Is it a bad idea to keep the laptop lid closed? XPS 13

I was or am under the impression that keeping the screen closed would cause some damage burn-in with time. Is this still the case or can I safely close the lid and have the laptop connected to an external Monitor/Mouse/Keyboard? The XPS 13 that I have has an OLED display mind you.

@custom90gt @Mr. Fox @Papusan

 

Oh several generations of the XPS laptops had a nasty habit of turning on when they were closed and put in a backpack or bag (IN SLEEP MODE WITHOUT MANUALLY POWERING OFF). A few posts complained the laptops died completely. You can do a search here.

I close my old XPS 15 (skylake) all the time for sleeping. But it is never in a bag, just sitting on a desk. I think it auto turned on from time to time but that hasn't happened for years...or at least I haven't noticed.

When using an external monitor, my XPS 15 laptops run cooler (and faster) with the screen opened; that is because the vent at the back of the keyboard blows hot air up the screen. I don't know where the cooling vents are on your laptop. But all the XPS units run at thermal limits so small changes can make a big difference in performance.

 

For normal use it should probably be ok but if you do tasks that requires high cpu and gpu load, then I would have it open (some models is designed the way it will draw fresh air through the KB for cooling the internal components). But can't see your O-led screen will be damaged if the screen is turned of. Rather you risk problem with internal components if the cooling is designed the way I mentioned above. You could run it the way you want then check if the screen become hot or not. Also check if the hardware temps change to the worse or not.

Yep search for Modern Standby... This thread is filled with the filthy http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps-15-9570-owners-thread.817008/page-270#post-10909137

One of many...
Does your XPS 15 9570 get hot and drain its battery while asleep? Dell has a workaround, but you may not like it

 

I haven't paid much attention to these things for the past 5 or 6 years because they are no longer relevant to me. It only seems logical that having the lid closed is going to increase temperatures, even if the keyboard is not a path for air circulation. Heat rises and having the lid closed is going to trap heat to some degree. If a laptop is functioning correctly, the screen should automatically turn off when closed. If the magnetic switch is not working correctly, then screen burn is likely if the screen stays on with the lid closed.

@Spartan@HIDevolution have you tried using Win+P and selecting "Second screen only" to disable the laptop display? That should solve the problem if Windoze is working correctly.


As far as putting a laptop into standby/sleep mode in a backpack or briefcase, that has never been a smart thing to do. Just turn the stupid thing off. Worrying about the extra 3 to 5 seconds required for a cold boot... That is just silly.

 

Since its Dell, I would advise against closing the lid. Dell's ACPI are broken and sometimes it can be buggy and get stuck at black screen or you may see white spots randomly.
Ideally closing the lid should power off the internal display and route all GPU power to driving your external screen but I'm unsure

Sometimes when you're in a hurry you simply close the lid and put it in a bag or bed w/o checking if its shutdown properly, I have faced it numerous times. Its a PAIN especially the same issue happens on Inspiron, XPS and AW. IDK why Dell releases so many laptops with same issues.

 

They do it because they are Dell. They don't care, don't know what they are doing, or both.

 

Thanks for that tip, as for closing the lid and putting it on standby in a bag, I never do that or mentioned that it's the user above who assumed that. If I was going to take the laptop somewhere, I hibernate which is a full shutdown + saving whatever live session is currently active and is totally safe.

 

hehehe

 

The ventilation via keyboard is an interesting topic. It seems to be a balance among design, fit & finish, thermal performance, and speaker bass response. Some DIY thermal tweaks made my XPS keyboard too hot to touch!

The older XPS laptops I disassembled seem to have some air leakage which provides some airflow over other some components inside the laptop, particularly over the mosfets. In particular, the fans, radiators, and keyboard were not well sealed. I don't know how much of this was intentional.

A couple of years ago, Dell upped its thermal game with significantly bigger heatsink designs and some thermal "rugs" under the keyboard. So ventilation issues engineering might be different for your XPS 13.

When I drilled 2 large holes in the bottom of my old MacBook pro so the fans could breathe, thermals improved a lot. But...the speakers lost all their bass response. I think Apple sealed their keyboards and laptops overall pretty tightly for audio purposes, using the case as a small tuned bass chamber. If you watch Louis Rossman's videos, it is pretty clear the Apple keyboards are not perfectly sealed as he sees plenty of water damaged MacBooks.

 

Thermal management on laptops seems to have been something the "engineers" frequently overlook. They seem obsessed with things like aesthetics and audio quality more than basic functionality. As a consequence, we have lots of options with turdbooks that sound good and look pretty, but run like crap. The opposite would be preferred, but form over function seems to be the new normal. I don't miss laptops even a little bit. I am so used to desktops now that it makes me somewhat angry when I find that I have a need to use my turdbook for something. I do so as little as possible. If I did not have an occassional need for mobility, I definitely would not own one. As much as they all suck, even the crappiest turdbook still beats the hell out of using a smartphone.

 

Oh...propping the back of the laptop off the desk a bit helps a lot with thermals on my XPS models. I use a rectangle eraser to prop up my laptops.

That is not so comfortable for typing but would be good when you are using external keyboards

 

Is there an easy way to tell the internal temp of these laptops?

I'd like to try a few different "easy fixes", such as the eraser trick, and am curious to see what effect they might have.

 

Only things with a temperature sensor have a reading and probably the best way to view them (or log them) is using HWiNFO64. That is what I use. I am not aware of a way to monitor temperatures of the air inside of the chassis, palm rest, keyboard, etc. You can use an infrared thermometer to spot check some of those things, but not accurately monitor or track them.

What is the eraser trick you mentioned? Is it using the eraser as a spacer to elevate the chassis from the work surface to improve air circulation, or something more interesting?

 

Yes, see the post above mine.

Thanks for the info!

 

LoL. I am not sure how I missed that. Too funny.

Spoiler: The Eraser

 

Maybe Dell should remove some of the HW features? Less of everything may change it to something better? After a year, people should stop hope for fixes. New models is out soon and with new and old flaws. Almost as a never ending circle @Spartan@HIDevolution

Dell XPS 17 9710 Sleep Crash, Temporary workaround works, but not a solution www.dell.com/community/XPS

Apparently this issue have been around for at least a year with the XPS line involving earlier models (mine is the latest XPS 17 9710), I hope Dell can come up with a permanent solution so that we can actually have no more sleep crash and at the same time use the fingerprint security function.

 

EDIT:
Just Off-topic info for Alienware: Remove Dell AWCC or Dell XPS manager once Dell stops updating apps after reaching EOL. Win 10 can manage the hardware better. No idea about W11 though.

Just fixed my sleep of death on idle by referring on m17x r3 thread written in 2013 to fix 15r2 issues.

1. Reverted Intel driver from Dell/MSFT/DCH to older non-DCH 5174 version
2. Removed AWCC and replaced with alienfx-tools and can change/set one color and unable to add color morphs due to crap old AFX SDK 2.7 DLL and Alienware Fusion service was one of the culprits for constant sleep of death