My brand new XPS 630i freezes randomly!

It does sound like the motherboard is having problems coping with anything that isn't a 'vanilla' build of the more recent XPS 630i (although saying that, mine was the standard model and it froze too!) I'll post my specs and what volts I have setup. Still no freezes since I changed these but I'm guessing if you have added componants (RAID harddrives, more RAM, bigger graphic card(s) etc.) that require more juice it probably won't work.

My system specs:

Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q8200 (2.33Ghz, 4MB, 1333MHz)
3072MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 Dual Channel [2x1024+2x512]
DUAL SLI 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT card
640 GB Serial ATA non Raid (7200 Rpm)
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP2(32 Bit) - English

My settings from BIOS / ADVANCED / OVERVOLTAGE CONFIGURATION (with the latest BIOS version from Dell):

Default settings (freezes when underload):

CPU CORE: [AUTO] 1.1875v
CPU FSB: [AUTO] 1.10v
MEMORY: [AUTO] 1.85v
CHIPSET: [AUTO] 1.25v

Stable system (no more freezing):

CPU CORE: [1.30] 1.3000v
CPU FSB: [1.20v] 1.20v
MEMORY: [1.95v] 1.95v
CHIPSET [1.50v] 1.50v

I also reformatted/reinstalled Vista and downloaded all updates for windows/video/sound etc. before I changed the voltage.

Incidently, I received a call today from Dell support but I wasn't in. I had emailed them my freezing problem, before I managed to sort it, and they left a message stating it WASN'T a hardware issue and it was a SOFTWARE ISSUE and I would be CHARGED for this. So it's not a dodgy motherboard that underpowers your system causing it to freeze? If I could be bothered I'd reset the volts and get them to sort it, it's not like I should have gone to all this trouble over a brand new system that should have worked out of the box.

Hi LoadPhez

"they left a message stating it WASN'T a hardware issue and it was a SOFTWARE ISSUE and I would be CHARGED for this"

When I talked to Dell XPS Customer suppor 1st ime, then told me exact samething. I assume that Dell customer suuport manual shoud stating that if
Dell diagnostic test show no fails = software issue. And user has to pay to call Software support by paying/minute.

I do not believe it is software issue since I used Dell Recovery  DVD to re-install onto NEW HDD, and still hangup repro. Unless, original driver for chipset, Storage has serious bug.

I am still waiting for Chris reply regards this issue so that we can know whether Bios revision or driver can fix this problem or it is hardware problems. (Looks like 630i released to consumer in particular period, after 2008 Q4 or 2009 Q1 until now, having this issue. So I am curious whehter Dell make any changes for their parts supplier, before 2009 Q1 and after.  Mine was ordered on 2009/04/23.

Hi djkemp1

My system has many hangups, but not a bluescreen.

So I cannot tell that your 630i problem is same as mine, but when you say that " i can get them at any point but windows experience score seems to throw them up all the time, usually when it gets to CPU testing or Memory",  I am also suspicious about when we put high-loading (Can be CPU, Memory usage, Also Data Streaming, HDD) onto 630i, this problem can be triggered.

I use AVG Anti-virus software free version for my 630i. Since 1st day when I purhcase this 630i, it cannot finish virus test without hangingup.
I checked so many time whether hangups repro, and it 100% repro so far 9/9. So I checked with other stress-test software to intentionally creating
high-loading condition and it never hangup.

So far, I have not time to further explore this aspect of it, (Why only AVG sofware?? )

i uninstalled nforce drivers and let system find own drivers, so far it hasn't crashed since uninstalling - so i am going to do a clean re-install of vista and not install nforce drivers and see if the issue goes away.

if it does are the drivers actually needed and if it does cause errors to go away, why would drivers designed for motherboard cause no end of problems?

well after re-installing vista the problem is still there and just as bad so doesn't appear to be nforce drivers after all.

there seems to be a lot of 630is with this same memory_management blue screen problem, but noone seems to have been able to fix it yet.

i don't really know what to do now...............i don't know if its faulty hardware or whether its a component in vista that doesn't like something in my pc, i don't know. as i say i have run memory tests and they seem to come up fine.

i may try and download (if the computer doesn't shut off before) windows 7 rc and see if that runs smoothly - if that too has the errors then what?

buying off of ebay isn't always the best thing :-( hopefully the place i bought it can take it back in exchange for something else or my money.

should i give up on this or do you think there a fix about?

i am still using vista at the moment. 

i took out my ram and went down to 2gb ram - same blue screens occur. i then thought that maybe the ram wasn't 100% compatible with motherboard so i changed ram for some that i know to be 100% fine - guess what, still blue screens which proves that this memory_management blue screen is not memory related.

what could it be?  

In a long history of buying Dell products, I found one issue was the sound drivers. As noted by one user, a stuttering sound occured before freezing up. This, in one of my older Dells was caused by a bad sound card. it would stutter on gunshots and then freeze.

I have had my Dell XPS 630i November of 2008. I ordered it with the E8400 chipset, Win XP Pro operating system, upped the power supply to 500W and got the ATI 4850 video card.

I have had this machine on constantly for the whole time so far and can honestly say I have had only one problem. Initially I dumped the C and D drives and reinstalled Win XP Pro. My only problem is now I cannot record sound with the Realtek integrated audio. Not a big problem but annoying.

I play COD 4 Modern Warfare for hours with frame rates of 91fps constantly and also FS X and COD 5 World at War.

I only use Dell certified drivers but have always requested a bigger Power Supply Unit and upgraded video cards. If I even think about getting dual ATI cards, I would check on the availability of an 800 to 1000 W power supply with it.

Sarge
PS: If anyone knows why the sound recording portion of the Realtek AL 88 doesn't work, I'd appreciate info.

Changing the voltage settings for CPU and memory does not void the warranty, although it will shorten the life of the components.

Note from engineering, "There were some known issues with (NCQ) Native Command Queuing in the Nvidia raid stack. I think they fixed it somewhere in one of the driver releases. Go to Nvidia’s site and get the latest.".

nForce 6 650i SLI XP driver
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.25.html

nForce 6 650i SLI Vista 32bit driver
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista_15.25.html

nForce 6 650i SLI Vista 64bit driver
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_vista64_15.25.html

Chris

Thanks for your reply. I followed your instruction.

1.
By DELL-Chris M in General Hardware
Download and install the older Nvidia Sata Raid driver 9.99.0.4, A03 and see if it fixes the issue (You have A04 loaded from the factory)

Intalled by Device manager - update driver - select specific driver - C:\Dell\Drivers\R176247

After updated the driver and restart system, below error shows in the device manager list

Device cannot be started. Error Code 10.

Now I realized I updated IDE diver but not SATA. However, When I try to update SATA Driver, Windows error message shows, "This file is not compatible".

Is there special way to update SATA Driver on x86 Vista with this Nvidia Sata Raid driver 9.99.0.4, A03?

Kenny

(1) In the Bios- Advanced- Overvoltage, Change the Chipset voltage from 1.25V to 1.50V. Press F10 to Save the changes and Exit the Bios. Test the XPS 630i.
(2) If you still have the freezes, open the Device Manager- Disk Drives. Right click the drives and click Properties. In the NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller Properties window, click Port 0 and remove the check from Enable command queuing.

Hi all,

Just wanted to know if anyone resolved this freezing issue?  I bought an XPS 630i last week and opened it on Sunday and lo and behold FREEZING problems.  I spent two hours on phone with Dell and no help.  Mine is so bad I cannot even download a game either from the discs or on line due to this freezing.  Hmmm.... this is supposed to be a gaming computer which is why I bought it. 

Well, just checking to see if anyone has resolved the issue permanently, if not I am returning it.  I don't feel that we should have to deal with fixing a new computer, it should just work right from the start.

Thanks,

Fuentes

has anyone got a fix for the 0x0000001a error that blue screens my computer all the time, especially on update windows experience score?

it seems to be accompanied by the BCP1 - 0000005003 but sometimes this number is different

djkemp1,

you mentioned you tried reducing the RAM to 2GB during your testing, did you try upping the volts in BIOS when you did this?

yes as i say i tried 2gb of ram then also got my old computer out and put that ram into new computer instead, the older ram i know is 100% fine - but i still got the same blue screens, so i know for a fact its not the ram thats causing the error.

yes i have also tried upping all bios voltages and still no luck - exactly the same errors :-(