Dell finally addresses XPS 17 9700 and Precision 5750 charging woes, but the solution isn't as simple as you may think

A few weeks ago, we started receiving multiple messages from XPS 17 owners about charging issues with their expensive new purchases. Though we were a bit skeptical at first, we were able to reproduce and confirm the problem on our own unit quite easily. Fast-forward to today and Dell now has a solution to the problem alongside an official statement below:

“Dell has identified an issue on a limited quantity of XPS 17 9700 laptops and Precision 5750 mobile workstations where users may notice their battery depleting at a higher than expected rate under sustained heavy workloads and while connected to AC power. Dell has rectified the behavior, and current orders for the products are unaffected. Dell will contact customers with potentially affected systems for resolution. Customers may also contact Dell Technical Support for assistance.”

The Good News

In a worse-case scenario alternative reality, Dell would have turned a blind eye to the problem before silently fixing it on the next generation model which some other OEMs might do. This is fortunately not the case as the manufacturer will now be actively reaching out to existing XPS 17 and Precision 5750 owners to work out a potential solution. You're probably fine if you own an XPS 17 without the GeForce GPU, but those with the discrete GPU may want to kick start the process by contacting Dell technical Support first and initiating the conversation.

If you plan on ordering an XPS 17 or Precision 5750 starting today, then you won't be having any of these problems at all.

The Bad News

Early adopters who were crossing their fingers for a simple software fix may be out of luck as Dell has yet to confirm what the fix will be. It's looking likely that there will be no magical driver or file that Dell will provide for existing owners to download or else they would have done so already. A quick update would have been much easier than telling owners to call customer support. The resolution between Dell and affected customers may be on a case-by-case basis as a result and we will update this page should that change.

See our original page on the charging problem here to learn more about the issue in detail while our full review on the XPS 17 9700 can be found here. The XPS 17 is Dell's most ambitious XPS laptop yet and so it's perhaps unsurprising that the first ones out of the gate were facing some setbacks.

Buy XPS 17 9700 now on Amazon