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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]
sabedisc
5 Posts
0
March 24th, 2010 18:00
hey I had a question for every one here:
have anyone used any kind of external cooling fans for the heating problem? and did they work?
susuman
17 Posts
0
March 24th, 2010 20:00
I am using a mini usb desk fan, it is cool and no noise, work remarkably.
here is the photo
http://vetac.manufacturer.globalsources.com/si/6008824791274/pdtl/USB-fan/1023223484/USB-Desk-Fan.htm
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002KHK4SE/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=103612307&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000S0Q30I&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=06FEZPECWC08CJC7VJPK
its cheap here in Malaysia , less than 4USD
This is a best work around solution so far.
dimitridegrecia
2 Posts
0
April 8th, 2010 11:00
Ok, yesterday I received my Studio XPS 1645 with i7 720, WLED, 4670 ATI, 500 GB HDD, 4GB DDR3, DVD-RW. Haven't yet had the chance to run it, but I felt obliged to respond to all of you fellas that Dell is sending the 130Watt adapter with the system. At least mine is 130W without placing any complaints or orders on such a thing. So far it doesn't throttle or have any lags but I have to say that I haven't installed any games or full HD 1080p video, just a few 720p movies. I guess I am one of the lucky ones...Hope so at least...
PS. I didn't have the Bluetooth module installed to save 20 bucks. LOL. And that, just to inform you of my full configuration.
carpediemvideos
5 Posts
0
April 10th, 2010 22:00
I got the Zalman zm-nc2000 notebook cooler and it's amazing. I don't even like to use the computer without the cooler. It has fans built in that plug into a usb port so you don't have to plug it into the wall.
Penrod180
1 Message
0
April 12th, 2010 13:00
Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum so I hope I'm posting this in the correct place. This thread is very interesting since I've been thinking about getting a studio 16 xps with an i7. I was going to get a refurb or PON from the Dell Outlet. Does anyone know if these will be updated with the latest BIOS and the 130W charger? And the consensus seems to be that WLED is the way to go, right? Thanks!
sit2k
10 Posts
0
April 13th, 2010 10:00
if i were you i would or look into the 1558.
i just got a 1558 with a better video card (5470 with 1 gig ram), free netgear n router, faster ram (4gig ddr3 1333), everything the same for $830. that price includes tax and shipping.
dimitridegrecia
2 Posts
0
April 14th, 2010 02:00
Welcome to the "family"...LOL... yea, i got my XPS 1645 with the 130w Charger, and I assume, since the charger requires an update of the BIOS to properly function and since mine works perfectly, that yeah, you get it with the updated BIOS and the 130 w charger...As for the RGBLED screen everyone says its awesome to look at, but after going through many posts it seems that i causes more problems to the system than the WLED and consumes more power...don't get me wrong if i had the extra money i'd buy it in a heartbeat....good luck my friend..
gpig
48 Posts
0
July 12th, 2010 13:00
Dell has only partially fixed the problem. There are still problems with CPU throttling (in some cases down to 200MHz), even though it's an i7. The problem is caused by lack of power STILL, after using the 130watt adapter, and/or due to the heat generated by the additional power allowed by the 130watt adapter. Either way, the 130watt adapter with the latest BIOS update is not and will not be the answer. RGBLED owners got the worst of it, but even "base model" specs such as mine listed below are not without problems.
Here's a idea, straight to the point: http://www.ideastorm.com/ideaView?id=087700000000iE4AAI
My Specs: i7 720QM, 4GB ram, 4670 GPU, WLED screen, 500GB HDD
hola987
2 Posts
0
July 28th, 2010 12:00
I just talked to them about this problem. Right after some questions and making sure that it was my computer they said that they would replace the motherboard and heat sink. I hope this fixes it but not too hopefully. After that they said they would replace the whole system. I think they should just give out free laptop coolers for now until they can really fix the problem.
hola987
2 Posts
0
August 16th, 2010 10:00
I did the same thing but for me they sent the wrong part when the tech guy came to fix it. So they offered an exchange. They offered the studio 15, the studio xps 16 1645 refurbished or a new studio xps 16 1647 which i took. Still waiting for it to come but should be here any day now. The bios update i felt helped but it makes the game run not as smooth but its more playable than before.
sabedisc
5 Posts
0
August 16th, 2010 11:00
as for your freezes you just have to uninstall or disable the creative sound blaster software on your computer, (which means you were scammed by dell cause you paid 30 or 50 dollars for it!).
For the heat related issues, its just a reaaaly bad design; putting only one puny fan on the cpu (XPS 1640, 1645 and 1647 all the same.) and covering the exit vent with the monitor! which means the gpu, motherboard and all the internal components are going to fail at some point without a super powerful laptop cooler! (mine goes up to 100 degrees Celsius CPU and GPU with a laptop cooler and 6 cm of clearance under the laptop while playing most games, running rendering or modeling softwares and these are in ambient temp of 20-25 degrees!)
and i guess the soft touch keys were just a mother board issue cause i havent heard anyone having problems there.
and if your having HD video issues you just have to install the latest ATI catalyst and disable power play on it and also install the latest flash player. (you can find both on www.filehippo.com)
there were some more issues with it that i just dont remember now.
and finally if you are in the first 30 days of receiving the laptop, I suggest you return it for a refund or get it replaced with a latitude or an alienware (studio 15s have the same problems with i7 and i5)
jpb3212
3 Posts
0
August 16th, 2010 17:00
Have been having issues with our XPS 1645 for months as well now.
Symptoms:
We are not gamers. Mainly just web apps, occasional photoshop.
Have replied again to Dell for advice on next steps. I'm getting to the stage where i'd rather have a (editted) lower spec machine that was at least reliable. Has anyone had any other changes by support, or been able to swap for other models? Was wondering if downgrading from i7 to i5 might help - but from reading here, looks like some i5's have the issues as well.
jpb3212
3 Posts
0
August 16th, 2010 17:00
Thanks Sabedisk, I will try to work through that list of actions - thanks for consolidating that all in one post.
If it improves the situation for us that would be great - although I'm not happy that we have to go to these efforts because it does not work out of the box. The heat issues seem to be the major problem. And if I use the workarounds, I might as well have purchased a desktop. Unfortunately that's not an option at the moment.
I must say that the response by the local service guy is great though.
Kiefer.Dorn
8 Posts
0
October 22nd, 2010 17:00
The link cannot be opened, Is the problem with the my network here?
Rachel.Carlyle
5 Posts
0
November 15th, 2010 20:00
Thanks for your instruction! It's very detailed.