XPS 15 9560 owners thread.

So I've been experiencing some freezes on chrome when connected to public WiFi only. Chrome will freeze and once I disconnect from wifi it unfreezes. Any advice? Thanks!

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I see your point...it's not the performance that worries me but more that I wan't to make the laptop as quiet as possible while remaining the full performance available...if you think that this is more or less as good as it goes fine with me...I just haven't noticed much (if any) difference between original paste and LM while apparently it should have been a huge difference...

Thx

 

Installed BIOS 1.2.4, have noticed no improvements but fan noise seems to have increased. Should I downgrade? Originally only upgrade to see if Dell had perhaps put in support for SED passwords in BIOS but unfortunately, they don't seem to have done that

Not that it is too loud now but before it was really silent. Kind of like MacBook Pro silent If I recall correctly it was on 1.0.3 or something like that before.

Edit:

Has anyone tried downgrading or will I be the first? This constant fan whining is driving me a bit crazy compared to the whisper quite operation on the 1.0.3 BIOS. What am I missing by going back down again? Does any of the in between BIOS upgrades offer silent operation as well as some needed fixes?

 

Well, it isn't like you will be punishing the laptop running small FFT's all the time now will it

Just being able to run at max turbo at 80 degrees means it is still 20 degrees under a stock paste.

 

Must say that this XPS15 keyboard is actually growing on me. The feeling of it that is. Maybe it has become a bit softer by my hammering on it for a few weeks now. Perhaps not the most pleasant feel always but I seem to type quite fast on it now which few errors (that are not because of my bad spelling )

Out of curiosity, has anyone else found that they tend to prefer the more shallow keyboard like on most modern high end laptops compared even to the usual best-in-class-external-keyboards? I'm starting to find more and more that I actually type faster on these ones today than on the supposed to be best mechanical keyboard. I thing it is due to much less key travel needed on those shallow keyboard and having adjusted to that, I find that I many times does not type hard enough on my mechanical external keyboards to actually activate the switches.

 

I have a small question. Out of curiosity, I generated a windows powershell(admin) "powercfg -energy" report, and it came up as:

Platform Power Management Capabilities: PCI Express Active-State Power Management (ASPM) Disabled
PCI Express Active-State Power Management (ASPM) has been disabled due to a known incompatibility with the hardware in this computer.

Wondering what this "known incompatibility" is ... ? I've read all 180+ threads here, and don't remember it being mentioned. Anyone know, by any chance?

 

The last four times I have opened my lid and the Dell logo comes up, it says below it "to skip disk checking..." then when I do nothing, it quickly pops up something along the lines of "scanning and repairing..." then it boots up and everything seems normal. What gives and what to do?

 

Hi,
So far I have read 95 pages of the thread and plan on reading all of it in the next couple of days. I have a 9560 16GB/1TB/4k coming my way. From the shipping label it is clear it has the Toshiba SSD. Can you guys help me out with what all I should be checking on receiving the laptop so as to make sure there are no problems? I am going to be using this machine for mostly office work and some personal photo/video editing. However I would be traveling internationally quite a bit so reliability is important.

 

I liked this as a simple QC check list:


Why do you guys suppose Dell isn't putting the proper Intel Graphics Driver into their driver download page for the 9560? I haven't found a good walkthrough for updating so that I can use Chrome. I realize the info is out there already, but it is not step by step clear enough for someone with my limited knowledge to feel comfortable trying. I would love if I could just do it automatically via the Dell driver site but no luck.

 

As someone mentioned keyboard...I think I'll have to have mine changed as with most keys hitting them at the corner doesn't register as a keystroke... :-/

 

To follow this up, I am doing a lightroom catalog rebuild and currently it is doing face detection on 12k+ pictures all around 12mb so a lot of work, it is sat happily at 99% CPU, 3.4ghz and fans at 3200

quiet enough!

 

What nVidia drivers are you using? Anyone tried 381.65?

 

Doesn't sounds that bad...although for me even 2400RPM is very noticeable...just to make sure, while the fans are spinning at 2400 do you hear a slight "rrrrrrrrrrr" sound coming from them? it's not super strong, but it's there, I know somebody here had to readjust one of the fans before...although I will have to have my machine taken apart anyway to change to keyboard :-/

At first I thought that all the craziness about Dells QC is exagerated, but getting XPS is really nothing like getting Latitudes which I had several of and all were spotless...

 

Seem to work fine here...

 

every Xps15 has that fan noise

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out of interest, where can you read the fan speeds?

 

hwinfo64, aida64 and several other hardware monitoring apps.

 

I just want to repost a few questions I had that got lost in the shuffle on here.


As for uninstalling Dell stuff, do most people here agree with Gonzo on uninstalling almost all Dell software except for premier color or do you some people like some of it? I certainly trust and respect him but want to make sure it isn't just a very personal decision and that all Dell programs are widely accepted as a bunch of useless bloat.

Also, on the Dell driver page, after entering your service tag, how do you know which drivers you already have and which need updating? It shows Intel 630 graphics driver and I thought it was going to show 620? I also don't see 4590 anywhere on this Intel graphics driver page: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/80939/Graphics-Drivers

Why do you guys suppose Dell isn't putting the proper Intel Graphics Driver into their driver download page for the 9560? I haven't found a good walkthrough for updating so that I can use Chrome without lag. I realize the info is out there already, but it is not step by step clear enough for someone with my limited knowledge to feel comfortable trying. I would love if I could just do it automatically via the Dell driver site but no luck which makes no sense to me as they must be constantly dealing with customers complaining about Chrome issues.

 

It is the HD630 video on the 9560.
I guess people didn't have anything else to add

On the download page just "original release date 0-30 days"
If you struggle to keep track just write it down in word

Dell driver updates has never been that good, you can also sign up for driver updates on the downloads page, save you having to keep up as it will let you know when a new driver is released, scroll down to "Update notifications"

All the majority of Dell specific software does is report back to Dell, who wants that!

 

Thanks as always. Is "Dell Product Registration" important?

I'm not sure if you quite realize how confused I am over the HD630 situation. I was told to download a different driver. I went to intel's graphics drivers page and the exact number of the drive I was told to download didn't exist there. I don't understand what is going on. Can I expect Dell or Windows update to give me the right graphics driver anytime soon or will it be months or more?

Is there a simple youtube or link that clearly walks through what to do in a very clear way? I realize this isn't an issue for most people here because you are more accustomed to this stuff but its confusing for me. Can't we assume Dell support is getting thousands of complaints about Chrome? Shouldn't they be eager to release a fix?

 

I'm adding this to my signature to save having to keep pasting this

Download 45.90 (or whatever version you want to use as this post will soon be out of date) https://downloadmirror.intel.com/26563/eng/win64_154514.4590.zip (extract to a folder and note where it is)

Download DDU http://www.wagnardsoft.com/DDU/download/DDU v17.0.6.2.exe ( latest versions posted here)

Run DDU and extract the files to a folder called DDU on your desktop that you made just now. Run the exe file it extracted. Click launch on DDU (normal mode)
DDU will now be open, on the right hand side change the "selected graphics driver from Nvidia to Intel then on the left hit "Clean and restart"

Agree with whatever it may warn you about (can't remember and I am not going to wipe my drivers to find out as mine work now) and wait for it to reboot.

Once back into windows you can extract the intel driver zip and run the setup file, it should install without issue.


Below is a just in case but shouldn't be needed, this is also how to perform a dirty upgrade

IF by a slim chance it tells you this isn't the driver for your system (DDU should stop this happening) extract the intel zip to a folder on your desktop. Open the device manager, expand display adapters, right click and properties on the intel (or microsoft basic if you ran DDU) go to the driver tab, click update driver, click browse my computer for driver software, click let me from pick a list, click have disk, click browse, browse to the folder you put the intel drivers in, then the graphics folder, click on igdlh64, click ok, click next and it will install the drivers.


To stop windows update putting the driver you do not want on you will need to install group policy if you are on windows 10 home, windows 10 pro users can skip this step as you already have it.
Download here http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/add_gpedit.html

To disable a specific device from being updated see here https://www.howtogeek.com/263851/ho...from-automatically-updating-specific-drivers/
Make sure you have the driver you want installed before you do this as it prevents ANY driver being installed onto said device until you change group policy back again.

 

Dells support (on their home page) suck compared to vendors like Lenovo. In fact, I would even rate Apple support for WINDOWS to be far superior to Dell, as strange as that might sound. Despite forcing to user to install some system detect crap (that autostarts everytime you reboot), it still cant tell you which drivers are actually needed. And the Dell Update...dont get me started on that

The most recent Windows 10 version contain most of the needed drivers so not the same need to downlod manually.


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Thanks guys but the latest Windows update didn't seem to auto update to the correct graphics driver which means untechnical users like myself will have to follow the manual instructions that Gonzo generously added. I would much prefer it happening automatically and find it quite shocking that Dell would rather have thousands of people harassing their support about the same issue rather than just pushing an automatic update. It literally makes no sense. I can understand QC issues even if I don't like them as I can see they are trying to cut costs but how can it be beneficial to let a graphics driver that causes a high percentage of users problems remain unfixed for so long?

What would be your estimate as to how long it will take Dell to fix the Intel Graphics automatically?

 

I did it exactly as u said, but Windows is keep overwriting te driver with the one from Windows update. Already tried to disabled the automatic device drivers windows functionality. But stil no result.

 

google how to install group policy on windows 10 home, once you have done that google how to disable a device driver being updated by group policy.

 

If I recall correctly I had to do an uninstall twice before I could install the new version. Could also be worth trying to uninstall via Device Manager also and delete the old drivers.


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That doesn't stop windows thinking it knows better.

 

Asked this a bunch but still haven't seen any replies. For those of you with a lot of Dell experience, how many weeks/months do you anticipate it to take before you can expect to see an automatic update that solves the Intel Graphics issue? As much as I appreciate GoNz0's walkthrough, to read someone then needing to google how to do multiple other things that I'm unfamiliar with is overwhelming for me. If I could expect Dell to push an automatic update that fixes the Chrome issue within the next few weeks I'd just wait. What do you guys think?

 

Dell will not push an automatic anything. They will eventually have an updated driver, but that could be a week from now or a year from now. If you need help ask for help, don't ask for us to break out the tarot cards...

Not trying to sound like a jerk, I'm just saying that there is no way anyone on this forum short of a Dell "engineer" could answer that.

 

You don't sound like a jerk at all. Thanks for answering. Would a decent dell tech support rep be able to help with the Chrome freezing issue and updating drivers or is it on me to figure out how to do it myself by following the advice of the more experienced posters?

 

Dell support will not do anything more than reinstalling the drivers they have on their website. They would likely send your case to the Dell engineers and you would have to wait until they released a new video card driver.

 

Can owners comment on the 1080p vs 4k display for casual gaming? Basically, no esports, but games like GTAV, Unreal Tournament 4, Borderlands, Mass Effect Andromeda, Starcraft 2 (SP), Deus Ex MD, etc.?

Specifically I'm wondering about ghosting and refresh rate. Is the 1080p as bad as reviews make it out to be (noticable ghosting / blurring) and is the 4k screen that much better for gaming (of course at 1080p resolution)?

Thanks.

 

I have not seen the 1080p display, but in my experience, the 4K one does not exhibit noticeable ghosting or blurring either in benchmarks or in games. It looks good both at 1080p and at 4K (which is surprisingly viable for older games).

 

There is a weird scratching noise sometimes when I am watching videos on sites like CNN. When I click pause or play or open a new video it makes this fast and unpleasant scratch noise after which it then plays normally until I click another action and the scratch sound occurs again. A known issue and fix for this?

 

That is either the SSD making noise, the CPU making noise or the coils, no you can't fix it, Dell may opt to replace parts but they also have no idea.

And yes SSD's can make noise and do make noise, the same with CPU's and coils i'm afraid. due to the ultrabook design you have little to no insulation from the noise.

 

Yes but my windows I keep no I don't know but its seems that my u

Same here, this is normal with the XPS. Had 3 9550 models en already 2 9560 models. All of them have the same noise. Some people are sensitive for it and other dont even hear it. Dell on site support replaced my moterhboard 2 times wich made the sound even louder.

2 people i know with a 9560 never heard the sound until i told them there is sound and they could hear it.

Dell knows te problem but they say if u cant hear it in a busy office invoirment they cant do anything about it. This is normal they say.

 

It is normal and not just Dell. Bigger laptops have a bit more insulation so it can be hidden quite well.
NVMe drives are so damn fast they make more noise than Sata based as the controller is being pushed to it's limit.

 

Yep, before i moved to the XPS this year i bought the new Asus 14inch ultrabook. They also suffer from the same sound and i returned it. But this is normal u cant do anything about it unless its very loud and can be heard in a noisy invoirment they replace the motheboard.

 

This doesn't really sound like the issue I am having. The scratch noise is LOUD. It feels like a driver issue, not a hardware issue. Most videos play normally but every so often, it will start to have this issue and it really feels driver or software related. It doesn't sound like coil whine or anything even remotely like that. More like a short burst of that sound a TV used to make when it would be on the wrong channel. Like a loud static sound but it only lasts a second.

I've also noticed it will only happen on one tab with a CNN video (or youtube I think) when I have two open. Is there any update I could try? I did attempt to load the latest intel audio driver but it made my audio feel extremely loud such that 25% volume was legit loud so I rolled it back.

 

If u unistal the Intel HD Ghrapics driver test if the sound is gone. Just delete it dont instal a new one and test if the sound is gone.

 

The scratching noise you describe is what I described above CPU or SSD, unplug the speakers physically and it should still happen.
Trawl back through the 9550 threads to find out more if you want, a lot of us 9560 owners were 9550 owners so we know we don't need to ask what it is.

 

I don't think so. I have the same problem here since I updated my drivers last week with the latest CAB file that Dell has build.
So now the question is : which driver is it ? Do you tried rollback to an older audio driver ? That driver I had who worked great was installed around June so he can't be newer than that.

@GoNz0 That sound is coming from the speakers. It's like volume control was 100% during the first 1/10 second after you click play on a music/video player.

EDIT : I have a 9550 so no driver from around June for you I presume

 

If it had been a site like PornHub it could be a hardware problem but CNN....nah

 

Is it possible to install a Precision 5520 BIOS on the XPS15 9560? The Precision BIOS seem to support OPAL which the XPS does not (AFAIK).

 

No, different hardware. I bet someone's smart enough to find the bios switch needed if you ask nice in the speed shift thread?

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I used to have that on my 9550 until I reinstalled the drivers, seems like you are describing another issue than the common scrolling noise, I need to stop reading this forum before my 2nd coffee!

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Well, I promised myself that I would not do any stupid tweaking to my main work computer (the XPS15) but just keep it all to my Alienware 17 R4....I know from experience how it usually turns out

 

Am I the only one experiencing "LCD screen flashes" even with the latest Intel drivers installed? Are we sure that this really is a software issue and not a hardware one?

 

So what skins can you recommend for the XPS? Especially interested in something to cover this finger print magnet surface that Dells seems to like so much that they put it on every computer around the keyboard.

 

I fixed it with the DDU utility and 4590 drivers.