XPS 15 9560 owners thread.

Thanks Athonline for a quick reply. I will reconsider my needs vs options. Cheers!

 

Obviously, the XPS 15 has lots of merits; i.e.: one of the best displays out there, awesome build quality, great keyboard (for me), and touchpad (which you might not using). It really goes down to your uses and needs. Personally, I ordered mine last week due to its incredible portability, without sacrificing much power. I went with the UHD edition, as I figured that anything over 5+ hours battery life is already an upgrade, plus I do photography as a hobby and would love a good panel.

 

I'm really confused, no doubt I would buy XPS, it's just a matter of config. The thing is, I'm not going for a desktop yet, because I work in one country and live in another (however it sounds). I travel back and forth between two location, but never actually use laptop on the go, always on one or on the other desk. I do also a photography as my hobby and use Lightroom. My library gets bigger and bigger and purely for convenience, I keep all my photos (LR library) on that additional drive that travels with me, inside my laptop (currently as caddy in the place of optical drive). So I don't need to carry another piece of external SSD.
I just trying to convince myself that the FHD is not that bad one and I can always use 4K displays. The problem is, at the moment I have two location, so 2x the costs. Well, one may say, you cannot have everything.. and that's true. Just trying to find the sweet spot

 

I get you; I am often traveling to conferences, plus, I tend to spend 1-2 weeks per month at my girlfriend's house in Paris (I live in Bath, UK).

If money is not an object, you can get the "low-end" UHD one and replace it with a 2TB one. However, in general, I would advice against putting all your eggs in one basket and instead opt for an external drive for backups and older photos.

Also, the FHD is definitely not a bad one. It is still, one of the best -if not the best- FHD 15" screen out there in terms of image quality. Just, the UHD is even better. ;-)

 

I've now thrown out the Killer NIC crap and replaced it with a Intel 8265 and so far I've noticed great improvements. Unlike the Killer NIC, the Intel one actually work and it works better also. Now I have Internet ready by the time I have logged in and also got about 100 Mbit/s extra network speed.

For anyone looking to replace, please note that Intel has switched the antennas on the 8265 compared to the 8260 and Killer 1535 so be careful when you attach the cables again.

 

Is there any way to get rid of Cortona and just have the normal search bar?

 

Well I've had a pretty disappointing weekend trying to sort out this new (well, manufacturer refurbished) 9560 of mine, it's become a bit of a chronicle really.

I've attempted several clean installs of Windows, several clean installs of different Intel & Nvidia drivers, temporarily switching over to RAID from AHCI just in case and other software adjustments but I'm still getting this dreaded VIDEO_DXGKRNL_FATAL_ERROR BSDO which is on average happening every 90 minutes or every 10 minutes after a BSOD if I'm really unlucky.

Fair play to the eBay Dell Outlet re-seller in the meantime though for going out of his way even on a weekend to offer a solution but to no avail. He's given me a direct Dell premium support number to take it further after our attempts.

So I'm left with having to call Dell in the morning, I suspect I will need the motherboard replacing. @GoNz0 or anyone else who has experienced warranty work - do Dell simply send out a technician with a part to replace it for you or can you offer for them to send the part only & say I can fit it myself?

Many thanks - Liam.

 

You should paste that straight into google for an instant answer

 

Dell will send you an untrained 3rd party engineer with an untested 2nd hand (Dell call them refurbished but that's usually BS) to fit it and bugger up a few other things while he is at it.
I would get your money back while you still can.

 

Blimey that is rather alarming to say the least, I'll have a think. However something tells me that I'll still have a bit of a battle on my hands if I try to return the laptop that the eBay reseller for a refund.

Liam.

 

It's eBay, it's faulty and hopefully you're within the 30 day period.

 

Depending on your location, you might have some laws to protect you. Considering that you said "blimey", I will assume that you are Brit. You have 30 days to return it, based on an EU law for commerce. It is faulty, thus unfit for purpose. Also, eBay/PayPal can intervene if you need them to.

As GoNz0 said, Dell is most likely to replace some of your laptop's part. Not sure if possible with refurbished (especially, ones bought outside Dell Outlet), but you could try and request a new machine. Most likely, they will refuse until they give it a few tries.

 

Yep, 2TB is an option I'm considering as well. Especially that in each location I do have 4TB external RAIDs to backup all my stuff once I'm there. So there are actually 3 'baskets'
How do you find apps like Excel, Lightroom or Steam games (I occasionally play Skyrim or Civilization 5) working with scaled resolution on 4K? Do you use any of these? How about Chrome? I'm almost convinced to 4K XPS.

 

Am I the only one who is utterly disappointed with the keyboard on XPS 9560? Especially this: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/20004557 I had my keyboard exchanged and the new one is behaving better but I still have the same problem especially with the lowermost line of keys (and especially up and down arrows are atrocious!)

I am a soft typer, usually you wouldn't even hear me pressing the keys and XPS keyboard just doesn't seem to work for me, or did I get another defective one? Can anybody please check if you can reproduce the effect? (BTW I'm not the same person who started the thread on Dell forum)

 

Haha good guess, indeed I am a Brit. Yeah I'm aware of the rules and regulations involved in my situation, I will see how I can move forward with it tomorrow. Chances are I'll most likely purchase brand new the next time round if I go through with getting it returned and refunded.

Even if I went through the Dell channel they should honour it as a normal warranty claim anyway as these manufacturer refurbished units from this seller are listed as having the Dell 1 Year Premium warranty in place upon the laptop being registered with the new owner (I also have the Dell invoice which states this too), though at the moment I'm still waiting for the tag on this laptop to be released / reset from Dell as it's currently unrecognised on their website - apparently it takes up to 10 days for Dell to do this as they have to remove the original owner / purchaser from the record.

@GoNz0 - I only purchased the laptop 10 or so days ago, and it was delivered last Tuesday.

Liam.

 

Then your return window started last Wednesday under the DSR and eBay can step in for 30 days regardless. As you are not the original owner Dell will not replace it and at most get a refurb hence me saying get out while you can.

 

Just beware, the 2TB option from Samsung costs quite a bit!

I am still waiting for mine to arrive -on the slow boat from China. However, I tested the UHD panel using a colleague's 9550. He had Visual Studio and Unity open, both were fine. If anything, my 13" W230SS had a 3K monitor and it was usable at most cases.

If I may ask, who is the seller? There are quite a few on eBay UK selling machines at low prices. However, as you can get a 10% from Dell easily, the difference between new and refurbished might not worth it. Especially, as by getting new you can get warranty extensions and accidental damage (not available on ref. models) with a discount. Also, if you are/know a student/educator, you can get 15% off at Dell's Outlet.

Yes, indeed they should. The difference is that by buying from Dell, if you return it back, it costs them more money. Thus, they will try their best to convince you to keep your purchase.

 

With screen dim, no browser open, and task manager showing very little running that uses meaningful memory, my batterybar still wouldn't dip below around 18 mW which I assume means 18 mW/hr? If so, then with nothing running and screen dim I still would barely get 5 hours of battery life. That seems pretty bad. I've tried to do reasonable things to reduce battery consumption so now I'm at a loss.

Should I change the power plan from "Dell Active" to "Balanced" or anything along those lines? I've now disabled touch and I agree Chrome appears to be a memory hog but even with it closed my estimated battery time is bad.

 

I'd prefer not to say at the moment but I got mine for £1,400 posted. At the time I did compare with the ones on the Dell Outlet site but they are a bit of a bugger - as when you check over the ones they have in stock and the configurations, the prices displayed are BEFORE the VAT is added on and then it is added when you reach the checkout. For the configuration I've got currently via the eBay reseller, the same one on the Dell Outlet at the time came to £1453 posted.

It's a shame I'm inclined to return this 9560 as apart from the BSOD, it's excellent. Cosmetically you'd still think it was brand new, their is next to no marks what so ever. Also the FHD screen is spot on and is free from any of the quality control issues that are reported, the SSD is the speedy PM961 as well.

Liam.

 

Or perhaps ask Cortana?

 

She would BSOD you for daring to ask!

 

I still can't seem to figure out how the discharge rate on my battery can consistently be between 21-26 mW with light browsing and nothing else. It really makes no sense. I've tried most of the usual suggestions you get googling and something just seems off here which is why I was wondering if battery wear numbers are completely reliable for battery health.

 

No idea, Dell will not help as they don't have a clue. Best you will get is the battery saver profile.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

FYI, those of you who are in UK and are looking for a laptop, UK Dell have 12% off all the laptops and desktops for 3 days starts today. If you combine that with 10% off from unidays and 4.2% from Topcashback, you can save yourself quarter of a price I've already ordered one.

 

Thanks. Dell just told me to disable hardware acceleration on Chrome and if that doesn't work, that I might need service. Is there really any chance disabling that feature will lead to a significant difference?

Also, I assume my Nvidia 1050 is only kicking in when it should be which is basically never when just browsing the net, right?

 

TCB will not payout if you use any other discount.

 

Double post, see bellow.

 

Ahh! Now the 16GB/512GB is just around 1600 with 3 years warranty/3 years accidental damage and the 32GB/1TB is 1810. I am quite annoyed as I paid 1910 for the later only a week ago, but if it was available at that price, I would had gone with the former.

 

Are you still in the returns period?
I returned mine to buy again with an extra £100 off on top of my 10% off code.

 

I still haven't received my order. I just gave them a call. The guy kept asking for a link, while I was explaining it is on Dell's page with the two discount codes. I literally sent him instructions and a link to the Dell's XPS page, my voucher codes, and a screenshot. I am waiting for him to call back.

I can't re-order. I am flying on the 6th May and will be away for nearly a month. I can order a second machine, but it won't arrive in time or with me at home. I hope to at least get the difference between my order and the current price back. However, I also hope, this won't effect anything else.

PS: If you are returning a machine, you can bargain with Dell to keep the machine and get an additional 10% back.

 

After all driver updates Killer NIC working well

As I already mentioned few posts before - there are lots of settings might have impact on battery drain. : e.g.
1) disable C states - most common mistake made by people. You might set something to get more performance
2) or install wrong hardware driver/configure it incorrectly
3) even attach bad hardware over USB which might prevent CPU/MB to go deeper sleep states
4) didn't install updates for windows (windows 10 actually cant properly handle all power saving tweaks of modern CPUs without updates installed, after install all windows updates you might easily get +100% battery time) - this one I experienced just after fresh install of windows + all drivers. Until I fully update windows - it spend in power-saving C-states for about 25-45% of time, after update it not averaging near 70-75% which is 2-3 times more

 

Unless you have already had 3 defective machines in a row then they would rather get shut of you

 

Double post again -something is wrong with my browser. Sorry!

 

I hope I won't have to come to that.

Dell promised me £70 back after I receive the laptop, due to the better it is available now. I hope, by accepting that, I didn't make a "deal with the devil" (tho, Dell rhymes with Hell) and signed away my return rights/rebates/etc.

 

No that is an average keep it offer tbh.
You already sold yours, your 1st borns and any future children's souls by buying one in the 1st place

 

I do wonder, if I get the £70, if I can also get the additional 10% keep it offer. Based on this forums, I already expect to see: a) flickering, b) some coil whine, and c) battery wear. A bit bad of me to consider it, but I do already have 2nd thoughts for it after the battery wear discussion yesterday.

*sigh* if only Clevo offered better batteries or Lenovo had descent dGPUs...

 

1) flickering - most people experienced it, but there are receipt posted in this thread (b.t.w. it actually not bother me at all.. it might happen only on battery and as rare as once per 15-20 min)
2) coil whine - have nothing to say here... mine has no coil whine.
3) battery wear - just scary-story for people who don't know how most software calculate wear level (it usually display = FCC(full charge capacity) / DC(designed capacity) which have nothing in common with real capacity. Just make proper battery calibration to update FCC with actual capacity which I am pretty sure very close to designed capacity.

UPD: simply playing with dell battery charge settings might cause FCC written by very low value.
If you set to charge your battery no more than 80%, then charge it to 80% and discharge to 5% (till windows shutdown and update FCC) - you instantly get >25% wear level according to the most software report just because during discharge it was able to suck 75% of designed battery power.

 

Further update - I emailed the eBay seller this morning stating I want to return the manufacturer refurbished machine based on the persistent BSOD issue and he's honoured it to be returned for a full refund

Also and as already pointed out - I bit the bullet & went ahead by purchasing another 9560 directly from Dell this morning & made use of the offer for 12% off. Pretty pleased really as this time around it's brand new and near enough the same price as what I originally paid for on the manufacturer refurnished really.

I should get it later on this week as it's ready to ship as of tomorrow, fingers crossed this time it lives up to my expectations...

Liam.

 

Thanks for the post. I agree about the battery wear being overestimated; it is normal. However, it does decrease the resale value of the machine. Also, the fact that Simplo batteries tend to display higher values of battery wear than others (AW13 R3 thread) is alarming of poor QC on the batteries and at the moment, we haven't got enough empirical data to determine the quality of the batteries.

Plus, I am OCD when it comes to things and I tend to have a bad luck. I understand that the coil whine is present more or less only if you place your head on the laptop, which is why I went ahead anyhow with the purchase.

I do think tho, that I tend to overthink and be pessimistic of things.

Well done! I take it, you went with the FHD, no? Considering that the discounts stack, I would definitely recommend you to get 3 years warranty (also on offer) now.

 

Thank you mate, and yeah I've gone for the FHD model again (exact same spec as the refurbished model I've now sent back - 7700HQ / FHD / 16GB / 512GB / 1050) as I'm going to be doing a bit of moderate gaming here and there. I was looking to try and get the one that has the fingerprint reader too but I think it's a custom built to order added extra by the look of it? I also did consider throwing in the 3 years warranty as well and still considering, just got to wait for my refund on the returned unit to clear first before I spend any extra

Liam.

 

You should do it now, as you can get the discounts applied to the warranty as well.

Also, sorry for being the Devil's advocate, but the UHD has better response times for gaming...

 

Tell me about it, I do want to but sadly I can't stretch to any further amount after today's expense :/ All being well the refund for the other unit clear this week too.

Do you mean the FHD screen has a slower response time? If so that it's not the end of the world for me really, I will mostly be using the laptop like I usually do for work, music and general browsing etc.

Liam.

 

Yes! Sorry! I am coding on the other monitor and got myself confused. I know, it won't be at all. I am just teasing you, considering the discounts -this is how I ended up justifying order the UHD over the FHD. ;-P

 

My 4K Touchscreen stopped working, when I check device manager I get ''Unknow USB Device''(Device Descriptor Request Failed)

Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

A request for the USB device descriptor failed.

Anyone know how to fix this problem?

 

Can any of you guys check on my problems with the keyboard if maybe it's a generic "feature" of this laptop and I just type so light that it bothers me while not most other people...?

 

Dells total lack of QC...

Sent from my ASUS_A001 using Tapatalk

 

I am still waiting for my XPS to arrive, but after spending nearly an hour at a colleague's machine, I can say that the keyboard has a "tactile" feeling. I don't think it is well-suited for soft typers. I am the exact opposite of a soft typer and loved it.

Issue is that Dell tends to replace compoments with refurbished ones. Try another replacement or request a new machine. ;-)

 

I am outside of USA indefinitely so replacement would probably be difficult and I don't want to have my machine disassembled 10 times just to find out that the keyboard is like that by design :-/

Just scrolling down the pages with the down arrow results in machine not recognizing the key was pressed half of the times (unless pressed in the middle and/or very firmly).

Can somebody replicate that or even better can somebody confirm that with their machine there is no way to press let's say down arrow without it being noticed as a pressed key?

 

Yeah it is a no brainer even if you have to use a credit card as fall back cash while waiting for the refund.

sorry all I can offer is a google for unknown devices and maybe force the driver "(Standard system devices) HID-compliant touch scree

Fans and keyboards tend to be new fortunately, the downside is the laptop has to be totally rebuild to fit it.

 

Do not let them at it as no service will reduce usage!
you can always try deleting store apps http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/det...m_campaign=tr.im/1WdiS&utm_content=link_click

Don't ask how or why as I don't really bother about getting every last mw out of it, if I were you I would be buying a thunderbolt based li-ion charger.