XPS 15 9500 - Random Shutdowns and Not recognizing it is plugged in (not charging)

Hello, 

It seems like many Dell laptop owners are facing this issue, with no clear method to solve it!! Here is a solution that worked for me :)

I have had similar issues for the past few weeks, namely: random shutdowns, every time it goes into sleep/hibernation the laptop reboots a few times before giving a login prompt. It often goes into recovery mode due to repeated reboots. I also have had issues with charging where it sometimes recognizes the charger or prompts me to use a genuine charger (although I am using the one it came with). The last issue I had was thermals! 100 C and repeated overheating which could only be dealt with by disabling the Intel turbo boost technology option in BIOS.

I have tried almost everything, from opening the laptop and cleaning the fans, to changing to a different m.2 drive with another operating system and endless tweaking of BIOS settings with no results.

Thankfully, I believe I have finally managed to fix all the above issues by downgrading the BIOS to a previous version!!

-BIOS version with issues: 1.27.0 - 08 Mar 2024

-My current BIOS version with no problems: 1.26.0 - 05 Feb 2024

<Private data removed from public view. DELL-Admin>

There is a CPG BIOS Executable program that can be run from the desktop (to avoid a failed downgrade, only downgrade to the next previous version and do not jump to older versions; however, if you want an older version, you can downgrade sequentially version by version until you reach the one you want, this is to avoid the downgrade from being blocked).

@Ibrahim51651651​ thank you! This worked for me! I've been struggling with this bug for months and now that I downgraded the BIOS to the 1.26 version everything is working fine, no random shutdowns and no unrecognized charger. I tried other possible solutions, like reinstalling wifi drivers, renew thermal paste and clean the fans, but now I think that the problem was somewhere in the new BIOS version or in some WIFI drivers, I will try to see if future versions of the BIOS will resolve this problem either or we will be stuck in this 1.26....anycase I will update this thread

Important update: downgrading the BIOS only worked for a day or less, then the problems got back, so I had to start again to search for the cause. After lots of different tests and observations I noticed that all of the problems happened when I had the wifi on, if I turned off the wifi and use only eth cable connection I had fewer and fewer problems (a couple of times the system shut down even with wifi off and the charger was not completely recognized all the times).

So, I searched for a possibile problem caused by something with the wifi. I think the problem can be related to some settings the wifi devices/drivers have to save energy, a kind of save mode settings for when you are not using the wifi or turning the system back on after suspension or shutdown. Windows changed these settings labels and names over the different versions of it, I am trying different possibilities but all the times the system goes fine for some hours and then starts to have all the problems again. 

This bug is driving me crazy, working on my XPS 15 9500 is becoming really impossible. Will update this thread asap with news, @Ibrahim51651651 is your system still working fine?

@pilgrimh I am having the same issues with random shutdowns. Can you confirm if changing the thermal paste fixed the issue long term?

@Andy9557​ I did it finally! (and hoping this time truly finally...) The problem is related to the fast startup Windows introduced with Windows 10 and 11, that's why in my previous attempts I had some solutions but didn't last long: because each time I turned the pc off or hibernate it the problem returned, and it's correlated with energy saving and quickier startup or restart.
So if you disable fast startup everything should start working again correctly (in my case no random and sudden shutdowns, no unrecognized charger, no shutdown when turning the pc on). To do it there are different possibilities, but the quicker for me is to open the Terminal (important in admin mode, so right click of mouse on the windows menu logo and click on Terminal (admin)) and then digit:

powercfg /h off

and click ENTER, this will disable fast startup and maybe this will be a fix for most of the people affected by this kind of problems. Let me know!

I think I saw the same post you did over the summer. At first it was shutting down randomly and would have issues with restarting. Sometimes it would flash multiple colors on the screen. I ordered a new battery from Dell and changed it over the summer, but it still did it. So more research and I came across that single comment on a Dell thread about the issue, so I thought I'd try that before taking to a repair shop. I ordered the paste from Amazon, and just changed it out. I have the computer plugged in and searching for the comment to thank the person that wrote it. It's been 20 minutes of use and no shut downs! I think this is it! 

@PatK89​ Did the thermal paste end up working? I’ve got the same problem and disabling fast startup only worked for a day

Same issue; I replaced my battery and the issues stopped for a day, but the random shut downs and reboots actually got worse in the long run. Really hoping for any up-to-date fix.

i have the same problem. random shut downs, and will not charge most of the time when plugged in.

i updated BIOS and all drivers to latest versions but this did not help. it's not an overheating problem. it doesn't shut down more often when being stress tested vs idle on the desktop.

@Andy9557​ - no this did not work long-term. Back to the same problems.

Sorry for the delay in coming back to this. This did not work. Same problems. This is absolutely crazy to spend so much money on a laptop that has these fundamental issues.

Here I am again, so disabling the fast startup on my XPS 15 9500 worked for 3 months at least, I was using it on battery or on charger and everything was fine, no shutdowns or no problems with the recognition of the charger. Then after a Windows 11 update the situation collapsed again, same as before.
What I can say is that I'm still able to use it if I do these steps:

• With PC turned off wait some seconds
• Plug in the charger
• Wait till the PC recognize it and the light on the front border starts to light up
• Then turn the PC on

With this process I can use it with no problems, but of course the shutdowns start again as soon as I start to work only on battery for some minutes, so practically I'm using it always with charger connected (and in this setup no shutdowns happen).

I'm pretty sure it's a thing related to some start-up settings and some power management about wifi, idle management and Windows management for the suspension phase (Windows and Mac also nowadays tend to see PCs similar to other devices, so they have to be ready to receive messages and other signals also when they are suspended), I'm going to try some new possibilities in the next few weeks, if I'll find a solution I'll keep you update here, hope I'll be lucky...

@melchio​ Hi, I’m experiencing the same problem on the 9570 model. Have you found any permanent solution or new information about this? Thanks in advance!