Dell XPS 9560 Clean install guide + custom ISO download.

Thanks for replying!
Yes that's exactly where my problem lies, BSODs with no dump. The dumping process always stuck at 0%.
The factory guys has replaced hard drive/mother board on the first repair, and memory on the second repair. Did not seem to work lol. I told them long ago just to give me a replace which they just wouldn't do so.
I've been screwed with this system for nearly two months now. Just decided to see a university lawyer if DELL can't get things right within this week.

 

It

it's to do with windows, it isn't just Dell with the issue.

 

I'd rather say this issue is random?
Cause when I receive the first 9550 system, it was fine but had defective audio hardware. I've purchased another win 10 machine for temporary use and that works fine, too.
Kind of regret that I had the first 9550 replaced instead of repaired, if the audio is repaired, it should be a perfect system.

 

Thank you for this! I followed all the steps & everything works great. I just have a quick question about partition. I was going to make a partition to separate my OS & my applications, etc. I noticed that I have "Healthy (recovery partition)" and a "Healthy (EFI System Partition)" plus my C drive. I tried to delete the recovery partition and the EFI system partition using cmd but I'm getting a "Virtual Disk Service error: Delete is not allowed on the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume." Any suggestions?

 

Leave them alone or you risk windows not booting, they only take 450mb & are part of the EFI setup. Even if you make a partition taking the entire drive windows setup will shrink it and add them in!
Adding partitions are a waste of time with an SSD and will only cause wear leveling issues so best avoided.

 

Ah ok! I wasn't sure if it was part of the EFI setup.. Its my first time doing this whole thing lol but thank you!

 

What exactly do you mean with this?
The SSD controller which is doing wear leveling, ... does not know and care of partitions.
It is always using the whole available Flash memory.

 

I stand corrected

 

I used this system once on my XPS a couple of weeks ago. I am now trying to do a fresh install on my sons new XPS 15. However I cannot get the boot menu to see the usb drive. I haven't changed anything on the computer except to switch to AHCI. Lecagy is off and Secure boot is on. Other than that all I have done is to do a complete backup.

Any ideas why it wont see the usb drive? It is a Sandisk if that matters.

 

i am having the same issue, I have a Sandisk 3.0 mini 16GB stick.

 

Mine will boot fine with the same USB stick when booting to Reflect or Paragon Disk Manager. Also it booted fine on my first XPS, just not this one.

 

1, check you did the Rufus install correct, it must be Fat32 or Fat32 (LARGE)
2, check you read the guide and do what I say, Legacy mode off secure boot on do not deviate from the path or it won't find it.

If you follow my guide step by step I also added in if it still does not see the USB media (in either port) then reset the BIOS to defaults as 1 out of 4 of my laptops needed this doing. the latest needed this so it must be a glitch in the latest BIOS image they install.

After a BIOS default check the sata mode is AHCI or RAID, I prefer AHCI others prefer RAID but it will not stop the install

Let me know.

 

hi there, i run into a problem when installing your en-GB iso. i change locale to en-US but the search is still wonky, which is a known issue with en-GB. can you make another iso from a en-US win 10? I will paypal or bitcoin send you $10 if you do. I will even send b4 you do it. please

 

I made sure of all you specified here:
Secure Boot ON
Legacy Boot OFF
Set to AHCI
Reset to defaults

In Rufus:
Fat32
GPT for UEFI

When I redid it with MBR for UEFI I was able to boot to it.

 

Maybe try another USB stick as it may be that it doesn't like?
Otherwise I don't know.

 

Sorry I have no plans to do another ISO due to the time involved until they release a new retail branch ISO.
Considering I charge mates rates of £50 per hour I will decline your offer

It's easy enough to do it yourself if you need one that bad.

 

I got a new Dell XPS 15 512 GB UHD yesterday. Now I am wondering if a clean install is really required or not.
Are there tangible benefits of a clean install?
E.g. better battery life, better performance, more available space? Would it not be enough to just install the Dell bloatware?

 

The stock Dell install seems to have some "stuff" that causes problems that we have fied by a reinstall. so it is up to you after reading through the thread if you want to reinstall or not.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.
Which problems did the reinstall fix exactly? I read the main reasons that you provided in the first post. Could not find the exact issues that it addresses though. If I know which problems it would fix, I would definitely go for a clean install.

 

The short answer is no, I have always ditched the manufacturers images on all my kit as they tend to build on top of older images rather than strt fresh, they also include lots of drivers you don't need so that takes up space, even the little things like removing old Raid drivers so windows has one choice during install. You can then go into it replacing stock drivers once you are online so I added what I could.

I am no expert, I just uploaded my personal image as it at least had the bootable intel drivers unlike the one Dell offered, people scratched heads until they found out you had to put drivers on a USB stick just to see the NVMe SSD.

As I say in the opening post, I am just trying to help those that need to reinstall with minimal fuss and bloat.

 

Hi gonzo,

I just purchased the xps 15 9550 (i5 1tb + 32gb ssd) and have decided to replace the 32gb ssd with a 500gb samsung 850 evo m.2 ssd.

Seeing that your personalised ISO is of the English UK version, I have decided to create one of my own using the English US version (using NTLite as mentioned).

As I'm pretty much new to all of these, I do have some questions that I hope you can answer..

So basically, in the Dell XPS 15 9550 drivers download page, there are a LOT of drivers. Your list is extremely helpful in finding what I assume are the essential drivers. So just to make sure, I just have to integrate only the drivers mentioned in the list?

Also, I notice that some drivers are not integrated but just extracted and left in unzipped folders. May I ask why is that so? Please forgive me if this question is too silly to answer (or if I missed out on the answer somewhere).

Another thing, I notice that some drivers seems really similar. Say for example...what's the difference between "Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 Driver" and "Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 8260 WiFi Driver"?? Both happen to be located under "Modem/Communications". There's also a "Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 8260 WiFi Driver" located under "Network", which I assume is the only driver I need to download ("AC8260 WiFi" as per your list), seeing that it's the more recently updated version. Another example would be that for Bluetooth, there's a "Dell Wireless 1830 Bluetooth Application" and a "Intel PROSet/Wireless Bluetooth LEGUI Driver" available. Do I need to get the latter too? Or is it only after having the laptop up and running after installing the personalised ISO with the listed drivers, that I use Dell Command Update to get the rest of the drivers (if there are any)? Or is the latter, along with other drivers not mentioned in your list, simply considered as a completely unnecessary driver? Sorry for my cluelessness!

Which leads to my final question: in the future, assuming that my laptop is running well, do I have to update my drivers?? Seeing that the drivers you mentioned are older but more stable...

Anyway, assuming that you do read this entire wall of text, I am already very grateful, and would really appreciate it if you could answer my enquiries!

 

The drivers you see in folders will not install via nlite as they have no .inf file, but windows update has always installed them anyway so I put them on for the times WU fails or the person has no internet. I mentioned I was now using the latest nvidia drivers will no ill effects so you can use the latest Intel & Nvidia GPU drivers.

Please upload it when done as people want the US english as well.

As for duplicates, work out the latest version by original release date and file naming. Dell are crap with re releasing drivers. If you do it by your service tag it should slim things down but I included both types of wifi card as I was releasing it here.

 

Thanks! All these info were really helpful. Once my laptop arrives I'll test out my (incoming) iso, then if it works, I should be able to upload it for use. It'll take quite a few weeks for the laptop to even arrive, so for anyone interested, this will mostly likely take quite a while haha.

 

I used this guide http://www.win-raid.com/t750f25-Guide-Integration-of-drivers-into-a-Win-image.html
also add the latest intel 14 series to the drivers and the boot image.

You are also best to convert the install.wim to install.esd to compress it enough to get back under 4gb for a fat32 bootable drive like I did, the official ISO via the download tool comes with install.esd, ntlite will convert this to install.wim and go over 4gb to allow editing/integration, when you are finished just right click install.wim in ntlite and convert it (technet downloads are .wim format normally so you can work on them straight way without a forced conversion )

If it sounds double dutch now it wont in a few days, I did gain extra grey hairs the 1st time round!

 

oh, 1830 bluetooth is for the 1830 card, the PROsets for the intel card, both get pulled down from WU iirc.

 

ok, so if I understand correctly, only the 1830 bluetooth driver is enough to enable bluetooth? and it's to be in the unzipped driver folder (i.e. not integrated into iso)?

another quick 2 questions:

1) for intel raid drivers, I saw in your older post from another thread, you previously linked to this post: ( http://www.win-raid.com/t2f23-Intel-RST-RSTe-Drivers-newest-v-WHQL-v-WHQL.html) to download the "v14.8.1.1043". Is it safe to get the newest version "v14.8.7.1051" instead?

2) in the dell driver download page, the "Dell XPS 15 9550 A06 System BIOS" driver is labeled urgent, but I don't see it mentioned in your list of drivers. Is it necessary to get this driver?

Thanks in advance!

 

0, Bluetooths an exe file so you cannot pre install it, windows will pull this down, I just added it to the folder in case anyone couldn't get it via WU. The main wifi install covers BT.

1, Always the latest intel RAID drivers.

2, BIOS is not a driver it is BIOS, a firmware update that is separate from windows, you should google the difference.

 

I'm doing this on an XPS 15 9550 and not having any luck. I know I have prepared the USB drive correctly, because it works on my other computer. Anyway, I plugged in the Samsung 950 Pro, stuck the USB drive in...and my computer doesn't recognize the 950 Pro. Do I need to install a driver after installing the new SSD and before using your ISO? I tested the 950 Pro in my other computer, which recognizes it, so I don't think I have a faulty drive.

 

The ISO has the driver, try resetting the BIOS as that normally sorts it.

 

I tried resetting the BIOS several times, even tried updating the BIOS to the newest release...still no luck.

 

very odd, try putting these drivers in a folder on the USB stick https://mega.nz/#!wMk3RAID!w54ywW6g-XLeuJcJeAVnK6epNzXy6S2ya_14LIyoe6M

when it gets to the drives page in setup click the add drivers option (or whatever its called) and point to the folder, it will see an inf, click it and see if that does it.

 

Thanks man, I'll try that and get back to you. If I can get this working I would like to send you $50 as a "thank you", I know it's not necessary...but I'm not a taker.

 

Still no luck. I'm downloading a fresh copy of your ISO and will remount it using rufus, just to rule out the possibility that I may have messed up somehow. If it still doesn't work, I'll try a clean copy of Windows and manually install the SSD driver...if that doesn't work, I'll be at a loss. Maybe my 950 is corrupt? My other computer recognized the drive, though I didn't try to load anything on it.

 

Gonzo, it's working....flawlessly. I noticed something in Rufus when I was creating the bootable drive for the second time; after I set it to Fat32 the Partition Scheme automatically changed fromGPT to MBR, I think it may have done that the first time as well and I just didn't notice it...so...USER ERROR!!

Thanks a bunch for creating this ISO!! If you can give me your PayPal address, I would like to send you some money. It's awesome that you put this out here for everyone, but you clearly invested a bit of time into this and I feel that something beyond a simple "Thank You" is in order.

Cheers!

 

Secure boot would have been ignoring the wrong format then!

You're not the 1st to be caught out by Rufus, even the "fix" to work around the 4gb fat32 & secure boot trick Rufus applies doesn't work on this laptop.
Glad it is sorted fella. Will PM my paypal if you feel that way, I will put it in the GTX1080 pot!

 

Like you said on page 1, if it doesn't work, it's my fault LOL Thanks again, just sent you something for the GPU pot.

 

That is a very generous thank you, in fact this tops any I have had over the years unrelated to work
Glad you like what I am doing for the community and again, a huge thank you for that!

 

Microsoft are planning a media refresh in the next week or so, I will create new UK & US ISO's

 

My pleasure, I appreciate the time and effort you put into creating such a useful tool.

 

Dell's driver site is a mess. I had a few quick questions for a smooth custom install. These questions are based on GoNz0's clean install guide and similar to MoosePlus's driver questions at:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...stom-iso-download.789769/page-8#post-10251281

1. There are 3 versions of "Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 8260 WiFi Driver". I would just use the latest but one is quite small. Do two of the three drivers need to be installed? (I will get latest from Intel but this gives directional guidance)

a- Communications_Driver_PJ4PP_WN32_18.1.1535.1946_A01.EXE
Last Updated: 12 Apr 2016
14.83 MB

b- Communications_Driver_PG7TJ_WN32_18.12.2_A00.EXE
Last Updated: 15 Oct 2015
195.34 MB

c- Communications_Driver_TM8TM_WN32_18.32.0_A02.EXE
Last Updated: 10 Mar 2016
191.78 MB

2. Did you install the "Intel Wireless Display Connection Manager Application"?

3. Did you install the "Intel PROSet/Wireless Bluetooth LEGUI Driver"?

4. Did you install the "Realtek USB GBE Ethernet Controller Driver"?

5. For my personal use, is there any advantage to making my own custom ISO vs. just downloading windows from M$ then manually installing the drivers as required?

BACKGROUND:

I just purchased an XPS 9550 with the 1TB 5400 RPM HDD + 32GB SSD in the m.2 slot. Need to replace to 2 SSDs:

a. I have an extra Samsung 850EVO mSATA drive (250GB) hanging around that will replace the HDD.

b. I plan to purchase a Samsung 850EVO m.2 drive (250GB) and will follow the general steps in this thread. As NVMe drives become more competitive I will move to them...

I will follow the broad steps from kent1146 to reinstall windows 10:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps15-9550-4945-32gb-cache-ssd-upgrade.787418/#post-10187960

With the help of GoNz0's guide (especially the driver's folder contents. And his note that latest drivers Intel and NVidia sites appear to work fine):
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ean-install-guide-custom-iso-download.789769/

I spent 3 days combing these very helpful forums so hope these questions are on-point and useful for others. Any additional tips are welcomed.

 

Why would you want to install any of them?
Did you change your wlan card to an Intel 8260, from factory it comes with a Broadcom BCM15700A2 (= Dell Wireless 1830 802.11ac driver) which provides wlan and bluetooth.

See answer to 1. Only if you have changed your card.

Only you know if you are using such an USB to Ethernet adapter or not.
If you have bought one you also need to install the driver.

 

Exactly what TDO said

When you get your system it has a service tag, the drivers page will use that to narrow down the driver selection so you would never see any of those drivers in the 1st place.

If you do decide to get a vanilla copy of windows for starters the boot image will not see your hard drive so you would need to get the intel 14 series boot drivers, then you will not be able to log straight into your microsoft account as you will not have the 1830 wifi drivers as part of the installation package so you have to convert your offline account to an online account.

They were the main 2 reasons I did this.

 

Thanks TDO and GoNz0 for the clear and very helpful comments.

Excited to give this a try this week and let you know how it goes!

 

Hi pressing,

I am about to be in your situation, coming into a XPS 15 9550 with the 1TB HDD and 32GB SSD and want to replace the HDD with a 500GB SSD. Could you let me know how you get along?

 

Hi TheFenian13,

We are in the same boat; we have same config and same delivery dates.

I have owned a bunch of Dell's back in the XP days and every time they required some user massaging to get 95% sorted. Glad to see they keep that tradition up! I used Macs for the past decade so am getting up to speed on the new technologies and quirks of the 9550.

I have done about 40 hours of prep "research" this week so will throw together a few thoughts for super-beginners (like me). . .

 

Ah yes, I haven't owned a Dell in a while also, all this forethought is annoying but hopefully will pay off.

I may be changing my final setup to be a NVMe 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD instead (GoNz0 changed my mind) but I still appreciate your thoughts! I will try to reply with my own

 

moved notes to new thread...

 

@pressing, for the love of god edit it and use spoiler brackets!

It will use NVMe anyway?
The BIOS comes by default with secure boot on and UEFI mode, I think you may be getting confused with other people who opted for the easy way out and disabled secure boot and UEFI rather than dig into the problem like I did when they came to reinstall, hence the ISO to help them out.

It might be best with all that info to start a new post tbh as it's what we call thread hijacking

 

Sorry about that GoNz0.

Just my bookmarks poorly organize so didn't know if it deserved a new thread. I will put it in a new thread for reference purposes.

 

Just follow the instructions in Gonzo's first post on the first page, and it will all work flawlessly. Gonzo's ISO IS a "clean install" the only difference is, you don't have to screw around for hours loading the proper drivers....he has done all the work for you.