DAY 2: Inspiron XPS Lockup Issue - Page 4

I was kinda thinkin' that they tested the Maximum PC model more than the ones on this forum

Hi Everyone
This is my first post on Notebook Forums. I usually just hang out and read about what's going on as i'm interested in getting a desktop replacement soon myself. I was also torn between the 8790 and the Dell 9100, thas why these posts really interest me.. anywho.. I'm just wondering if any of you have checked out ihatedell.net There are alot of good dell techs on this site, one of which just happened to drop this note on how to get things fixed possibly...

"you write a letter to the exec office and you got your s%&* fixed... usually "


michael_Dell@dell.com

Hope this helps
by the way, great site.

Welcome too the forum, and thanks for the information. This is the first forum I've ever done more than lurk on. Simply because the info here is invaluable.

Again, Welcome

I tried the DHMODTOOL and Cat 4.3 with Hyperthreading enabled and it still locked up. I am not running FSAA or AF either - too much of a hit on frame rate. I will continue tests this weekend and report back later on...

-Geed

lurkingjayhawk

I've dealt with Dell and other companies a lot over the years; and what you are experiencing is not only unusual but also unacceptable. I once had a similar experience with Micron (remember them?) where they were taking their own good time about allowing a return of a bad computer; and what I did was real simple, and also got the message through real quick.

Call your credit card company and refuse payment. Just explain you have a bad article, Dell agrees it is bad, and they are stalling taking it back. By stopping payment Dell will now be using their money (instead of yours) to play around with. After you've stopped payment, call them up and tell them what you did, give them your phone number and tell them to call you when they are ready to pick up your notebook.

Works wonders with recalcitrant support staff.

Heh, the *same exact thing* happened to me earlier tonight. First time I saw the video card crap out when just sitting in in the Windows desktop.

BTW, I have no idea if they've actually tested my replacement GPU before sending it. I think he probably meant that they're going to "capture" my old card to see if they can duplicate the freezing problems I'm having.

Game On

For what it's worth,

Dell is sending me a new machine, it should be here next week. In the interim, I took Karl's advice (again) and downloaded powerstrip. I cranked the settings all the way down to the green area, and was able to play bf1942 and rise of nations last night for a few hours. Cheers mates...

For me, the powerstrip fix seems to be about eliminating floating point precision...once my core and engine are clocked to a whole number (even overclocked) the machine is rock stable...I just woke up and had 3dmark03 looping through all the tests since 9:30pm last nite...still going. I don't even have to go through the 'lower powerstrip settings then increase' anymore, because powerstrip comes on and clocks to a whole number whenever my computer boots now. Anyways, I shouldn't be FORCED to use powerstrip, and I know they're eventually going to have me send this unit in for examination...

Thanks for the great information. Refusing payment on the credit card was the first thing I decided. I've done that before in the past with another company and it gets their attention fast. I thought for nothing else it would also register a date so there will never be a dispute on the 30 days. The credit union I have the card through seems to get a kick out of pursuing stuff like this for their customers, which is unusual. Monday morning I plan on calling the bank, then calling customer care at dell to find out who I can file grievance within their company and pass this information on to them.

I do remember Micron, I almost purchase one back in 87 I believe.

Okay, I was wrong...it's NOT the FP precision...it's just having powerstrip running...I uninstalled the sucker and got a lockup in COD after 1.5 minutes; however, I re-installed it and didn't adjust anything...just turned it on...I've been playing now for a half hour and still going strong...so weird. Dangit.

After my last post yesterday concerning the driver download from Dell Tech support and the issues that came up with that, I decided to reformat my drive and start over. After everything was loaded, I installed powerstrip again to verfiy that the speeds were the same 445.50/263.25. I used the original driver, I started the AquaMark3 test and crashed within 4 seconds, I restared the computer and installed the 2nd driver from Dell support. I went to power strip and checked the speeds and this time it didn't default me to the lower settings which were way to low in the first place. So with the same speeds of 445.50/263.25 I started the AquaMark3 test again and crashed within 3 seconds, repeated the test again; same results. So I went back to powerstrip and moved my engine clock speed down to 427/263.25, ran the test again without any problems. I ran this test with these numbers several times without crashing once and ran very smooth. The next test I moved the engine clock speed up to 459.25/263.25, I ran this test several times without any problems; I would move from the AquaMark test to playing games and then back and did not crash once. I had perfect screen performance at all settings, These tests went on for over 9 hours without crashing once or any screen problems. Today to push the system even further I moved the Engine clock speed up to 472.50/290.25 and ran the AquaMark test again, it ran perfect without any problems. During the last two days I was watching temps and the CPU never got over 130F, the fans would kick in like they were supposed to and drop down in speed like they were supposed to. The CPU would drop back down to normal operating ranges within 1 minute. Here are the number from the AquaMark3 test, speed 459.50/263.25 GFX 3,285 CPU10,100, 28,241, the 472.50/290.25 were GFX 3,468, CPU 10,070, 29,593. It seems like anytime I would move the speeds anywhere close to the original specs the system would crash, slightly below or above were fine. With the exception of the 472.50/290.25 test I left the memory clock speed alone. I don't think the reformat was the cure nor do I think the second driver fixed the problem, all I know is moving the engine clock speed at least for me to 459.50/263.25 solved any issues I had. I will be running more tests through out the day and if everything holds up I will be keeping this system because everything right now is flawless. I would like to thank everyone for the hard work and the great information, without it I wouldn't of been able to narrow this problem down. Thanks again.

Ken

When I get back from running some errands I will download the game and try it, so far the games I've been working with are Halo and Battlefield. Both games have run perfect without any problems.

Went to Fred Meyers while I was running around and bought Call of Duty, played the game at the speeds I stated before with a resolution of 1024/768 for 3 levels before I locked up. Switched over to 800/600 and still has not locked up, I didn't disable HT. During some of the more intense fire fights the CPU temp rose to 145 F, with the exception of the one lock up the game ran very smooth. I had to take a break from all this game play because my eyes are about to fall out of there sockets, LOL.

Make sure Dell knows this!

B.