Re: XPS 9700, screen goes black, everything unresponsive

Hello everyone,

XPS 17 9700 freezing when idle - black screen, unresponsive, fans tend to get loud, needs hard reset.

I have an XPS 17 9700 that has been misbehaving for a few months now. When left idle for a short time, screen turns black as if it's going to sleep but then it becomes completely unresponsive. Fans tend to get loud when this happens. I reinstalled Windows several time, including by downgrading to Windows 10. I also disabled C states and all those CPU power/efficiency options in BIOS. All drivers are up to date. I'm at my wit's end. What the hell is the problem?

From searching online it seems that many other people have this issue. But it seems to be software related, not hardware. Some sort of friction between Dell's Bios and Intel's CPU firmware or something. Because I read somewhere that people using Linux have experienced this too.

Does anyone know how to fix this bloody thing? It's driving me crazy having to force restart my laptop so often and not being able to leave it idle for any amount of time without it freezing up.

Not to mention that when using Bluetooth accessories it also freezes if using it, but I 'fixed' that by just disabling Bluetooth and not using it anymore. Convenient!

Dell seem pretty useless at fixing this. Been wanting to get the latest XPS 17 but will probably go with something else instead if this is what it means to use their machines long-term.

Thank you so much in advance for your help!!

Regards,

Badugin