XPS 15 9510, black screen after restart and Windows Hello IR camera failure

If you have an external monitor, is there an image on that when the internal one is black?

Is there any image at all - even very faint - on the internal display (use a bright flashlight to check)?

An odd one for sure. Feels like a graphics driver issue as the system is still booted to the OS but the video drops out. I like ejn's suggestion of having an external display running as well to see if that drops. Have you tried booting into safe mode to see if the same issue occurs on boot? Face ID features shouldn't work here and video will be running off of the basic display adapter, but at the least this should confirm if the issue is related to the full instance of Windows. 

Guys thanks for the replies and i am going to try with a monitor connected. Below is the slightly long winded version of what has been done thus far.

Fault description

The laptop starts normally:

1. Dell logo appears.
2. Windows loading circle appears.
3. Windows startup sound is heard.
4. Within a few seconds, the Windows Hello camera activity indicator illuminates.

At this point the internal display remains completely black and does not progress to the Windows sign-in screen.

The laptop does not appear to be completely frozen:

• Fans continue running.
• Caps Lock remains responsive.
• The system appears to continue operating in the background.

The display can normally be recovered by closing and reopening the lid. Once this is done, the Windows sign-in screen appears immediately and the laptop operates normally.

Additional observations

The problem appears to be specifically related to the initial boot/restart transition rather than a general display failure.

Once the display has been recovered after startup:

• The screen operates normally.
• Normal screen-off/sleep behaviour appears to work correctly.
• Pressing a key or moving the mouse wakes the display normally.
• The issue does not appear to recur during normal use.

The fault is therefore associated with the transition between Windows loading and the Windows sign-in environment.

Associated Windows Hello issue

At approximately the same time as this problem developed, Windows Hello Face recognition stopped working.

Previously:

• Face recognition worked reliably.
• The IR camera system appeared to function normally.

Subsequently:

• Windows Hello failed to recognise the user.
• The infrared illumination used for facial recognition was no longer visible.
• The normal camera function continued to work.

The timing of these two issues suggests a possible relationship between:

• the Windows Hello IR camera subsystem,
• the sign-in process,
• and the display initialisation sequence.

I appreciate that this may not necessarily mean the camera is the root cause, but the two faults appear to have developed together.

Troubleshooting completed

Hardware diagnostics

• Dell built-in hardware diagnostics/ePSA completed successfully.
• No hardware faults were reported.

BIOS and Dell updates

• BIOS checked and updated.
• Dell SupportAssist diagnostics completed.
• Dell update scan now reports the system is fully up to date.

Drivers updated/reinstalled

The following drivers/components have been updated or reinstalled:

• Intel chipset drivers.
• Intel Serial IO driver.
• Intel Dynamic Tuning components.
• Intel Integrated Sensor Solution components.
• Intel graphics driver.
• Other Dell-recommended updates.

The Intel UHD Graphics device was also removed from Device Manager and successfully rediscovered.

Windows Hello testing

Windows Hello Face was removed and tested.

Result:

• The camera activity indicator no longer appeared.
• The black-screen startup issue remained unchanged.

Windows Hello was subsequently restored.

This suggests Windows Hello may be associated with the failure point but is unlikely to be the sole cause.

Windows diagnostics

The following checks were completed:

• Windows Event Viewer reviewed.
• Diagnostics-Performance boot logs reviewed.
• powercfg /energy report generated.
• No clear graphics-driver crash or obvious hardware failure was identified.

Windows repair

A Windows 11 in-place repair installation was completed:

• Windows 11 reinstalled over the existing installation.
• Personal files and installed applications retained.
• Installation completed successfully.

Unfortunately, the original startup behaviour remains unchanged after the repair installation.

Current reproducible behaviour

The issue can be reproduced as follows:

1. Restart or power on laptop.
2. Dell logo appears.
3. Windows loading circle appears.
4. Windows startup sound occurs.
5. Windows Hello camera indicator illuminates.
6. Screen remains black indefinitely.
7. Closing and reopening the lid restores the display and presents the sign-in screen.

Further update

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far (ejn63 & workfordell) I've carried out a number of additional tests today and thought I'd share the results, as they seem to narrow the problem down further.

1. External HDMI monitor

Following the suggestion here, I connected the laptop to a TV via HDMI and restarted it.

Interestingly, the laptop restarted normally and both displays came up correctly. Windows Hello Face Recognition still did not work, but the normal black-screen-after-restart problem did not occur during that test.

2. Battery versus AC power

Because I had unplugged the laptop to move it to the TV, I accidentally discovered something else.

Running on battery power only, I carried out two consecutive restart tests and both completed successfully.

I then reconnected the original Dell 130W USB-C power adapter and repeated the restart tests. The problem immediately returned. The laptop again reached the Dell logo and Windows startup sequence before remaining on a black screen.

I have since had mixed results after several forced shutdowns, so I cannot yet say with certainty that AC power is the root cause, but the difference was significant enough that I felt it was worth reporting.

3. Graphics reset shortcut

This is probably the most interesting observation so far.

During one of the failed startups, I pressed Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B, which resets the Windows graphics subsystem.

Unlike pressing Enter or moving the mouse, this immediately caused the Windows sign-in screen to appear, allowing me to log in normally. On this occasion there was no audible beep, but the graphics reset itself appeared to restore the display.

Taken together, these observations suggest that Windows is often completing its startup successfully but, for some reason, the internal display is not always being correctly initialised until something forces the graphics/display subsystem to refresh.

For completeness, I have also already completed the following without resolving the issue:

• Updated the BIOS.
• Installed all Dell driver updates.
• Reinstalled the Intel graphics driver.
• Removed and re-enabled Windows Hello Face.
• Run Dell hardware diagnostics (all passed).
• Checked Event Viewer.
• Generated a Windows powercfg /energy report.
• Completed an in-place Windows 11 repair installation while keeping all files and applications.

Has anyone seen an XPS behave like this before, particularly where a graphics reset or lid close/open restores the display? I'm beginning to wonder whether this points towards an internal display initialisation, graphics power-management or firmware issue rather than Windows itself.

I am going to try the torch idea one more time in case I missed anything

Many thanks for any further suggestions.

@Kevin JF​ Rather than deleting and uninstalling the GPU driver, I would try to disable it. You should then be running off of the basic display adapter. Then restart and see if the video cuts out again with the basic driver. If it does not, then the issue should be related to that GPU driver. You can try the same thing with the camera drivers, disable them, restart and test. 

Further update Daniel

Thanks again for the suggestions. I've now completed the additional testing.

Intel UHD Graphics

I disabled the Intel UHD Graphics adapter in Device Manager and restarted. The laptop restarted successfully using the basic display path (lower resolution as expected).

I then re-enabled the Intel UHD Graphics adapter. Immediately afterwards the display went black. Windows still appeared to be running (Caps Lock responded and Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B generated the normal graphics reset beep), but the internal display remained black until I eventually recovered it by closing and reopening the lid or performing a hard restart.

This doesn't necessarily prove the Intel graphics driver is the cause, but it does seem to indicate that the Intel graphics/display path is involved in some way.

Windows Hello / Camera

I also disabled both Integrated Webcam devices together with the Windows Hello Facial Recognition device.

As expected, the Windows Hello camera activity light no longer came on during startup, but the black-screen behaviour remained exactly the same.

This would appear to rule out Windows Hello itself as the cause of the black-screen issue, although it may still have its own separate fault.

At this point, the strongest evidence seems to point towards the Intel graphics/display initialisation path, firmware or related hardware rather than Windows itself.

I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on where you would investigate next.

@Kevin JF​ Agreed that the next thing to look into is the graphics driver. I'd try out another full uninstall and reinstall. Not sure of the exact XPS 15 model you have, but check our support site and use your service tag to pull the latest version. If you have already tried that version, then try an older version or a newer one directly from Intel. If still unresolved with any of those drivers, then you may want to look into a full OS reinstall with USB media or the OS Recovery tool. If its still doing the same thing at that point, then I would suspect a possible hardware issue. I'd lean on the motherboard for the GPU, but the LCD would be the next part to consider. Depending on your model, it may also be worth reseating the EDP cable if easily accessible. 

Thank you for taking the time to look into this and for the detailed suggestions – they're much appreciated.

Your proposed order of investigation makes sense, so my next step will be to identify the exact graphics driver currently installed and then work through the Dell-recommended version, followed by an older Dell version and, if necessary, the latest Intel reference driver. If that doesn't resolve the issue, I'll then look at reseating the eDP cable before considering more drastic options.

It may take me a day or two to work through those tests properly, but I'll report back with the results. Thanks again for your help.

Hi Daniel

Further update

I completed the graphics driver rollback successfully by disconnecting from the Internet to prevent Windows Update immediately reinstalling the newer Intel graphics driver. The system is now running the Dell-validated Intel graphics driver (32.0.101.7077).

I then carried out a series of controlled restart tests.

With the original Dell 130W AC adapter disconnected (battery only), I completed four consecutive successful restarts.

Without changing anything else, I connected the original Dell 130W AC adapter and immediately performed another restart.

The black-screen problem returned on the very first restart.

I have repeated this enough times that it now appears to be reproducible.

The only variables changed during these tests were:

• rolling back to the Dell 32.0.101.7077 graphics driver, and
• connecting/disconnecting the original Dell 130W AC adapter.

This now seems to point more towards an AC power / graphics power-management or firmware interaction than simply a graphics driver version issue.

Does this line of testing suggest any particular BIOS setting, power-management feature or hardware component that I should investigate next?

Thanks again for all your assistance. 

Daniel

Just a further thought you mentioned you wasn't sure of the full machine model so to confirm it is a Dell XPS 15 9510 with an 11th Gen Intel Core i9 processor, Intel UHD Graphics and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU.

@Kevin JF​ We may be leaning into a possible hardware issue if it occurs each time the AC adapter is attached. Have you already tried a known good AC adapter and both left C ports? If you haven't done so already, I'd also try a hard reset. 

1. Disconnect any external devices including the AC adapter and disconnect the battery cable.
2. Hold the power button down for 10 seconds 
3. Reseat the battery cable
4. Plug only the AC adapter back into the laptop
5. Attempt to power on the system

There wouldn't really be any other BIOS setting I can think of that would cause something like this to occur. Loading the BIOS defaults may be a good step though. For Windows settings, I'd probably disable fast startup from the control panel. 

If we can't really narrow down a software or hardware issue, then doing the graphics driver refresh would probably be the best quick workaround. Alternatively, you could use a magnet to trip the hall sensor.

When exposed to magnetic fields from external sources, the hall sensor may interpret that the display assembly is closed. This way you don't actually have to close the lid, but you would have to have a magnet handy to try that. 

Hi Daniel, a further piece of feedback.

I've completed some more controlled testing and found a repeatable pattern.

With the laptop running on battery only, I've completed four consecutive successful restarts, all reaching the Windows login screen normally.

I then connected the original Dell 130W adapter and immediately repeated the restart. The black-screen issue returned straight away.

To rule out the adapter itself, I repeated the test using a different Dell 90W Dell power supply (via a Dell dock). The behaviour was identical – black screen after the Windows startup sequence.

In both AC-powered cases, the machine appears to continue running (Caps Lock responds and the fans eventually settle), and after waiting briefly, closing and reopening the lid usually restores the login screen.

This behaviour now seems to be repeatable and appears to depend on whether the laptop is restarting on battery or AC power, rather than on which Dell power supply is connected.

Does this new behaviour change your thoughts on whether the issue is more likely to be related to the motherboard/display circuitry, the eDP cable, or another component?

Once again thank you for all your assistance

It is almost certainly a faulty power circuit on the mainboard.

Hi ejn63

Thanks for your feed back and you may be correct, I have some final testing to do and then start to consider next steps, which I think will be to replace the IR camera board to see if I can get MS "hello" to function  

A further update following the AC/battery findings.

To try to establish whether this happens outside Windows, I booted into the BIOS with the 130W AC adapter connected and left it there for around five minutes. The internal display remained completely stable throughout.

I then entered the F12 pre-boot menu with AC connected. On exiting towards a normal Windows boot, I disconnected the AC adapter virtually immediately. Despite then continuing the boot on battery, the usual black screen still occurred.

So it seems the display is stable outside Windows even when on AC, but if the machine begins the boot process with AC present, removing AC very early in the process doesn't prevent the subsequent black screen.

I was going to run the Dell pre-boot diagnostics on AC next. Does the above give you any further clues, or is there a more useful test you'd suggest?