XPS 13 9310 Clamshell issues (power management & BIOS)

Question

After a full year on the market, the XPS 9310 still has quite a few unresolved issues.

I’m going to list 3 problems, the ones that I find most critical.

Blinking light issue, happening when TurboBoost kicks in: it occurs at least 5 times per minute, adding up to a whopping 300 times per hour. All It takes to activate TurboBoost is the lightest kind of workload, browsing through a website, reading a pdf, even using the touchpad will trigger it. But it’s not just a Led acting out: every time it blinks, the battery is subjected to a short charge, as you can see in the video (which shows the battery receiving 30 charges in 4 minutes and 20 seconds!!). Therefore, our batteries are seemingly being burst charged easily 3-4 thousand times on an average work day. I can appreciate the fact that you have implemented a hybrid power solution to sustain the heavier workload during TurboBoost, allowing the system to draw power from both the AC adapter AND the battery at the same time. But why does it need to charge the battery too at the same time? Can’t we avoid this, all for the sake of our battery’s health? It’s my understanding the 9310 2in1 model is not affected by this issue, it has almost the same hardware, cpu has the same TDP, and the same hybrid charge solution, but there is no psychedelic blinking led when TurboBoost activates. So far the only way for the XPS 9310 clamshell model to avoid it is by disabling TurboBoost altogether, which frankly doesn’t feel like the right solution for us customers, this way we are giving up precious performances.
BIOS has troubles keeping the changes we make: this is a problem especially when you want to disable TurboBoost (for example to stop the blinking light), or any other Performance setting, when you go to save your changes it won’t allow it, anything you have selected will bounce back to the previous state. There are reports of such behaviour dating back to the 2.2.0 release, with users trying to disable or enable a performance setting and being unable to effectively save the change. A workaround was ultimately found, you can read all about it here, but it surely comes with some risk.
Battery charging profiles: “Primary AC use” doesn’t work as advertised, I’ve tested it many times over the past two months and it will always charge the battery to its full capacity, 51Wh. Battery is not charging to 80 or 85%, it’s not a virtual 100% of some sort, it’s a true absolute 100%. To prove it, you can set a custom charging threshold to 80%, plug the charger in, battery will reach 80%, showing 40Wh as capacity (any battery utility will show it). Then set the charging profile back to Primary AC use and it will start charging, reaching 51Wh: hence, the full 100% capacity. Here is a screenshot from a battery report:

My question is: will these problems ever be sorted?

I’m receiving different feedbacks about it, I’m not even sure if all these requests ever reached the technical team.

A last mention to the sleep/hibernation mode, although I’m not completely sure it is Dell’s fault if it is so poorly implemented, as I understand it’s been pushed by MS and other OEMs seem to have similar problems. But if Modern Standby is the reason we lost a decent Standby mode, I don’t understand why it’s so hard to have a fully reliable hibernation mode as well.

Tatolino · Answer

I just wanted to update the thread with a new piece of information: the last BIOS 3.3.0 release has fixed one of the issues, you can now effectively save your changes in performance settings. I have tested it a few times over the weekend and it never failed.

So now we are left with 2 issues: blinking light and battery charging profiles (mainly "Primarily AC Use").

I really wish someone at Dell would acknowledge the problems, especially the first one... how can a battery sustain 300 charges per hour without damage?

SebDell · Answer

Hi,

I confirm latest BIOS release fixes performance settings toggling issue (2nd point) and I want to thank Dell for this.

I also sadly confirm the 2 other points Tatolino mentioned in the original post

The 1st point is the most embarrassing to me.
Power management may not be properly implemented on this clamshell model so battery light is blinking several times in a minute and battery alternately switches between "Charging" and "not charging" state which probably causes a slow death of it.

We also noticed this issue doesn't affect 2-in-1 model (same XPS 9310 laptop) which also supports Hybrid power.

So Dell, could you please escalate this point and confirm engineering team is working on a fix?

Once again, we are available to collaborate and provide any information/log that would help in solving those issues.

Thanks a lot for help.

SebDell · Answer

Hi Dell,

I wish a happy new year to you and your close ones too!

You made a big work last year by solving major issues like the screen flickering one.

But as mention in the first post of this topic, some others are still not fixed.
The blinking light issue is really annoying and need attention.

Do you have any feedback from engineering team about this issue?

Thanks a lot for an update on this topic.

Regards,

SebDell · Answer

Hi,

Just an update to inform that I have installed latest BIOS update (3.4.0 released on 2022/01/11) but it unfortunately doesn't fix the blinking light issue yet

@Dell, could you please post something to give us information or feedback on this issue?

We have kindly asked for help for so many months now but still don't have any positive answer except "it is the expected behavior" although it is not.

Other laptops that also support hybrid power don't have this issue!

Tatolino gave all the information in the original post of this topic and once again we can also provide all other needed information or logs.

Thanks for help!

Regards,

TobyGroves · Answer

Just to add that I've now given up on this.

It's patently obvious that Dell are ignoring this problem and instead just claiming it's by design, which it clearly isn't as other models, including the 2-in-1 variant of this very machine, don't exhibit the problem.

If they won't even recognise the problem, they're clearly not going to do anything to fix it so what's the point any more. Have better things to do than listen to Dell's evasions.

Tatolino · Answer

It's the evasive behaviour that really hurts, I have tried and tried again to explain we don't care about the blinking led, what we actually care about is the battery. I have even uploaded a video on YouTube to show them. They simply choose to avoid answering.

If the battery gets charged a thousand times a day then the design is flawed. We are not talking about millisecond burst charges, but several seconds long charges. Hundreds of times an hour. The battery will suffer from it, no doubt.

SebDell · Answer

Hi,

I have just checked out your topic.

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9310-Custom-power-settings-not-working-correctly/m-p/8117453/highlight/true#M94297

... so disappointing. I don't understand how "disable Turbo Boost" can be considered as an accepted solution. We are supposed to be able to enable Turbo Boost without damaging battery.

I also exchanged few messages today with Dell support but it keeps telling "it is working as designed".

I have asked Dell support to answer that simple question: "Why other models that also support 'Hybrid Power' don't have the same issue?" But Dell support don't answer it.

I don't know what more can we do. We have provided all the needed information to let engineering team investigate.

TobyGroves · Answer

What's almost hilarious is they keep badgering me with messages to give them feedback on my 'experience'. Trust me Dell, you don't want my feedback.

Alex_K · Answer

Funniest part is that they promised the issues will get fixed in a BIOS update by the end of 2021 & the people from Dell are not even bothered to be in this thread.

SebDell · Answer

I can only agree with you Alex_K.

I was also told by french and english support it will be fixed, but it is not in the end.

So disappointing.

I would like to keep hope that it will be fixed soon, but I really doubt according to answers given in this thread : https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9310-Custom-power-settings-not-working-correctly/m-p/8117453/highlight/true#M94297

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

Update= This computer supports Hybrid Power. The Hybrid Power feature enables the computer to function optimally during instances of heavy loading, such as graphics and processor-intensive gaming. It does so by coordinating the power input from the power adapter and the battery. This feature is enabled as long as the battery capacity is above 10%. When the battery charge depletes below 10%, Hybrid Power is disabled, and this may lead to a drop in computer performance. Battery charging resumes immediately when the computer is no longer under heavy loading. Resolution The custom charge mode is set up with guard bands at the low end and high end of the battery charge capacity. While the battery is not at 100% charged, repeated burst charges will not put any additional stress on the battery. There is no impact to battery longevity. A public article will be released shortly

Tatolino · Answer

Thanks for looking into it, it will be very interesting to read the article, hopefully it will help us putting our minds at ease.

Arjailer · Answer

It's a month later - where could I find this article?

Edit

Found it at: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000196214/charge-light-blinks-on-dell-xps-9310?lang=en

Unfortunately there's no additional information beyond what Jesse said above.

SebDell · Answer

I can only agree with you And we still have no answer why is this happening on XPS 13 9310 clamshell only and not on 2-in-1 model.

XPS

XPS 13 9310 Clamshell issues (power management & BIOS)

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