New Dell Studio 540 running Vista x64 bit issues

If under warranty get Dell to fix it or return it if within your 21 day window. If you bought this system with 64 bit installed they have to provide support. 

My feeling is this is a video card issue. What you can do since you mention this is a new system is to open the case and recheck the seating of all the cards and cables.

Then go to the vidoe card manufactor's web site and download the lastest video drivers from there and install them .

I'm having a very similar problem with my new 540. It seems when it goes into sleep mode and when I try to wake it it will crash with a screen identical to yours. I then have to shut it completely down by pushing and holding the power button for a few seconds and then powering back-up. I did have the pixalization problem also but found my refresh rate was set too high for my monitor and that hasn't happened since resetting it to a lower rate. Other than the sleepmode problem things seem to be working ok but I've only had it up and running for 2 days.

Spent several hours on the phone with tech support to no avail. They attempted to update my drivers, change my power settings, etc. They told me that the options they tried ALWAYS work with this problem and they suspect a hardware fault. They suggested I return the unit for another since it's had the problem right out of the box from moment 1. This I've found is easier said than done. I spent maybe another hour or two getting forwarded back and forth from customer service to the warranty department, back to operators, back to tech support and back to customer service again. I was forwarded at least 12 times, maybe more, and each time I was asked the same info over and over and when I finally lost my cool I was hung-up on. I rarley loose my cool but had reached my breaking point. I called back and started the process over and was "disconnected" again. I didn't loose my cool again either btw, may have just been a disconnect .

I've since used the email form to request a return but I really do like this pc and would rather have the issue resolved. I may try drivers from ATI's website today and see if that helps. May even try reinstalling the OS since I haven't really transferred much to this pc yet. It seems I can return it easily enough, but can't exchange it? Weird. If anyone has any suggestions I too would be appreciative. BTW my system has the ATI HD3450 video card, q9590 processor, 8g ram, the 1TB hd, running Vista 64bit, but I too suspect the video card. Thanks

how did you lower the refresh rate? mine was set to 60 and thats the lowest setting. 

but i got a deal on mine so i got a free dell mini 9 as well as my studio, does anyone know if they will force me to return it to? and if i return it will they send out a new one to replace it or is it just returned and refunded?

Tried something that didn’t solve the problem but may shed some light on it. Downloaded and installed the latest ATI software/driver package for my ATI Radeon HD3450 that came with my Dell. The package itself is considered buggy on some installations per the ATI support forum. The video drivers themselves installed but the new Catalyst Control Center (CCC) software did not. I would get error messages upon booting into the desktop about missing CCC files, etc. Nonetheless the video drivers appear to have installed properly as far as I could tell.

What I found interesting is that after the new version of ATI’s own drivers installed the ‘sleep’ and the ‘hibernate’ option was grayed-out and not available to use under the start menu. Those options appear to have been completely removed under the Vista power plans/schemes settings as well. Also while I was perusing the ATI website I read something about a new feature set, starting with the HD3800 series, that boasts about power options/savings features that integrate w/Windows power plans, etc. Kind of makes it sound as if some of the ATI cards, like mine, are not even capable of sleep mode and other power options. Just speculating here of course, but interesting to be sure. Anyone have a similar system with the ATI HD3450? Does it sleep and wakeup without crashing hard ?

I was able to easily go back to a safe system restore point and get rid of the buggy ATI software. I then set my power options to NOT sleep and haven’t had anymore crashes in the last 24hrs. Still haven’t decided whether or not to return the system. I could probably live without sleep mode but it kind of bugs me that it doesn‘t work. Should be able to walk away from a pc and have it power down then back when you need it. Haven’t heard back from the customer service department yet…

My refresh rate was set at 75 and I lowered it to 60 and haven't seen the pixalization problem since. My monitor is a lower-end Acer LCD, an X193w and my resolution is set at 1440x990. If yours is set to 60 and your having a problem something else must be going on.

I don't have a clue about the return. It's been 2 days and I'm still waiting on a response to the email form. I did get an auto-response to let me know they received my request but no further info. When I was on my phone odyssey I was trying to get an exchange and no one seemed willing or able to handle that. Tech support said they would send out a tech to my house to look at it but they seemed to think I should return it. Problem with that is my 21 days would probably be up by time the tech came around and then and I could get stuck and tech support mentioned that.

About 15 minutes after my last post the pixelization problem returned and the system locked up hard. I have definitely narrowed the problem of crashing coming out of sleep mode to the ATI card. I removed the video card and hooked my monitor to the on-board video and the problem went away. It can now sleep for hours (so far) and return to it's previous state just fine.

I got a reply to online form for return. They said they can't work out a return via online return form and I need to call customer service?! That's a hoot. I used the online form because customer service forwarded me around for 2 hours with no results. I guess if you buy a Dell you're stuck with it whether it works properly or not...

Guess I'll try tech support again to see if they'll send me a new video card.

Yeah, something similar happened to my friend with his dell computer. He eventually had his ram replaced twice and his motherboard once. If they dont let me return mine either, they better replace the video card at the very least.  Cause if not, they have definetly lost a long buying customer. This is my fifth or sixth dell, and it will be my last.

i have found a solution for the sleep mode issue. im not certain that it fixed the random crashes, since it hasnt crashed yet ;p

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19248347.aspx

install that driver, but dont uninstall CCC, simply quit it upon start up. Power save worked beautifully.

well it still crashes, but the driver 'recovers', so it wont work for about 5 seconds then start again. i dont know if a game will crash if it happens when a game is running. an improvement, but highly annoying.

I read that other thread. At least we're not the only ones with this problem. I read on ATI's site something about Vista 64bit, the 8.12 drivers and 8 gigs of ram in conjunction with some ATI cards having trouble?? I haven't tried this particular fix yet, maybe tomorrow as I'm off work. This evening I tried completely uninstalling and removing ALL ATI software and drivers, since I'm currently using the on-board video, reinstalling the ATI card, then re-trying the new ATI software (the 8.12 ATI drivers and CCC from ATI's website). Long story short, it didn't help me. I even tried installing and removing all the ATI stuff again, rebooting and letting windows find it's own driver which it did. Even using window's driver, sans the CCC, it still crashed coming out of sleep mode.

The on-board video is fine for me at the desktop but I noticed a significant decrease in performance playing my favorite game, Supreme Commander, over the ATI card which did a decent job at it. I'm half tempted to just buy another video card and see how it works. I found a mid-to-lower range nVidia card for $50 shipped. It's a 9500GT, and from what I read that's about as heavy duty as we can go because the  power supply in our systems are only 350 watts/18 amps. I find it amusing that you can order this system, Studio 540,  with an nVidia 9800GT, which according to nVidia requires a power supply of like 400-450 watts and 26 amps, but Dell will put one in a system with a much smaller power supply. Wonder if that causes anyone any problems? Seems like configurations are getting thought-up without a lot of consideration as to IF certain components should go together??

I got a real good deal on my system and I'd still be way ahead to get that new card. It would probably play my game much better than the HD3450 even if was working right. Just erks me I guess that you'd have to buy a new video card for a new computer to make it work right (if the nVidia works any better that is). I tried again to contact tech support by phone but couldn't get through so I emailed them. I'll see if I can get them tomorrow but they'll probably be backed up from Christmas. I'll try the above solution tomorrow and report back if it helps. Merry Christmas to all BTW! :-)

well what happens to me is the driver crashes, but recovers. so the screen goes funky for about 5-10 seconds then fixes itself. Funny that you mention supcom, since thats the main reason why i bought this desktop. but i was gonna go ahead and get one of my friends who builds computers to help me find something good, a video card rather.  Dell kind of stinks, which ive recently realized, so probably not going to buy another one again, especially since samsung released notebooks recently o.0

I am in love with this computer now. Mine glitches rarely and when it does it recovers in 5 seconds, doesnt crash anything. Ive been playing SupCom on FULL settings and even with really high unit counts it barely even shudders, it only uses like 45% of the processing power and only 1 gig of my ram! i wish it didnt glitch at all but its all working now. eventually ill upgrade the card but right now im fine without it.

That's great, I'm glad you're all set! I haven't seen a PC yet that didn't glitch once in while. I'm really hopeful the new card fixes me up. I'm really lovin' mine too without the crashes. Just can't really enoy supcom full blast right now. On any map 10k or bigger things get hard to deal with once you get a bunch of units going. Got tracking on the card today and should have it by Tuesday. I'll still post back so anyone who's interested will know of if that's a good upgrqade choice. Still haven't heard back from tech support...