Dell XPS 9550 Problems - Suggestions

Hi guys,

Firstly, WOW! I really wish I came across this thread / forum before buying this damn machine. I purchased it 2 days ago and can still take back to shop within the next 5 days - here are my problems, machine is a 2016 4K version - i7 (6700HQ), 512SSD, 16GB

1. Stuttering on YouTube - anything full screen viewing causes screen to stutter / jump - viewing is not smooth above 1080p full screen.
2. Machine is very slow to get out of sleep mode - screen goes blank a couple of times need to run mouse over various sections of screen for screen to "wake up" that section or show the text in that area.
3. Website tabs are "invisible" at times - again need to run cursor over them to get them to show up.
4. Crashes when u plug devices into usb - i plugged my mouse into usb it crashes - plug my cooling board into usb it crashes and hangs.
5. Cursor does not move smoothly - at times u need to move mouse a greater distance to get cursor to move - this is also an intermittent issue - like cursor or mouse is "stuck" - mouse works fine with my other laptop.
6. Screen flickers a lot - maybe 2 times an hour - like the screen is about to fail.
7. Device manager screen is blurry. Ok so viewing a screen (like a folder) is fine - but when i go to device manager the box is not "rendered" as clear as other windows screen - its just blurry...very weird.

I have applied every single update available from the dell website and all drivers are up to date - still no fix. Very tempted to just throw in the towel and take it back - definitely not what i expect from a "high end" machine.

Any thoughts? - its almost as if it is severely memory starved (or CPU??) or GPU is dying.

 

If you read the reviews on various different sites / forums, you will see the issues you are having aren't that uncommon. It's a sad thing, I was once considering this one as I believe the 15" was the perfect size, but instead went with the XPS 13.

I will say this, the trackpad issue is one that is rampant on a number of Dells which many have resolved the issue by calling Dell and having them send a replacement (it is quite easy to replace). I'm a mouse user myself so the trackpad doesn't get much use. For #7 it could be a scaling issue in which you may have to mess with the DPI settings and adjust accordingly (somewhere below 200%). Windows isn't fully functional with 4K just yet, sadly.

If you want to check if it's being "memory starved" (aka memory leak), you can check Task Manager and see if any process is being a memory hog. Have you done the BIOS update yet?

 

yup did a bios update to the latest from dells website. The xps15 just feels very glitchy.

Is your xps 13 a bit more stable? is it the newer one with the Iris 540 graphics card? I've only read majority good reviews about that system so far...

 

Yes, I absolutely enjoy my XPS 13.

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SPECS: i7, QHD, 16 GB, 1 TB SSD, with the Intel Iris 540 integrated graphics

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PROS

Battery Life
I have been getting around 6-7 hours of batter life, doing light web browsing / word with the brightness down to around 50%, when reading around seems about average.

Temperatures
I seem to be having average temperatures. Using HWMonitor I am getting 25 °C. I did not have to do a thermal repaste on the chip but it very well may differ from laptop to laptop.

Graphics
The built-in Intel Iris 540 Graphics to give some comparison is a bit better than a GeForce 920M dedicated graphics card. Don't expect to be getting a lot of FPS for gaming. I put this as a pro because other than gaming this is a great graphics card to have (especially over the 520).

CONS

Coil Whine
It came out of the box like almost all others with Coil Whine - I blame that on the engineers. If the laptop is not on power and less than 90% charged, you do not hear the coil whine so ultimately I decided that this wasn't enough for me to send back the laptop. I tried just about every fix that was posted online, from messing with the BIOS power management settings to disabling c-state.

4K
I'd hate to say that this is a con, but only because the scaling isn't yet complete in Windows at the moment. You may need to scale down the DPI settings below 200% (as mentioned in previous post).

Soldered RAM
I want to say this is in the middle of a Pro and Con. The RAM is soldered to the motherboard meaning there is no upgrade path - make sure you chose the amount that you want. You may get lucky in the future if you wanted more RAM by calling Dell and asking if they'd unsolder the ram and upgrade for you if you shipped them the PC, but is it really worth it (for potential damage)?

CONCLUSION

I think it's well worth the money spent on this laptop even with the cons listed (which don't outweigh the pros). I did my research on this, reading various reviews from multiple sites as well as watching videos (single reviews, comparisons to other laptops) so I am in no way bias on my opinions. I specifically chose this model as I wanted something that would last at least 5 years minimum.

 

My XPS is rock stable, 1st thing I did was a full reinstall using the ISO in my sig and I have not looked back.

 

@gonzo - what you mean by this? You mean full reinstall of Windows? I didn't get a windows CD with my purchase so wondering how I would do a clean install of Windows? Also...how many hours are you getting from your xps 15 after the reinstall?

 

He means downloading the ISO onto a bootable USB stick and using that to reinstall windows.

 

Ahk thanks for clarifying.

Still keen to hear what sort of battery times he gets after the reinstall - I'm a bit worried it will void my warranty or ability to return to computer shops i bought it from.

**Update

There is something seriously wrong with this system unlike any other machine I have used...for example

1. Icons on desktop randomly fail to appear properly. For example I play CS, so I have CS on my desktop with the CS logo. Sometimes i log in and the icon is there but the CS logo is missing - ie the icon is just a BLANK WHITE Folder style icon. I double click it and the game doesn't boot either..is that a missing link problem? bad path? I got no idea why such intermittent problems exist on this machine!!

2. it also "forgets" the display settings I like and reverts to its preset settings every time even when i choose to "APPLY CHANGES" - its pretty much hardwired with its own mind..lol.

I have 24hrs to figure out whether I keep or return this machine - any advice would be appreciated.

 

I am on mains all the time so no idea about battery life.

 

9550 i7/256GB+500GB/1080P
I recently got a heavy crash. I wasn't doing anything special. Just browsing and YouTube when all of a sudden the speakers made a horrible noise that sounded like static. The noise wouldn't stop and the damn machine just froze with the speakers sounding away with the noise. I had to manually shut down. Has this happened to anyone? I recently switched from RAID to AHCI in safe mode to avoid the terrible "Watchdog violation." I don't know what to do anymore with this thing. Also, this thing gets warm on the left upper side more than it does than the right side. Has this been talked about before? Especially when I game "Heroes of the storm." Nothing heavy again. Even when I have the AC plugged in to charge I can notice almost immediately a jump on temperature on the upper left side. I did a repaste on the CPU and GPU. I might have to check my pasting application work but damn. This POS came with too many cons for me. I might try to sell it on craigslist and just get something smaller with better battery life, lighter, and a more pleasant typing experience (Ultrabook). Anyone else regret getting this thing?

 

Install the SSD driver for your SSD is a 1st thing to try.

 

So I went to Device Manager and checked. Says I have the latest driver for my Crucial SSD. Edit: I went directly online to crucial. Am downloading firmware updates now.

 

Update: I downloaded this Crucial Utility called "Storage Executive." I downloaded a firmware update for my Crucial MX200. I also see this for the PM951 256GB:
I went to Samsung Official page but can't find the "Official Vendor NVME Driver." I think you Gonzo has posted a link before?

UPDATE: I found out that Microsoft is the Vendor Provider or at least the one I have installed now. (heheheh) Silly me.

Performance and Optimization
Disable 8.3 Filename Creation

Supporting legacy MS-DOS file-naming conventions will reduce performance of an NTFS volume. Unless absolutely necessary, 8.3 filename creation should be disabled.
» Get More Information
Default NVMe Driver In Use

You are currently using the default NVMe driver for this device. For optimal performance and full software feature support, you should install the official vendor NVMe driver.

 

Ok so you have a toshiba and a Samsung drive. Guess you're screwed using the microsoft NVMe driver as the SSD driver replaces that.

 

So, when I decide it is time to replace the HDD with a second 2.5" SSD, I should either pick another Samsung, or any SATA SSD?

 

I'm so lost and confused now. I have a crucial drive from crucial.com. that's a Toshiba? That's the 2.5"SATA and the Samsung being the M.2. is this what you mean? So no fix for me is what you mean by I am screwed? I have to get Samsung SSD for both the m.2 and the 2.5"?

 

Sorry should have said samsung and crucial. I was busy yesterday so I didn't fully understand it, whatever drive is NVMe needs the driver installing in place of the microsoft storage controller.

 

I know you posted links or a link to driver downloads I need or that should help me. I've been trying to hunt for them on the forum. will keep looking and download one. Do you have that link handy?

 

Toshiba
Samsung drivers (all of them as 2.1 may cause freezing/stuttering)

Added a link in my sig to a site that is kept up to date with AHCI/RAID and NVMe Drivers.

 

I am trying to download the files but it says "no express NVME device connected." One of the files on the Samsung link you shared is a PDF? I am still so lost and confused. I also went to the other thread "Recommended AHCI/RAID" and it takes me to Mega and I download PDF files.

 

I just looked and it is definatly 3 exe files for the Samsung (1 in each zip), try right clicking and open with?
I use winrar but 7zip will work as well. I didn't zip them, they are from Samsung's download site.

If it says no NVMe connected then you may be in RAID mode?

 

Check it out. I am going to BIOS now to check my configuration but I am pretty sure I had switched to AHCI *followed your steps. I went into safe mode and all.

UPDATE: I Went into BIOS and it shows that I am clearly on AHCI

 

Does this matter? My BIOS configuration?

UPDATE: I think since OS was installed under RAID mode (from factory) I am getting this error message. Some people are saying I have to install OS under ACHI then I should be able to install NVME drivers, but who knows. I simply switched from RAID to ACHI under safe mode. I did not reinstall windows completely from scratch. FML.

 

Try the pure file,
https://mega.nz/#!8EUEBKYZ!yTpR2llvuNBi7ln8cWfFC1N4dn19TLdLatbBVN_f9NI

Extract to a folder and update the microsoft nvme driver the manual way via device manager > have driver and navigate to the inf.

 

I dide. It give me this. I am done. I am just going to let it be. Don't know what else to do.

 

Doh, can you do a screenie of the device manager with the disk drives and storage controllers open, highlight the file you're trying to update.

 

Yo, Yo. I just installed something. I was trying to install under the Disk drive tab of Device Manager. I was able to install the Samsung drive but under the "Storage controllers" tab to replace the "default NVME" driver there. Is this what I was doing wrong the entire time? ? ? Here are some screen shots for reference. Should I update the driver now? Or leave it as is if I don't have any problems with the version I have.

 

So this is what I have now! Seems legit. Thanks. I ran some crystal Disk mark and it looks impressive compared to stock Storage controller and maybe after switching from RAID to ACHI. Who knows. The Crucial utility I used earlier also shows this now:

UPDATE: When I try to update from within the Device Manager (Automatically search online) It reverts back to the standard NVME storage controller. I won't touch it and just leave the Samsung Controller alone.

 

Yes it was the storage controller.

 

Hahahahahahaha, dude. How come no one said this before? I kid you not. I am still noob. I did look at the threads and forums and didn't see anything. I missed it if it was there. Thanks again for everything. I'm getting about 6.3 seconds boot time from cold boot but restart times are longer.

 

I did, last page http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...blems-suggestions.790321/page-2#post-10450939
Blind bastard

Restarts take longer as it doesn't do the fast boot, fast boots for shutdown & power on but the shutdown will be longer while it dumps it all to the hibernation file. Kinda a trade off, shutdown takes longer but the cold start is faster, a restart is a quick shutdown and a full boot.
Something like that anyway.

 

No, I mean specifically where to install. It doesn't say. I would have not figured it out if it weren't because I was playing around which can be dangerous. I could have destroyed my machine. No seriously, there are no specific guidelines. Everyone says just install, just do it, but I didn't see instructions. As in, go to "Storage controllers" and install file there...etc. Like I said, maybe I missed it.

 

I did say in place of the microsoft storage controller m8