XPS 15 9560 owners thread.

No, I just pasted a few things that worked for others with this issue. I don't have time to play now. I just tried switching to flight mode and using wired LAN only.

Some studio folks suggest disabling all unnecessary hardware and software, and I've seen running LatencyMon on a freshly booted computer with no running programs produces less latency. But that's not relevant if you're interested in glitch-free music while doing other stuff.

 

Let's make it clear, you do NOT need a real time response to enjoy glitch-free music while doing other stuff. You can listen to mp3, flac, wv over bluetooth or wired speakers/headphones, glitch-free, even if you have latency issues.

 

Having all kind of problems now despite having a clean installation. Should I downgrade the Intel GPU driver to 4590 or something else?

 

My system got less visibly laggy and more stable with the 4590 drivers. I haven't tried the later ones so I can't compare them with the 4590. I'm still not happy with the state of the drivers but the system has been stable.

 

Hello,
I've a question about the WiFi-Speed (802.11AC, 5Ghz) with the XPS 15 9560, W10 - 1607, i7-7700hq. It seems that my WiFi-Speed slowed down during the last weeks. I started with Killer WiFi 1535 and had data rates around 40 MB/s when copying large files (> 1G) from my NAS to the XPS 15. This slowed down to ~25MB/s - 30MB/s and I have no idea why. I swapped the Killer NIC with an Intel 8260 (spare part for my returned 9550) and still don't get the maximum speed I expect (see attached screenshot). During a file copy the notebook is directly located beside the router (AVM Fritzbox 7490) and the driver reports a connection with 866,7 MBit/s. Energy options are set to balanced and WiFi adapter for power safe settings are set to maximum performance. Has anyone an idea how to get back the 40 MB/s (my last option is re-install W10) ?


Edit: A wired ethernet connection via USB copies with ~95MB/s.

 

New to the family. Just repasted and repadded. Though the stamina is better, and it's more acceptable when the stamina is out, I still get TDP power limit... It seems the PL1 dropped to very low after around 20 min of gaming (WOW medium high setting @4K no AA). CPU and GPU max temp are around 78C and 75C for the 2 of the Ambient sensors.

 

Time to upgrade to MU-MIMO router. And for that to work, you have to switch back to Killer or get 8265.

 

Thanks for the answer. But a few weeks ago the transfer rates were around 40 MB/s without MU-MIMO. Unfortunately restoring W10 "restore points" failed and I tried re-installing the drivers without success. Creators update also did no change. Maybe at least someone can confirm transfer rates around 40 MB/s with the 9560 (Killer or Intel without MU-MIMO).

 

The point of MU-MIMO is not achieving a higher speed, rather maintain highest speed with multiple devices. Without MU-MIMO, the router "talks" to devices one at a time and devide the maximum connection speed among all devices. With MU-MIMO, the router can "talk" to multiple MU-MIMO enabled devices at the same time and offer all of them maximum connection speed without dividing.

 

The XPS is the only 802.11ac / 5 GHz device within this Network.

 

I also play DOTA2, sometimes at 4k, but never had a BSOD. Make sure you don't block the airflow under the laptop. What are your FPS like?

Repasting is advisable, but I haven't done so. Most recommend Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut for laptops, as paste is more important.

 

Hey,
today I figured out on my XPS 9560 (i7, 512 GB SSD, FHD, 97Wh battery, bought in February) that there are two grey places on my display on the right side near the bottom. When pressing on the display frame the grey color begins to "move". On the left side of the display there is nothing like that. Has anybody hat that issue before?

Tried to make a video of it:

Is this something for the customer service? Happy to have 3 year onside service ...

 

Call them the screen isn't fixed properly, usual FHD crappy QC

 

Hey guys. Small issue with my XPS. I don't think it was happening when I first got the laptop but has been happening for some time now. Can't pinpoint if it is related to any updates in Windows or a driver update as I didn't notice it as a thing until it became a sustained problem.

Basically, when I open the lid after the computer has been sleeping, the WiFi is not connected and not automatically reconnecting. Once I reconnect manually to the usual network it works totally fine. Any thoughts?

 

If current network selected as AUTO connect - then it could take 10-20 sec after wakeup to discover it and reconnect....
Otherwise you wont be connected again.

 

That was one of the reasons I got rid of the Killer NIC as soon as I could in favor of an Intel 8265. Never had that problem again after that.

 

Thanks guys. Is there nothing to do to speed up the auto connect? It's pretty strange because I can almost instantly connect manually, but if I just leave the computer alone it takes quite a long time to connect.

 

Did you see any other improvements? I.e. FPS or CPU temps? From what I seen, the Killer NIC drivers are so badly written, that tend to make an uncontrolled amount of calls to the CPU resulting RT sound stuttering.

 

Well, the 8265 works which the Killer NIC didn't (in combination with its software). Still getting DPC latency problems though with my high speed broadband (500 Mbit/s) but not sure if the 8265 is really to blame for that considering that the XPS15 internal design seems to leave a lot to be wished for (crippled TB3 etc).

 

Dude, it's not your XPS that's causing DPS latency when maxing out your wireless.

 

Dude, so tell me what is then as I don't have a clue.

 

Well I'll tell you if my 5ghz i7 desktop does the same thing with wireless but doesn't with wired then it's either a software thing or something else. Quit blaming the XPS. Looking at the instructions for the test it makes it seem like you shouldn't be doing anything while using it anyway, and it also suggests you disable wireless.

*on edit* You also admitted it didn't work on your alienware.

 

Well we all know that but you have generic problems, not XPS9650 specific so maybe if you can't be arsed to google it go to the generic windows section of NBR and see how you get on there, they will probably tell you to google it to be fair

 

Even better, why not just shut down the entire computer, that will definitely solve DPC problem

Please refrain from making things up on what I said and not said, there is no "admitting" going on from my side. Just said that my Alienware 17 R4 does not seem to have the same problem with sluggishness although the AWs have had their fair share of problems as well. That said, having reinstalled my XPS15 completely and not having downloaded any drivers from Dell, the situation seem to have improved.

 

Trust me, I have googled countless times for a solution to this but to no avail. Although Windows Creators Update seems to have caused WiFi problems all over. Glad to see that you seem to be happy with your latest XPS15 replacement, is this your sixth XPS15?

 

You literally said this:

when I asked you if your Alienware could run DPS while doing wireless.

I can search google and find 6,140 results on people experiencing issues with ndis.sys and high latency, my guess is they probably aren't all using XPS15s...

You just gotta have a scapegoat right?

My XPS functions great, I use it 90% of the time, even with my desktop hooked up to a 34" ultrawide. I experience 0 issues with lag or anything like that. Sounds like you've either done something wrong, or you need to do some hardware checks.

 

Thanks for proving my point. Now lets move on.

 

More like 10 if we start with the 9530 and that excluded the 9550 my daughter had as she didn't use it them *****ed she didn't have one so i had to buy her a 9560 to replace the bloody thing, touchscreen of course so she can get the screen greasy.
And no she hasn't used that either!

 

Whatever man, you admitted your alienware has the same issue. Swap the cards if you really think it's the card. You keep bringing up DPC "issues" when the only DPC issue is the one where you max out your wireless on any device and can't accept the fact that you're going to have issues.

 

This guilt thing seems to be really important to you. Have already tried different NICs and also with the network speed limited to 5 Mbit/s and the problems remained the same but thanks for the suggestion. Lots of other improvements by switching to the Intel NIC though. For anyone interested in what I said and didn't s say about my Alienware compared to the XPS15, the posts are all there a few pages back in this thread so really no need to be creative or repetitive about that.

Edit:

Here is a dedicated thread about the latency problems with the XPS15:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/latency-issues-with-xps-15-9560.801763/

 

No what is important to me is that you are honest. I asked you if you were having the same issue with your alienware and you said you were but you then blamed the Killer card for your issues. I was actually curious about this and had considered doing some research to try to help you, but I sure don't feel like doing that now. Good luck with your "issue."

 

Admission...honesty...blame...feelings...revenge...are we still talking about just a laptop or are you breaking up with me?

If I find any solutions I'll share them. One thing that seemed to help a lot with the sluggishness was do downgrade to the Intel Display Driver 4590 again. But will probably have to wait and see for at least a week but so far so good.

 

Is it just me that has experienced that the finger print for Windows Hello seems to work something like 1 month and then it just does not work anymore? I always get a Windows error when trying to log in that way. It works by adding the same fingerprint again though so the fingerprint reader isn't broken and I would guess this is a Windows problem rather than an XPS problem. Even a clean reinstallation of Windows has the problems reoccurring though.

 

That error is random, I tend to reboot daily but now and again resuming will cause the error and I have to dig out the password or reboot. It is a windows bug as I get it with the pin on my games rig as well, fyi the pin will also stop with the fingerprint in my case.

 

OK, then I guess its just waiting for Microsoft to fix it.

 

We have a few reports coming from this thread. It's getting a little tense in here. Stay non-personal and on-topic. If you have an issue with another forum member, keep it to yourself, message them, or message me.

Charles

 

Has anyone experienced any differences in performance when coming from a cold boot rather than resuming from standby etc? Sometimes the sleep can have undesired side effects etc.

 

Yes (9550 - mind this is probably quite different because of the different set of drivers - but I'm seeing similar bug reports also with XPS 13 etc).

Not sure what exactly it is, and it isn't a severe issue with obvious problems, but I have a gut feeling that after sleep the laptop isn't working perfectly. For instance various benchmark scores (Userbenchmark, SSD performance). If I access a website that requires a certificate in Chrome after sleep, the attempt gets stuck somehow with the lsass process hogging up the whole RAM slowly (and can't be killed).

I've also had a few different sleep/hibernation/boot related bugs. Like the "hibernate after" feature rather waking the computer to a weird state after the preset time than regularly switching from sleep to hibernate. And in this weird state, the laptop would wake up a couple of seconds after being sent to sleep / hibernate / soft shutdown.
Another bug was cold-boot instead of wake from sleep. It was triggered by unsafe shutdown (following the runaway lsass described above), and cured by reflashing BIOS (resetting might also work).

 

I fixed all the problems I had with the XPS 15:

I Sold it and bought a MacBook Pro!

After about 2,5 months I was getting tired with this thing. Although the specs are very good, the whole package isn't. Things like the thermal management (including the fan speeds) were seriously getting on my nerves. I don't care if the fans spins a bit, but a fan on full speed while just browsing in Lightroom or doing light edits in Photoshop is unacceptable for me.

I was lucky that I could sell it without making too much loss, and I'm very happy with my brand new MacBook Pro 15 2017 (2,9GHz, 16GB, 512GB, Radeon 560) model. This thing is in a completely different league and overall a much better product. But that's something you can expect when it's 50% more expensive. For me it's worth it though, because I Will use this computer a lot and require the absolute best.

 

I hear you. If Apple hadn't taken the decision to limit the RAM to 16 GB, it would probably have been my first choice also based on previous experience with both Dell and Apple. But are you then running Windows on your MBP considering that you probably used that on the XPS15?

Above said though, after having done a complete reinstallation of the XPS15 and ignored all "recommended drivers" from Dell and done some BIOS tuning, it's currently not running to bad after all. And having an USB and HDMI port isn't to bad either.

 

Before XPS I owned Latitude and there was this magic hotkey "Fn+B" for a "do not disturb" mode when all lights (including activity leds etc) and sounds were turned off (even the fan if possible) which was ideal for watching movies on TV or letting laptop download stuff through the night...I guess there is no such thing on XPS...?

 

Two unrelated questions:

1. (old but unaddressed) Is there nothing to do to speed up the auto connect? It's pretty strange because I can almost instantly connect manually, but if I just leave the computer alone it takes quite a long time to connect.

2. How often do you clean the vents or any internals of the computer for dust? I'm not sure how it is with this laptop, but with past Dell's, vents became quite dusty and needed cleaning and I also had to open up the computer for dust from time to time. If I didn't, temperatures started to get high and fans would run much more often. What do you suggest for the 9560?

 

1. Replace the Killer NIC with the Intel 8265 and those problems are gone.

 

When I had my M3800 in heavy use as my primary machine, probably ended up cleaning it about twice a year but I was in it for other reasons anyway -- I'm not sure that much is necessary. These are really easy machines to clean for dust because of the way the fans are mounted separately from the heat sink, if you're comfortable taking the bottom off.

...and speaking of that, I just did that today, and re-pasted as well. Both DEAD easy.

The Killer NIC is would not connect to my work network (WP2-Enterprise + P-EAP) at all, when a $15 Edimax USB dongle would, and got terrible connection speeds to my main wireless router at home (oddly it did better with the cruddy cable company provided one that I don't really use.) Will see tomorrow if the 8265 fixes the work problem. The repaste has my fans turning on quite a bit less.

(I don't seem to be able to get the same level of undervolt that some people here have reported; stability is perfect at -0.075 but -0.100 gets intermittent freezes -- although it comes back from them rather than crashing.

 

The only configuration I can find with the i7 processor and 16 gig of memory and the 1080 screen only is offered with a 512G SSD. If I go this route I'll probably immediately replace it with a 1T SSD.

My question: back when I put an SSD in my Alienware, the forums all said you needed to format the SSD so that about 20% of it would not be used, for speed, etc. Is that still true?

 

Nothing I noticed when I did it at least. There are some performance trickery you can do with SSDs that would set aside a big portion of the drive to increase performance, but that shouldn't be specific to Alienware.

 

Real world it will not increase performance just allow a little better wear leveling ability by allowing more space for provisioning, in other words you are being tricked into wasting a bunch of space as they all have extra capacity anyway that is already set aside for over provisioning from the factory so I have no idea why they want to mug you off with another 10% of space gone.

Even the name insinuates you throwing capacity away as it is called "over" provisioning. While it may be great in a server environment I dare say less than 5% of NBR users would reap any benefit or lifespan.

http://www.samsung.com/semiconducto...nt/Samsung_SSD_845DC_04_Over-provisioning.pdf

 

Thank you for the suggestions!

After repasting it with MX4, the max temperature is now 96°c and no more blue screens

I accidentally rolled up a thermal pad (became unusable) but I replaced with a similar thermal pad of 6w/m.K. Will this void warranty?

 

I doubt any dell engineer would even notice if you changed the pads.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

I just did the same as you, replaced the Killer NIC with Intel 8265 and re-pasted the thing. The problem that I had with the Killer, I also have now with the Intel 8265, which is the bluetooth does not work. Do you had any problems regarding this? I don't even have the Bluetooth device in my Device Manager. Any suggestion?