XPS 15 9500 (2020) - AC adapter not recognised post My Dell Support update

Oh I see. I think I'm in even bigger trouble. The battery's completely drained, PC shut down and now won't charge at all - it's been a day. The white light on the front of the laptop does not glow at all, despite the LED on the charger being on.

TL;DR: It ain't just Windows. Sometimes a third party power supply is recognized, but sometimes not.

I have the same problem on a Precision 5550, which is the same as the XPS 15 9500. I am running Linux, and that is what the computer was shipped with. So, it is not strictly a problem with Windows 20H2. I have this problem with the most recent Linux 5.10 kernel, as well as the older 5.4 LTS kernel.

What typically happens to me is the computer turns off, then back on again a few seconds later. It then won't charge until I turn the computer completely off. Then I plug it in and the front light will flash a bit, then it will charge (if necessary). When I turn it back on it recognizes the AC power supply. When in this state, the computer will not recognize the Dell power supply, a Mac 60W power supply, or a third party 60W USB-C PD adapter.

I am on my second Dell power supply, because the first one had a fault where the light on the power supply would go off if the cable was flexed a certain way. Both power supplies exhibit this problem of being unrecognized.

Just now I unplugged the laptop to use it on battery. When I returned to my desk it wouldn't recognize the Dell power supply. I plugged it into a Mac 60W power supply, and that is working. I'm sure if I turn off the computer it will start to recognize the power supply. I've unplugged the Dell power supply for several minutes, but it is still not recognized when reconnected.

Now some odd diagnostic stuff. The external power supply is NOT plugged in, yet the computer thinks something is going on:

ucsi_source_psy_USBC000:001-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
in0:          18.00 V  (min = +26.30 V, max = +20.00 V)
curr1:         6.50 A  (max =  +6.50 A)

 So, the USB port thinks it's able to provide a lot of power, but the other parts of the computer know they're not charging. For example, the front light is off, and everything else reports the computer is running on the battery.

Replying to myself with a bit more information. My laptop is set to start charging when the battery drops below 70%, and then to stop charging at 80%. As in my last post, the USB-C port was reporting a charger connected, when none was actually connected.

I waited until the battery dropped below 70%, then connected the Mac adapter. Then the computer started to charge. At that point the USB-C ports started reported the correct information (9 volts, 3 amps from the Mac adapter). I disconnected the Mac adapter, and plugged in the Dell adapter, and it now recognizes it at 18 volts and 6.5 amps. The computer is charging, and indicates that is the case.

Just to be explicitly clear, earlier when the Dell adapter was not recognized, the computer showed nothing plugged in, and was using the battery. It was not merely not charging because the battery was over 70%.

This is my "just guessing" hypothesis. BIOS 1.4.0 has some problems. Fixing those is why the 9500/5550 haven't received a BIOS update since September. During that time the Latitude 3500 (for example) has received updates dealing with CPU security issues and other things. There are no older BIOS versions available to roll back to.

Oh no. I have the same problem. My XPS 15 9750 doesn't turn on any more. Did you find a solution?

Hi

I thought I was going mad!

Same problem:

Device name DESKTOP-XXXXXX
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable)
Device ID 2FF694E2-249A-48CC-AC40-C80353554F21
Product ID 00325-81804-33825-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch Touch support with 10 touch points

Solution when still on at <5%

Remove power lead.

Hold power button down for hard reset for min 30 seconds.  Its then dead.

Leave lead out for 2 minutes.

Reconnect lead.

ALL IS WELL WITH THE WORLD and it will follow your charging preferences until you go at battery at max / full charge and then maybe....  it all starts again!

ENJOY

FYI @thementalist + @AnotherDellBrick  + @Mz9999 

Hi Guys

Replying to my own message to update:

I posted poorly as I am new to this.

I have a Dell XPS 15 9500 2020 (Small form factor 15".

What I meant to say after my fix suggestion was:

When its charging and you SWITCH to battery - when you plug back in you often lose the charging capability and you are back to stage 1.

Hardware or software - its such a pain that I wont be spending so much on a Dell ever again. Always avoided preferring HP Spectre X360 15 and previously Lenovo Yoga 3.

Hey Ho.

Good luck all

FYI @thementalist + @AnotherDellBrick  + @Mz9999 + @mae__stro 

@DELL-Cares  May I point out that the 9500 does not have a charging point, and the charger does not have a charging pin.  Perhaps you would be more helpful if you looked up the model before asking for information that doesn't exist?

Can you diagnose a USB-C port by a photo of the connector - interesting skill.

Hello,

Just wanted to add, that I have the exact same problem.

Only a shutdown (not reboot) and reconnecting the USB-C charger will work.

This started end of 2020 - I have since then installed every Dell driver so my 9500 is up to date

This is so annoying! Please help

I have this problem too!

For anyone following this:

After trying to solve the problem by updating all system drivers to the most recent versions, I have restored all of the initial drivers using offical Dell software and so far was unable to reproduce the problem, which means that the charging works fine in every scenario now.

1. Download and install the Dell Command | Update application, version January 29 2021 (https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER06986472M/1/Dell-Command-Update-Application-for-Windows-10_DF2DT_WIN_4.1.0_A00.EXE)
2. Go to settings (cog wheel symbol)
3. Choose advanced driver restore, activate the slider and make sure you select to download the package
4. Install / Restore the drivers including reboot
5. Power off the laptop
6. Power on the laptop

Afterwards the Dell Command | Update application will check for more recent update, but I have not installed these yet.

My charger has been working for several hours now without the problem. I deliberately unplugged the charger, close the laptop lid to initiate hibernate etc., which previously resulted in the problem sometimes. I am going to observe the behaviour the next day(s) to post an update.

Hey so I just read this whole thread because I was having the exact same issue. My laptop charges now but sometimes it doesn't. 10 seconds ago I had it plugged into the left side of my 9500 and it wouldn't charge, so took it out, held the power button, signed in, and plugged it into the right side. Now its charging. I really don't know why Dell support is so unbelievably difficult about these issues. Anyways its nice to see that I'm not crazy and that I should instead just never buy dell again. Thanks.

Update:

After 30 hours of operating normally, the problem occurred again, unfortunately.

So the restore of drivers did something, but nothing persisting. 

Dell technician is scheduled to replace the motherboard today.

Hello Dell-SimranC,

I cannot access my private messages anymore nor start a new message thread.

"You do not have sufficient privileges for this resource or its parent to perform this action.

Click your browser's Back button to continue."

The letter icon is missing from my profile, too.

Looks like I am locked out of this functionality.

However, the technician just called me and confirmed the appointment today. He is to arrive within the next few hours.

I never reported the problem being fixed, I only wanted to observe the behavior after the driver restore for a longer period of time, since I noticed that the problem has not occurred for a while, when it usually did.

We shall have this error checked internally. 

In case you have any issues, do let us know so we could look into it.