Dell XPS 15 laptop USB3.0 ports limited to USB2.0 speed -- No Super-speed

[agp1001001]

Alert! Need additional confirmation on this!

Dell Level-3 Technical Support can not explain why numerous XPS 15 (L521X) laptop USB 3.0 Super-speed ports perform at only USB 2.0 High-speed. USB 3.0 compliant devices do NOT perform at USB 3.0 Super-speed. None do.

This occur on numerous units, Dell Level 3 Technical Support says. "It's random", they say. In my expereince, bugs are not random.

Dell's "My Dell Support Center" diagnostic software confirms this, as it shows the USB version and speed, both.

It fails USB.org's USB 3.0 Command Verifyer tool tests. Found under SuperSpeed USB Software and Hardware Tools, as "USB30CV Tool". It confirms connected devices are indeed USB 3.0 compliant, BTW. It is at: (http://www.usb.org/developers/ssusb/ssusbtools/USB30CV_Releasex64_1.0.1.2.msi)

Of interest, Dell has offered to fully refund the entire amount of my purchase to return this to them, 2 months after my purchase. Is this a serious issue? Does it remain publicly unknown? Why not provide a fix for this? Why the refund?

Can anyone else confirm, or debunk, this on another Dell XPS 15 (L521X) laptop? Yes, I know it seems highly unlikely that no one has yet to discover such a huge bug if indeed it exists -- yet it's not impossible. It is not an obvious bug to notice if one does not look for it. The fact that it has gone to Dell Tech support Level 3, and still has no resolution, speaks for itself.

This strikes me as a potentially significant bug that possibly affects numerous Dell XPS 15 laptop users. I was told Dell has sold over 400,000 XPS 15 units.

Yet, this falls outside of my area of expertise. Hence my call for expert help and independent confirmation.

A Service Request for this remains open regarding this under my name. I first diagnosed and reported this issue to Dell Technical Support on 12/29/2012. After hours of calls over several weeks this still remains unresolved and open.

The XPS 15 L521X model has three USB ports, all three advertised as USB 3.0 compliant Super-speed ports. It has no other USB ports besides these. It has no USB 2.0 ports.

NOTE: None of the USB ports on the Dell XPS 15 L521X appear colored blue, as many USB 3.0 ports do traditionally on other devices. This does not indicate anything conclusive, yet it seems of interest given the issue.

My laptop details:
Dell XPS 15 (L521X) laptop
Service Tag: 75HTJV1
OS: Windows 8 64x
Purchased: December 2012, direct from Dell online, for personal use.
All drivers and BIOS updated to latest versions from Dell.
Windows 8 drivers up to date.
BIOS USB Debugging option: disabled (DEFAULT)

Hope to hear from someone who can shed better light on this. Thanks.

 

[agp1001001]

If this was only a hardware bug on my one unit, Dell could replace it with a working unit. Yet it seems a new replacement would arrive with the same issue, from what I have gathered. Which makes me curious, is this an uncaught hardware design flaw on many systems? Or something an updated driver would fix? If the latter, I'm not sure why they have not provided the fix. Especially from Dell Technical Support Level 3.

Wish someone would confirm that a USB3.0 device indeed performs at Super-speed on their own XPS 15 L521X. That would go a ways to disspell this uncertainty.

 

[Coyote6052]

This problem is way more than a hardware bug in my opinion. My XPS 15 (L521X) would not connect to any wireless. Support told me it was a driver issue and a new driver was coming out in several days. It did, no change. So they sent a tech and replaced the card with a Dell 5g card the Dell DW 1901, problem solved except I have very low signal compared to other laptops working in exactly the same area. "Don't worry the new driver will fix that" OK. Waiting for that to happen. And I did wonder why did they change from an Intel card to a Dell card? Keep reading, they know this is a lemon.
Next my hard drive started showing that it was nearly full with only 47gb of a 500gb drive left. I knew I had less than 200gb on the drive. Support says restore the computer. Only one problem the restore image is not seen using the recovery. They take the error code and worked and worked, and called me back after 2 hours and said I need a new motherboard. Ok, I got a new motherboard. Then the hard drive itself starts acting up, I have blue screens constantly. This is on a clean machine, no malware or virus. Norton Internet Security 2013 installed and network updated before I connected to the internet. You guessed it new hard drive. I restore all my data, about 150gb using a Western Digital My Passport USB 3 drive that I use as a secondary backup and for backup when I am on the road. It takes well over 2 hours to restore 150gb, This is NOT super speed!
USB 3 on both ends of the hardware; computer..NOT and HDD. In my opinion Dell released this computer ahead of it's ready date. They were far to quick to offer me my money back which they never do after 30 days. I took them up on the offer of a new computer however after having my laptop taken down by 3 techs for replacement of parts. I truly think this is a much bigger problem than a bug, of course Dell is not letting on.

When I purchased this computer, I also purchased an XPS 13 for my wife. It has purred like a kitten since day one, not a single problem. I did a system image on it with about 250gb of data and it was done in much less than an hour, I did not time it; but same My Passport USB 3 drive. Much faster throughput.

My second laptop is doing ok so far. The tech who manages my account told me there is a bios upgrade coming out soon, this is April 10, yesterday; that will fix many of the problems with the XPS 15. We'll see. Oh my backlit keyboard quit working on the 2nd computer, I was able to fix that by re installing the chipset and quickset. But it is another problem. I told my support manager that I will not replace any more hardware in this machine, it's money back and move on. He said that is ok, no problem we will refund your money if you have hardware problems. That in itself strikes me as very odd, I've never had Dell offer to refund on a computer after I have had it 3 months.
Good luck, hope you get things square with yours. I'm watching for that bios update. I'd take the money and run if I had to do it again. It was a hard choice though, the laptop is a great looking solid machine that is extremely fast when it is working. I have the i7 and max ram.
Never have had USB 3 speed on either machine. This will go back if the bios update does not do the trick.