Be sure to change SATA Operation from RAID to AHCI in the BIOS Settings before running Symantec Ghost from a memory stick. The former setting will effectively hide your NVMe drive. Better safe than sorry, reinstate the RAID selection afterwards. Ref.: https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln301036/windows-10-install-with-nvme-ssd-and-sata-drives?lang=en
Category Archives: Dell
First attempt at running FreeBSD/amd64 12.0-BETA1
I spent the better part of the weekend upgrading my laptop to 12.0-BETA1.
Three hickups has been discovered so far. Continue reading First attempt at running FreeBSD/amd64 12.0-BETA1
Strange mSATA SSD behaviour on Dell Latitude E7240
One of our Dell Latitude E7240 exhibited strange mSATA SSD behaviour. Disk requests didn’t complete on time. This computer ran the A13 firmware.
The case was eventually solved by upgrading to the A21 firmware executed from an USB stick as the mSATA SSD was unreliable at this point. Apparently, the A18 firmware corrected some mSATA port settings. Also, this was a good opportunity to rid us of Intel’s SA-00075.
This isn’t the first case where disk behaviour suddenly changes to the worst on Latitude E-series laptops, only to be rectified by a firmware upgrade.
CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED BSOD on Dell XPS 15 9550
Earlier this week, a student walked into my office with his Dell XPS 15 9550 in hand. Sometimes his computer would behave, and sometimes, during heavy load, it would die with a CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED BSOD. Dell’s own recovery DVD image was unable to restore the computer to a working order. The support personnel at Dell suggested using Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool to download a Windows 10 ISO image. Burning the ISO image to a DVD and reinstalling Windows made the computer runnable to some degree. As soon as we installed the WiFi driver, we got that dreaded CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED BSOD again. Googling for “Dell XPS 15 9550 CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED” gave results about the NVMe disk device driver being a possible culprit. This issue has existed for almost a year and are hardly isolated to a few instances. Maybe the XPS 15 9550 model suffers from poor choice of hardware components or bad hardware design.
Strange storage systems at Dell
I’m in the process of readying a brand new Dell Precision 7710. I’m close to completion. The only thing I’m missing is a driver for the nVidia Quadro M4000M GPU. Continue reading Strange storage systems at Dell
Dell PowerEdge R320, JBOD, mfi(4), and gpart(8)
One of the old webservers at work, a Dell PowerEdge R200, crashed a couple of weeks ago. I suspect the six year old motherboard finally gave up. Continue reading Dell PowerEdge R320, JBOD, mfi(4), and gpart(8)
FreeBSD/i386, stable/10, OpenSSL from ports, optimized assembly code, Dell PowerEdge 1950, Xeon X5450@3.00GHz, and BIOS 2.5.0
The strange combination of FreeBSD/i386, stable/10, OpenSSL from ports, optimized assembly code, Dell PowerEdge 1950, Intel Xeon X5450@3.00GHz, and BIOS 2.5.0, resulted in core dumps for all applications linked with OpenSSL from ports. Continue reading FreeBSD/i386, stable/10, OpenSSL from ports, optimized assembly code, Dell PowerEdge 1950, Xeon X5450@3.00GHz, and BIOS 2.5.0
Loose camera connector in Dell Latitude E5540
A colleague came into my office claiming the camera in his Dell Latitude E5540 didn’t work. Here’s a link to the Dell Latitude E5540 Owner’s Manual.
After a bit of troubleshooting, I removed the display bezel. Lo and behold, the camera connector was halfway out of its socket. Once I pressed the connector into place, the camera immediately started working. But only after a few seconds the connector dislodged again, and Skype/Windows didn’t detect any camera.
I removed the display, rearranged the camera’s flat cable to lessen the stress, and reconnected the connector. As I began to fasten the display, the camera lost its connection again. Apparently, the socket is slightly too wide or the connector is slightly too narrow, or maybe both, and they slip easily apart.
I removed the display again. I reconnected the camera connector one final time and applied a drop of super glue of the kind I use for security markings. While the glue dried, the camera kept working. After 10 minutes or so, I reattached the display and the display bezel, and the camera was still working. Successful surgery!
Dell Latitude E7240 and Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 fails to notify Windows 7 when the SSID changes. The result is that the wireless interface retains the previous and possibly invalid IP addresses and other settings. The latest driver, A11, only a few days old, isn’t helpful at all.
I usually avoid installing Intel’s own utility for managing wireless connections, as I feel this should be left in the capable hands of the operating system and the driver. Maybe I should think twice about that.
The current solution is to manually force Windows into releasing and renewing the IP addresses after switching to a different SSID.
@echo off ipconfig /release ipconfig /release6 ipconfig /renew ipconfig /renew6
Dell Latitude E6430 and the firmware setting for Optimus video
A Dell Latitude E6430 had Windows 7 reinstalled this August, and the firmware was upgraded along to revision A15. Somehow the firmware setting for Optimus video got disabled and I regrettably missed the change.
Today, while upgrading the firmware to revision A16, I spotted the disabled Optimus video setting. Thus, I enabled the setting, and now both the Intel HD Graphics 4000 and the nVidia NVS 5300M graphics cards show up in Computer Management. Just remember to install the Intel HD Graphics 4000 driver prior to installing the nVidia NVS 5300M driver.
Hopefully, all stability issues we’ve seen lately should now be resolved.
I began to question if the firmware update process is always able to restore every setting. The moral of this story is to verify the firmware settings after each upgrade.