XPS 9550 + 4K panel screen flicker thread.

Let's get a list of who has the 4k panel & screen flicker at any brightness setting so I can present this to Dell the next time I call and they tell me they have never heard of this problem before (the default response)
If you have the FHD (1080) panel please don't reply as the initial fix seemed to be aimed at the FHD customers that in turn broke our 4k panels.
Dell may need to split the BIOS into 2 to fix specific panel types so we need to get a case going.

Please list the BIOS versions you tried, personally the A10 BIOS seems best for me and the latest official Dell intel driver.

so for me I live between 17-25% screen brightness indoors where I spend 99% of my time on the laptop.

• A10 works best, I have had to roll back to this.
• A11 causes a near constant flickering
• A12 is a little better but still at least 3 per minute

If you want to try older BIOS versions they are here http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/xps-15-9550-laptop.html use Ctrl + F then search for BIOS.

 

I also have the screen flicker since A12 i think.... they released a new bios today Dell XPS 15 9550 1.2.13 A12 System BIOS, did you already try out this one?

 

I had to roll back to BIOS version 1.1.19! Version 1.2.10 caused flickering as well on my 4k panel.

The version 1.2.13 contains an update of the intel ME which can't be downgraded by flashing version 1.1.19. So be aware! By now I have not recognized anything bad from the latest update of the intel management engine.

 

Yes the IME update seems fine and I took the opportunity to flash the Thunderbolt while the BIOS was upgraded. 1.2.0 is as stable as 1.1.19 (not to be confused with 1.2.10)

 

Thanks GoNzo. Just reflashed to 1.2.0 !

 

I use A10 at 140cd/m² after calibration which is around 40% screen brightness.
Haven't noticed any flicker.
But I can give A12 a try and report when I am back from work.

I have A12 running now for 1h. Haven't noticed any flickering yet.

 

Have you tested it without it being plugged in? A12 was fine for me until I unplugged it.

 

Ah, I am using it 99% of the time plugged in.
I will test it on battery in the evening.

 

Urgh, A12 made my TB15 dock work, (wow!) but yep, screen flicker is back and driving me BONKERS again. I guess you just cant have it all.

P.s. I'm plugged in to power delivered by Thunderbolt cable from a TB15 dock, and this problem happens only when screen brightness is 40% or below. I have not tested running off just battery. Huh, just as typed that at 50% brightness I got a flicker. Damn.

EDIT: Happening at 60% as well. Seems to be getting worse?

EDIT 2: Happening at 70%, perhaps less frequent, but still there.

EDIT 3: Man, my eyes are burning up at 70%

 

GoNz0

Just voted but a bit confused regarding BIOS version A11; Dell's website only has A12 (1.2.13 - current) and A10 (1.2.10)

I get driver update alerts via RSS for my 9550 and in addition to the above I've received alerts for 1.1.19 (A?? - no longer available) and 1.2.0 (A06).

Just wondering why I didn't get an alert for A11. Was A11 a limited release (i.e. not GA) or has it been withdrawn?

I have, at some time, used BIOS versions 1.1.19, 1.2.0 and currently 1.2.10 and am glad to say I've not experienced perceptible screen flicker on any version.

 

A11 shipped on replacement motherboards and skipped the release cycle as 1.1.13 hit instead. Please check with the screen around 20% for 10 minutes with a bright background if you can

 

I changed my vote because I imagined A10 was 1.2.0. It will be better to put actual version numbers instead of the Dell's numbering. The last version that worked for me was A06 (1.2.0). I hate the fact that this version has a nasty bug with USB-C devices not recognized after wake from sleep, but it is way less annoying than the screen flickering of later releases.

 

yeah I screwed it up didn't I, oh well I will need to redo the poll as you can't edit it.

 

Just voted.

A06 is OK. A10 was not.

 

I normally run the 9550 screen at about 50% but saw when you started the poll that it appears around "17-25%" so I've tried 10% and 20% screen brightness both on battery and plugged-in (fully charged) with a mixture of web browsing and video playback. I can honestly say my 4k 9550 screen has no perceptible flicker. (It was a refurb from the Dell Outlet back in Feb and aside from the recurring BSODs, the hardware itself has been problem free, touch wood/head quickly.)

I am currently running

BIOS: 01.02.10
OS: Windows 10 Pro 10.0.10586
Nvidia Driver: 368.81
HD 530: 20.19.15.4454 (Latest from Dell)
Screen Magnification: 200%
Main Display: No ​

Is there anything else you're doing that may be triggering the issue or is it just visible with the desktop showing?

 

tends to show on brighter backgrounds but can take a while to happen, it is random.

 

So with bright background I noticed also the flickering with 1.2.13
Now I am back at 1.2.0

 

Can you all contact Dell support please, it is the only way we will get it sorted if more than one of us complains!

 

Hi. What did you mean by saying "took the opportunity to flash the Thunderbolt while the BIOS was upgraded"? Did you mean the "USB C controller" update in the bios?

 

No, the Thunderbolt firmware update from Dells site.

 

Hello guys,

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

Good luck.

 

Did you have the problem that it always says your firmware is up to date?

 

It threw an error the 1st time but it had completed then the next it said up to date.

 

How did you manage to have any flicker with 1.2.0?

 

I get it. not bad compared to every bios since.

 

I was having screen flicker at any brightness. With 1.2.10 was the worst flicker. Then I went back to 1.2.0. I tried also many Intel 530 drivers but the flicker was still there. Then, I read somewhere that disabling the turbo boost HyperThread control (not Turbo Boost like previous stated - sorry) in the Bios will diminish the flicker and the guy was right.
Now, I'm afraid to update to 1.2.13 because the flicker could come back even with HyperThread control disabled.
But of course, the problem can be also the bad implementation in chipset drivers.

 

Then don't "upgrade" to 1.2.13!

 

I had terrible flicker on 1.2.10 at 30% brightness, at least once or twice a minute. On 1.2.0 it flickers maybe once every 5 minutes or so, doesn't bother me. So for now I'm sticking with 1.2.0 until this is sorted out. I would try disabling hyperthread, but wouldn't that decrease performance??

 

I have better results with the latest intel HD530 beta driver. I used DDU to remove any trace of the driver and prevent windows update installing it's version.

 

Just completed that suggestion of yours GoNz0, see how it runs on my unit. (1.02.13).

 

Sorry for the off topic thing - do you have any charging issues on 1.2.13?

 

FYI - New Intel HD Drivers on the support page: http://www.dell.com/support/home/ie...-15-9550-laptop&languageCode=en&categoryId=VI

 

This is a newer driver than the latest intel Beta so i will give it a go after using DDU to clean out the existing driver.

 

Nothing specific to this BIOS. I've had the whole 'plugged in not charging' issue a couple times on other BIOS releases though. Had to open her up and unplug the battery from the motherboard, and press and hold the power button for 5 seconds then plug the battery back in to fix that. I'm almost exclusively charging via my TB15 though and rarely use the stock charger.

 

Great. The beta from the Intel website didn't do anything for me at all. Will give this one a go.

 

It seems better OMM - but I wasn't affected as badly as some folks (plus I could be suffering from the placebo affect).

 

Really odd thing, i now have 1.2.10 BIOS, and i dont remember having flicker on this one previously, but i do now...

 

I rolled back 1.2.10 BIOS and with the latest Intel drivers off Dell's website, the flickering issue is gone.

 

BIOS 1.02.13 + latest Intel's from Dell website, still equals screen flicker for me on the 4k panel.
It's time to pull your finger out and fix this, Dell!

 

Have you phoned Dell about this as I an assure you they don't visit this thread

 

They must have pull out from their site the Bios v1.2.13 for a valid reason. Try the v1.2.0 or v1.2.10 with the new Intel video drivers from Dell site and see if you still have the flicker. I'm on v1.2.0 with the latest Intel video drivers and no flicker.

 

Bios 1.2.14 is up. Don' waste your time with it. Flicker is not mentioned so it will not be fixed, I bet. They just fixed the battery 60% problem.

 

yep flicker is back. Reverting to 1.2.0

*edit. On hold with Dell after explaining in grahic detail and being told to go to version 1.1.15 (that causes BSOD with nvme drives)

42 minutes later and things are going to the product team, I will link this thread in my reply.

 

By graphic you mean "explicit"? I would have a lot of explicit content to tell them

 

More me explaining I am a qualified laptop engineer and have tried the following 20+ things to try and work round the issue.
My main issue is the 1.1.15 BIOS has the problem where I randomly BSOD with store or machine check exceptions and this seems to be the NVME drive being dropped by the motherboard as no crash dump is written and no drive shows when it restarts. A forced power off and on gets the drive back. ( lots with this issue and it happened on my previous 9550))

 

But sir, have you tried restarting the laptop 5 times? Maybe you have a flicker virus...

 

Yeah I will submerge it in a vat of Dettol! That will stop the flickering

 

Yeah, conficker...

 

My reply to the email I just got from Dell.

Hello any BIOS version 01.02.10 and above that includes the fix for flickering screens on the full HD versions causes flickering below 50% brightness on the QHD panels.

I see what they did in the so called fix, they removed the lowest brightness options below 20% to work around this instead of fixing it. This is demonstrated when you try and go lower than 20% brightness as nothing happens. This is not a fix it should be classed as a temporary workaround and Dell should list it as such.

BIOS 1.2.0 works best for me, I no longer get windows hanging that eventually results in either a "machine check exception" or "store exception" resulting in no crash dump as basically the fault is the NVME drive dropping. When the BSOD reboots the system no hard drive is present until you power down and back up again.

The BSOD issue has been ongoing with a lot of members from the notebookreview forums and the flickering issue started when the BIOS revisions got to 1.2.**

It seems obvious the fix for the FHD panel itself created a problem for the QHD users.

Telling owners to roll back to BIOS 1.1.15 is unacceptable given the timeframe this problem has been going on for. all listed fixes are not in version 1.1.15

• 1.Fixed Dell Thunderbolt Dock (TB15) device will lost after S3 resume
• 2.CREATED LCD flickering when in lowest brightness
• 3.Fixed After McAfee encrypted, the PCIE NVMe SSD \ SATA SSD can't boot to OS issue
• 4.Fixed Wake on WLAN takes a long time with Intel 1830/1820A Wireless card
• 5.Fixed USB audio/mouse may be lag while connected to Dell Thunderbolt Dock (TB15) and Dell Dock (WD15)
• 6.Support for Windows 10 Enterprise features
• 7.Fixed incorrect Thunderbolt security level reading from Driver
• 8.Fixed Touchpad may be lost after Dell Thunderbolt Dock (TB15) device connected
• 9. Add passthrough MAC address shows on BIOS Setup feature.
• 10.Fixed System will become shut-down with connected to Dell Thunderbolt Dock (TB15) after S4 Resume.
• 1.2.13 included a NMVE stability fix

I am running the latest Dell intel video drivers and all other drivers are up to date.


I created a thread about the flickering here http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...en-flicker-thread.795285/page-5#post-10338117
Feel free to get a Dell rep to post and acknowldge the issue with every QHD 9550 owner that has gone in and reported the issue.
Needless to say the 1.2.13 and 1.2.14 still have this problem I reported back in July.

Del needs to at least remove the so called flicker fix for QHD owners as it fixed the issue for FHD owners and created the issue for QHD owners.

Any BIOS below 1.2.** still exhibits a very occasional flicker that is best described as a loss of backlight for a split second, not enough to totally blank the display just dim it considerably.

I feel Dells priorities should be with the flagship XPS laptops and have more people work on this issue to get it resolved be it with revised hardware or a true fix instead of removing the lowest brightness option.

Thanks.