands, there is actually TOO MUCH flow of air. Then, the GPU runs at higher MHz so as to be able to give better fps, but it gets warmer as a consequence of those extra MHz and fps and it needs to throttle.

I'd say this situation with too much air of flow is just not controlled correctly in the driver/firmware.

 

Update(ish) on the delivery.

Dell use some tinpot company called Walsh Western, I've just called them for an update and basically they scan the items when they leave China, but then don't scan them again until they arrive in the country of origin, and that happens the day before the ETA. Items that leave from Holland or Estonia (maybe, can't remember what the chap said now) get more updates. My last XPS came from India I believe and that had a fantastic amount of information, I could see it country hopping, being checked by customs etc. but not with China.

So what happens between the ship date, and that ETA-1 is anybody's guess.

A google of Walsh Western Issues brings threads up to 17 pages long on Dell's "customer care" site about how awful this is for a "Track and Trace" service which some people have paid a lot of money for (most get free shipping admittedly). Some people report that on the day of delivery, they call to find out where their machine is to find it was stolen en route and no-body had known until it wasn't scanned by a delivery driver!

I don't think this service really matches the premium products we've all paid lots of money for, and have told my customer service chappy this via email. He's usually really quick to reply too, so I'm assuming he's letting his manager know as requested.

Hope that's of use to someone.

BTW, Walsh Western's number is 0871 987 3355, I've tried SayNoTo0870 but that brings up 01455 622500 which is head office and don't seem to want anything to do with queries, nor can they put you through. But the 0871 number answered very quickly, so I suggest everyone do it and complain about the lack of information you're getting.

Curiously, there's also a number on the options to say you're calling from Dell... I wonder what'd happen if that was used.

 

If you're near an outlet and gaming, why not just keep it plugged in?

Likely the biggest factor in increasing battery life is to reduce your screen brightness, which as I recall, you've already done. Running games on the built in Intel GPU probably won't make for a great experience, so you can't really save energy there.

Manufacturer battery life estimations are usually based on simple browsing with no streaming video or just word processing, not high power gaming, even if their equipment is capable.

Too summarize, your best bet for gaming is just to plug in and not worry about battery life.

 

Yeah, I guess I might be freaking out a bit too much over this. I guess realistically speaking, focused gaming isn't necessarily battery-friendly on any device...
I turned off NFC and Bluetooth, and disabled the touchscreen as well since I practically never use it. It helped a little bit, surprisingly.

 

Are these the sorts of batteries that need a few "bedding in" cycles too? I forget which is which.

But that might explain it unless you've had the thing a while.

 

What do you mean by "bedding in"? I haven't had the device for a month yet.

 

Some types of batteries can take a few recharge cycles before they're at their best performance (capacity).

I know modern mobile phones are included in that, so I'd assume laptop batteries are too.

See if it improves in another few weeks, whilst keeping an eye on what you need to do to minimise battery usage. But I'd agree with those above, if you're gaming, plug the thing in!

 

Li-ion batteries shouldn't need to be cycled, nor do they have the memory problem (that's NiMH batteries). I wrote about Li-ion battery care already earlier in this thread, but yes plug it in when gaming. That way you don't have to choose between max performance or a more energy-saving power profile when on the battery, in which case you can set up your some battery power profile options for more battery life, like the Intel Graphics Power Plan and the system cooling policy. You'll also save wear on your battery.

No wonder you're complaining about battery life overall if you've set your battery power profile for maximum performance!

 

Yes...NFC and Bluetooth are two more things you can disable to save a bit of juice, if you're not using them anyway. You're completely right...any device with the horsepower this machine packs is gonna chew through battery while running at a maxed out level of performance.

The only way to extend battery life (while gaming) would be to make the machine larger, so that it can support a larger battery. This of course would also make it weigh more, and in turn become a clunky, ugly, big laptop, (picture Alienware) as opposed to the sexy beast it is. Compromise is the key word here.

Having said that, even larger and heavier "gaming laptops" still have abysmal battery life while gaming. It's basically a no win situation, as far as that goes. I'd prefer thinner, lighter, sexier, and still a gaming beast while plugged in.

Personally, I've found the touchscreen pretty useful and even fun to use. Also, I figure I paid a premium for the device in order to have touch technology built in, so I may as well get some mileage out of it.

 

Yes, I knew memory was a thing of the past, but I'm sure most smartphones need a couple of cycles at least before they hit their peak... maybe I'm wrong, either way, cheers for saving me a google on the Li-ion thing.

 

Smartphones and other devices require cycles for the device using them to accurately report the remaining amount of juice left. Due to the chemistry of Li-ion batteries, their voltage level does not drop linearly; it falls rather quickly initially and then smooths out, which is why you may have seen smartphones hang on with 1% charge remaining for far longer than you'd expect. The best that the battery management software in the device can do is estimate the remaining charge percentage based on runtime data it's retained from prior charge and discharge cycles, but it's never an exact science simply because of how batteries deplete. So you don't need cycles to get the full charge out of them; you need the cycles so that the charge level is reported correctly. But even before those cycles, you can get the full charge of the battery; it simply might be reported to be depleting faster than it actually is.

 

Anyone who knows if there are any cover sticker skin available to protect the gorgeous top lid and other parts of the XPS 15 9530 ? Any recommendations? Or if not, does lid skins for Dell XPS 15 (L501X) or XPS 15z sold on ebay fit ?

I'm also interested in other protection stuff to protect my investment

Anyone?

 

Hi gljohnsen,

nice idea!
XPS L501X is 381mm x 265,4mm (WxH), XPS 15 9530 (Haswell) is 372mm x 254mm - a bit smaller. So it will not fit or you would need to cut the cover sticker skin.
There are also some websites which offer cover sticker skins in different sizes for differenz notebook models - and you have the possibility to enter own dimensions. So you just enter 372mm as width and 254mm as height and all is good

 

Haha, I guess I'll just have to go for the wires! I'm being a bit compulsive over something that isn't ideal, lol.

Gosh, darn it. If only I realized that earlier, I wouldn't saved this un-needed paranoia that I'm exhibiting.
So, when I have it plugged in, all those profiles are basically null because the laptop isn't relying on the battery for power? Also, are you saying that I should have a profile set up on the side, just in case? What are the optimal settings (profile-wise) to save wear on the battery? I want to take good care of my device, haha.

Thanks for your reflection on this! A good confidence booster with respect to the whole battery situation. Yeah, I'm just going to keep it plugged in. When you put it into perspective, this baby packs the power of some other gaming laptops that are way chunkier, so it makes sense. About the touchscreen -- I could see myself using it for many scenarios, but I could always re-enable the driver if I want to use it again; I doubt it would harm the hardware.

Again, yes, cheers to this sexy beast!

On a side note to everyone: Would it harm the battery/device if I kept my device while gaming?

 

You don't necessarily need a dedicated power profile, but thus far you've been trying to game on battery power (in which case you'd want maximum performance) and trying to get more battery life (in which case you'd want to tone your settings down), and you can't have both of those at the same time. So you can either create separate power profiles (one of which has maxed out performance settings when on battery power and another that has more energy-efficient settings when on battery power) and switch between them as needed for what you want at any given time, OR you can just stop gaming on battery power entirely and then use a single power profile that has maximum performance when on AC power and battery-friendly settings on battery power.

I personally go into all 3 of the default Windows power profiles and switch the AC power options in all of them to maximum performance across the board. Then I tune the battery options in each one based on how I want. I do have the High Performance power profile set to deliver maximum performance even on the battery (though I've never used it), then my Balanced profile has middle of the road options (like Medium Power Savings for Wifi, brighter display, etc), and my Power Saver profile has more efficiency-oriented settings (max power savings on Wifi, dimmer display brightness, very dim "dimmed brightness", etc). I use Balanced almost all the time, but if I'm somewhere that I don't care about performance and just want my battery to last as long as possible (like watching movies on a plane), I switch over to Power Saver. And if for some reason I'm running a bunch of VMs on battery power, I might switch to High Performance.

In terms of taking care of your battery long-term, here's my previous post on the subject:

 

Ah, I understand. I guess I could always do that. I just realized that when I go into my Intel HD Graphics Control Panel, I have the General Settings set to 'Quality'. I should probably set it to performance, right? Wouldn't that save power? I'm thinking it wouldn't affect my gaming if I do that since my games run off of the dedicated graphics processor anyway.

And about the lithium ion batteries part -- so, it would definitely be harmful if I kept the laptop plugged in when it doesn't need to be? I mean, with respect to gaming at least. I apologize in advance if my questions are repetitive; I'm just trying to make sure I fully understand.

 

Those Intel settings aren't the ones I was referring to. The one you're talking about determines whether to optimize the Intel GPU for framerate or image quality; that would have no impact on battery consumption -- but yes, you're right that when the NVIDIA GPU is used, that setting shouldn't matter. But the setting I'm talking about is under Power Options > Advanced Settings > Change settings that aren't currently available > Intel Graphics Settings > Intel Graphics Power Plan. That one WOULD affect your battery consumption.

Yes, generally if you leave a laptop plugged in constantly and never give it an opportunity to discharge, you will shorten the long-term life of the battery. Theoretically this machine will detect when it's constantly plugged into AC and disconnect the battery internally to allow it to drain naturally, in which case you wouldn't have to worry about it, but people who have played with those BIOS settings have found that it seems not to work as expected. Therefore if you'll ordinarily have it plugged in constantly, if you're really worried about long-term life I would recommend every month or so unplugging it and running it down to 40% before plugging it back in. You don't have to drain it all the way to 40% in one session, but just don't plug it back in until you've reached that point.

Now go start enjoying your computer and stop overthinking it!

 

I just realized that I was way off -- you were referring to Windows' power profiles...
Yeah, I am going to play around with those and set it up for my uses.

Thank you for informing me about the whole battery deal; I really appreciate your help. I apologize for how clueless I sound; it was more paranoia if anything since this is still a new device, so I started getting compulsive and paranoid pretty easily, lol.

My next plan is to change the storage and get a new SSD and mSATA in place of the default drives.
I am definitely enjoying it! I love this notebook a ton; it's a great piece of work in my opinion. Thank you for all of your help!

 

Got my machine back from the repair center today, which was earlier sent because of the coil whine, a month ago.

Dell did not manage to solve the noise problem, which was what I supposed. They seem to have long given up on the noise problem after replacing the HDD and found no use, which was a few days after I sent the machine. For the next 3 weeks, I don't know what they were trying.

Furthermore, they bricked the machine! Last time I called, they told me that they were busy diagnosing my machine's 'bluescreen' problem. I had no idea what they were talking about, since back when I sent the machine, the only noticeable problem was the coil whine.

When I turned on the returned machine today, I finally understood what they meant. The machine went to a bluescreen with error message and then rebooted and seemed trying to fix the system! This is apparently a more serious problem than system collapse, otherwise they could have easily reinstalled the system at repair center.

Anyway, I'm going for a refund. Good luck guys.

 

Just to clarify...the returned machine is completely unable to boot now?

 

This sounds to me like you have a mid-tier machine, and it's an issue with Intel Rapid Storage/Start. I believe the Dell tech's unfamiliarity with this system is the reason my XPS14 needed so much work (and eventually replacement) - they just have no clue what it is or how to install/configure it correctly. If you like the machine, a clean install of your OS (with the proper drivers) will likely fix the problem - if not, enjoy whatever your next step is!

 

Just for those interested, I had my XPS 15 replaced due to a defect/mark in the aluminium rim - and while everything is largely the same in the two systems, I did however notice the model of SSD drive is different.

My original system (delivered early Jan) was shipped with the Samsung SM841 512GB, my replacement system (delivered last week) has been shipped with the Samsung PM851 512GB SSD. Don't think there is anything different performance wise, but I'm led to believe the PM851 is the successor to the SM841.

 

Just to keep you updated, my mid-tier, ordered 3rd Feb, that was shipped from China on the 28th Feb, has just now had it's second update on Synchreon:

Code:

Date		Time	 Location	 Activity
06/03/14	12:41	 PLAN COMMITTED	 NOTE.

 

Actually the PM851 would be the successor to the PM841. The SM drives thus far have been MLC and the PM drives have been TLC. My guess is that the PM841 was based on the 840, the SM841 based on the 840 Pro, and the PM851 based on the 840 Evo, especially because looking at a PM851 datasheet from Samsung's site (removed, but still available using Google's cached copy viewing), it appears that the PM851 has a 1TB version, which further suggests that it's using TLC for density and based on the 840 Evo which is the only other mSATA SSD to offer that capacity.

 

It can be turned on but never went to the system.

 

May you post a test with Crystal mark on PM851?

http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.jp/crystaldiskmark/46482/CrystalDiskMark3_0_3a-en.exe

Anandtech review about XPS 15 9530 is out:

AnandTech | Dell XPS 15 Haswell Edition: qHD+ with a Refined Design

 

So you cannot try to restore to factory image?

 

In fact, this shows the stupidity of the update:

Code:

Status	 	 NOTE.	
Delivered On	 n/a
Received By	 PLAN COMMITTED

 

Why bother? I am going to send it back anyway.

Plus, the interface is in Dutch,so why take the pain?

Edit: Just called Dell again to arrange refund. Been forwarded 3 times, questioned for a total hour. Every time I called, they asked your service code, address, name, postcode, city!

Earlier when I asked for a coupon for later use because the one I'm returning now was bought with a 15% Christmas discount. The rep told me that the refund would be the price before the discount, thus there's no need to give me a discount. And he also talked about 'As far as I think, coupon is also money' . When I called again today, the rep just said that I'll get exactly the amount I paid to Dell. So that I won't be even able to buy the same config machine again with the money I get back.

 

Have you tried restoring the system using the function key hotkey at the BIOS screen? If you were able to restore the system to default, as someone already suggested, it may well restore the machine's original functionality.

I'm not sure which function key invokes the recovery partition, but it's likely f10, f11, or f12. Tap the key repeatedly before/during when the Dell logo appears on-screen, and you should get the option to restore. This might take a few tries, depending on whether you happen on the right function key the first time out. Good luck and post your results!

 

Well atleast it has shipped! I ordered on the same day, but mine is still being built. Hope we both get our machines soon

 

Multiupload.nl - upload your files to multiple file hosting sites!

According to that Samsung Data sheet, both PM841 and SM841 use MLC, but PM841 uses 3 bit MLC while SM841 uses 2 bit MLC, so SM841 provides a longer life, also SM841 has better performance than PM841 specially on writing mode.

http://www.excaliberpc.com/629338/s...zmte512hmhp-00000-msata.html#TabSpecification

http://www.ramcity.com.au/buy/samsu...nal-ssd/MZMTE512HMHP-00000#tab_specifications

If specs of these websites were confirmed by some tests then PM851 is a downgrade respect an SM841.

Moreover, PM851 is not a OEM version of 840 EVO mSata as you can see in the follow Samsung Data Sheet, performance of 840 EVO msata uses 1x nm Samsung Toggle DDR 2.0 NAND Flash Memory (400Mbps) while PM851 uses Samsung 21 nm TLC NAND.

http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...DataSheet-Samsung_SSD_840_EVO_mSATA_Rev10.pdf