Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

[jammy86]

I've recieved my xps13 on 1st May 2012, take it out from the box and power it up...... 1st bad thing happen to me was the screen brightness blinking rapidly, adjust the brightness to maximum and it's ok... so i started to play with the brightness button again by adjusting it from bright to dimm and dimm to bright then noticed the buzzing sound from the Mobo act differently and the screen still blinking like a stroboscope at a low to mid brightness level. The brighter i go the hotter i'll get on the far up right at the delete button area... At first thought it was a new hardware that have to run for a while maybe a day to make it run properly... After a week of using it, the problem still exist. I open the back cover to see what is wrong and what cause the heat building up when i brightened up the screen display. I noticed that the Inductor Labeled 100 of PL9 (a black round cylinder with a 2 pole) beside the LCD Plug was way too hot to touch and the Transister labeled A9CA 1N of Q51 below the ssd (SMD Transistor 3 pin) was burning and cracked... I assumed that the buzzing sound was comming from the Invertor and Inductor for the screen display current control... Now I just use the level 3-4 of the brightness level to keep the heat low and waiting for the support crw to come... Did anyone have the same situation as mine...

Interesting that you have found a damaged component. I suspect that it's part of the "buzzing" issues that a few of us are reporting. I could find no single dodgy component on the mobo i inspected although I did not have it running at the time as I only needed to check the battery level for it to make the buzzing noise.

What I don't get is that they all seem to be making the noise from what I can work out. Well I've had 3 motherboards (2 in one machine and a repalcement machine) and they all buzzed, the newest the least of all. From Bill's comments they are aware that there is some kind of issue with the motherboards emitting noise but have declared the units they have investigated as "within spec". I have a bad feeling that there are going to be a large number of these units failing prematurely in the future due to some issue that Dell are not admitting to right now.... I'm not sure what to do about mine.... half the reason I wanted it was the fact that it should be silent due to the SSD and ULV processor....???

Edit: it might be worth you disconnecting the screen and seeing if you can locate the buzzing any better of if this changed the noise.

[Silenus]

Just bought it.
Can't wait to get it next week.

By the way which mini display port adapter can I use with this laptop.
I saw this one on ebay Rocketfish Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter (RF-AP305). 4 bucks.
Would that be compatible, they mostly say macbook but I don't see why it wouldn't work on ours.

[pusta]

Just bought it.
Can't wait to get it next week.

By the way which mini display port adapter can I use with this laptop.
I saw this one on ebay Rocketfish Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter (RF-AP305). 4 bucks.
Would that be compatible, they mostly say macbook but I don't see why it wouldn't work on ours.

I'm sure it would. I use this one from Monoprice and it works great.

For only $5.70 each when QTY 50+ purchased - Mini DisplayPort | Thunderbolt® to HDMI® Adapter w/ Audio Support | Mini DisplayPort to HDMI / DVI / VGA Adapters

[Silenus]

Thanks just ordered one too.

Has anyone tried windows 8 cp on it. Do all drivers work correctly on it?

I plan to install it if I hear that it works good on it.

[og1996]

Thanks just ordered one too.

Has anyone tried windows 8 cp on it. Do all drivers work correctly on it?

I plan to install it if I hear that it works good on it.

Works great with Windows 8 CTP.

[Azureal]

Am I the only one that misses Dell-Bill B? :-)

I think my Ultrabook is turning itself on and overheating in the leather sleeve. Yes I went into the bios and turned that feature off.

Same here man! I have not figured it out yet either. I was playing with the power settings recently and disabled the auto-wake feature but it is still behaving oddly.

And yes, I miss Dell-Bill B too!

[Silenus]

Great now I have to hunt a case to carry it.

Any recommendation of a slim case.

[Azureal]

Great now I have to hunt a case to carry it.

Any recommendation of a slim case.

I guess Dell is selling nice black leather case made specifically for the XPS 13 for around 50 USD.

I bought a Knomo Envelope at the advice of another user here, it was pricey at 80 USD but it is all class ...

[Silenus]

Was looking at this one.



30 buck on Ebay.

What do you think?

[Azureal]

Was looking at this one.

30 buck on Ebay.

What do you think?

Looks ok, for twenty more you can get one made of real leather.