XPS 15 9560, Shuts down randomly

Created my account here just to let you know: This also solved my problem!

@ Dell: You better add this issue (and the solution) to some kind of FAQ. Or better: just solve it. I dont expect such things to happen when buying a premium laptop (btw. never had such troubles with my mac back in the days :/)

"Yep getting the same problem when running any games - shutdown within 10-20 minutes. This could be a measure Dell has installed to limit damage to the graphics cards/motherboard, so they don't have to replace any equipment under warranty."

My thoughts exactly. Previous drivers allowed GPU and CPU maxed out with CPU temps exceeding 90C, now the drivers/thermal management softly shuts down Windows so Dell can avoid costly warranty repairs. This is unacceptable, especially given this is Dell's flagship laptop. 

Does this ring a bell anyone? Remember the backlash Apple received for limiting hardware resources on the iPhone 6 "to prolong battery life"?. Dell should receive the same backlash as there has been no fix for months now, which indicates to me that this is not a "bug", but a shady corporate strategy.   

Maybe I'm being a bit too conspiracy theorist about this. What do you guys think?  

Thanks you mate,  your solution just solved the problem.
Was wondering for all the other posts / ideas, when the solution is clear as water, poor thermal software (or incompatible) It was visible that the fault is caused by high temperature, it was just not visible is it caused by HW of SW component. Now things are crystal clear. Cheers!

Still no solution from Dell after 6 months! The most recent Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework still shuts down PC at 100 °С (it happens in absolutely any game or even at normal working process under stress operations). Dell refuses to acknowledge this problem at continues to distribute upgrades. The only solution is to downgrade Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework to v8.2.11000.2996 (A04) September 06, 2016 and disable auto upgrade from Dell Update and Support Assist.

Never had anything like this with any previous ASUS or HP laptops.

Same happening to me. Bought a Dell XPS 15 9560 around September last year, and since 2 days ago it started randomnly shutting off withouth any warning.
Around that time was when I updated some drivers that "Dell Support Assist" app told me to.
Can't really remenber which ones were tho.
It doesn't look like and overheating problem because it can happens just by browsing in chrome.
Also happened when using AfterEffects, or gaming.
Shouldn't be dust since it doesn't even have 1year and not it a really dusty room since I kept the house cleaned all the time.

Any ideas nowadays why this happened? The laptop was VERY expensive, shouldn't have this problems. 

Same issue here, updated the drivers through the supportAssistent and minutes later it started to shut down, never had a issue over the last year or so. Will try the suggested driver downgrade solution. But DELL, for f* sake, test your drivers extensively before pushing them to your users. 

Just today I started having this problem on my fully updated Dell XPS 15 9560. I tried all of the different solutions mentioned here, and the only one that worked 100% was rolling back the Intel Thermal Framework driver to version A04.

To test to see if it is working, install AIDA64 Extreme, and have it run a stress test with CPU, FPU, Cache, Memory, and GPU all activated. With thermal driver A04 installed, it will correctly throttle the CPU to avoid overheating, and you can run the test indefinitely. With newer versions of the Intel Thermal driver, my system would shut down within 15 seconds.

Here is a direct link to the Intel Thermal drivers version A04, the version needed to fix this problem: http://www.dell.com/support/home/ba/en/badhs1/drivers/driversdetails?driverId=JTXD1. I hope Dell can fix this issue soon. Thanks.

NOTE: You may have to turn off auto-updating of drivers for this solution to stick until Dell and Intel can figure this out.

Hey Droza, I did the same as you and installed the Intel Thermal Framework driver version A04 and did the stress test with AIDA64 Extreme after and took this screenshot of the results after 10mins of running it. The end part where it's at 70ish% is when I stopped the test but the CPU was at 100% the entire time while as you can see the throttle just jumped to 11% then back to 0% for the rest of the run. I'm worried about that overheating detected warning.

Hi Drixx, I can't see the screenshot you uploaded for some reason. But, I wouldn't be worried about a "warning" about overheating if you were running that stress test for 10 minutes.

As long as your computer didn't shutdown, that means that the Intel Thermal drivers were doing their job, reducing the velocity of the CPU when it is in danger of overheating. When they don't, the CPU reaches 100 degrees Celsius, and your computer automatically shuts down immediately, with no possibility of saving your work. If that didn't happen, you're good to go! If you want to see this in realtime, you can open up the Task Manager, go to detailed view, then over to the Performance tab, and click on the CPU. It will show you the "speed" of the processor, which should change with some frequency. If the CPU is in danger of overheating, it will drop the speed WAY down immediately to prevent that from happening, then slowly raise it back up.

Hey guys, has the driver rollback worked for you with the sluggishness of the computer? I found it worked to a certain degree and my computer doesn't shutdown anymore, but the second it runs a little hot, it starts getting incredibly laggy and sluggish again.

Especially if I am running a game like EVE Online (even on the lowest settings). Sad thing is, this laptop should be crushing that game.. I'm at a loss.

As a note, when I start the game. It shows my memory at a quarter usage with a couple other apps open and my integrated GPU at 100%.. the dedicated GPU is only at like 2% and the rig is sluggish after a couple of minutes of game play. The CPU also clocks in at a low percentage during this laggy-bit... I really don't know what to do. I have the nvidia settings telling my computer to use the dedicated GPU for default AND for that specific game/app.

Thoughts? Ideas? Dell support has been unsurprisingly not helpful...

@DrixxYeah, I did the thermal driver thing and it improved it a lot. I also tried the Intel HID Event Filter Driver rollback and it seems to have had a slight effect. But honestly, the fact that it's not running a game like EVE, which has relatively low specs for a game, at perfect performance when the graphics are at low, is concerning :(

I experience the same when playing like Aion Online at max graphics, doesn't happen a lot tho but outside of that it was shutting down for me and taking the suggestion of @droza to install the Thermal Framework Driver Version A04 sorted out the the shutdown issue for me. Other than that not sure why certain games it should be fine playing bottlenecks.

I know, man :( that's what I am saying.

I am running it at 1080p for sure and it DOES run okay on low settings for the most part, but will occasional lag out and I need to restart my computer. Also, when I am running it, it only uses 2-5% of the dedicated GPU (1050 gtx), but the integrated is at 100%.

Also, if I have any other app open (even my browser). It starts lagging quicker. Now, I understand that having more apps open will mean more resources being used. But let's face it. The specs on this laptop mean it SHOULD be doing these things and it's simply not.

I don't want to find a way to make it work OK on a messed up machine, I would rather have my messed up, expensive, machine fixed and for it to run like I paid for it to run. :(

I just tried Eve Online. Are you running it at 1920x1080? If you have the 4k monitor, that is important to configure in the settings of the game. Cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6Qp1aOvQBo. I have the 4k monitor, and as long as I run it in 1920x1080 it runs super smooth, even with high quality setting. It uses the GTX 1050, and was typically using around 50-60% of the GPU.