I have a thorny issue with my XPS 8950. The symptom is an intermittent bug check (a.k.a. blue screen of death) that is not readily reproducible and, even when it occurs, the error code varies wildly in type and in location. My previous trouble-free Dell computers have allowed me to ignore Dell's tech support portal. Now I have a troubled PC and have to learn what's in Dell's SupportAssist software.

Dell SupportAssist is primarily a native Windows application that is pre-installed on every Dell PC. If it is lost, SupportAssist can be downloaded from Dell's website. (I had to do this several times after performing operating system reinstall as a diagnostic procedure.) It has several roles to play in regular maintenance:

  • Look for common configuration problems and tries to fix them.

  • Download drivers and other system files, though mostly supplanted by Windows Update. I even got BIOS update 1.16.0 from Windows Update before it showed up as an option in SupportAssist.

  • Clean up unused files to free up disk space.

SupportAssist also included troubleshooting tools including:

  • Examine Windows system events. SupportAssist recognized that I had been experiencing bug checks, and even offered a "Fix Now" option. It's not obvious what that did, but it didn't help.

  • Perform a suite of hardware tests. CPU tests, memory tests, disk tests. I was amused it even spun up each of the fans.

Regarding the hardware tests: there's also a separate piece of software that can run independent of Windows. Its title bar calls itself "SupportAssust | On-board Diagnostics" and it lives on a separate disk partition. To launch it, we have to trigger the BIOS boot select menu and select "Diagnostics". My computer passed all of these tests as well, including running everything under "Advanced Test" with "Thorough mode" selected.

This diagnostics partition was deleted when following directions from Dell tech support to perform a completely clean install. I was worried about that -- it seemed useful! -- but I later learned SupportAssist Windows application can re-partition the hard drive and reinstall that Diagnostics partition.

There is one worrisome aspect of SupportAssist. When this native Windows application is installed on a system, the Dell web site running in a browser seems to be able to query hardware configuration in order to offer the appropriate documentation and driver downloads. How are those components communicating? I'm worried about that channel being a potential venue for security exploits.

There are many other features of SupportAssist I didn't investigate because they didn't seem helpful to me. Like tools to migrate data from one PC to another, and naturally an upsell for extended warranty coverage.

I ran every SupportAssist maintenance task and diagnostic test I could find, none helped. As a last resort I activated its operating system reinstall procedure, and that didn't help either. I'm out of ideas for software fixes. If this were one of my home-built desktop PCs, I would start swapping out hardware to see if I can isolate it to a particular component. However, this computer is still under warranty so I don't want to do anything that would void said warranty. If hardware replacements are to be done, it will have to be done by Dell people on Dell dime under warranty. To get that process started, I have to contact Dell technical support. I could call them over the phone, but that doesn't seem like the best approach for an intermittent error that takes a day to reproduce. Fortunately SupportAssist includes a text chat client, and that seems more practical for my situation.