XPS 15 9560 random hard drive failure

Have you run the Quick Test and then the Dell ePSA diagnostics on the drive?

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply. I have run both of the tests you mentioned and both tests produced no errors.

To me, that sounds like the hardware itself is OK. When is SupportAssist showing that error? I mean, are you just using the system as normal and it just pops up?

If you look in Event Viewer, under errors, you may have a bugcheck entry which may give you the code we could check.... But if you feel the problem is the firmware update, it may make no difference even if we did know what was causing it.

The event happens at random. A few times it happened when the system was "idling" with the screesaver on. Today it happened while I was using Chrome.

The times it shut down today there was a message that the shutdown was unexpected and an error code of 6008.

Were you connected to the AC adapter or on battery only?

You should be seeing a message like the one I was getting.  Mine were being caused by a wireless driver.

Thanks for your reply. I'm not seeing any BugCheck errors in the log.

The machine was on AC power.

I do not think that this is an actual hardware failure. Moving this to the Windows 10 board to get their opinions.

The XPS 15 failed again tonight. Was able to reboot with no issues. Event viewer screen cap is included.

" The machine was on AC power".

:emotion-2:

A power surge could be the culprit of the hard drive problem. Is the AC adapter connected to a wall outlet or (cheap) Power Surge Protector? If yes,  I'd suggest you purchase a Power Surge Protector that can handle any type of power surge.  

Surge Protectors - Walmart.com

Forget the surge protector.  It only gets recommended when one has no idea what it does and what that anomaly is.  Potentially destructive surges occur maybe once every seven years.  It does not cause an intermittent device crash.  It destroys hardware.

Furthermore that protector on 120 volts will do nothing until voltage well exceed 330 volts.  How many other household appliances are being damaged by a well over 330 volt transient?    Move on to real world analysis.

Drive or associate hardware is definitely failing intermittently.  It is not a software problem.  But this is the nature of an intermittent.  That defect exists constantly.  But only causes failures intermittently.  That is what diagnostics are for and why Dell provides comprehensive hardware diagnostics for all internal  components. (Other manufacturers have them but will not provide them).

Another diagnostic tool is heat.  Heat does not create damage.  Heat can make a constantly defective part temporarily act defective constantly.  Best is to operate that computer in a 100 degree F room.  Or use a hairdryer on highest heat to selectively heat components.  Then execute that comprehensive diagnostic.  If some interface chip, cable, or disk drive is defective, this is your best option  for identifying it.