XPS 15 9560 owners thread.

5 months + a few months + (insert the time since 6.9%), Dell will tell you where to go as that sort of wear is expected

 

Thanks for the replies. I just looked and I haven't even owned the laptop for 5 full months yet so my estimate was off. You think 13% wear is standard after that much time and it's just pointless to request a replacement? If it is worth a shot, can you usually be confident that the replacement will be better than the original or do you get a used battery?

 

I've had my laptop for 2 weeks and just noticed it's at 9.9% wear (at brand new) basically. Guess I'll watch the heatlh of it for a little and then contact Dell. I use this puppy pluggged in most of the time anyway but a healthy battery is important.

 

First of all perform battery calibration. In most cases initial wear lever exists because battery not calibrated properly. (BTW: during normal usage its OK to see 5% wear level even on new battery. that's usually happens because laptop shuts-down as soon as battery drawn to 5%... so try to keep your laptop running until it completely drain your battery so it can calculate proper FCC)

 

5 months is excessive, you were quoting closer to a year.

 

Not sure where I said anything even remotely close to a year but regardless, as to part two of my question, "If it is worth a shot, can you usually be confident that the replacement will be better than the original or do you get a used battery?"

 

Drain the battery from 100-2% and let it charge till 100% . If you notice increase in battery wear level you can deduce the battery won't last long and eventually you need to replace it.

 

Would doing this one time be enough? Or is multiple cycles recommended? The first time I did this the other day I got it down to 10.4%, but after doing it again yesterday I'm now at 14%.. Not sure what to think. Perhaps I should just buy a GPD WIN and use Steam Streaming or Moonlight to just transmit control of the machine until I get the battery replaced.

 

Once is enough. If it wears down, ask them a replacement saying the battery life is reduced by 50% and even DELL's Battery saving tips and prolonging tips didn't work.

 

Spoke to Dell. They told me to try an ATX reset, and if that doesn't work, they'd replace the battery. Should I jump on this or is there cause for worry that the replacement will be even worse?

Also, never opened the computer before. Which screwdriver is needed? The shape looks like something I'd need to buy.

 

An ATX reset for a customer would be holding the power button for 30 seconds to reload the BIOS, they cannot expect you to open the laptop, remove the motherboard (fooking massive job for most people with the risk of killing it) to get to the cmos battery, they are tripping asking you to do that. Make sure they show up wiht a new battery and test it before he leaves you can of course ask for another if this takes a dive.

5 months, plus a few normally means at least 3 or you would have said 1 or a couple of months then a bit of time between all this so I kinda got to a year

 

I've always heard such bad things about Dell customer service that I was reluctant to contact them for the issues I was having.

I was having wifi trouble and contacted them and they sent out a replacement card. I opted to install it myself and only got around to doing so yesterday. Upon unscrewing the plate that holds the wifi card down I saw what the problem was. The connector that went to the main (pictured) had broken off a piece of the receptor which got stuck in the connector. This was what was causing by wifi and Bluetooth issues. The clogged connector also meant I couldn't plug it into the main of the replacement card dell had sent. I attempted to get the stuck section out of the connector but couldn't and in the process ended up detaching the connectors of both cables .

Initially I thought to order replacement cables and splice the ends but after some research I found that wouldn't be a viable option so reluctantly I contacted Dell. I was surprised how easy and hassle free it was. They asked for pictures showing the damage and agreed to send a technician tomorrow to replace the entire wifi antenna assembly! Coming from being a macbook owner for the last 12+ years I am impressed. I've always had to take my MacBook to the Apple store and leave it there for days, sometimes up to a week or more so for Dell to do the fix on site and at no cost to me is impressive.


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Progress, yeah you were screwed from the start with the end stuck in as these are so fragile and require considerable force to clip on, thank some ham fisted assembler for covering up the damage they caused to get out of being penalised (probably force them to commit harakiri over a sin like that)
To help the tech who shows up, if he shows with a full panel this is inexperience of the parts person, you have to remove the screen then the wifi cover simply slides to the right (as you look at it in use) and will pull away with no resistance.

Do me a favor while they have the antenna, can you look to see if you can attach a 3rd cable to it, I think it may be the same antenna as they used in my 9550 but with a cable removed.

Thanks

(if for some reason they send one with 3 wires would you consider selling me the spare wire they have to remove ? )

 

Well, I googled the replacement part they have in the service order (Dell T16YH) and it corresponds to the same part number used for the 9550

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Hey Chris...I've mocked Dell support many times and yet I keep buying dell specifically for the warranty. When something actually breaks, it's pretty nice to have someone show up at your door with the replacement the next day across most of the world. Calling them to fix a non hardware issue is likely to steal many hours of your life for no reason, but when I've actually needed something replaced, I've had a decent experience. A hell of a lot better than Apple. My general experience is to use the internet and forums like these to diagnose your problems and only contact Dell when you have a good sense of what the next step is.

Gonzo, does Dell send a technician for a battery change? Is the process for swapping batteries the same as the ATX test? I've never opened this computer so I would prefer help if it's possible but I have no idea if they consider a battery replacement a job that they'll send someone for.

 

I have never had a battery swap BUT they have to send an engineer as you cannot be expected to take the case apart. BUT you can ask to diy if you so wish. The engineer round the corner used to leave the parts and collect the next morning on his way to the depot. He loved that as he got an early finish and paid to do bugger all.

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Have you checked the battery settings in BIOS? Again, if its set to adaptive (as mine was from factory), then this quoted battery life deprecation is expected behavior as the program attempts to increase battery lifespan. In my case, the change from adaptive to standard, charged and discharged 1 or 2% to 100% a few times, restored the specified battery capacity. None of what people have indicated so far is normal Lipoly battery behavior barring a major quality control defect, which is always possibly with Dell. However I would strongly suggest trying this fix before having a technician open the case

Edit: found this guide which explains the battery settings I mentioned above (page 7). This is for the Dell Command Power Management application, however the same settings are found in the BIOS
http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/dell-comnd-pwr-mngr-v2.0_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

 

How true is that. Call apple, and they say bring it to the nearest apple store. OK, I am going to drive 6 hrs, ride a ferry for 7 hrs, then drive another 4 hrs to visit the apple store. I have had good service from dell in the past. I have had GREAT service from both HP and ACER. My HP laptop (dv9000) was plagued by mother board issues from day one. They replaced the board 2 times, then I traded it in for an acer. These are my first two dells in some years. My last was a Pentium 3 800 MHz notebook. I had a hard drive issue with that one, was fixed the next day.

 

so just ordered a 9560 I7-7700HQ CPU, 16GB Ram 512GB M.2 drive and comes with the 97 Watt/Hr battery.

So i am guessing that this battery takes up the slot for the 2.5 inch HD, thus the M.2 slot is the only option for storage ?

Cheers
Dave

 

Yes, you are correct.

I think there are some 56wh batteries available on ebay, but your laptop probably does not have that special SATA adapter/cable that connects SATA drive to motherboard. Not sure if you can order it separately.

I ordered 9560 with 56wh battery and HDD to get the cable and space for second SSD and I want to buy a 97wh battery now as an option, but they are very expensive on ebay and ship from China. Dell did not have them in stock last week. Maybe they will have them later...

 

Double post

 

I will likely by a 56watt battery as i need the storage
2 TB m.2 drives are too expensive still.

 

I got the 56w battery for the second hdd spot. I don't need mobile battery power, so this works. I need to get around to replacing the stock 5400 RPM unit though...it is laughably slow, even for a 5400 laptop drive. It didn't break into double digits on the last LAN copy I did.

 

Unfortunately there are no 7.2K RPM drives with large capacity exists... (at reasonable price OFC)

 

Better off buying a sata ssd

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The part number for that SATA cable is posted on the forums here. Do a serach.

I don't think anyone has definitely nailed down the max speed of that cable or bus; one person suggested it was SATA2 but that was more of a guess.

Unless you are going to test the cable speed, be careful about spending on an ultra-fast drive for the battery bay.
And you might keep your speed-critical programs and data on the m2 drive.

FYI - on a different laptop I have a Samsung 850 EVO running on a SATA1 port; suboptimal, but the computer runs much faster than it did with a 7200rpm HDD. Also quieter and less power consumption

 

To be fair sata3 SSD's are not that expensive now thanks to NVMe drives.

 

Holy balls, $300 for a 2TB 7200RPM 2.5" HDD? That's like unicorn and lollipop numbers.
For $100 more you can get a 850 EVO that's probably 2-3x as fast. Although, Spending $400+ on a storage drive is obnoxiously stupid unless my work is paying for it.
Better off getting a TB3 to SATA external drive. Probably not much bigger than a power bank.

In other news, I figured I was going to get my battery replaced anyways so I just synthetically loaded the device until it was completely drained. Then recharged and dumped it again. Did this about 5-6 times, and some how - some miracle I now have 7% wear.... I don't understand why. Maybe the BIOS only lowers the wear provisions over time? Or perhaps calibration only improves in small steps?

 

Mind there is space only for a 7mm height drive with the rubber brackets, maybe 9.5mm unofficially if you don't use them. AFAIK there is no 2TB HDD that would fit.

 

The technician came and fixed it yesterday. Seems Dell contracts out the on site support which is understandable. He pulled up the service manual and followed it but got stuck removing the wifi antenna cover at the base of the display but we eventually figured it out. The XPS is very modular and easy to fix and replace individual parts which is great.

WiFi and Bluetooth have been rock solid since he installed the new antenna assembly. Issues i had re unstable connections every few hours or so have all vanished (not sure if the antenna was the reason or the new driver I installed directly from killer) but either way I guess I'll watch it and hopefully won't need to get the Intel 8625 as a replacement.

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Proper drain and then charge - make calibration more accurate. If you drain too fast - battery cannot discharge properly... you must discharge it gently (for me it take 7-10hrs until battery depleted depending on current work)
1) Charge your battery to 100%
2) Allow battery too cool-down 15-30 minutes after charge (this is necessary step, hot battery work not as good as cool one)
3) Modify your power plan - set critical level to 2-3% and critical level action to hibernate, also prevent sleep
4) Gently discharge your battery (try to avoid significant load peaks) without any interruption (no sleep or shutdown... not running demanding games)

when your PC goes off - it should update FCC.

If your wear level not decreased - then its obviously battery degradation.

 

Amazingly simple explanation in the service manual, I certainly had no issue and I am not Dell trained!
Slide it to the side and lift off, not rocket science
Did you get a chance to see if it could take 3 cables or not?

 

I drained mine in 45 mins and went from 10 to 4%

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Hi all -- I purchased a 9560 a few weeks ago and have noticed that, occasionally, performance will degrade significantly after the computer has been running for a bit of time (or following a wake from sleep/hibernation). Basic tasks happen more slowly, like creating new tabs, opening the start menu/explorer, resizing windows, or switching between programs.

The effect is usually most pronounced when opening up Task Manager. In the worst instances, it will take several seconds to load all processes, and even after they are loaded, the cursor will rubber-band significantly and doing something like resizing the window will stutter. During that period, other programs are slowed as well. That said, I don't see any increased CPU utilization during this time, and it doesn't seem to be stuck at a lower clock rate. Restarting fixes the issue, at least until it starts to reoccur.

I've updated to the latest Intel 630 drivers and am running a signature edition. I'm totally unsure how to proceed! How do I tell if it's a hardware or software problem? I've followed this thread fairly thoroughly and haven't seen anyone describe a problem quite like this, but perhaps I missed something. Has anyone experienced anything similar?

EDIT: I have the i7/16 GB RAM/512GB Toshiba SSD/UHD, running BIOS v1.3.4. Intel and NVidia drivers are up to date direct from manufacturer websites, the rest come via Dell. I've done a repaste as well.

 

We don't know what spec you have, or what brand/type of drives, RAM size, BIOS, drivers, we can't read minds m8

 

Whoops, I'm sorry! I have the 7700HQ/16 GB RAM/512GB Toshiba SSD/UHD, running BIOS v1.3.4. Intel and NVidia drivers are up to date direct from manufacturer websites, the rest come via Dell. I'm still using the generic driver for the SSD since it's in RAID mode. I've done a repaste as well.

 

It will be worth 1st trying new raid drivers, these are the latest from the win-raid forums https://mega.nz/#!1MlVxBhL!iGiUM2DQwKU_MX2hSqpVG3IeHkRExtBd-BZEPVc7Q58
You will obviously have to do a manual install via device manager as they have no installer or you can use the ones with the RST suite and I expect these have an installer https://mega.nz/#!pVsTQT4Z!sMQ9fnUdHFGaml25IMYcTMHk4ifktb7LO_zks4PoUZE

Personally I would suggest switching to ACHI, you will need to boot into safe mode to prevent a BSOD then manually install the driver via the IDE ATA/ATAPI (it's the same 1st download I linked above (but you pick iaAHCIC.inf for AHCI and if you stay in RAID)

Then you can install the OCZ/Toshiba NVMe driver https://www.ocz.com/download/drivers/nvme/windows/ocznvme-1.2.126.843_whck.zip

 

Thanks for reply. What are others thoughts on adaptive vs standard? Why would they have the computer set out of the box in this way if it is detrimental to battery life?

 

Not fully charging this technology makes it last longer as it can do more cycles.

 

Just one thing regarding the Toshiba drive, after updating Windows to CU the OCZ drivers cause the machine to fail to resume from sleep/hibernate. This is annoying as they did deliver a small performance increase (in benchmarks at least).

Little more info here: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....ne_having_problems_with_the_toshibaocz_rd400/

Never the less running AHCI with the default MS driver is still quicker for me then with RAID, and has no hibernate problems.

 

I am a new xps15 9560 owner so please forgive my ignorance. My 9560 only come with a 500 gb samsung NVMe. I want to add a 1 tb hd, do the 9560 require a hd kit/bracket or is it included in the bay?

 

Reading it seemed straightforward but doing it was a whole mother story. It wouldn't budge! It felt like it was we gonna brake but eventually we did it just right and it just snapped out of place like it should. I didn't observe another connector for a 3rd cable...seems unlikely too considering this seems to be the same module from the 9550 which is a few years old.

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The 9550 has 3 antenna as standard m8

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Another quick question, is worth it to update the killer driver? the driver on the xps is april 2017, the new one at killer web site is 8/2017. Kiiler wifi ac showed slower speed than the Intel wifi in my cheapo inspiron. Why is Dell using killer?

Just a heads up, installed killer latest suite and now cannot connect to the ac 5ghz only 2.4 ghz radio. What in the world is going on?

 

I'm still showing the same problem with AHCI -- when I open Task Manager (just by way of example, since it's fairly consistent) after the computer has been running for some time, I get the same sort of cursor lag/rubber-band effect. During this period, HWiNFO starts to stutter as well (the UI will flash).

I didn't install the OCZ drivers given the issues DrAe cited, but if they're likely to fix something like this, then I will.

Could it be an issue with the integrated graphics? I'm using a lower scaling than is typical (150%), but I didn't think that would make an impact since the iGPU still has to push out the same resolution. I'll take a look at GPU-z when this happens again.

 

Is the BIOS up to date?

 

video may be driver related, and because one person reports a problem yet the other hundred odd didn't shouldn't be the reason not to try it, after all who doesn't have a backup, that is plain silly

 

Easy thing to do is open up the laptop and verify if it is there, I seen times where it was included and others when it was not.

If it is not included you will need the interposer cable, bracket and rubber rails - I got mine on ebay as a kit.

 

Also note, there is only space in the 9560 for the second drive (2.5 inch) with the smaller 5x wh battery. If you have the larger 9x wh battery (most likely), I suppose you coud either:

-- purchase the smaller battery (and cables/bracket/rails) or
-- remove your large battery and run wihout a battery then just purchase the cables/bracket/rails

There are plenty of post here so use the search box m8

 

Thank you. I found the ebay listing for the cable/caddy/rails/screws and was going to buy it. Then I just found out about the big and small battery situation. Of course pressing, you are right I got the big battery. So I will probably use the simplest and obvious solution, a usb external drive. One day I might be able to switch the 500 gb NVMe hdd to a 1 tb drive.