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August 11th, 2019 08:00
XPS8930 Issues After Bios Upgrade
I just made the mistake of upgrading my BIOS to 1.1.8, thanks to Dell telling me that this was URGENT. I'm not a power user so I literally have no idea what's going on. I just know that this upgrade significantly downgraded performance.
My PC is now stupid sluggish, boots slower than the normal slowness and I'm encountering problems with web pages. On this website, I've gotten multiple errors such as search hits displaying as blocks of solid color with no text, or it just not being able to connect to pages. I also notice that after the upgrade, there's a new file in the container folder called amifldvr64.sys. Why would it put a .sys file in a desktop folder? Is a file that I can safely delete?
Can anyone make suggestions for bios settings that might help me? I haven't been in Bios settings since I purchased this PC a year ago. It's all Greek to me and I don't know what my previous settings were. I'm running Windows 10 Pro, play lots of games (a few MMORPGs but mostly non-intensive stuff) and spend a lot of time on YouTube, if that helps.
On a different note, Dell indicates that I need to upgrade my graphics driver. The driver I have is the driver Dell is recommending. I download and install manually from Nvidia. Why doesn't Dell detect this when scanning my system? And why is there a never before seen Nvidia process (DDV Nvidia Graphics Worker) now running on my system? I know it's part of Dell's Support Assistant. I just don't understand why I've never seen it before or why it's still running.
Dell also indicates that there are driver upgrades available for:
Intel RST
Intel UHD Graphics
Intel Management Engine Interface
Optical Disk Drive Firmware (HLDS BU40N 8DK33)
Downloaded them all but at this point, I'm hesitant to install any of them.
Sorry for so many questions. Ignorance is not bliss.
Spluck
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August 11th, 2019 14:00
Yes. via elevated Command Prompt.
RoHe
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August 11th, 2019 18:00
Others have reported that same file ending up on the desktop after upgrading (or trying to upgrade) to the latest BIOS on the XPS 8930. Do not delete it at this point.
Search your hard drive for that file name, and rename any OLD versions of that file from .sys to .old. Then copy the new .sys file that's on your desktop into those folders, leaving the copy on the desktop. Reboot and confirm PC is working. Then rename that .sys file on the desktop to .new and reboot. If the PC still boots correctly, you can safely move the .new file off the desktop to some other folder, keeping the .new name.
Dell frequently tweaks drivers for their specific OEM versions of the hardware that's installed, eg for video cards. So manually installing a driver from the NVidia site doesn't necessarily mean it's the best driver for your hardware because Dell's OEM version of the video card is likely different from the retail card. SupportAssist looks at what's installed and if the driver it finds doesn't match the version number for the corresponding driver from the Dell site it prompts you to install the Dell driver.
You can probably disable the entire Dell Data Vault Data Collector Service and that will stop DDV Nvidia Graphics Worker from running. It's not needed...
Update all the other drivers that are being offered and see if that improves your system's performance. This BIOS update is supposed to fix recently discovered security flaws in the Intel chip that's running your PC. So it's possible that has affected performance.
Don't try to revert to the previous version of BIOS yourself. There's a chance you could brick the motherboard and Dell will only cover that failure if the PC is still under warranty. If performance is still an issue after updating all the drivers, contact Dell Tech Support, assuming you still have a warranty on this PC, and see what they recommend.
Spluck
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August 11th, 2019 20:00
Thanks for all the info. Very much appreciated.
Did a quick search and that .sys file exists nowhere but on my desktop.
No way will I try to revert to the last version of Bios. Not worth it, even tho the PC is still under warranty. I live on this thing and more importantly, I need it for college classes until the end of the year.
It's late here so I'll tackle the drivers tomorrow and let you know how I fare.
RoHe
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August 12th, 2019 10:00
There's another recent thread where the user couldn't get that same new version of BIOS to install on an XPS 8930. The solution there was to open BIOS setup and disable Virtualization. I wonder if that might help with your issues too, but no promises...
Reboot and immediately press F2 to open BIOS setup. Find the Virtualization option and disable it. Don't change anything else in BIOS setup but save the change to the Virtualization setting before exiting setup and let the PC boot.
Post back and let us know if that helps - or not. And you can always re-enable Virtualization in BIOS if you decide you need it...
RoHe
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August 12th, 2019 15:00
Update...
My Dell tech contact suggests you try disabling both Virtualization and VT for Direct I/O in BIOS setup to see if that improves performance after the BIOS update.
Obviously, if you're running a virtual machine on the XPS 8930, you need both of those enabled in BIOS setup. Even so, at least try to see if disabling both of them improves performance. You can always re-enable them to run a virtual machine...
Spluck
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August 12th, 2019 16:00
Hi Ron,
Installed all of the drivers.
The reboot after the Rapid Storage driver install took 30min.
The rest of the reboots were 5-6 min.
Apps (ex: Microsoft Word & Excel, Firefox, Chrome) are opening with blue progress spinners, which never happened before. The containers open blank and then everything populates like I'm on dialup. I keep expecting to hear a carrier tone. On the bright side, websites are loading with no latency.
Disabled Virtualization and VT for Direct I/O. No change.
Uninstalled Dell Virtual Assistant. Boot time dropped back to normal (approx 3min) but there's still system wide latency.
Launched Bluestacks for the **bleep** of it (asked me to enable virtualization) and it was **bleep**.
Anyway, I appreciate your time and assistance. I can't imagine it being much fun to deal with rubes like me.
DELL-Chris M
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August 13th, 2019 07:00
Do you have any USB drives connected to any of the 9 USB ports when powering the XPS 8930 on or restarting it?
RoHe
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August 13th, 2019 10:00
@Spluck- I see @DELL-Chris M reached out to you so he may be your best source for help with this problem.
If you have Dell SupportAssist and/or Dell Update installed, you may want to disable or uninstall them and see if things improve.
This may be a long shot, but try clearing BIOS:
NOTE: Virtualization and VT for Direct I/O will get re-enabled when you clear BIOS because that's their default setting. So test PC after clearing BIOS and if the latency problems persist, try disabling those two again...
And please don't use words that will get **bleeped** by the forum's censor software...
Spluck
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August 13th, 2019 21:00
DM sent.
No USB drives attached to my box. At any given time there might be a phone or earbuds attached for charging. That's it.
DELL-Chris M
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August 14th, 2019 05:00
Dell also indicates that there are driver upgrades available for:
Intel RST
Intel UHD Graphics
Intel Management Engine Interface
Yes, you should update all three. Do them one at a time, restarting after each one. Then retest. See my latest PM to you concerning the warranty end date.