XPS 15 9560 owners thread.

I have a Libre Office problem with the Dell that I am unable to fix for the last few days. Latest LO, used Calculator function for spreadsheet for many years. Now I also have other laptops and desktop and LO works fine on them. The XPS 15 is brand new and LO toolbar and menubar are completely mislabelled, i.e. click on Save and get something like undo or copy etc...There are options to fix this but they are grey out. I went to LO forum but nobody is having the problem, possibly because they do not use Dell XPS 15. I know this is the Dell xps 15 onwers forum and not the LO forum, but just in case somebody besides me use LO, can chime in I would appreciate it.
For years I used MS Office Excel but MS has crippled the excel program so I was no longer able to download stock prices into the spreadsheet. That is the reason I used LO.

 

Hi all,

Planning to perform repaste + undervolt for my system.
During collecting some default result found something confuse.

1. Prime95/15min show quite stable and all temp(except cpu) almost reach the limit.
- any specific setting for P95?
- after perform, expected result?? cpu lower 10-15c, ambient increase?
Default_Prime_SmallFFT

2. 3DMark FS score 54xx
- I try compare other i5 + 1050, its seen this is normal....
Default_3dMark_FireStrike
Default_3dMark_SkyDiver
Default_3dMark_CluodGate

3. planning to use xtu for undervolt
- According http://www.ultrabookreview.com/14875-fix-throttling-xps-15/, its using TS. Does core/cache concept apply to XTU as well?
- Review from Dave2D mention XTU undervolt apply permanent, it mean after restart setting is fix, how about XTU uninstall?

 

Hi. I think I had this problem. It was as though LOwas being rendered incorrectly such that there was a difference between where the mouse was on the screen and where LO thinks it is, meaning that the menu wasn't displaying correctly and I couldn't click on the menu entries that I wanted.

Initially, I fixed this by going into options (alt+F12 if the menu's not working properly) -> Libreoffice ->View and unticking 'Use OpenGL for all rendering'.

Ultimately, I updated the intel driver to version 4627 using the procedure listed elsewhere on this forum. That seems to have fixed it good: opengl is re-enabled in LO.

Hope that's helpful

 

XTU changes revert after 10 or so reboots. TS needs to be run on boot to apply every time. The EFI_Shell method is the only which works permanently (ensuring xtu interface is disabled once set), at least until the BIOS is reset, and has an additional VCCIO undervolt option.

 

I need to find some time to pick apart this BIOS to see if I can figure out how to show hidden options, Dell have hidden the controls for years but the later BIOS cannot be modded like they used to so EFIshell is the last option.

 

Sorry if this is something you have described several times, but am not able to find a guide on how to set this in the BIOS as the XTU is really frustrating by resetting the values randomly.
It makes me check each time...

Thanks!

 

I didn't do the how to for xtu and efishell, I'm also away for a week so in sure someone else will link to the post as it would take ages to find on tapatalk. It should be the last 20 pages

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Just to add even with the efi hacks it still resets at random for me as well

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Hi,

I just bought an XPS 9560 yesterday at Costco. The i7 QHD 16GB Ram / 512GB SSD. I noticed that the fans would never shut off. I also noticed that the system would not idle. Running powercfg -energy would show nvlddmkm.sys using 6-8% utilization during the 60 second trace period. This was never letting the CPU throttle down to idle.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I used DDU and reinstalled the nVidia drivers. Without the nVidia drivers the CPU would idle. As soon as I reinstalled them the nvlddmkm.sys process would start consuming constant cycles again. I had decided to take the laptop back and ran a reset on it. Funny thing is the problem seems to be gone after the reset. Even with the same driver version.

Should I swap the laptop out for another one? I am concerned something is actually wrong with the video card. Also - the right side fan (for the video card) seems to make a light clicking sound when it spins.

Based on everything I have read it sounds like it is normal for the fans to spin at low speed most of the time, or is this not the case? I was expecting the fans to be mostly off unless I was actually doing something processor intensive.

Thanks!

 

Hi Everyone,

first of all thanks for all tips i could read here on the forum to fix my New XPS 15 that made me frustrated as hell.
I did kind of everything, driver for the Toshiba SSD, all last drivers updated, even have all my Adobe stuff recognize the Nvidia and running smooth.
I did Undervolt with Throttlestop + shut down the task of the Thermal platform + Disable the Turbo in Throttlestop + put 5% and 80% in the power management to min and max so when i play im reaching like 76C max. (Didnt repaste yet)
But i still have kind of a power limit throttling or power limitation after a certain amount of time.
That limit the processor to 800.

Here is a screen of HWMI after 2 games. If you have any idea of what it can be.

 

Blow some air real close to the F7 key... this will send some fresh air to the VRM/chokes area

 

You should swap unless you are happy to take a look at whats sticking in the right fan, I had that with one and it was a bit of crap in the fan that I removed.

 

Thanks for the reply. I ran 3dmark and spun the fan up. It sounds better now. Only problem is now the nvlddmkm.sys process will not allow the CPU to idle anymore again. I really don't understand this. If I uninstall the nVidia driver the system behaves normally. As soon as I re-install it from Dell or nVidia this process takes up about 7% utilization constantly. The "system" process will show at the top of the CPU utilization list when the system is idle. This keeps the CPU up at over 3Ghz constantly. If I unplug while this is happening my estimated battery life is less than 2 hours.

Do you think this is a hardware issue? I have already re-installed. The problem did not re-appear until after I used the GPU. Rebooting does not fix the problem.

 

I figured out what was causing nvlddmkm.sys to use up CPU resources. While trying to figure out why my fans were running at idle I started using HWMonitorx64 from CPUID. When this is running it causes nvlddmkm.sys to consume resources. Hopefully this can help someone else out that might be chasing this down.

 

It's keeping the GPU awake hence the high cpu.

 

@GoNz0 Is it normal for the cursor to randomly jump when trying to move to and then tap on things? It seems like sometimes when I pick up my finger or go to tap the cursor jumps away from my target. I have seen other threads on this but I am wondering if all the 9560s are this way or if some trackpads are better than others?
Thanks.

 

I want to know as well as this has been driving me CRAZY. Coming from a macbook pro it's even more frustrating. Sometimes making small movements on the dell trackpad causes the issue. I've been trying to accept it as coming with the territory but it's annoying as hell.

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I found this too. But I believe it's the cursor somehow trying to eliminate 'accidental' movement when clicking the trackpad. Which means when you move and click, the mouse discards the last split second movement, making the mouse move back a little.
I click now by tapping the touchpad instead of clicking it..

That's my two cents anyway, there's a strong chance I'm very wrong though.

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I haven't clicked a trackpad in years, I find tapping more efficient as I can tap anywhere on the trackpad vs having to go to the lower left corner. I've accepted the dell trackpad a bit, but it's still annoying.

Incidentally I had a Lenovo Yoga 720 15 before the XPS and it had the same issue which is why I returned it and got the dell only to be facing the exact same problem. It may be a precision trackpad issue...

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Thanks for the responses. It sounds like this would not be a good reason to swap the machine out. So far my temps all seem good and the screen looks great. I guess my only disappointment is that I have a sk hynix p300 SSD instead of a Samsung. I wonder if they are still even using the Samsung drives? If I would have known about the different SSDs I would have checked the service tag at the Costco pickup counter to see if I could get a Samsung.

 

That's the SSD in mine as well and I honestly have had 0 issues.

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I hadn't noticed this since my clean install with the creators update, I only tend to right click as I'm in the habit of tapping for left click.

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my XPS came with a Samsung 960 drive

 

I went back to Costco today since the touchpad thing was bugging me. I played with the display model for a long time. The touchpad felt smoother. Like the surface finish of it is actually smoother. It also did not jump around on me. So I purchased another XPS 15. I have them side by side now. The newest one has a much smoother finish on the touchpad. It also tracks better. I am going to take the first one back. I had my wife try them both and she noticed the same thing. The smoother touchpad works better. Both machines have the SK SSD.

 

These seem to have a few different keyboards and touchpads as you can see in prior posts. Differences are slight but obvious side to side

 

Interesting... can you take some photos?

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It really doesn't photo well and if you want a side by side search my post history back 3 years ( no way I am going to trawl that far) and you will see I posted a 9530 side by side with textured and smooth trackpad, they still use them on the 9550 and 9560

FYI I can't stand the textured one!

 

Interesting! Thank you for the info. I'll take your word for it.
I wondered if it was a case of them changing the hardware after noticing this jumping problem. Seems not!

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No, they use more than one supplier, 2 trackpads, 2 keyboards (for the UK layout at least) several SSD/HDD makes. Panels remain the same and the boards undergo revisions as they get cheaper parts.

 

So the one 9560 that I am taking back would idle at 8x multiplier (800mhz). The new one with the better trackpad rarely goes below 16x (1600MHz). After 8 hours of idling the lowest multiplier seen was 11x. Any thoughts on this? It looks like the machine that idles at 16x has a lower vid than the other machine. Does speedstep not use the lowest multipliers if the power draw is already low enough at 16x?

Both machines have identical power settings and BIOS revisions.

 

Speedstep will go to 8x. Give it a day to settle down.

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It still seems to be stuck right around 16x on the multiplier. Every computer in my house idles at 8x. I have switched between all the Dell power profile and the balanced profile and there is no change.

 

Probably worth 1st resetting the bios and after that a clean install, either a Microsoft ISO or mine if you want an easy option.

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I reset the BIOS to default settings. This resulted in no change. I then booted into PartedMagic from USB. Same behavior. The frequency stays right around 1600MHz at idle.

I was back at Costco and checked the floor model. It was idling at 1600Mhz as well. The other 9560 I had idled at 800MHz as I would expect them all to.

Do I need to disconnect the battery and reset the CMOS? Or could this just be how some of the Kaby Lake chips act if they are already at a low enough voltage?

I have been searching all over and can't find any documentation on this. Linux shows the CPU as having a minimum frequency of 800Mhz but it was never using the 8X multiplier. The lowest it gets down to is 11X in Windows or Linux. It never stays at 11X when idle. It spends the majority of its idle time at 16X.

 

What if you enable speedshift with the registry entries to show the options on this 1st post of this thread then change "processor energy performance preference policy" to 100, it should lock it near 800 all the time, if that works try 40% as I find that a good balance.

Sometimes the BIOS gets a bit confused and I think Dells way of imaging the settings can cause it, I have to power up then hold the button to force a power down, another way is hold the power button for 30 seconds to force a reset.

 

Has anybody found a way to control the fans with the XPS 9560? Prior to this laptop I had an Asus and was using this https://github.com/hirschmann/nbfc/releases, it was really amazing as I could setup threshold and fan % myself and it would start automatically with windows. Anything similar for the XPS?

Thanks!

 

Can anyone tell me if I have the correct battery charging settings set in the BIOS?

I primarily use the laptop on battery power while at school, and when I come home at night I plug it in to charge while the laptop is turned off. In the BIOS I have "custom charge start" at 50% and the "custom charge stop" at 90%.

My main concern is I charge the laptop with it powered down, so are these settings in the BIOS respected even when charging with the laptop off, or do they only work when it's plugged in and also powered on?

 

They are respected also when off. Otherwise the laptop would charge to 100% when off.
I think it is reasonable to set 90%-to-80% if you want a longer battery lifetime but still have some juice in case you need to work on battery.
If you install Dell command Power manager, you can change the limits on-the-fly, without rebooting to BIOS, temporarily set to 100% if you know you will need battery. Mind deep discharges to 0% are not healthy either. Also, playing GPU-intensive games on battery isn't healthy, because of high current draw.

 

My fingerprint no longer works at all, it just freezes right after I enter my PIN and gives me an error sound. I can't figure out how to fix it at all. It says there is a certificate error but I can't renew and I can't clear my TPM. My fingerprint sensor used to work and this issue just randomly happened. I am using an administrative user and running AHCI with a PM961. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here's an album with some screenshots with the errors and such: https://imgur.com/a/D5tyx

 

I enabled SpeedShift via the EFI register change. SST shows green now. I then made the changes to the power policy and set to 100%. It locked at 16x on the multiplier. Machine is pretty much unusable right now as there is a lot of lag when typing. I have looked at three different machines now at best buy using the 7700HQ and they seem to idle at 16x. Maybe this is normal for some chips? I am glad I have SST working now though.

 

Ok. One thing did change. The system is using the lower multipliers now. It is just mostly hanging out at 16x.

 

Anyone having issues with windows scaling up on external monitor? I have 2 external monitors (24" IPS Asus and HP) connected via Plugable Thunderbolt to the monitors using dual display ports. When I drag a window from the XPS laptop to the external monitors the windows are scaled up. I am able to do the work around if I wait for the windows to be highlighted on the monitors, however when opening a file say attaching a file the windows are still scaled up (window is huge and font and folders are big). Any solution? Thanks in advance.

 

If you expose the SST options in Windows without first setting them per the write-up on the first page you will see that (Processor autonomous activity window) is 30000 microseconds default. The guide on page 1 sets it to 0 microseconds. I think maybe this was causing the crazy keyboard lag I was experiencing.

This is from my desktop after just exposing the settings. SST was already enabled by default. It is a custom built machine.

I matched all the power plans per the windows defaults. The default in Windows for plugged in is 33% on the balanced plan.

Seems to be working pretty good even though it still mostly sits at 16x

 

Processor autonomous activity window is 0 ms on mine?

 

The command line commands on the first page will overwrite the default and set it to 0ms. I just exposed the settings on my desktop computer and saw that it was default 30000ms. Also the "Dell" powerplan on my XPS was not overwritten by the commands on the first page and it was set to 30000. I am not sure what the ramifications are for this setting but I think the default in Windows is 30000.

 

Not sure but on my clean install it came out as 0MS.

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I am going to clean install now. I put an intel wifi card in and the killer stuff still has services running. I will post what I get.

 

I used the media creation tool and made an ISO straight from Microsoft. Secure erased the drive and did a clean install.

I am attaching the default SST settings after just exposing them in the power plan with no other adjustments. I also put in the commands I used to expose the settings.

These are the same settings I saw on my Desktop machine (except it does not have the battery settings)

 

Odd, I will have to see what mines at next reinstall.

 

New BIOS 1.4 out yesterday and a few other updates showing over the last week.

Fixes & Enhancements
Extending battery support

?