Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

[todders]

Dont forget to check the dell support site for a batch of new updates to their driver database,their are a number from the 27-07-2012. Including new video drivers,chipset,audio drivers,USB etc..... No issues since installing all of these.

[nicosan83]

So i just got this piece of engineering marvel 2 days ago and so far i am really pleased with it,my only concern is that i have two things that kinda bothers me

1: in bios the option for intel rapid start is "greyed out" does this means that it is disabled by dell? and is there a way to re-activate this feature in some way ? this is a refurb machine. Using bios V. A03 that came pre-installed

Any reason for me to update Bios to A06 by any means ?

2: touchpad is constantly freezing version : 2.3.6.34 using OS that came pre-configured with the machine, any other versions that may work better for me,cause i cant stand for it to freeze,any other working drivers would be greatly appriciated. i can say that the toucpad driver that came with the machine was Version : 2.3.6.25 and it worked but 2 finger scroll and multigestures was not working so i updated to the latest via dell.com, newest version works great when working,but freezes once in a while all the time.

[zephyr213]

Anyone got a suggestion on how to clean the palm area of this laptop?

[zephyr213]

I'm not able to install the 7-27 dell video driver, it says "does not meet minimum requirements". Is it because I'm running windows 8?

Dont forget to check the dell support site for a batch of new updates to their driver database,their are a number from the 27-07-2012. Including new video drivers,chipset,audio drivers,USB etc..... No issues since installing all of these.

[joeaux]

Anyone got a suggestion on how to clean the palm area of this laptop?

Yup, that "rubberized" coating on the palm/touch area of this laptop is the only thing I don't like about it. They should have just left it brushed metal (like the MacBook Airs). The rubberized stuff picks up dirt, oil and dead skin from even the cleanest of hands. The way I clean mine is with a little Stoners Invisible Glass. Stuff works wonders on that area and the Gorilla Glass.
-joe-

[jet757f]

I was reading in the posts where someone couldn't start their laptop and was told the battery was not removable. Looking at the first page of this thread there are pictures of the bottom of the laptop taken off. The battery looks like it could be removed with 2 screws. Hopefully this is the case. I would hope that this battery could be replaced in the future when it gets old.

[aaksut]

What trackpad drivers are people using on windows 8? There still don't seem to be any that function fully for on either windows 7 or 8, something is always broken. I've resorted to using the 15z drivers on 8, scroll and two finger right click work but it'd be nice to have the fully functioning trackpad.

Bill are there going to be any more trackpad driver updates?

[KJSTech]

Hello,

I was one of the first people to get two of these the day they were available from Dell. I work in I.T. and we have 2 XPS 13's for Executive management.

Both have exhibited the same problem this week. The first XPS13 had this issue on Monday, and now the second XPS13 had this issue today...

When booting up, Windows 7 automatically went into the "Startup Repair" screen for fixing the computer. I held the power button down and then turned it back on and the boot screen said that windows could not start, option 1 was startup repair (default) and option 2 was continue loading windows normally. Well the people just let it time out and that's why it went into startup repair. I selected option 2 and it booted fine.

Why would it do this on 2 Dell XPS13's within the same week? Bad lot? Failing SSD? Failing RAM/Motherboard?

After booting the one today Windows did inform of a system crash and I grabbed the memory.dmp and crash dmp files and ran them in WinDbg. This is what I get after running an analyze!v


BugCheck 3B, {c0000005, fffff9600018315b, fffff88004011ea0, 0}

*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for mssmbios.sys
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export symbols for win32k.sys -
***** Kernel symbols are WRONG. Please fix symbols to do analysis.

*************************************************************************
*** ***
*** ***
*** Your debugger is not using the correct symbols ***
*** ***
*** In order for this command to work properly, your symbol path ***
*** must point to .pdb files that have full type information. ***
*** ***
*** Certain .pdb files (such as the public OS symbols) do not ***
*** contain the required information. Contact the group that ***
*** provided you with these symbols if you need this command to ***
*** work. ***
*** ***
*** Type referenced: nt!_KPRCB ***
*** ***
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
*** ***
*** ***
*** Your debugger is not using the correct symbols ***
*** ***
*** In order for this command to work properly, your symbol path ***
*** must point to .pdb files that have full type information. ***
*** ***
*** Certain .pdb files (such as the public OS symbols) do not ***
*** contain the required information. Contact the group that ***
*** provided you with these symbols if you need this command to ***
*** work. ***
*** ***
*** Type referenced: nt!_KPRCB ***
*** ***
*************************************************************************
*************************************************************************
*** ***
*** ***
*** Your debugger is not using the correct symbols ***
*** ***
*** In order for this command to work properly, your symbol path ***
*** must point to .pdb files that have full type information. ***
*** ***
*** Certain .pdb files (such as the public OS symbols) do not ***
*** contain the required information. Contact the group that ***
*** provided you with these symbols if you need this command to ***
*** work. ***
*** ***
*** Type referenced: nt!_KPRCB ***
*** ***
*************************************************************************
Probably caused by : win32k.sys ( win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+ba57 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

2: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION (3b)
An exception happened while executing a system service routine.
Arguments:
Arg1: 00000000c0000005, Exception code that caused the bugcheck
Arg2: fffff9600018315b, Address of the instruction which caused the bugcheck
Arg3: fffff88004011ea0, Address of the context record for the exception that caused the bugcheck
Arg4: 0000000000000000, zero.

Debugging Details:
------------------

ADDITIONAL_DEBUG_TEXT:
Use '!findthebuild' command to search for the target build information.
If the build information is available, run '!findthebuild -s ; .reload' to set symbol path and load symbols.

MODULE_NAME: win32k

FAULTING_MODULE: fffff80002c5b000 nt

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 4fd6b298

EXCEPTION_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at 0x%08lx referenced memory at 0x%08lx. The memory could not be %s.

FAULTING_IP:
win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+ba57
fffff960`0018315b 488bbd58010000 mov rdi,qword ptr [rbp+158h]

CONTEXT: fffff88004011ea0 -- (.cxr 0xfffff88004011ea0)
rax=0000000000000000 rbx=0000000000000020 rcx=fffff9600036d200
rdx=0000000000000000 rsi=0000000000008802 rdi=0000000000000000
rip=fffff9600018315b rsp=fffff88004012880 rbp=0000000000000000
r8=0000000000000010 r9=0000000000000080 r10=0000000000000001
r11=fffffa800a5c9ac0 r12=0000000000000000 r13=0000000000000000
r14=0000000000000080 r15=0000000000000010
iopl=0 nv up ei pl nz na pe nc
cs=0010 ss=0018 ds=002b es=002b fs=0053 gs=002b efl=00010202
win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+0xba57:
fffff960`0018315b 488bbd58010000 mov rdi,qword ptr [rbp+158h] ss:0018:00000000`00000158=????????????????
Resetting default scope

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0x3B

CURRENT_IRQL: 0

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from fffff9600017950d to fffff9600018315b

STACK_TEXT:
fffff880`04012880 fffff960`0017950d : fffff900`c00e5300 fffff880`073ebb60 00000000`000088b8 00000000`000088b8 : win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+0xba57
fffff880`040128d0 fffff960`001768fa : fffff900`c00e5300 fffff880`073ebb60 fffff8a0`00f59c50 fffff960`001845f8 : win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+0x1e09
fffff880`04012940 fffff960`001817c0 : fffff900`c00e5300 fffff8a0`00f59c50 fffff8a0`00f59c50 00000001`00000002 : win32k!memcmp+0x1f0a
fffff880`04012980 fffff960`00185c69 : 00000258`00004000 0000003c`00000000 fffff900`c00e5300 fffff900`c00e5300 : win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+0xa0bc
fffff880`04012a00 fffff960`00185e86 : fffffa80`0a5c9a01 fffff900`c00e5300 00000000`00000001 fffffa80`0a5c8960 : win32k!memset+0x419
fffff880`04012a50 fffff800`02f790dd : fffffa80`0a5c9ac0 fffffa80`0a5c8960 fffff6fc`40039f28 fffff6fc`40039f58 : win32k!memset+0x636
fffff880`04012a80 fffff800`02cd1aba : fffffa80`0a5c9ac0 000007fe`feb70000 00000000`00000020 00000000`76e526e0 : nt!PsSetThreadWin32Thread+0x172d
fffff880`04012ab0 fffff800`02cd961f : fffffa80`0000023a 00000000`7739140a 00000000`00000000 00000000`0012d258 : nt!KiCpuId+0x2ea
fffff880`04012ae0 000007fe`fee8b5ca : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KeSynchronizeExecution+0x3bef
00000000`0012d258 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : 0x7fe`fee8b5ca


FOLLOWUP_IP:
win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+ba57
fffff960`0018315b 488bbd58010000 mov rdi,qword ptr [rbp+158h]

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0

SYMBOL_NAME: win32k!EngRestoreFloatingPointState+ba57

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

IMAGE_NAME: win32k.sys

STACK_COMMAND: .cxr 0xfffff88004011ea0 ; kb

BUCKET_ID: WRONG_SYMBOLS

Followup: MachineOwner
---------




Any idea what is wrong with 2 Dell XPS13's?

[alphadog00]

Malware could be the issue. I would not expect a hardware problem to hit 2 machines at the same time, but software or malware is fairly common.

Are you running the factory build?

[eggy]

Wonderful... after almost a month of use, I have suddenly developed the dreaded fan noise problem....

Anyone have any tips????

Bios and everything are totally up to date..