XPS: Trouble in "paradise".... - Page 9

The modded drivers (ones from ATI that you use the driverheaven modtool on) detect the card as a 9600 instead of a 9700...doesn't matter, really...all drivers so far cause the crash (ATI modded/Omega/Dell 9700 mobility)...

I Think I Fixed The Problem!!!!!

Okay guys.. this has fixed my lockups with SoF2 so maybe it is the fix for everyone!! Go into your Display Properties, click on the "Advanced" button, click the OpenGL tab, then click the "Compatibility Settings" button. In that window change Triple Buffering from "Disabled" to "Enabled"....

I just finished playing SoF2 for 20 minutes straight and NO LOCKUPS!!!
Previously I would lockup within 2 to 3 minutes....sometimes sooner. I sure hope this fixes everyone elses problem!! I would have liked to play longer just to be sure but I think it is safe to say that this fixed my one and only problem.

Update: Looks like this does nothing to help. Just got a lockup again.

-Geed

nope...call of duty crashed after 10 minutes...thanks, though...glad it fixed your problem!

yeah, but unfortunately, I can't get them to send me a confirmation email, so I can't post there! I signed up early this morning and have been waiting all day! If I hadn't talked to the lead designer for the XPS this afternoon, I would be much more concerned...however, there was a TEAM of engineers sitting around listening to me talk about my problems and asking questions, so I'm sure they'll get this sorted...

Also, if Karl's right about the 'explosion' thing, they could go a long way toward preserving their stock prices by fixing this before it gets started...

Yeah, I agree...I redid the signup again about a half hour after I originally did using my wife's email, and she hasn't heard anything either...I'll go try again...

Well, needless to say, my XPS, fans and all are going back to dell for whatever they want to do with the laptop. I spent the last 4 1/2 hours trying to work through this. I guess the onsite warranty I got, meant they would help me disassemble my laptop (keyboard, palm rest, fans on the back, lcd, etc, etc, to show me how to replace my fans. They indicated that the fans where user replaceable. Simply put their specs didn't match the architechture of the laptop, and I pretty much had to walk the tech person through what it really looked like. All to the response, "well my chart shows there should be screws here and there". When all was done, I told him that I was no longer comfortable with the laptop that I disassembled and reassembled, and for $3500 I should be comfortable. I proceeded to have him transfer me to the return service. After 45 minutes of being on hold, I got disconnected. After calling backing and being on hold for another 45 minutes, I decided Dell was no longer my cup of tea. So this will be one of the last notes I type on a Dell XPS. If you have any questions about how to disassemble and reassemble your laptop, I may be able to help.

Sweet mother of god! That's horrible! I thought yours was 'working'? Did you get tired of the fans running full bore all the time or what? Sorry to hear how things worked out for you...I'll be holding out for a fix for a week or so I guess, before shipping it back...the screen is a thing of beauty, though, and I know it's worthless if you can't play any games on it, but still, it cannot be found (UXGA) w/9700 anywhere else right now...hopefully they'll sort this out soon...the messages are building up on the thread Karl started at the Dell forum, with new folks posting about the same crap all the time...

It still works, I just figured I would try to get a response on the fans. Unfortunately, they expected me to replace them. It wouldn't have been so bad had the had legitimate specs on the machine. I spent 30 minutes trying to explain to him that there were no screws next to the vent on the top. I told him I could see screws under the vent but I didn't want to break the vents if he couldn't tell me how to remove them. He insisted they were there and I just didn't see them. Eventually I just pulled the vents off and said they were underneath. His response was, "well, my sheet doesn't show that"

After getting the keyboard off there were screws holding the Wrist plate to the the chasis with a flimsy piece of aluminum. He kept insisted I could just pull this off. I finally got frustrated and just undid the screws and took it off. The response was "well, I guess they need to update this sheet".

In the end, the deciding factor was I lost one of the miniscule screws and could not find it on the floor. He indicated that I needed to look harder, otherwise I would need to wait 2 weeks to get a new screw before they could fix it. I told him simply to put his supervisor on the phone, since I had 30 days to return this, that would be what I would choose. I then had to explain why I wanted to talk to a supervisor if I was the one to lose the screw. Well, at that point I decided there was a missing screw somewhere and it wasn't in my laptop. Long story short, if they want you to disassemble your laptop, don't do it.

I've backed dell for a long time, and they have a great product. The problem is, I refer people to Dell (family included) because of there customer support. That changed tonight. I will be talking to a customer service person tomorrow to see what they can offer. It will have to be pretty *(&*^ convincing. It PO's me when I put my reputation on the line and then see $#!+ like this. Granted, a tech person is not PR savey, we'll see what happens tomorrow. Rest assured, I will not use this laptop after what it has been through.

I should have seen it long before it reached that point. When I finally got to the fan (1 of 3, the other come out easy), I asked him how this was going to help me, he indicated that I would know how to do it when he sent the part. I told him I would not be going through that again.

I want to stress, this could just be an isolated incident with tech support. I'm just kinda venting now.

But if a tech support person ask you if you have a screwdriver handy, SAY NO!!!!

In case some of you are wondering I have been watching this post and this problem does seem incredibly disturbing. Based on dells track record from my experience and general users I can best guess this problem occurs in a minority of people who own XPS systems. Its a huge coincidence people here have been getting the problem and I I will ask those of you who are getting to problem to Please DECLOCK your M11 to 300 core and 200 Memory and post if your problem still occurs if it does then I can best assume this is ATI to be blamed for there recent shoddy shipment of Radeons to Dell. During the whole Horizontal Rain crisis only and i repeat ONLY people with Radeon 9600's reported the problem and never did it happen to a 5650, or 5200 user. Im anxious to see how dell will respond to this since they were specifically aiming for enthusiast gamers like yourselves trying to get some portable gaming going on. continue posting as usual and I hope to see responses to my temperorary solution.

Uh, what does that gobbly gook mean from the Dell moderator? I've no idea how to declock, but it sounds suspiciously like he's telling us to slow our system down and wait for a solution. Meanwhile our 30 day return policy is ticking away....

B.

Im going to ignore your ignorance regarding my post. Im suggesting to try something so I can find out what is the part causing the problem. I summize its the video card but I need those with the system to cooperate. Im not forcing you try something Im trying uto be helpful If you dont care to participate then shut p. Im sorry if you have no clue on how to overclock or Declock your videocard all you had to do was ask. This process doesnt take days it takes MINUTES accoridng to some of you it takes a few minutes to lock up. All it may have to come down to is requesting a different part.

I think Dellmachina means that XPS owners that are experiencing this problem should underclock their videocards to see if this is a videocard/heat/clockspeed issue. I.e. be dell's guinea pigs. And yes underclocking would make your system slower.

I must say I'm not too surprised by this whole XPS problem, since it's obvious that dell cares more about immediate profit than the long term satisfation of their customers(Sending techsupport and customer service jobs overseas to workers who have little to no understanding of the english language and having them read off of a sheet of paper). And also obviously having little understanding of the term stress testing, especially for a machine that's supposedly targeted towards hardcore gamers. Problems like this should've been resolved in dell's labs instead of making the customers do the testing for them.

Also please Keep in Mind I do not work for Dell

So far so good for my xps. I played bf42 over an hour and then ran 3dmark 03 without a hitch. The fans were on full blast, but I can live with that. I did not reformat and installed latest gpu drivers off the dell website.