Dell xps 15 9550 help needed

[Niels_1987]

Hey!

I bought a Dell XPS 15 9550 and have some difficulties.
The specs of my system are as follows:

Intel skylake 6300HQ @2.3GHZ
20GB RAM (16GB GSKILL DDR4 2133MHZ 1.2V + 4GB (don't recall the brand) but also DDR4 2133MHZ 1.2V)
Samsung 950 pro 256 GB
1TB WD10SPCX internal hard drive
2TB Seagate Expansion external hard drive
Nvidia GeForce 960M (disabled due to improper functioning together with the on board skylake graphics chip)

After upgrading to the Samsung 950 pro I did a fresh install of Windows 10. Changed the hard drive settings in the BIOS from RAID (factory settings was the western digital HD paired with a 32GB flash drivr) to AHCI to install the SSD. However, after that
I experience the following problems:
1) boot up is way longer than I think it should be: +/- 20 seconds
2) mouse freezes randomly even when under non-intensive workload. After this Windows 10 crashes with blue screen stating CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED. Windows then tries to do a memory dump and restart but the progress remains on 0%. I have to power off by holding the power button and restart manually.
3) I bought the external hard drive because I do some lightroom work and transfer rate should be pretty good (around 120MB/s). I barely reach 30MB/s on average. Drive is formatted as advised for photos with allocation unit size of 64kb instead of the default 4kb.

I tried running memory tests, malware check, reinstall but nothing gives an error.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks very much in advance.

Greetings Niels

 

[Balrog49]

The last time I checked, the 9550 had two different drive slots: 2.5" SATA and mSATA. Thus you can't use Raid 1 or Windows Storage Spaces.

If the mSATA slot is now an M.2 slot, the 950 SSD should work fine as the system drive but only in AHCI mode. The 2.5" SATA slot can then be used for storage.

1. Run msconfig, click the Boot tab, check the 'Safe boot' box.

2. Reboot and press F2 while the system is coming up to enter the BIOS interface.

3. In the BIOS, change Intel Smart Response mode to AHCI mode and reboot.

4. Run msconfig again and disable safe mode.

5. Shut down, install the 950 in the M.2 slot, and reboot.

6. Run Disk Management to make sure the 950 is formatted and assigned a drive letter.

7. Image the current system drive onto the 950*. It's easy to do but takes a while to finish.

8. Reboot and press F2 while the system is coming up to enter the BIOS interface.

9. Select the m950 drive as the boot device.

10. Back up the new and old system drives.

11. Wipe the old system drive or replace it with another drive.

* I recommend imaging over installing Windows 10 because there's a non-zero probability that Windows 10 won't activate. The COA product key on the bottom should work but doesn't always. There are workarounds but they're beyond the scope of this post. You may have to call Microsoft to activate Windows 10 remotely.

Your info on the windows activation scheme seems to be a little out of date, there havent been product keys printed on coa stickers since 4 years ago. He can reinstall without a problem, his activation is completely dependent on the hardware(the motherboard), within that machine. If you're paranoid, and are running the latest build of w10, you can even tie the windows activation to a ms account, which would mean your license would survive a completely new unactivated build. But it would remove the license in the old hardware. Of course, all of what I just said requires an internet connection, but I don't think that is a problem here.

Cool. I haven't bought new hardware in years (I refurbish) and didn't know the COA is gone. I assume this involved hardware and/or firmware and/or software changes. Do you know how it was done?

 

[Niels_1987]

Hey guys I missed the message on the 15th of October and only got a reminder for your latest replies. I see I have not even replied in the end if my system was working I see which is not very nice of me 🙁 So here's an update: my system has been running well since the last changes I made and I do not have any crashes anymore so that's great. The only thing I still struggle with is that my laptop boots really slowly, for a SSD that is. Most times it takes up to 45 seconds from power on to login screen. I might reinstall Windows when I have the time. I opened a new topic for this recently (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3214182/slow-startup-windows-samsung-ssd.html)

I see I also mentioned my external seagate HDD earlier. I've send that one back a while ago as it turned out to be faulty and got a replacement under warranty from Seagate

 

[Anonymous09]

Sorry for digging up a 3 month old post, I must've missed this email in october, and I just revisited the site after a couple of weeks, I missed both of your responses. Niels, I'm glad you replaced a faulty hdd, that is very good news 😉 I just read over your new post though, and as of your last post it seems you are doing fine and I am glad others were able to come to your aid. I hope things are still well 3 months down the road with that laptop

Balrog, you've probably found out in the interim how currently windows handles its activation scheme, but I'll do a quick summary if not and if you are still paying attention to these forums, feel free to ask me more. It not so many words, w10 changed quite a bit of how MS handles activating windows. But basically, it ties what they call a "digital license" server-side to your motherboard, any motherboard with a valid w7 or w8 license inputted upon first install or upgrade will automatically tie that motherboard to their activation servers. This is how all new PCs from the manufacturers handle carrying their licenses for any new computer, as well as any prior w7 or w8 pc. Now of course, retail copies are handled just as they always were and not much has changed there except for the added bonuses that the latest build brings to activation. That bonus, and gift if I might add, is tying a windows license to a MS account, which gives you the ability to reactive windows on a new build if you swap out your mb, which is what the license if ultimately tied to on their side. And from my countless use experiences with this new system, it works so much better than what it once was. They've also been so generous as to allow from what I've seen near unlimited reactivation on their side on any number of samely sign motherboards, which if I don't have to mention is a bit of a generous lapse in judgement, so be hush about it 😀 This all means for you that any new w10 pc will not have a coa stuck on the bottom side of your pc, you can never lose your windows license if you don't mind logging in at least once to a MS account on said pc, and an overall much simpler and easier process for reactivation I've found. You can also just plainly install w10 without having to worry about activating it, as there are no harsh penalties anymore for doing it. The effects of which are barely noticeable, and are purely aesthetic and not functional.

 

[Balrog49]

Sorry for digging up a 3 month old post, I must've missed this email in october, and I just revisited the site after a couple of weeks, I missed both of your responses. Niels, I'm glad you replaced a faulty hdd, that is very good news 😉 I just read over your new post though, and as of your last post it seems you are doing fine and I am glad others were able to come to your aid. I hope things are still well 3 months down the road with that laptop

Balrog, you've probably found out in the interim how currently windows handles its activation scheme, but I'll do a quick summary if not and if you are still paying attention to these forums, feel free to ask me more. It not so many words, w10 changed quite a bit of how MS handles activating windows. But basically, it ties what they call a "digital license" server-side to your motherboard, any motherboard with a valid w7 or w8 license inputted upon first install or upgrade will automatically tie that motherboard to their activation servers. This is how all new PCs from the manufacturers handle carrying their licenses for any new computer, as well as any prior w7 or w8 pc. Now of course, retail copies are handled just as they always were and not much has changed there except for the added bonuses that the latest build brings to activation. That bonus, and gift if I might add, is tying a windows license to a MS account, which gives you the ability to reactive windows on a new build if you swap out your mb, which is what the license if ultimately tied to on their side. And from my countless use experiences with this new system, it works so much better than what it once was. They've also been so generous as to allow from what I've seen near unlimited reactivation on their side on any number of samely sign motherboards, which if I don't have to mention is a bit of a generous lapse in judgement, so be hush about it 😀 This all means for you that any new w10 pc will not have a coa stuck on the bottom side of your pc, you can never lose your windows license if you don't mind logging in at least once to a MS account on said pc, and an overall much simpler and easier process for reactivation I've found. You can also just plainly install w10 without having to worry about activating it, as there are no harsh penalties anymore for doing it. The effects of which are barely noticeable, and are purely aesthetic and not functional.

 

[Balrog49]

Wrong text box.