XPS 9560 'Windows Creators Update' & Thermal Management

Hi all,

the thermal management of my XPS 9560 behaves weirdly after updating my Windows with the 'Creators Update' [Windows 10 Home, Version 1703].

Before, I had virtually a silent system, when doing 'undemanding stuff' (browsing, office, etc.). Even when doing more demanding stuff, the fans kicked in really late, when the package temperature (Intel XTU) reached ~60°C.

After the update, fans are kicking in almost immediately when doing anything with the laptop, they now tend to kick in, when the package temperature (Intel XTU) ist ~ 40-45°C.

My system is:

• undervolted by -0,115V (core voltage) and -0,70V (graphics voltage)
• the Dell Command Power temperature profile is set to 'silent'
• the system cooling policy is set to passive
• I do have SST (Speed Shift) enabled
• I'm using the same settings before and after the update

What I tried:

• I tried the latest bios (version 1.3.3), which seemed to make matters even worse, so I reverted back to 1.1.3, which I've beed using so far.
  
• After the update, I did a 'clean install' of the 'windows creators update version', installing all drivers by hand and no dell bloatware, as I thought it might be a 'botched update'.
  
• I checked for suspicious background processes/apps/etc., but nothing catched my eye.
• What is also weird: when switching the Dell Command Power temperature profile, e.g. from silent to optimal or vice versa, spinning fans will stop immediately.

Nothing seems to help getting the fan noise levels to a level as before the update. The only thing left, seems to completely revert back before the creators update using the factory image on my ssd. I'd like to avoid that, as I especially like the new windows options of the precision touchpad (--> backward/forward navigation which was not possible before).

Did anyone notice something similar after updating to version 1703 of windows 10 on his/her machine?
Does anyone have an idea what else I could do?

I'm really at a loss here...

Thanks

 

I've also experienced this issue today, however at least I think I have. My system was overheating and throttling in games - something it's never done since day 1. I load up a game and within 5-10 minutes everything lags, throttle kicks in and unplayable. Before someone jumps in with undervolting and repasting and so on - these have all been done (successfully I might add) where until a few days ago, everything was running cool and smooth.

I thought I must have done something so decided to do a clean install based on Gonzo's ISO; updated everything and still having the same issue. Sat here typing this now, my fans are on 3.5k RPM with temps idling at 39c...

Can't see how a windows update would have done this although there were a number of cumulative updates in the past few days. To note, I was already on the creators update, and hadn't made any significant system changes. Reinstalling has not made any difference.

I'd be interested to see if anyone else is experiencing this at all?

Running an XPS 9560 4K, i7, 32GB

 

If it also helps, curiously, games that I used to run in windowed mode (not many, but one or two), a few days ago ran at the native 4K resolution. They now run at a scaled fixed window mode which seems to correlate with the windows scaling setting (mine is 175%). Not sure if coincidence or not, but I've not changed any settings and loaded up to find my settings were completely incorrect...

 

Glad i'm not the only one experiencing this. I've undervolted and reapplied high quality thermal paste and still experience excessive fan activity. My system sits at around 35°C and peaks at 56°C under load. The fans sit there spinning away with very low system temps and little or no activity. I've read elsewhere that it's designed to do that but it's definitely worse post the creator's update.

I've found a temporary solution for my XPS, I've uninstalled Dell Command Power Management suite which definitely exacerbates the issue on my system. The issue still occurs with the default power profiles but it seems less aggressive. I've therefore created a new native windows power profile and set the 'Maximum Processor State' to 95% for both battery and plugged in. I lose a little CPU performance (I can always switch to another profile when required) but it's resolved the issue, the XPS now runs silently when running undemanding activities e.g web browsing and office.

 

Ever since I reinstalled windows I've had issues, especially around power throttling. The CPU just clocks down to 0.8 ghz and everything grinds to a halt. HWinfo confirms it's power throttling even if both CPU and GPU are ~70-75 C. I'm guessing it's either due to:

1. Drivers - I'm missing something or I've installed the wrong version of something?
2. Dell settings - there was something pre-installed that kept the system chugging along at full speed, but I can't for the life of me find out what. Current theory is something in the Power Settings for the "Dell" plan (maybe it's the max proc state?).

I've been trying to find a list online of the exact settings from the "Dell" power plan to compare but I can't find anything.

There is definitely something as even using the "stress test" in XTU on the CPU for a few minutes causes it to instantly hit power throttling. Before the reinstall using dell factory install, I could run this for 24h and never ever hit any issues. Going to try reinstalling the latest drivers from dell website to see if that rectifies anything.

Another annoying thing - coil whine seems louder after refresh! Doh.

 

That's exactly my experience after the 'creators update'. Before the update I was happy with the noise levels of my system, after the update, it's like a different laptop.

Did the same thing and it subjectively seems to slighly 'improve' the issue. Still the fan behavior is completely different compared to before the 'creators update'.

I also noticed that the issue is most prominent if you start some youtube video. It does not matter if it's a 480p, 720p, 1080p or higher resolution video. Fans start spinning almost immediately and they keep spinning. Before the update they were dormant most of the time.
Therefore I thought it was some Intel GPU driver issue: I reinstalled Dells latest Intel HD driver -->
no improvement, I also installed the latest driver from Intel ( 4678) --> no improvement

I'm really considering a factory reset at the moment using dells factory image on my ssd :-(...

 

Dells factory image in my case actually performed better, was quieter and never throttled, not once. Since reinstalling a fresh copy of win 10 pro, I've had nothing but headaches. It must be settings/driver/updates related.

 

Seems to be so... Now, I also think 'clean installs' are missing 'something'.

As I like to have a 'clean system', I always check the 'task scheduler' in any new system. I remember that there were 1 or 2 scripts dell was scheduling on a system startup, which I did not touch. Apparently, if you do a clean install, those scripts will be missing.
Maybe someone who is still running on a factory image could post the triggers and the script here. It might be unrelated to the issue, but maybe...

 

So I actually tried to do a Dell factory restore the other day before using Gonzo's ISO, but it doesn't work. The image is broken, doesn't install any drivers (incl. wireless) nor any of the "customisations". I know a lot of people don't want the bloat, and windows feels snappier without it, but it would be handy to have a way of going back to it just to verify.

I also know from reading up that the intel thermal framework is responsible for throttling, and while always installed previously, I wonder if there is customisations made again?

 

Did you follow the following instructions provided by dell: fatory reset ?
(option 5: Reinstall Windows 10 to the Dell factory image using the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE))

I followed the instuction 5 minutes ago, but the 'factory image' is not found by my system, using dells instruction.
For a fact I know that the fatory image is still on my ssd:

 

Yep - mine also didn't have this partition which is why I did a fresh install. I cannot find anyway online or otherwise of restoring back to "as it came from the factory". The image ISO off their site is a load of rubbish and doesn't install anything.

 

One other thing I have noticed - previously, under device manager, Firmware would be listed as the Dell 1.3.3 firmware (that;s the bios im on). But now it's listed as System Firmware - which is MS provided. Not sure if that'e relevant or just a red herring...

 

Any updates about this?

I'm getting pretty tired of the fan noise. I don't care if the system gets a little bit warmer, because right now the fans are at almost full speed while the CPU is hovering around 60 degrees.

Hitting the powerplan balanced or silent(Dell power command) resets the fan, but after a few minutes it's back at way too high speeds for the temperature it's trying to cool...

 

Did you also check out the windows settings?
Mine is configured on optimized settings in Dell power command and on normal use in windows control panel.
I never hear the fans on daily use, and I can play low demanding games and watch youtube videos at the same time while not having the fans kicking in at high speed...

I can also tell you that your indoor temperature has an impact on the inside temperature of your laptop and that if you put your laptop on performance settings, it will get warmer when processing demanding activities on it like editing or playing video games.

 

Nope, still unhappy with my 'creators update' installation. I'm currently thinking about trying the windows image you can download from dells website using your service tag or a clean installation of windows 10 version 1607. Question is, if this works: can you somehow prevent windows from installing the 'creators update'?

The one thing I can conclude from the behavior of my laptop:
The issue is caused by an intel driver (intel internal gpu, intel thermal framework, or something else from intel) that acts differently (or is not optimized by intel/dell) in the creators update in comparison to windows version 1607 (anniversary update).

I can assure you, it's not a simple windows configuration thing, it's driver related. My laptop acts completely differently after I updated to the 'creators update'.

 

I must say that I believe that you are doing something wrong somewhere.

I have the windows 10 creator update for weeks now, on the same laptop as you and I have no such problems.

Nonetheless, I have run some tests by changing the profile in Dell Command Center and also in windows. I have noticed that for example, setting the profile on performance increases a lot the laptop's temperature leading it to revolution the fans at maximum speed under any mild processing activity.

 

My friend, do your fans kick in when you plug-in HDMI connection?

 

Not instantly, but they ultimately run at low speed I would say.

 

Perhaps the dGPU gets activated when the HDMI is in use?

 

I'm back on a clean 1607 (anniversary update) installation:
- newest drivers from Dells website (June 17th 2017) + an updated version for the Intel HD 630 to version 4678 + nVidia driver version 382.53
- undervolted cpu to: core voltage -0.120V, graphics voltage: -0.070V
- Dell Command Power Manager: silent profile
- Windows Power Profile: balanced, passive system cooling policy
- SpeedShift: energy performance preference policy: 55, autonomous activity window: 15000, performance autonomous mode: 1

Will report back how my system behaves now.

I tried restoring my system with Dells image you can download via your service tag. Following Dells ' usage instructions', I had the same experience as Kappo: the provided image seems broken.
I could boot from the created usb drive, but it would loop in a 'boot loop' when I followed Dells instructions. There was an option to restore from an image, choosing this option would result in an error though. No idea what is going on with those images (the one I had on my ssd + the one I freshly downloaded from Dell. As a result I deleted the broken image on my ssd, which gave me additional 10GB of free space on my ssd.

If you're wondering how I reverted back my system:
- downloaded a 1607 windows 10 image for my native tongue from here
- created a bootable usb drive using rufus
- double clicked the 'setup.exe' on the usb drive (therefore I guess you just need to mount the image + double click, no rufus)

 

Just curious if there's any benefit to installing dell's power manager other than being able to set charge thresholds without going into BIOS?

 

Somehow the Dell power manager has the ability to change the fan speed. When you choose the "silent" preset the fans actually become (more) silent. Too bad it isn't sticking because after a few minutes it will speed up the fan again.

 

I never used to have an issue with the fans picking up with ultra-performance
Also, it seems that the fans will spin up regardless of the profile, but switching to the ultra-performance profile actually seems to reset the fans back to a quiet speed.

Is it confirmed that Bios 1.3.3 makes the fan problems worse than 1.1.3?

 

I think everything is messed up after the creators update and the new BIOS versions.

Somehow Dell is unable to get such an easy thing right....

 

I recently purchased a Dell XPS 15 laptop with the maxed out settings (32 GB of Ram, 1 TB SDD, Intel i7 processor) and the fan is always running. I currently have 2 tabs of Google Chrome open as well as Kapersky Anti-Virus running in the background, yet the fan is on low speed. With a 32 GB laptop, I didn't think the fan would constantly be working. Even when changing the thermal settings to Quiet in Thermal Management, the fan will only shut off for about 2 min, then will turn back on. This is incredibly frustrating considering this is supposed to be a premium laptop that wasn't cheap. What's even more frustrating in that I have about 7 programs including 60 tabs of Chrome open on my Macbook Pro, and it's completely silent.


I spent 2 hours on the phone with Dell tech support troubleshooting and nothing solved the issue. The rep recommended I disable all of the "Microsoft Services" from Safe Mode w/networking but this just didn't seem right... Why should I have to disable all of those services to get the fan to stop working on a 32 GB computer?

I've been searching the Dell XPS 15 fan topic and have come across others with the same issue. Is it even worth swapping this computer out for another one or will I just run into the same fan issues? Would it be better to return it outright and opt for another brand?

 

Return it. Mine's been doing this after the Creator's Update. There is no fix.