XPS 15 9500 Third Party PD Charger

Thanks for the reply. I'm not too concerned about needing the full 130w since I'm just looking for a small charger I can carry around to do light work like browsing and typing. I tried asking a Dell rep the other day and she said it supports 90w charging but didn't say anything else and wasn't very clear. I have the Gigabyte egpu with 100w charging so I'm hoping it does support 90w or 100w

@zennrix  The maximum is actually 65W from non-Dell USB-C sources, not 60W.  Although to go above 60W you need a USB-C cable rated for up to 100W rather than the more common 60W.  But I remember recently reading a post here from someone here saying that they're still limited to 65W on the XPS 15, and I'm fairly sure they were using the new 9500.  My memory may not be right, and I certainly hope Dell removes this seemingly unnecessary and arbitrary limitation if they haven't already, but based on what I've seen thus far, I'm not especially hopeful.

However, note that the XPS 15 is designed for a 130W power source, so even an 87-100W power source would be undersized, which means that even if it can make the most of that power source, you might still see reduced battery charging speeds and throttled performance.  The only 130W USB-C power sources I'm aware of are Dell's own 130W USB-C charger and then some of their docking stations that support delivering that.  I haven't seen any Dell USB-C displays offer that much (I think the highest I've seen is 95W, though some are as low as 65W), and I definitely haven't seen anything in the third party world, which is expected given that Dell is clearly doing something proprietary to stretch the official USB PD spec.

@zennrix  Unfortunately, Dell reps are not always reliable in the answers they provide, especially when it comes to technical questions.  But on many Dell laptops, you can go into the BIOS Setup to the "Battery information" section, and underneath the battery graphic the system will display the wattage of the attached power source.  For USB-C sources it will be either the maximum wattage of the source or the max that particular system will draw from it, whichever is lower.  I don't know if the 9500 specifically has that, though.  You could also check the Dell Power Manager app, which might show this even within Windows.  Please report what you find with your eGPU!

@zennrix  I’m actually waiting for the Aukey Omnia PA-B6, which will be their dual port 100W charger. 100W max total output, but the extra port might come in handy when changing other lower power stuff. Apparently it’s supposed to come out in Q2. Not too many days of Q2 left, but we’ll see.

Thanks again for the info. I'll try asking a couple more Dell reps to see what kind of answers they give me before I commit to buying, as I would want to use something like the Ravpower 90w or Aukey Omnia 100w if I can. If I do buy I'll be sure to report on it!

As an update I was asking around on reddit and it seems one person got 90W of charging from a Razer Core X egpu while another person remembers maxing out at 65W on the gigabyte gaming box. Both egpus are supposed to give up to 100W of PD. Can't find PD charging specs for either boxes so not sure if they have different voltage/amperage combinations at 90w or something

@zennrix  I haven't seen 65W or 90W delivered at any voltage other than 20V.  I suppose in theory you could run 65W as 15V at 4.3 amps, but I don't know of any peripherals that are designed for that.  But 90W would have to be 20V because at the moment the official USB PD spec maxes out at 5 amps, so you couldn't reach 90W using 15V.  But then of course there are possible limitations around what the device being charged will accept.  And even that assumes that all devices involve implement the USB PD spec properly, which doesn't always seem to be the case.  For example, it seems that charging issues are among the many problems that Mac users are having with recent Dell USB-C displays.  In one case I remember, a user found that a certain Dell display would prevent their system from staying asleep.  He actually hooked up a USB PD protocol analyzer and found that the Dell display seemed to be failing to send a certain signal to confirm a drop to a reduced power level that the MacBook was requesting for sleep mode -- and when the MacBook didn't see that, it woke back up to reattempt the transition, and kept doing that.  So there are always issues or variances that can arise based on the exact combination of devices involved, even if there that shouldn't be the case.

While I haven't yet got the 9500, after reading more reports and comments it seems that the 9500 takes 90w at exactly 20V and 4.5A. Most chargers that do 100W can only output at 20V and 5A, but won't do 90W, meaning that the XPS then charges at 60 or 65w. So far the only chargers I've seen that have 20V and 4.5A are the Satechi 108W desktop charger and the Ravpower 90W, the latter of which has been confirmed by a few people. Other chargers like the Hyperjuice and Choetech are confirmed to charge only 60W as they dont do 20V 4.5A. I'm guessing this explains the difference between the Gigabyte egpu and the razer core

While I haven't yet got the 9500, after reading more reviews and comments it seems it charges at 90W with 20V and 4.5A, not any more or less. Most chargers that output 100 like the Omnia or Hyperjuice or Choetech dont do 20V and 4.5A, which is why the XPS draws only 65w from them. So far the only chargers I've seen do 90W are the Satechi 108W desktop charger and the Ravpower 90W, the latter of which has been confirmed to work. This also explains why the Gigabyte egpu would only charge 65W while the razer core could do 90w

@zennrix  Good to hear that Dell might be loosening up on USB-C charging restrictions when using third party power sources.  But as for 100W chargers not doing 20V at 4.5A, I don't know if that would explain these findings because I don't understand why that limitation would exist, or even COULD exist.  To my knowledge (which may be imperfect here), USB PD only involves negotiating a voltage level and then a MAXIMUM amperage level, not an EXACT amperage level.  The reason is that the amount of power the system needs at any given time fluctuates from moment to moment, and that adjustment is made by changing the AMPERAGE draw, not the voltage draw.  This can be seen with a USB-C multimeter like this one that I actually own.  My own Latitude 7480 uses a 65W power source, and according to my multimeter it negotiates 20V with my power source, but then I see the amperage level constantly fluctuate.  Most of the time it doesn't go over 25W total draw.  So if a power source supports providing 100W, which is only allowed as 20V at 5A, then I can't fathom why it would NOT also be able to provide 20V at 4.5A.  The system will need to draw a sub-100W amount of power at times -- in fact at MOST times -- and although a power source can limit amperage draw, it can't "force" amperage down the wire to the attached system.

I honestly don't know then. I can't think of why else the Ravpower 90w adapter works when others like the Hyperjuice dont go above 65. The mention of 90W at 20V4.5A was the only isolating thing I could find on the ravpower, as well as that one dell rep told me only 60w or 90w chargers work

@zennrix  By the way, speaking of 90W power sources, I also own this Nekteck 90W charger.  And on the Satechi front, I own their previous 72W charger that had a 60W USB-C port.  That thing is awesome for travel, by the way.  I can charge my laptop overnight (albeit slowly), my iPhone at 18W, and then my watch and one other device each night -- all from a single charger.  The first three typically need to be charged every night, but the only other devices I carry with me are my AirPods, Jabra headset, and USB battery pack, none of which need to be charged every night.  So that single Satechi charger is all I need when I travel.

I tried a Less is More 65w chager and a Aukey Omnia 65w charger.  Neither worked and I had to return both.  So until I hear from someone who has succesfully tried a third party charger for the XPS 9500, I think I'll just wait and sit tight.  I'm ok with slow charging when travelling, as long as the charger is small and light.

@Nurwazil  What happened with those? Did the system throw an error about the attached power source?  Did Dell Power Manager or your BIOS even register the presence of a power source?

Yep, the system was blissfully unaware that a charger was attached.  Nothing happened.