Dell XPS 15 (9550) list of hardware and software problems

no, i did a clean install of windows and didn't install any dell apps other than the one that lets you extend the keyboard backlight time

 

okay, here's a new one. not a real "problem" per se, just curious behaviour.

- 9550 i7/16/512/UHD
- Dell U3415W, connected via USB-C + DP
- D-Link 880L

whenever i change router or network settings — either by logging into the router via Chrome and saving changes, or simply by selecting a new network (i have concurrent N and AC networks at 2.5ghz and 5ghz) in Windows — my monitor will go black, my notebook display will light up with the desktop.

a few seconds later, my monitor will light up again, notebook display will go black, and it appears that i've been signed-out, and then signed-in again. sometimes the text below my desktop icons will be enlarged. rebooting or signing in again will fix that.

edit: okay, like just NOW. this is happening each time. i simply clicked on the Wireless icon in the tray, and the screen goes black. a second later, back on my main display's desktop, my icons get rearranged, and the text is resized. wth.

 

Did you try uninstalling the said Dell app?

 

Sounds like it could actually be crashing explorer.exe

check event viewer to see if this is the case

 

deleted

 

good idea. just checked, and nothing out of the ordinary in Event Viewer, certainly no critical errors with Explorer.

curiously, if i switch the display to notebook only, i can access the wireless settings without any issue. it just seems to be something with an external display, and/or USB-C ...? go figure.

 

i'll try it, but I think the flickering was there before i installed it

edit: yup, just uninstalled and restarted, and it's still doing it

i'm definitely going for this exchange

 

Hello everyone !
I have a Dell XPS 15 i7/16GB RAM/512GB SSD/15 4K and I have a big problem with the trackpad scrolling.
Dell support it's not in the capacity to help me ...
Do you have found a solution for this problem ?

Thanks !
Ps : Sorry for my English, I'm french

 

Hi !
I have the same machine (except FHD instead of 4K) and the same contry.
Why Dell can't help you ?

 

Which app is that?

 

dell feature enhancement pack

 

I can't find that anywhere in my Dell Downloads. Is it generic or do you show it in your downloads? Its not already installed on my machine as far as I can tell.

 

It isn't a compatible piece of software; it's a few years old. But it works just well enough. Only select the keyboard components for a custom install.

BTW has anyone here gotten anything working for the thermal profiles in dell command? They don't seem to do anything.

 

I found a version in and among the software for my Dell Precision M6500 and you are fight it works fine. Isn't that just like Dell. If they already have software that allows you to customize an important feature, why not include it and further enhance a high end product? What a bunch of knuckleheads!

 

My machine: XPS 9550 16gb ram
windows 10 pro, 64 bit, version 1511 (build 1058.104)
SSD 512gb
BIOS ver 01.01.19

I was wondering if anyone had a solution to #9 (flickering screen / HyperV issue) . It's making the machine unusable. I also have a bug open with MS and if anyone can provide additional information on how this was diagnosed / confirmed, I would love to pass it along.
Thanks!
Stephen

 

It's a win 10/Intel driver bug with hyper v. You need to force the geforce card to be used by disabling the Intel card in device manager

 

Have you updated the BIOS? This is a problem that was associated with an specific BIOS update that was retracted

 

Hello... It´s me again. Waiting for the third week now to have my motherboard and SSD exchanged. I hope this Friday Dell (Unisys) will make it since I still get shutdowns with black-screens randomly 2-4 times a day! It is fu..... frustrating. Rgds Watergate

 

Hi Watergate, not sure whether it has any effect, but I saw a post of an XPS 15 user, that solved black screens by reverting to an older version of the NVidia drivers; specifically this one (driver from Aug 2015).

 

HI SunBeech, I´m sure that there is a hardware issue. It´s like loosing the power- Suddenly the black screen appears.
Thanks again for suggesting a solution

 

Just wanted to bring up that I kinda got my bluetooth audio working by uninstalling the broadcomm BT software. Not the drivers, just the POS software.

 

Hope Dell is able to help you soon. If it all works, then the XPS 15 is a great machine!

 

Just sent my XPS 9550 i7/4k/16 GB / 512 SM951 back and purchased the same machine with the 1 TB PM951 drive. I paid $1320 after taxes for the first machine and $1620 for the 1 TB machine. These are both outlet machines and it is probably not worth the premium I paid given the speed difference between the PM951 & the SM951.

I should have purchased a smaller SSD and swapped it out with a better SSD on my own. Would this be worth cancelling altogether? Would I even notice the difference? I have had nothing but problems with my 9550, yet I still keep hanging on to the thought of getting a good one.

 

I would stick with the 1tb SSD as it is only a few% slower than the 512gb 950 Pro, I didn't bother refitting my 950 pro when I got upgraded to a 1tb as 4%read/6%write is sod all considering you get double the storage, I missed the 1tb storage I had in my 9530 so this is very welcome for my needs.

Also the 1tb was my 4th machine and finally a good one!

 

Good to hear you finally got a peach when the other 3 were lemons!

Can I be cheeky to ask what you used to create your ISO's with, what software and would you recommend it? Got a few rebuilds to do soon and need something that actually works! Cheers

 

Not a problem, it makes life easy when a one hit ISO gets you to the desktop with internet enabled and all drivers are installed (bar a few that download once you get online)

Spoiler

Standard windows image files in iso format straight from Microsoft https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
Extracted by mounting the ISO (clicking on it does the job on win10) to a folder you point nLite free at http://www.nliteos.com/
Download Intel's RST drivers 64 bit normally from winraid (section B of the 1st post >64bit Intel RST(e) AHCI/RAID Drivers v14.8.1.1043 WHQL<
http://www.win-raid.com/t2f23-Intel-RST-RSTe-Drivers-newest-v-WHQL-v-WHQL.html

Using this guide http://www.win-raid.com/t2f23-Intel-RST-RSTe-Drivers-newest-v-WHQL-v-WHQL.html
integrate into the windows image and boot image (boot image is needed to see the NVMe drive) along with adding extracted drivers from Dell's site apart form the VGA drivers. ( I opted to delete the old intel drivers as per Fernando's guide)
I integrated the following by using the extract option to a folder and adding the driver folder to nlite
Audio (you need to install it again after you get to desktop to add the features for some stupid reason)
Card Reader (may not be needed but I did it anyway)
Intel VGA https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...intel.com/25749/eng/Beta_15.40.18.64.4380.zip
Nvidia VGA 359.06 (these don't cause BSOD with Adobe and some web pages) http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/96079/en
IO Driver
ST Microlectronics LNG3DMTR Motion Sensor Driver
Thermals
Thunderbolt
Wifi

Once the image file is compiled you can make an ISO using nlite, after that use Rufus 2.7 (current version) to burn it to the USB stick.
It should pick fat32 (fat32 large if the USB is over 32gb) GPT partition so you can install using secure boot on/legacy off

If the laptop refuses to see the USB stick in secure mode you need to do a BIOS reset as I had to do on this laptop even though it showed fine on the last 3!


The installer can be used on any computer but it has the drivers needed for this laptop, I used it to put a fresh copy on my games rig at the weekend

Hope it helps.

 

That is really useful and good of you for taking the time to post this, thanks. This will help me to learn how to do it myself and save a lot of time in the future!

 

here's another one, related to external display via USB-C + Displayport

- projecting only to external display, everything great, apps up, working.
- went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, came back just ten minutes later, external display is on power-save mode, and the built-in display is lit up
- tried to switch it back via Display Settings, but the external display is no longer detected
- signing out/in doesn't remedy the situation, have to reboot

OP should rename this thread "Dell XPS 9550 Ongoing Beta Testing"

 

I've run into a problem today and find the solution as well. On a fresh win 10 pro keyboard is not working after sleep mode.

Solution is to install ( and if necessary overwrite the exist) Intel HID Event Filter:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=HMPFX

 

That installed from windows update in my case.

 

Each time when I am buying a laptop I have the same dilemma, go for Dell and have state of the art laptop with best screen, great build quality, all advanced features, but be ready to be beta tester for 6-12 months, or get Lenovo with terrible plastic, worst screen on the market with unbelievably bad viewing angles (like 10 years ago), cheap design, 1kg extra, get the newest generation of processors few months later, but have reliable machine...
This is third time in a row that I got Dell, and for me this is love/hate relationship, I really love the design, performance, screen (ohhh I love the screen), but there are simply too many problems.
My previous XPS 12 Duo was even worst, I wanted to return it after one week since it was absolutely unusable due to incredible amount of problems, but then after 173 bios and driver updates it becomes good laptop (but for this one took them 2 years to really solve problems), I hope with this one Dell will be faster.

 

I'm trying to get AHCI mode to work. I have uninstalled the intel rapid software. However I don't see IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in Device Manager.

I have the 2 files I am supposed to update manually, just don't know where to do it.

 

Did you switch in BIOS already? It will only be there after you switch AHCI on (which you need to safe-most restart then enter bios to do).

Also, the machine hangs for like 20 seconds if you restart it with just a black screen in RAID. Is this still an ongoing thing with no solution?

 

I noticed a strange thing in my XPS: when I turn on the laptop, XPS try booting for about 3/4 seconds on Black and white Dell screen and then it turns off. I have to boot again the XPS to arrive at Windows 10 Home page every time. Do I have to set something in the BIOS boot? All the drivers are upgraded with BIOS .19 with UEFI booting (this issue came out since I did a clean install)

 

I got a XPS 15 FHD/i7/16GB/512GB SSD a week ago here in Sweden and will have to return it. It's too bad, as without the manufacturing faults it would have been almost the perfect laptop.

- Misaligned ports. The ports on the left side of the chassis are misaligned to the holes. The Thunderbolt 3/USB C port is particularly off, so much that there's a risk of braking it if I try to use it. The HDMI is also so much off that I have to stick in the contact at an angle to use it. I've seen several reports of this lately from others who got this laptop. There must be a whole batch that is affected by this.

- Red tint. The screen is noticably reddish to the left side, while the right side appears more green (and natural) in comparison. This red tint seems to be unaffected by viewing angles, temperature and usage. It is most visible with white and light grey backgrounds, like most web pages use. I haven't seen reports of this, so maybe I just got unlucky?

- Other small mistakes. The keyboard lightning is a bit uneven. I can hear a slight coil whine when using it, it gets more noticeable when charging. There was some glue residue along the screen edge, but it seemed to be removed with some cleaning pretty easily.

Otherwise the performance is great and battery life incredible. I'd easily get 10 hours out of it browsing, watching videos and writing on stuff. The first thing I did was reinstalling Windows 10 and the stability has been rock solid. The build quality would also have been impressive, if not for these faults. I may give it another go in a few months when hopefully Dell has managed to improve the manufacturing of it. My BIOS version was from November, so maybe they are still shipping out very early units?

 

I got the squeaky keyboard space bar this morning and followed through with my own advice of using graphite lock lubricant to fix it. I have an aerosol version it had a good and a bad side. Bad side is it tries to spray everywhere so I was very gentle when pushing it onto the hinge mounts of the space bar so only a little went on while it was placed in the middle of a paper wipe to absorb any overspray. Good side is it coats and sticks so graphite isn't dropping where it shouldn't. It went well and a little alcohol spray to clean the sides before refitting. So far so good. At least dust won't stick to the graphite and time will tell how long it lasts.

 

@dunces

Thx for your post, misaligned left ports here too:

http://de.community.dell.com/support_forums/laptops/f/103/p/9863/21177#21177

Got an replacement, but it has more mistakes:/



Have you or anybody with misaligned ports tested these ones? Especially the TB3/USB3.1 combined port, is it working?

Maybe we can fix it by removing the base cover and adjust the ports a little bit?

 

Thanks for bringing these issues up. I'm just finishing up a review of the xps 15 that looks at the current state of the product and its issues.

 

@Eason

You're welcome

Waiting now for your review

 

I notice you have a 2TB SSD drive. This configuration is not available through Dell. Did you by the laptop and then change the SSD? Anywhere to buy the XPS 9550 with a 2 TB SSD installed?
Thanks.

 

Thanks, haven't seen that thread. Looks like almost all XPS 15 sold here in Europe right now has the port issue. I've read UK posts about it, and in Sweden a lot of people has gotten misaligned ones as well lately.

The support said that they could sent a technician to my house who could replace the motherboard and palm rest (chassis), but I'm sceptical. That would pretty much entail rebuilding the entire laptop. I doubt that they would do a perfect job. And the screen still has that red tint issue. I'll return it and hope they've fixed these issues in a few months.

I've thought about opening it myself and attempting to readjust it, but I doubt that it's possible to move it that much easily. Not very tempted to void my warranty either.

The ports are working, but requires a lot of force sideways to get the contact in. Each time it scratches the chassis as well. To have that much pressure on the contact could risk breaking the port in the long run.

Here's an image of mine

 

Thx for detailed answer

But all XPS15' which a sold in Europe were produced in China, so any differences with sold XPS' in USA?

Your left side looks like mine, there is a gap between the silver frame and the black plastic edge...

This USB 3.1 Type-C Port is working, really? Doesn't looks like that cable/connector will fit in!

Hmhm but removing the cover will not void the warranty...and adjusting the ports only with litte force without any physical damage...

 

Hey guys I got a dell outlet refurbished model and debating on whether to return it or not the problems I am having are bad viewing angles on the 4k igzo panel if I turn my head a little it starts going red, the fan is turning on constantly be whether I am charging or just light chrome use, and lastly whenever I close the lid the at like 70% battery the battery will drain to 0% by the morning its done this to me twice so far in the 5 days I`ve had the laptop. Are these issues normal or should I just get my money back?


Edit: Also whenever I restart the laptop it sometimes wont fully restart as when it completely shuts down and goes to restart it will sit with a powered off screen (black) the power button lit up and keyboard illuminated and just hang the and never complete the boot up

 

I never noticed until now, mines the same but the lightening port lines up when the case is squeezed together. It is still off center though. I will take the one to be returned out the box and inspect it, if it is the same I will open it up and take a look to see if anything can be done. the mainboards got location pegs so I doubt much can be done.

 

The other one wasn't as bad so I took my new one to bits. Page 53 of the service manual. You can loosen the 5 motherboard, 2 daughterboard (they are the 2 that are either side of the bottom right motherboard screw looking at the diagram) and 4 fan screws and center the USB-C port then tighten them all back up again making sure the single USB on the other sides central before you tighten all 7 screws back up followed by the 4 fan screws. As for the gap between the bottom cover and the palmrest, the palmrest is out due to it relaxing with the lack of material with all the cutouts so it still has a slight gap. Both have this a little and I expect it is a mild warping during manufacture so I doubt it will ever get fixed as Dell don't care enough. I don't have a USB-C cable to try but I expect it will work as intended now it is central. There is enough flex in the board to give when you plug it in.

Screw letting Dell come and swap the mainboard and palmrest as you will end up with 2nd hand parts installed and probably worst condition that before they touched it.

I removed the thermal pad on the palmrest that contacts the USB-C port but it made no difference so I put it back. Then tried a piece of tape on the bottom cover where it contacts the port, this pushed it up but left a bigger gap so I took it out.

I forgot the before pic but this is after.

I really need to stop taking this apart as I did well out of this deal getting this 1tb + 32gb ram to replace my 9530 512/16gb so I can live with this slight gap!

 

Hi guys,

I have strange problem with my Dell xps 13(9350)
Connected xps to Dell monitor through adapter USB-C->HDMI. If the laptop cover is open - all fine. But if cover is close - the image on the monitor flashes periodically. Power settings established, updated drivers.

Perhaps someone faced with such a problem. How can fix this?

 

@GoNz0

Nice one!

I can't read in your text how u fixed it finally

 

@GoNz0

Really appreciate that you posted your results. Looks promising. I might attempt to do this before sending it back.

Then again, I still have the red tint of the display. Anyone else has a redness to the left of the screen? It's pretty visible on white backgrounds.

 

OCD kicked in this morning. I took the base off again, got a paper cloth and punched a hole it in and placed that over the stand off's the base screws onto.
10 minutes fiddling with the dremel I had ground off about half a mm on the 2 standoffs either side of the ports.
Happy now, it pulls the deformed bit of palmrest down for a better fit.

I decided against removing any more of the standoff to see if it relaxes a bit on it's own over the next few weeks with the base pushing more on the corner.

Also didn't want to risk it snapping anything off!

 

I don't have the tint looking head on, can you take a pic and make sure it gives an idea of any angle to see it or is it head on?

more pics. This is the locating hole at the bottom right of the motherboard before I adjusted the boards position to line up the port.
Lazy assembly staff and piss poor QC at play.