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Review on Dell Adapter USB C Power Pass Through by Marco Hubbard

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Dell adapter works but has issues when used with Dell XPS 15 (9550) Laptop

January 20, 2015 Edit: I'm downgrading from 4 stars to 3 stars. This product is still decent, but the USB connection seems to be intermittent. As mentioned in my review, my Dell XPS 15 9550 laptop required Thunderbolt driver and firmware updates found on the Dell website (not automatically downloaded) for this product to work with video at all. It now works for video and ethernet (that's what I really wanted it for), but doesn't work well for USB. I've read other reviews that mention USB issues, so the USB issue may not be unique to my Dell laptop, but I can't say for sure as the Dell laptop is the only product that has I own and that has a USB Type-C port. Thunderbolt 3. I'm giving this article 4 stars as the adapter itself looks good, the issues with it seem to be related to using the Dell adapter with a Dell laptop. I have a Dell XPS 15 9550 laptop with BIOS 1.1.15 and this adapter didn't work right away. I then tried the Dell Update utility on my Dell XPS laptop but it still didn't work. In fact, the Dell update process didn't seem to find the update software at all. I then went to the Dell website to find the drivers. I found the new Thunderbolt drivers for my laptop that were released on January 8th. I downloaded and installed the Thunderbolt driver for my laptop. Just in case, I also installed the Thunderbolt firmware update released in November. After installing a new driver and updating the firmware, I was able to get the Dell adapter to work. I could easily run an HDMI monitor (1080p), an Ethernet connection, and a wireless USB keyboard at the same time. The driver required for this adapter to work with the Dell XPS 15 9550 is the Intel Thunderbolt Controller driver. located in the Chipset Drivers section of the Dell website http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/xps-15-9550-laptop/drivers.

Pros
  • Notebook Accessories
Cons
  • Out of fashion