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

Motherboard Problems. Yay. Time to roll the dice a second time on a 3rd replacement.

 

I had this exact same problem as well. For me, it was fixed by updating to the latest Nvidia drivers directlyu from Nvidia's website and the latest insider build 14393. I'm not sure which of the two fixed it but this issue is completely cured for me now. As far as Intel video drivers go, still running the latest drivers from Dell's website. p.s. I'm not UV'ing either.

 

Hmm well I'm running the same build and I'm also running on the most updated nvidia drivers...

 

@Eason One more thing, I disabled hibernation (powercfg /h off). Sorry, I forgot to mention that, too many tweaks, too many software updates... Hard to keep track. I'm also on BIOS 1.2.0. I also swapped out my RAM for some Hyper X Impact DDR4. I definitely did have this issue consistently and now I definitely no longer have it. It's likely to be an issue with the graphics driver not coming out of hibernate correctly. I'm not sure which GPU though. If you do decide to disable hibernation I'd love to know if that resolved it for you. Cheers.

 

Eason, I do not think your problem is related to your UV. 100mV is very moderate in comparison to most of the other guys here.

I do recall I had a similar issue. But I am not sure how I fixed it exactly. Before you call out again for a replacement, you really should try a fresh driver install (I mean ALL drivers, or directly do a reinstall...) and deactivate sleep/hibernation. Who knows?

 

It's alright. I'll format it and swap for a skull canyon NUC to use with my core instead. Can't really be assed with extensive troubleshooting a random problem that takes hours/days to manifest.

 

The RAM clips are not particularly robust, particularly with the flimsy RAM boards; I found mine a bit loose and it took some finger gymnastics to make sure that the RAM was seated properly.

Why not give that a quick check?

 

[EDIT: Scratch the TB15 working well... after testing the 9550's HDMI port, I plugged the monitor back into the TB15's HDMI port, and the restarting began again. Still, it is DEFINITELY more stable than it was previously... it worked fine for three days! I have a return and refund scheduled for the TB15... looks like I will take advantage of it and wait for the rumored hardware revision.]

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Just wanted to drop a note here to say that after installing all the new updates, firmware, drivers, etc. from late June and early July, ALL of the problems I was having with the 9550 and the TB15 have been resolved!!!

- My laptop now properly wakes my Dell U2415 monitor from sleep over the built in HDMI port in the 9550.
- The TB15 has been rock solid for 3 days now! Right after installing all the dock updates, the TB15 was shutting down and restarting every 5 minutes. I unplugged it and plugged it back in, and I have had no further issues. Right now, I'm only using the HDMI port and the USB 3.0 port on the rear... both are rock solid!

I don't doubt that others are having issues with the new BIOS version, but I personally haven't had any issues.

 

so i'm still being stonewalled by dell on my system exchange. despite being told by a supervisor i would get a brand new xps 15 9550 to replace my refurbished one, they're now saying they have no proof that i was told that. so anyway... despite that, i've been trying my best to get my current 9550 to work. the issue is now, and i'm hoping someone else has experience with this, is that whenever i play mass effect 3, it will start crashing out then back in when the action gets crazier and then eventually i'll get a blue screen, at which point upon restart my system is unable to boot back up and i have to restore a backup.

i have the latest intel and nvidia drivers installed, on the latest bios, i have the samsung nvme controller installed because the microsoft one gave me constant blue screens. i use throttlestop with -150 mv offset on cpu core and cache and -100 mv on the intel gpu and system agent. any tips?

 

There are people with problems using the latest bios; many suggest going back to 1.2.0. Do a search here for more detail

 

the thing is, i was having these blue screen issues before the bios update i think. but i'll rock back and see if that helps at all.

 

okay so my laptop bsod'd (critical service failed) and won't boot on restart. am i the only one that gets this issue with the bsod where windows just won't boot on restart? the dumbest thing is even when i restore from a backup which seemed to be functioning well i can't get back into windows. i know i'm gonna be sending this back at some point anyway but i'm just curious if i got a complete lemon or this is common.

for what it's worth, this time i installed the latest beta from intel and also downgraded my bios from 1.2.10 to 1.2 and upon reboot got the unrecoverable bsod.

 

Quite a common problem with the no driver after the BSOD, never figured it out.

Sounds like you need to do a repair install to recover it ot use the USB install to get into safe mode?

 

We're seeing quite an uptick in throttling problems. I wonder if there was a bad batch again.

 

Hello all,

Hopfeully someone can help as I am eaching the end of my patience (and sanity!).

Picked up the XPS 15 9550 for the primary reason of playing SFV on the go. HOWEVER:
1. The game crawls along in slow motion if I play without the power supply plugged in (1920x1080 and low settings)
2. The fan goes berserk after 15 minutes or so if I play with the charger plugged in, then exits to the desktop (no warning message etc): no longer shows on task manager so just quits

All drivers etc appear to be up to date. Any help would be appreciated-this is driving me crazy as a GBP 1600 laptop should surely be able to handle what I am trying to do?!

SOS!

 

.

 

Er...XPS 15 9550 Faults??

 

Any xps 9550 owners notice speakers crackling/ popping when adjusting brightness while listening to media?

Is there a fix?

Have searched and read through forum to no avail.


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My speakers also crackle & pop when adjusting brightness while listening to media (e.g. youtube or netflix). I have a 9550 with the FHD screen on BIOS 1.2.00. Crackling happens under a wide variety of scenarios:

- With both the RealTek and Microsoft audio drivers. With or without ThrottleStop

- When I play audio via an external USB dac to my headphones

- EDIT - DELETED MISTAKE (see below)

Interestingly, the last scenario should bypass Dell's & Window's audio processing (and the virtual instrument and DAC are both locked at 44.1kHz sample rate so there should not be any sample rate issues)

EDIT - liselotte111 noted on 3 August that he corrected all speaker crackling from brightness adjustents by using a stand-alone DAC with WASAPI drivers.

My DAC uses Microsoft generic drivers (not sure if I can use WASAPI drivers but will look). My experience follows:

When listening to youtube and changing brightness it always crackles:
- output to computer speakers playing with the RealTek driver 6.0.1.7625 dated 10/5/15 or Microsoft 10.0.10586.0 driver dated 10/29/15
- output to DAC, which uses generic Microsoft 10.0.10586.0 driver dated 10/29/15

When playing a virtual instrument only ASIO works; MME, WASAPI and DIRECTSOUND are a mess:
-ASIO4ALL does not crackle at all when playing or adjusting brightness (outputting to the DAC or computer speakers & Microsoft 10.0.10586.0 driver dated 10/29/15. This is what I use

- Adjusting brightness causes crackling with MME (outputting to the DAC, Microsoft Sound Mapper, or computer speakers & Microsoft 10.0.10586.0 driver dated 10/29/15

- WASAPI just crackles all the time when playing a note, even with low resolution settings when using DAC with said Microsoft driver. WASAPI sounds fine with no crackling when playing or changing brightness via computer speakers & RealTek driver 6.0.1.7625 dated 10/5/15 or via computer speakers & Microsoft 10.0.10586.0 driver
dated 10/29/15

- DIRECTSOUND seems to be a mess similar to WASAPI

 

You don't think this is an issue that needs resolving?


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I do but I don't find any solutions.

 

Have you tried fresh install of windows without dell apps?
I am considering this option.


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Have you tried fresh install of windows without dell apps?
I am considering this option.


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I have done a half dozen clean installs of W10 without the Dell bloatware. That didn't seem to help me with the crackling but they did solve other issues...

 

So that leaves it down to driver issue or hardware issue. I've tried troubleshooting with all the drivers but crackling speakers remain. I can see why there's no solution to this problem.


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You can phone it in, if they send a motherboard, it will have the audio daughter board on it, you can request they swap that. Another members had a mobo swap out for this and it worked.

 

Thanks GoNz0 -

Since my 9550 is just about perfect now, I think I can live with a little audio crackling when changing brightness. I'll swap the motherboard when something else goes wrong.

 

BTW I have been hearing the slightest click sound from my 9550. I thought it was the 1TB HDD (which is not formatted) just randomly parking; similar sound but HDD parking is louder. Can barely hear the clicking over idling fans in a very quite room. Don't hear that drive spinning (and don't think it should be spinning) but it is 5400rpm so should be quite silent even if spinning.

Then yesterday I noticed a consistent syncopated click (in 4/4 time 3 clicks at: 1, 2, & --- at ~120 beats per minute). Today it was a slightly more consistent clicking but always a bit random every second or so.

- I thought that might be the fans but the frequency stayed the same when I spooled up the fans
- Unplugging didn't help
- I have a newer model power brick and some people reported that stopped their coil whine (p/n 06TTY6)
- I turned off the speakers & inserted a 2.5mm cable in the headphone jack

Have others noticed this? Is this the coil whine that people have described? Does it get worse?

 

I had the same last week, really started pissing me off as I was sat with the TV off late at night, fans were off and this is SSD only. I have no idea what the hell it was as it seems to have gone again (you can always hear something with your ear to it, CPU's can click and whine, SSD's can as well)
Maybe it was scanning the SSD causing it to make a noise but I never found out why ad forgot about it until you posted. I will have another listen when everyone's gone to bed and I remember)

Never had it as bad as the 9530 I had!

 

are you saying i should be able to recover my latest backup by just doing a repair install with a w10 bootable or is there more to it?

 

We have the same audio problem and unlike you I can't stand the sound issues so I'm getting a new motherboard by Dell. Let's hope they don't wreck anything else :-/


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No idea what this is. In a simple non-computer application, I would expect a ground fault. But I have no clue here. Could be BIOS or a driver. Could be an incompatability with our batch of screens...

Regardless, it doesn't bother me much and is the only real "defect." To avoid the hassle, cost and effort of repasting-repadding a recycled motherboard, and avoid the real risk of getting a defective motherboard, I will keep my current setup. Overall, I am really happy with this laptop.

Please keep us updated with process step-by-step as drama is always interesting. Good luck!

 

Yes, it should ask you to upgrade.

Sent from my SM-G920F

 

well, when i boot from a w10 bootable, i can either: a. go to repair and that gives the usual system restore/reset pc options which i would like to avoid. and if i go to upgrade it tells me to boot into windows (which i can't do) to do an upgrade.

 

looks like you need to restore a backup then

 

I cannot find 32GB XPS 15 in shops. Is it possible to replace RAM by user?

 

Yip


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Yes it is


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Yes it is


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I got a bit excited there cause I love the fact that ram is upgradable.


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Maybe a clue on that quiet sometimes periodic electronic clicking sound coming from the motherboard.

Try a test. Please open Microsoft Edge browser to the main page where Microsoft has "My news feed powered by MSM," the weather, etc. At the top left corner there is a large picture box with 12 stories you can click through via left and right arrows. Click an arrow and the next story/picture swipes in about a second. That swiping causes the same buzz for about a second. If you click the arrows rapidly, the buzz effectively is continuous.

I don't have a mic sensitive enough to measure the clicking sound but I did run an online tone generator (select sawtooth) on a different PC to guestimate the "continuious" clicking rate per second. I would guess it is suspiciously around 60hz (just a guess as it sounds higher than 40hz but lower than 80hz):

http://onlinetonegenerator.com/

Unplugging the AC mains did not impact the clicking sound. My AC line was completely rewired to the street and is quiet (but that does not seem to matter as the clicking sound is identical plugged in or running on battery).

Neither did disabling the speakers, disconnecting all USB devices, changing screen brightness, disabling ThrottleStop, clicking the mouse a few different ways have any impact on buzz.

FYI - I am not hearing the funky sythesizer type sounds from this guy's video, just a very quiet clicking sound:

 

Regarding the audio crackling, I have an usb DAC, and here the problem also occurs, which indicates that it has nothing to do with the audio hardware. However when I switch to WASAPI (direct audio to the dac, putting the Windows audio manager aside), all the crackling is gone! It appears that the audio driver is just messing with us....

 

Really interesting. I did a bunch of testing and updated my post from last month (summary follows):

With the internal computer speakers there is always crackling when adjusting brightness (using both Microsoft and RealTek drivers). My USB DAC uses said generic Microsoft driver so that also crackles also with brightness changes.

When using my virtual piano software:

==> ASIO4ALL works perfectly outputting to USB DAC and internal computer speakers.
==> WASAPI is a mess outputting to the USB DAC (but it works perfectly outputting to internal computer speakers!).
==> DIRECTSOUND and MME are also a mess

Importantly, the RealTek driver 6.0.1.7625 dated 10/5/15 & Microsoft 10.0.10586.0 driver dated 10/29/15 are crackled. I don't see how to use ASIO drivers "for generic Windows10 duties" so any suggestions are welcomed.

EDIT - Maybe the new update has new Microsoft audio drivers?

 

The update pulled down driver ver 6.0.1.7628
dated 05/10/2015 from Realtek

This was a clean install.

 

Thanks GonZ0. ReakTek updated itself to 6.0.1.7628 dated 5 Oct 2015 on my laptop. Same crackling problem when adjusting brightness on youtube and internal speakers.

I don't care about that bug when changing the screen brightness. But I DO CARE that the crackling seems to be impacting WASAPI, Directsound and MME.

Maybe harassing Dell will get this sorted.

 

Are you switching to WASAPI and using the internal DAC and internal speakers? Can you do that on
Windows 10? If so, how? And how do you control volumes?

 

New driver came out this week, might be worth trying.

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I am with Dell Chat now and they did a bunch of tests and reinstalled the audio drivers. They want to send a tech out to replace the motherboard. But I think that the problem is drivers.

Could other people check to see if changing screen brightness causes a crackling sound out of laptop speakers?

I would hate to go through all this and find the problem still exists. No other issues with laptop so worried about crappy board. Also will need to repaste and repad once again which I would like to avoid

 

It worked for someone else but they will use your paste and the pads are reusable.

 

Thanks GoNz0 - I didn't realize someone had the issue corrected by motherboard swap.

The Fujipoly 17 pads are too delicate so will self destruct (crumble) but I have plenty of pad material.

Given that this laptop's main function is audio (virtual piano software) and that this audio issue might go way beyond a slight clicking sound when changing screen brightness, I will give it a try.