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

I did find the 9530 fans on one of the chinese sites, I personally would keep pushing dell to replace it onsite as sending it in takes the piss for a fan fault. Pull the old " I will claim this back from the credit card company for a full refund as returning it for this fault would mean a full refund imo" Stand your ground, they will send a tech. or you can request they ship the part direct. had a palmrest, keyboard and trackpad shipped for my 9530 after explaining I was a laptop engineer and didn't trust the ****wits they used

 

I'll call if they send a tech. Do you think they would? I just got it yesterday and the fan was like that out of the box.

Edit: talking to @DellCares on Twitter. So far, not budging on onsite...

 

Demand a refund, see how quick they change that to onsite.

 

I did twice. Now they said they can "request" a system replacement. It's fine except for the fans.

Edit: convinced them to send a technician!

 

Hello again out there.. Watergate writing again almost 2 months after I received my exchange from a 9350 into a brand new shinny 9550. I thought I was the most lucky laptop owner in the world however I got very dissapointed. My 9550 was born with suddenly break downs with black screens, no cursor, only to push the power on button to continue and all the work lost ongoing before brake downs. The black screen continued over and over again and nothing helped. Dell could not offer replacement of SSD and other hardware.. so they decided to make a SWOP. I will get an another brand new during April.

 

So I officially hate Dell. The Audio plug/unplug issue seems not to be fixed whatsoever. Tried updating to latest Realtek drivers and didn't work. I also tried Updating Audio driver through windows device manager (which finally change the driver's version to 7737) but still have the same issue. The weirdest thing is that immediately after I change the drivers (after the first reboot) it works properly. But I may reboot again and the bug may reappear. I'm desperate and I have lost faith in Dell and its support. I wouldn't like my whole system to be changed for this. I want a damn fix. This is obviously software.

 

I've also been having multiple issues with this laptop. Anyone know any fixes for what I have?

1. Like the above post, when I plug in headphones there's a >50% chance that the audio stops working, even if I unplug the headphones. Sometimes if I disable my speakers and enable them again in the Playback devices, it'll fix itself. Most of the time I just have to restart.

2. Sometimes my microphone stops working if i plug in headphones. Only solution I've found was restarting.

3. Playing any game that requires my GPU (The Division, 7 Days to Die, Tomb Raider) on all low settings, sometimes with reduced resolution, my laptop throttles like crazy to the point where it's unplayable. Setting my AC to 68F helps a little sometimes. Also last night my FPS dropped to about 5, and my laptop became really cold, making me think that it stopped using my GPU altogether.

4. Sometimes I find my laptop turned back on in my backpack, draining the battery and getting extremely hot because of lack of air flow.

5. Every now and then I notice my screen have a tint of pink/purple and I have no idea why.

Specs:
i7
16GB Ram
256GB M.2 SSD
4k screen

 

3, repaste the CPU & GPU with a decent paste, seems to be good results sticking a 2mm thermal pad on the pack of the heatsink to make use of the aluminum case to wick away some of the heat.

4, several things to check. 1st is wireless wake on lan is disabled, 2nd in the wireless properties advanced section that wake on pattern match is disabled, 3rd and the probable culprit in the advanced power management under sleep is to disable wake timers.

5, Dell PremierColour is probably running in the taskbar, it needs setting up or disabling.

 

I gave up on Dell/Broadcom wifi/bt card a while back.
I replaced mine with Intel 8260 and never have a single problem since.

 

I have exactly the same problem from time to time. I'd like to know this too since the rest of my XPS 15 is working fine.

 

He guys it would be helpful if you could answer my query. What are the issues that if found in XPS 9550, i should return/replace it? I should explain this issue to friend of mine who do not know much about computer. Any tips guys ? Also, should i buy this laptop? Because on paper it seems the best but all these issues makes me cringe. I am from South Asia and my friend lives in USA who will bring the laptop when she visits me. So, it is a huge investment for me. I am looking for laptop that is portable, good battery life and high performance(light gaming).

 

Don't take this the wrong way but it is all documented here, use search and read threads, how do you expect us to tell you how to tell some random none technical person how to check for things?
It is a bad idea & you will be pissed off when you realise he/she missed something obvious.

 

Just convince them to send a tech. They are going to replace the fan and heat sink for me. The fan revs up on mine, and it'll display the message for the unresponsive fan when i turn it on.

 

I recently got the XPS 15 and it all looked working fine to me until I tested the SSD.
At first it is going at 2200 MB/s but after going into sleep? it falls back to 750 MB/s

Now I know that people have been switching from RAID to AHCI for solving that problem but I have no idea to do that. (and is this the only fix?)
Also I do have a weird SSD listed "nvme thnsn5512gpu7 nv" instead of the PM951 like others...

 

You have a toshiba SSD, faster than the Samsung ones.
If you want to know how to switch it is simple. Google the following "switch raid to ahci windows 10"

 

But my question is: is the change convenient For all users? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

 

It depends; and yes.

 

Do I need extra AHCI Drivers for this ? I can't find any information about that toshiba SSD...

Anyways after getting a bootable drive error I made it work and problem is solved (still a bit slower but only 100-200MB/s). thank you!
SSD is also a bit faster than before (200 MB/s)

I tried to run a benchmark with cpu.userbenchmark.com but it keeps using the built in GPU () and not the dedicated one?
Is this a problem or normal ? http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/964323

 

Windows AHCI & it will use the Intel GPU unless you tell it otherwise in the Nvidia control panel.

 

Do you always have to tell the discrete GPU to run, manually? I'm a bit surprised, I suppose, the benchmark tests don't present a heavy graphic load which would automatically turn on the NViDiA...

 

depends on the application?

 

Just an update regarding my replacement 9550 laptop. It arrived on Tuesday and other than letting Windows 10 run through its updates etc, I haven't installed anything on it as yet.

I have been using it for the past couple of days (I even left it switched on overnight on Tuesday) and I have to say that it hasn't missed a beat. No 'Black Screen lock-ups, no nothing. It was supplied with the latest 1.1.19 BIOS which was causing the black screen lock-ups on my previous example.

The laptop is put together better as well. I did have a slight overlap on the lower right side and a bit of a gap along the lower front of the case but the replacement is near perfect. The ports all line up correctly as well.

At the moment I'm happy with the replacement. Now to update the drives and do a clean install using Gonzo's ISO (thanks for that Gonzo).

 

Hi,

i got the XPS15 since two days. Currently, I'm really enjoying this laptop except for the issue with the fan when AC is plugged. I can tell the fans are not blowing at full speed when charging but for my subjective experience it's annoying. I've tried finding solutions via search and reading through many pages of this thread (didn't manage to read through all 83 pages though). Quite a few posts I found about this are from a couple of months ago but they did not present a solution to me. So I wonder if there are any updates on this. What I have learned from the search:

1) Many users seem to have this "problem". Is it just a frequent problem or does every 9550 user have this issue with the fans? As I read, some of you have already had their XPSs replaced a couple of times, does this error persist through all of the received units? I'm asking because I would consider asking Dell for a replacement if there are units without this issue.
2) Can I somehow fix this issue by myself e.g. performing a software update or so?

My config:
i7/16GB Ram/512SSD/FHD
Win10 (as delivered by Dell)
BIOS Version: 01.01.19
Wireless 1830 Driver
Dell Diagnostics (F12 on boot) did not post any issues.

thank you

 

The fans on during charge is by design.

 

Hi

I noticed that my XPS15 sometimes wakes up from sleep mode (when the laptop is closed), it happened twice with my laptop...
Few days ago my XPS exited sleep mode when the laptop was in the bag, when I took the laptop out from the bag it was extremely hot, the fans were working very loudly and the battery was almost discharged
Is there any possibility to fix that issue?

 

disable wake on pattern match and turn off wake timers. google both to find out how

 

1. Hello, I was just wondering is there any update on USB-C adapter (DA200) fan ramp up issue. I have noticed that my PCH temp goes up to 60-ish celsius when only adapter is plugged in, and that probably triggers the fans (it goes to 3200 RPM). Can someone confirm on their behalf if that's the case? Any solution on that problem?

Also, is the PCH chip the one right above the left fan on the following pic?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-sC247NEg94/hqdefault.jpg
If so, could putting some sort of heatsink on help with lowering the heat?

2. Still getting BSODs after updates.. One is with AHCI mode and intel and windows drivers (CRITICAL THREAD FAILED or similar). The other is after standby randomly i get the KMODE BSOD with broadcom driver failing (even though i updated the drivers). REverted back to RAID and i gave up on using standby, because it's still buggy.

 

Hi, when switching from RAID to AHCI in the bios Windows won't start, do I need to reinstall windows?

I also have an issue where the icc profile resets to default after sleep, is there a way to fix this? I have the FHD version, and I don't find it particularly bright on maximum brightness, I frequently use it at max brightness indoors. Do maximum brightness vary from unit to unit of the same display model?

 

No. You do need to have set it to boot into safe mode. Turn RAID back on, then go to advanced startup and do the startup mode that lets you choose a number of options including safe mode. After you select that mode, spam the bios key and THEN you can change to AHCI. Otherwise it won't be recognized.

 

ignore this, Eason posted it at the same time!

 

Thanks, that worked

 

1. Windows 10
2. Samsung PM951 512GB only
3. BIOS 01.01.19
4. BIOS mode: RAID
5. Not installed Samsung NVMe drivers

Got my first 9550 this January, had audio hardware problems and DELL got me a replacement. After I ran the first windows update on the replacement, it gave me "hard drive - not installed". So I sent it back to DELL depot for repair. The repair took half a month, and they replaced the mother board and the hard drive. After the repaired one is sent back to me, random BSODs with "critical process died" occur very frequently. I tried clean install/AHCI/samsung drivers and the system freezes instead of BSOD(just BSOD without the blue screen, everything else e.g. the audio, behave the same as BSOD). Had DELL tech support connected several times, the system even BSODs while connected lol...
Now I have to send the laptop back to DELL for another repair.
Anything I can do to defend my right that my purchase is a proper product but not a problematic one?
P.S. I'm a college student and this machine has wasted 3 months of my time, near graduation.

 

I did a quick check (about half an hour) and I didn't see any temperature increse of the PCH temp after plugging in the DA200. It was always in the range of 55° - 58° celsius and the fan stayed at 2300 RPM.
(didn't do anything Cpu or Gpu demanding during that time)

 

4 & 5 will not work together as the NVMe drivers are not used in raid.
Why not give my ISO a go and start fresh before letting the Dell dicks rip it apart for a software issue!

They know nothing and change random parts making matters worst.

 

... confirmed.

(Latest status on my end is: We are sorry, we believe we put a broken motherboard into your computer when we repaired the speakers, no kiddin')

 

RE: SLOW BOOT TIME & WAVE CUT OF LID RUBBER

hey guys,

I'm really devastated.

I opened a support ticket regarding the ultra slow boot (8 seconds until first boot logo) here is the video with stop watch:

And additional because of my lid rubber, which has a wave cut. I see it and everybody can also feel it.

The response from DELL Premium Support: "Works as designed! There will never be a fix for the slow boot time, as it works as designed. It's the CPUs fault why this Laptop takes so long to power on.
There is no fault of the system or the design."

With the wave cut of the lid, they say: "you can barely see it. Nobody will notice. Its ok how it is"

"We also will close now both requests as we cant do anything for you"


Wow. Thank you for convincing me that its tolally OK for a 2700 EUR Laptop to be so slow. Thank you for convicing me again, that I will never buy a Dell Laptop again. I trusted you, and you failed.

PS: Sorry for the emotional post, but I just wanted to tell everybody that there is no fix for the slow boot asap.

 

That is unusually slow. Sorry to hear about your support experience.

What kind of POST options do you have set up? I believe it's set to "thorough" by default, but you can change that. Anything out of the ordinary? How much RAM do you have? RAID/ACHI etc

 

I tried all kind of options. I've selected now, through. I have a 1TB ssd and 16GB RAM. All original from Dell. As controller standrad I choose AHCI.

Additonally, i disabled all boot options (USB Boot, ..) and had no devices at all connected while making the video.

Today a new BIOS has been released, XPS_9550_1.2.0. I will give it a try later, but it only enhances "system stability".

Thanks for your help,

André

 

That looks like a normal boot when it has decided against fast boot, the bit up to the spinning circles about average across the 4 I have had but a fast boot after that can take 4-8 seconds. I would check the event viewer and whatever you do, don't let dell replace parts!

 

Please forget about the OS. Its about how long it takes until the OS boots (pre-boot sequence).

 

I think he is saying something isn't powering off correctly or whatever which is causing your system to no longer fast boot. The bios recognizes something went wrong so it runs hardware checks to see if everything is OK. This leads to long weights from the power on press to the loading of the OS. Have you tried bios 1.2.0 yet?

 

The Bios does i.e. a memory check if the amount of memory is changed. This would happen after the Dell logo shows up.
How long does your system take to power-on?
About the BIOS: I'm not convinced at the moment that I have an advantage from it for now. It's bad already, dont want to make it worse...
Somebody else tried the new BIOS?

 

Do you know for certain when dell does their hardware checks? I've worked on plenty of systems and some do checks before you get a post screen.
My system takes about a second from power on to get to the dell screen.
I am running 1.2.0 without any issues

 

The memory is verified basically on power-on but not really "tested".

Anyway, I'm still wondering why the DELL Support says the power on time is completely OK, when yours take only 1 second.

I just upgraded to 1.2.0. Nothing better yet.
I reset to BIOS to factory defaults. Still the same. (I changed Raid to AHCI as Raid is the default).

Looking at our hardware the only difference I see is you have the 512GB and the FHD Screen. I have 1TB and 4K.

Can you please do me a favor and tell me your Nvidia BIOS Version? I have 82.07.82.00.22.

Thank you so much for your support,

André

 

I realize it's not testing the memory which takes hours, but I also realize there are a variety of verifications it can be doing. Also UEFI loads drivers on boot, when it's doing that I'm not sure, just trying to ponder things for your sake.

Same nVidia bios version as you here.

 

Our two machines which have been left basically stock except to add memory and additional HDD's have always booted fairly slow compared to our old L502x machines. It does vary, though with some fresh bootups coming as quickly as 12-15 seconds while others are as in the video. So far, BIOS 1.20 seems stable but we haven't noticed any performance improvements.

 

New BIOS seems to completely break my TB15 dock's ability to use the USB ports and Ethernet port. After short use it disconnects both. It looks like they didn't test these very well at all.

How the heck do I get this off my system?

 

Downgrade the BIOS.

 

what is the proper process for that?