End of my tether with Windows Laptop

[ant1973]

I decided to move to a laptop setup a couple of years ago and purchased an XPS 13 9305 16gb 512gb NVME drive.

Bottom line is that the battery is woeful even in a balanced power setting - 3 hours tops.

I am not a power user - office, acrobat and browser.

The fan is on continually with the laptop plugged in or otherwise. Have tried a clean install but have concluded that this sort of laptop ain't ever getting me through a night on the couch never mind a working day.

I have generally had no issues with Windows desktops.

Would an M1 Mac Air 16gb solve my battery and performance issues if I stick to Apple Silicone apps? Will it work seamlessly with a windows desktop set up if I stick to cloud storage apps?

[varsas]

I had a Dell XPS for work, as you said the fan was on almosty all the time, the only way to stop it was with an air gap between the bottom of the laptop and the desk. Then after 3 years the battery started expanding and it started crashing randomly. I have always been a fan of Dell machines but they seem to have made a mistake with cooling on recent machines. I now have a Lenovo Thinkpad, much better but 3-4 hours of use is about all I'd get on battery.

[QuartzDad]

Strange, first review link for that model number:

Pros - Astonishing battery life

Battery life is on point with 13 hours of Web browsing, or video playback

I would persevere with the clean install and/or download tools that can report on battery health.

[LeeM135i]

Currently run a M1 MacBook Pro 16Gb ram 512 Gb SSD.

Easily get 8 to 10 hours out of the battery without issue, not sure on the maximum runtime as I haven't been able to use it that much in a day. Nice thing is it will change off a small iPad charger (slowly) so even if you do need to go away for a couple of days the charger doesn't need to be a brick.

I mostly use mine for Office / Teams / Email / Web browsing and it can do that easily, there is a Mac version of Office 365 and Chrome. I haven't run Windows on it as I am happy with OSX. We do have a Citrix MS client intranet which runs OK but it's very strange having a Windows window on a Mac desktop.

A couple of other guys joined the company at the same time and chose Dell laptops with a similar spec which are starting to have issues after 3 years with batteries, failing IO and general slow running. The Mac is just like new except for a couple of scratches, given it lives in a backpack and get bounced from one office to the next its done well.

The IT team are talking about upgrading it to a new 14" M3 MacBook pro but I am resisting as the 14" is a bigger and heavier machine and I don't need the power the new chips bring.

[TonyRPH]

If the fan is on constantly, that suggests something is using the CPU (or even graphics).

Realising that you have carried out fresh installs - have you checked in task manager to ensure that the CPU is idle when the laptop should be doing nothing?

Also - do you have any of the bundled antivirus apps (Norton for example) installed? These are also well know for causing the issues you describe.

I doubt it's an issue with the laptop or the hardware.

[JohnP]

My Dell Inspiron fan was also on full blast most of the time and it was down laptop being set in ultra-performance mode. Changed it to a lower setting and so much better with no noticeable drop in performance. Think I did it through the Dell Command - Power Manager app

[camel_landy]

FWIW - I'm a big fan of Macs and have been using them for many... many... years. Battery life is usually great, I'm currently writing this on an M1 Pro, which was last charged yesterday afternoon and it's still telling me I have 20% life left at 17:20(ish) the following day.

I have another Mac next to me (2015 Intel), it's waiting for me to replace the battery but despited the messages telling me the battery is poorly, it's still very serviceable.

That said, I'd double check your fresh install as something doesn't sound quite correct. Check everything is looking fine in Device Manager and have a look on the Dell website, to see if there are any reported issues or updated driver packs..

HTH

M

[bigandclever]

Might be helpful (might not) .. https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000130447...

But fans being on all the time isn't normal behaviour.

[PugwasHDJ80]

we use lenovos, i have a thinkbook t15 AMD and it easily does 8 hours without plugging in with normal office use.

I also have an x1 carbon thinkbook with almost the same spec that only does half that time.

no idea what is causing the difference !

[TEKNOPUG]

Surely there is a power usage / fan setting? Also check what is running in the background.

Although TBH, I struggle to think of a scenario where I use my laptop for hours at a time and I'm not near a power socket.

[Funk]

TonyRPH said:

If the fan is on constantly, that suggests something is using the CPU (or even graphics).

Realising that you have carried out fresh installs - have you checked in task manager to ensure that the CPU is idle when the laptop should be doing nothing?

Also - do you have any of the bundled antivirus apps (Norton for example) installed? These are also well know for causing the issues you describe.

I doubt it's an issue with the laptop or the hardware.

Just to add to this great advice, also suggest that you download Dell Command Update to get it to install all the right drivers from Dell rather than generic ones from Windows update.

It's entirely likely that things like power management and battery optimisation are part of the Dell drivers and/or software.

Edited by Funk on Wednesday 13th December 11:42

[the-norseman]

I've got an XPS about 6/7 years old now, it was originally a Ubuntu edition but now running Debian, fan hardly comes on, battery is still really decent, get about 8/9 hours. It cost about £700 at the time.

Work provided me with a Windows 10 laptop, its a Lenovo Thinkpad, it actually has the same processor, ram etc as my XPS, the fan is always on.

[GlenMH]

Crikey - I have a 5 yo XPS 13 9380 with an I7 etc running W10 on my lap at the moment and it is completely silent. Youtube vids spin the fans up occaisionally but they are usually off. I get a good 8 hours+ out of a full battery.
Have you updated the BIOS recently? The Dell update app is very good for that as well as drivers etc.

[Brainpox]

Running some hardware monitoring will tell you if something is overheating on idle

I use hwinfo https://www.hwinfo.com/ can just run in sensor only mode

[anonymous-user]

JohnP said:

My Dell Inspiron fan was also on full blast most of the time and it was down laptop being set in ultra-performance mode. Changed it to a lower setting and so much better with no noticeable drop in performance. Think I did it through the Dell Command - Power Manager app

What he said.
I’ve had XPS laptops in the past and had to enable a couple of extra settings in power settings. There’s plenty on the web about it ….. there’s more than fast/slow available but you have to do some st in the registry to get them to appear.
XPS13 9370 wasn’t too bad and still going strong with a new battery.
XPS15 top spec machine is a bit hot and noisy, hardly use it.
MacBook M1 Pro is silent.

[fasimew]

I'm 100% certain that this is user error. It sounds as though you haven't really tried to address it and gave up at the first hurdle.
Have you tried a Google or YouTube search? Reinstalling windows is completely arse about face. Why are you running in balanced mode? Putting it in power saver mode would have been the obvious choice, no?

I'd go as far as to create a custom power management profile. And I'd be delving into the bios to see if fan curves can be changed. Possibly even underclocking it if necessary.

[camel_landy]

fasimew said:

I'm 100% certain that this is user error. It sounds as though you haven't really tried to address it and gave up at the first hurdle.
Have you tried a Google or YouTube search? Reinstalling windows is completely arse about face. Why are you running in balanced mode? Putting it in power saver mode would have been the obvious choice, no?

I'd go as far as to create a custom power management profile. And I'd be delving into the bios to see if fan curves can be changed. Possibly even underclocking it if necessary.

^^^ And that, boys and girls, is the reason why I only run Mac kit at home... It just 'works'.

M

[TEKNOPUG]

camel_landy said:

fasimew said:

I'm 100% certain that this is user error. It sounds as though you haven't really tried to address it and gave up at the first hurdle.
Have you tried a Google or YouTube search? Reinstalling windows is completely arse about face. Why are you running in balanced mode? Putting it in power saver mode would have been the obvious choice, no?

I'd go as far as to create a custom power management profile. And I'd be delving into the bios to see if fan curves can be changed. Possibly even underclocking it if necessary.

^^^ And that, boys and girls, is the reason why I only run Mac kit at home... It just 'works'.

M

That'll be why there is an Apple store on every high street, to take your Mac to when it doesn't work....

[camel_landy]

TEKNOPUG said:

camel_landy said:

fasimew said:

I'm 100% certain that this is user error. It sounds as though you haven't really tried to address it and gave up at the first hurdle.
Have you tried a Google or YouTube search? Reinstalling windows is completely arse about face. Why are you running in balanced mode? Putting it in power saver mode would have been the obvious choice, no?

I'd go as far as to create a custom power management profile. And I'd be delving into the bios to see if fan curves can be changed. Possibly even underclocking it if necessary.

^^^ And that, boys and girls, is the reason why I only run Mac kit at home... It just 'works'.

M

That'll be why there is an Apple store on every high street, to take your Mac to when it doesn't work....

I've never a problem with it not working (which is why I use it)...
...though I appreciate some users might need a helping hand, from a friendly face. It's good to know you've got backup though, for when you do have problems.

As techies, we often forget that most users simply do not want to roll their sleeves up and get involved. Frankly, they're often far too scared of breaking something. IMO - If there were Apple stores on every corner, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

M

[captain_cynic]

TEKNOPUG said:

That'll be why there is an Apple store on every high street, to take your Mac to when it doesn't work....

That's so you can buy a new one when something doesn't work.