Question Dell XPS 15 9550 Lag/Crashing Issues

[pauly01]

Have a dell xps 15 9550 laptop for many years. Also did clean reinstall of windows ten pro months ago.



Specs are


i5-6300hq processor

1tb ssd nvme - Upgraded from 250gb ssd a while back

32gb ram - Upgraded from 8gb a while back.


intel hd 530 graphics

nvidia geforce 960m



Have tons of lag/crashing issues when playing online poker and or youtube with chrome. More concerned with these lag issues on chrome as it could be the online poker software itself.


Also what about temporary turning off kaspersky total and check to see if that is the issue? The other thing is I use the kaspersky adblocker as well on chrome. Could those be the reasons for these lag issues? Should I just use windows defender and use that adblock plus?

 

[pauly01]

could also list all the programs I have in apps/features... and maybe it could be an app that is causing this?


Also in my windows updates - optional updates, I have these old driver updates that I did not install. Back then when I had to clean reinstall my windows laptop, I basically manually installed all the urgent and import drivers from the dell website. So when doing that, I notice there were still programs in device manager that had the yellow exclamation mark. So I then downloaded some other drivers on the dell site and once those yellow exclamation marks no longer appear in my device manager, I basically was doing trial and error so to speak, then I stopped downloading anymore apps/updates. I recall I downloaded a few driver updates from the drivers updates which made the last few yellow exclamation mark disappear.


These are the optional updates I still could download now when checking windows updates. Do you think I should download any of these below?



Realtek Semiconductor Corp. - Media August 2017 - 6..0.1.8233

Intel - Other Hardware - Intel ® Series/C230 Chipset Family Thermal subsystem - A131

Intel - Other Hardware - Intel ® Series/C230 Chipset Family Thermal subsystemPMC - A121

Intel - Other Hardware - Intel ® Series/C230 Chipset Family Thermal subsystem SMBus - A123

Dell, Inc. - Firmware - 1.14.0.0

Realtek - LAN - Realtek USB FE Family Controller

Intel ® HIDClass - October 2016 - 1.1.1.318



In task manager and windows processes, Desktop Windows Manager seem to always use a decent amount of ram... right now its only 300mb when not playing. But sometimes the GPU % spikes up really high.


Could that be a possible cause of these issues? I googled this and one site mentioned you should go to details for dwm.exe - priority and change it to normal. Currently its set to high.

 

[pauly01]

So what are my options? Is it something with my drivers? Do I use the let dell automatically find driver update on the dell.com support site?


What about diagnostics of

Let's test your pc for common hardware issues that takes 10 minutes? Its a quick test.


Or choose a different test of full test that takes 40 minutes. Anyone have experience with this?


Do i turn off kaspersky temporarily? Could i make some changes it in the settings that might fix this issue? Or do i need to remove this program from add/remove programs? I should remove kaspersky password manager and kaspersky vpn if i never use it? Notice it always show up in bottom right corner when i click on that up arrow on bottom right corner of my laptop.


Also should I remove that kaspersky protection extension that I have for chrome? Back then before i used kaspersky total, I used the free windows defender and used *** plus as my ad blocker. Could the kaspersky protection extension be causing the lag on my chrome? Or its most likely kaspersky itself? So if i uninstall kaspersky and the kaspersky protection extension on chrome and try using windows defender, see if I still have those lag/freezing issues on chrome especially with youtube? But could i temporarily turn off kaspersky total so i won't lose any of my kaspersky total settings... and then test chrome that way? Or do I HAVE to uninstall kaspersky total and the kaspersky protection extension that i use on chrome? Firefox lags even more etc.



For nvidia geforce experience, if i were to create an account, then what happens? I would be able to check if my nvidia drivers are updated? Then again, i could see that without this program right? Someone said nvidia geforce experience update is bloatware. So remove these programs from add/remove programs?


What about Windows Desktop Manager? I do notice in task manager, it uses like 300mb sometimes and gpu sometimes go up to 20% or higher. Is that normal? Should i change the priority from high to normal? What about below normal or low?

 

[pauly01]

Are there any settings or changes in windows you suggest? Also i should install ublock origin for use with chrome then?


I took a look at my system information on my laptop


Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version 10.0.19044 Build 19044
XPS 15 9550
x64 based PC
Processor Intel (R) Core (TM) i5-6300hq CPU @2.30 Ghz, 2301 Mhz
Bios Version/Date Dell Inc. 01.00.07 November 15
SMBios Version 2.8
Embedded Controller V 255.255
Bios Mode UEFI



So does that mean my bios is very old then? Shows the date and that was before I even got this laptop. What about the SMBIOS Version? Again, I never updated my bios because I didn't even know about it... but people then said if you update the bios, there is always a chance you can brick your laptop so that is why I never did it. I also heard updating it won't make your computer faster or solve other issues. Is that correct?


So based on these issues, what do you recommend? Again, when i use chrome, for some reason youtube seem to lag a bit. However, i don't have youtube premium... so there is always those ads. Could it be possible that is what is causing the lag? However, opening youtube videos on chrome just does not seem smooth at all. Its much worst on firefox etc.


What can I do on my pc to try to fix these issues? I heard dellsupportassist is not good because its like virus or malware? And if you want to download any program like that, you should download dell command prompt? But what is the difference between you checking for drivers manually vs downloading dell command prompt? Does it tell you okay you need to download these urgent programs and these recommended programs?


Also I mentioned that when i play online poker, that is what i do mainly on this laptop, many times my computer would freeze and lag and all these issues.. By that I mean the poker client software. I know some of those software lags etc but is it possible its my laptop? Since well chrome seem to lag quite a bit etc? But several times when these issues happen when playing online, my screen would sort of freeze etc. Once i remember, my poker clients all frozed etc and then my external monitors... the 32' 4k , 24' 1920x1200 and my laptop screen was like frozen or something. It was like the screen messed up and when i decided to power off my laptop manually by holding the power button... and then turning it back on, it ask me for my bitlocker recovery key which i didn't have at the time. I could not have turned off my laptop because the start button didn't work as when the poker clients frozed, the start menu and lot of things you couldn't click on. It literally looked like I was in safe mode because when I turned off both my external monitors and just had the laptop monitor screen on... the screen and icons looked like it was safe mode and you could not click on start menu. But later on i powered laptop on again and it didn't ask for my bitlocker recovery key and just the pin and then I logged back into my laptop.


But many times when im playing, these issues happen with the lagging and all that. And when not playing, chrome just does not feel smooth at all. Again I did clean reinstall my laptop a while back but then I manually installed drivers. So is it possible i didn't install one or two drivers that could be causing this? Or this has to be Desktop Windows Manager or Kaspersky Total or Nvidia somehow whether its Nvidia driver or Nvidia Geforce experience?



I have no idea what to do here. Is it possible my graphics card is too old so I'm having these issues playing on the sites because of my old graphics card?

 

[pauly01]

Went to the dell support site and entered my dell xps 15 9550 service tag.


Shows xps 15 9550 (77) but for my device... only 28 drivers


These below are urgent


Dell XPS 15 9550 System BIOS
NVIDIA GeForce/Quadro Series Graphics Driver
Intel Management Engine Components Installer
Intel Thunderbolt Controller Driver



These below are recommended


Dell Update/Alienware Update Application
Intel Thunderbolt Firmware Update
Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update
Intel Serial IO Driver
Intel HD/Iris/Iris Pro Graphics Driver
ASMedia USB eXtensible Host Controller Driver
Add Intel Chipset Device Software to the download list
Intel Chipset Device Software
Realtek High Definition Audio Driver
Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver and Management Console
Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Driver
Realtek USB Audio Driver
Dell Wireless 1820A Bluetooth Driver
Realtek Memory Card Reader Driver
Intel HID Event Filter Driver
Dell Help And Support Application
Dell Wireless 1820A/1830 Wi-Fi Driver
Dell Foundation Services - Application
Intel HID Event Filter Driver
STMicroelectronics Free Fall Data Protection Driver
Intel Chipset Driver
Dell Wireless 1830 Wi-Fi Driver
Dell Wireless 1830 Bluetooth Application
ST Microlectronics Motion Sensor Driver
Dell/Alienware Digital Delivery Application



When I had did the clean reinstall of windows 10 pro, I had to download those wifi drivers named Dell Wireless in order to get internet to work etc. Then after that, I recall downloading the urgent drivers first but I did not install Dell XPS 15 System Bios. Is that very important? Thing is I never downloaded anything bios at all because not only did I not know about it, but heard doing a bios update can be risky as it could brick your computer etc. How do I find out what Bios version I am on?



The other urgent drivers, I did download the nvidia feforce/quadra series driver and the intel management engine components installer. I am not sure if I downloaded the intel thunderbolt controller driver but when I press the start menu and type in that, I do see I did download that driver but not sure if I opened it? Anyone know the name for that program on add/remove program because I don't see it.



In the recommended drivers, I remember downloading a bunch of them but not all. I remember just downloading enough drivers where... as long as that device manager didn't have anymore yellow exclamation marks, then I stopped downloading any of the other recommended drivers as I figure that wouldn't be necessary.