XPS 15 7590 + WD19TB dock -- USB webcam glitches

I've done some more testing...

I purchased another of the same dock (WD19TB), same problem. So the dock itself isn't defective (unless I somehow got two bad ones).

My coworker has a TB15 or TB16 dock -- I tried hooking the same webcam and my laptop up to that dock, it works correctly.

So there seems to be something weird with the WD19TB and this model of laptop (at least) and USB. My wife has a lower-end Latitude from her job that I hope to be able to test with the same dock to see if it misbehaves the same way...

Sorry, my coworker has a WD15 dock, which apparently is not a Thunderbolt dock, even though the cable has the Thunderbolt logo on the end... 

So that at least is a useful data point -- everything works correctly with USB-C. I'm only having a problem with a thunderbolt-attached dock (so far).

I'm at a point where I'm considering purchasing a TB16 dock to see if that does the same thing; if so, then I can safely imply it's something specific with thunderbolt, this laptop, and Windows. (I would just buy a 3rd party dock, like a CalDigit, but they can't feed the 130W of power that this laptop requires.)

... and I was wrong about the cable, his WD15 just has the Displayport logo (for some reason I had in my head that it had the thunderbolt symbol).

A few more data points...

My wife has a Latitude 7300 (13") issued by her work. I plugged it into a WD19TB dock, along with the camera, and her work laptop did not have any of these camera glitching problems.

I then purchased a Kensington (ACCO) SD5600T dock, which is a Thunderbolt 3 device with 100W power delivery. When I connect it to my XPS 15, the laptop complains that it isn't getting enough power (as expected)... and I still have the same camera glitches. So the problem happens across 3 different Thunderbolt 3 docks (two WD19TBs and one 3rd party dock).

At this point, the only answer I can come to is that there is something wrong with Thunderbolt on this laptop. USB-C with DP altmode (via my coworker's WD15 dock) works perfectly fine. The one thing that has me puzzled is why it all works correctly in Ubuntu, but not in Windows. If a clean install of Windows worked, then I'd obviously point the blame at my ~7 month old Win10 installation having some sort of problem, and I'd just erase the thing and start over... but a clean install (to a USB drive in "Windows on-the-go" mode) has the same camera glitch problem. So it can't be anything specific to my "normal" Win10 installation, but it must be something with Windows and Thunderbolt (because again, Ubuntu works fine).

Will Dell warranty my system for this? It's less than a year old, plus I actually just paid ~$110 to extend the coverage for a year (I have about 8-9 days left on the first year right now.)

Having a conversation with myself here, buuuut...

Procured a Dell WD19 (non-TB) dock.

Everything works perfectly fine on the non-Thunderbolt dock, no webcam glitches.

The only conclusion I can draw is that there is something funky with Thunderbolt on this laptop, but I don't know what, or why it's only a problem for Windows and not Ubuntu. 🤷‍

Sorry to see that there has been no response to your findings. Even though you've been extremely thorough about it and the conclusion is spot on, as far as I'm concerned. So I wanted to chime in here, partially helping your/our analysis.

I use the same model XPS and dock. My external webcam is the Brio model, also from Logitech. I have done so for at least 6 months, without any problems with the video from it.

Up until yesterday, when, after a 2 week leave, I performed the updates that Windows and Dell Command Center provided me. After that, the video started glitching unless I indeed use the usb port directly on the laptop.

The updates Dell did were, according to the log:

• Bios (to 1.10.0)
• Killer AX1650 driver update for Bluetooth (22.30.0.4)
• NVIDIA graphics driver update (27.21.14.6231)
• Intel management engine components installer (2105.15.0.2157)
• Killer 1650/1675 Wifi Controller driver (2.2.1523)
• Dell Power Manager Service (3.9.0, type is APAC but I have no idea what that means)

Command center does not show me when these components were updated before.

Windows update only did the Defender definitions update.

But one of these updates caused the problem. I'm not sure how to revert these changes, safely. Maybe by downloading from the Dell support site manually. I might try that later this week. If that helps/works, I report back.

Hope that helps, at least for moral support.

Edo

Yes, for moral support I can pitch in that I have the same setup (7590+WD19TB+Logitech cam+Windows 10), and the exact same issue. 

I worked around it by plugging the webcam into a normal USB-A port. I'll be tracking this thread to see if there are any other solutions.

I appreciate the replies, and I hope maybe there are more of us (dozens?) and that could eventually get Dell to take this seriously. It's really annoying.

When I tried to raise it with their support, I made the mistake (?) of mentioning that everything was OK in Ubuntu, which meant they wouldn't humor me with a hardware swap.

But if others have had working systems with this dock, and then an update broke it, that is an interesting data point! But I'm not sure how much it really tells us, since I was able to take a 100% clean, Microsoft-only Windows install and reproduce the same bug there.

My hunch would be that it's somehow NVidia graphics-related, although I'm not really sure why I think that (since by default, the system should tend to prefer the Intel Integrated video, AFAIK). That is the only "non-standard" thing on my system - I've been running the current NVidia drivers from the "GeForce Experience" app, rather than whatever Dell supplies. I currently have a "Driver Version" (per Windows Device Manager) of 27.21.14.6647, which NVidia calls "version 466.47" (and was released 5/18/2021).

I'm now wondering if I could roll back to a super old release of the NVidia drivers (older than Dell's 27.21.14.6231) and if that would put things back to normal. Looking at my own version compared to yours, I'm guessing Dell provides "NVidia version" 462.31, which NVidia considers a "Studio Driver" (targeted at professional / 3d rendering usage rather than gaming usage). Version 462.31 was released by NVidia on April 14, 2021... They put out Studio Drivers on a pretty regular monthly cadence.

Something to try at least, although that means I have to drag the Thunderbolt dock back out and switch everything back to it again (I've been using the USB-based WD19 instead of the WD19TB just to avoid this problem).

And I'm back. With a positive twist that came totally unexpected, I must say...

So two weeks ago I reported about having the same issues. And about the updates that either Dell Command or Windows had done and which went in between a working config and the non-working setup.

I left it, not being able to spend too much time on reverting the updates one by one.

And today I finally sat down, planning to do that. But first, I let Windows do its update, and Dell Command. Nothing else updated in between the 'faulty' config and now. So it was, according to Windows and Dell logs:

• Windows update KB5003637 (update for Windows 21H1 I think it was called). See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/june-8-2021-kb5003637-os-builds-19041-1052-19042-1052-and-19043-1052-fd782405-7736-478e-b8d0-b08f735f7e54 although nothing in there triggers me to think it had to do with USB or anything. I only skimmed the page.
• Dell Command update for itself. So the app, nothing for the system.

That's it. No more, no less. Did a clean reboot and wanted to start rolling back to older versions of the Dell stuff I mentioned before.

So I unplugged my Logitech Brio from the USB port on the laptop (the temporary solution) and moved it to my monitor's hub, which is connected to the Dell thunderbolt Dock. And it kept working. No glitches!
Did a reboot again. Started up Zoom again to check. Still clean video.

So my only conclusion now is:

• the Windows cumulative update for 21H1 contained something that changed it all
• or Dell Command is not listing everything it updated together with the app itself, in its log.

I hope it is just the first.

So please, perform the update I mentioned. Let Windows Update handle that, of course. And let's see if we all benefit. I sure hope so!

And an edit for BWM-DC: I am not running the GForce Experience thing (did that on another laptop, never saw the advantage for a device that I don't use to run the games on that they keep creating updates for). So my driver version, according to the Nividia Settings Control Panel is 462.31. Windows reports 27.21.14.6231 (dated April 8th). But like I mentioned above, I did not update anything for those components and neither did Windows Update, if the logs are correct. I do hope that the content of the Cumulative Windows update is all you need to fix it, whatever drivers you use on top.

21H1 is a major update to Windows (think along the lines of "service packs" back in the Windows 7 days) so I would put a lot of weight on that being the fix. [edit] I just re-read your post... were you already on 21H1? Because I am not currently, but Windows is offering it to me as an "optional update."

I've got 20H2, build 19042.985 right now. Win Update is pending install for "2021-06 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 20H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5003637)", but 21H1 it is allowing me to choose (some of this might be related to the fact that I'm running W10 Enterprise).

Your results jive with my findings that it's not hardware, since Ubuntu worked perfectly fine the whole time, while Windows 10 didn't.

I've been wanting to get 21H1 on here soon anyway, so this gives me one more reason to dig the TB dock out of storage, hook it up, and do before & after testing on 21H1. (I'm already current on Dell Update and I don't see how that itself would be related.)

As you may have noticed, I'm not really into the Windows naming scheme and how 'Service Packs' are called these days. Or if 'Patch Tuesdays' still exist. So bare with me My Windows is 10 Pro, by the way.

Just had a look at the update history again, and if I was having the issues on the 26th of May, then on that date I think I probably still ran 20H2, Because on the 15th I received updates for 'that' and only yesterday was the update called 'for 21H1. Hmm, the 'for'-part throws me off here.

Something else that got installed after the 26th: Some "Dell Extension" (to 1.5.2.371) on the 27th, in the Driver Update section of the overview. I probably already had relocated the USB connection, so if that fixed it before yesterdays 21H1 update, I just never noticed.

I have added a screenshot so you can decide for yourself a bit. Hopefully 'Enterprise' gets the same updates, but I recon it would.

Per that image, you (or Windows) installed 21H1 on May 27th.

I would've expected 21H1 on its own to possibly fix the problem, since it's like a "service pack" in scope / changing the background guts of things.

But it's also possible that this wasn't fixed until the patch you mentioned... that same patch / KB number would exist for both 20H2 and 21H1, and will generally make similar changes to both systems (hence why it has the same KB number even though the name reflects which "base build" (service pack) of Windows you're running.

My point about the 21H1 install and W10 Enterprise was more about how it is offered - on my Enterprise system, Windows Update makes me explicitly go click something else to confirm that I want it. I know that MS rolls these big updates out in "stages," and it wouldn't surprise me if Home goes first, then Pro, and then (eventually) Enterprise gets it forced (unless a company has policies in place to prevent it, which mine doesn't).

Well, it is not KB5003637, as I just installed that (still on 20H2) and the problem continues.

Going to try 21H1 next and see if that does the trick.

Installed 21H1, still having the same flickering problem with the webcam on the Thunderbolt dock.