XPS 18 Tablet not charging while plugged in??

Here is the latest from Tech Support:

Thank You for choosing Dell. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you with your Dell system.

Following your e-mail to us, please see the next steps that will occur in relation to your Service Request Number 911964989

We regret the inconvenience caused, we have escalated the case to our back end team and will keep you updated.

Your experience with Dell is of utmost importance and priority to us.

The same service tech that came out to repair my first unit, will be back tomorrow. He will be bringing the exact same part that he replaced in the first unit that did not fix the problem.

When my Dell Tech Support rep emailed me that the engineering department at Dell studied the problem and reported that this was the fix, I informed him that we already did this dance for the first unit, it did not work and they subsequently replaced the first unit with my current unit.

After the first unit repair attempt, the replacement of the cradle, a full unit replacement, much discussion, very specific troubleshooting, "elevating" the problem to the experts in engineering, we will now start over and do it all again.

The dispatched service tech said "Didn't we already do this"?

The definition of insanity...

Will keep you posted.

Great news. I'm glad you're in business. Funny, there's someone else here who had a similar situation. He had two complete units...old and replacement. I think his scenario was that his old lcd/old stand was bad, his new lcd/new stand was bad, his new lcd/old stand was good but his old lcd/new stand was bad.

No idea. He kept the combination that worked and sent all else back.

I saw, on another forum, that the voltage range in which the power supply through the stand is confirmed by the units as "good" or when the bios will report a known supply, is very tight. If it's just outside the limit the BIOS will report the supply as unknown.

The suggestion that the supply is not made to very exacting tolerances, the stand has just a slight impedance variance and possibly loose standards, and the unit says "nope".

Really glad you're good to go. Thanks for letting us know.

Enjoy!

Hate to tell you guys this but mine appears to be fixed.

I guess mine was the stand.

They sent a entire replacement pack.. so I put the lcd on my first stand and it did the same thing.

I assumed it was bad just like the first one but decided to take the stand out of the box and try it and lookie lookie that worked.

I put my original screen on the new stand and it worked.   It is currently charge with original computer in the new stand.  I just repacked the old stand to send the rest back.

If anything changes I'll let you guys know.  Sorry mine does not appear to fix ya'll issues as the stand has been tried already for you.

I think I got your old system to replace my brand new one.  Now I have a power/stand issue that didn't exist on the one with non-functioning speakers or screen rotation.  

All I ask, if you're sending me a refurbished unit....please refurbish it.

Here's the latest on my issue.  From Dell:

"After reviewing your history, our back end team has reviewed the problem history and suggested us to replace the cradle stand with a like to like part to resolve this issue."

So I'll keep playing the game.  I am shipping my first unit back, and keeping the new replacement they sent which has the same issue.  I'll now wait for the replacement cradle.

My hopes aren't high.  If it does resolve the issue, I'm not sure how nervous be be.  If, in fact, the issue is that the tolerance for power supply irregularities from the stand is incredibly low, then what might happen in the future to cause this issue to re-appear?  Could a tweek to the bios help?  Did anyone see this issue before the most recent bios update (I think it came out in Feb)?

I guess I'm getting ahead of myself.  I'll report back on the results with the new cradle.

Sorry to hear your continued plight. It looks like the Keystone Cops have come back to life here.

Anyway, my XPS18 had the same issues and they were corrected with a new replacement. That does not mean that the new unit is without problems or strange glitches. The unit's screen brightness fluctuates over time, going from bright to less bright to bright again, even though I have tweaked all possible power settings to avoid this. I also have the unit on the Dell recommended battery conserving long life mode. This mode is supposed to discharge and charge the battery a few times per month in order to extend the life of the battery. Well, right now the system has discharged the battery to 75% capacity and the legend shows as;

"75% available; plugged in - not charging"

Now tell me, how can the system not be charging and still hold a 75% level charge day after day with the system in use? This tells me that the overall power management system on these units is not up to par. Software and hardware do not seem to communicate and/or behave normally. Long term reliability sure is questionable. Let us hope that Dell steps up to the plate and corrects the situation.

PHILENGLE,

Funny, my tech rep said "our back end team has reviewed the problem history and determined the source of the problem is the POGO board"

Of course, on the first unit, we replaced the POGO board before we got to the back end team. It didn't work. They sent a complete new unit.

Now on my new unit, my case made it to the back end team and they said it was the POGO board.

Tech coming to change it this week. Same tech that changed the POGO board on the first unit that didn't solve the problem.

S

SBEXTRA3, my latest response from tech support is the same as yours "replace the LCD and the pogo port which should fix the issue".  My response is that this is a BRAND NEW PC, and I'm not satisfied with replacing parts to a brand new unit.  I am insisting that they send another NEW PC, and that they test it before they send it to me to verify that it is in working condition with respect to this issue.

I doubt they'll agree, but since this is not my main PC, but my secondary PC, I'm willing to wait this out and push them for the resolution I want, with the hope that it may benefit all of us by creating better awareness within Dell of the issue.  

The engineers in this case are not named Curly, Moe and Larry by any chance?  Sorry, could not help it.

Tech was just here. Replaced POGO board. And..........drum roll.........

Didn't change a thing. You knew better.

As expected. Everyone except Dell knew this would be useless.

Now, guess what we're going to do. Replace the display. Just like we did last time with the first unit after they replaced the POGO Board and it did nothing.

Mind you, this is the exact same tech support guy at Dell, exact same service tech that shows up to the house, exact same problem that I've been dealing with and went through with the first unit before they replaced everything and we started over. All well documented and discussed.

The guy at Dell literally told me he knows we've been through all this before, but this time it will fix the problem. Not kidding.

When I try to explain how ridiculous this all is, he says, "we appreciate your patience and the engineers have done extensive research and this will fix it".

I try to explain the stupidity of it all....no luck. I ask to speak to someone at a higher level that can actually speak in some sort of basic troubleshooting principles instead of a script, I get nowhere. At least in the old days, you could eventually get to someone with competence.

If any of us ran our company, house or.....ah never mind.

It's so absurd...can a person or corporate entity really be this ignorant and incompetent?

Yes, yes they can.

I'm starting to post this discussion, my emails and reviews on as many XPS 18 sites I can. Dell itself, Amazon, etc. Maybe someone will take notice.

Will let you know....

Well it has been a few weeks, and I have an update.

After my first replacement charging cradle did not work, I insisted on another full unit.  After more consultations with the back end team, I received two separate recommendations from tech support.  The first was another replacement cradle; the next was a service call.  I declined both and insisted on escalation to management. 

This time I did get a call back yesterday from a support manager.  He indicated that he had reviewed my entire case history, and consulted himself with the back end team.  They told him the issue was with the charging cradle, and that they have identified the bad batch and completely removed them from circulation.  The solution was to now send me a new cradle, guaranteed to be from a newer, good production batch.  Feeling skeptical, I agreed to trying the new cradle.

The new cradle came today, and guess what?  It worked!  When seated in the cradle, the PC reports 'plugged in; charging'.  When I check the BIOS, and connected to the cradle, it reports the power supply to be '65 W'.

I hope this isn't a fluke, but is truly a permanent fix.

I still have both cradles.  If there is anything I can share here that would help others, let me know.

Thanks to all here - you've all been a great help in my pursuit of a fix.  I hope my efforts will benefit others.

Great to know!!

Thank you so much for writing.

SO

I wrote my tech support rep. Told him Dell has found the resolution to this ongoing problem. I cut and paste your message to the same guy I've been dealing with for two months. I changed the font, indented and clearly identified that this was a different customer who found a resolution and I'd like to have my case follow the same path to resolution...

I then wrote, large font:

"

Please find me a new production cradle and send it to me as soon as possible to fix my issue."

He responded:

Scott,

I'm glad to know the new cradle resolved your issue...

...

Let us know if we can do anything else for you.

Oh boy ...  not a good read of what you sent him; or he thinks that simply word of what worked for me magically fixed your issue as well.

Let us know in how you do of getting him to clearly understand what you're requesting; I'd love to know if this solution will work for you as well.