Dell XPS 15 (Skylake) 9550 Owner's Lounge

You might want to try disabling "Fast Startup" to see if that makes a different (are you using "wake on LAN?"):

1. Open Control Panel and hit Enter on your keyboard
2. Click Power Options
3. Click Choose what the power buttons do.
4. Click Change settings that are currently unavailable.
5. Click Turn on fast startup (recommended) so that the checkmark disappears.

 

Does anyone know if a 9550 ( or 9560) with i7 would function on a SINGLE 4gb RAM stick (I know it would be slow) until a 32gb kit could be obtained ? if so, would it matter which slot the RAM was installed in ?

 

It will be fine, I have installed win 10 on a really old pc with 4gb, either slot.

 

Thank you.

 

Okay, here's what is probably the end of the story for those of you might remember and with a lot of time on your hands.

I got the 512 GB XG3 installed and partially reconstitued with fresh installs (like a dope not checking more thoroughly first after all I've gone through send it to Dell Hell and then taking forever to get it back) of critical programs. I had to do this as the machine refused to boot from the Samsung 840 EVO with the original install on it no matter what I did.

Then feeling confident, I installed the new 2 TB data drive. The machine wouldn't boot giving me the old 'machine needs to be repared' BSOD. Hmmm. Disconnected the data drive and the machine booted fine. Hmmm. So, since it was open, I took out the XG3 and put my old old 256 GB PM951 in with the data drive. The machine wouldn't boot. So, again I disconnected the data drive and-----the machine wouldn't boot. Uh oh. So, I put the XG3 back in with the data drive disconnected-----and it wouldn't boot.

After running through my entire collection of profanity, I put the 256 GB PM961 back in that the machine came back from Dell Hell with (set to AHCI, go figure) and it booted. I connected the data drive and, halleluja, it booted. Insofar as the machine in needed some critical programs for us and has been down too long, for the meantime (with another year to run on the warranty) I'm going to have to stop here unless it goes south again. No good deed goes unpunished.

Surely, there is something more wrong with the machine, but for now I'm out of time and patience.

Thanks again for you guys who pitched in to help.

 

Well that all definitely sounds like what Arte Johnson from Laugh-in would say, "Very Interesting"

What about the 2 Service Tag Badge screws, did you get them and if so did they fit/work?

 

Did not. A guy from the place in the UK that I got the other screws from said he send me a couple of similar ones for free with my next order, so we'll see. I need a break so I'm not touching anything on either machine for a while.

Meanwhile, we've begun to think about the next new machine sometime in the future. No more XPS 15's for us unless something dramatic happens. Maybe we'll look at the high end Inspirons.

 

Hmmm somehow the fast startup option is no longer there. I can only see sleep and lock. But I remembered previously I did disabled fast startup but the restart problem still exist.

 

For the record: The reason the message about TB drivers being not up to date came up (although I later installed a newer version, 17.2.71.250, which Dell has withdrawn from their website again) is that the firmware installation process did not work as expected.

And the reason that happened is that I started the exe from a file manager with elevated rights. Doing this the FW installer can not unload the TB drivers, which seems necessary for the FW update.

So the right message would have been 'can not access driver' or something. 'Outdated TB driver' wasn't helpful.

And the final result: the Apple USB-C to TB2 adapter still doesn't work.

 

Those were the 2 Free screws I was talking about. I guess you didn't get them yet.

As far as your statement and the XPS 15's are concerned, I only differ with you because I guess I just don't do what the majority does and needs to do with their units and other then an erratic Broadcom DW1830 wireless card, which I replaced with an Intel AC8260 and solved the issue, my XPS 15 (9550), which is in fact a Certified Refurbish unit, has thankfully been Rock Solid & Flawless.

Yeah a wise old man once said to me, before you do anything important rest & think about it first and maybe a good break will do you good in your overall final decision.

Best of Luck!!!

 

Well, what's ironic is in both machines the Dell 1830 has been a beast. Consistent 877 Mbps and literally no dropped connections. Kind of galling considering the screen on one of them ( the one that went back to Dell Hell) has never been quite as sharp as the other and yet the other one has always had the bad spacebar.

My kid just scored an Asus gaming laptop off of Amazon that came with what is supposed to be a powerhouse Intel i7 8570-H six-core processor, 32 GB RAM, 4 GB Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti, an IPS 1920 X1080 HD screen, and a programmable keyboard all for just less than $1500. We'll see how he does with it and maybe we'll be looking at Dell in the rearview mirror on day soon.

 

Hey all. So just to make sure. How many different versions of the dell xps 15 9550 are there? For example i bought this laptop back in late 2016 or so on ebay. It was listed as new and its either new or refurbished but it was pretty much in perfect condition. When i recently needed to get a new battery for it and bought it on ebay, i bought the wrong battery because it was a different volt battery. Now this laptop the dell xps 15 9550 that i use, even when i got this laptop new, the battery was never more than 2 hours at the very max. It was more like 1.5 hours. Now this laptop is a quad core laptop, its 6300hq processor and has a 256gb ssd and 8gb ram. Now i was told that quad core laptops use a lot of battery. So does that mean most quad core laptops cannot get more than 2 hours max on battery when not plugged in? The other thing is what about the other dell xps 15 9550 where the battery is different than the one i have. Is the battery for that laptop more than my laptop because my laptop battery is basically a bit more than half the size of the other battery. My battery is 56Volts. But the other battery is 84Volts.

So does that mean a dell xps 15 9550 that uses the 84V battery going to have a longer battery than my 56V battery? Also what version of the dell xps 15 9550 uses a 84V battery as oppose to a 56V battery? I bought this laptop is in late 2016 so how many versions of this 9550 laptop are there? I also believe they have this laptop where the processor is not a quad core right? Thus not HQ? But thats rare? But if you get that, then the battery is much better?

Also to those of you who buy the dell xps 15 now, its only the xps 15 9560 that is available right? And do almost all you people buy it directly from dell? So whats the different between the 9560 vs the 9550? I know the 9560 is a quad core processor but what about the battery? Because is it even possible for a dell xps 15 9550 or 9560 to have at least 3 hours of battery minimum? What about the dell xps 13? Because i saw there are 2 versions of it. One is a nonquad core and the other is a quad core? The quad core is 9370? But hows the battery on those laptops compared to the dell xps 159550 and 9560?

 

Can you kindly do a search query within this thread, read the review by Notebookreview.com and read the remaining links below first and then ask your question(s) that weren’t answered.

Regards,

http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/dell-xps-15-2016-laptop-review/

http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/dell-xps-15-2016-laptop-review/

https://www.windowscentral.com/dell...5-9560-whats-different-and-should-you-upgrade

https://www.anandtech.com/show/10116/the-dell-xps-15-9550-review/7

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3swdit/feeling_a_little_cheated_by_dell_with_xps_15_9550/

Dell XPS 13
https://www.anandtech.com/show/8983/dell-xps-13-review/6

 

Hmm, anyone experiencing the laptop waking from sleep when the battery is low? It seems my 9550 likes to wake up from sleep when it's nearing 10% battery.


Probably is waking because of the CMOS battery?
Event viewer shows me:
Kernel-General (event-id 1)
Change Reason: System time synchronized with the hardware clock.

 

This is way off topic, but the new Win10 update fixed my issue with Wndows changing my default programs on every reboot. However, the upate assigned a drive letter to the 'Healthy OEM Partition' which is weird. I want to delete the whole partition, but I just want you guys' blessings.

 

That partition got invisible again after the next reboot, at least for me.

 

That usually happens when you disable hybrid sleep mode. The laptop wakes up to write the current memory content into the hibernation file. I never understood why people do that. Having the current state only in memory is destined for failure. With the additonal hibernation file there is no way to loose data.

 

I must confess I always disable hibernation (powercfg /h off):
* I never leave my laptop in sleep for long enough that it would drain the battery to 0 (weeks)
* It prevents the laptop from waking while in my laptop bag (if the laptop wakes to go to full hibernation and fails to do so, then it can very easily overheat in the laptop bag - has happened on more than one occasion).
* It frees up 16GB+ on ssd.

It may be no longer the case, but historically I seem to have had lots of issues during the transition from sleep->hibernation...

 

* A failing battery or failing battery contacts plus meachanical vibration and you lost your work.
* The laptop wil not wake up to write the hibernation file. In correctly configured Hybrid mode it does so the moment you put the notebook to sleep!
* True, but the added safety is worth it for me.

 

No, its still there as a separate logical disk and looking for trouble. I want to diskpart it away, but don't want to screw up the machine that is finally working right (except for the damaned spacebar).

 

Could you possibly put your problem/issue in layman's terms as I would really like to try and help and see if the links below are of any good or use?

https://www.howtogeek.com/192772/what-is-the-system-reserved-partition-and-can-you-delete-it/

https://www.pcworld.com/article/305...ions-how-to-find-them-how-to-remove-them.html

https://www.disk-partition.com/diskpart/assign-drive-letter-4125.html

https://social.technet.microsoft.co...ecovery-partition-after-upgrade-to-windows-10

 

All those articles are helpful, but don't directly address my situation. In simple terms, when I upgraded my 9550 to the latest Redstone 4 update, somehow the update assigned a drive letter, in this case 'E' to the old, left over 800 MB 'Healthy Recovery partition' on my 'C' drive. Ordinarily, I have ignored these left over small partitions, but in this case Win10 assigned a drive letter to it and now it shows up in Windows Explorer and other file managers as a separate disk which is a minor pain as it can cause confusion when trying to save or move files around not to mention installing new apps.

I don't necessarily care if the partition remains, but I want to get rid of the drive letter and I want be sure doing so won't mess something up.

 

OK I think I'm now understanding your issue & dilemma better so take a look at the link below as this individual seems to have had the same issue as you and make sure you open up the "load more comments" section as well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/7mdivm/during_an_update_windows_assigned_a_drive_letter/

 

Ok, I think this link is the confirmation I needed. (Your are one Googling Jedi Master). However, unlike what the one poster mentioned and others I have seen on other links, my Windows Disk Managemnt tool won't let me do anything to this partition which is what concerned me. So, I guess its time to make an image for safety and then get it done.

Thanks again and thanks to everyone else for letting me have my off topic shorcut.

 

http://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/e_drive_appears_after_the_windows_10_april_update.html

 

So, rather than wait, I went ahead and removed the drive letter and all was well----until I rebooted and and the drive letter came right back!

UPDATE:

I followed your link Gonz, which is pretty much the same thing, but taking a slightly different path. Instead of listing disks, your link says to list volumes and then on. I did it that way as well and removed the drive letter, but once again at bootup the letter came right back which concerns me that somehow the update might have inadvertantly linked the old recovery partition with another which is why Windows Disk Mangement won't touch it and the letter keeps coming back.

I suppose I'll just have to wait until one of the big tech colmunists gets wind of it and publishes something that might be useful.

 

Maybe try this as an alternative: http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-hide-the-recovery-partition-in-windows-108-17/

 

Part of the problem is that the steps in the guides in various links all suggest using Windows Disk Management saying to right click on the partition and remove the drive letter. On my machine (9550 is still kicking me around) when you right click on the partition the only option is 'Help' which takes you to website that has nothing to do with the issue.

In this latest link, the third party option, is something I've already considered. I downloaded EaseUS Partition Manager (Free) and in that program the offending parition is listed as 'Unused Partition' which suggests that the program believes that it can be safely deleted.

I'm going to think about it some more. The EaseUS program will clone the whole disk so maybe I'll do that first as the old standby, System Image backup, doesn't work after the update.

Thanks again you guys.

 

I know this sounds stupid and probably is yet, in File Explorer did you tick under View, Options, Change folder and search options, View, Don’t show hidden files, folders or drives and see if the lettered Recovery Partition drive disappears from view?

The link below also covers your exact scenario of only seeing the option Help when you right click your Recovery Partition which I hope helps you out.

http://www.technewborn.com/how-to-hide-a-recovery-partition-or-other-drive-in-windows/

 

I wish it was that easy, but no the problem shows up everywhere particulalry in Windows Disk Management. The various fixes you guys found links to work, I just don't like the fact that Win10 reassigns a drive letter to the partition on each bootup.

I think I'm going to wait and see if a bug fix comes in soon to resolve it.

UPDATE:

Okay, weird as it is, the damn thing healed itself. The errant 'E' drive letter on the old OEM Recovery Partition is gone.

It might just be a conincidence, but it disappeared right after I updated to BIOS 1.70.

Go figure.

Thanks again to all.

 

Bios 1.7.0 is up on the dell site for the XPS 9550

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=RYY62

 

The 1.70 BIOS update seems, miraculously, to have resolved my long endured balky spacebar.

 

That's GREAT and I'm happy for you.

As far as "Go Figure" Here's the Good & The Bad and what I can tell you. Last night before retiring for the evening I did the Bios update without any issues and upon the restart Windows wanted to do an update to version 1803 so I left the computer on and let it do it's thing.

This morning it was waiting for a restart which I did. The Brightness is now BLINDING BRIGHT and 0 is unbelievably now fine for me, the keyboard is SUPER responsive along with my external Logitech USB mouse and I unbelievably now have your GHOST E drive with constant warnings that it is low on Disk Space.

In all honesty, I really am not too concerned about the new emergence of the E Drive, as I definitely know that it all occurred with the aforementioned and I have no intentions on doing anything except to arrest the low Disk Space side reminder, which does get quite annoying and I know others are in the exact same scenario as well, e.g., https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...te-issue/e2f8687d-d097-44ae-b3d7-74ec4db1f679

 

You see these are the Things that just BLOW MY MIND!!!

GoNz0's gracious link on page 418 gratefully took care of the GHOST E Drive for me and the annoying low disk space reminder as well, as I just followed it's instructions to a T. I then rebooted once the drive was gone from view and upon reboot it was gone. Finally before posting this I just wanted to make sure that not only was just the drive no longer visible yet would I still get the low disk reminder and NO the drive is gone and the low disk reminder is thankfully gone as well.

This is why Things & Individuals are definitely individualized.

 

Maybe my machine is spastic because I tried three times to get rid of the drive letter following both ways in the links and it kept coming back. But after BIOS 1.70 it was gone. The fix to my spacebar issue where sometimes it wouldn't space is apparently real too after the update.

Damn, I think I'm going to keep the machine after all.

 

No your machine isn't spastic at all it's just things are individualized and what works for you may not work for others and vice versa.

I'm glad you feel happy to the point with your ongoing issues that you're now considering keeping it, as it really is a very good unit at least from my perspective, yet we have to understand that in time things can and probably will go wrong and surface.

 

Has anyone else experienced Thunderbolt issues after updating to 1803?
Or if you have 1803, could you try opening "Thunderbolt Software" and see if it throws .NET runtime exception.
Stuck on previous windows version for now, as I use the 9550 docked to an eGPU!

 

Worked for me, but I use a newer TB driver not available from Dell's site. Maybe that's why.

 

Interesting, using different drivers definitely changes the expected outcome. Where are you sourcing the driver from? A driver from intel for the NUCs?

 

I am also interested if there are any issues with egpu's + Windows 10 1803 update as I am using an Aorus Gaming Box 1080 with my 9550 connected to a 4K tv via HDMI (4K @ 60Hz). My TB firmware and drivers are the latest on Dell's site. I am only using Nvidia 388.71 drivers as 39x.xx caused me significant stuttering in games.

@Techland - are you using an egpu or a dock connected via TB3 ? Would also be interested in which TB driver you are using.

@VerilyMerrily - are you on BIOS 1.7.0 ?

 

I was not on 1.7.0 when I temporarily updated to 1803. I am on the updated BIOS now though.

 

I explained that in this post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...0-owners-lounge.783377/page-416#post-10719258

 

Does anyone have problems with their HDMI port after updating the thunderbolt firmware/driver? It was working but after trying to update the firmware the HDMI port is totally not working. Tried various known working HDMI cables but no change. Now when I tried to downgrade the firmware the software complains I need to update the TB driver even though I have installed the latest TB driver. Now I am stuck with a non working HDMI and I cannot downgrade my TB firmware. Apparently the same thing happen in XPS 15 9560 model too https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/7jf744/thunderbolt_firmware_update_destroys_hdmi_port_on/

 

I have a similar setup and its mostly working fine - but - If the machine goes to sleep with the eGpu plugged in, when it wakes up it tends to blue screen after a few minutes (I am about 85% certain its the eGpu) - I am on latest nVidia though..

 

There is both a new Intel driver and nVidia driver for W10 1803. And as usual they are not found on the Dell download page...maybe in three months...

https://www.heise.de/newsticker/mel...treiber-von-AMD-Intel-und-Nvidia-4038816.html

Download links at the bottom.

 

I have no problems with 24.20.100.6025 Intel HD Graphics on 9550 FHD (W10 Pro v.1709). But it has caused some problems below for @GoNz0 and @MikeBravo

I have been running the newest Intel 24.20.100.6025 driver for a few days on 9550 FHD and had no issues.

Recent Intel HD Graphics drivers seem to expand screen brightness settings (e.g. max is brighter and min is quite dim). Stable for me and no issues noted.

A few of the prior Intel HD Graphics drivers (downloaded directly from Intel site) were unstable (messing up fonts and crashing on ocassion; restart resolved issues for a while).

 

So, boys and girls, it just goes to show you that life has a nasty sense of humor.

I was just viewing this forum this morning and had downloaded the new Intel graphics driver from the link provided by Techland----when the machine suddnely went dead. All at once. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

After the trials and tribulatoins with the other machine going back to Dell Hell and the new Win10 update 1803 finally straightening out the few problems mine had----its dead.

Took it apart praying, changed the memory, changed the NVMe drive----but nothing.

But one last chuckle, booted up my old L502x with the touchy screen, got it update to 1803 and began to load some important stuff to keep me going and a prompt pops up telling me I had to activate windows.

WTF? Never a dull---or is that 'Dell' moment!

 

I had to sack off that driver, I have also reinstalled windows to rule anything out as I integrated it in my ISO that I then sacked off for a pure RS4 ISO.

Basically a random popup from windows will make the screen unresponsive, mouse works but nothing can be clicked until I reload the video driver by pressing "Ctrl + Shift + Win + B"

I put it back on this install yesterday then it happened again, I rolled back.

 

Yeah, looks like we all will have our share with 1803. I went back to 1709 from my backup after a reboot problem that caused 1803 to be heavily corrrupted. No way to repair it with the standard tools. 1709 works, so what...

 

It was the late comedian, actress & writer Gilda Radner that said, "It's always something"

Awhile ago I installed Intel's Driver & Support Assistant on my unit which since scans and updates what needs to be updated, as far as Intel components go, and it also thankfully throws out RED FLAG WARNINGS on possible drivers that were found yet wouldn't work with the system. I just stick to it and thankfully have had no problems.

Maybe the following link (See Below) could hopefully help or shed some light on what might of possibly happened after the attempted driver update.

Best of Luck!!!

https://laptopturn.com/dell-xps-15-9550-wont-turn-on-wont-power-on-no-display-black-screen-problems/