Dell XPS 15 (9550) w/ Intel 530 / NVIDIA 960M - Intel Causing Screen Flickering

Ditto on the new BIOS.  I am still disabling WiFi while connected at home to prevent the flickering (using Ethernet over USB), and then enabling when I need it on the road.   I am reluctant to swap out the WiFi card as was mentioned before because I'm worried it will invalidate the warranties on the laptop.  

Completely unrelated - anyone else find it odd that the User Manual for the TB16 has been posted to the Dell website before it's released?

@g.becattini That BIOS does not make a difference at all for me, and neither is it listed to do so. My other (more trustworthy) Dell contact told me they are indeed still fixing the issue, and that an update is to be expected somewhere in the middle of December. @simba ... haha, right. :) For how long have you been in touch with Dell support? :)

lol only since August

I see... But what to say? Maybe my is a lucky computer but today the flicker is no longer there or is so small that is not noticeable even at minimun brightness.

To be precise, I got used to it, so maybe that it was fixed before and that only after the BIOS update I put my attention in the ON mode.

My XPS-15 is today almost perfect in all its functions, also related to WD-15.

If it can help someone, I post a link to my drivers list.

https://1drv.ms/t/s!AofQJIlXP6kzhP1FZKQvZUbFRtbrkQ

@mjwick

Are you certain you are talking about brightness flickering? If the screen turns completely black at times, this is known to be related to the wifi-card (not the flickering which most of the latest discussion on here revolves around). Newer models now have a Killer wifi card instead. I recommend you to ask for a swap.

@g.becattini

Interesting, but that list seems hard to browse. E.g., can't find 'Intel HD Graphics 530' drivers in it. If you are satisfied with this machine, might I ask you whether you use Google Chrome, and how performant it is for you? E.g. scrolling PDFs is extremely slow. Furthermore, the basic window manager in Windows is stuttering, e.g., click the task view. That animation stutters tremendously, as if that graphics card is struggling with 4k. The same goes for maximizing full screen windows.

@mjwick Are you certain you are talking about brightness flickering? If the screen turns completely black at times, this is known to be related to the wifi-card (not the flickering which most of the latest discussion on here revolves around). Newer models now have a Killer wifi card instead. I recommend you to ask for a swap. @g.becattini Interesting, but that list seems hard to browse. E.g., can't find 'Intel HD Graphics 530' drivers in it. If you are satisfied with this machine, might I ask you whether you use Google Chrome, and how performant it is for you? E.g. scrolling PDFs is extremely slow. Furthermore, the basic window manager in Windows is stuttering, e.g., click the task view. That animation stutters tremendously, as if that graphics card is struggling with 4k. The same goes for maximizing full screen windows.

@Whathecode

when you mention animation stutters and windows explorer stuttering, I think I had/ have something similar. Particularly when opening the start menu (not fullscreen version) with all windows minimized, the mouse goes into ridiculous slow motion mode. I figured out it was/ is the NVidia programs running in the background causing the conflict. Ending Task the following sorts it: Nvidia User Experience Driver Component and Nvidia Wireless Controller Service.

Try and see if that helps.

The new configuration of the 9550 (top end) does not list the Intel 530.

if it comes with the 6700HQ then it will still have the intel 530.

The new configuration of the 9550 (top end) does not list the Intel 530.

@simba2585

Aaaaagh! You are right, there is something more! 

I am used to work on a very large Word document. Since some days it become very slow when resizing images into it. I though it was a problem of the document itself: big size, something strange etc.

But your indirect suggestion (thank you) triggered the idea to test it on another PC: I have an old XPS-One 27 with i5 3330S CPU and 6GB RAM and tried on it. It is much faster than my XPS-15 with 32GB RAM!

The slowdown happened about ten days ago before the latest BIOS/drivers update, so the problem is not there. My installation is rather clean, I have no strange software and tried disinstalling other software and stopping various startup but with no success.

I searched Internet about a problem like that but nothing. I will try opening a new topic.

Update: I decided to start again... Complete zap, fresh install & update... All drivers manually reinstalled...

• Result: MS-Word is again fast in resiziong images;
• The flicker is back.

I did not demonstrate anything, only lost one sunday.

Note: even this way, the autodetect driver of the Dell web site keeps on asking the update of BIOS and serial IO driver, albeit they are correctly installed in the latest version (as it did before reinstall).

I had the same issues and now after update GeForce gtx 960m graphic gone, can't be recognized by system so I can't even update drivers for it, only intel hd graphics appears at this moment. Looks like I will have to reinstall whole system to fix this.

@gnomik, where you replying to me?

For the above issue: after a week I was back again in troubles. New fresh reinstall but the problem remained (lot of tests, fresh install and Office installation only, no other stuff)..

A very strange workaround: if I enable Hyper-V and create a virtual switch, the problem is gone. Dont ask me why, but the solution is working and is repetitive (Hyper-V disabled= MS Word very slow; Hyper-V enabled = Word working normally).

Hyper-V itself is not enough: you have to create the virtual switch.

Finally, it seems like the latest BIOS release (1.2.18) addresses the brightness flicker issue. I currently have all the latest drivers (thus also the latest Intel HD Graphics driver), and I have yet to see a flicker (which usually occurred twice every minute or so).

Their release notes are rather concise, so uncertain whether it is just the two things listed:

Fixes & Enhancements

I don't want to jinx it, but it seems like I can finally stop pestering Dell about this issue. On to the next (performance issue)! :)

Same! Just installed the 1.2.18 BIOS and the flickering has finally stopped. Maybe "FS" in "FFS" stands for "Flickering Screen" or smth ;-)

Btw, I'm using Intel's latest driver as well (21.20.16.4542).

Thanks Dell! :)

I think FFS is in truth its vulgar slang meaning...the flickering is pretty much a FFS issue :-D

Ive installed the latest BIOS A18 and latest intel graphics and so far haven't noticed a flicker - touch wood....

I got my xps15 9550 back yesterday, or should I say my replacement.  Dell was going to swap me a refurbished unit (because of long leadtime on a repair part) but could not locate one, thank goodness.  Instead they built me  a new one,  Could only build a 'standard' unit, not custom, so I had to take 32 GB of RAM rather than 16 GB that I had.  Also got the Killer wifi card with it, since that is now standard.

After full startup was complete, I imaged the drive for safe keeping, then installed my prior image from the old machine.  Everything went good but the image restore said it failed at the very end.  Everything seems to work after installing the Killer wifi and bluetooth drivers.

I have the the .12 bios, and I am not going to change it at this time, even though I read that the .18 bios has fixed the flickering.

It has been a long, frustrating ordeal (as many of you know for yourselves).  I'm considering paying for premium support to keep from having to mail it in for service in the future.  

Jim