Dell XPS 13 9350 boot time slow

I will buy it in November. I will write my experience here.

I use the laptop standalone no USB ports attached (no mouse or ext hdd etc) so its not cables connected or USB ports thats causing delays. Some check that is not possible to avoid before boot slows the system down. Once Dell Logo is there its 6-8 seconds to login. But going to Dell logo takes 10-12 seconds. This was not my experience with my previous XPS 13. Power on- almost instant Dell logo- 6-8 seconds login.

Also the DRAM3 DRAM4 issue reported above is moot also as my laptop is XPS 13 9350 and not XPS 15 so as far as I know I have DRAM3.

I'm also really disappointed by the time the 9550 XPS 15 takes to get past the BIOS to the boot menu, mine's about 15 seconds total. My previous Asus UX32VD was pretty much instantaneous, like less than a second.

It could be worse with the TB15 dock. When I connect the dock to power then it takes 20 seconds until pressing the "power button" (on laptop or dock) actually does anything. I don't know if that's the dock starting every connected USB device up or something else but the total boot (until I see Windows screen) can easily take a minute. Just like "good" old HDD times... powering the computer and then making a tea while it boots...

Any progress there? Linux systemd-analyze tells it takes 12 seconds for the UEFI firmware to load

OK just tested the Lenovo Yoga 900. I did not have a timer for precision but Yoga opens in 6-7 seconds vs 16-17 seconds of my XPS 13 build 9350. Specs of both machines are almost identical.

Please note I own the XPS 13 for over 1,5 year and has been tuned and tweaked many times to get this result and Yoga is just out of the box with all the crapware still installed and not tweaked.

Hope anyone from Dell who cares about this, addresses this issue. I will try the Yoga for a few weeks and if I see its doing OK I will transfer to Yoga after many years of being a Dell fan. I will share my experience here also.

Proof here

1drv.ms/.../s!AlXp0KIzfM_Ej04WrxQKHO9xDndm

Update from me (I'm an Inspiron 3158 user (Skylake 6100U - a lot cheaper laptop than yours here, which got exactly same problem)

Last late august BIOS update (01.10.00) somehow makes a noticeable improvement, but still quite slow compared to other brand laptop.

Before: 9-12 second to Dell logo. Now: 4-6 second.

my friend's Asus which powered up in less than 2 second!

Final post on this topic from me.

The boot time of XPS is still not acceptable as demonstrated above. There is something wrong there. I think it has got to do with Thunderbolt. As far as I can tell thats the only hardware difference between a Yoga 900 and XPS 13 specs wise.If anyone reading here has actually better boot time (i.e. <12 secs) on a similar XPS machine please let me know.  While 12 secs is still acceptable, the correct boot for such a macine must be around 6 secs.

As it happens I was able to compare both machines on a daily use. I have been using the XPS for over 1,5 year now. After installng a clean Windows 10 and tweaking it almost the same as my existing XPS 13, I used the Yoga 900 for 3 full weeks. Both machines are top end and have almost identical specs.

I was going to write a longer review but I simply don't have the time. So I will skip right to the verdict.

While the Lenovo Yoga 900 is a (very) respectable piece of work, XPS 13 beats it in performance. This is especially obvious on demanding applications such as Civ 6 game or a 4k full HD full screen movie. Apart from that both machines are head to head.

I agree with you on the Thunderbolt point. It was after a Thunderbolt firmware update that I noticed the most significant speed increase in my boot time. That update probably shaved 3 or 4 seconds off the boot time, although as you point out, the 3950 is still not anywhere close to where it should be.

I don't know if this helps anyone, but I found something that dramatically decreased my boot time.

If I just go through the Start -> Shut Down... let it sit for a bit, turn it back on - I will get slow boot time, like 30 seconds.

If instead I use the following command line:

shutdown /s /t 0

My boot up is cut in half or more following the same simple steps. Try running the above command line... if it works for you, just stick it in a CMD file and use that file to shut down instead. For whatever reason, the DELL logo is displayed for a much shorter period of time when the above command is used.

Hope this helps someone :)

I have just bought a 13 9360 and wow a slow boot time. The post time 3 times as much as my 2,5 year old Asus laptop. I asked support about the issue and they say it's working as designed.

Welcome to the club :) On the plus side its probably the best performing 13" machine out there. If you ae talking abut 15-16 sec boot (power on to OS) I can say its normal. If its over 20 secs try playing with BIOS options. If you are below 12 secs let me know because that is very good.

Thank you :) I can only agree, and the battery performance is the best i have ever seen.

Ok then normal for Dell, but for other brands it's a long time :) I would really hope that they get this fixed, it's really bugging me when i am accustom to nearly instant on by other brands.

FWIW I just got a motherboard replaced (from initial version A00 to A03) but the boot time is still slow... so neither software nor hardware updates fix this thing. It's interesting that even 9360 has this problem, is this something with latest Intel hardware?...

Seems to be faster now with the Bios Update 1.4.12.