XPS13 Frustrations

starting to really dislike my new xps13 9333

got it out the box, all worked well and then started to notice massive coil whine whenever the keyboard was backlit (which during normal use is basically all the time!) and the screen brightness just jumping from light to dark and back again at seemingly random intervals!!

Does anyone know how i can solve this LCD brightness issue, i guess it's the ambient light sensor playing up... but no amount of installing or un-installing software from the DELL site or going through the BIOS to enable/disable the sodding things seems to help... someone must know what's going on with it. DELL support are typically awful

I rang them about the coil whine, and they got me to update the BIOS... fair enough, but did nothing, upon rebooting the machine i needed the bitlocker recovery key which i didnt have to hand so had to go and hunt that down (more time wasted)... will probably ring them back tomorrow though just to organise a replacement unit as this is basically an unfixable hardware issue imo..

actually using the machine makes me irritable and angry, and it's really winding me up.

oh, and to top it off, the DELL website won't even work! when you are logged in, and you click on the 'community' link you just get an ASP.NET runtime error message.. what a POS

 

BGM,

I hope you are seriously considering sending the unit back. I just ordered the 9333 today with an estimated arrival date of 1/16/14. If this has problems like the new XPS 15 I may wait to see what the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 replacement looks like.

If you have time can you tell me what you think of the keyboard, touchpad and screen. I'm hoping the 1080p screen is more "text" friendly/manageable than the ultra high resolution screens. Thanks and good luck if you keep it and work toward a solution.

 

Hi,

The screen is really nice tbh, I've got no complaints there... I run my unit at 125% dpi and it's really crisp and sharp. Keyboard has no flex or anything, but the font on the keys does look a bit weird, but that's a personal thing it's nice to type on and that's the main thing... Because it's a small PC some if the keys are multifunction so you have to get used to holding down another key if you want home or end for example.. No big deal.

Touch-pad is not as good as something like a MBP, that much is obvious. But if you have the proper drivers, it's pretty good and supports multi-touch well enough

All in, it's a very good machine... Just mine makes a horrible noise ;(

 

Hi, for the coil whine I can't comment anything. However, for the brightness jumps, it may be the same dynamic contrast thing which the XPS 14 also had: it is absolutely annoying and one of the worst features I've seen on any laptop. To disable it try the following:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...-ultrabook-owners-lounge-131.html#post8989340

If not, a search on disable dell xps dynamic contrast may help.

 

At least you have yours. I ordered mine within hours of them coming out, but it isn't scheduled to ship until Jan. 10.

 

Hello, I got my XPS 13 9333 the 24th (ordered November 21st in Canada) and my experience is far from frustration.
This machine is awesome (especially the battery ~6-7h with a new windows install which downloads everything) with a gorgeous screen.

This being said, the pre-installed software package on the XPS is GARBAGE. Screen brightness jumping all over the place, significant keyboard delay while typing (pretty sure that PC doctor thing is doing something nasty). Anyway, I just reformatted the whole PC and installed the non-Dell app driver and this machine is a dream!

On the coil whine issue, I have a slight one if I press my ear on the right side of the machine and a louder one if the backlight is at full brightness. That being said, at a normal typing range of the laptop I don't hear it so I don't really mind. So yes, if it was louder, I'd understand that it would be undesirable.

Sorry to see you having some issue, but for me it's probably the best laptop I have ever typed on (coming from a mid-2012 Macbook Air).

 

interesting about the fresh install... I'm pretty sure my IT dept did a fresh install as the machine has bit locker on the drive, but the brightness thing is driving me nuts!

Might have to just do it myself again I guess. Anyway, I've got a DELL engineer coming out in the morning to replace the keyboard as that's the part that's blowing it for me right now...

out of interest, which Intel/DELL drivers (if any) do you have installed? I'm in the annoying situation currently where all of it was installed and I can't get rid of it all properly! Hah

 

machine getting replaced next week, result!

 

have tried what said above? I'm pretty sure it's the same as the previous generations machine and it can be disabled. The new unit will do the same, as it's a feature and not some kind of bug.

 

Yes, for the screen brightness it was the setting that did it.

As for the keyboard input lag, I narrowed it down to Dell QuickSet64 driver; kinda sad since the driver was actually useful.
Let's hope they fix it.

And the coil whine seems to happen when only the backlit is on; a moderate load (youtube) or an external powered usb device (hdd, dac, etc.) will shut it off.
Might try to replace it at the end of the month (the whine is annoying) so more users have the issue and Dell can acknowledge it

Otherwise, I like the unit more than my Macbook, which is a good sign!

 

Day two with my laptop and while I have not spent a lot of time with it there is no coil whine at this time. Maybe I got lucky.

 

new machine had exactly the same issue, annoying.... this laptop would be really good if i never had to open the screen and just used it in a dock!

noise from the keyboard backlight, and a mad as a box of frogs brightness / ambient light sensor

*weep*

 

Had mine a few days now. Really solid hardware, but Windows 8.1 is terrible. Slight coil whine when the vent is blocked, but nothing that I would have noticed had I not read about it here. Give this thing a 9-cell battery and it would be just about perfect.