Dell XPS 9530

October 25, 2016

This laptop has Intel i7 4712HQ, DDR3 800MHz 16GB Memory, 500 GB Samsung EVO 850 SATA SSD and a 32 GB mSATA SSD. The monitor has a QHD (3200x1800) touch screen. The only problem with this model is the commonly found high-pitched scratching/screeching noise ('Coil Whine' noise), not sure what do to with that at this stage. 

The default OS is Windows 10, and I installed Linux Mint 17.2 "Rafaela" (KDE) on it. The installation is a little different from what I experienced with other Windows. Since I wanted a dual boot, I used a USB drive to boot the machine and started Linux Mint installation. The installer did not recognize Windows on the 500 GB SSD; it only allowed me to take over the whole disk. There are ways you can shrink the Windows system, re-partition the SSD, so you can install the 2nd system on the new partition [1], but I just used the 32 GB mSATA SSD because it was ready. 

The installation was just like usual, but there was a problem. 32 GB SSD is sufficient for a Linux user, but by default Linux Mint would set up a swap which size is equal to the memory (16 GB)! I must get rid of it, otherwise I would only have ~9 GB to use because the system takes 5~6 GB. I followed the instruction in this article (see burian.vlastimil) [2] and freed the 16 GB swap I really did not need, and now Linux Mint has 32 GB to use. The instruction is copied here:

Another problem with Linux Mint on XPS 9530 is that, there is no appropriate driver for the graphics cards or the WIFI card. The bad thing is, you cannot download the drivers since you do not have internet connection. XPS 9530 does not even have Ethernet port. In this case you can either download the driver somewhere else and copy it over to get internet access, or use a Ethernet-to-USB adapter. In my case I was lucky to have a USB WIFI adapter, so I used the following commands to get the drivers once I got the internet access, and now I can use the built-in Intel graphics card as well as the stand alone nVidia one. 

  1. sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

  2. sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source (this is specifically for the WIFI card in XPS 9530)

  3. sudo modprobe wl (to load drivers for automatically detected hardware)

If you do not like the new system, you may want to read this [3] first before you delete/format that partition. Basically, create a system repair disc, delete the partition, and fix the Windows boot loader using "bootrec.exe /fixmbr" with the Command Prompt. This has to be done because the Grub boot loader used by Linux Mint overwrites the default loader when Linux Mint is installed. 

[1] https://www.tecmint.com/install-linux-mint-18-alongside-windows-10-or-8-in-dual-boot-uefi-mode/

[2] http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/224156/how-to-safely-turn-off-swap-permanently-on-debian-jessie

[3] http://www.howtogeek.com/141818/how-to-uninstall-a-linux-dual-boot-system-from-your-computer/

October 26, 2016

The Windows Explorer freezes occasionally, and I will have to restart it using the Task Manager. 

The high pitch noise. I read some articles online, and some claimed that new power supply would solve the 'coil whine' problem [1], and another guy seems to use power management to solve the problem [2]. There is yet another interesting discussion [3], and the author claimed his 'coil whine' was gone when he disabled the graphics driver. 

[1] http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19659832

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/4csxfz/how_to_fix_coil_whine_on_your_xps_9550_really/

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/47g46m/lets_investigate_the_xps_1315_coil_whine_hardware/