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December 18th, 2016 10:00
XPS 13 9360 QHD+ random screen flicker/flash
I got my brand new XPS 13 9360 a few days ago and I experience a very strange phenomenon : randomly, I get the whole screen flicker/flash to black very quickly once or a few times in a row. Then it doesn't flicker for a long time : it seems to happen 1 to 3 times in an evening for example.
Do you experience such a phenomenon ? I've tried tweaking the settings of the video driver but it didn't change anything. I'm not sure but the problem may have started when I upgraded the BIOS from 1.0.7 to 1.2.3 on the 14th of December.
Please help, I don't know if I should send it back or ask for a motherboard or screen swap.
Greg_FR
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December 18th, 2016 12:00
Hello SuperHanss,
Glad to know I'm not alone ;-) By the way, I received my 9360 last monday like you.
I also tried to reinstall Windows completely and it didn't change anything. I also tried, like you, the latest intel drivers 4542 and even the 4552 beta, but the flickering still happens.
One thing I'm not sure of : does it also happen when plugged in ? I'm currently trying to confirm that.
I hope others will confirm the same issue with theirs and may be able to confirm it's related to the BIOS update.
@DELL : can you help us troubleshooting this major issue ? I'm ready for any testing you want from me (I'm a computer engineer).
Greg_FR
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December 18th, 2016 12:00
OK I didn't have to wait for long : it just happened to me while plugged in...
Greg_FR
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December 18th, 2016 13:00
I just tried to downgrade the BIOS to 1.0.7 following the procedure found here (very nice explanation by the way) :
www.reddit.com/.../
Problem is : when the flash began, I got a message saying downgrading from 1.2.3 to 1.0.7 was blocked by DELL due to "incompatible downgrade". Too bad : I won't be able to confirm if the flicker is related to the BIOS upgrade to 1.2.3.
Greg_FR
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December 19th, 2016 10:00
@welltimedly
Thank you for your feedback. So i guess BIOS upgrade was not the culprit. And it doesn't seem to be LCD related too (issue with QHD+ and FHD).
I guess it's either hardware (motherboard related) or software (BIOS or ?).
To everyone : what is your laptop manufacturing date (see in BIOS) ? What processor, RAM and SSD do you have ?
For my part : manufactured on 04th dec 2016, 16 Gb ram, 512 SSD Toshiba.
Greg_FR
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December 19th, 2016 15:00
I managed to take a video of the issue :
https://youtu.be/x-rkFvNeukY
Can you have a look and confirm you see the same kind of issue ?
I was not moving the mouse during the video as it would have stopped the flickering.
Greg_FR
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December 20th, 2016 01:00
@welltimedly
In fact, it's sometimes only "dropping into full black" as you describe and sometimes making back lines as on the video, so I guess we have the same issue.
Greg_FR
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December 20th, 2016 11:00
@frederelias
The resolution problem you've pointed out is due to Windows, it occurs on all computers with high DPI screens running Windows 10 with some apps and in some parts of the control panel (like in the device manager).
Greg_FR
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December 20th, 2016 14:00
To all who experience the problem : can you give here :
- Your manufaturing date (see in BIOS) ?
- Your BIOS version
- Your screen model (FHD or QHD+)
Thank you
Greg_FR
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December 21st, 2016 14:00
Yes, I agree that the fact that it can occur in BIOS would indicate that it's either a BIOS bug or an hardware issue. It would really be interesting to confirm that. I would very much like to know how to contact Dell as I have found other issues that I would like to report so that they can be solved... (like an important regression on power consumption I'm sure of in BIOS 1.2.3 compared to 1.0.7).
Greg_FR
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January 9th, 2017 16:00
I have an important update concerning the random screen flicker/flash I experienced : I reported it to DELL premium support before Christmas and they immediately replaced my motherboard (the next day).
Since then, I haven't experienced a single flicker/flash so I can for sure report the problem is no more present (before I got flickers at least once in two hours).
Nevertheless, there is an important (?) thing to note : the new motherboard was delivered in BIOS 1.0.7 version and I haven't upgraded to 1.2.3 yet so I can't be 100% sure the problem was hardware and not BIOS related.
@SuperHanss : please let us know if the motherboard replacement fixes the problem for you too and what BIOS you run...
Greg_FR
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January 13th, 2017 12:00
@SuperHanss
Good news !
I forgot to mention that Netflix worked again immediately after the motherboard replacement (the app and in edge), this is so weird... What could explain that ? This is not the BIOS as I have already tried a 9360 with BIOS 1.2.3 with Netflix working.
Greg_FR
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January 26th, 2017 13:00
@SuperHanss
Thank you for the update on BIOS 1.2.3.
Would you mind trying the new 1.3.2 BIOS (released today) and report ?
Greg_FR
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January 29th, 2017 05:00
@Orelstvan
Does it flicker also when you're in the BIOS setup menus ?
Could you make a video of your flicker issue to see if it looks the same as the one we had ?
Your issue seems different, ours was obviously not BIOS related but hardware related. SuperHanss also upgraded to 1.3.2 BIOS and he didn't report any issue so far.
As far as I'm concerned, I am still using BIOS 1.0.7 but I think I'll soon try to update to 1.3.2 (when SuperHanss will report back here).
Greg_FR
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January 31st, 2017 13:00
@mickaelr
Obvisously your flickering issue is absolutely not the same as the one studied in this thread, which is hardware related and very random.
Maybe it would be a good idea to open a new thread for your specific issue (linked to Hyper-V) ?
SuperHanss
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December 18th, 2016 12:00
You're not alone! I'm experiencing the exact same issue on my XPS 13 9360 (QHD/i7 7500u/16gb ram/512gb) which I received last Monday. With mine, It seems to start happening after around 30 mins of use, either from a cold boot or coming from sleep.
I too believe that it started happening after updating to 1.2.3 BIOS. Unfortunately it is not possible to rollback to 1.0.7 so there's no way to be certain. I've tried the latest video driver from Intel as well as the version listed on Dell's site but the issue remains...