Precision 5510, screen flicker issues, and repaving

Hi,

I just got a new Precision 5510 equipped with the 4k display, a 256Gb M2 SSD and a 500Gb HDD, and I have a few problems that I am hoping someone on this forum can give me advice on.

The first issue I ran into was that the screen would flicker (on/off) while in Windows. At first I thought it was a bad physical connection, but I later realized that it would only happen in Windows and it would come and go in waves.

In an attempt to solve that, I downloaded the latest bios and latest drivers from the Dell support website, and started by installing the BIOS upgrade. Unfortunately, that BIOS upgrade caused an issue with bitlocker (which I had enabled shortly before), so I basically was in a state where I had to reinstall Windows.

I have made several attempts to reinstall using the Windows DVD that shipped with the system. Using the "reset this PC" option in the Windows installer always ends with a "Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing."

I have disabled secureboot, and switched the SATA mode to AHCI. Before doing that, the recovery DVD couldn't even see the M2. After that I was able to see and access the M2 drive, repartitioned and reformatted using diskpart.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can do a fresh Win10 reinstall using the recovery media that shipped with the system?

Best regards,
Kristofer

 

I think I know the cause of the original screen flickering issue: apparently Skylake graphics drivers and HyperV don't play well together. This apparently also affects Microsoft's own Surface 4 / Surface Book laptops: http://www.windowscentral.com/screen-flicker-surface-book-hyper-v

Now, I still have no luck with repaving/reinstalling, so any advice, tips, or pointers how to do that would be much appreciated.

 

Always use the "Suspend protection" function in BitLocker before making system changes (including BIOS updates).

As for the install, not sure what you're seeing with the Dell install media. Typically the Windows 10 media I have used lands you on a screen with an "Install now" button after you boot, and then you agree to some stuff and are given a screen to manipulate partitions and pick which one to install on. (It's been the same process since Vista.) You should be able to delete all existing partitions and then proceed with the install. If the Dell media is strange, you can download fresh media from Microsoft. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

You could possibly get a strange error message like that if the system was originally set up with UEFI boot (as any Windows 8+ PC would be), and you tried to boot the install media using "Legacy" boot. If you are using the F12 boot select option to boot the install media, make sure you are choosing the UEFI option, as it might offer both a UEFI and legacy boot option.