Dell XPS 9560 Clean install guide + custom ISO download.

Content removed as I will no longer be developing this as Windows 10 works out the box now.

 

Awesome job, thanks Man! Waiting for this all day.
Three questions here:
1-Where did you switch to AHCI? I am using single ssd 512 GB, so I guess best bet is to go with AHCI, right?
2- If we decide to go for AHCI, we don't need to have Intel RST? Because I have seen people using intel RST so that the ssd is recognized!
3- Should I follow this part:
"proceed to delete all the partitions until you are left with a single unpartitioned drive, click on it and hit next and windows will install"
I have several partitions, can't I just format the OS drive? Without touching my other partitions?

Thanks in advance!

 

1- Bios under sata.
2-you don't needs intel RST anyway unless you use a cache drive, it is just another bit of software running that doesn't need to be. Performance can be less as it isn't using a windows NVMe driver.
3- Yes, wipe them all as you leave a recovery and boot partition behind otherwise, this can cause issues. Considering the Dell recovery environments broken as well that isn't needed either.

 

You state above that you switched to AHCI in the BIOS. Did you do this before you booted from the UEFI flash drive or was this after the install was finished?
Sorry for all the questions. Trying to get this right first time

 

before.

 

I have separate partitions on my SSD for my Data and my Multimedia files. I hope it is OK not to delete those?

Thanks for all you work and contributions.

 

Yes you can leave those.

 

Thank you. Would / could you also possibly link to all the drivers you use to create this one, given you already collated and searched for them all? It'd give people an indication what's out there; but also makes it easier to snatch them separately rather than having to download the whole ISO.

[I am about to buy an xps 15, but as I have an old Windows 7 pro license (not OEM) around that I don't currently use will just go with Microsoft's free upgrade program of that and so replace the Win10 home that comes from Dell with Win10 Pro via that old license for a clean install - using the free iso's Microsoft hands out.]

 

The ISO has the ei.cfg so this allows you to pick pro, you will need an ei.cfg on any ISO you use otherwise it will read the BIOS key and install home.
As for the drivers I always use the latest so look at the spoiler tag under drivers and you will see what I used.
Wifi for 1830 is now out of date, I linked to the new driver in the 1st post.

Nvidia drivers have been an issue so I used an older one.

If you want the full in depth view I left the sessions xml files in the root so people can see what I did.
(attached to this post)

 

Neat. Even less work and fiddling with things then.

Thank you so much for putting the effort in!

 

Thanks @GoNz0 for your great guide! It helps so much.

1) Can you describe your approach when creating the Win10 ISO? I need the ISO for a German system. Is it possible to create a ISO only with German language files to reduce the size of the ISO?

2) How you integrated the drivers?

Thanks

 

I got it all from win-raid http://www.win-raid.com/t750f25-Guide-Integration-of-drivers-into-a-Win-image.html

As for the drivers, I downloaded them all from Dell (except video from Intel and Nvidia as explained in the guide) & used all drivers that had an inf file when extracted.
You can just extract every dell driver into a folder and point NTlite to that folder and it will pick out all the drivers it can use, then you go down the list removing anything you do not need such as x86 drivers on a 64 bit install, win8 drivers etc

 

Just a question about this. Exactly which is the driver that should be installed? The one in Dell Support, version 6.0.1.7737 ,A04?

How's the exact procedure for installing? I mean, do I need to do any kind of manual setting or just let it install by itself (as I 've read in other posts, I may need to allow some unsigned drivers installations?

Thanks a lot for all this effort Gonzo!

 

It's in the drivers folder on my ISO
Just install it and follow the prompts.

 

Just signed up to say thanks, I used your iso and explanations and it works great.

 

Well. My feedback:

- Reinstalled the whole ISO and kept getting BSODs and having audio issues when plugging/unplugging headphones. I had to install the latest Dell Audio drivers to fix my audio issue and installl the samsung NVMe drivers to fix the BSODs. After all this, my laptop is "usable".

However, it's the palmrest is dirty and greasy. It's really annoying. Will ask about this in other topic. Thanks gonzo

 

The guide does tell you to use the latest audio drivers so I am unsure why you didn't install them before using headphones. What SSD do you have?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

Because I did that and I got to a weird endless loop where i was asked to uninstall the previous drivers, I would do that, and then after rebooting (because I was asked to) I would be asked to uninstall (again) the audio drivers so in the next boot up they would install the new ones. This loop forever.

This with the one included in the drivers folder. (7628). Then I downloaded the one in the website (7737) and installed that on top and work. (even though in realtek HD audio I still see 7628 as the version...)

 

I wonder if windows update was part to blame. If it happens again I suggest doing it offline and uninstalling via device manager before the 1st reboot prompt after uninstalling the software via the control panel. Attack it on 2 fronts. When you do it by device manager it will ask if you want to uninstall the drivers as well so this may clear out anything it is hiding. Never had an issue myself so I don't know.

 

Did you unplug the usb drive during the first reboot ? I got the loop too because of that I think. just re-plugged it and it worked.

 

I am about to install this but my USB stick is not showing in the UEFI boot menu, just my Samsung SSD.
Is there a setting I should change?

 

on page 1 did you do rufus the same as me and is the BIOS screen showing the same, secure on Legacy off?

If so do a couple of power cycles trying both USB slots and failing that I had to do a BIOS default on this laptop to see is as a bootable device.

 

Sorted now, the bios needed to be set to defaults (even though I hadn't changed anything).
Let's see how I get on...

 

All set up now under AHCI and is running well at first glance.
Windows 10 is not activated though. I get a code of 0x803F7001 - Activation failed because this device does not have a valid digital entitlement or product key.

 

Did you tell it to install home or pro when asked?

 

Had to phone Dell in the end as the digital product key wasn't registering for some reason. They ran a little script to find the OEM embedded key and all activated now.
Running well at the moment, many thanks!!

 

That's odd. at least it is working. You can find all installed keys with apps like aida64

 

Just wanted to say thanks GoNzO for posting this awesome ISO build and instructions!

 

Gonzo! You are the freaking man! After spending hours and hours of terrible time you had the answers all along! I have succefully swapped out the 2.5" HDD with my 850 Evo. Now, it runs quieter than before and I hope to see better battery life. Again! Gonzo I love you man!

 

@gonzo
Thanks for sharing this and the information how you did it.

I prepared a German Iso but experienced a rather weired behavior (so I must have missed something).
During UEFI installation all the first dialogs are displayed 1:1 (which is rather small on a 4k screen) and it was a challenge to select the right things.
After the installation everything looked good but the Samsung NVMe driver was not used but a microsoft one.
Did you remove some drivers to have the Samsung NVMe driver installed automatically?

 

afraid windows offers no scaling during install so either get a magnifying glass or shove your nose to the screen

By default the Microsoft driver is used and it is my opinion the best as benchmarks are about the same. I did not include the Samsung driver as I had a reboot bug confirmed by other members so left it as is.

 

I checked it again and this scaling issue is only with UEFI boot.
If you create the USB stick with MBR and boot it in legacy mode it scales correctly.
If I find a solution for the UEFI non scaling I will report it.

Had a talk with our MS support guy - can not be fixed!
In WinPE the dpi settings are ignored.
So either MBR boot and full size or UEFI and magnifying glass.
(For the technical interested. In UEFI mode WinPE queries the Bios if GOP is supported and if yes, it uses the native screen resolution. There is nothing you can do to change this.)

 

Hello GoNz0,
What is the difference between installing Windows 10 with a USB with the Windows Media Creation tool and installing Windows with Rufus?
Than

Hello GoNz0,
Thank you so much for you effort to help others! I will soon receive as SWAP for my 9550 and will use your guide to re-install the machine when it arrives. Let me just ask you one question.. What is the difference between installing a fresh Windows 10 using Rufus instead of using the Windows Media Creation tool (ISO) ?

 

Mine will work, windows 10's creation tool will not have the boot drivers needed to see the SSD.

 

Hi gonzo, thanks for building this thread for the community !

I have a couple of questions to ask if you don't mind:

1) Is there a way I can use a different Windows 10 iso for this? I plan to use Windows 10 education edition as my key is for that.

2) Are there any drivers being installed through this custom ISO which are not the latest anymore ?

Thanks

 

If you want to use anything other than 10 core/pro you will need to make your own ISO using the info in the opening post and a bit of googlefu if needed.

I list driver updates at the bottom of the 1st post, 1830 wireless is out of date and I have been using the latest nvidia driver without the BSOD's the previous 2 caused.

 

Listen to Gonzo,

He is all knowing.

Follow in his steps and you will never again wonder alone.

 

If you are using the same ISO there is no diference.
The "magic" is in the ISO not in the tool used to create the bootable USB drive.
You can use whatever tool you like or are used to.

 

What do you mean by: ''The "magic" is in the ISO not in the tool used to create the bootable USB drive ?

 

Also remember if you use a stock ISO you will need the 14 series raid drivers sticking on a USB stick or the same folder. This is the main reason I made the ISO as I installed the drivers into the boot image.
Then I added the wifi drivers on so you can login to your microsoft account instead of creating a local account to get to the desktop prior to installing wifi and then converting to a microsoft account.

 

Another reason to use GoNz0s image or to vanilla is this: Some of the dell "support software" does install a self-signed root certificate:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3008...-dells-root-certificate-security-debacle.html

 

First off thank you GoNzO for you work.

I just did a fresh install of pro.

I now have three partitions before the OS partition. There used to be two.
Can any of these be deleted:

0. Recovery NTFS GPT Part 450 Megs
1. No Name Fat32 GPT Part 100 Megs
2. Blank Unformated GPt Part 16 Megs

George M

 

I flattened the entire drive and all is well. The only thing that doesn't seem to work fully is the Dell System update app (installed it from Dell's website). It's not picking anything up, just says I'm up to date. Not a big deal because I can visit the support page for updated drivers (like yesterday's BIOS update).

It's not directly related to this topic, but has anyone had success with this clean install running Dell System Update actually finding updates? Or does it only work on Dell's official .ISO for this machine?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Systems update is ****, use command update

 

Thanks. I've been a Lenovo guy for over 15 years, so I never knew this existed.

 

Wait, what command update?

 

Google Dell Command Update. Second result I think. I ran it and it found 486MB in updates.

Guess System Update is really useless.

 

must have been a glitch or a partition alignment for that 16mb one?
Hardly a deal breaker so I would leave it alone.

Dell sys update never worked on a stock install

 

Hi Gonzo，
I followed all your steps to do a clean install. Including formatting my SSD, swtich to AHCI, and then installed windows using your ISO. It worked perfectly well and I don't even need to install all drivers by myself(kinda lazy for that as I reinstalled the system more than 10 times). After I entered the system, I went to activate windows, and then updated any drivers that needs to be updated in device manage, and windows update.
But unfortunately I still get frequent BSODs with critical process died.

 

I integrated the needed drivers and windows update seems to take care of the rest.

Afraid I am now seeing the Critical process errors with ho hard drive found on reboot. I can't get a crash dump as it seems to drop the SSD (mines the Toshiba so it isn't just a samsung problem.)

I am out of ideas as I can't get a crash dump. All I can think is it is the SSD controller firmware/software but without a dump I am screwed.