Dell Precision 5510 Owner's Lounge

Hello.

I have a problem with the battery on my 5510.

I had my system at 100% and went on vacation for 4 days, came back, and it was about 17%. I thought I mis-remembered or something, so I checked again.

It was charged to 45% about 12 hours ago. I performed a Power -> Shut Down in Windows 10. I restarted just now, and its at 31%. It feels quite a lot, considering that the laptop is completely off. Is that right? Is anyone else experiencing similar behavior?

My system
338-BIEW Assembly Base for Xeon-1505 (5510P)
379-BCDK Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3-1505M v5(Quad Core 2.80GHz, 3.70GHz Turbo, 8MB 45W, w/Intel HD Graphics P530)
451-BBSJ Dell 84 WHr 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery

I have the latest drivers installed too.

 

Possibly a stupid question but where is your power supply plugged into? Direct to the wall or is there something in between such as a power strip or UPS or surge protector? If you can verify that your source of electricity is good and assuming you have done all of the updates including BIOS, I would say open a ticket with Dell Support. You possibly might have a bad battery.

 

lol. ok i'll confirm with them again. thanks you!

 

weird problem cropped up today. after hibernating the machine, it wakes to the DELL logo and sticks there.

I think there may have been a win10 update recently (I am not using any insider builds). is anyone else having similar problems?

 

if it is stuck at Dell logo it implies that Windows hasn't loaded and has not even begun to load. Although, there have been times when I unplug my AC adapter, and then shutdown or sleep... sometime at next startup I get a blank/black screen. Another reboot corrects it. But never has been "frozen" at Dell splash. I assume you've tried repeatedly? same result after many attempts?

I've never been one to use hibernating. I tried hibernate a couple times on my 7710 but I didn't like it (I forget why exactly I didn't like hibernate. I'll try again). I usually sleep or reboot as hibernating isn't much better than a reboot in my opinion. I only use it if my battery runs out. But still, even if I don't use it, it should work. What does Dell Support say?


*edit:
I have disabled "fast boot" feature in BIOS. I use "thorough" which basically prevents Hibernation option appearing on right click start menu. Most people I think will want "thorough"or at least "auto" if they often change their devices on boot up so that the computer can effectively identify the peripherals connected. I suspect maybe Hibernate is not for you either. I have my Power Option settings to use it only as a last resort when my battery is nearly drained. Don't choose it from the start menu ever unless you like to suffer. That said, are you stuck and unable to enter Windows at all?

 

Has anyone successfully run 32GB RAM clocked higher than 2666MHz? G.skill now sells 2800MHz and 3000MHz sets. I'd like to run the RAM at the highest speed that the hardware will support.

Thanks to TakerTX for confirming 2666MHz. I was having a a difficult time figuring out if that was supported, since on the spec sheet Dell lists 32GB @ 2133 and "Up to 16GB DDR4 2667MHz overclocked memory (coming soon)." I wasn't sure if for some reason the memory controller could not run 32GB at 2666GHz.

Can TakerTX or anyone else confirm the ability to manually adjust DRAM timings in the BIOS? I figure if I buy 2800 or 3000 and it's not supported, I can at least lower the timings to take advantage of the higher binned memory?

 

Hi guys

Just posting a quote of my question from the SSD thread.

Been looking at Thermal Grizzly Minus Pad 8 - they can be found in 1mm, 1.5mm and 2.0mm.

 

Does anyone know of a good contact at Dell for technical questions like this? I know Dell-Mano_G apparently manages the Precision line or some aspect of it, but I cannot send him a private message because I am a new member on the forums. He also hasn't been active since May 9th, so he probably wouldn't see the PM anyway.

I tried calling Dell and I was sent to someone who claimed to be on the Precision Team. I'm pretty sure it was an off-shore support center, which I'd have no problem with if they knew their stuff. The guy put me on hold for 5 minutes and basically just read me the configurations from the spec sheet. I don't think he had any knowledge beyond a script. He claimed that 32GB RAM will always be underclocked to 2133MHz, and thanks to TakerTX, we know that's not true.

Is there any particular support forum that reps from the engineering department or just people with actual technical knowledge man? I recall reading that Ubuntu is well supported on the XPS13 Developer Edition, and while I'm not sure, I got the impression that the Ubuntu team interacted with the developer community.

Also, can anyone confirm for me that the RAM speed and/or timings can be manually adjusted in the BIOS? You don't have to be running overclocked RAM, I just want to know if the setting is available.

Thanks! Any input would be appreciated!

 

Dell-Mano_G usually shows up around the time new products are launching to answer questions but otherwise I am sure he has more important things to be doing. There's not really a good place at Dell to go for these questions, as you have observed, most reps do not know the very fine details of the product and only have access to spec sheet sorts of information. Engineers sit behind the support reps, even if you have an unusual issue that requires an engineer's involvement, you'll be dealing with a high-up support rep.

Since the memory controller is in the CPU nowadays, I think you can just look for what speeds are supported by your CPU, and if what you are looking for is supported, there is a decent chance of it working in the Precision 5510. But the only way to know for sure, if it is not on the list of supported configurations at Dell, is to try it or find someone else who has tried it.

I can confirm that there is no setting in the BIOS to adjust the RAM speed or timings.

 

Thanks for the reply and for that info about the BIOS!

Intel lists DDR4 2133MHz as the fastest supported RAM for the E3-1505M and that was an initial source of confusion for me, since even Dell itself lists support for 16GB @ 2667MHz on the 5510's spec sheet. I did a bunch of research on RAM and the modern Intel architecture with no FSB and the memory controller on the CPU die. I read that Intel usually understates the maximum supported RAM speed in it's specs, and that the processors can usually support significantly higher RAM speeds. This would appear to be the case here, since Dell lists 16GB @2667 and TakerTX confirmed for us that 32GB @2667 works. I should also note, for clarity, that these are CPUs with locked clocks that can support higher than stated RAM speeds, so while Intel doesn't advertise it, it seems that they are actively making it possible.

Now that I know there aren't manual adjustments in the BIOS, I think I read somewhere that DDR4 can be automatically overclocked to 2667MHz, and that beyond that it requires adjustment of BIOS settings. That might mean there's no sense in springing for higher than 2667MHz.