Charging issues with XPS 15 9500

Question

Our XPS15 9500 stops charging sometimes. The only way to get it charging again is to power off the laptop, unplug and replug the USB-C. This laptop also shows occasional pixelated Video fails.

After working with Dell for a month, the problem seems to be a motherboard hardware failure. A search shows the XPS17 9700 had a similar problem. Has anyone else seen this problem?

jphughan · Accepted Answer

@rickwiel The D6000 comes with a 130W power adapter but only passes through 65W (thought it was 60W). That's true of any dock because the dock reserves some power capacity to run its own internal electronics and to provide power to any USB devices you might connect to it. The WD19 130W provides 90W passthrough to the system, and the WD19 180W (and WD19TB) provide 130W passthrough. But when you've got a power adapter directly attached, the system can access the full power capacity since there's no intermediate devices that needs to "skim" power.

If you need triple 4K displays though, even the WD19TB wouldn't be sufficient unless you were ok running at least two of them at 30 Hz rather than the standard 60 Hz. Otherwise, the only way to run triple 4K 60 Hz displays would be to connect two of them to the dock and one of them directly to the system, using something like a USB-C to DisplayPort or HDMI adapter/cable if needed. But it's worth noting that even on the D6000, when running triple displays, the one connected via HDMI will be limited to 30 Hz. Here again if you need 60 Hz across the board, you'd need to connect one of them to the system separately.

As to unexpected restarts, I'm not sure what's going on there. If the charging circuit developed a problem around the same time, that's probably not a coincidence, although I haven't personally seen a power issue that caused spontaneous restarts.

DELL-Cares · Answer

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Sogaria · Answer

Hello,

I have the same problem with my dell xps 15 9500, it sometimes does not charge at all and I have to turn it off, replug and turn it on. Also the dell sometimes just turns off after finishing the boot process.

Is there any known solution for this?

mae__stro · Answer

Yes I do too  link to my issue post: https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9500-2020-AC-adapter-not-recognised-post-My-Dell-Support/m-p/7770610/highlight/false#M75771

mae__stro · Answer

Hi @Shoeclerk + @Sogaria ,Do you find a solution for this?

dbybanez · Answer

Same problem. I bought mine last January 4, 2021 and after a week, the charger stopped working. The indicator doesn't light up.

TooMuchSarcastic · Answer

OMG. This just started happening to me today too. I unplugged, took apart the AC adapter, and took out the USB-C, then put it all back together again and that seems to have fixed it for now. I've never had this issue before. USB-C was completely in the power port but the led indicator light would not turn on. I took the cable out, put it back in, and still the indicator light would not turn on. Meanwhile, my rig is losing power. Kind of a scary situation.

jphughan · Answer

@rickwiel Just for your awareness, if you're relying on the D6000 as a power source for your XPS 15 rather than keeping the system's own power adapter connected, that's a bad idea even if everything was working as expected. The D6000 only supplies up to 60W to the attached system. The XPS 15 9500 is designed for either 90W (if you do NOT have an NVIDIA GPU) or 130W (if you do have an NVIDIA GPU). So either way, if you're expecting it to run from a 60W power source, the system will attempt to adapt to that reduced power budget by slowing down its battery charging speed and throttling its performance, potentially significantly. The D6000 is also a poor dock choice overall, especially if you have an NVIDIA GPU, because of its reliance on "indirect display" technology called DisplayLink -- not to be confused with DisplayPort. I wrote about the many drawbacks of DisplayLink in the post marked as the answer in this thread.

Depending on whether you have an NVIDIA GPU and your display setup, the much better dock choices would be the WD19 130W, WD19 180W, or WD19TB (only comes in 180W form). The 180W docks can provide up to 130W to the attached system, enough to run your XPS 15 optimally even if it has an NVIDIA GPU, and all WD19 dock family models use native GPU outputs rather than DisplayLink technology.

But if you're stuck with the D6000, I'd recommend at least keeping your system's own power adapter directly connected as well.

rickwiel · Answer

Exact same problem on my XPS 15 9500!

New machine delivered in October worked fine for 3 months, then a standard minor Dell update was applied, noticed the battery was not charging even though it is plugged in, then randomly the screen goes black and restarts.

No correlation with Windows 20H2, or various drivers, or applications, or load. Updated BIOS to 1.6.1 with same results. I have a lot connected: Dell D6000 dock, 2 extra monitors, VPN to work, etc. but this can happen under light and heavy use without warning.

Getting it to charge again is similar: after it restarts, shut down, unplug all devices, wait, plug in the power adapter, power up, and cross your fingers. If it charges, then you can plug in all your devices and get back to work and re-enter what you lost!

Suspected the motherboard or charging circuit but now believe it is Dell software/firmware or BIOS. Will try to obtain info with Dell Support tomorrow under warranty.

rickwiel · Answer

Thanks for the response.

Interesting, the D6000 is posted on the Dell site as a 130W device but I now see the fine print says it “delivers” 65W. Our XPS 15 9500 (with NVIDIA GPU) has a 130W power adapter…how much does it actually "deliver" to the laptop? Thus, the problem. We bought 2 docks to have the laptop connect to 2 different rooms and needed to be able to support up to three 4K displays in a business environment as opposed to gaming. (Although your thread on the subject is very good).

The real issue for us is that the machine started randomly restarting a few weeks ago. The only correlation is that the charging circuit started acting up at the same time. Any ideas?

rickwiel · Answer

Thanks...I understand. Big mistake missing the 65W delivery spec. FYI...the laptop has a UHD+ display and hooking up 2 other high res displays with some legacy connections. We'll investigate the WD19TB 180W unit and display connections.

Quite surprised the D6000 reserved so much power for its own electronics or to deliver through ports. I think it is just a cheaper power circuit.

It's possible that the laptop charging software is intentionally crashing the unit thinking it is overloaded. Will investigate the user's physical connections. Displays are stationary and can draw power from the wall.

Regards...Rick

fifteen80t · Answer

I had my XPS 15 9500 delivered in October and now at the end of February I'm having the exact same problem. What is up with Dell and these issues, why can't they just make a device that doesn't over their customers? Why don't they actually help us? Dell support is incredibly unhelpful.

rickwiel · Answer

Verified 100% operation and no crashes if the Dell 130W power adapter is plugged into the laptop as well as the dock. It also charges properly. This defeats part of the purpose of having a dock...but it works.

Apparently, the software charge warning system is flaky and not only fails to charge slowly, but also decides that the laptop should be reset due to an issue (not sure if it is battery low, or overheating, or just improper power).

Bought two WD19TBS docks that won't be delivered for a month. Dell refuses to accept a return for credit on the docks since the 30 day period is over....even though there is a limited 1 year warranty! Don't waste your breath like I did:

- 2 hours on a call with 8 department transfers and 3 (intentionally) dropped lines (including the final one)

- Then 5 days online back and forth with support who went in a circle back to Customer Care

- Then another 1 hour call, with the right warranty team, who refused the return

This is my first bad experience and I have been a customer since Michael Dell was in college. It is also my first issue with an "accessory" so lesson learned.

nucahx · Answer

I have the exact same issue. If I leave the laptop closed overnight it restarts and won't charge from the included adapter. I have to hard reboot the system before it will start charging again. I have already had a motherboard replacement, and I updated to the latest BIOS 1.7.1 which is supposed to have a fix for this.

BearDog · Answer

Also experiencing the exact same issues. Please may we have a fix??

XPS

Charging issues with XPS 15 9500

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