XPS 8930, hangs on Restart, boots fine on Cold Boot

@davidk1952  - Do NOT try any other BIOS updates if the PC won't reboot while that card+SSD are installed. You could brick the motherboard that way and then you'll have even bigger problems. And never -IMO- let Dell Support Assist or Dell Update manage a BIOS update for you. Do it manually using a USB stick with only the BIOS update file on it via the BIOS update option on the F12 menu at boot. The latest XPS 8930 BIOS is v1.1.15  which just fixes some Intel security issues.

Do you have the latest firmware update for your factory-installed SSD?

With Fast Startup disabled, the PC is going to take longer to boot to the desktop because it won't have a "hibernation" file that Fast Startup creates and uses to speed up booting.

At this point, I'd turn RAID off in BIOS setup using the method I posted above, before trying anything else...

@davidk1952 -  Another thingy to check is if Secure Boot is enabled or disabled in BIOS setup If enabled, try disabling it...

There's another thread where an XPS 8930 user is planning to install a PCI-e x4>NVME card and a PCI-e NVME SSD. Don't know which card or SSD were ordered, but I asked that user to post the specifics and the outcome after that installation is completed.

So maybe we'll find out if this is a generalized issue with the XPS 8930, or one that's specific to your PCI-e card+SSD combo...

We did check the Secure Boot  Nope it was not on ... 

Thanks for sending the other guy a note let me know what you hear back. 

I plan to go out and pull the card again, pull the SSD off the adapter and try the Adapter in the system with out the SSD, but it's quite a big project because I have so many cables attached to my special sound cards for my studio and it is under my studio console just takes time... 

I'll let you know if anything changes on this side.  I did get an email back from Samsung and typical they blamed the adapter card with out even asking what it was... go figure...  

Dave

One more thing    I have been attempting to communicate with Samsung and of course, they pointed at the Adapter board not their SSD....  so they sent me a form I can use to send the drive in for testing... that's not as easy as one would think this is in a working recording studio... I don't have another I could just pop in it..  

Like I said as soon as I get a chance I am going to pull the SSD from the Adapter card just to check that off my list... I may or may not be surprised   I"ll keep you posted. 

Well  this is probably going to be my final for a while,  I'm tired of dealing with the issue and I appreciate the help that folks have tried here...  So, here is a wrap up for today:

The computer with out the StarTech PCIE card works fine and reboots with no problem at all.   

The computer with only the Star Tech card installed  works fine and reboots no problem.. 

Put the Samsung 1TB ssd drive 970evo in to the Star Tech card everything works but the computer will not do a restart either a warm or software upgrade.  At that point like before I have to do a hard shut down.  

Just crazy and at this point I'm going to step back and see if anyone else has a simllar set up to try... Or If I get another SSD.  

Dave

@davidk1952

Complain to Samsung again...

See if they'll send you an idential SSD to test and send back. Or if it the new one works, copy your files over to it  and send the defective SSD back...

I could always lend you a sledge hammer! 

Post back and let us know if a new SSD solves the problem...

I'm not sure how much Samsung would do for me, they sent me a form to fill out if I want to send the drive back in, but I am guessing the drive is probably ok everting seems to work from a drive perspective. I rean all the tests with the Samsung Magician software (latest version).  The performance of the drive is great and everything on their utility shows it is working.  I just keep thinking something in the Bios or set up... other than the "Restart" function everything is screaming fast.  

If I have some time tomorrow I may go out and walk through the bios again but spending a bunch more time isn't worth it.  

Where are you located?  I could take and send screen shots if that would  help,  don't see a way to attach them here though. 

Dave

@davidk1952  - After you log in and click the Reply button under a post, click the camera icon on the toolbar.

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Rather than posting all the information here If you send me an email address (private message)  I can send them to you that way... Not that there is anything to hide that others have seen already   

Dave

Almost a year has passed by and so far, no solutions on my problem.  I have  been using the system for the last year as a studio DAW and everything seems to work including the PCIE - SSD and using that drive strictly as an Audio Drive,  No Programs or anything other that .wav files in Cubase and or Pro-Tools.  So over the last couple of weeks I started to get a Bios upgrade notice so,  I figured I'd give it a try after completely backing up my system to an external hard drive.  Well,  I hit update and have the same problem... the system just hangs ... hard shut down and reboot and system does come back up but no bios update.  

i have not been able to see what the bios update was (is there a txt file available)  I a thinking of going out and removing the 2nd SSD and adapter and get the update done and once again go through everything.  I know follks have suggested to just get a SATA SSD and use that but the speed difference between the MV2 vs the Sata drive is crazy... .and with DAW's and .wav files with these programs speed means more tracks.... 

Just thought I'd post if anyone has dealt with this issue since my posting a year ago.... Dell has basically washed their hands of it, told me to pay for tech support... My question is, if they could not fix it for almost a year while in warranty .

Appreciate any feedback over what has been discussed.

The new BIOS 1.1.18 for XPS 8930 is "Firmware updates to address security vulnerabilities", which isn't very informative.

How are you doing this latest BIOS update? You'd be better off doing it entirely outside Windows from the F12 menu. Copy the BIOS update file onto an empty USB stick (FAT32 format).

Plug the USB into PC with power off. Power on and tap F12 to open the boot menu. Select the BIOS flash update option and follow the prompts. Leave PC untouched until it's safely back at the desktop. It may look like it completely shut itself off, one or more times, but just leave it alone until you see your desktop again.

So,  Here is an interesting situation.  I did remove the PCIE card and the Samsung 970 1tb ssd,  everything worked fine, it actually let me continue with the bios and updated to 1.1.17 (there is no sign of 1.1.18, could be that my CPU is the special 8086 version of the CPU but once that all got updated I was fine with reboots no problem..... .Until I put the card back in... back to the same ole issue freeze on reboot.  

Now here is something new... when I went in to look at the bios after the upgrade notice the 2 SSD being see S0 and S1 both listed as the intel SSD... And the Samsung is not showing up.... (in the bios menu)  I thought that is strange.  No Samsung 970

So I look under device Manager and I see both the intel and Samsung listed..... The Samsung driver is showing a Microsoft driver from 2006.   I know the Samsung does have the latest firmware but I don't recall ever installing a samsung driver,  I was told that it is chosen in windows 10.  Windows update does not give me any choices.... .so, could it be I need a samsung driver?  Just driving me a little nuts   

Againdevice mgr

Is BIOS set to RAID or AHCI? Look, but don't change it right now.

Is Windows Boot Manager first on the boot options list in BIOS?

Don't know if BIOS 1.1.18 is for 8th Gen CPUs but the page for this update doesn't distinguish between XPS 8930 with 8th and 9th Gen CPUs. My XPS 8930 has 9th Gen CPU and using my Service Tag to show drivers only for my config, 1.1.18 is listed. So try using your Service Tag on the site, and make sure the little slider is set to "Show downloads only for this PC", followed by your Service Tag.

And I just updated to BIOS 1.1.18 via the F12 menu with no issues...

The Bios is set to AHCI and,  I am almost 99.9% sure it is not set to raid but the system is in my recording studio and I will have to go out there this morning to double check,  in my notes I have seen where that question was asked and I said that raid was turned off.  In the bios what page would I look for that with all the questions, I've forgot.  

This is the CPU I have installed :  338-BQFY : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 8086K (6- Core/12-Thread, 12MB Cache, up to 5GHz with Intel(R) Turbo B oost Technology)

If the Bios 1.1.18 is mainly a security issue I will hold off until I get a little more info on the other downloads that have shown up.   I find it interesting that when I let the dell assistant look for drivers the only thing that comes up is something to do with my audio device on board.  

Like I said I"m not at the computer right now to get in to it.  For the Bios upgrade  I am sure I would have to pull the PCIE card with the samsung on it.  

So, thanks for the suggestions to look for downloads under my service tags and yes, now I see the option for 1.1.8 along with a couple of other