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Go to SolutionXPS 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.
I just tried to downgrade the BIOS to 1.0.7 following the procedure found here (very nice explanation by the way) :
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.
@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.
I managed to take a video of the issue :
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.
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).
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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41 Posts
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Posted 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).