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

did anyone try to press F8 while boot up? it will cause BIOS crash and your laptop won't boot up again
I have Dell replace the whole laptop and the issue is the same, even replaced motherboard it just gone dead while press F8 continuously while boot
complaining and asking for refund now

my setting is i7 512g 4k monitor 16g ram

 

Was your FN lock enabled?

 

no, just press F8, no other key pressed

 

Why the hell did you do it again?

 

function test, any questions?

 

I would have done it again (in front of the service guy) just out of curiosity for sure!

 

I might do it when I pack mine up to return after the replacement arrives for the fun of it.

 

But My XPS runs great i run games, graphic and other things work perfectly without hang problem and overheating problem.

 

OP, can you add that using the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 port causes unnecessary internal fan speeds to inrease and stay at an inreased level throughout the duration of that ports use, regardless of the temperatures or CPU/GPU use. This ramp occurs at idle with no applications running. It also happens if you are in the BIOS.

There are multiple comments by many users here and at Dell Community forums complaining about this. This is different from the fans spinning while charging the XPS15.

 

New 4K, i7, 16/512 Win 10 Pro (No Clean Install, but I have uninstalled almost all Dell Apps)

I have no idea what was going on, but a few days ago I tried XCOM Enemy Unknown for like 20 minutes and the device got really hot (I mean it) on the left side of the palm rest, even after the game was closed for 30 minutes.



I put it in energy saving mode to throttle the CPU but it kept being hot with almost no load and the fans would be constantly running at full power. I even shut it off, it would cool off but after starting it up again it would get hot again really quick.
After a few reboots the problem disappeared somehow.

I have updated all the drivers from the Dell Website (especially the chipset drivers seemed to be kinda old, the Bios was the latest one though) yesterday and today I tried to play Skyrim ( @1080p, everything set to ultra) for ~ 30 mins. Worked nicely, the fans would spin up, but the device kept cool, the are next to the trackpad also stayed cool. After exiting the game the fans would shut off again after like a minute and the device kept really cool all the time.

Really strange, I hope it was a driver issue, but I still wonder what the hell was heating up down there. There's not even anything under there besides the battery right?

 

Has someone found a fix for the "fans while charging" problem?

The topic on the Dell community forums does not have any answers yet ( http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19660421/20879754 ). Not even a reply by a Dell official.

 

to those with the fans issue:

are you guys running a clean install? and are you running any Dell apps?

 

Who said it is a problem, considering other devices do this is would seem to be by design.

 

+1

 

Hi guys, I need help. My friend bought an Xps 15 (4k+I7+512) from Microsoft Store and shipped it to China to me. I got it few days ago but I can't start it up. Every time I press the Power button, it shows "no boot device found, press any key to reboot this machine". I press F12 to run the diagnosis and it shows my hard Drive have problems"Error 2000-0151, validation 93792". Chinese dell engineer said my Hard Drive is broken and they exchanged an SSD for me, but the problem still exist. Then they said they would exchange the whole motherboard. I lived in China, there is no way for me to return this laptop. Can anyone help me to solve this problem? This is a brand new laptop, I don't want to replace the motherboard. Thank u very much

 

I think you need go into bios and change from ahci to raid. Some XPS15 for some reasons, ships with ahci mode. I know mine did and it was not booting when I unpack it. Stupid mistakes by Dell

 

I think everybody is having this problem. I have this while using RAID not AHCI

 

New BIOS of today (1.1.19) just fixed this for me

 

Indeed:

1. Fix DELL BME Dock issues
2. Fix ePSA Pre-boot system assessment error with NVMe device
3. Update PXE ROM Version
4. Please ensure Audio driver is v7628 or later before flashing BIOS (Audio sound may have distortion)

So I wonder if it's now possible to combine NVMe (boot) with SSD (storage) drives with no problem.

 

A friend of me has the exact same specifications and does not have this 'problem'. So either mine is correctly using the fans or his is incorrectly not using the fans.

 

A fresh issue with this laptop over there guys... I'm so pissed of with dell... This laptop is a garbage...

1. Windows 10 build 10586.0
2. SAMSUNG SM951 256GB NVMe M.2
3. BIOS 1.1.19
4. BIOS mode: AHCI
5. Not installed Samsung NVMe drivers




What I've tried so far:

1. Reinstalling the windows.
2. Intel drivers, Latest directly grabbing from Intel and
3. Intel drivers, from Dell website.

Also, following issues also persist:
1. Long boot,
2. Flickering screen during a boot, (when dotted circles are spinning, screen blinks and lags)
3. Fan while charging.
4. Critical Process died - occasionally when surfing web, or working with Adobe apps. I get 1 BSOD per 30min...

What do the Dell think releasing it without prior test done, they should be paying their asia slaves more than $1 per day to get the job done well...

Anyone know how to get rid of BOSD?

 

This looks like a hardware issue to me.

 

I can get pass through that "pixel screen".
Until I call for a dell technician to my home, I'm trying to find how could I get rid of that unpredictable BSOD - Critical process died, every 30min.

 

Have you tried booting in safe mode?

 

No, haven't yet... I'm wondering If I should and If so how could I proceed with regular web surfing or Adobe app tasks to see if I can call for that BSOD again... Also do you recommend me to reinstall windows with RAID controller mode ? I found threads on this forum, that AHCI with SAMSUNG SM951 NVMe M.2 may cause this too,

 

It looks like hardware for me too

 

I get this "Distorted Pixel" screen when I do some changes bios. However resetting back to defaults makes it disappear.

How about Critical process died, any tips on this? I'm wondering if reinstalling windows with Raid mode could offer a stability.

 

I had this BSOD while using my XPS on AHCI. RAID fixed for me

 

Install whocrashed by replenish software (direct not from a 3rd party site) and report back with the crash dump analysis.

 

I had the same issue. Dell told me it was a hardware issue with the screen. However, performing the screen diagnostic (power button + d) showed that the screen was able to cycle through all the colors just fine, so I don't think it has anything to do with the screen or display connection. I was able to use some lucky key presses to get to reset the bios to factory settings without being able to see what's on the screen. Reseting the bios fixed it and I haven't had an issue since.

 

I'll try to post my dump file as soon as I will get back.
I think it would be wise to change sata type to RAID mode this time because ACHI has proven instability with NVMe m.2 hard drives.

May I ask you guys where do you download "Intel 100 Series Chipset Driver" and "Intel Serial IO Driver" ?
I thought if it could get it straight form a Intel instead downloading from dell, but I cant find.

 

Same to me, but did you tried to make some changes on your bios settings to see if this "Pixel Screen issue" is not getting back again? In my case as long as I use default bios settings I have no issues with that "Pixel Screen issue", but once I do more changes like disabling some features I get the issue back.

 

Guys, I just received my XPS 15 9550 with i5, touchscreen, 32GB + 1TB.

The touchscreen would not work straight out of the box. I figured I would try to replace the SSD and HDD with a 950 Pro and a mSATA RAID and reinstall Windows 10.1 cleanly. That did not work too, the touchscreen is still dead.

I do see a listing for HID compliant touchscreen in device manager, and Windows also says the touchscreen or pen input is present. But touching the screen does nothing. Is there anything else I can try? I would hate to send this back as I'm travelling soon and need this with me.

 

After all this bios updates I'm still having bad ssd performance after sleep

 

I don't think that the latest update was suppose to address this particular issue. It was more focused on the boot problems related to NVMe drives.

 

Are you having this problem too? I thought the previous bios should have fixed it

 

Phone Dell.

 

I don't have XPS 9550 yet. Still considering to get one vs Surface Pro 4.

 

Can u tell me how to do that? I know nothing about BIOS

 

1- Turn off your laptop
2- Press the power button and keep taping F2 ultil u see a Dell logo with a progress bar under it
3- Now you are on the BIOS! Now look for SATA operation mode or something like that ( it will be easy, since you can you the mouse) and change from AHCI to RAID
4- Probably now you will have to reinstall windows and since you are using RAID you will need intel RST driver

 

You sure you ordered that model with touchscreen?

 

You didn't mention what type of screen you got, FHD or 4K?

EDIT: @Fant Ha! exactly what I wanted to ask after reading his post

 

Wrong.
Run MSCONFIG and select the safe mode flag, reboot into safe mode (it will do this while you have the safe mode flag selected) . Reboot again and follow the guide above to get into the BIOS ignoring #4
restart into safe mode again (the flag is still selected so just boot the laptop and it will go into safe mode) and run MSCONFIG remove the safe mode flag, reboot into windows.
Install RST.

No reinstall needed.

 

LOL, yes I am sure. 4k screen.

 

So I got the 9550 with 512gb HD and getting the slower read speeds after sleep. When I try to switch from raid to ahci mode its giving me a blue screen saying no boot device or something of that nature. Any fix for that?

 

How did you switch from RAID to AHCI?

 

In the bios

 

Yes. But did you do it thru msconfig & safe boot?

EDIT:
msconfig (check safe boot) - safe boot (switch raid to ahci mode before it safe boot) - msconfig (to uncheck safe boot) - normal boot

 

No sir. That mustve been my problem. Thanks for your help!

 

There are plenty forum threads arround calling it "Dell 9550 Black Screen" issue.

I've done nothing to mine, suddenly after a 3rd day of usage I turned the laptop on and found this screen with distorted pixels.