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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]
2by4
17 Posts
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February 9th, 2010 07:00
FYI, my adapter was shipped through FedEX and came "Next Business Day"
Next Business Day means (Monday-Friday), no sat or sun deliveries.
Also for those that don't know, you can go to the Dell website and sign in with your user-name and password, and then click on My Account to follow/track your Adapter delivery.
The actual size of the 130W slim adapter is:
Length = 6 inches
Width = 3 inches
Height = 1 inch thick
Just some general info for you guys and gals.
Enjoy
a3steele
1 Message
0
February 9th, 2010 08:00
hi todd
my studio xps is currently in production, is there any way you can tell me if my order is on track to be sent with a 130w adapter? or would it be better to just ask to have one sent to me now now?
ekphrasis
4 Posts
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February 9th, 2010 08:00
same question here todd. my computer is on order but still in pre-production status. do you know what the factory cut-in date will be for the new adaptors and ao7 bios?
Baldip
32 Posts
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February 9th, 2010 09:00
I went to my account on DELL website, "There isn't and recent orders to display"
When will it be shipped?
m7ickey
13 Posts
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February 9th, 2010 10:00
just disabling e-mail replies, I think
Thanks again to everyone who had a part in solving this issue
DELL-Todd S
1.8K Posts
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February 9th, 2010 10:00
I'm still confirming a few issues before I start processing the shipments. When I do process them I will be replying to PMs with order number and/or dispatch number.
If your system has not yet shipped I will not be sending out any replacement adapters YET. I'm going to work through the backlog of existing customers first since they have been waiting the longest.
Baldip
32 Posts
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February 9th, 2010 11:00
Thanks for The Quick Response Todd :D
Now after this fix, I have to find out why X-Fi software keeps freezing my laptop when being used.
bballstuffer
20 Posts
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February 9th, 2010 11:00
My order # is appearing in my account/order status.
Estimated Ship Date: 10/02/2010
Thanks Todd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
m7ickey
13 Posts
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February 9th, 2010 11:00
For those who may be interested, I just received an e-mail conformation from Todd stating my adapter is ordered and on its way. Woo-Hoo!
However, it is not showing up in the my account/order status on Dell.com. No big deal though, might still be processing. As long as it shows up at my door, I'll be happy.
ETA is 2 to 3 business days, ASSUMING no supply problems. Good luck to everyone on their shipments.
A07 countdown is on, Lets just hope they get it right, Right is better than fast, even though we've been waiting a while for a fix.
DELL-Todd S
1.8K Posts
0
February 9th, 2010 12:00
I updated the thread at the top of the forums but I wanted to reiterate here. These adapters are meant to be used in conjunction with the A07 BIOS. Users should update to that as soon as it is released to get full functionality of the 130w adapters.
eeehee
9 Posts
0
February 9th, 2010 13:00
For what it's worth, I went to configure a new Studio 16 today and it was offering a 90watt adapter for purchase as an extra. I can only imagine this means that the one it was going to come with was also a 90watt. Seems like it's just creating more of a headache than necessary.
I'm anxiously awaiting field testing of A07 + 130watt by you guys, please post your experiences.
hi_its_me_scott
20 Posts
0
February 9th, 2010 15:00
This isn't even the fix for the full screen flash game freezes? I picked a real winner with this Dell. I guess 1/2 problems solved is better than 0/2 problems solved but if I can't get this other issue resolved soon, this will be my last Dell product.
-Not Happy
Anonymous
5 Practitioner
5 Practitioner
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274.2K Posts
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February 9th, 2010 15:00
bballstuffer wrote that his new AC adapter will be deliver soon and I think that's unfair that Dell is beginning sent AC adapter only to people which lives in US or Canada. Yesterday I call to technical support (in Poland) and they don't know about problems with sxps 1645 including change AC adapter.
Can you do something that the rest of the world will get it soon?
DELL-Todd S
1.8K Posts
0
February 9th, 2010 16:00
The rest of the world will be getting the adapters soon. Bill, Brad, and I are trying to help out and get adapters out to the people on these boards (and NBR) that were instrumental in getting this issue the attention it needed. But we can't, legally, ship outside North America. This program isn't even yet officially released, more of a "thank you" effort at this point on our part.
No grand conspiracy here. No intent to ignore the other parts of the world. Just as we helped get this program up and running we're also working in the background to get it set up internationally. It just takes a bit of time.
And once the program is set up we'll put more notifications up on how to get helped.
TechinCC
12 Posts
0
February 9th, 2010 16:00
Wow, thanks to everyone who has contributed in this effort to resolve this issue. I am hoping to become happy with this laptop which has great potential but has been very frustrating due to the lockups to date. Kudos to the power of crowdsourcing and not giving up and thank you to Dell for actually responding in this user forum.
I was able to work with Tech Support to get power supplies shipped by linking them to this thread.