XPS 15 9560 owners thread.

Sometimes I wonder if you realize just how clueless the average user is relative to the average poster on here. I have no idea what the above means. I google NVMe and it just seems like gibberish to me. If you buy a configuration with only a SSD, are you saying that for some reason the BIOS wont be correctly configured and everyone should manually do this process of switching from Raid to ACHI?

I can't understand why Dell wouldnt have their computers configured in a way that makes it work well. Why would they go out of their way to sabotage the user experience? I understand QC issues and cutting costs, but why the hell would Dell go out of their way to have the computer set up to fail, have the worst drivers, no updates, the wrong BIOS settings, etc? Again, I fully understand QC issues and bloatware. I'm not happy about them but I understand why they exist, but this other stuff confuses me quite a lot.

I just want a simple way to make the computer work well. And by simple, I mean simple enough that you don't need to know what SATA, NVMe, Raid, etc even mean. From the sounds of this forum, I'm living in a fantasy land if I expect that to exist but it's so strange to me why it is the way it seems to be.

As to improwise's above post, I have seen him mention fingerprints and how he cleans them (50/50 water and white vinegar). I agree he seems very positive on Dell but he also is doing his best to provide useful info so that's great.

 

If you don't know the difference, just let it be as it is. Many of these "tweaks" are such that the average user just wouldn't notice the difference anyway. And to be honest, in many cases neither would us power users, it more of a feeling that we have managed to squeeze out the last ounce of performance.

 

I appreciate that. But a clean install is still a good idea, right? Sorry for being so frantic, but I just got a little overwhelmed when it seemed the process to do it involved a lot of technical seeming things. I don't think people who are really knowdlegable always understand just how easy it is to screw things up when you don't know what you're doing. My guess is that I can follow the steps in that youtube video, but right out of the gate there are a few things he goes through quickly that I don't understand. And when he mentions legit consequences if you don't have the right drivers on the flash drive, it's quite stressful for those that don't have much confidence in our knowledge.

One issue I would like some clarity on is how he discusses the different between a clean install on a 'hard drive' or not. What does he mean? Does hard drive mean the old drives and SSD isn't a hard drive? I thought they were both referred to as hard drives.

But basically, if you have the 1TB SSD config and want to do a clean install, you either load from windows site or from Gonzo's ISO onto a flash drive, then also add some drivers to that flash drive, then boot to it and follow the steps? Am I missing anything here?

 

yes it DOES say what every update related to.
An example you can see in attachment to this post. This is related to Killer Wireless suite...
As well as it describe which bugs/problems were fixed (this one fixing intermittent connection drop issue)

 

Either Bite the bullet, set it to AHCI and install my ISO, or follow that video, or leave it alone if it works. It is up to you but really I can't add anything else & I doubt anyone else can without repeating themselves

If you need anything else I suggest starting a new thread and maybe people can help in more detail as my threads have got a bit "busy" with lots of editing so I understand your concern jumping in this late but just take the plunge


Oh and Dell use a single ISO for EVERY configuration of the 9560 so it has to work on them all hence leaving a lone NVMe drive in raid mode as it still works, just not as well as it does in AHCI mode.

 

I noticed something interesting, when I switched my 4K to 1080p (and did some tweaks to make it less blurry) the scrolling in web browsers etc are now much smoother again and the stuttering seem to have gone away. Seems like the iGPU cant really handle the 4K resolution.

 

It can and then some, the drivers otoh are still buggy as hell

 

It looks like flux to me, not glue .

Yeah manually updating the Intel drivers fixed a bunch of issues for me, finally got my windows system setup with Unity3D VS and SQLServer, so thats that half done.

I'm working on my (extSSD) Linux install at present, ubuntu itself is running like a charm, fully upgraded for Kaby Lake on the 4.9 kernel, no issues on the hardware side
Now I just need to figure out how to make the drive remain bootable after shutdown/disconnect Q_Q, boot partition is on the ext drive as /efi, works fine for reboots but foobar after the shutdown/disconnect.
I assume its something to do with EFI, next install is going to be with legacy boot on the extSSD, if that fails I'll try installing the boot partition on the M.2 drive.

That said, It could be that I've screwed something in Grub (again ).... and as idiot me would have it I may have found the problem EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi should be EFI/boot/bootx64.efi

Yup that was it, I now have dual boot with the Ubuntu install running purely on an external SSD

 

Does anyone here play Rocket League on their 9560 4K?

Considering picking one up but a little concerned about latency and ghosting.

 

I have not played Rocket League, but I have played Overwatch and I do not notice any ghosting on the 4K panel. I had the FHD one and really did not like gaming on it.

 

Tally Ho!

That one video in particular enumerates most of the 9560 issues. A 5 minute video just is not going into the details this 161 page thread will. But it is a good start.

Give him credit.

As you note, due diligence requires more than watching a few videos. One really needs to through reviews and dig into these forums, at a minium.

 

Perhaps it is and perhaps it isn't -- it depends on what configuration you have. The one I got from MicroCenter was already relatively clean so I didn't bother.

From your questions, I think your main problem is that you want a clear recipe telling you what to do with this laptop to make it better. No such thing exists because each machine is different and each user's workloads are different. Individual machines may differ in the hardware configuration, the software installed, the quality of the thermal paste application as well as the quality of the CPU, GPU and display. Users may range from people who use this as a large ultrabook (never using the discreet GPU and never really pushing the CPU) to AAA gamers to scientists, engineers, photographers and various others. Each of these gets a single machine which may or may not be acceptable to them. If it is acceptable, chances are they don't even come to forums like these. If not, they try to figure out whether their issue can be addressed -- but this doesn't mean that their solution is applicable to your machine.

Thus, there is no checklist and no recipe. We can recommend you things that are generally helpful and relatively difficult to screw up (e.g. undervolting or Gonzo's iso), but ultimately, it is up to you. What do you dislike about this laptop? It may be that your particular machine is fine for your uses out-of-the-box. If you find something wrong with it, this forum has guides for fixing it (or telling you when it is not fixable and you should just exchange the machine). If you're just doing stuff because you've seen other people doing it, I would suggest leaving it be.

 

I have played Overwatch on both the FHD and UHD, and any ghosting is minimal. I could not see any difference between the two.

 

If I remember correctly the video I watched was titled something like "XPS 15 9560 review" but yet did mostly contained pros and very few cons. Was a while ago though so that might have changed by now.

Another good source for reviews is Windows Central.

 

Would be screwed if I did a review.


Angry Dad review.

Well i'm waiting for the 5th replacement so far...

 

Is there no on-site support in ur country? To fix hardware problems.

 

Yes they are a 3rd party who do a bad job so I do not allow them to bring refurbished parts for a new laptop

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

In case anyone is curious, I have benchmarks of my PM961 1TB, without, and then with the Samsung NVME drivers installed. Samsung's site doesn't list explicit support for OEM drives, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. I had improvements across the board (I am running AHCI in case anyone is wondering).

http://imgur.com/a/8vppz

 

Hey quick question, doesn't undervolting reduce performance? If it doesn't.... then how does it not? also, what are all the drawbacks to undervolting?

THanks.

 

what's the greatest benefit from using De;;'s power management vs windows own power management tool? I noticed ppl saying it included functions just in bios, but are those functions that needed?

 

Is that including the 9550 replacements?

 

Reducing the voltage means less heat, less power used, so has two immediate benefits *heat and battery life.
It doesn't hurt performance as all were doing is reducing the amount of power supplied to achieve the same end result, although reducing the power can introduce stability issues. (This is why you must stress test after undervolting to ensure you havent gone too far.)

The reason this works is pretty simple, Intel send out the processors and specify a voltage which they know works for all the chips they make for a specific SKU, in reality this is too high for most of the chips thanks to the large variances in silicon manufacturing, by undervolting we're just taking advantage of the extra avaliable for our individual chips be it 100mv or 160mv lower than the generic voltage.

 

Google or read the threads here, it's been answered before, several times.

 

Okay so I have some problems and i was hoping for you guys to help me. I've had the 4K 512GB SSD, i7 7700 version for about 2 weeks now (upgraded from the 2012 Envy 15 which was a beast at its time), however I'm feeling a bit on edge with my purchase and was hoping you guys can help me on my problems listed below (I've done a fresh windows 10 install after receiving the laptop as well) :

1) Even after doing the intel chip upgrade posted here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5tispj/xps_15_9560precision_55520_fix_for_lagstuttering/

.........I still get slight stutters and lags while using chrome (much less than before), but still existent. What gives? How can i check if there's something wrong with my shipment?

2) When I go to the gfx card software *NVIDIA Control Panel) and I set it to manual switch between discrete and intel chip video rendering - there seems to be a problem. I've been using the intel chip since i got the laptop for video rendering and when i 'Run' dxdiag, it'll show the intel chip as the display card. THENNnnn, when i switch to the gfx card and hit apply, then go to Dxdiag, it STILL shows the intel chip as the display source??? What gives, is it even switching??? can you guys test this please? Am i doing somehing wrong with the switch? I've even selected Adobe Premiere as a high performance option in the NVIDIA settings and even when i have priemiere open it still shows interal intel GFX in dxdiag.....

3)While using Adobe Premiere, my computer keep getting locked up to the point where it show the BLUE screen and it says windows ran into a problem and will restart. Also, is there a way for Adobe Premiere to show me whether its using the GFX card or the intel chip for rendering?

4)When I open file explorer and I go to specific folders on y C drive (SSD), file explorer doesn't show the items right away it has that green loading bar for like 10 seconds then the items come up (this is a world class specc'd PC, why the hell isnt it showing contents right away.. ? (there are about 40 files in there with 3.5 gigs of space).

5) On high performance the fan can get really loud. And it gets annoying, anyway to reduce fan noise? It seems the fan noise is at a min/non existent when im on ' power saving ' mode.

6) how to i fully disable the touch functionality - i dont want to add factors to why things can get buggy on this laptop

I need help on this stuff, please, let me know if you guys got insight on this, help would be greatly apprecaited

Thank You !!!!!!!!!

 

gotchya, thanks for the heads up, can you please give me a guide to the best undervolting tutorial for the XPS 9560 and the best thermal paste replacement tutorial?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...rature-observations-undervolt-repaste.785963/

 

thank you... i read that one already.

It was a suuuuper bare bones tutorial (we are talking about a newbie here that has no idea about thermal pasting)

-what is a good thermal paste to get (can i get any brand?)?
-how do i remove the heat sinks?
-how much do i put?, how much is it supposed to cover when i squeeze everything together? what happens if i put too much? in the picture it seems Dell applied a lot that went all over the place, isn't that a god thing (the more the better)?
-what software do i use to test the pre and post? How do i use the software?

 

I would start looking on youtube then if that tutorial is beyond you m8.

 

I agree with GoNz0...those questions are beyond the scope of this forum...if you need help with those basic tutorial questions, there are a plethora of resources out there, including, but not limited to the LinusTechTips forums, YouTube, etc. Linus (well, Luke) did a whole video comparing different methods of applications and amounts of thermal paste.

 

As a PSA since I don't think it has been brought up in this thread yet (sorry if I am mistaken), I'd recommend against updating to the most recent Intel graphics driver (version 4627). I noticed more screen flickering and trouble waking up from sleep/hibernation after upgrading to it recently. Apparently, others have seen issues as well:

As for how to prevent the problem of Windows messing things up, I mentioned this in my first post, but I'll be a bit more clear: you can set a Group Policy setting to prevent the installation of drivers for specific device ID's. You can search for a thorough tutorial that's out there on how to do this, but basically you go to:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation > Device Installation Restrictions

And then Enable "Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs" and add all device ID's for the iGPU, which can be found in Device Manager. Doing this will (or should) prevent Windows or anything else from changing the drivers for that device. Note that if you want to install an update in the future, you will need to Disable this policy, which will also clear the list of IDs you typed in, so if you want to enable it again, you'll have to put them back in again (I've saved the path and the ID's in a text file for easy reference).

 

Group policy is for us with pro only m8, hence me suggesting the roll back method.

One thing I did notice and I do not know if it is due to letting windows roll back is BF1 and GTA5 played like crap, 15-20 fps until I used DDU to wipe Intel and Nvidia (in for a penny) then install fresh and block driver updates.

 

I know gpedit is only built into Pro versions, and was going to mention that in my post, but I found this post and thought it looked promising (haven't tested it for myself obviously...) so I hoped Home users could still do it.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e/9f2ab0da-3821-48e6-9205-fd7755b904f4?auth=1

Do you know if this does/does not work?

 

I got my 9560 on Tuesday and have inspected it for defects, backlight bleed, touchpad issues, bezel issues, etc and I am happy to say that all looks great!

Mine came from Best Buy and it is a signature edition pc with fingerprint scanner. No bloat, just a clean windows install.

960 pro coming on Wednesday and that's when ill do a fresh install with gonzos ISO along with swapping in the 8265 I purchased as well.

I haven't had to chance to thoroughly test the specs, but initial impressions are good: fantastic screen and clarity, keyboard isn't sticky space bar rebounds nicely, performance seems snappy, build quality is great.

Let's hope all doesn't go to hell after I install everything later this week haha. I will probably undervolt instead of repasting and see how that goes for the time being. If I notice throttling then I'll dive back in and reevaluate.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I figured I would play the QC lottery and order an XPS 9560 since it seemed to be the best combinations specs-wise for a Windows machine that met my requirements. It actually went fairly well, the screen is great with no significant backlight bleed or unevenness. Temperatures and fans are reasonable. The SSD is fast enough.

...

However, I am having an issue with the left speaker, and would appreciate some advice on whether it would simply be best to return the laptop, or bother with Dell warranty service.

From the first time I turned the laptop on, while it was still at the BIOS boot screen, crackling could be heard from the left speaker. I tried to remain optimistic and went ahead and did a fresh Windows install and updated drivers. The left speaker continues to play sounds that remind me of a ground loop in a sound reinforcement amplifier. Even when the sound in Windows is muted, there is crackling and the crackling varies depending on what the rest of the computer is doing.

Dell is sending someone to replace the speaker, but unless they're powered speakers or there's an issue with the ground connection for the speaker (do these ones even have a ground), I don't suspect that will fix anything.

Summary:

• Crackling and popping sounds from the left speaker even pre-OS
• Increases significantly during GPU and USB activity
• Lower music/audio volumn in left speaker with crackling sounds (e.g., https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BydqpCq29CRwOTdaNzFRNEVHems )
• Crackling and popping continues even when the sound is muted in Windows (e.g., https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BydqpCq29CRwRXJIYVhTQ09SV2c )
• When I plug in headphones, the headphones sound just fine, but crackling is present in the left speaker

Would it be best to just return the laptop and order another? Or should I play the Dell service game?

Thank you!

 

Probably one of the least invasive fix it attempts tbh, let it happen and see if it is a bad cable causing it. After that demand a new build unless you want to let them swap the sound board

 

Thank you! I'll give the service a try first.

 

Hi all wanted an opinion on a ram upgrade, Kingston Hyper X.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014R8JWE...lid=2U73Y2PD9QRD0&coliid=I17KBFKDY5VVCF&psc=1


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I'd personally go with 1x16GB because its cheaper and leaves the door open for another identical 16GB stick to be added later.

Not there is a performance hit running one stick, but it's not actually that much (10-15% seems to be the bandied about figure)

 

So maybe I just hit the jackpot maybe i got suckered.

I had a 9550, i7, 16gb ram, 512gb ssd, FHD screen. My wife spilled juice and killed the thing. Thank goodness for accidental coverage. Dell attempted repair, and said some parts out of stock and couldnt give me a date of when it would be fixed. So I *****ed like crazy. Dell offered (and I took) a refurb 9560 i7 with 32gb ram, 1tb SSD (toshiba) and 4k screen.

Still getting used to the screen. I do have flicker issues even manually updating the driver off the intel site. no coil whine, no light bleed, no BSOD's, no other issues at this time. Hopefully/maybe the flicker will be resolved, eventually.

My biggest thing: the 4k screen is so freaking glossy!!!!!!!!!! any suggestions on how to tone it down?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...n-flicker-thread.795285/page-30#post-10498297

 

So they actually gave you an upgraded model as part of the replacement? That sounds like a pretty good deal to me! The only thing that would worry me is the "refurbished" bit, but given the masses of returns, and that it's a new model, can't be that old. I would probably give it a thorough checking over however (given my first 2 units were properly defective, new out of the box). Depending on your technical ability, might also want to unscrew the bottom and check for any obvious issues internally (missing screws, missing thermal pads, evidence of issues inside etc).

On the glossy screen - I have to agree although it's not a huge issue for me. Having used a MBPr for many years you get used to it (although granted, the dell is way more glossy). If you are running on power, just whack brightness to 100% and it's less of an issue or angle the screen slightly - the viewing angles are pretty good as it's an IPS.

 

Also - slightly off topic here (sorry!) but it's been a while since I've sold any hardware, so looking for advice. My shiny new Dell XPS is replacing an old macbook pro that I'm now trying to sell. What's the best way to achieve this without getting scammed? I've tried the usual routes of friends/family but no interest; tried gumtree...but have only had offers from Nigerian Princes and other legit people.

I guess ebay is the way to go?

 

Yup. They wanted to give me 9550 refurb but with i5 instead of i7 as thats all they had "in stock" ... I said absolutely no to that. So he offered the 9560 refurb. I jumped on it not realizing the 4k screen is so different.

Just did what Gonz0 suggested about the driver uninstall etc and I THINK flicker is gone. will need to test for a few days, lowered brightness down to minimum, may get a screen anti-glare shield.

Otherwise, so far so good. I loved my 9550, hope to love this 9560 even more.

 

I sold my 9550 in these forums in the classifieds.

 

Yeah saw that, but you need to have min. 3 months account and various other things. Probably good when I need to sell my 9560 (for a 9570??) but need to shift my mac now to cover costs. Ebay it is!

 

I recently purchased a i5/8/256 9560. Upgraded to 16gb of RAM and a 512gb Samsung 960 Pro (running in ACHI mode), and cannot seem to get past having a random blue screen/crash or two per day. These usually manifest as the system becoming unresponsive except for the mouse cursor being able to move.

Have tried the following:
-Updated BIOS to 1.1.3
-Clean install from MS ISO
-Clean install from Dell provided ISO (careful to install drivers in dell-recommended order)
-Tried various combinations of HD Graphics and GeForce drivers, including most recent versions from mid March
-Some crashes were related to Killer software...replaced wifi module with Intel 8265. Remaining crash/BSODs seem to be associated with disk usage spikes or Chrome saying "waiting for cache.." Good news? No more bluetooth mouse bugginess and no more killer driver crashes.
-Have tried using both the Microsoft and Samsung NVMe drivers, neither seem to work without crashes
-Have run dell stress tests, Memtest, games, looked for SMART events, etc. No sign of hardware problems at all aside from unpredictable crashes

Have not tried:
-Clean install ISO from this forum (would this be likely to work when manual clean installs haven't? will it work with the aftermarket upgrades?)
-Dell hardware technicians

Has anybody managed to get past the crashes in a similar or other configuration? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

What BSOD's are being logged (if any)

 

CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED and UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION (sadly neither are creating dumps)...I had been getting KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, but these were caused by the Killer driver and haven't happened since installing the Intel 8265.

 

This was my biggest problem with it too. It still annoys me, but not quite as much. Part of it is simply getting used to it and part of it is a matter of positioning the display so that the reflections aren't quite as noticeable.

 

Is this your review

http://www.ultrabookreview.com/14925-lenovo-yoga-720-15-impressions/

I have to say, for a moment reading, I was tempted by the price and keyboard, but then the floaty trackpad and underwhelming screen made it clear I couldn't ...