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1760
XPS 8950, boot drive disappears after Windows restart
I received a XPS 8950 last week, plugged in a second 2TB drive into the second M.2 slot, and installed Windows 11 and a load of apps. Just a few days ago though I noticed that whenever Windows restarted, I got a Boot failure on device message after the system tried to boot over IP (I later disabled the two IP boot options so that when it happened, I got the failure notice straight away).
I then noticed the following two different types of BIOS Setup screens:
It seems that when Windows restarts, the boot drive has disappeared. It usually happens that if I switch the machine off, leave it for a minute or so, then switch it on, it'll go back into Windows (presumably having found the boot drive in the meantime).
I saw the post (Solved: XPS 8950, intermittent SSD boot problem - Dell Community) and tried to change the SATA/NVMe Operation from 'RAID on' to 'AHCI/NVMe' but the machine simply switched off after showing the Dell logo.
Has anyone else had/solved this problem or can suggest a solution.
(I spent three hours on the Tech Support WhatsApp line with no useful result.)
Thanks all,
Tony.
tonylinde2
20 Posts
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April 4th, 2022 06:00
One additional thing was required (which I found Re: New Dell XPS 8950 will not boot from USB - Dell Community) and that was to plug the monitor I was using directly into the onboard display card. That's the reason why I was getting a blank screen - nothing was being sent to the graphics card display port - no idea why!! Was able to plug my dual monitors back into the graphics card afterwards with no problems. And I can now restart Windows - thanks!!
Might suggest adding this to your list of instructions, to plug monitor directly into onboard card before making all the switches - might not be needed but won't hurt.
68cutlass
192 Posts
1
April 3rd, 2022 12:00
You have to boot windows to safe mode after change. I also reconfigure drivers and get rid of IRST if installed prior to the change.
https://support.thinkcritical.com/kb/articles/switch-windows-10-from-raid-ide-to-ahci
tonylinde2
20 Posts
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April 3rd, 2022 12:00
Thanks. I cannot even get to Windows. After the change, the system just switches off after the Dell logo.
68cutlass
192 Posts
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April 3rd, 2022 13:00
If you are still stuck you'll have to change it back to RAID, set boot mode then go through it again
68cutlass
192 Posts
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April 3rd, 2022 13:00
Read that page. You set the boot to safe mode PRIOR to making the change.
tonylinde2
20 Posts
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April 4th, 2022 01:00
I did this but the system now won't boot to Windows at all - it either sits at the Dell logo until I give up and switch it off (after 20 minutes the last time) or goes straight to the Boot failure message.
Seeulater
2 Posts
1
April 4th, 2022 14:00
I may have a clue on what's going on (TLDR - it's the overclock BIOS setting).
I was having the same symptom, where the boot drive would randomly disappear on my new XPS 8950. The frequency is about 1 out 10 reboots. So its hard to capture what's really going on. After about 2 - 3 days of normal use, today I got the 'inaccessible boot device' blue screen error. So, I checked the BIOS setting for SATA/NVMe and its is correctly configured to 'AHCI/NVMe (not RAID). I rebooted and got the same 'inaccessible boot device' error. I went to the BIOS setting again and saw that the overclock setting that I previously enabled, was disabled. I re-enabled the overclock setting and voila, it worked. For some reason, the overclock setting gets removed by the BIOS. Not sure why. I will monitor to see if this is consistent.
tonylinde2
20 Posts
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April 5th, 2022 01:00
Thanks for that. I'm afraid I don't even know where the overclock setting is or how to change it: can you advise so that I know where to look if I hit this case? Thanks.
Seeulater
2 Posts
1
April 6th, 2022 12:00
You get there by rebooting your computer and hit F2 key during the boot up process. That will take you to the BIOS setting. Select Advanced > Performance Option > Overclocking Feature. You will have the option to 'Enabled' or 'Disabled' it.
NOTE: I enabled overclocking in my BIOS. When I loose my boot option, I see that the Overclocking Feature is 'Disabled', to which I have to re-enable and thus fixing the boot issue. I don't know what causes the BIOS to loose this overclocking setting. My BIOS version is 1.0.13. If you haven't enabled overclocking, then you may not run into this issue (or the SATA/NVMe lost its setting and went to RAID).
This doesn't speak well for this Dell version of the BIOS.
Hope that helps.
ritchea
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17 Posts
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April 5th, 2023 03:00
BACKGROUND: Just got my 8950 back after 42 days in the Depot. The clickety sound coming from the PSU area is gone--at the moment; however, after tech support took over my machine to "troubleshoot" prior to Depot visit, my pc would not boot into windows (Which was one reason I sent it in rather than taking in-home support.) The boot sequence is exactly as it was when I sent it in: NIC IPV4 then IPV6 then goes to Support screen to check everything which returns "no issues," but pc won't boot. Now, I have discovered that the extra drives that I re-attached to the machine are all showing in BIOS 1.1.0 ver, but the OS drive does not show at all. This 512GB M.2 PCIe NVME SSDD is the only drive that came with pc (so OS drive).
HELP NEEDED: The Windows 11 OS drive does not show. The info shows RAID enabled. Overclocking is not enabled--never was afaik.
It appears I need a "D" connector to attach the monitor to the onboard card. The graphics card connection takes about 10 seconds to show the screen--much too long. If that doesn't get the pc booted, do I need to Switch Windows 10 from RAID/IDE to AHCI then try to follow through on the other steps listed here (safe mode, for one)? I have no recovery option presented but would like to preserve my install if possible anyway. I do have several back-ups but did not clone the drive before sending in pc.
ritchea
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17 Posts
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April 5th, 2023 08:00
After 3x re-seating the OS drive, and after double-checking on my old pc that the disk itself had my data, Windows actually came up. I have sent for a Display Port cable just in case that's a magic wand that may help if this happens again. Except for the 42 days in Depot, I've had this pc for nearly a year. I've never encountered this behavior on this pc. The BIOS is quite different from my older machines. I appreciate all the suggestions posted here. I don't think I'll be restarting this machine until the Display Port cable comes.