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DELL Studio XPS 16 1645 i7 power problem
Update 4 (2/13/2010):
Bios A07 shows a significant improvement with the 130w charger.
There is still throttling that need to be analyzed, most likely this throttling is a machine limitation.
For now, the system is able to run near the advertised specs.
Please post your experience with the updated BIOS.
Update 3:
Dell is finally listening, they are replacing the 90 watt charger with a 130 watt slim charger with a promise of a BIOS fix version A07 that is promised to fix the problem.
Will update upon the testing of the BIOS.
here is how to place a replacement request in USA and Canada
http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19320784.aspx
Update 2
DELL thinks a BIOS release will fix the problem and is working on it now.
ALL the people who performed all kind of testing in NBR assures the engineers at DELL that a BIOS fix will not fix the problem completely without the use of a charger of higher power. Using Throttlestop the system was able to consume 110-120 watts under load.
Some people will accept a BIOS that throttle up to the maximum power of the charger used so for a 90 watts charger the system throttles at 90 watts, for a 130 watts, it throttles at 130 watts.
Some people are planning a class action browse the thread for more information.
Update
Here is our group findings so far
1. The power conservative BIOS forces the system to throttle to 7x when the power consumption is around 90 watts due to one or more of the following reasons:
a. Limitation of the power supply capability
b. Limitation of the motherboard to accept more than 90 watts (This reason is from DELL, but we suspect it)
c. To increase the battery life
d. To limit heat generation
obviously DELL should be blamed for poor design if it is a, b, or d.
2. Thanks to unclewebb there is a software now to unlock the throttle, this one will almost certainly put the 90 watt charger to rest or fire.
3. Due to the power limitation, it looks like the people with the RGBLED are most affected by the problem due to the added power consumption.
4. DELL is aware of the problem, but according to them it only affects a small percentage of people that put the system on full performance.
5. DELL keeps saying that the 130 watts adapter is not the solution of the problem, which is quite true as it needs both an adapter and BIOS update.
6. After a long wait, DELL acknowledged that there is a problem and that they will address it soon without announcing a time frame.
7. We as a group lack the trust in DELL fixing the problem to our satisfaction.
I think most of our group will agree on the above.
With all the above said, i am quite happy that mine was returned back to DELL after a frustrating experience with DELL level 1, 2, and 3 technical support. This doesn't represent the other members as most of them are happy with their notebook but expect action from DELL.
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We are among the first to receive our DELL studio XPS 16 1645 with i7. We have some benchmark results that strongly suggest that the equipped 90W charger is not providing enough power to the system. To summarize, the performance of the system is correlated to the brightness of the monitor which suggests that the power provided is not enough so when the monitor is dimmed it allows more power to be consumed by the system. Here is some findings:
Here is the findings, if you stress the laptop using 3Dmark06 the performance is correlated to the brightness of the screen, here is the findings
Full brightness: 5003 3DMark '06
SM2.0: 1664
SM3.0: 2189
CPU: 2568
Lowest brightness: 5405 3DMark '06
SM2.0:1834
SM3.0: 2326
CPU: 2785
To further see the effect of the power consumption, i ran Crysis benchmark for two cases with one difference, the power source battery and minimum brightness vs charger and maximum brightness. I used the exact same settings for power plan (High performance and optimize performance for powerplay)
On Charger, Battery full, maximum brightness
Run #1- DX10 1024x768 AA=No AA, 32 bit test, Quality: Low ~~ Last Average FPS: 68.75
Run #2- DX10 1024x768 AA=No AA, 32 bit test, Quality: Medium ~~ Last Average FPS: 30.24
Run #3- DX10 1024x768 AA=No AA, 32 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 20.38
On Battery, minimum brightness
Run #1- DX10 1024x768 AA=No AA, 32 bit test, Quality: Low ~~ Last Average FPS: 80.31
Run #2- DX10 1024x768 AA=No AA, 32 bit test, Quality: Medium ~~ Last Average FPS: 50.93
Run #3- DX10 1024x768 AA=No AA, 32 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Last Average FPS: 29.50
To further test the claim that the power is not enough, an external monitor is connected and to our surprise the system showed its muscles with best performance.
The correlation to the between the brightness and performance, and the heat generated from the charger strongly suggested that the charger is not providing enough power under full load.
It will be a shame if the power adapter is not adequate specially after the whole mess of delaying orders.
[Poll]
starrysummersky
5 Posts
0
December 27th, 2009 12:00
I've been using a Dell 150w adapter now for a few weeks with Throttlestop. Its a model PA-1151-06D. Its a PA-15 family adapter. its not the slimline one, its a bit of a brick, but it works for me so I'm not bothered about the size. Remember you have to use it in conjunction with throttlestop and ALSO, remember there is a keyboard driver issue too. So once you've booted up, put the laptop to sleep for a couple of seconds then reawaken it, this gets around the problem and games should run supersmooth after this.
Zi Wei
19 Posts
0
December 28th, 2009 09:00
Interesting find on my part guys... so i noticed my xps 1645 takes longer than usual to charge. Almost 5-6 hours for a 9cell battery!!!!
I called up tech support in the middle of the night and it appears this new techie tells me he's was working on (using) an xps 1645 with a 130w adapter!
and i quote... "oh, actually there's a test model that i'm using, and i'm running a 130w adapter. So far no problems, it's running great, can charge faster."
This confused me as another technitian just told me earlier today that a 130w adapter would fry my circuits.
Hmm.. this is suspicious!!
Fact:
-Dell is aware of the problem
-Dell is running tests on the 130w adapters with this system
-Dell is bluntly lying to their customers and scaring us into believing the 130w is not safe until while their technicians claim it's a dream with a happy tone of voice.
ROY! I hope you're reading this!!!!!!!!!!
Zi Wei
19 Posts
0
December 28th, 2009 09:00
Oh btw Roy was kind enough to CONFIRM that the 90w adapter is not really sufficient to charge our systems quick enough.
I think i'm just gonna buy a 130w anyway since DELL won't replace. Can someone tell me the exact part number to buy?
also is this gonna be a brick?
Zi Wei
19 Posts
0
December 28th, 2009 10:00
Right then , i guess we all just keep a little faith in Dell and give them the benefit of doubt.
abhi.80
6 Posts
0
December 28th, 2009 10:00
I called Dell Support a couple of days back and referred them to this thread. They are sending me a 130w adapter as a replacement to the original 90w (need to ship this back). When I asked if it is safe to use 130w adapter with this laptop, he put me on hold for a minute and then confirmed there should not be any issue. He asked me to re-execute the A03 BIOS update when first time I start my laptop on the 130w power (not sure if that is gonna make any difference).
I am still not sure if I should go with 130w power adapter (I don't want any damages to the system in long term), or should I just wait till they come out with a confirmed/ tested solution (very less hopes).
Please can someone comment what should we do? Also, if we can't file a L_A_W suit, may be we all can decide and return the laptops to create some impact.
bballstuffer
20 Posts
0
December 28th, 2009 10:00
I just spoke with Dell Canada this morning regarding this issue as well. They acknowledge that there is a problem. The rep said with the 130w power supply can put the throttling away (or some at least), but he said that our system is not configured to run at 130w. He said the CPU will get the power, but that will over stress the motherboard and other devices on our notebook.
So, I guess they are working on it. And I won't jump right onto the 130w. As the prior posts said, Dell are testing the 130w and I hope they have a solution for us soon.
eddietsou
3 Posts
0
December 29th, 2009 11:00
I got the same problem. I received my Dell on Dec 23. I installed COD4 just to try it out and experience the throttling problem like everyone else. The next day my laptop was fully charged and when i turned it on i got the green shade. I plugged it into and external monitor and the external was fine but it was still a green shade. AFter restarting a couple times it was okay, but then it turned into a blue shade. I called Dell tech support and after trying many solutions the tech support had me instal some new bios and drivers etc. While they were downloading i asked about the power problem and throttling problem. Her answer was that the DELL studio xps 1645 is a multimedia laptop and not a gaming laptop. She said she did not no why everyone wants gaming performance out of a multimedia laptop ( even though in my head im sure the website said it is a fairly good gaming laptop as well as a multimedia laptop). She also mentioned that the 90x was made for this laptop and nothing else would work well and said something about it still being able to draw 190w through the 90w... In any case after downloading the updates my screen went to a green shade and she told me it was a hardware problem that had to be fixed and the only time someone could come in was after the holiday weekend. So my solution was just to return the laptop, i figure if a brand new machine comes with this many problems i wouldnt want to deal with it for the next couple of years when its not brand new. Hopefully all you guys can find better solutions and get better help from tech support. In the mean time i think ill be looking into an ASUS, the new g51jx-a1 is up there are far as specs
abhi.80
6 Posts
0
December 29th, 2009 11:00
I am facing a new issue with this laptop (RGBLED screen). Looks like linked to the power problem but nothing to do with the power adapter. This happened a couple of times so far.
Laptop was in low battery state (one was in sleep mode and other time it was shut down). I turned it on without having connecting the power adapter. System started as it would normally, but the screen was all in blue shade. No colors. The login screen (and everything) was in blue color shade and contrast/brightness was the lowest. When it turned on like this, I tried connecting it to the power but no change. I restarted it, still no change. Then I disconnected the power, shut it down, then connected the power back and started it - then the screen came back to normal.
Has anyone faced this issue?
When I called Dell Support, the guy told me this is because the battery was very low and screen does not have enough power - and this is alright. Well, I would say laptop should not start at all if the battery power is not enough to light the screen. Also the blue color should go away when connected to power, but it doesn't.
Please help me to figure if this is happening with only my machine.
c.newman
10 Posts
1
December 29th, 2009 12:00
***** FOR ALL WHO'S DELL SUPPORT REP IS SAYING THE 1645 IS NOT A GAMING LAPTOP *****
Their website have suggtive marketing that leads us the consumer that these laptop can be used for Gaming.
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/studio-xps-16-wordal?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
Also here (Click on the "Design" tab): http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-studio-xps-16?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19
amrit999
1 Message
0
December 30th, 2009 06:00
bigcat400 made a good point about this
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5601802
Quote
"That confuses me. How is gaming different than any other application or group of applications pushing the system to max performance? Let's say you'r running a virtual machine with vmware, building/compiling software in the background, running eclipse, running photoshop, all at the same time. Isn't it likely that the issue will be seen in this case as well? This is the info I am looking for. I am not a gamer, but I am a developer and do typically use all resources from the machine. That's my reason for running a quad core with 8GB RAM. What are people's thoughts on this?"
Anonymous
5 Practitioner
5 Practitioner
•
274.2K Posts
0
January 1st, 2010 15:00
I've got the same problem with AC adapter. I did same test and the results was that the computer was rendering faster on battery. my computers has rgb led display and when is very bright I see lightly pulsating display and I think that the reason is in AC adapter. I did tests using cpuz64, linx, prime95. When dell is going exchange AC adapter with 130 Watt and when I can download new version BIOS.
kenshee78
10 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2010 18:00
I recently ordered mine december 30, thinking I might get lucky. Do you all suggest I should cancel my order? Thanks for the advice!!
Irulz1081
9 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2010 19:00
Honestly, my opinion. Even though the machine is having this issue, i'm sure that this issue will be resolved. Aside from this issue, it is a great machine. But I ordered mine with the i7 720 QM and I am NOT having these problems. So things are probably different but i dont really know.
kenshee78
10 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2010 19:00
I ordered the same(i720) with the RGB display. Will be using it mainly for photo editing and gaming. I'm greatly concerned while reading these posts mainly because I don't have a lot of money and usually keep my PCs 4-5 years, my last one being a Dell and is still alive with issues resolved within the first year. I was just wonderin if waitin a little bit longer will serve me better and cancel/reorder my PC a couple of weeks later.
c.newman
10 Posts
0
January 3rd, 2010 10:00
Well looks like Dell Forum Moderators are deleting posts in this thread... I got email updates for some posts that were made and now they don't exist. Go figure.
I orderd my SXPX 1645 on Dec 11 and it arrived on Dec 24th. After running several test and reading tons of forum post from this thread and here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=437800. The meantion forum thread has many owners of the 1645 running all kinds of test and posting their results showing that the 1645 is being thottled so that the 90watt adapter will be sufficient.
If you are only using your laptop for office use. Such as, Programming with Visual Studio, Eclipse.. running several different Virtual Machine instances at the same time, having Microsoft SQL 2008 install and running at the same time... and running several high DPI photos open in photoshop... this machine works great with the 90watt adapter.
However, if you are using this laptop in graphic intensense situations such as gaming, you will easily find that Dell IS throttling the power of the CPU back so that the 90watt adapter will be suffucient. You can find this to be true by running a benchmark test call Furmark along with other tools found in the mentioned forum link. Using a tool called Thottlestop has increase my FPS between 35 to 60 FPS using the Furmark bench test.
ThrottleStop, brought to you by Unclewebb (developer of RealTemp) has been designed to combat the throttle "feature" Dell has implemented into the design of the XPS 1645 i7's BIOS. You WILL need a 130watt Dell branded adapter unless you understand how to limit your CPU through Throttlestop to keep it from blowing up your 90watt adapter (seriously). Links to this app can be found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5687827#post5687827