XPS 15 9560 owners thread.

Could anyone give me a dell rep phone number to bargain about the price pls?

 

I feel for you man, dealing with Dell support. I wish I had money to waste

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9550/9560 - AHCI and RAID
I thought I would share a few thoughts and experiences with the 9550/60 bios setups....
Of course it is known that in RAID mode, the intel driver takes over control of the PCIe NVMe port. This is as Intel intended as an option, and RAID in this case is not about multiple drives. This setup is close, but not exactly equivalent to NVMe mode for the M2 slot.
But in AHCI mode, specific drivers (if available) can be used in NVMe configuration. But the problem is that all SSD's are not compatible with the 9550/60 with the AHCI/NVMe configuration.

If you are exploring using AHCI, I would highly recommend the following test when in AHCI mode---Boot using F12, go to the diagnostics built in to the BIOS. It will first go through some color bars. IF YOU GET A HARD DRIVE ERROR after the color bars, you have a compatibility problem. Usually in RAID mode, there will be no hard drive type error. There is no need for an 'extended test'. You will get through the first test stages in 3 to 5 minutes. This error is about hardware level compatibility, and different drivers will not fix the problem.

If the BIOS test comes up with that drive error, the W10 OS will still install in AHCI mode. However, you will be greeted with some or all of the following problems based on my experience:
Boot from power off takes 30 to 45 seconds, instead of the normal 15-20 seconds.
Various pauses and freezes occur using the computer, as well as occasional blue screen 'process died' or some such error
You spend a lot of time trying to hack various NVMe drivers from around the net to work with an OEM drive
Hibernate does not work - the computer will do a full reboot and NOT return to the state when it was put in hibernation.
Recovery from the built in 'windows 7 type backup' will not work - the OS locks with a 'drive not found' type error when trying to restore.

Most OEM drives are NOT compatible in AHCI mode and will cause one or more of the problems above. For my particular 9560 on Bios 1.1.3, the TOSH OEM drive is NOT compatible. The Samsung 950Pro (with new firmware starting with a '2') is NOT compatible.
HOWEVER, a Samsung 960Pro IS COMPATIBLE. The 9560/960Pro has none of the problems listed above, using AHCI Mode, Samsung v2.1 drivers and the intel v4590 graphics driver.

(PS the v4590 graphics driver solves a lot of problems, including much better battery life when playing video content - it is HIGHLY recommended.)

 

Great info. Thanks for sharing.

I agree, v4590 does solve a ton of problems. I was sweating for a bit after my clean install because the xps felt so off... Sluggish... I had installed the beta Intel graphics driver for giggles to see how it ran, but that was not very pleasant. So after installing v4590, it fixed everything and went back to Amazing. All problems gone.

If bios 1.1.3 is working for you the great, however, I'd roll back down to 1.0.3 as the latest bios has really strange fan curves.

If you can, come join us on the XPS World discord channel. It's very live... And it'd be great to have you there.

To all: please feel free to come on in....

https://discord.gg/heJ2f

::iunlock::

 

Nice info, though i'm not getting any errors in Dell diagnostics using my OEM Toshiba drive in AHCI mode and i'm using the RD400 OCZ drivers in Win 10 without problems and with improved throughput. I'll be sure to test for this though when i next put an upgraded drive into my machine.

 

I'm doing the exact same thing. Toshiba OEM/RD400 drivers. No errors.

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Okay today it got updated, it's suddenly in the Netherlands now, and should arrive tommorow in France, I wish they updated more often...

 

Are you positive about
> The Samsung 950Pro (with new firmware starting with a '2') is NOT compatible.

I mean, several members here have recommended using the 950 pro under AHCI, at least with the 9550 (1.2.19) which I've got.
I've had a 45s boot issue once, but it went away by recreating a new UEFI boot option.
I've also had pauses and freezes once after Samsung NVMe driver upgrade to 2.1, but this was not going on initially (at leas not without the dock hehe), and it is okay after rollback (not absolutely positive if this was really caused by the 2.1 - tried several things at that time).
Hibernate does work (though I don't use it much). I've had two sleep issues. One was failure to switchover from Sleep to Hibernate - the laptop would wake up in my backpack, and would subsequently wake from sleep or hibernation or even soft shutdown instantly. To workaround, I set "Hibernate after" to Never. The other was cold-boot instade of wake from Sleep. I've had it several times, it seems to start happening after unsafe shutdown which I have to do after MSIE messes up sth with a certificate and lsass runs away eating memory. Fixed by reflashing BIOS (maybe a reset would work).
Older recovery software is known not to support NVMe drives.
Will check in BIOS at next boot... Is there another way to check this incompatibility on a live computer, for instance using HWinfo64?

 

Thats the same problem as I have, kind of looks like the screen is dirty although it isnt.


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Thanks for the feedback from you and the other members. From what I have found, the 'incompatibility' is highly correlated with the BIOS diagnostic test. And yes, my particular 9560 and my particular Tosh 1TB drive do not like each other in AHCI. Nor does my 950Pro play well in AHCI.
Evidently, there is something different among the drives and/or machines. However, I also know for a fact that others have reported this same kind of compatibility problem with long boots, etc on this forum.
It seems that finding a quick assessment method for drive compatibility is a key step, otherwise there is a lot of troubleshooting going on for a low level hardware problem.
It seems good to know that not everyone has had the same level of problems going to AHCI mode.

 

I am a programmer and I've been using the FHD screen for 2 weeks now. I really like it. I feel it looks sharp (coming from old lenovo laptop). I haven't seen the 4K but I really love this matte one. I was thinking about switching my unit for a 4K one but decided to keep mine since everything seems to be working fine and I've read some horror stories here.

I kept the scaling to 125% (default) because I don't like having everything very small, but I do go in properties of programs and desable DPI scaling when I can do it. It is a common bug on windows 10 that some application will scale badly in resolution over FHD.

 

I have system lock ups/ freezes with an achi sm951. No bsods. No errors. Just lock ups on 9560. No problem on the 9550.

 

That is DSE. Dirty screen effect.

 

Well, no, don't think so. And if I remeber correctly, DSE is mostly visible om moving content, at least on tvs. At least how DSE are usually described as meaning,but since I myself described it as sceen looking dirty I guess I cant fault you for calling it DSE


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Did you try an older Samsung NVMe driver (earlier than 2.1)?
And did you replace the Intel video driver which is supposedly causing issues?

 

Has anyone looked at upgrading the memory yet? I'm curious to see what a CAS15 or CAS14 would do at the rated 2400MHz... since we don't have OC support or memory timing bios support I wonder if it'd pick up the lower CAS or just default to 17...

 

NVME drivers have been discussed at length before, XG3 works fine with the Toshiba driver, XG4 can be forced. Lite-on works fine with the windows driver. Samsung work fine with the version 2 but not 2.1
Samsung 960 Evo works fine so far with 2.1 (only stuck the drive in today)

Very very pissed off that Samsung decided to drop bitlocker support, I found out the £400 way today. Magician has no option for enable drive security so that's the end of that for now. If it is anything like the 950 pro then no update will ever arrive.

While it has AES256 & TCG Opal is doesn't have the e-drive support bitlocker needs so it is software only.

 

The ram will work at Jedec values only.

 

Haha yeah you're right... my brain was tricked! The screen does look like it's dirty

 

Yes I've the 4590 iGPU driver running... that mainly fixes chrome freezes I think.

The ahci sm951 ssd doesn't use the NVME driver.

 

Keep an eye on it, mine kept reinstalling the official dell driver until I did a roll back and told it not to update.

If you start getting BSOD you may need to install the samsung 2.0 nvme driver.

 

I've followed the debate here over the past 10 pages or so and also looked at some reviews (the long list of parameters on NotebookCheck, a few others on YouTube) and am tentatively leaning towards your position. The 4K is better in that it is a touch screen that has a higher color gamut and better response times (and of course a higher resolution), but it is also a significant drain on the battery, glossy (and thus reflective) and costs $300 extra. The FHD has a very good color gamut (it's only bad compared to the 4K and the MacBookPro) and I don't really need a touch screen on a laptop.

But on the other hand... the 4K display is basically the signature feature of this laptop, it is really nice and I've never used more than 7 hours of battery in my life. So hard to choose...

 

The HyperX Impact had the lowest latency 2400 SODIMM I could find a few months ago (CL=14).

My 9550 runs 2400 32GB HyperX RAM (runs at 2133 with CL=13 per the spec sheet). I confirmed those specs with CPU-Z and HWiNFO.

http://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/HX424S14IBK2_32.pdf

There are plenty of white papers on speed vs CL and it seems you could get a (very) small speed bump with lowest CL. The RAM is so fast and there are so many other bottlenecks on the XPS I don't think it matters. Also, I'm not convinced OC RAM would make much of a difference here as higher speeds are offset by lower CL...

I see that RAM has doubled in price since the autumn. Free market lol

 

Good to know.
http://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/HX424S14IBK2_32.pdf
According to the white paper... JEDEC will run at 2400 14-14-14

 

There are two threads on the official Dell site requesting that Dell enable SpeedShift in BIOS. Dell monitors that site periodically so some noise might help.

SpeedShift requires a simple toggle by Dell. And has been 100% supported by Intel and M$ for the past 18 months. These guys are so damned lazy...

Please post there to get some traction:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/20007733
XPS 9560 Speed Shift - when will Dell enable via BIOS update?
XPS 9550 Speed Shift - when will Dell enable via BIOS update?

 

Quite a respectable timing

 

Perhaps this could work, haven't tried it myself though:

https://www.lullabot.com/articles/adventures-with-edrive-accelerated-ssd-encryption-on-windows

Seems like it wasn't a great success for the author either tough.

 

Must say it is a bit ironic, I always considered Apples BootCamp drivers to be half hearted but having tried quite a few PC laptops, they have all had more problems than the MacBook Pro running Windows

 

For some reason, it seems my 4K panel just can't show white, it is more something like light grey, is this a common problem? Also have a strange feeling that despite the brightness being ok and the colors being good, the contrast just isn't there as it should. Maybe I just need to have my panel replaced.

 

Afraid that guide pre dates the 960 and the 960 doesn't support edrive

 

Darn it, I thought they had added it by now in a firmware update. What does this mean, that we can still use passwords for SEB but they have to be entered at boot up? How much of a problem is that if you don't boot that often but rather user suspend/resume?

 

Any ideas what performance loss you would get by using CPU for BitLocker encryption?

 

You will lose drive speed, by how much I don't know unless you can find a guide with this chip and drive.

I updated the firmware but judging by the phone call I made to my engineers line I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

Not sure what you mean with "guide" here?

 

Okay I tried the diagnostics with the 950 pro under AHCI in my 9550 and there was no error.
Also Userbenchmark results after reboot are quite reasonable.

 

The 4K screen is amazing and you don't have to run it at 4k, which I never do. ~1440p is that sweet spot and looks fantastic. No scaling issues here. Zero.

My experience is the complete opposite in that looking at text on the 1080p really started to hurt my eyes due to the blurry text caused by the lack of pixels. I have both units, 4k and FHD.

If you're happy with the FHD, that's awesome. I'd recommend not to look at the 4k haha because it'll spoil your retinas and especially as a programmer looking at text all day... You'll be shocked at the contrast of the difference in clarity.

I have the 2400MHz SKHynix 32Gb sticks in my 4k and it works flawlessly. Let me check the timings and I'll update this post.

Glad to see another fellow xps owner who cares about encryption. As far as software encryption, is it as fluid these days with no performance hits like before?

One of my ideas, derived from my habits on OSX with them ability to create sparsebundle encrypted folders was to keep the drive "free and clear" and to create encrypted folders to store sensitive info in. That way there's no obstruction of any kind with the drive itself to allow it to run freely.

It'd be nice to talk about this more in detail, perhaps we can chat on discord?

Join us... https://discord.gg/v5ekU

I can confirm that v4590 fixed a lot of things. Thank goodness.

::iunlock::

 

Nah, the only time you get me online and talking is teamspeak with my mates having several beers and BF1

 

LOL.. Well then...

::iunlock::

 

Had some time to go through the Dell XPS so find my comments below.

Did a clean install first and switched it to ACHI mode. Actually surprised that after installing windows from the boot USB and installing wireless drivers manually, all other drivers got installed automatically via windows update.

Tried the OCZ RD400 drivers but somehow benchmarks seem to be all over the place compared to the native Windows drivers. As in write speeds went up in places but certain read speeds went down etc. Hence I reverted back to the Windows drivers for now. Still bummed that I got the 256GB Toshiba SSD but complaining to Dell support helped since they took like $100 off the price off the laptop for it.

Running CPU stress testing gave an upper limit of 79 C. Undervolting it using XTU to -100 changed that to 69 C as max which is pretty good in my opinion. Also fan is mostly off most of the time for light usage which is a huge plus! Running Firemark test pushes the GPU temps to 75' C but this was before the undervolt. Mind you that these are temps with no repasting or thermal pads so I would think they are really great out of the box.

Memory config is 2X4 Gb for my 8Gb model which means an upgrade to 16GB would need both sticks swapped out. Bummer.

After reading a lot of the horror stores faced by other posters here I was prepared for a lemon out of the box. But seems like the machine is really great if you get a good one without most of the issues.

 

Have you noticed any changes in battery life when you switch the resolution from 4K to 1440?

 

I dont expect it to make a difference to battery life if rescaling at the end of the day since the panel lits all the pixels even if it is a 768p resolution.

 

Great stuff. Thanks for the update. Those are pretty nice temps indeed for being stock.

 

Well, the GPU should have to do less work calculating 768p compared to 4K. Just look at gaming. That said, unless you do video production, gaming etc, not sure how big the actual difference would be really


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* Repost from the: [CPU + GPU Temperatures + Benchmarks] - XPS 15 [9560] Kaby Lake, thread and OP of that thread updated.

K guys, so I've been working for the past few days trying everything under the sun to tame the GPU temps.

The CPU temps after my liquid metal repaste are excellent. They are in the low to mid 60C's under full load.

During games ( stock) the GPU would max out at 80C to low 80C's.

After my liquid metal repaste, the GPU temps now lock at 76C under full load. Some improvement, but I want more lol... Especially having worked with numerous systems as you can see in my sig.

I know we're dealing with a small cooling system in a 14" chassis and one thing is for sure in that the thermal conductivity / capacity of the cooling system is definitely being reached when it comes to the GPU.

It may be a long shot, but my goal is to get the GPU temps in the lower 70C's and gosh even upper 60C's would be stellar, but I just don't see that happening without some major work or a miracle with the right combo of things...

I've even considered modifying the heat sink unit all together in adding bigger fins and heck even a bigger fan that can pump out more cfm's (maybe a fan from another Dell line of laptops that is somewhat close, but the XPS fans are so small so that's a bit of a stretch). I really think it's more of the heat pipes themselves and the exposed VRM's / FET's etc....than the actual fans... that's at least what I'm thinking... I may try to double stack the heat pipes, but then I'm thinking, would that be too much heat for the fans to be able to pump out?

These fans are (both of them) are rated at 5.2 cfm.



So after spending hours and hours over the past few days on this...I'm really going to crack down and find the culprit to get this XPS to reach its maximum cooling potential, whatever that may be. I just know that there is some headroom and that's what I'm after....

Fire Strike Combined Test LOOP is running and everything is at full tilt...

 

Are you undervolting the CPU and/or the GPU? Given the limitations of the chassis, it seems the simplest trick is to produce less heat in the first place. Can the GPU be undervolted here or is the voltage locked?

 

Got my battery and mainboard replaced. No more problems with either now.

Still need my display replaced. )))

Anyone have C6/C7 states working in TS btw?

 

Nice, glad you got things back up and running ...

As for the C states, not yet...I've been working on this for the past few days...

Right now I'm running some experiments to tame the GPU temps some more.

How are you GPU temps btw stock under full load? ie..after gaming or running a bench (loop) ...curious to know what yours and others GPU temp is once it has stabilized.

 

I was one of the unlucky ones who had full VRM throttling of the CPU within 10 minutes of uningine heaven. VRM-only pads fixed that (also, setting pre-rendered frames to "2"). The GPU would peak at 79 but keep running full speed

 

I thought package state c6 was only an option when all the cores are in c6?
Doesn't that basically put the laptop to sleep?

 

Most of us had BSOD with the microsoft drivers and Toshiba SSD's so it is a bit of a trade off AND the toshiba driver still isn't linked with SG4 so that may be the issue with benchmarks jumping about.

It seems Dell have been telling porkies due to the lack of information support has when asked about the memory config as no one afaik has had a single stick of ram yet.