XPS 9550 + 4K panel screen flicker thread.

I've run all the updates released in the last 30 days, including the BIOS. I overwrote my newer Intel drivers with the current/latest Intel drivers offered on the Dell website. I installed directly over the top and didnt use any driver cleaners or anything prior to these upgrades. My Intel driver went from 20.19.15.4331 (the beta that was proposed to fix the flickering some weeks ago) to 20.19.15.4531 (latest from Dell's site) ... And.......and............. I have not noticed a flicker all freaking day!!!!

 

Poll updated.

 

I had an XPS 9550 4K with touch. Dell replaced the display 3 times, the motherboard once, all these with no result - the flicker / winking / blinking persisted. They finally let me exchange my repaired laptop for a new one, but after seeing the screen flicker again I refused to have it and got my money back. I love this model though and after researching for a while I came across this thread and some joy poured into my heart. There's no competition to XPS on the market and I'm still looking towards this model with hope.

Question: If I do want to buy a new XPS 9550 4K, is there any safe configuration of BIOS and Intel driver that is confirmed having NO FLICKER effect and without any issues in other areas (like battery charging or performance).

 

Using the latest BIOS and the drivers on Dells support page I am 99% fixed but this is no 100% fix i'm afraid.

 

hahahaha!

 

Thanks, GoNz0.

I understand that at least the occasional flickering would be solved with these, right? Nothing really was annoying me more than this "winking" effect, drawing attention to the laptop even when I wasn't using it. Once noticed, irritating forever

 

What? I'm still naive

 

Like I say, 99% as I still spot the odd one.

 

New BIOS out ver. 1.2.19

 

Changes nothing to my 1.28 version.

 

I didn't bother adding it to the poll as it has one specific fix so for this threads purpose they are the same.

 

I'm getting a screen flicker under the latest BIOS. I thought it was resolved but now I'm noticing it happening every minute or two. Using v1.2.19 BIOS with Intel HD Graphics 530 driver v21.20.16.4534.

Any ideas/suggestions? I'm getting so frustrated with these flickers.

 

Lol so what's the deal? Idiot Dell hasn't fixed what they broke a year ago?

Shocked.

 

Can't say I would ever buy a Dell again... Like how long do we have to suffer with this screen flicker? So annoying.

 

We're a completely captive consumer base. The other PC makers just are not interested in delivering compact performance with acceptable support/quality (this is to specifically exclude Razer from any possibilities)

 

4531 is the one on Dells site, seems the official is best.

 

I reverted back to these drivers and the flicker is better but still happens occasionally... Just wish they would permanently fix this. Anyone know if this is an issue with the FHD models? A bit of me is regretting going with the 4k model due to flicker, battery drain, and DPI issues with legacy apps.

 

I don't have any noticable flicker on FHD 9550. My pros and cons follow. Frankly, I find the FHD to be an excellent ultrabook screen. None of the cons bother me - ever.

+ Nice colors and a pleasure to use all day. No fatigue reading
+ Superb anti-glare
+ I notice no flicker
+ I haven't noticed many dead pixel complaints on the boards
+ Lightweight
+ Long battery life

- 4k has better colors, more wow factor, touch, and obviouly more pixels
- At angles there is a slight red hue, more obvious in dark room
- In a dark room there is the slightest bit of edge bleed
- The lowest light settings are suboptimal (PWM?) but Dell improved that a lot Nov/Dec 2016 BIOS update (allows lower brightness now so works fine at night)
- Some ghosting that UFO test
- Plastic edges not as slick as 4k.

I think 9560 has same screen but you need to compare model numbers to confirm...

 

Any BIOS after 1.20 caused flickering for me, in ever case I just ended up reverting to 1.2 and gave up for there.

One day I would hate to update to one of those certain BIOS that come out later on that do not allow a rollback.

Machine runs fine, I cant see the point of constantly updating the BIOS for little to next to no gain.

 

If it works why change it.

 

I think I will be going back to v1.2.0 bios as well. This flicker is killing me slowly! Can't deal with it any more. I thought it was fixed under v1.2.18 with the 4531 drivers but not so.

 

Is this an issue with the 9560 as well?

 

No but they seem to have stuck with the crude removal of no adjustment below 20%

 

I have a 9560 and I can confirm that my screen randomly flickers (either screen blacks out, or vertical black bars across my screen) every few hrs for less than a second (at any brightness, and either plugged in or on battery power). Not a big deal, but thought they would have resolved this issue by now.

 

yup. have it on mine

 

Hmm so I wasn't going mad.

 

Same here. Only lasts a fraction of a second. Can't reproduce even twisting the laptop or hitting close to the dislpay cables. Seems to be sw related to me.

 

The only bios that works 100% of the time with no screen flicker is v1.2.0. I'm on 9550 4k model.

 

Just spotted this thread after posting in the 9560 thread. I too have this issue with my 4k 9560.

 

I started a thread on the Dell Forum about the 9560 issue here: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/t/20007351

A few other users have reported the issue in that thread too. Feel free to join in and hopefully increase the chance Dell might acknowledge or look into the issue.

 

I think I may have overdone my reply

 

Haha!

The Dell forum is rather annoying with seemingly every other post requiring prior moderator approval... I posted an image of the flicker someone uploaded to Reddit but it's queued for moderator approval first. I doubt Dell will do anything about this, but it's worth a shot!

Interestingly I heard on Reddit that one person suffered this same problem with the FHD touchscreen on the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro.

 

Lol sorry but I had to mark that as an answer

 

Now Dell will ignore the thread as it has been answered

 

lol as if they wouldn't have ignored it anyway

I have a new mainboard now (Rev00), so I will keep an eye out for the flicker. It sounds like it might be possible to fix with the right mainboard.

BTW the technician took out his little tube of generic TIM. I handed him Gelid GC and he said "mine better". I insisted, and then watched him put no less than a toothpaste-sized dollop onto both the CPU and GPU. I wanted to scream at him for wasting my thermal paste.

 

doh.

 

I'm still waiting for someone from Dell to respond to the thread on the Dell Support Forum about this issue: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/t/20007351?pi41097=1#20986358

I tried their Twitter guys but they won't respond to us via that thread because they have a "dedicated" team that deal with their Support Forum. I'm not going to waste hours on the phone with them making me faff around with drivers and reinstalling Windows. I guess I'll just live with it and hope something like a BIOS or Intel HD Graphics update fixes things...

 

Anyone screen flicker worsen? My screen usually flickered once every few hrs, but now it flickers (red/pink barcodes now, not black anymore) every half hr like it's having a seizure until I move my mouse. It occurs more on white backgrounds.

 

Mine has been fairly consistent in that it'll appear sporadically and in the same manner each time - i.e. a combination of a "barcode" type flicker and a black flicker. There's a new Intel HD graphics driver out now - I'm going to see if this makes any difference: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...-15-45-?_ga=1.222217560.1580943185.1490456279

 

Trying that out as well to see if there's any difference. I noticed that my flickers are the worst when I'm on a white background and my mouse is hovering over a clickable element (like on google searches). Not sure if it's confirmation bias, but I'll record over the next few days.

 

Now you mention it, I think mine are generally the same - i.e. text, etc on a white background.

Unfortunately the new drivers haven't fixed the issue. However, the flicker has been just a black screen flicker so far (rather than any barcode effect type of flicker).

Annoying the new driver is causing stutter lag with Opera (it was fine with the previous driver). As with the old Google issue, disabling GPU acceleration resolved this.

 

It has taken 22 days, but finally someone from Dell has responded to my request for help with the flicker issue: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/p/20007351/20988938#20988938

They recommend setting brightness to 100% whilst they look into a proper fix. Wasn't this a suggestion for the 9550 issue which was never fixed?

 

Basically... Oh FFS

 

The latest intel seems worst than it's predecessor for flicker?

 

Yeah it's significantly worse with the latest drivers. I've also had to disable hardware acceleration in Opera as otherwise I get lag stutter with the latest ones too.

 

Can't tell if either the previous or latest driver is worse when it comes to flickers, but I have noticed that when my screen does flicker, it will continue flickering nonstop until I move my mouse cursor.

 

Yeah I have been encountering the same issue ever since I updated to the latest Intel driver. Prior to that, it would stop after a moment but now it carries on until I move the mouse. On the plus side, it sounds more like a driver issue rather than a hardware one.

 

With the latest Intel 630 drivers, I'm unable to sustain an undervolted GPU of -120mV, or -110mV otherwise my laptop automatically shuts down (Windows event viewer lists it as Critical error event ID 41 "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly." I've dialed it down back to -100mV and everything seems to be stable. Anyone else experienced something similar?

 

So on my 9560 4k model I went back to the 4590 drivers and still had a few issues but since I ran DDU on both video drivers and installed them again the problem seems to have gone way. It also cured the 15fps in BF1 as well!

 

I've just followed your method, so I can't confirm whether the flickering is still present or not. But DDU process seemed to have broken my bluetooth; I'm unable to use any BT device or connect to it anymore. I've reinstalled the Wifi / BT drivers, but no luck so far. Reinstalling intel 630 drivers also didn't fix the problem.

Edit: 2 hours in and I have experienced one flicker. It seems that it does flicker less than the latest Intel drivers. I'm unable to use system restore to previous config, so looks like my bluetooth is bricked for now. Looks like my choices are either clean install or purchase an Intel 8265. Looks like the Creator's update is a good time to clean install Windows if there's no alternative.

Edit 2: System restore worked after renaming WindowsApps folder and uninstalling my antivirus, but bluetooth still broken. Will attempt clean install when the next Windows updates hit. Anyone that used DDU for Intel/Nvidia drivers have working bluetooth? Otherwise it might be a hardware failure on my end.