Dell XPS 15, 9550 - 'New System Guide'?

I just received my new 9550 machine, spec'ed with Core i7 6700HQ - Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - 16 GB RAM - 512 GB SSD (in Device manager it's called: PM951 NVMe Samsu) - 4K Display. I'm very excited about it, but I know how important it is to get it running perfect from the start before starting to fill it up with personal stuff and applications.

I haven't installed anything yet as I have been owning another dell XPS laptop (1645) and the machine had several issues with firmware/drivers.
I did read very good reviews about this new 9550 so I wanted to give it a chance.

Now to my question, I'm not sure how to start this machine the right way, many people talk about fresh win10 installs, removing recovering partitions, changing storage drivers and updating firmware etc. overall a bit confusing. Do we have some kind of guide/tutorial based on a general consensus regarding the optimal start fresh start for this PC, like the right order of things and general how-to?
I'm not a total newbie, but installing windows is something only done every few years so it always takes new learning to do it as technology advances. My own idea was to remove the dell bloatware, but which of the programs are actually bloat and which aren't... hmm I seem stuck.

Also I have been used to working with win 7, and haven't upgraded to win 10 as i'm fully satisfied with 7, and now looking at this win 10 PC seems a bit confusing too. I have looked at some skins that can make the win10 appear as win 7, is that a recommended thing to try (Classic Shell version 4.2.2)?

When the system is setup correctly I'll start adding backup images to my synology nas via acronis so i dont think i'll need this recovery partition.

I hope someone here will assist me a bit. Thank you

 

Could someone at least share some insights regarding the importance of a fresh W10 install as I really would like to get going but I would like to base the application on a good foundation Is a fresh W10 install needed?

 

Hi Nickdk.

I don't have any experience of installing a full O/S with the NVMe drives but hopefully someone will come on and do a step by step guide for you. There are some posts giving a rough idea of what to do on here but some offer differing outcomes and do it in a different manner. I have the i5 version of the 9550 with a normal SSD in the 2.5" bay and did 2 reinstalls of Windows 10 on it and it absolutely flies and I can give you a rough idea of what you need to get to prepare for a rebuild if that will help.

Go to Dell Support and download all the drivers for your machine after entering the tag code in so it knows what components you have installed. Check the dates on them and IMO get the latest version. Install the BIOS one on your machine before you do the clean install and reboot and test it a few times first.

Go to Windows website and search for Windows 10 media creation tool to make you a bootable USB memory stick containing the operating system.

It was a quite straightforward install for me in my setup and should be similar for yours. I'll upgrade to an NVMe drive when the prices drop in the future, but I'm currently ordering another wireless card for mine to install Windows 7 on the 9550 as the standard one isn't compatible.Win 7 is a far better OS in my opinion and not as invasive as 10 by sharing all your personal info with its apps and MS! If you do go with Windows 10 install - please make sure you download and run a tool like O&O softwares' "Shut Up 10" as by default it does a few scary things! Read up on Windows 10 Wifi Sense and make your own decision if you want to share your wireless network password with everyone of your contacts/FB friends etc

I hope this helps and someone with your type of setup comes along with a guide soon.

 

Hello Woodking,

Thank you so much for you valuable information. It will definetaly help me in the process. Very scary stuff you mention regarding W10 and the privacy issues!!
I have searched some guides and tutorials and there seems to be some conflicts as some says 'do NOT install any DELL drivers and so on" - And I have also read about people having issues after a clean install which also seems a bit counterproductive.
But thanks again and I'll try to see what I'll need to do

 

At least a clean install is described here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...er-m-2-nvme-ssd-upgrade.787420/#post-10194595


I personally own the 4k/i7/512 version and usually i'm a fan of clean installs. but in this case i read the intel rapidn store technology would be better for performance, and everything works well so far, i removed a lot of bloat stuff from dell, did a disk cleanup inclusive system files and so on. i updated all drivers and the bios first.
Now i am totally fine with the machine, just the fingerprints next to the keyboard are making me angry.
some minor things and general tips are here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ist-of-hardware-and-software-problems.784691/
(ok and biosboot time could be better)


So:
Bios: RAID, SATA ports disabled
Win: Intel Rapid Store
Works fine for me, unless i see some comparisons i'll use it like this.

 

@lalalulu75 Thanks again!

I read the guide you linked to and most makes sense. But not this particular step:
"9. Configure:

• System Configuration --> SATA Operation = AHCI"

isn't AHCI a slow alternative?

I just looked at the DELL website and they seems to recomment this order for installing things:
"Dell recommends that you install the drivers in this order: Application, Drivers, Firmware and BIOS. If drivers are installed out of order, they may fail on installation and/or your device might not work correctly."
Why wouldn't the BIOS/Firmware be the first to be updated? It seems confusing as it would be the foundation for the applications and hardware?

 

No trouble at all.

On my machine I did the BIOS first, checked all was ok then installed the SSD drive and installed the OS using a USB drive to it. I beleive the BIOS should be updated as that may have solved a few problems some others had been having with Windows not seeing the boot device.

I used all the latest drivers from the DELL site and installed the Chipset ones first, Sata Controller - Video - Audio - Network/Comms - Thunderbolt in that order. After that I let Windows do its updates only without any drivers as I'had install older drivers for some reason! Then locked it down with O&O SU10.

I'm on UEFI - Secure Boot mode with the UEFI network stack turned off, minimal boot and Sata 0 &1 enabled & the M.2 disabled as its currently empty. (But don't do the same as me as you have the M.2 port occupied!)

To date I've not had a single issue at all, the machine is very responsive to use day to day and has a 7.2 second BIOS boot time which seems good for the i5 model.

This may not be the same way others do their installs and that's ok, we all do things differently but this worked ok and I'm pleased with it so far. Next thing will be a Win 7 install on another SSD drive - I'll remove the one thats in it just in case I can't get it to work and need to swap it back for any reason quickly. I may have trouble activating 7 on this machine so we'll see - I perhaps think it'll be an issue using the key I have from 7 Pro and the 9550 having a Window 10 key. Yikes!

 

For instance, updating the Thunderbolt firmware from Windows actually requires the correct TB controller driver version first, as Dell's guidance on for the latest TB firmware indicates (at the top of the page).

If you're a little uncertain of what you're doing, just follow Dell's instructions and don't waste time second-guessing their engineers. Or use the Dell Command | Update tool.

Otherwise for a clean install of WIndows 10 all you really need are the Intel RST and wireless drivers, Windows Update will pull down everything else (to match the Signature edition config).

 

Fresh install is the preferred option.

Here's a quick rundown.
1. Windows 10 - download the MediaCreationTool.exel to download the .iso
2.Create a USB Windows 10 UEFI installer. You can do this with the help of Rufus
3. Intel RST RAID driver - Download, extract and copy/paste on your USB Windows 10 installer (root folder for easy access)
4. Download all the drivers needed from Dell support page.
5. Samsung NVMe driver
6. O&O ShutUp10 If you are concerned with the privacy invasion by this latest Windows

Drivers install order

 

Woodking:
Great info thank you so much! there's a lot of good things to learn for me.

ghtop:
Thank you for the info, and yes i'm not trying to play smarter than the dell guys

Lousy:
Thank you very much!
I read the drivers install order link you mentioned and it seems like people are having BSOD errors, is that common for this procedure? It scares me a bit.

Also can people confirm that it's fine to merge all partitions a the dell recovery isn't needed? Also this bios seems to have some receovery too, never had a PC with that options before, is this something that should also be disabled/deleted?

Thanks again

 

YW. That's the install order I did on my system and never had any BSOD. Samsung NVMe driver fixes the BSOD issue.

You can safely delete all the partitions (merge) on your SSD including the Dell recovery IF you have no plans on using the Dell recovery later.

BIOS - no need to tinker much. Just leave it at default as much as possible.

**** Avoid pressing F8 key while BIOS is loading. Seen few reports of blank screen by doing this ****

 

perfect thank you LOUSYGREATWALLGM!

 

@Nickdk

you're doing a fresh install, without all the Dell bloatware, so you don't want the Dell recovery anyway. so yes, re-do your partitions how you want.

one thing i think is worth noting: based on what i've read in these forums, the 9550 has a very idiosyncratic working combination of drivers and hardware. by that i mean: a clean install using the same drivers, same bios, etc. might produce great performance on one 9550, and yet BSOD and "drive not found" errors on others.

FWIW:
- i used RUFUS, and created a UEFI bootable install USB
- AHCI instead of RAID
- ran O&O immediately after Windows install
- followed by all the latest drivers* and firmware from Dell, except IntelRST and nvidia (downloaded direct from Intel and nvidia), and installed them according to Dell's suggested order

- my first clean install, i used the Samsung NVMe driver. caused BSODs and "drive not found" errors. for me using IntelRST fixed that.

- after that, apps and everything worked great for a few weeks, until i updated to BIOS 1.1.19. the new BIOS fixed the restart bug, but gave me two BSODs in a 24hr period. so i rolled back to 1.1.15, and once again, total rock-solid stability. but for some ppl 1.1.19 works great, no problem. so go figure.

* note that i'm based in Canada, and for some reason, it appears we have a lot less Dell bloat than our US counterparts. there are official Dell apps we don't get on the Canadian site.

 

Glad to be of help. Would love to know how it turns out.

fyi: I suggest to install your Windows 10 on RAID mode then switch to AHCI later. You can't do the other way around if you install your OS on AHCI mode.

 

AM Radio:
Thank you for the additional info

@LOUSYGREATWALLGM!:
I'm actually trying working on this right now, and I'm already stuck at the Win10 install beginning. I have loaded the RST driver, and at this point i'm shown the partitions needed for the win10 install. I have tried to formar the primary partition but that process didn't seem to start as I'm used to. i'm sitting here with a magnifying glass to see what's written, but in the end I received an error code: Error 0x80070003 and a msg that the installation failed. I'm currently trying to understand why but haven't been able to find usefull info regarding this error. Most references are from within Windows after loading the OS. hmm i created the UEFI usb image via Rufus.

It's still set to RAID mode as far as i know.

Also the partitions confuse me a bit, it's pretty clear by now that W10 tries to create some extra partitions, but I can't see the Dell recovery partition, so the 512GB disk is showing as a ~477GB disk when I combine all partitions showed. I assume it's because the Dell recovery partition is hidden?

 

Did you create the installer as GPT?

 

yes I did choose GPT, the isntaller does start, but ends at ~35% or so with this message:

 

And here are my rufus settings:

 

Why don't you use the windows media creation tool:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

There is a download tool now button, I've never had an issue with it.

Here is a link to the tool:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209

 

Did you delete all the previous partitions on your SSD and created using your Windows installer?

 

custom90gt: I got the impression that the tool doesn't work with GPT?

LOUSYGREATWALLGM: I think so yes, but i must admit I got confused and sat trying to keep removing the partitions, and then realised that W10 install created those. As my logic told me to try and merge them as I thought they were from the Dell recovery system :S

 

You might want to give another try and make sure you have deleted all the partitions. You can easily miss it as the window is too small and doesn't show all the existing partitions at once.

 

I tried again to delete as much as possible, a small 500mb partition couldn't be removed though. And now the install stopped at 1% with the same error.

 

Now that you mentioned that.. you won't be able to delete that unless you delete your Dell Recovery partition

That might explain your error

 

but is there a way to delete the recovery with no OS installed?

 

You can delete the Dell Recovery partition (or any other partition on your SSD) within Windows installer.

How are you trying to delete your partitions?

 

Yes I manged to delete them all now. Seems like a fragile system, I'll update in a bit.
This time it went to 80% and the same error appeared.

When all partitions are deleted it shows the single Drive 1 as unallocated space: 476.9GB - So 24GB seems to be missing as a normal 512Gb disk would appear as close to 500 right?

(update: I just tried the exact same thing again and this time it stopped and returned the same error at 1%, seems very strange?)

 

Did you delete all the partitions including the system partitions (should see only 1 drive) and created new partition before Windows install?

 

I didn't create new partitions, I'll try that.

Update: that didn't fix the error.

 

We need to try eliminate the possible cause of the issue. You chose the Custom (not Upgrade) when installing the Windows, right?

Strange you're still getting the error.

EDIT: Did you change any setting on your BIOS? Legacy/UEFI mode on/off

 

Another vote for this. I had no problems installing Win10 with this tool and it worked in UEFI or Lecagy mode

 

Yes did choose Custom, and the only BIOS related change was the:

Secure Boot = Disabled
Auto OS Recovery Threshold = OFF

I just tried to create the USB image with the MS Media Creation Tool, and the install failed with the same errorcode at 1%

I updated the bios to '01.01.19' before starting this journey into the unknown.

 

Maybe give this excellent guide a try @Nickdk, it may help you with the steps

 

Try with secure boot ON

 

It helped! Now the installation seems to have made it past that failed step! - I'll keep you updated in a bit

 

Happy sailing

 

So far so good W10 is installed and now I'm trying to get my focus back to the steps listed, i have a few questions:
1: switching from RAID to AHCI - Why are we doing this exactly?
2: Is it a problem to let windows install the drivers it can find instead of installing them 1 by 1 from Dell?
3: while enabling secure boot in the BIOS, I became unsure about the 'Enable UEFI Network Stack' found under Advanced boot Options. Should it be on or off?

Thanks!

 

wow, just saw this post, an extreme guide to tweaking the system, i must admit that there are a lot of good stuff in there, but also a bit overwhelming. I think it's hard to understand what are the really essential parts and personal preferences.

I would like the system to feel more as win 7, but is it recommended to install (Classic Shell version 4.2.2)?

 

AHCI = better performance.
You need to manually install those Dell drivers else be prepared to face another issue.

 

Just do like me, go back to Win 7 for now and wait for all these issues to be fixed! I need my machine to work when I need it and although its not as fast as those with NVME drives, it doesn't feel any slower in real life and I can rely on it to boot without any issue and not BSOD when using it - (so far!).

 

Yes the tool works with GPT. Ever since windows 8 it defaults to UEFI/GPT

 

That's correct.

Just install the Samsung NVMe driver and forget about BSOD

 

My main priority is stability over speed, would the system be anymore stable keeping it set to RAID? As Woodking wrote, maybe Win7 is a good option, but it's not possible with my specs right?

 

What I'm trying to say is stop worrying about it and just finish the installation with the Samsung NVMe driver and see if you get any BSOD.

I'm not saying Woodking is one but I have seen several people complaining about the BSOD but didn't install the Samsung NVMe driver or installed their system the different way. Go figure

 

this guide jsut made me a bit hesitant as it's a bit confusing to me

Samsung NVMe driver (after switching from RAID to AHCI)
safe boot on (msconfig)
reboot (enter bios setup to change from raid to ahci)
safe boot
safe boot off (msconfig)
reboot
ahci mode
Install Samsung NVMe driver
done!

From reading the above, it seems like nothing is done within the Windows safeboot environment, I might be reading it wrong?

and is this step important before installing dell drivers? I'm getting them ready now.

 

That should be the last driver you install.

Winddows 10
Dell drivers

Switch to AHCI mode then install Samsung NVMe

 

So far so good All drivers are installed and AHCI too, on to applications now, thank you so much

 

Good work chaps.

Dont forget to run O&O Shut up 10 - its important you do

 

Glad to see another happy camper with this beautiful machine

 

Ok a small problem :S
I'm now copying some files to the machine from an USB stick and I'm experiencing some weird behavior. When the transfer start it varies from 5-100MB+ and it seems quite fast and it looks like it accelerates, then all of a sudden after eg. 20 secs the speed decreases down to 0 and it hangs for a bit, then there's an error saying it can't find the file that it was copying. And then the USB stick drive letter isn't visible until i remove it and add it again, then I can start over and it will then copy a bit more. Really strange. This is a USB stick that I have used a lot with no issues in the past. Hmm does anyone know what's going on?

Also it seems like it's dropping the wireless connection too as the Dropbox app keeps stopping/starting the sync, don't know if that's related.