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DAY 2: Inspiron XPS Lockup Issue - Page 2

post #21 of 170
3/12/04 at 5:34am
For some reason it seems like his clock settings are a fluke of some kind if a few other peoplsw posts are correct .. That file is dated:
Release Date: 2/26/2004

I swore there were other on the forum that did a fresh install of the OS and said they used all the newest drivers off Dells site. If so these are the drivers they would have used if they downloaded from Dell .. And they said they were still having problems and when they used powerstrip their clock speeds were still up there and not underclocked like searay42's were ..

EDIT .. I just looked and file version, v.7.953.3-031222a-013046C that they list on the web site is the exact same version I have loaded on my system they shipped from the factory ..
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post #22 of 170
3/12/04 at 5:50am
searay how come after you applied the new drivers, the clockspeed/memoryspeed got reduced SO much?? What are your scores for 3DMarks03 after the new drivers?
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post #23 of 170
3/12/04 at 9:04am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by searay43
Tech support e-mailed me this link for these drivers, support.dell.com/FileLib/Format.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&Category=6&OS=WW1&OSL=EN&
SvcTag=&SysID=INS_PNT_P4_XPS&DeviceID=6434&Type=&ReleaseID=R71256
before I loaded them the engine clock speed was 445.50 and the memory was 263.25, after I loaded the drivers the speed went to 214/186. I ran the bench marks and found they were greatly reduced, through power strip I raised the speeds up to278.59/241.77. Bench speeds moved up greatly but not as high as they were before the new driver install. I played Halo without the problems I had before at all settings, I played battle field at all settings without any problems. I made it through 3Dmark several times without crashing, the drivers have reduced performance but have helped greatly in game play. I will have to do more tests before I'm convinced. Also the link has to pasted one line at time, one after the other. Hope this helps.
Those look like the regular drivers they have on their inspiron section. They should not have moved your core/clock speeds AT ALL!
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post #24 of 170
3/12/04 at 9:11am
I doubt that the drivers alone have changed the clock speed of the gpu and mem. Those drivers available for download are the same drivers that are shipped with the current XPS. Like Planet-Ed said - it must be a fluke.

I have under-clocked my XPS video using both Powerstrip and ATI Tool. I have tried various settings and have even gone as low as 250/200. I am still getting lockups within Soldier Of Fortune 2. Because I am only getting lockups in this one game it may sound like it is a problem with the game itself. However, I have SoF2 running perfectly on two other desktop computers: one with an ATI 9800XT, and the other an ATI 9600 - no problems with either one, so it is not a game problem. It would actually make me feel better knowing if I got lockups in another games as well but as it stands now everything else I throw at it works fine! It's driving me nuts as to why my problem is isolated to this one particular game and nothing else. SoF2 is a OpenGL game and every other OpenGL app I run works perfectly so far.

I wish I could get someone else out there that is NOT having an XPS video problem to try SoF2 to see if they get the same problem as I have. Anyone??

-Geed
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post #25 of 170
3/12/04 at 9:18am
Thread Starter 
Geed,

Have you tried any drivers besides the Dell ones? I'd try the newest Cat 4.3's with dhmodtool and see if that clears it up.

I put dhmodtool up for you here.

1. Download the catalyst 4.3's
2. Attempt to install them, it will fail (no hardware detected)
3. Start dhmodtool. It should automagically find the C:\ATI directory and find the driver.
4. click "Start modding". Let it do its work. It will then prompt you to install the driver.
5. Let the driver install (it'll find a Radeon 9600 mobility, but that doesn't matter. Same basic feature set, clock speeds are unaffected).

Give it a try, see if it fixes your problem.
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post #26 of 170
3/12/04 at 9:20am

Question Geed

Are you leaning more towards keeping that Alienware now?My XPS won't be here until the 23rd of May, but I'm getting nervous reading all these post about the problem with the GPU. I sure hope the problem gets resolved in a hurry I"ll post my review as soon as I get mine and try and run it through the same test you guys have been using.
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post #27 of 170
3/12/04 at 11:52am
Thread Starter 
OK, here's my latest update.

I sent an email last night to Marc & Gerald@Dell stating that i've done about as much troubleshooting I can do. I offered my thoughts on what the problem is (seems pretty obvious to me now), and requested a new GPU to be field-service installed. I had opted for the at-home service, so this was apparently a trivial thing.

Marc has shipped a new GPU card to a field tech in my area. As per Marc, he says the card will likely be overnighted to the tech today, and the field tech should be in contact with me on Monday to schedule a time for the replacement. Dell is "capturing" this card for testing on their end.

Again, for those of you having this specific problem, I think this is the best route to take.
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post #28 of 170
3/12/04 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl
Geed,

Have you tried any drivers besides the Dell ones? I'd try the newest Cat 4.3's with dhmodtool and see if that clears it up.
Thanks for the info! I will keep that in mind when I get home from work today. I am also thinking about installing the Omega modded drivers and see what happens there as well. I'll post my findings later on tonight.

If I continue seeing lockups after trying the different drivers then I will call Dell and ask if I can have a video swap. I only have mail-in service but seeing how I am still well within the 30 day money back period I will see if they can either send me the video module or have a field tech come do it. If they insist that I must ship back the laptop then I will tell them that if I ship it back it will be for a full refund and not for a repair. Knowing that I have a perfect lcd display with no dead pixels and everything else is working perfect I don't want to chance getting a different laptop with other defects.

-Geed
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post #29 of 170
3/12/04 at 12:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SimpsonFan
Are you leaning more towards keeping that Alienware now?
As it stands at the moment I am still leaning towards keeping the XPS. My only single problem right now is getting SoF2 to play without locking up. Other than that the XPS is working perfectly. If other problems start arrising or if I exhaust every option and it continues to lock up (even after a video module sawp out or other hardware fix) then I may change my mind if I am still within the 30-day mioney back guarantee period. I'll try to keep you informed as things progress.

-Geed
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post #30 of 170
3/12/04 at 12:53pm
Thanks Geed and Karl for all the hard work you guys have put in still looking forward to getting my XPS I hope this all works out for us
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post #31 of 170
3/12/04 at 12:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SimpsonFan
Thanks Geed and Karl for all the hard work you guys have put in still looking forward to getting my XPS I hope this all works out for us
I think you'll be ok, but like I said before... it might take a little longer for you to get it while they work out this glitch. For all I know, they may have worked out this problem at the factory already, and it could have just been a bad run of cards.

It'll definitely be an interesting weekend. I'm sure a lot of XPS units hit their destinations this week. I'll be watching this board as much as possible (though i'm in the process of !@#%^*$ moving).
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post #32 of 170
3/12/04 at 1:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geed
If they insist that I must ship back the laptop then I will tell them that if I ship it back it will be for a full refund and not for a repair.
-Geed
See my note in the other thread, with that attitude, I think you will get what you want. They seem really willing to work with you when they know this
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post #33 of 170
3/12/04 at 1:18pm

Karl's Advice

I'm taking Karl's advice in an earlier post of his, I'm opting for a cross-shipment. I spoke with XPS Support last night, and I'm waiting to hear the answer on whether or not they will be able to ship me a new unit. I don't want to piece meal the operation with a new part here or there. Just send me a new computer. I think they might want mine for testing, as well. Trevor, the guy i talked to on the phone, said he had to confirm with Gerald first, but he seemed optimistic about the cross-shipment of a replacement notebook. Hopefully they can do this, before i have to act like a jerk on the phone. I hate doing that, I want to be the nice guy. I just want a working computer! I can't even play Rise of Nations for longer than a few minutes!
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post #34 of 170
3/12/04 at 1:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lgriffin
Hopefully they can do this, before i have to act like a jerk on the phone. I hate doing that, I want to be the nice guy. I just want a working computer! I can't even play Rise of Nations for longer than a few minutes!
3K plus entitles you to act like a jerk on the phone if you don't get what you paid for, plus they need to know that they need to work a little harder.
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post #35 of 170
3/12/04 at 1:37pm
On another side note, when I spoke with Technical Support, Customer Care, as well as the Return service, all three confirmed my e-mail, which I know is right because I got all the shipping info. All three indicated they would like to send me a survey so I could indicate what I thought. I'm starting to think they don't want too know what I think, which is sad. I like to think of myself as about as unbiased as they come, and don't really hold a grudge. Even sadder, if any of the three had followed up on this like they said, who knows what the outcome on my system would have been.

Just wanted to mention this, because if they tell you this, ask them when you can expect the survey. Even though I do not hold a grudge, I do mention all of the little nuances to allow people to form their own opinion.
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post #36 of 170
3/12/04 at 1:41pm
Thread Starter 
I'm honestly surprised at your experience, LJH...

My experience with Marc has been pretty darned good. In fact, if you're really frustrated but still want to keep your unit (assuming it hasn't been returned to dell yet), maybe you can deal with him...

Marc has been responsive and helpful, and has answered EVERY email i've ever sent to him.
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post #37 of 170
3/12/04 at 1:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl
Those look like the regular drivers they have on their inspiron section. They should not have moved your core/clock speeds AT ALL!
I agree it shouldn't of changed, but it did. I set a system restore point before I installed them, after the install I saw the differenence in the speed so I restored the system back. The original speeds came back, I reinstalled the drivers again same thing. It showed the lower numbers again, so thats when I started testing the different variations. I cranked up the speeds in power strip as far as they would go, those were the numbers I posted earlier. I played the various games with no problems, I went back and restored my system to the original configuration and ran the tests again. The old problems came right back, went back to the new drivers and ran the same tests with no problems. I did nothing else that could of changed the speeds, I will run the different tests again today and show you the difference in bench marks since I didn't write any of the numbers down the first time. I don't understand this either, but I don't think I willing to accept the difference in performance. I'm almost to the point now where I'm ready to say screw it and send the system back and try again. Oh well here I go again.
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post #38 of 170
3/12/04 at 2:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl
I'm honestly surprised at your experience, LJH...

My experience with Marc has been pretty darned good. In fact, if you're really frustrated but still want to keep your unit (assuming it hasn't been returned to dell yet), maybe you can deal with him...

Marc has been responsive and helpful, and has answered EVERY email i've ever sent to him.
I was a little suprised as well, my system will be picked up between 12-5 est. It just seemed like they closed down the channels of communication that they have for things like this. I never really heard from any managment figure even when I asked for one, nor did they do any followup (surveys, customer satisfaction, etc.). I really tend to believe it is an isolated incident, and miscommunication with all the issues they probably have now with the release of the XPS. I will still be refering friends and family to Dell because they've always done right by the people I've refered, and my reputation and principles are more important than my personal feelings. I figure out of the 15-20 people who bought dell based on my referal, I am so far the only one I know of with a bad experience. Most of them are now repeat buyers. I guess I'm still just picking at the bone a little. I doubt I will initiate another effort for communication, that is in their ballpark. But thank you for the offer.
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post #39 of 170
3/12/04 at 2:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by searay43
I cranked up the speeds in power strip as far as they would go, those were the numbers I posted earlier.
Just a recommendation, I wouldn't mention to support that you ever raised these values. Most companies will not honor the warranty on a gpu that has been overclock, regardless of the circumstances. I don't know about dell, but I specifically know AW will not honor the warranty on the gpu if you overclock. I would keep that nugget to yourself when you talk to them.

edit 1 - I would maybe even keep the fact that you have powerstrip on the system to yourself unless they ask you to use it for any reason.
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post #40 of 170
3/12/04 at 2:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LurkingJayhawk
Just a recommendation, I wouldn't mention to support that you ever raised these values. Most companies will not honor the warranty on a gpu that has been overclock, regardless of the circumstances. I don't know about dell, but I specifically know AW will not honor the warranty on the gpu if you overclock. I would keep that nugget to yourself when you talk to them.

edit 1 - I would maybe even keep the fact that you have powerstrip on the system to yourself unless they ask you to use it for any reason.
Here is some more information about what I am talking about. This is regarding AW thought. It's down towards the bottom of page 3 and continued on page 4, just look for my first post. Alien Adrenaline is AW version of Powerstrip. Alienware-JuanG is an AW rep. Like I said, I'm not sure dells philosophy on this, just use your best judgement.

http://notebookforums.com/showthread...aline+warranty
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