XPS 9550 with PM951 SSD: BSOD under AHCI and possible solution

Been heavily using the laptop for the past two weeks and have encountered at least one BSOD every day the common ones being:

Critical Process Died
Kernel Inpage Error

It was even worse when laptop was running on battery. From google searches, these errors are related to the hard drive / SSD we all know and hate by now.

The few seconds before BSOD occurs, the following happens:

* Audio keeps playing and then slows down and slurs like a drunk singing on a karaoke machine before passing out.
* Mouse pointer can still move around but Windows is unresponsive to any mouse clicks


Configuration: i7 6700-HQ, 256GB Samsung PM951, 1080p FHD display, Windows 10 Home

Previous State:

Intel 100 Series / C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller version 14.6.0.1029
SSD was using Microsoft's default driver after uninstalling factory-installed SSD driver
Intel SpeedStep disabled
Did not re-install Windows 10 / Did not reformat SSD / Did not do clean install
SSD running under AHCI using Safe Mode Boot: Trying AHCI Mode (XPS 15 9550)
Running CHKDSK and sfc.exe /scannow using Window's Command Prompt does not return any errors
Virtual Memory is automatically managed and set at 1280MB (Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced Tab)

Possible Solution:

0. Update BIOS from 1.0.5 to 1.0.7 here: Dell 9550 1.0.7 BIOS Update

1. Follow the first 3 steps in General Recommendation here: Dell XPS 15 9550 List of Hardware and Software Problems

Still encountered BSOD with the errors above

2. Verify or roll back driver for Intel 100 Series / C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller to 14.5.2.1088 (Check under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers in Device Manager)

Still encountered BSOD with the errors above

3. Install Samsung 950 Pro NVME driver under "Samsung NVMe Driver Installer": Samsung 950 Pro NVME driver

I haven't encountered BSOD after this for the last 2 days running on battery. This most likely will not resolve all such BSOD issues, but hopefully it might work for a lucky few. I didn't find these myself, all credit goes to you guys in a lot of these threads.

 

Oh dear god why do the advertising hyperlinks have to be the same color as the real ones?

 

Mine having problem. I tried upgrade from 1TB + 32GB to 512GB NWMe PCIE and windows only bootable when both the 1TB HDD and 512GB SSD presents where I can select which volume to load (1TB has original windows installation while the SSD has my clean W10 install). When I remove the 1TB HDD, the SSD won't boot.

 

Same issues as Birdkiller. Critical Process Died, Kernel Inpage, and Unexpected Store Exception. No memory dumps are created. Always hangs at 0% for the memory dump, which would make this much easier to troubleshoot (yes I've followed all instructions/requirements on how to make sure dumps are generated). Dell said harddrive was bad, sent a replacement, same issue.

 

Hello

BSOD for me with Intel RST 14.8.0.1042 (Critical Process Died and Kernel Inpage --> only when going to my NAS on my local network !)
With Intel RST 14.5.2.1088, no BSOD for the moment.

I use AHCI for the slow NVMe speed in RAID mode after sleep.

Resume from sleep :

After reboot :

Sorry for my english

Edit : BIOS 1.1.19

 

Anybody still with that problem? Since i set it to AHCI i don't have the SSD Sleep bug anymore, which is great, but i had 3x a BSOD saying Unexpected Store Exception, no dumps created.

 

Bumping this thread because after installing the Samsung driver, the system sometimes freezes while the mouse can move.

 

Did you ever find a solution for this? I'm having BSODs with just the Microsoft drivers, but freezing with the Samsung drivers.

 

It's been mentioned a few times in various threads, don't use the samsung 2.1 driver, use 2.0 or earlier unless you like your system freezing...

 

This ^^ and it has been covered in great detail in the hardware thread.

 

That Samsung driver is for the NVME drive not the AHCI drive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

What is your question here? If the dell laptop is running in AHCI mode and you have an NVMe drive, you need an NVMe driver. Unless you have an old SM951 that was AHCI and not NVMe, that's what you need...

 

I have the old ahci sm951 and stability has been an issue with the 9560 but ran grand on the 9550 with Microsoft drivers. Which other driver should I try?

 

if it really is a MZ- HPV model then I would say you should run the latest intel rapid storage drivers, I'd grab it from their website.

 

I'll try the latest intel ones. Cheers.

 

Personally I would just use the latest Raid/AHCI drivers rather than run the software on top as it isn't needed without a cache drive. 15.x are newer than the 14 series Dell run, latest 64bit inf files are here https://mega.nz/#!cJkghAJJ!rBCKYgJ1CxOvpoUspCjH_027QPpEGQpUTiNeBUlFm8M