Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

Hmm I forgot to say that I gave that a shot, uninstalling the Dell audio drivers and installing the Realtek drivers themselves (currently on 6.0.1.7628). I'll give the newer ones a try and see if that helps, thanks.

 

Apparently Dell have just made BIOS v1.2.13 available for the 9550 at http://www.dell.com/support/home/uk...driverID=CVYFC&productCode=xps-15-9550-laptop

 

This is a load of bollocks, flickers is back on this new A14 BIOS.

Anyone with a new motherboard and QHD panel got this flicker that didn't have it before?

I think I need to get my daughters out and update that to see what happens. If I uninstall the HD530 video driver it doesn't flicker.

 

Hey guys, quick question how is your battery wear level and after how long ? I just got mine less than a month ago and I haver a wear level in between 3 to 4 % which seems quite high after a month ?
I'd like to see if I have to monitor the situation closely or if this is normal and shouldn't worry
thanks !

 

They often come like that so I wouldn't worry unless it starts going up quickly

 

@ Gonzo:
I would appreciate your final statement on the flicker with the new BIOS.

Hesitating here, because I have my thesis and very important data on the laptop...

 

I Already said I still have the flicker on the new BIOS, sat on the A10 again now.

I don't have the time at the moment to start messing about with my other 9550.

 

Hmm so I'm using the latest driver as of 2 days ago (6.0.1.7910) and updated to the latest BIOS (1.2.13) and I am still experiencing this.

 

Ok, as reported earlier, latest BIOS 1.2.13 doesn't fix flickering on 4k displays even with the latest Beta driver from Intel, so, don't waste your time

 

This audio issue drives me nuts! Happened a couple of months back and disappeared after a fresh install. Then it reappeared just after the anniversary update. Tried the oldest driver from Dell, updated to the latest one, BIOS upgrade, audio troubleshooting and what have you. I know it happens like 80% of the time after a cold boot and I have to restart to get everything back in order!


Now I just put my laptop to sleep

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

I have started a dedicated 4k panel flicker poll http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps-9550-4k-panel-screen-flicker-thread.795285/

 

Holy crap so I'm not the only one to experience this, I thought I was! I've still not done the anniversary update; I think I'll see if I can play around with driver load order.

 

I had some BSOD as well giving most of the time a "critical_process_died" and sometimes (rare) an "unexpected_store_exeption.

In my case, no minidump was created, so i could not check with bluescreenview or whocrashed. I looked in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive. There you find files called report.wer which you can open with notepad.

In my case the critical_process was the intel grafic driver. I manualy updated (*.inf) with the last beta driver and it seems to run much smoother now.

 

Rajveer & Pascaladjaero,

Sorry to sound trivial but I use my 9550 principally for audio so have been trying to get all audio aspects to work. Still not perfect but these steps worked best for me and the audio does not crash and actually sounds fine (especially consider tiny down firing speakers).

That is not the latest Realtek driver. I had a lot of problems with older drivers both from the realtek site and from the dell site.

The configuration that works for me on FHD system:

0. W10 Pro 10586.545
1. BIOS 1.2.10
2. Removed maxx waves audio garbage
3. Updated to Realtek driver 6.0.1.7898 dated 2 aug 2016.
--Got driver directly from Realtek's website (NOT Dell's old drivers. This site gives you some tips as to latest drivers and sources):

-- http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/24364-latest-realtek-audio-codecs/?page=9

--device manager>sound, video and game controllers>Realtek High Definition Audio>RIGHT CLICK properties>driver>update driver>browse my computer for driver software>let me pick from a list of device drivers from my computer>FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS

 

Seems like this new BIOS has given my PM951 performance a little bump up on both my machines.

 

Thanks for trying to help however the 7910 drivers are newer than the 7898 drivers you linked to (look at the end of the laptopvideo2go post, it links to ftp://ftp3.realtek.com.tw/Realtek/GeneralRelease/7910_PG447_Win10_TH_RS_Win8.1_Win8_Win7_WHQL.zip). At first I installed using setup.exe but that installed Maxx audio stuff (it looks like the zip is full of all OEM stuff for all manufacturers) so I completely uninstalled the software and then installed the way you mentioned above (through device manager). This way it installed only the drivers and not the extra crap, but I still have the same problem.

 

What a pain!

You might try the exact driver that works for me although these drivers are so close to each other I would not expect something sorted to go wonky just a few revisions forward. But who knows as a ton of wonky drivers were released for the 9550 based on all the posts littering the internet.

Good luck.

 

I did not remove the Dell Audio (MAXX) crap as it seems one loses the automatic phones detection without it. Can someone confirm this?

That said (this time) I am astonished about the many audio problems mentioned here. For me audio now runs very stable and reliable. I reported a problem that when you add an external audio interface one of the Realtek background processes (at least 4 are usually running simultaneously - what a nonsense) hangs with 25 % CPU load. I haven't seen this effect anymore since AU. Quite astonishing.

 

I just tested. On my laptop (without Dell Audio Maxx) the internal speakers switch to and from headphones as expected (just plugging and unplugging the headphones from the 3.5mm jack).

In the past I don't remember if that was the case months back. I am a bit foggy about historic behavior as I frequently use a USB DAC which does not automatically swap (but I think it should). That is neither here nor there...

 

That is good news! Thanks, I will remove the Dell Audio stuff then.

 

Screen flickering / black screen got really bad recently. On bios. 1.2.0. Updated all video card drivers. I have to run a programme in 1080p for it to work, native res is 4K, do you think the non-native resolution makes it worse in regards to flickering / black screens?

Also, at the windows log-in screen, sometimes only the top left quarter of the screen is shown- rest is black with cursor visible. Possible hardware fault? This only happened after updating to Win 10 Anniversary Ed. Thoughts?

It is being used for work every day but battery wear is already quite bad, from last Fall until now. According to HWMonitor:

Designed Capacity: 83995 mWh
Full Charge Capacity: 600078 mWh

Wear Level: 29%



Switch to 4K, it's alright.

 

Hi guys! I am or was interested in Dell 9550 or 9350 but the flickering screen and other problems makes me wonder if I should choose a HP Spectre 360. I tried to read most of the reviews and complaints but I didn't found if the problems with flickering has been resolved for matte screen and 4K screen.

Thank you very much.

 

I would be asking for the battery to be replaced.

 

I suggest checking your battery settings in BIOS (or Dell Command Power if you have it installed). I had the same concerns when I first got my XPS15 (battery wear approx. 11% out of box per batteryBar), but it was just due having battery management set to "Adaptive" in BIOS, so the computer was purposely reducing my usable battery capacity to extend overall lifespan. Turning off battery management fixed the issue and reset capacity to near 100% after a drain and charge. You can also run a Windows battery report before and after to give your battery capacity history and see what the trends looks like.
Your battery may be defective, but I would personally want to be positive before allowing Dell to open the case.

Directions for Windows battery report if needed:
http://www.windowscentral.com/generate-battery-report-windows-10

 

I was hoping to wait for a GTX 1060 (or GTX 1050 if tdp doesn't allow) version of this, but the more I think about it, I guess they will probably wait for the quad core kabylake chips to be available in good numbers first? I think only the lower powered kabylake processors are in production at the moment, with the quad ones not likely to be seen till Q1/2 2017...

Sad.

 

For me uninstalling Dell Maxx driver doesn't fix audio crackling issue... It's just not as loud as Sound isn't amplified. Dell Maxx software does make audio sound better in general use ( without using audio jack ).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I can confirm problems with a Samsung 950 pro SSD and AHCI setting in the BIOS of the 9550. Regardless if i use the provided Microsoft driver or the Samsung NVMe drivers, Windows 1607 gave me a Critical_process_died or Unexpeceted_Store_Exception error every few hours. As no minidump was generated, i suspected the SSD or the drivers as a troublemaker.


Because i am too lazy to do a clean install and reinstall and configure all my programs, i used dism to generate a instal.wim which i used to setup the Dell, this time with the Intel raid drivers and Raid setting in BIOS.


Since 3 days no more BSOD. Transfer rate might be a little lower with the Intel Raid driver, but practically I do not recognize a loss in transfer speed.

 

Weird, I have yet to have a BSOD with my 950pro in AHCI

 

Hi all,

I wanted to get your opinion on something. I've got 2 XPS 15s (UHDs) and noticed their screens are VERY different. One is almost bright blue white and the other (compared to the other) looks nearly yellow.

Which is more "accurate"? I don't know why my desktop monitor is on in the background, but between the 2 laptops, which is more accurate?

http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac179/DAhn626/IMG_7230.jpg

 

The one on the rights best but they may just need calibrating.

Sent from my SM-G920F

 

Last night, I updated five drivers per dell's update site, including the Intel 530 GPU and BIOS. I immediately noticed an intermittent screen flicker. Interval between flickers seemed random, from seconds until minutes. The flicker itself doesn't seem to be an entire frame drop, but rather a backlight change (darkening) with duration in the milliseconds.

Up until this point, the computer hardware has been functionally flawless.

Please advise.

Edit: What I have tried so far:
-Install previous bios version
-Install previous Intel graphics driver
-A combination of the two above
-Disabling the Intel integrated video hardware from device manager
None of the attempts above were successful in stopping the occasional flicker.

 

You need to read the forums as you would soon find out it's the bios at fault. Last one without a flicker is 1.2.0. My sig has a link to it.

Sent from my SM-G920F

 

It wasn't as obvious reading as a guest. Lots of people complained about flicker at the lowest setting, but mine was at all settings. I believed I went to the last working bios by downloading the previous version on Dell's site, which did not fix the problem. It wasn't until you posted that I realized even the .10 bios wasn't early enough. I also didn't see your sig until I logged in.

Thanks for the solution though. From my perspective your earlier solution just got mixed in with the other issues, and I misunderstood the bios number.

 

No offence intended but I put a thread up last week called
XPS 9550 + 4K panel screen flicker thread.

 

I succeed to get rid of my screen flicker by un-ticking the turbo boost HyperThread control from the Bios (Performance tab). I'm still on v1.2.0.

Good luck.

 

Anyone else had chance to confirm this?

I'm away from my laptop at the mo.

Sent from my SM-G920F

 

I've started to get this really annoying issue where my scroll on the touchpad stops working in chrome intermittently, everything else works fine so I've no idea whats causing it. Anyone else having this problem? I've tried reinstalling and swapping drivers with no difference.

 

Join the club, it seems related to all devices with the precision touchpad post anniversary update.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!topic/chrome/13heHHOuMYA

And now I can't scroll back up the fkin page

 

Thanks, that explains a lot! Amazing Google haven't done anything yet, where's my guaranteed response in a few hours....

 

Have you had the chance to try it? I made a mistake in my previous post. Is not the Turbo Boost that you have to disable, is the HyperThread control in Performance tab.

 

Just to note for anyone who might have similar problems...

My motherboard blew and got replaced last week, and on it was the 1.2.12 bios which I upgraded to 1.2.13. The battery didn't charge past 60% (it said 'not charging', 1-60% was fine and doing a full recharge didn't help), after the replacement.

Dell suggested the fix is to downgrade the BIOS to 1.1.15 which did work...doing more testing now with other BIOS files...

EDIT:
Turns out anything past 1.1.19 renders me with battery charging issues.

Found related thread: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19989889
Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/4zka9r/xps_15_9550_bios_1213_battery_plugged_in_not/

Looks like its caused by the latest firmware... I'd stay away until it's resolved.

 

Latest Audio driver has ruined the speaker / sound quality

 

See below for how I got the best sound from speakers. . .

 

Hey everyone,

I'm new to the forum and I just ordered an i5 9550. I'm looking to upgrade the memory and want to make sure I get the best spec'd RAM I can. I've seen posts of people claiming that they can run 2400mhz and some people saying that they are running 2666mhz ram as well. The only difference is that they have an i7.

 

I have also seen a few people with the Precision 5510 and the i7 running RAM at higher speed. AFAIK no i5 systems are running beyond base 2133MHz. There are a few posts around here about that topic.

For speed, my colleagues recommended I do a clean Windows install, buy a lot of RAM, and buy a very fast nvme drive for the m.2 slot.

 

My Dell XPS 15 has just shipped from China, but I want to be prepared when it arrives, so I have a few questions.

• Do I need to do a fresh install of windows 10 to get better performance, or will uninstalling all the bloatware have the same effect?
• After reading though almost all 46 pages of the Undervolting/thermal paste and pad thread, I am seriously considering doing this to my own XPS 15. Does the mod:

• Does the use of a higher quality third party thermal paste make a noticeable difference to battery life?
• Does the SSD require a Thermal Pad? I read in the manual that it should have one on, but from what I have seen, it doesn't actually have one attached?
• Do you always remove the battery when taking the heatsink off?

​

 

I'm a firm believer in a fresh install to speed things up. It will let you get rid of all the dell bs and install exactly what you want. GonZo's image makes it beyond simple.

Replacing the thermal paste won't change your battery life. Even an undervolt has minimal effects.

The SSD should come from dell with a thermal pad. It normally sticks to the cover when it is removed so you don't typically see it.

YES always unplug the battery when taking the heatsink off or doing other mods like that. It's just not worth the risk.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Expanding on the point of doing a clean install, does it remove anything that I couldn't just uninstall otherwise? I just don't want to lose the Dell monitor calibration app, etc.

 

Clean install can speed up your computer. With less junk running on my computer I tend to have fewer issues. Also some of the bloatware is persistent (e.g. difficult to remove, not removable, or will keep reinstalling itself mysteriously)

Dell generally keeps current and historic BIOS and drivers at the site linked below.

http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/xps-15-9550-laptop.html

 

So i received my XPS 15 this week, and whilst I'm generally happy with the performance, noise levels and design, I have a few questions about some other things:

* The keyboard generally feels far more flimsy than on my old XPS12, but I'm especially having issues with the Enter key. Only the upper half of it registers a keypress. Is this normal, or do I need to get the keyboard replaced?
* I've got the same sound issues you guys mention here
* Can you recommend a good docking solution for this model? Preferrably something that has charging, ethernet and hdmi/displayport. Can it use WiGig docking stations?