Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

Sir, before I help you first I'm going to ask you to do a full system reset, ok?

Hahaha no but seriously, does it happen in Firefox only? Or in other apps.

 

Thanks.
Yes, I did a full reset already and put all the drivers manually on it. And it happens everywhere. For example in the Windows Device Manager.

http://www.bilder-upload.eu/show.php?file=21eb8b-1461311685.jpg

 

Did you put Dell premier colour on and leave it to do what it thinks it right?

 

How can this prevent to crash the driver? I will try it out, but doubt it will help.

 

There are precisely two Asus notebooks in our family that I work on and I have found them to be quirky with very little online help from Asus in the form of service manuals and such. I try to stay away from them.

 

Did you manually install the latest drivers from intel's website through the device manager with Have Disk?

If that doesn't help, I suspect it's a HW problem with the chip. It would be the first time I've seen it on the XPS, so trading for a replacement has a low chance of the same thing being wrong. Might have other issues tho

 

What are your experiences in dealing with the XPS? Is it possible that I was unlucky and should buy a new one, or are they known for their buggy behaviour? Thinking about a Macbook now, because I a angry about the Windows bugs finally.

 

Thanks.
So is it risky to buy another one from Dell? I liked it overall, but I was reading many concerns about it, it´s weak from Dell...

 

Well... I've been lucky I guess, I've had two xps 15s (sold the first), and both were refurbs. They had no HW problems, only the software niggles. I might give them 1 more shot. Apple has it's own ****, though it's more about their approach to support and covering up system defects.

 

I want something particularly reliable for my master thesis in addition to my surface 3, which has enough power for exta work. I think Apple won´t have software issues, but I am not an Apple user, but after that bad experience I am thinking about switching the sides.

How can I get a refurbed product?

 

I bought mine off ebay from a top seller. 1350 USD for a 4k/i7/256/16gb model.

 

Oha, that's a good price. Has it still warranty?

 

Yeh it had 11 months left. I upgraded the warranty for 70$ post-purchase.

 

Nice, can you recommend me a product if possible or tell me where on eBay you bought it? Thx

 

I got it from ads_pc_depot

 

Thank you, I will look it up.
I've found a Macbook for 1600€, would you say it would be a good choice?

 

Just got a 16 GB Sandisk Utra USB Type-C drive from Amazon ( ). It supposed to do 130 MB\s read and somewhere around there for writes. The description on Amazon also said properly equipped (Thunderbolt 3) computers could even get 10 GB\s.

So, what do you think happened? Right! The fastest this thing as written so far is 25 MB\s which is no better than I get with USB 2.0 sticks. All my drivers are up to date. Some of my better USB 3.0 sticks can write around 55 MB\s. The new mystery then is: (1) Is it the drive? Should it go back? or (2) Is it my 9550? Have I finally discovered something other than the space bar that is wrong? or (3) Is Sandisk just full of sh**t?

 

Hey! Hope you can help me. A few hours ago I was using my new XPS 15 perfectly fine. It then somehow went into hibernate and when I tried to boot it up again, it wont recognize any bootable devices. I only have a 2.5' SSD installed that I swapped the 1TB HDD and the 32GB Cache for. Everything was completely fine, did a clean install jn RAID mode the day after I got it. This occurred all of a sudden. Any tips on how to proceed?

 

Andi P.,

Have you tried installing the Intel HD Graphics Beta drivers directly from Intel?

They have resolved MOST of my graphic issues, including graphic tearing in Firefox and other apps. I'm still having some problems getting my external monitor to communicate over HDMI using the Intel drivers.

Many of the problems folks are having, including with the TB15 dock, seem to be related to shoddy graphics drivers from Intel. Dell should be telling people this, but I can't blame Dell for shoddy work on Intel's part. There aren't many other choices in that respect.

The beta drivers are not signed with Dell, so you will have to do a manual install of the driver in Device Manager.

 

Another option is to set the nVidia card as the preferred graphics (as opposed to auto) in the nVidia properties window / Manage 3D Settings / Global Settings

 

Thanks for the answer. Yes I've tried everything, nothing helped. Should I try buying a new one or should I give Apple a chance?

 

That will decrease the battery life or not?

 

It will... But it should be temporary until Intel releases more stable drivers.

 

Top thread on Intel Graphics forum...

" i7 6700k - 530 HD displays artifacts, flickers, goes black, etc. etc."

https://communities.intel.com/thread/98471

 

Thanks a lot, it's a shame that Intel and Dell are not able to fix this. But why are some machines don't git these problems with the same Hardware?

 

Are you sure they are all the exact same hardware? i7 vs. i5 vs. i3 makes a difference.

 

Yes it's the i7 in the 9550.

 

Short of seeing a formal survey, I'm betting this is only affecting the XPS 15 9550 boards with an i7.

Skylake is still new, and we are all early adopters. I'm confident Intel and Dell will get it straightened out eventually. It's up to you if you can wait until then.

 

I need the Laptop for my masters, maybe I will try to return it and get a new one. I liked it overall.

 

Have you tried to reboot more than once? Try to boot into setup and make sure your drive shows up there . Then boot again. Is the SSD new?

 

Tried it multiple times. No success even after switching all possible BIOS settings. I then started via Windows 10 USB Install drive and the SSD showed up. It's not even six months old. After I booted from the USB drive I reset the BIOS completely and was then able to select the SSD as boot device again. It's now working flawlessly again. But this kind of stuff worries me. This happened for no apparent reason. Googled it and found out that many people on the German Dell Support Forums are suffering from this as well. I'm glad it's now working again but this leaves me with very mixed feelings, as I heavily depend on the machine to work well while on the road and meeting with customers.

 

Have you tried changing from RAID to AHCI? Samsung officially recommends AHCI, and their drivers only work with AHCI. You'll have to take some special steps to prevent having to reinstall Windows.

 

Things like this making me worry giving Dell another chance. But I thinks it's the best product with thus price and which is not Apple. How happy are you with your Xps overall? Maybe I was just unlucky or is it really that bad optimised? Will it last more than 3 years?

 

I was reading all of the topics about the XPS 15 for the last week and thus knew that there were problems with AHCI and RAID settings. The SSD is a Crucial MX100 that's been installed in RAID mode and now works flawlessly in RAID mode again. Switching to AHCI hat no effect. But hey, it's working now and I can get some work done and may throw in a session of Rocket League. So it's all cool.

 

I can't imagine driver issues lasting 3 more months... But you never know. The latest Intel Graphics Beta is from the end of March... I would expect a new Beta or general release driver in the next week or two.

Apple controls the entire Eco-system, and they rarely have bleeding-edge hardware, so they can wait until drivers are stable before going with new hardware. They also control the OS.

Dell, particularly the XPS line, caters to a different market.

 

Overall, I'm happy with it when using the NVIDIA graphics as the global setting. I just wish my external monitor would wake when I move my mouse without me having to turn it off and back on! The TB15 dock is still a mess, with it dropping USB connections and external monitors, but I can work around that for now. Thunderbolt 3/USB-C are bleeding edge, as well, and the drivers are still getting straightened out with that, as well.

If you are really concerned it is a hardware issue, you can always exchange it, see if you have the same problems, and if you do, demand a refund, or accept that it is a driver issue.

 

If it is a software issue everyone would have the same problem or not? It's hard to accept a failure with such a expensive device.

Love the design and the specs though, I think I will give it another chance, don't like Apple even if you can rub windows on it. As an engineer I love to be free with my system.

 

From what I've read, the graphical corruption is very program specific. Firefox is terrible with the current drivers. There are a lot of factors when dealing with drivers...not just the hardware.

The problems you are having are driver crashes and graphical corruption with Firefox, correct?

I've had the graphical corruption, but I haven't had any driver crashes using either the latest general release Intel/Dell, drivers, or with the Beta.

 

I've posted some pictures, it's in the device manager from windows also.

I've bought a Surface 3 in addition to my Dell to have 2 devices. If returning both the surface book is an option also.

 

I went through 4 when I first bought it, trying to find one without hardware defects (and ended up replacing the heatsink on my current one to get ideal thermal performance). However since then its been absolutely great, especially after the second to last BIOS update (.15 I believe). Likely the best laptop I've owned, (mine is i7, 16GB, 4K, 512 SSD), as its the first time I feel I didn't need to make any compromises (portable and powerful, 15.6" in small body, etc.). My use case: lots of Word docs, PDF viewing, PowerPoints w/ video+animations, Edge and Firefox with 20-30 tabs max, large Excel sheets, and 3D CAD with Autodesk inventor. I also use the Dell USB-C adapter for USB and HDMI as a "dock" daily without issue. Battery life has improved to 6+ hours during moderate use (ext. monitor, 2x word, approx. 10-15 tabs in Edge, and video or music playing in background), and 8+ for very light use (reading PDFs or PPs), which is exactly what I usually need. And that's while using battery lifespan extending settings that only allow me to use approx. 90% of capacity.
Point being that its possible to get to the desired and expected level of performance.
Sounds like you've already tried most every fix, but here's what worked for me and my advice:

• Clean install if you have the knowhow (esp. if its not a Microsoft signature version)
• Either leave it in RAID, or follow the exact instructions others have previously detailed for ACHI (believe must install the Samsung drivers)
• Update the BIOS if not already done so
• Even if the BIOS is up-to-date or you've previously done this, enter the BIOS, hit factory reset, and restart
• Uninstall the Dell Intel Graphics Drivers (click delete driver when uninstalling from device manager), download the Beta or latest release from Intel and manually install
• Download and install NVIDIA drivers from their website

I'm the beginning I had numerous BSODs and display driver crashes, multiple per hour. Since the above "fixes", I've only had one in the past 4 months and its been otherwise flawless. Although your issue doesn't sound hardware related to me, if nothing else works and you're within the return period, I would swap it and set it up from scratch with the info in this forum. I also recommend Microsoft Store if its an option, as they were extremely helpful making sure I got the exact unit I wanted before walking out of the store
EDIT: Just looked at your posted pics and these are all identical or similar errors to the ones I was experiencing. Appear to be Graphics Driver (Intel not NVIDIA) issues, so I would say try uninstalling every video driver and reinstalling with only the latest

 

Thanks a lot, helpful post. How did you find the patient to wait for 4 devices? The delivery time is awful from Dell.

 

Honestly almost just tossed the 3rd it was getting so frustrating. But Microsoft store did overnight shipping and I never had a gap without one to use. Got the final one in the store where they opened the box and made sure it was what I wanted (minimal coil whine, no spacebar issue, flush front edge) before I left. Looks like your in Europe so probably not an option for you unfortunately
Dell really needs to improve their QC if they expect people who don't somewhat enjoy technical aspects of computers to buy these, but I believe the newer ones are better

 

Dell is awful regarding delivery in Europe, they are shipping from China so it takes around 3 weeks minimum, if you want to buy something from them or want to return it. That's the most frustrating thing and we only have 14 days of returning time.

 

Would you say the issues Andi P. is having are hardware or driver issues?

I'm thinking they are driver issues, which you and I have both experienced, so I'd hate to see him send his laptop back to Dell if there is nothing wrong with the hardware.

 

I want to say thank you, you're giving me better than the premium supprt from Dell...

 

You are sure that these are the drivers you are currently using?

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...ver-for-Windows-7-8-1-10-15-40-?product=88345

 

Windows/Dell won't let you run the installer... You'll have to use the "Have Disk" method in Device Manager.

 

Follow the installation instructions here...

http://m.windowscentral.com/how-install-intel-beta-graphics-drivers-surface

 

Will give it a last try, thx
But I've tried the beta driver already

 

Make sure you use the LATEST Beta that I linked to!