My brand new XPS 630i freezes randomly!

http://www.pugetsystems.com which builds custom rigs for customers and has a nice web interface to customize the hardware that you want.

Hey Billybigfoot,  ya gotta love Pugett, they use the Oz loggo all over the start page, but when you actually configure one of the tricked out gaming systems the only RAM offered is Kingston, what gives,

Best,

Darrell WV

Darrell WV,

Not sure what gives with the Kingston but what I did notice (at least with the gaming pc's they offer) is that all the mobo's are "Retail". And pretty much up to date too.

The ageing Dell version of the 650i mobo looks like it's having problems (again) with the hardware it's being asked to deal with. How many more cobbled together software or BIOS updates will be released before our benefactor realises "it just aint gonna work" is anyones guess.

To be fair, some fix's have been released that do work for some. The recent AlienFX and Alien Thermal Monitor for instance, albeit Dell had to put the engineers from their recent aquisition on the case to get it done, shame that.

I suspect that the decision to put the latest Q9xxx series CPUs and GTX2xx GPUs into the 630 was more a marketing decision than an engineering one, simply by looking at what some have had to do to resolve the lockups (increase voltages) makes me wonder if those processors were actually tested before the order to manufacturing was sent out.

Time will tell, I'm sure Dell will put it's best and brightest on the case and resolve these latest problems in due course. Remember though, ships take a long time to turn around, and Dell is a whopping great big ship!

Did everyone try these bios settings? If yes, did you have fewer freezes?

Change the Chipset voltage from 1.25v to 1.50v
Change the Memory voltage from 1.80v to 2.10v and set it to Unlinked

I did not! I don't (and should not need to) know how to do that!

THE COMPUTER IS SUPPOSED TO WORK OUT OF THE BOX!

Tech suppost does not seem to even acknowledge that my computer exists anymore.

Please tell me how I can return this..... I'm fed up and done with this!

Even if I have to pay to ship this back myself it would be worth it to be done with DELL!

Chris,

I'd like to try but I can no longer get to the BIOS.  I think it's fine to ask volunteers to try out various solutions but I think you want to make it clear that Dell doesn't regard buying one of their machines as being tantamount to going to work for them. The 630s we bought should not only function out of the box, but also remain rock stable.  I could have built a machine from the ground up with components and overclocked etc...but I bought this machine from Dell to avoid all the integration hassles. So this is no longer fun for me now...and if school starts and my daughter doesn't have a PC to work on, I'm going to be REALLY upset.

- 6pounder

Send an email to the Board of Directors for Dell. Tell them your story. Make the Subject DELL XPS 630. I did and everyone who has a bad XPS 630 should do the same.

Make them take it back, make sure to also mention that they DELL knows of the problem and continuing to sell a product you know is defective is a violation of many commerce laws both state and federal. In Texas we have the TDTPA, Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, knowlingly selling when you know or should know of its defect is a violation and the seller can be liable for treble damages.

This is just stupid! Good luck

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Chris I have tried it and got less freezes. Sometimes the machine will run a full 24 hours to 48 hours. Pure splender it was.

However the overhanging issue remained. Random freezes. Not acceptable for me to be monitoring my machine living in fear a random crash could occur and thus I lose all my work. I am quite unhappy with this isssue.

I have already sent my machine back for a full refund (will still have it for 2 days) and am Disgusted by how we are being treated on this matter. We paid good money for these machines and I am not being paid by Dell to fix issues from their machines. This is the first acknowleagement that you made that there could be an issue.

Tell us what is happening.

I am escalating as fast as I can.

Great.

Keep us all informed on the ongoing process of this matter. If its something that is fixable I will keep my machine. As I do like it.

OK people, I too have a XPS 630i which is a little over a month old and locked up or froze randomly.

I read the suggestions here in his forum, but I also found out that those with an AMD video card had a driver conflict with the NVIDIA motherboard ethernet driver.

I changed by system by replacing the AMD card with an NVIDIA GX 275, changed all of thevoltages per Chris's recommendations, unchecked the Port 0 command queing box on the Nvidia Serial ATA Controller, and also REMOVED the driver for the Realtek sound card, and let Vista find a driver for it, and ALL IS WELL!

NO LOCK - UPS or FREEZES using Vista Ultimate 32 with 4 Gb ram for a WEEK. computer ran continuously, and I also use AVG for anti-virus WITHOUT issues.

Yesterday, did a fresh install of Vista Ultimate 64, changed ram to 8 Gb, downloaded CORRECT and LATEST drivers from Nvidia, kept same voltage settings in BIOS and running fine without issues.

Try the suggestions here, research and look for driver conflicts if you have issues, and your XPS 630 should run fine.

A note, this is my second one, other is a little over ayear old, and I did change that video card from dual AMD 2600's to Nvidia GTX 275 earlier, but that sytem ran without incident from new.

It is sad that Dell support may not have all pertinent information available to them, but if you do have an issue, it would be better researching it and resolving it, rather than continuously bash Dell.

My XPS 630 is: Quad Core 3.00  8 Gb Corsair Ram, Seagate 500 GB Hard Drive, CD/DVD RW and DVD RW, Nvidia GTX 275 video card.

Chipset Voltage: 1.50  /  CPU Core: 1.30  /  CPU FSB: 1.20  / Memory: 2.10  / UNLINKED Memory / Using OPTIMAL Memory Settings

Same set up as myself only I got the 2.88 or whatever can't check in work. I will test this out for the last 2 days I have the machine however doubtful. I will check for updates to specific drivers too.

Will post results as this has to be gotten to the bottom of.

However I have one question. What kind of usage does your machine get? As I am often on the machine non stop. I even leave it running when in work as I often have rendering or something compileing and downloads of course.

Chris, thanks for your efforts on our behalf. I'm afraid that after limping along for 8 months, I am done.

With regard to the suggestion that we research and resolve the issue rather than bashing Dell, I think that it is important to remember that some of us are customers that do not and should not need to know that much about computers. The idea of researching and resolving the issues, well, I thought that is what we as customers paid Dell to do by purchasing them from Dell. The research and resolution should be done by the manufacturer before the unit is sold, not by the customer after the sale!

I believe at this point, bashing Dell is totally appropriate in whatever forum available. They have earned it!

All,

Just trying to find a same component in all of these XPS 630i that are freezing. Mine is not having these issues. I have this power supply -
CN0DW209179727BA00VW DW209 Power Supply 750 Watt Delta.

I am troubleshooting with a 630i customer. We pulled the Radeon HD4870 and tested a GeForce 9400GT. It stayed up longer (hour 1/2) but still froze.

His power supply is:
CN0DW0024789093601ET DW002 Power Supply 750 Watt Hipro

His memory is:
Samsung 1GB 1RX8 PC2-6400U-666-12-zz
M378T2863EHS-CF7
0916

Open the case cover and look at yours. Do your components match his?