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24 Posts
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4266802
Dell XPS 15 (9550) w/ Intel 530 / NVIDIA 960M - Intel Causing Screen Flickering
I have a Dell XPS 15 (9550) that I received last week from Dell with a random screen flickering issue.
It is based on evalue order code: <ADMIN NOTE: Order number removed per privacy policy>
It is the 6th Gen Core i7, 16GB RAM, 15.6" FHD 1080p display (not 4k), 512GB SSD, 84WHr Battery, Intel 530 Graphics AND NVIDIA 960M
I saw a post about the XPS 13 with the intel display flickering being fixed with the new driver... I am running driver version 20.19.15.4300 for the Intel 530 and my screen is still constantly flickering on my brand new XPS 9550.
Another Issue: I also noticed that in the Intel graphics properties config panel -> 3D -> Application Optimal Mode... this also causes issues with the start menu looking distorted and fuzzy, even making some of the white text look gray. I disabled this to resolve that issue, but the screen still constantly flickers.
One thing I have done recently to mitigate the flickering is go into the NVIDIA driver control panel and set the NVIDIA card as the preferred graphics card, which works for most applications. As soon as the Intel card kicks back in the screen flickers... I have tried various drivers versions for this model off the Dell website without success. I am running Windows 10 Pro... not sure if a newer driver is available and just not posted. For example the newest Laptop BIOS on the driver website ends in .3 while my pc came with .5 installed. So wasn't sure if the website was behind on graphics driver releases, although the Dell Update app hasn't downloaded any new driver either.
I am about to return this laptop, this is annoying... I know it is the intel driver because if I uninstall the Intel Driver completely and let it install the generic microsoft basic graphics driver, while the performance isn't good, the screen does NOT flicker.
Was just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and if you were able to resolve it OR if this is completely a driver issue that only Dell / Intel can resolve?
Thanks!
FloridaJimL
31 Posts
0
December 21st, 2016 18:00
Oh, my screen does not flicker and my head phone jack is not intermittent. I suspect the headphone jack issue was causing the long parts delay.
Whathecode
62 Posts
0
December 23rd, 2016 10:00
Very infrequently, flickering still occurs with BIOS 1.2.18. However, not frequent enough for me to want to try to roll back to the pre-flickering BIOS release.
It could very well be this BIOS also suffered from these much less frequent flickering issues. Alternatively, these might in fact be related to some of the settings which Dell recommended to change early on. I do not recall specifics, but remember messing around with settings several months ago.
joteroz3
16 Posts
0
December 30th, 2016 01:00
Good news so far. The latest BIOS update is working great for me. No flicker as others have reported. I also proceeded to install any other driver updates that I had not previously installed. There were some. It's worth checking. I even installed the latest Intel video driver update per the Dell support website, and there is no flicker. I can finally leave 4331 behind. There is a new Nvidia driver on the Dell support site, but I did not use that because I update per the Nvidia GeForce icon in the system tray. That provides the Nvidia graphics driver update that is slightly newer than what Dell lists. One more piece of good news...the Dell PremierColor application is finally working! Simply find it in the system tray and right-click. Then select update. It will take you to the software website with the actual latest update. I used to assume it was just a splash page because I never saw an update there. But it's a live update page. I downloaded it and proceeded to upgrade my initial version with no problem. I can report it works great. If you don't have the application in your tray, just download the initial release from the Dell support website. No need to open it after installing. Just go to system tray in bottom right corner and right click to select update. It will take you to the website to update it. You can launch the application after you download and install it. Then go through the initial setup wizard. This all was like a delayed Christmas gift. Finally!
SpiXy
4 Posts
0
January 3rd, 2017 09:00
For me also the flickering is not "totally gone", some small flickers still happen, but has been worsened is that now after the upgrade to the latest bios, sometimes the screen does huge flickers, meaning the monitor kinda turns off and on totally, it's not like before.
I other words, with updating I moved from frequent small flickers, to rare but huge flickers. Still worth the update but dudes, come on, 2000 dollars for this ?
Shakeup
2 Posts
1
January 3rd, 2017 12:00
I have a XPS 15 9550 with the 6700HQ and 16gb ram. Since day 1 I've had slowness problems with windows animations and chrome scrolling. I exchanged that laptop with B&HPhoto and received a replacement that suffers from the same issues. I'm using my return window to try to fix the problem myself by installing the latest Intel 530 (beta) and Nvidia 960m drivers, but performance hasn't improved.
Does anyone have a laptop without performance issues? Is this just the way the laptops are or do I have a hardware problem? This is coming from a clean windows 10 manual install. Thanks.
Whathecode
62 Posts
0
January 3rd, 2017 13:00
@Shakeup
Out of three models that I have seen (one original, one replacement, and one from a colleague), all suffer from it. I recall also having seen mention of it on the forum here, and myself might have also posted about it before. This definitely seems software related.
On the Intel forum there is a post about the same issue, where Asus owners also report it, thus it might also be related to the graphics card: communities.intel.com/.../104262
I mentioned it (as part of >5 other issue) to Dell support the first time I contacted them, but did not pursue it since at that point in time it was the least of my problems (failing battery, random touchscreen input, and the common brightness flicker issue). They were totally oblivious about it, but that means nothing since up to a week before the 'brightness flicker' resolving BIOS was released they were also claiming this was 'by design' to me on the phone. I was planning to pursue it again though now that these other issues are finally fixed. It might also be worthwhile posting this somewhere on Chrome support, since Chrome suffers particularly bad from this.
I recommend you to find a related post on the forum here and add your own experiences there, or alternatively start a new one and link me to it, I will weigh in there with what I know so far.
archenroot
13 Posts
0
January 5th, 2017 08:00
www.reddit.com/.../
archenroot
13 Posts
0
January 5th, 2017 08:00
Here someone suggesting confirmed flicker fix:
www.reddit.com/.../
I will test over weekend as I also started experiencing this ***, its like ghosts are around me :-)) haha
Codp
3 Posts
0
March 3rd, 2017 01:00
Model XPS 15 9550, i7 FHD
I have tried BIOS versions: 1.2.19, 1.2.18, 1.2.14, 1.2.0, 1.1.5.
Video drivers: A08, A07, A05, A04(4331) and Microsoft Windows one.
The brightness flicker is still there. It's even happening in BIOS and during Windows installation.
It is so annoying that I can't use this laptop more than 2 hours without getting a headache.
They suggested replacing the motherboard and display.
Did the latest drivers and BIOS fixed the problems for you?
g.becattini
59 Posts
0
March 3rd, 2017 07:00
Fixed from several months, no longer any flicker.
Full updated to latest versions.
Maybe that the fixes require some hardware updates that have been applied only from a certan S/N onward?
Codp
3 Posts
0
March 3rd, 2017 14:00
Might be. I don't recall this happening with my old screen and motherboard. After they changed them, the screen started flickering.
darroyod
1 Message
2
April 7th, 2017 02:00
I can confirm that the issue is still present even with lastest BIOS and Graphics drivers (BIOS 1.2.21, Intel HD 530 21.20.16.4590 and Nividia GTX960 22.21.13.8165).
It is not acceptable that 1 year and a half later (see first post) we are in the same point: the issue is not solved.
richendes
1 Message
0
April 8th, 2017 20:00
I also had this issue with the newest (21.20.16.4590 - A09) drivers. However, I downgraded to 20.19.15.4531 - A08, and the flickering went away.
flamesfan2635
10 Posts
0
April 8th, 2017 23:00
I'm not sure if this is related, but I never had the screen flickering problem with my XPS15 9550 that was purchased in spring of 2016. However, I just flashed the TPM 2.0 ver 1.3.2.8 update and am now having this issue. I periodically get BSOD with Stop Code: VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE from driver igdkmd64.sys. I tried re-installing the Intel 530 driver and the 960M drivers. The system locked up on the first attempt to install the Intel 530 drivers. The flickering seems to mostly happen when coming out of sleep.
I'm running the latest BIOS, drivers, software versions, Win10 Creators Update RTM, etc.
{ In order to flash the update I had to un-encrypt the bitlocker drive, disable auto provisioning of the TPM, clear the TPM prior to flashing, flash the TPM, re-enable auto provisioning of TPM and then re-encrypt with bitlocker. ...not an quick process. }
JbSkyline
5 Posts
0
April 9th, 2017 22:00
Flamesfan2635,
I'm experiencing the exact same thing. I had both versions of the old flickers ( one was fixed by changing the wireless lan card to an Intel 8260 and the second was fixed with Bios 1.2.18) Guess I'll have to try rolling the intel 530 video drivers back. So annoying that every other update seems to break something that was working.