XPS 9510 and Precision 5560 Laptops Lag or Blue Screen with DRIVE_POWER_STATE_FAILURE

Either a DRIVE_POWER_STATE_FAILURE or laptop lag problem is reported

XPS 9510 laptop and Precision 5560 MWS owners who disable Hyper-Threading or change the Central Processor Unit(CPU) settings report the following issues:

• Blue screen 0x0000009f: "DRIVE_POWER_STATE_FAILURE" error
• There is a lag in the operating system environment

Changing the CPU Multicore value to 1 and disable Hyper-Threading in the BIOS may reduce the CPU performance and cause operating system issues.

What is Hyper-Threading?

Hyper-threading is a way that the CPU divides up its physical cores into virtual cores. The virtual cores are treated as if they are physical cores by the operating system. You can also call these virtual cores threads. A laptop using Hyper-Threading can work harder and faster and run more tasks without issues.

What does CPU Multicore mean?

A multi-core processor is a CPU with two or more separate processing units. Each processing unit is called a core. Each core reads and runs program instructions. If you have multiple cores available, it allows you to have multiple programs running simultaneously and to switch between programs.

If you have disabled Hyper-Threading and set the Multicore value to one, then you can expect various laptop stability problems. This is the expected result when you reduce the CPU performance settings.

The resolution for this is straight-forward:

1. Boot back into the BIOS setup screen.

   Tapping the F2 key at the Dell Splash screen takes you straight into the BIOS.

2. Go down to Performance and enable Hyper-Threading.

3. In Performance, it also lists the available cores for your CPU.

4. We recommend that you reset it back to the default number of cores. (At least set it to a number greater than one.)