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April 19th, 2025 20:16
XPS 8960, BSOD disaster with solution?
Setting and Symptoms:
Acquired unit in Dec '24, no unusual crashing at that time.
In Feb '25, noticed a severe uptick in the number of application crashes and occasional BSOD.
By mid-March, system was becoming difficult to use. Application crashes were frequent and BSODs were a couple a day.
By April, the system was almost unusable. Throughout this, the BIOS Preboot checks returned no errors on both quick and thorough settings. Some application crashes were random. Some would crash reliably at specific times, notably around SSD and USB drive access. BSOD were random with random stopcodes.
Solution:
Turn off Intel Speedstep and Intel Speed Shift in BIOS.
No crash or BSOD for two days. Compared to a BSOD every hour, that's great! I'll post more detail for anyone who wants it. I did consult Dell Service, but since the PreBoot checks were clean, they could not help given I have only Basic warranty.
Chino de Oro
9 Legend
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8.1K Posts
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April 20th, 2025 05:53
The frequent applications crashes and BSODs are symptoms of Intel processors elevated operating voltages issue on this system model. Be persistent and requesting warranty support for hardware replacement.
Fluxxy
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7 Posts
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April 21st, 2025 05:27
It seems likely that the hardware is at fault. If it were an OS problem, every 8960 owner would be in here wondering why they are getting BSOD. Instead, it seems to be just me. I will persist if I get further BSOD. Thanks!
Khep
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2 Posts
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April 23rd, 2025 02:20
Im having this exact problem in this exact timeframe, except I bought in nov 24.
Khep
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April 28th, 2025 17:03
I made this change and it has been working well for me. Have you followed up with dell about this issues and potential replacement?
Fluxxy
1 Rookie
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7 Posts
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April 28th, 2025 20:52
I have not had an app crash or a BSOD since making the change. No, I have not followed up with Dell. If my processor works well with the power throttling turned off, I'm good with that. I did read that Intel extended its OEM warranty, so I'm hoping that Dell's Basic Warranty extends as well in case the processor starts failing again in the not-too-distant future.
Please let me/us know how you fare if you do follow up?