Dell XPS 13 (9350) front LED flashing error codes?

MOBIDUTCH,

The front LED indicates the battery charge state.

I am assuming you heard about all of this directly from the phone technician.  I checked to see if there was further diagnostic indicators and I didn't find any listed anywhere.

There where a number of diagnostic beep codes for the notebook

Did you notice any beep codes when this happens or only the LED flashing?

I don't think that there is anything wrong with the system but I will be shooting you a friend request incase something further happens.

TB

Hello Terry,

Thank you for your reply. The support rep indeed mentioned the battery status related to the LED, but that's all info she had. 

My laptop does NOT make any beeping sounds when this flashing sequence occurs (no headphone plugged in). Sometimes I forget and close the lid right away, and the LED is bright enough that the flashing is very distracting. So in that case I just shut down and start over :-). Not a huge deal, but curious enough that I'd like to find out if I can fix the root cause.

-mobidutch

I certainly understand, it does seem strange that the notebook only does this when using an external display with the lid closed.  I am curious when you do this, do you have an ac adapter connected to the notebook or using the battery or some other power source?  Looking again at the user manual and training pages I don't see any thing that the front LED does other than to show battery charging status.

TB

Yes, power adapter is connected, battery is full. Exact action:

1) Laptop is off, external display connected via USB-C to HDMI adapter (tried different adapters).

2) I open the laptop lid, then press power button, then close lid before Dell logo shows)

3) Front LED starts flashing during BIOS routine.

4) Laptop boots, external display shows Windows login, front LED keeps flashing.

If in step 2, I leave the lid open until the external screen shows the Windows login screen and THEN close the lid, the LED never starts flashing.  I suspect it will start flashing anytime I close the lid during the BIOS initialization, but perhaps it is only if I close the lid BEFORE the BIOS initialization, Haven't tested that.

I can report i have exactly the same behavior when using an external monitor but both with the USB-C to HDMI adapter and the WD15 docking station. With the WD15 docking station i run with mini Displayport to Display port on a Samsung SA850 monitor. I also see there is 7 white and 2 orange blinks from the battery indicator. The battery is fully charged and charging so should not be the issue. Even when disconnecting from the external monitor, the LED keeps blinking.

Thanks for confirming. I have learned to live with it (making sure I wait to close to lid), but I still wonder what this behavior is all about!

Having the same issue.

Using the XPS 13 9350
BIOS Ver: 1.3.3.00

connected with the K16A001 using the displayport to my Dell P2416D

I have the same flashing pattern but I have an additional, more serious problem. In fact the flashing never occurred until Dell tried to address the more serious issue.

If I unplug my external display the laptop screen will eventually go blank, rendering it useless as a laptop. I've been trying to get this resolved with Dell since February (and I think we are close) but after sending it in for repairs, I got it back no better than when I sent it in. Actually the flashing led error code only appeared after Dell tried to fix it  by replacing the LED touch screen. 

All this makes me wonder if the error code relates to something with the display port rather than the battery. It also makes me concerned that if they ever get me hardware that works, will it get hosed again the next time I plug in an external monitor.

I gave up on this issue. Instead I''ll just make sure that the lid is open when I boot to avoid that irritating flashing.

As for the blank..I occasionally have that issue as well when I boot the laptop standalone with no external monitor connected. It will just show a black screen (back-light is on) with only the mouse pointer, that's it. The only remedy is to force power off and reboot. One of my colleagues with an XPS 13 has this exact same problem.

Seems to me that the firmware of the XPS 13 has some quality issues.

I received a new computer from Dell. The thunderbolt port did not work any better but failed in the apposite way so now instead of failing when removing the adapter the screen failed when plugging it in. Symptoms included high fan usage, screen blinking on and off and in some cases web apps crashing. 

Searching the new nuances of my problem I found a solution for my isssues. Oddly it involves reducing the wifi power usage (perhaps the display driver and wifi over drive things and cause windows to do some shut off thing).

To try, simply set the wifi to 50%. This is a network adapter property in windows for your wifi adapter. More specifics are explained here:

en.community.dell.com/.../20919021

I have exactly the same pattern flashing, only additionally my laptop forces a shutdown after about 30s, regardless of whether it is in the BIOS stage or whether it loaded windows already. When it started I woke my XPS 13 from hibernation, and was able to log into windows, even open a browser. Then the fans started up briefly, the battery indicator went solid white for a second and then it shut down. The laptop was working perfectly fine apart from the display not working, but this was an earlier issue. I suspect this same LCD interface rom issue is at the core of this, what I don't know is why the flashing and forced shutdowns started only now. Now it seems my laptop has noticed something is amiss and refuses to stay on longer than 30s. I reverted the BIOS settings to factory, to no avail. This happens for me now regardless whether the external monitor is connected via USB-C, or whether the lid is open or not.

I'm in your same boat. Any update to this? Mine began yesterday. I also had a prior LCD issue. Would randomly not work. Without fail, once the battery died, it would boot up normally and run fine for months. Then yesterday it went to sleep and I had to force restart it and started getting the error code. 2/7 listed below. An hour or so later, while connected to HMDI via USB-C to my tv, it rebooted and began the described 30 second sequence of fan on, white led, and then shutdown.