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XPS 13 2in1 9365 problems
Just purchased a new XPS 13 9365 at a local Best Buy store:
- i7 CPU
- 16GB RAM
- 512GB SSD
- QHD LCD
- Firmware 1.0.01
- Motherboard revision A00
After a couple of days I found the following problems:
- Very often (but not always), when I restart Windows, at boot up, the front rectangular LED blinks white and orange several time and then the laptop freezes. I need to long-press the power button to make it restart again.
- In the BIOS, if I reload the "factory settings" the system restarts and at boot up it always freezes. Again, I need to long-press the power button to make it restart again.
- When I turn on the camera, the systems emits a very annoying crackling noise. Similar to what old HDD heads used to do when seeking, just louder. The noise appears to be coming from somewhere under the center of the keyboard.
- The keyboard backlight is not evenly distributed. It's decisively brighter on the right side, with the lower left corner almost dark (see picture below).
- Also, but this is more like a BIOS bug, the option:
POST Behavior → Fn Lock Options → Lock Mode → Disable/Standard | Enable/Secondary appears to be the opposite of what the help says.
I love the system and I would like to return and exchange it but I'm afraid Best Buy will give me another one from the same batch and with the same problems.
Are the above signs of a bad motherboard? I read that Dell has now released a new hardware revision A02.
Can anybody confirm that if I buy it directly from Dell I'll now get this new A02 revision?
Saltgrass
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April 11th, 2017 08:00
Your external power is plugged into the wrong port. It should be on the left. Maybe this will relate to other problems.
There are two Bios updates from your current version. I might be a little hesitant to do the newest one until some of your boot problems are fixed.
The amber light is supposed to be an indication of battery status. It also appears to flash in conjunction with beep codes. I think I saw such a situation when I was changing the drive on my system.
The keyboard backlight appears to be even on my system and looking at it from different angles might give you a good idea of where the lights might be different brightness.
Turning on the camera is not something I do but it is on now and do not hear any noises. I have heard the noise you mention and you can try muting the speakers to see if it stops. Turning on the camera may cause the speakers to pick up something they would not normally do. On my system the noise only happens occasionally and it not really a problem.
There is a new Win 10 build coming out today. You might want to delay that until you get this figured out. If you want to go through your bios settings, we can do that and check to make sure your drive is configured correctly. You might open Device Manager and see what drive it is. There are some firmware updates for certain drives.
Mircolino
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April 11th, 2017 18:00
My apologies for the typo: I do have the 1.0.10 BIOS installed already.
Yes. I plugged the power into the left side port last night but I'm still experiencing all the issues I listed above. Especially the white/orange blinking led with following system freeze when I restart.
Mircolino
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April 11th, 2017 18:00
>
> There are two Bios updates from your current version
>
Where can I find them? On the official Dell download page I see only the 1.0.10 version.
Is a new motherboard revision A02 really available?
Saltgrass
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April 11th, 2017 18:00
For any updates for your system, if the Dell Updater has not installed them, go to the Dell.com site and Support. You can find the system and download updates and manuals for your system. The Bios 1.0.01 was followed by .05 and now .10. I do not know what Motherboard version I have.
Did you put the external power in the correct port?
Saltgrass
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April 11th, 2017 19:00
My next step would be to check your drive and how it is configured. The system is shipped from the factory with a PCIe drive set to run on a SATA controller. So there are some things in the Device Manager you could check.
First, look at the drive and see what is listed as the drive type. Second, check the Storage controllers to see what is shown in addition to the Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller. If it shows a SATA controller it is set in that mode and the SATA options in the Bios are probably set to RAID. If it shows NVMe, then the drive is actually set to run as a PCIe device.
The other problems you are seeing, I have already addressed. I am still hoping changing the external power port will charge the battery and solve some of your problems.
Mircolino
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April 11th, 2017 22:00
First time I setup the BIOS I changed the drive configuration from RAID to AHCI because I don't like Intel RST drivers. Since then the SSD is listed in the Windows Device Manager -> Storage Controllers as "Standard NVM Express Controller" and the drive seems to be working OK.
These system freezes at restart/bootup keep happening. Perhaps I'll just go back to Best Buy and exchange the unit.
Saltgrass
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April 12th, 2017 07:00
It might be a good idea to exchange the unit, perhaps it has problems.
According to my tests and some research, the system performs better with the SATA configuration if there is not a specific driver for the PCIe drive. My system is running a Samsung 960 Pro.. which may be more than it can use. But Samsung has a driver for it.so it performs better than the Standard NVMe driver. I do not know if that driver was improved in the Creator's Update..
At boot you can use the F12 key to get into the diagnostics. If that works you might try running those before you take it back.