Precision 5510 crashing problems

Andrew, I'm having the same issue with the two PW5510 I purchased in December. I have reloaded the system completely twice and the issue still happens. Random blue screens, nothing gets written to the event log making it hard to troubleshoot. Dell is suggesting that I send the system in for repaired but I'm not convinced it's a hardware issues since both of the systems I have purchased have similar issues.

It seems the random crashing happens most often when the system is connected to the network using the Thunderbolt port. It will run fine if it's off the network or using wireless.

If you come up with a solution please let me know.I have an awesome system that I can't use because of the stability issues.  

I've noticed the problems occur much more frequently when I'm running Explorer and Outlook, so my feeling is that it is related to networking somehow, but occasionally I'll get a crash even when I'm not using the network, (although, it is entirely possible that an open program is pinging a license server).

I'm curious are you using the OEM system install, or a system image developed for other computers in your network.  We used a generic image and wiped away the OEM image, so I'm in the process of putting that image back on the machine and seeing if that helps.

I will definitely keep you posted of any results.

Andrew

I'm having the same problem with my 5510.  I've tried both dell and Microsoft installs of Windows 10, with and without the Dell drivers.  Bluescreens with no minidumps or event logs.  Happens more often with the thunderbolt USB (about 6x in a 9 hour period) vs on wireless (once in a 9 hour period).  I plan to try downgrading to Windows 7 and seeing if I have the same issue.  Has anyone had this issue and actually managed to get a resolution? 

After an unproductive visit from a Dell on-site support tech who replaced the hard drive (Solid state) to no effect. I finally demanded that Dell step up and take some responsibility for the fixing the problem.  They offered to take the laptop back for factory support.  They replaced some unspecified piece of hardware, reloaded Windows (incidentally they loaded windows 7 instead of 10 which it initially came with), tested the machine and sent it back.  I haven't had any problems since, even after we did an inplace upgrade to windows 10.

In short, I still don't know if it was drivers or bad hardware, but I can say this.  When the first computer was a dud, we bought a second machine with identical specs and had exactly the same problem.  The day after we finally received the working machine back from Dell, the second machine stopped booting altogether.  We sent it back.  Now that it finally works, I love the Precision 5510 now, but Dell support has been abysmal.

This is very interesting.

My Precision 5510 came with Ubuntu.  It was hanging.  I would be typing a document in say, LibreOffice, and the screen would just suddenly go black, and that was it.

I installed Fedora 23 Linux, and it seemed like it was doing much better, but it turns out the problem was still happening there.

I thought that the problem was related specifically to Linux since Skylake support there is rather new. I installed Windows 10 pro, and all the various dell driver updates.  The machine hung several times in Windows yesterday.  At one point, it hung, I rebooted, opened up Firefox, went back to a web page I was editing, and it hung again... but after shutting down and coming back up again, it didn't hang again.  Since my machine didn't come with Windows 10, of course I can't get Dell support for that...  and I definitely am not ready to go back to the Dell-installed Ubuntu either.

The fact that the problem is Linux/Windows, it seems more hardware related, or BIOS, or something along those lines.. but who knows..  I will continue experimenting a bit more before having Dell come out.   How long has it been since you've had your machine back that the problem did not occur again?

There is a little more to my story.  I started by purchasing the new, similarly spec'ed XPS15 which is the same form factor as the Precision 5510.  Dell replace the mother board once and the hard drive twice and we finally returned that machined.  It never did work.  Then we tried the 5510 and after maybe two months of trouble shooting, trying to figure out if it was some software conflict, or our system image.  Dell finally came out and replaced the hard drive.  Nothing.  In the meantime, we actually ordered a second Dimension and had exactly the same problem. We were about to have a tech come out and replace hard drive when the computer completely stopped booting and wouldn't recognize the hard drive at all.  So, between three computers we had at least five hard drives and four mother boards that were at least suspect.  I think there may be production problems at Dell.  Don't wait, escalate!

Fortunately, I found something on TechNet:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/7bf35264-b5bc-434d-90e2-c60c60ba3d93/dell-precision-5510-blue-screen-at-first-reboot-after-applying-driver-package?forum=configmanagerosd

That seemed to address the issue.  I downloaded the Samsung NVMe drivers ssd.samsungsemi.com/.../update15.do;as suggested by TechNet.  The machine has not suffered a BSOD in 23 hours now, which is a new record.  Dell wanted to replace my motherboard and RAM, but quite frankly I don't want to touch it until I'm caught back up on work.  So I'd attempt to apply the Samsung NVMe driver before anything.  Hopefully Microsoft will roll it up into their list of drivers and we can stop the plague of BSODs.

As a caveat, it seems some people have had problems rebooting after installing the driver.  I've rebooted twice with no issues, but don't want to push my luck atm.

I actually installed that driver (in addition to installing upgraded NVIDIA driver, upgraded Intel 530 graphics driver, etc. -- anything I could update so that I'd be running the latest version) and I still had the crash one time yesterday.  Now, I don't have the machine with me right now, but one thing that I found puzzling was that when I opened up "hard disk" in Device Manager, and went to the NVMe disk, and looked at the details for the driver, it still listed it as the "Microsoft" driver... so I thought that the driver install didn't work!  I tried to reinstall it, and it failed because it was in use.. so it seems like it did work... but as I said, I had the crash one time...  Just curious if you see anywhere in Device Manager that it's specifically using the Samsung NVMe driver, and where...  Also, it would be great if you could report back what happens after a day or two.. Thanks! :)

Still no crashes.  Something like 31 hours solid now.  In device manager under "Storage Controllers" I have the "Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller" and the "Samsung NVMe Controller" 

Earlier in my flailing I also installed the NVIDIA driver.  I received BSODs that generated minidumps while I had that driver in.  I had the same experience with the AC8260 wireless driver.  I had to install the updated version of that driver off the Intel site (version 18.40.0.9) and am running the stock NVIDIA driver that came with win10 (version 10.18.13.5894).  If I had either the stock AC8260 driver or the latest and greatest NVIDIA driver I had BSODs, but they did generate minidumps and were directly attributable to those specific drivers.

Under "Disk Drives" I didn't mess with anything.  I'm running the NVMe PM951 NVMe SAMSU (10.0.10586.0) and Samsung SSD 850 EVO device is using the same driver version.

I'll leave this thing running until Monday and see if my BSOD-free streak continues.

UPDATE - This has been running for about 5 days now with 0 BSODs.  I'm considering my issue as resolved.  Hopefully this will help some others get off the motherboard replacement train.

Thanks for your message!  I can see that my first two attempts at installing the Samsung NVMe driver failed because under both "Storage Controllers" and "Disk Drives", there was no Samsung driver.  I installed it again today, and this time, after a reboot, I see the same thing as you do.  I only have the NVMe device, and not the 850EVO as well, but as it happens, I have the parts on order to install an 850 that is sitting on my desk (didn't realize that the machine wouldn't come with the parts to allow the install ..grr..).   I have checked and my Intel AC8260 driver is the same driver version as you.  I have removed the upgraded Nvidia driver and rebooted, and am now back to the stock Win10 driver.  If this works for me, as I suspect it does, then there are likely issues with the NVMe driver under Linux, causing the hangs there, but that's a different story.  As long as the machine is stable under one O/S for at least a few days, then I know that problems under the other O/S are unlikely related to hardware, but more than likely a driver issue.   

Today already 4 BSOD on my 5510 (Xeon, M2 1TB, 16GB), and it's only early afternoon...
I do not use Outlook or Explorer: the system crashes even if there is no program running.
I am very disappointed with Dell and I would not recommend this machine to anyone!

Andrew, did you ever find out what part they replaced.  I'm sure a ticket was created and there would have had to be a worklog specifying what part was replaced.  I'm having the exact same issue as you and everyone else in this thread.  Thanks for your reply.

Brian

Apologies for not following up sooner.  After multiple support techs, I finally shipped the computer to dell where they did some diagnostics and reinstalled the OS (Windows 7).  Dell mentioned in the invoice, "replaced system hardware" which is vague enough that is could be anything.  Totally unhelpful and given our track record with these machines,   Our first mistake probably was purchasing a brand new model.  Maybe there were production problems, sourcing problems, maybe the machines hadn't been tested enough.  Whatever the case, I would hope that Dell eventually irons out these bugs, but until I understand what the bugs were, I we will not be ordering any more until we have a better understanding about what kept failing.

I think our second mistake was using our corporate image instead of Dell's.  When Dell replaced the aforementioned "system hardware" and reimaged the machine, it worked fine.  Even after upgrading to Windows 10.  It's a great computer, but every little glitch, the occasional blue screen keeps me wondering.  That being said, its very fast and mostly reliable.  I test a lot of software and I need a computer that is a known quantity so that I can be reasonably assured that any bug I'm encountering is not caused by my computer.

I am having the same problem with my Precision 5510

here is the e-mail I sent Dell this morning

1-      I received the computer on about April 7, 2016 and downloaded and installed all the purchased software that came with the computer – Office and Adobe

2-      I installed all the necessary software for our Genealogy and Photos

3-      I installed the Epson Wireless Printer WF-3540.

4-      When I tried to start Word it could not start.

5-      I called the 800 number for Dell and they said my Service Tag was not in their records yet.

6-      I did my own trouble shooting and discovered that by uninstalling the FAX program everything worked just fine.

7-      The computer crashed for the first time, the next day, and went into some kind of self-repair mode. It took about four or five minutes to come back on and everything seemed to work just fine. I did not call Dell as they did not have a record of my computer yet.

8-      I put the computer aside as I had purchased it to do Genealogy research at a family reunion in Denver Co in June 10-13

9-      We used our Inspiron 1721 for all our needs to prepare for Colorado saving the Precision for that trip.

10-   I loaded the Genealogy database into the Precision on about June 5 and headed to Colorado

11-   On June 11 I was using the Precision and it went into another crash and when I restarted it it went into the “repair” mode again and worked for the next three days.

12-   Upon returning to home at the end of our vacation I started having crashes and this time it would not go into repair mode and just froze so I called Dell for support. This time of course they had my Tag number and we started trying to repair this computer. For the next three days.

13-   After several attempts Dell sent me a replacement hard drive and I replaced it. I was instructed to NOT do updates as one of the Dell support personal told me that there was a problem with the “chip” sets and the solid state drives when the updates were installed.

14-   I followed instruction and the crashes resumed.

15-   You have my original hard drive with the event log so I cannot attach that record.

16-   I have been a loyal Dell Customer for many years. I am on my second XPS desktop and in 2007/8 I purchased three Dell Inspiron1721’s one for me and one each for my daughters. I have had very few problems with any of these systems. All the software installed on the New Precision 5510 is on the other five computers and they all worked just fine.

I am asking for reimbursement for my purchase or a replacement computer (with a regular hard drive) of similar value.