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Dell Power Manager Pros and Cons and Removal
I have an XPS 9570. I was having problems with my tap to click on my wireless touchpad sporadically stops working and I have to unplug and plug my USB hub back in and other eratic behavior with my USB devices. No problem on my previous laptop (also running Windows 10).
One thing I noticed on this laptop is a lot of the advanced power management settings in Windows were missing as naturally I thought it could be attributed to a USB Bus Power Saving / Sleep function of some sort.
I explained the issue to Plugable support and they sent me a link to what I think was a registry patch that effectively enabled all the advanced power management settings in Windows that I am used to seeing. I turned off and USB power saving functions. Problem has since gone away.
This is the link. It to a DELL download not a Plugable download. I'm actually not positive it revealed all the missing Windows 10 Advanced Power Settings but based on timing, it seems it did.
https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER03471411M/13/Dell_Dock_USB_TYPE-C_PATCH_2K0JJ_A00_SETUP_ZPE.exe
MY QUESTION IS... should I now just uninstall the Dell Power Manager or is there a good reason to keep it?
Jonah66
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May 8th, 2019 08:00
I removed all of the Dell stuff, i don't need to be told there is an update for MY machine. I don't need Dell to optimise my drivers for me, nor optimise my network. There's nothing that Dell power manager does that advance power options cant do, with the registry patch you mentioned.
I'm quite comfortable removing all of it for the above reason but please make your own choice and i must say it's not caused me issues. I certainly don't miss it.
consultant1027
14 Posts
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May 8th, 2019 08:00
I agree. Basically my take is that the Dell Power Manager essentially "dumbs down" the power management settings for you average user. It's a good idea I suppose for most users, assuming it doesn't cause any issues. But in my case (and apparently this was a known issue with the XPS 9560 and/or 9550 too with the USB and docking stations) the face that the Dell Power Manager hides the built-in Windows Advanced Power Management settings prevented me from tweaking the settings to address my specific issue, most likely caused by the USB power saving setting.
What may have "helped" a bunch of users, hurts a few of us. That's just how it is sometimes.
The logical conclusion to me is, if you know how to use and understand all the Windows Advanced Power Management Settings, and you want full control over them, you need to remove Dell Power Manager. I am not sure if uninstalling the software does the same thing as the registry patch I downloaded as far as revealing the settings. I was just unsure if the Dell Power Manager would have some useful benefit if it remains, or if it is just duplicating (being a simplified user interface overlay) the function of the Windows Power Management Settings. I and going to assume the latter.
Jonah66
14 Posts
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May 8th, 2019 08:00
I checked task scheduler when i had all the Dell software installed, all that checking this and that, no thanks. Why are Nvidia drivers 525mb! that is crazy. And 237 mb for the Application software.
consultant1027
14 Posts
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May 8th, 2019 08:00
Just for those that aren't fully aware of the settings being discussed, here's a Windows screenshot to show what I'm talking about. The stock XPS configuration with Dell Power Manager installed, you can't control these Advanced Settings like this. Where on every laptop and PC I've ever owned before (and that's like 12 computers) you could.