XPS 8930, Auto Power Time fails

Addendum: my assumption was wrong, there is no connection with the time being off before the boot up time set. Recently I managed to boot up during the day after 6 hours, yesterday the PC was running until 22:30 and did not fire up at 02:00, that is after 3.5 hours.

It is also not the choice of a time after midnight: 01:59:59 worked (once) a few weeks ago, 02:00 never.

So the whole thing is completely random and unreliable or it is the BIOS being scared at spooky hours :-)

Maybe someone owning a 8930 is kind enough to test this - do you manage to boot up at 02:00 more than once? That would at least rule out a generic BIOS software error.

Thank you for any pointers or ideas,

Regards, a Humble User

Okay, I have no idea why in this forum a) I have to type every post two times and b) there are no responses at all... Possibly a) is the reason for b) and I am one of the few, who retypes every post once more :-)

Anyway - here an update for the Auto Wake On Time issue: after a new motherboard with BIOS 1.0.5 in vain and some discussions with the local DELL Agent (kudos, highly cooperative!), DELL decided to resupply a new XPS 8930.

Warning in case you have this situation: swapping the harddisks DOES NOT WORK for unclear reasons (identical hardware, identical BIOS Settings, no SecureBoot), The new PC does not find a bootable drive, when the HD of the old one is attached.

So after a cheerful and exciting several-hours-backup/restore-wipe-old-HD-session I managed to "clone" the system, set the BIOS to 02:00 AM and in the following night, hurray!, the system booted for the first time as expected!

But only in this night and never again. Next night - nothing happens! :-(

Meanwhile it is clearly not a hardware or component isse, as I had the same problem with 3 different motherboards in 2 different PCs. Also not a temporary glitch of a BIOS branch - it is the same with 1.0.2, 1.0.3 and 1.0.5 (did not download and try 1.0.7 yet, but do not have much hope there anyway).

It seems to be a generic issue of the series XPS 8930: the Auto Wake On Time BIOS Setting is nonfunctional / unreliable.

It is a pity, that DELL Support is apparently not aware of this. If I knew, it would have spared us both a lot of time and effort.

Cheers from a Very Lonely and still Very Humble User.

Last update: new BIOS 1.0.7 does not resolve the issue either.

Additionally to the problem described above, the BIOS Setting Auto Power on AC - Power On does not work either. I tried to solve my problem with an external timer, after 5 minutes without AC the PC does not boot.

Current workaround is WOL via a Raspi - really a dirty hack to run a computer in order to tell the other when it is time to wake up, but at least this consumes less power :-)

Have a nice day, Humble.

Having the same issue right out of the box...computer will not turn on until after 2 pm each day. Tech coming to replace the motherboard later this week. Any new ideas on a permanent fix...thanks.

I've never understood why users use this feature.

If you want to use the computer, sit-down in front of it and turn it on.

If you want to run some automated task when you are not around ... I think Windows Scheduler is a better choice and let it sleep in-between.

side note: anybody knows why the two letters C and U as abbreviation for "see you" is a *bleep* ?

see you, Humble

@Tesla1856

there are certain situations where a BIOS/Hardware level control is preferable. Task Scheduler is rather unreliable, as MS is updating frequently, also a "clean" power state is not easily achievable (you never know if you have S3, or hybernate, or standby hybrid or whatever). Generally the power options are quite volatile when it comes to Windows... Finally quite some attached hardware may have issues when awoken from sleep.

Or alternatively you can have a computer that is getting alive on spooky reasons - like an antivirus waking up 10 minutes after switching off (had that with Norton).

This is why I'd prefer a clean state, freshly booted - it is more stable for patching or other scheduled tasks like backups.

You are right insofar that most BIOS have not this option - but DELL has it for a long time and I have learned to appreciate it (as long as it works :-))

**bleep**, Humble

Hello powerup-pls (a fine username at that :-))

Motherboard replacement did not help for me - also a new delivery of the whole system did not fix the issue. Seems to be a BIOS problem.

Whereas there is a slight hope arising: since a few days BIOS 1.0.8 is available and according to the description on DELLs site there is an "Enhancement: Auto Power Feature" included.

I did not dare to install yet - I am rather careful with new BIOS where there are some 5 or 6 versions within a few weeks (since December from 1.0.3 to 1.0.8)

In case you have the appointment with DELL anyway, you may try 1.0.8 if it helps - if it bricks, you get a new MB anyway :-P

Cheers, Humble

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@HumbleUserwrote:

@Tesla1856

1. Task Scheduler is rather unreliable, as MS is updating frequently,

2. also a "clean" power state is not easily achievable (you never know if you have S3, or hybernate, or s tandby hybrid or whatever).

3. Generally the power options are quite volatile when it comes to Windows...

4. Finally quite some attached hardware may have issues when awoken from sleep.

5. Or alternatively you can have a computer that is getting alive on spooky reasons - like an antivirus waking up 10 minutes after switching off (had that with Norton).

6. This is why I'd prefer a clean state, freshly booted - it is more stable for patching or other scheduled tasks like backups

1. I have not found it to be unreliable.

2. I have Hibernate OFF (with SSD boot, I find it un-needed). The only Sleep-State is the one you setup (I use S3).

3. Not sure what that means

4. Agreed, but Windows-10 64bit is the best yet in that regard. Laptops rely on wake/sleep heavily now-days, so why shouldn't desktops. I haven't noticed much problems.

5. There is no mystery why. Also, newer machines have Intel's Intel Ready Mode Technology .

6. My Aurora-R6 has been waking itself daily for Macrium Backups for about a year now, and I don't think it has missed any days due to not waking. It also wakes for Windows Updates and reboots itself (as needed) to install those.

It's pretty close to iOS (iPhone/iPad ) hands-off maintenance and updating functionality.

Hi, Mr. Tesla,

I have to admit, you are kind of right with many of your thoughts: nowadays PCs are really much more reliable - my reluctance to rely on to Windows in matters like scheduled tasks or backups or similar is due to past experience mostly :-)

With the scheduler and the power saving modes I have had troubles since they were introduced for the first time and to be honest I did not revisit these features in depth in Win10.

Many of the problems I experienced were also due to poor localization - in German Windows you never really know in which state the PC goes down, they call it sometimes this and sometimes that but never the same. To make things more confusing, the quick start option was introduced, which is actually a hybernate, but called power saving in the event log and actually appears to be somwhere in between S3 and S5 - whereas you click clearly switch OFF and would expect a clean S5. And then compare the report from POWERCFG /sleepstudy with the event logs - completely different things are reported, system clock is stopped and resetted upon boot and other funny things.

My general point was that I prefer hardware or near hardware things in comparison to an OS that is updated rather intransparently every two weeks - have seen too many things broken or removed by MS... Just a matter of personal taste :-)

Thanks for your feedback though.

Cheers, Humble.

I was having the same issue, be sure and disable the Auto power on, if you update the bios with it enabled, it will not work...I had to go back, disable auto power on, then reinstall the bios update.  Then it worked like a charm!

Hi Folks,

I am also have auto boot problems, with an XPS 8910, BIOS version 1.1.9. See my thread here.

Any suggestions are appreciated,

thx

Mark