Dell Precision 5510 Owner's Lounge

So I just received an email from Dell EMC about the battery swelling issue, saying that my specific one happens to be from the "bad batch" and offering me to replace the battery if I am suffering from the issue.

I didn't even know about the battery swelling case so I opened up my back plate and while it looks alright, I can tell that it is swelling a little, but certainly not as bad as some pictures of the issue I found on Reddit.

Does anyone know if I am going to have to send the old one back to get the new one or if they are going to send me a new one to replace with this one? Unfortunately there is no mention of such details in the email I had just received.

 

My experience is that Dell usually offers advanced replacements for individual parts. You'll get a new battery and a shipping label and be asked to send your old battery back in the same box.

 

After a little more investigation it looks like its a windows thing. When any scaling is applied, things get blurry. The old machine is windows 7 and I guess windows 10 just isn't as good at scaling. I have a background image that needs to be scaled to fit, and it's definitely blurry on the new machine but if I set both computers to their native resolutions and set the image to centered, it's obvious that the new computer screen is crisp. With a little investigation on the web, it looks like I'm not the only one complaining about windows 10 scaling.

Thanks for your reply,
John

 

Right click on the icon for the software, select properties > compatibility and select "Override high DPI scaling behaviour". Windows offers several options and see what works best for you.

John

 

Windows 10 should be at least as good at scaling as Windows 7. I use it with 4K displays at work and do not have any issue. (Apps do need to be high-DPI aware in order to avoid the blurriness.)

Also note that if you change the scaling level, while the scaling ratio appears to change "on the fly", everything will be blurry until you reboot the machine or fully log out of Windows and log back in.

 

Any news on what's up with the removal of BIOS 1.6.1? I already installed it, yet when checking the support page no mention of it anymore...

 

There was a bug in the microcode supplied by Intel which caused problems for some people so Dell pulled all the relevent BIOS updates.

John

 

I see; figured it had to do with the meltdown/spectre back-and-forth, just wish there was something officially posted in the BIOS support page.

Decided to downgrade my BIOS from 1.6.1 back to 1.5.1, which seemed to go okay despite a heart-stopping "BIOS Upgrade Failed" message.

Running back with the older BIOS without apparent issue

Code:

sudo dmidecode -t bios -q
BIOS Information
        Vendor: Dell Inc.
        Version: 1.5.1
        Release Date: 10/17/2017
        Address: 0xF0000
        Runtime Size: 64 kB
        ROM Size: 16 MB
        Characteristics:
                PCI is supported
                PNP is supported
                BIOS is upgradeable
                BIOS shadowing is allowed
                Boot from CD is supported
                Selectable boot is supported
                EDD is supported
                5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
                3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
                3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
                Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
                8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
                Serial services are supported (int 14h)
                Printer services are supported (int 17h)
                ACPI is supported
                USB legacy is supported
                Smart battery is supported
                BIOS boot specification is supported
                Function key-initiated network boot is supported
                Targeted content distribution is supported                                                                                                                                                                                   
                UEFI is supported                                                                                                                                                                                                           
        BIOS Revision: 1.5                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
BIOS Language Information                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
        Language Description Format: Long                                                                                                                                                                                                   
        Installable Languages: 2                                                                                                                                                                                                             
                en|US|iso8859-1                                                                                                                                                                                                             
                <BAD INDEX>                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
        Currently Installed Language: en|US|iso8859-1

... except for the numerous ACPI AE/name exceptions and errors that have plagued this BIOS in Linux since the very beginning <sigh>)

Code:

journalctl -b -p err
-- Logs begin at Fri 2017-09-22 21:42:19 EDT, end at Sat 2018-02-03 11:23:32 EST. --                                                                                                                                                          
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.XHC_.RHUB.HS11] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/dswload-210)                                                                                                       
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, During name lookup/catalog (20170831/psobject-252)                                                                                                                            
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Exception: AE_NOT_FOUND, (SSDT:xh_rvp10) while loading table (20170831/tbxfload-228)                                                                                                                   
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: 1 table load failures, 10 successful (20170831/tbxfload-246)                                                                                                                                    
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP.TDGC] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)                                                                                                        
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_SB.PCI0.PEG0.PG00._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)                                                                                                      
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)                                                                                                        
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)                                                                                                                    
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN00._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)                                                                                                                
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)                                                                                                        
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)                                                                                                                    
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN00._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)                                                                                                                
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: acpi PNP0C0B:00: Failed to set initial power state                                                                                                                                                          
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)                                                                                                        
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)                                                                                                                    
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN01._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)                                                                                                                
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN01._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: acpi PNP0C0B:01: Failed to set initial power state
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN02._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN02._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: acpi PNP0C0B:02: Failed to set initial power state
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN03._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN03._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: acpi PNP0C0B:03: Failed to set initial power state
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN04._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FNCL, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.FN04._ON, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: acpi PNP0C0B:04: Failed to set initial power state
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.TZ00._TMP, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.TZ00._TMP, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.TZ01._TMP, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: [\_SB_.PCI0.LPCB.H_EC.ECAV] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psargs-364)
Feb 03 11:14:41 archlinux kernel: ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_TZ.TZ01._TMP, AE_NOT_FOUND (20170831/psparse-550)

 

Dell has recommended that users with the "broken" BIOS simply sit tight until an updated one is posted. Rolling back the BIOS may not change the CPU microcode which is where the problem is.

 

Looks like they released and updated bios with 2/6/18 as the release date http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=DDKDV