XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Its not too bad. I use it on the train when going to and from uni during the day. I do have to turn the brightness to about 40-50% on a normal day. If its really sunny and no cloud, then i put it upto 70%. Its usable but you may have a very small bit of glare. Thats my view on it.
Its definitely not a matte screen.

 

You could just leave it open in the background on the jack page, if you want a quick switch. Takes about 4 secs from tray. 2 from open in the background.

 

2 questions

Has the rapid connect/re-connect issue been addressed with the USB ports? I seem to have the problem sometimes and it's quite annoying. Had to jump through some hoops to get windows media player to recognize my phone.

Also, this machine has NFC, however, I have no idea how to use it or where the sensor is even located on the machine. So where is the NFC sensor on this machine and how is it used? I'd like to test it out with my phone.

One more thing, my card reader does not seem to work, can't even find the driver/device in device manager. Any advice?

 

The NFC sensor is somewhere in the Touchpad (I think left mid area).
If your Card Reader doesn't work you need to let it replace - mine stopped working and they replaced it with NBD and now it works perfect again.

Has someone a solution for this problem: My Outlook 2013 doesn't scale HTML emails correctly, images are too small and HTML tables etc too. See: Solving DPI scaling issues with HTML email in Outlook - James' Blog - James' Blog. But this shows only how to create correct emails, but not how to fix the problem in general.

 

Anyone know what kind of glass the XPS 15 uses? Also, can recommend an anti-glare/matte screen protector?

 

Dell product page says glass is Gorilla Glass NBT. I believe a matte protector was recommended a while back in this thread, might be able to find it with some Googling by appending "site:notebookreview.com" to your search terms to confine results to this page.

 

Okay will do. Looks like glare is going to be an issue with this laptop.

 

Also... I have a Macbook Pro 13" late 2013 model and I really LOVE the display. Anyone know what kind of glass the Macbook uses?

 

I know this has been asked before.. but anyone have any ideas when the larger battery will be available? Tried to ask the dell rep and he kept trying to say that this model won't have extra batteries for sale.. only replacement by tech. Asked him what's so hard about switching out a battery and he gave the usual BS.

 

What is NBD?

 

Next business day (as in onsite service).

 

Lowest power consumption?

Hello!

I'm trying to optimize the power consumption of my XPS15 (Top-Tier) under Linux and want to share some result.

I was able to get down to 10.2W using the settings you can see under Linux - XPS 15 Wiki.

The brightness is very low here, so this almost academic, but it's still usable in a dark place ;-)

The display itself draws almost 10W and this seems to me very high. On one side it's and QHD+ display and this will draw more than an FHD display, but on the other side it's an IGZO display, which should draw less power than others...
A "normal" display seems to draw around 5W...

What's you experience? Is your display's power consumption lower? Do you get down futher?

Can the touchscreen be the source of the additional display's power consumption?

Has anybody disabled the touchscreen (maybe in hard by cutting the cable)? Has this any effect on the runtime?

Is there maybe a similar tool to PowerTop under Windows, so we can compare the values?

Cheers
Sven

 

The other day, while on battery, touched the screen (cleaning off some dust) and the touch screen activated. Then I started seeing a much higher power consumption (about 8-10W extra IIRC).

As far as I remember I disabled it using powertop and things went down to normal. Probably if I hadn't done that it would had powered down automatically after a while being idle.

 

Another quick question, how can I test the motion sensor?

And to followup on my previous question about NFC, how do I activate it?

 

Well, I've started having my first problem on my top spec'd outlet model. Occassionally, when waking after lid has been closed all night ( i assume this is a rapid start scenario or something), my main screen is frozen. The external monitor that I leave plugged in at home still works. Very bizarre, nothing responds to clicks on the laptop screen, but windows open on the external monitor screen work as normal.

 

My laptop fell from table on to the carpeted floor. There was no visible physical damage. However, from next day onwards, I started noticing a crackling sound from the right speaker (I think it is similar to how old headphones sound once their diaphragm is damaged). I contacted Dell and they replaced the speaker. Don't know if it was the fall that damaged the speaker. I had the exact crackling problem with my Nexus 7 tablet after 2 months of purchase. It never fell though. So I am a bit concerned. But the speakers are easy to replace, and surprisingly small.

 

Anyone else notice starting the machine is extremely fast? It goes right to the dell logo and doesn't even show the wheel and it starts windows itself, i think it is about 5 seconds. Currently i mostly turn the computer on and off instead of sleep. because it is so quick.

 

What motion sensor are you talking about? NFC is on by default (after you install the driver if you did a clean Windows install), but the radio is managed in Metro under Settings > Change PC Settings > Networks > Airplane mode. I don't have any devices to test it with though.

Yep, that's a combination of UEFI, Windows 8's Fast Boot feature, and a fast SSD.

 

Well, I'm a stubborn bugger, and I've read that Realtek's own "HD Audio Manager" allows for multi-stream playback, so that front panel and rear panel appear as two different devices, allowing for different audio streams to the two devices. I don't know if that capability is specific to some desktop variant of Realtek audio hardware that we don't have, but I thought I'd give it a shot by installing the driver directly from Realtek instead of Dell.

So, I uninstalled Dell's driver, restarted as prompted, then installed Realtek's driver, followed by another restart. The thing is, I still have Dell's Audio manager. How do I get Realtek's audio manager, if it's even possible?

 

Support from the software and even the chip itself doesn't mean that it's supported in a particular deployment. Back in the day, for example, lots of GPUs supported dual-link DVI output (or X number of total outputs), but since the motherboards or PCBs they were integrated onto didn't have the wiring for those types and quantities of outputs, they didn't support it in that particular implementation. I too noticed that Dell's application stays active even when using the reference Realtek package, and a cursory look through the Realtek installer files suggests that there are vendor-specific files even in the reference package, so I don't think this is a case of the Dell app persisting after uninstallation, but rather it being reinstalled even by the reference software.

You can continue to be stubborn, but I can virtually guarantee that you won't get what you're looking for here. I've never seen a laptop from any vendor that allowed both simultaneous output to and independent management of the built-in speakers and plugged in headphones/speakers -- except for USB-attached devices as I mentioned earlier.

 

Ok, I'll let it go then. I generally like the idea of independent devices, but since you've never seen such an arrangement on a laptop before, this laptop is unlikely to be different in that respect. I knew it was a long shot anyway; I was hoping that the capability was there, but just needed to be exposed via the right Audio Manager. Anyway, I'll probably get used to it. And if I don't, I'll get a USB headset or adapter like you originally suggested. Thanks again.

 

Well, so I see Dell has now INCREASED the price of the TOP tier model by 100.00
XPS 15 Touch Screen Laptop Details | Dell Canada

I guess they needed some way to make up their losses on all the refunds, warranty exchanges, and repairs for this "great concept / poor execution" laptop.

 

OR it could be because the lack of direct competition for this model in the PC market, coupled with several generally very positive reviews, has created a substantial demand for this system, which has in turn allowed Dell to increase the price -- despite some issues voiced on enthusiast forums and despite the fact that such a price increase might be met with a kneejerk negative interpretation from cynical people on said forums who have no stronger a basis for their theory than I do for my own.

 

Different owners have different levels of severity as regards the coil whine. I can only hear mine when I put my ear closer to the keyboard. Are there people hearing this noise from arms length or a farther distance than that. I'm also curious to know what DELL means by some of the XPS 15 collected from the field for testing are close to 'specifications"

 

Hello All,

I am getting my new XPS 15 tomorrow. It comes with a 1TB (5400)/32 GB SSD configuration. I plan on replacing the 1TB hard drive with my Samsung 256GB SSD drive as soon as it arrives.

Can anyone briefly explain to me how I might go about replacing the drive? I assume the operating system is on the 32GB drive so does this mean that the 1TB drive is only for data and so I can just swap it out for my new SSD?

Thank you.

Clockie

 

Also, will I need some kind of software to clone the 1TB drive or should I just install Windows 8.1 fresh on it?

 

Just wanted to get peoples view on this before I hand over $143 AUD.

I wanted a second power cord for my xps. I could only find the replacement cord on the US website for $89.99 but nothing on the Australian website.

I called dell australia yesterday and after 30 minutes of me giving them the part number they came back and said $143 AUD. Now I know living in Australia we get shafted on prices but these seems a bit rediculous. Especially considering I update my laptop every year so will be buying the broadwell version as soon as it comes out.

I am considering freight forwarding the US version to AUS and just replacing the plug.

Anyone in Australia had better luck?

 

Hello guys,

I had my motherboard replaced today. First of all I have to mention that the guy had no idea about the coil whine and the GPU throttling. I guess here in Australia we live in our own universe. The reasons I replaced the motherboard were: noisy fan, gpu throttling, coil whine. Actually I lied, the reason I replaced the motherboard was to convince the Dell Phone support that changing the motherboard won't make any difference. So, after the replacement the coil whine is still there, the fan noise is gone of course and... the gpu throttling.. this is strange.. it is somehow better.. but I am not sure.. what do I mean? Please continue reading:
While I was playing games I had GPU-z running in a second monitor. The frequency for the GPU on the menus was around 400MHz. But during gameplay was around 1100MHz... and the Temperature around 81C... and suddenly.. boom! The GPU frequency was dropping to 200MHz.. then the Temperature was dropping to 60C but the GPU frequency wouldn't go up again regardless if I was going back to the game menu. I had to exit to windows and restart the game in order for the GPU frequency to increase again. After changing the motherboard, when the temperature starts rising the GPU frequency drops to 700MHz and when it cools down the frequency increases again. It looks like the frequency scaling works much better in the GPU of the new motherboard.

Finally something last: if you are a linux user and you use Grub with EFI to boost the machine, after replacing the motherboard you wont be able to boot linux because the grub EFI entry does not exist in the EFI firmware of the new motherboard. To fix this follow the following steps:
* Boot Linux from CD and go into repair mode. (in Debian this is called rescue system).
* Somehow open a console and chroot the Linux partition. (for Debian you just select to access your linux partition through the GUI and then it opens a console for you, you dont have to chroot).
* Mount the EFI partition under /boot/efi. in my case it was: mount /dev/sda2 /boot/efi
* run grub-install with no parameters (unless you have some funky configuration)
* reboot
* done!

Thank you.

 

That's great info, thanks (I hope not to need it). Feel free to add it to the Linux wiki if you think can be is useful to anyone.

 

I can hear the coil whine at arms length. There is a high-pitched one when the CPU is working hard which I can just barely hear, and a very loud low-pitched one when the GPU is working (such as rendering OpenGL 3D graphics or scrolling).

 

I can hear it when I leave the laptop idle on my desk while I'm sitting in the washing room. However, I have to point that my room was quite and the washing room is not far from my work desk.

 

I experience no Throttling at all and I play crysis at 1600 X 900 with mist stuff set to high. I get a nice fluid gameplay and everything, of course the fans start running at full speed but that's it no problem there. I think that these problems are mainly software issues. Do you have the latest drivers from nvidia also did you let nvidia experience find the game and optimise it?

I have a question. Someone said that he solved the problem with the menu expanding on the left of the screen it was had something to do with the touchscreen can you let me know how he solved it?

Also i get my phone and NFC to recognise each other by getting them close to eath other but how do I manage files transfers etc?

 

The 32GB mSATA SSD is just an Intel Smart Response cache drive, not an independent disk. Everything is installed on the 1TB volume. So if you do a swap, you'll either want to reinstall Windows clean or disable Smart Response on your existing setup (you won't use it with an SSD) and then clone the 1TB drive over to the new one. And since you're installing an SSD, you'll want to remove the 32GB unit anyway unless you actually have a use for an independent 32GB disk, in which case change the SATA operation from Intel Smart Response to AHCI -- but that option might force you to do a clean install rather than cloning.

Note that if you opt for a clean reinstall, you'll need Windows 8.1 media, which won't come with the system. The Dell utility won't work because the drive you're installing is smaller than the one you're removing (even if the amount of used space would fit). Third-party cloning tools may work though. Macrium Reflect Free has been mentioned a few times.

 

Yup, I always had the latest drivers/bios during tests. Dunno why I was getting throttling with the first mobo and not with the second.
Is there an easy way to make the laptop and the phone recognize each other through NFC? Do you mind giving some tips to get me started?
Thanks.

 

regarding the coil whine..i have been reading a lot about it on lot of forums and dell support forum also: XPS 15 9530 - Noise problem? - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community


Was wondering if anyone has tried undervolting with rightmark cpu clock utility to see if undervolting solves this problem?

you can change the multiplier also.

i am not very good at understanding different options but referring to the original undervolting thread, i have managed to run my dv6 cooler and less noise from fan



i was really keen on buying this laptop but the issue has put me off considering the price....


can someone try undervolting it and report back results?

 

Been reading this thread a lot in anticipation of getting my XPS 15 today. I am a bit concerned about the coil while. I am curious... are there any users out there whose machine does not have the whine?

Thank you.

 

Yes, although there doesn't seem to be a correlation between when people received their system and how likely they are to have coil whine. Some people got motherboard replacements that cured it, some people got motherboard replacements (or entire system exchanges) that had louder coil whine than their original unit. Some people who just recently got their systems have coil whine, and a few people who got their systems right after launch don't have the issue. And I would wager that there are a least a few owners who have coil whine but are blissfully unaware of it because their hearing no longer allows them to detect sounds at that frequency, kind of like the mosquito ringtone.

Bottom line: It's a crap shoot at the moment. My guess is that the reason is that the manufacturing tolerance on some component(s) is wider than it should be, so some units will be manufactured on the side of the tolerance scale that does not cause coil whine, and others won't be so lucky.

All that said, my system has it, and since it's almost constantly on AC power it's persistent, but I don't really care. I've had it on previous systems, it's fairly easy to mentally tune out, and it's even easier to drown out with even quiet ambient noise or music. Sure in a perfect world it wouldn't be there, but it's nowhere near a deal breaker to me, and honestly having had the system for months now, I hardly ever notice it. And when I do it doesn't irritate me. Most people's frustration expressed here seems to be based on principle, not actual aggravation that persists even after they've used the system for a while.

 

Same here with Skyrim. I have been playing (vanilla) Skyrim at 1600 x 900 with all graphic settings at max for hours without any noticible drop in frame rate. Ok, the game is 2.5 years old, it is still using the old DX 9 and I haven't tried any mods with high-res textures so far, but I can play it for hours without any problems. I haven't measured temperatures or frame rates, but everything seems to be ok.

 

Thank you for the thoughtful and informative response! My fingers are crossed!

 

I ordered my XPS 15 from Costco.com. Here is a direct link to the product on their website:

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-15-T...HD+-|-Backlit-Keyboard.product.100098425.html

I am curious... can anyone tell me what the exact model number of that unit is? Costco doesn't list it. According to Dell's support website the XPS 15 has the following possible model numbers:

> XPS 15 (L502X)
> XPS 15 (L501X)
> XPS 15 (L521x)
> XPS 15 9530

Thank you.

 

It's the 9530.

 

Awesome thanks!

 

I've been trying to get mine to work as well and have had no luck. I've tried a rooted Galaxy Note II on Android 4.1.2 and a brand new Galaxy S4, neither have worked so far...

Starting to fear that the device is non functioning on my unit (like my card reader, which they are coming to replace).

 

Hey guys something strange is happening. I can hear the coil whine but there's one big problem, my XPS 15 isn't even turned on. lol. Just kidding

 

Assuming you have the appropriate drivers installed (including the Intel Management thingy) , it should work for websites, contacts and small things like that. What it will not do is pictures or videos. I've tried it with an LG G2 and a Galaxy S4 and they both manage to send website links, contacts, calendar events but no pictures or videos. Do your phones vibrate or make a sound when you put them close to the touchpad?

 

Which drivers please? (just so I can make sure I have them)

And no, absolutely nothing happens when I bring the devices near each other, on the computer or the phones. I'd feel better if they did vibrate or make a sound at least, that way I know that it's at least functioning.

 

My at&t beam (=Sierra wireless 340u) cannot be recognized by my xps 15 9530 top tier. It has a valid sim card. It works on all my other laptops running win7 and win8.1 x64. It has the latest firmware and latest at&t allaccess software. The usb ports work with usb headphones. Tried all 4 usb port. No response at all when plugging in the 340u. I am stumped.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

I'm not sure if this would apply but I had to jump through some hoops to get my machine to recognize my phone via USB and not rapidly connect and disconnect. The solution is below, but I had to try SEVERAL times and a few variations to get it to finally work and I don't know if it's stable/consistent. I say this because I've had it working before and then after a reboot, it no longer worked, but this time, it seems ok.

xda-developers - View Single Post - Windows 8.1 preview and not working adb\fastboot.

No guarantee this will fix your issue, but I figured I'd at least tell you about it.

 

hello! I need help!

so my xps 15 will be on full battery and I closed the lid (without the charging adapter connected) and I left it on my desk for about a day-2 days. and today I opened it and it had no battery. wth is going on. is this a battery issue? help! anyone else get this?

 

I had a similar issue, I'm not sure if it's related to RapidStart, but for some reason, my computer would occasionally come out of sleep for no reason, and remain on (running down the battery). I removed rapid start, which I think fixed the issue, but I also just don't leave the computer asleep for awhile now. Hope that helps a bit!