XPS 13 9350 | Black Screen After GPU Driver Install

Dell's response in private messages has pretty much been that there is no support for me at all because it is out of warranty.  That is ridiculous as they released a bad bios, and that has nothing to do with warranty support, but there you have it.

This type of limiting of support to try to wring out a few dollars is ridiculous and needs to end.  If you keep releasing updates, you need to support those updates outside of warranty.  I have done all of the work on this and they still want me to pay for something I don't need.

I need your bios to work Dell.  Nothing else.

@FelixElGato  I am getting the exact same issue. Have you been able to find a permanent fix. My problem seems to come and go at random.

I am getting the exact same issue. Have you been able to find a permanent fix. My problem seems to come and go at random.

Have you tried getting drivers for your GPU from the official repositories of Dell?

That may help.

No real, permanent solution here. But what I found works OK is to turn off the computer and wait 24-36 hours before turning it on again.

What have you found at this point?

Dell seems to not care or not want to admit fault in this matter, since their responses to this issue have been lacking.

Having the same problem since last week. Anyone have the solution for this problem?

I've had the same problem for quite a long time. First time I've experienced it, it only lasted a few days. I reinstalled the display driver, and the issue went away for years. Then it came back, this time, it didn't go away.

I tried everything offered on the internet from discharging the capacitor, clean installs, holding power button, etc. etc. I ultimately resorted back to basic display driver, since that's the only option that allows the laptop to be usable. 

Before having the black screen problem, I noticed that the screen flickers became more and more frequent, then ultimately just turned dark. The same flickering happens when I resorted back to basic display driver, although it doesn't turn dark and unusable. 

2 days ago, I've noticed that the flickering went away for quite some time (using basic display). So I became curious and thought that the power fluctuations or whatever interference that used to occur, was gone. 

I went on support assist and tried installing updates, including the display driver. These were the updates I installed that were available.

- Intel HD Graphics Driver - A14 - 365.36 MB - Recommended - Install Error

- Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and Management Console - A06 - 52.53 MB - Recommended - Installed

- Realtek USB Audio Driver - A15 - 46.45 MB - Optional - Installed

- Intel Thunderbolt Controller Driver - A12 - 13.54 MB - Urgent - Installed

- Intel Thunderbolt 3 Firmware Update - A08 - 0.53 MB - Recommended - Installed

The display driver showed an error, so I went to device manager, and selected the basic display driver and updated it there. And apparently it's working again. It's been 2 days since it's been working perfectly. I don't know how long it's going to last till the issue comes back again. 

So I guess I would recommend either two things: sticking it out with basic display first, until you notice that there is no flickering anymore which means it's safe to update to the december 2019 update for intel hd display driver.

or

the new updates fixed it? 

I really am not sure, but for now, the issue for me is fixed. Dell wouldn't even entertain me anymore since my service plan is expired. Hope my experience helps you guys out there. This dark screen issue can be very very frustrating.

Background: I bought my Dell XPS 13 9350 Signature Edition back in Oct 2015 (i5-6200, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 64-bit). Only upgrades I've made are to the WLAN card. I'm also on my second after-market battery via Amazon. So far the laptop is still running great although still not a fan of the stupid web camera on the bottom left corner (I use a dual monitor and attach an external web cam).

What worked for me: OK, this black screen of death with circling dots around Dell logo happened to me back in 2017. I ended up having to put the laptop into Safe Mode and doing an automatic repair which eventually led to having to uninstall and reinstall the OS. This is why you need to back everything up either to an external hard drive or the cloud in case you need to slick the entire OS and start all over. After the reinstall, it default to the original graphics driver and have not manually upgraded since. I believe that the graphics driver updates automatically as part of the normal Windows Updates that you can set automatically or manually (I prefer manually). Just go into Settings, then Update & Security, then Check for Updates. Currently, my XPS is using the Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 (Driver Version: 27.20.100.7990) and I have not had any issues since my black screen incident. Hope this helps.

I faced this problem twice.

First time I had to re-install my OS but second time I got to make it work as I knew the cause.

This issue is caused by Intel Graphic Driver.

The laptop is actually turning ON but screen is blank.

To resolve this: 

1. Connect your laptop to an external monitor using a C type to HDMI cable.

2. Go to Device Manager and under Display Driver uninstall Intel Graphics Driver. This will reset the system to default Microsoft driver and the laptop display should work fine after restart.

3. Once display starts working then system will try and auto update the driver to the same Intel Driver and to avoid this you would need to turn off automatic driver updates. To stop Windows from doing automatic driver updates, navigate to Control Panel > System & Security > System > Advanced System Settings > Hardware > Device Installation Settings. Then choose "No (your device might not work as expected)."

Cheers

Had the same issue with my xps13. 

Just two steps:

1) On device manager disable Intel HD Graphics (in my case, Intel HD Graphics520).

2) Restart

Solved!

Had the issue one year ago, and did a complete reinstall of Win10, following a sequential list with specific driver numbers that I had found somewhere.

Today, one year later, the exact same thing happened again. Via remote access I was able to make the display driver revert to MS standard driver (took me all morning), which in itself I don't mind terribly much, except that it disables the ability to dim the brightness of the screen. 

I remembered from last time and saw again today that, upon booting, inside the Dell logo there are some short lines (a bit smaller than a "_") lighting up at apparent random. Then, after the Windows logo, the darkness...

What irks me most is the loss of a productive morning, while last time I lost access for much longer and days hunkering in front of the TV before I had found a fix. I understand hardware fails, tough luck, but this random occurrence of software issues is ridiculous. 

My XPS 13 9350 started having this issue recently too.

Complete reinstall of Windows 10 initially fixed it, but only for a couple of hours. My guess is some update got installed in the background.

Disabling the Intel HD Graphics 520 driver seems to fix the issue. However, that seems to defunct the HDMI port on my Dell DA200 (USB-C to HDMI/VGA/Ethernet/USB 3.0).

Wondering if anyone managed to find a solution that keeps the HDMI on the DA200 functional.

Also just noticed that the brightness control stopped working, so I can't change it anymore.

If anyone has a better solution than disabling the graphics driver, you'd make me so happy!

Hi, 
I cannot change the brightness either, but at least the screen works fine.

Have you found any solution to that so far?