XPS 13 9360, TB16, blue screening

I bought mine off of Ebay so a little bit of me is wondering if it's a dud but I'm seeing so many other people who've got new and having the exact same problem. I've come to the conclusion this down to the design of the TB16. But I'm hopeful there is a solution out there. Mine is only an issue it seems when it comes back from sleep mode but I will keep this thread posted if that changes, for now I use hibernate not sleep.

Interesting that CDW online shows that the TB16 has been discontinued since 1/20/19. Wonder if by chance because it had too many issues?? 

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@Intel4004 wrote:

 I've been experiencing blue screening which happens after I wake it up from sleep.

 

Before connecting the dock I installed the following drivers...In addition when I run the Dell Firmware Update Utility for the Dock I get "Asmedia usb 3.0 host controller firmware update failed." I'm sure this could be the issue but no idea yet how to resolve this. Is there an order to installing the drivers above or  am I missing something else?

 

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I will be testing my 9365 with the TB 16 but you say it only happens when it comes out of sleep.  Do you actually mean low power mode or hibernation, since it doesn't sleep.

Could you explain what you mean by "since it doesn't sleep"  All computers have a sleep mode!

If I use sleep mode I get the DMA error causing the bluescreen. So the drivers for the TB16 afaic are the issue. I've been using the hibernate mode with no problems. On one occasion the intel display software completely forgot my external monitors setup/or reset it so on a cold boot I had to reassign the two external monitors and disable the built in screen again.

I get the feeling Dell have washed their hands of the issues and will move on. With the TB16 they should have taken the opportunity to overhaul the design and recode but obviously didn't hence the botch job.

The 9360 is a modern standby system and does not behave exactly as other laptops. It can be confusing if you are expecting a system to just have the screen turned off but actually it is in a low power mode and simply hitting the space bar will bring it back. Some operations do use the sleep timer so you might try changing that. I tested my system with the dock and could not replicate the errors.

I do not have two monitors but did plug in the Ethernet and USB 3.0 and 2.0 devices and let it go into low power mode and brought it back. Since I cannot duplicate your two monitor setup, perhaps you could run with just one or none for testing.

I think you mentioned you have all the latest Thunderbolt and other TB16 components. There was a Win 10 update today and you can never tell if it might have an effect. If you can test for a specific component by not using it for a while, you might be able to pin down where the problem is happening.

The 9360 is a modern standby system and does not behave exactly as other laptops. It can be confusing if you are expecting a system to just have the screen turned off but actually it is in a low power mode and simply hitting the space bar will bring it back. Some operations do use the sleep timer so you might try changing that. I tested my system with the dock and could not replicate the errors.

To me you've just described sleep mode. A link explaining would help.

Some operations do use the sleep timer so you might try changing that.

How can one operation use sleep and another not, confused.

I do not have two monitors but did plug in the Ethernet and USB 3.0 and 2.0 devices and let it go into low power mode and brought it back.

Simples, just choose the sleep option in the start menu and then press the power button on the TB16 to wake.

I think you mentioned you have all the latest Thunderbolt and other TB16 components.

No I didn't. In my original post I stated...

In addition when I run the Dell Firmware Update Utility for the Dock I get "Asmedia usb 3.0 host controller firmware update failed."

Asmedia usb 3.0 host controller is responsible for everything apart from video coming out of the TB16 so if I could solve this it may be the answer.

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@Intel4004 wrote:

To me you've just described sleep mode. A link explaining would help.

Asmedia usb 3.0 host controller is responsible for everything apart from video coming out of the TB16 so if I could solve this it may be the answer.

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This an old video but describes how it works.

https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Mechanics/Understanding-Surface-Power-Management-with-Modern-Standby-in-Windows-10

There are drivers for the Ethernet and the Sound so the ASmedia driver is important because USB - C and probably USB devices.  I do not know why your Asmedia driver is not installing.  You install those drivers without the dock connected?  The driver version is the same as on my 9365.  You could try uninstalling the driver, it will probably show up if you set Device Manager to show hidden devices.

One thing I do not do is allow devices as you go.  My system is set up to use the devices I have.  Probably, in an Enterprise situation it is necessary to verify devices.

Again, if you are getting dump files you may want to make them available. 

Well, Windows is currently trying to give me a driver for the ASMedia USB which is older than the one from Dell (1.16.50.1). I will let you know if that install fails.

Edit:  I have two USB C ports (only one is Thunderbolt) so right now in Device manager I am showing the ASMedia USB 3.0 eXtensible controller and one ASMedia Root hub with 1.16.55.1 and one ASMedia Root Hub with 1.16.50.1

I do not know if the Win 10 Cumulative update from Tuesday evening (KB4476976) effected any of this.

Thank you for the video it was interesting but my perception was still pretty much on the money. I've always seen sleep mode as something which kept power to the microprocessor and ram only. With S0 sleep it drip feeds other chips to carry out certain tasks this was sort of new to me BUT tbh I was always aware of Wake on Lan anyway.

I do not know why your Asmedia driver is not installing.

Okay you really, really need to reread my original post. Nowhere did I say I couldn't install drivers!! I know you are just trying to help.

In addition when I run the Dell Firmware Update Utility for the Dock I get "Asmedia usb 3.0 host controller firmware update failed.

I have three installers for the Dock.  One Thunderbolt 3 firmware update, a Thunderbolt 3 controller driver and an ASMedia USB extended Host controller driver.  I do not see any ASMedia firmware update.

The ASMedia USB driver is important since the system cannot communicate with the Dock correctly without it.

I hope you get it worked out but I was never able to duplicate your situation.

All,

Remove the following entry at registry key (make a backup copy first):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\asmtxhci\Parameters

DmaRemappingCompatible

Reboot

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That is the only difference that 1.16.55.1 has and rolling back the driver does not remove that registry key.

More information on what DMAremapping does:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/policy-csp-dmaguard

This policy is intended to provide additional security against external DMA capable devices. It allows for more control over the enumeration of external DMA capable devices incompatible with DMA Remapping/device memory isolation and sandboxing.

Device memory sandboxing allows the OS to leverage the I/O Memory Management Unit (IOMMU) of a device to block unallowed I/O, or memory access, by the peripheral. In other words, the OS assigns a certain memory range to the peripheral. If the peripheral attempts to read/write to memory outside of the assigned range, the OS blocks it.