Solved BSOD after *first* Sleep on Dell XPS 9000

Hey guys. I hope someone can help me.

I upgraded my Dell XPS9000 from Win 7 x64 Pro – and it ran without a hitch – to Win 8 x64 Pro. Now I have a weird shutdown problem.

If I start the machine, or reboot it, it goes into sleep perfectly as per Power Plan. When sleeping, the power light flashes. The system never crashes while I work on it before it goes to sleep – for hours! Nothing happens until after the first Sleep. Then, when the system gets out of the first Sleep mode, it still works well for all the tasks I perform on it. Only after that, it no longer goes to sleep, the power light is solidly lit, and the system eventually crashes and shuts down. Of course, I don’t know it until I notice the power light being off, at which point I boot up and am greeted with a BSOD-esque message plastered over my Metro tiles saying the “Computer had to shut down, report to Microsofr” or such. And then the cycle repeats.

Boots – On – Works – Sleeps (blinking light) – On – Works – Does not sleep (solid light) – Crashes - Shuts down.

This cycle has been very consistent, and I was able to replicate it several times. I have compiled a crash file that contains several DMP entries.

Have reinstalled the OS several times, updated all the drivers, everything works great until the first sleep. Very strange.

Thanks in advance for any help you provide…

_nick_

Have you checked or posted on the Dell Community desktop users forum? If not that would be the first place to post since there are those there familiar with your system. Desktop - Dell Community

I have searched the Dell forum, but have not posted, no. Might give it a shot. Thank you for the suggestion...
_nick_

Turns out Win8 did not like my RAID array. Reverted to AHCI and one drive. Everything good. Then I stupidly installed Intel RST driver - it is the one messing everything up, as it turns out. The problem resurfaced. Uninstalling Intel RST apparently does not get rid of all the code, so I had to do another re-install. Once I performed clean install, AHCI and no Intel RST - everything works, and my PC and I can sleep now!

Advice for those upgrading to Win 8 on Dell XPS 9000 - do not install Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver v 11.6.0 dated 9/13/12. Unless you're really know what you're doing.

_nick_