XPS 9360 Thunderbolt BIOS issue

[kxait]

Hi, I have a problem with my XPS 9360 and a Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 dock (40AC) - the dock works perfectly well on my Thinkpad, but does not connect at all to my XPS, only charges the laptop.

 

It seems to be a BIOS issue, because every time I upgrade or downgrade the BIOS (I'm currently on 2.7.1), the dock springs to life after the step "USB PD controller 1" with everything plugged into the dock working. Once I plug it out and back in, the dock does not reconnect - maybe the controller restarting makes a link to the dock?

In Device Manager, the devices "Thunderbolt HSM Controller", "Thunderbolt Toast Controller" and "Thunderbolt Controller - 1575" are always disabled with code 45 (device couldn't start due to an error) unless I did the above procedure. The dock also isn't detected in Thunderbolt Software.

 

Things I tried:
- Moving from Windows 11 to Windows 10
- Different drivers and TB software
- Different BIOS (pretty much every version 2.7 - 2.18)
- Different BIOS settings
- BIOS diagnostics
- Dell diagnostics
- Setting the WiFi controller power output to 75%
- Hard reset with battery unplug
- Messing with the driver .inf files in devmgmt
- Updating TB firmware
... and pretty much anything available as advice on the internet

 

Has anyone been able to fix this issue, or am I SOL?

[DoctorNick]

8 minutes ago, kxait said:

Hi, I have a problem with my XPS 9360 and a Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 dock (40AC) - the dock works perfectly well on my Thinkpad, but does not connect at all to my XPS, only charges the laptop.

 

It seems to be a BIOS issue, because every time I upgrade or downgrade the BIOS (I'm currently on 2.7.1), the dock springs to life after the step "USB PD controller 1" with everything plugged into the dock working. Once I plug it out and back in, the dock does not reconnect - maybe the controller restarting makes a link to the dock?

In Device Manager, the devices "Thunderbolt HSM Controller", "Thunderbolt Toast Controller" and "Thunderbolt Controller - 1575" are always disabled with code 45 (device couldn't start due to an error) unless I did the above procedure. The dock also isn't detected in Thunderbolt Software.

 

Things I tried:
- Moving from Windows 11 to Windows 10
- Different drivers and TB software
- Different BIOS (pretty much every version 2.7 - 2.18)
- Different BIOS settings
- BIOS diagnostics
- Dell diagnostics
- Setting the WiFi controller power output to 75%
- Hard reset with battery unplug
- Messing with the driver .inf files in devmgmt
- Updating TB firmware
... and pretty much anything available as advice on the internet

 

Has anyone been able to fix this issue, or am I SOL?

Apart from TB firmware, did you update TB controller driver? https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-za/product-support/product/xps-13-9360-laptop/drivers

Also make sure you use:

 

[kxait]

2 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Apart from TB firmware, did you update TB controller driver? https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-za/product-support/product/xps-13-9360-laptop/drivers

Yes, I used every installer from Dell's page related to chipset, BIOS or driver

[DoctorNick]

17 minutes ago, kxait said:

Yes, I used every installer from Dell's page related to chipset, BIOS or driver

Was the dock connected while updating firmware and drivers? If yes then might try installing again without it. Have expirenced weird stuff with these docks if pc is connected while updating. Personally I would try deleting drivers from device manger and then run default drivers after a restart. Installing drivers and possible running firmware update after with dock not connected if issue continues. Make sure to use the port I show in my other post.

[kxait]

5 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Was the dock connected while updating firmware and drivers? If yes then might try installing again without it. Have expirenced weird stuff with these docks if pc is connected while updating. Personally I would try deleting drivers from device manger and then run default drivers after a restart. Installing drivers and possible running firmware update after with dock not connected if issue continues. Make sure to use the port I show in my other post.

Both yes and no - I tried setting it up with Windows 11 at first, so I installed all the drivers without it connected (it was connected to the Thinkpad) but it didn't work. Then I installed Windows 10 next to 11, did the whole driver installation thing with it connected - still nothing. 

I'd already deleted all the drivers from devmgt - both in device view and driver view - also nothing.

 

BIOS was also updated both with and without it connected - after the update is the only time I managed to get it running with the XPS, but not for long

 

By firmware, you mean the XPS Thunderbolt firmware? It's already at its highest version

[DoctorNick]

4 minutes ago, kxait said:

Both yes and no - I tried setting it up with Windows 11 at first, so I installed all the drivers without it connected (it was connected to the Thinkpad) but it didn't work. Then I installed Windows 10 next to 11, did the whole driver installation thing with it connected - still nothing. 

I'd already deleted all the drivers from devmgt - both in device view and driver view - also nothing.

 

BIOS was also updated both with and without it connected - after the update is the only time I managed to get it running with the XPS, but not for long

 

By firmware, you mean the XPS Thunderbolt firmware? It's already at its highest version

Alright..Yes XPS TB firmware. Have you tried updating dock firmware? I guess it might be just an issue with the dell

[kxait]

7 minutes ago, DoctorNick said:

Alright..Yes XPS TB firmware. Have you tried updating dock firmware? I guess it might be just an issue with the dell

I tried the dock update util from Lenovo on my Thinkpad, but I just get errors reading the FW. I haven't dived deep into it yet, I'll try other versions.

I know for a fact it's an issue with the Dell, I just want to fix it lol