XPS 8950, recurring boot issue

Question

I bought an XPS 8950 just over a year ago (it's one month out of warranty).

On Tuesday, it suddenly restarted and then wouldn't boot - blank screen for about 30 minutes, then the dell logo, for over an hour until it blue screened and switched off. This kept on happening - sometimes it wouldn't even reach the logo stage.

One in maybe every three times, I'm able to get into bios after 45 minutes to an hour waiting. One in five times, after around an hour and a half it'll load windows, then function completely normally until I turn it off or restart it.

I've tried flashing the bios from USB which did nothing, rolling back windows, which failed and just restarted the computer into the same failure loop, and resetting windows with a cloud download.

That worked, but as soon as it downloaded the latest dell windows update (and, simultaneously, a network card driver update), the problem began again. Now it's even worse than before, seemingly.

Most recently, I created a recovery and restore USB - when trying to boot to the USB to recover, I get an error message saying no hard drive is detected.

I'm pretty sure it's a driver issue, I've removed and re-seated the GPU, main SSD and RAM, and all hardware scans show no issues.

What else can I do? Is this a known issue/is there another patch or fix I can seek out?

fragile_al · Accepted Answer

Hi everyone,

Thanks all for your help and suggestions - Eventually (all other avenues exhausted) it was diagnosed with Dell over the phone as a faulty motherboard.

A Dell engineer came out and identified that the secondary SSD (not the boot drive) was also faulty. New motherboard fitted and 9 month old WD SSD sent back for a warranty replacement. Problem solved so far!

I have to say, great service - an at home repair the day after I phoned customer support.

ProfessorW00d · Answer

Consider replacing your $2 CMOS coin cell battery, if only to eliminate that as a possible problem source.

fragile_al · Answer

@ProfessorW00d​ Done! Thanks for the tip, unfortunately it hasn't made a difference but at least that's eliminated as an option.

Chino de Oro · Answer

@fragile_al​ , besides mouse, keyboard, remove all other external USB devices if any.

fragile_al · Answer

@Chino de Oro​ Thanks, yes did that first thing - just mouse and keyboard plugged in.

Chino de Oro · Answer

@fragile_al​ , go to Device Manager and check to see if you can roll back drivers for Killer's network.  If there is no option to roll back, uninstalling them and restart machine and update with Dell stock drivers.The point of troubleshooting is, try to identify if either Microsoft or Dell drivers were corrupted, and which one.

RoHe · Answer

@fragile_al - Try this:

Power off and unplug power cord from rear of PC
Press/hold power button on PC for ~30 sec
Reconnect power cord to rear of PC
Power on and immediately start tapping F12 to open the menu
Assuming the F12 menu opens, select option to run Diagnostics and run all of them, especially the full tests on the SSD. Copy error messages, if any

If no hardware errors, reboot and try to open BIOS setup by tapping F2 as soon as you power on. Since you replaced the motherboard battery, SATA Operation in BIOS setup may have reverted to AHCI, the default setting.

Dell typically installs Windows with BIOS set to RAID, so that might explain things. If I understand correctly, everything is backed up, so if BIOS is now set to AHCI, try changing it back to RAID.

fragile_al · Answer

@RoHe​​ Hi Ron, thanks for the advice - Ran the full scan overnight and no issues were found with the disks or other hardware. I also went into the BIOS setup and the SATA operation was already set to RAID.  I'm not sure what to try next. I've disabled secure boot just in case, but again that made no difference.  I'm thinking a total factory reset is the next step, and if that doesn't work, I'll just have to try and get it sent back for repair as I'm guessing there may be something with the motherboard? I don't want to discount driver or Windows issues too soon though.

fragile_al · Answer

By way of update, I eventually magaed to get into Windows today and am in the process of backing up any files not currently on the cloud for a full factory reset. Interestingly, every few minutes the screen goes blank for 30-45 seconds before returning to normal.

Does this shed any light?

RoHe · Answer

@fragile_al What did you do differently that let it boot into Windows?

The screen blanking could be a GPU driver crash. Open Windows Event Viewer and look for errors logged around the time the screen blanked. That may point you in the right direction. (For clarity, the monitor is connected to the add-in video card, not to the onboard Intel Graphics port, correct?)

If it's a GPU driver crash, you could try uninstalling the driver and reinstalling it. First, download/save the latest version of the driver from Dell's XPS 8950 support page for whichever GPU is installed.

Then use DDU (free) to remove the existing driver. Carefully follow the instructions, especially about disconnecting from the internet during the process.

You might not want to do a factory reset, if that's necessary, because the factory image is old and out of date. Better to create a bootable USB with Win 11 on it at the Microsoft site using their Media Creation Tool (free). You need an empty USB that's at least 8 GB.

RoHe · Answer

That's great news...  ! BTW: Your OP says PC was out of warranty. Did Dell still take care without cost to you?

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XPS 8950, recurring boot issue

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