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6670380
New Dell XPS 8300 constantly Locking up.. help
Hi, I bought and received a new XPS 8300 last week... Intel Core i5-2300, 8 GB RAM... having big problems right off the bat.
The computer will periodically completely freeze, rendering the mouse + keyboard useless, and the only way to get out of it is to do a hard reboot (hold power button for 5 seconds to turn off, then turn on again). There's no blue screen of death, rather the image on the monitor just freezes. This is happening upwards of once every hour, which is completely unacceptable. There's no apparent trigger, it occurs while I'm on the Internet, while I'm in MS office, while the screen saver is on, etc.
At first I thought it could be a driver problem with the monitor (my own Samsung, not from Dell), but I installed the correct drivers and it still occurs. Then I figured it could be malware (even on a new computer), but a thorough scan revealed nothing. I'm now concerned that this is a CPU heat issue, and have taken to temporarily putting a full-size fan in front of the tower case, which is already well-ventilated. This has apparently slowed down the frequently of the hangs, but they still arise. I have already installed a few programs and transferred a few files, and really don't want to go through the hassle of returning the case to Dell for weeks on end.
Any thoughts? Anyone having similar problems? This is maddening.
Szczepanik
15 Posts
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May 17th, 2011 18:00
Aras
My XPS 8300 was shipped on 3/31/2011. I waited until Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and the Intel i7 problems were resolved. I then went for a high spec to future proof my investment. This model received very good reviews - similar to this one (that has some good pictures): http://www.desktopreview.com/default.asp?newsID=1445 A friend priced up the components in mine and reckoned I could not buy the parts and build it myself for the same price as Dell could. http://www.pcworld.com/product/788982/dell_xps_8300.html The few reviews that did unfavourable comparisons appeared to pitch similar but higher spec (e.g. graphics cards) than the XPS 8300 they chose. I went for the ATI Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Card and the Dell Scores reflect this. My only "weak" score is for the 2TB of dual Raid 0 "Stripe" Hitachi 7200 RPM drives and they are fast!
Component Details Subscore
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz 7.6
Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB 7.6
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series 7.8
Gaming graphics 4855 MB Total available graphics memory 7.8
Primary hard disk 1803GB Free (1851GB Total) 5.9
The browsers Chrome 11, Firefox 4, Opera 11 and IE 9 all work well apart from the 64-bit IE 9 which does not work well on some sites (such as this forum). The forum works fine with my Firefox 4.
I think you and a handful of others on this forum have been very unfortunate. With modern consumer electronics there will always be a few initial problems on some components but Dell does sort them out - they replaced my keyboard and will replace your PC. Once everything is burned in you should not experience more problems after the first year. That excludes your hard drives which have a MTBF - mean time before failure - which means they will fail at some time but I am sure you are good at back-up and restoring now! I would recommend the programs in the Dell Support Centre PC Checkup utilities to monitor this.
Ron's advice on safe mode is good, I would not worry about lack of anti-virus in safe mode - provided you only browse reputable sites and do not download anything there is little risk - in any case McAfee should pick up anything once you restart.
Cheers
Tom
Dell XPS 8300 | D02X8319 | XPS 8300 : Intel Core i7-2600 Processor(3.40GHz,8MB)
Memory : 8192MB (4x2048) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel | Hard Drive : 2TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x1TB - 7200RPM)
Optical Drive : 6X Blu-Ray RW (Blu-ray, DVD, CD read & write) & DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read/write) optical drives
Graphics : 1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Card 1 S | Sound Card : Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Card
Wireless : Europe Dell Bluetooth 365 Card | Operating System : Windows 7 Ultimate (64 BIT)
aras1
97 Posts
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May 17th, 2011 22:00
Thanks for the encouragement Tom. Your reasons are the exact same reasons I choose this particular model of Dell desktop: it seemed to be an outstanding value. Only difference between yours and mine is that I have the 5670 video card, 2 GB less RAM and only 1 TB HDD. I remain optimistic that the replacement when it arrives will be freeze free though I have been emailed by Dell that they are still trying to address this lockup issue.
FYI I left the XPS 8300 on in safe mode all day today and it did not lockup once. I have restarted it again in safe mode but this time with the network connection enabled (I am typing from it now using firefox 4) and will leave it on overnight to see what happens.
aras1
97 Posts
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May 18th, 2011 06:00
Still freeze-free this morning (again I am typing this using the XPS 8300).
What driver not loaded with Safe Mode might cause this?
One interesting thing is that the system did not completely hibernate last night as part of its power management. The login screen was visible and I could still here the fan running this morning.
RoHe
10 Elder
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43.6K Posts
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May 18th, 2011 10:00
A bit of progress! :emotion-15:
Do we know if it should "completely hibernate" in Safe Mode..??
If I had to make a guess, I'd start with the video driver...
Ron
aras1
97 Posts
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May 18th, 2011 13:00
The video driver was updated to the most recent one available on the ATI website when I first called Dell Support. That was there first idea also.
Don't know if it should completely hibernate in safe mode.
RoHe
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43.6K Posts
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May 18th, 2011 16:00
That makes it a guessing game. Doesn't even have to be a driver. Could just be some software that's loading at startup.
Haven't looked back at everything you've tried, so apologies if you've already done this, and I don't know how much more time you want/should pour into this ugly black hole...
Boot normally and go into msconfig. Click Startup tab. Uncheck everything on that list except your firewall and McAfee. Exit and reboot. Put check in "Don't show this again" box if that message appears on reboot. Run that way for a while. If no freezes, add back (check) one or two more items in msconfig. Reboot and run, etc.
Maybe you can find the problem child that way...
Ron
EDIT: If this were my system, I'd have gotten the sledge hammer out long before now. :emotion-17:
aras1
97 Posts
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May 18th, 2011 18:00
ROTFL !
Too funny Ron.
I just received the phone call I have been waiting for. My replacement system arrives tomorrow. Fingers crossed it behaves.
Done with this machine now.
BTW it has been running freeze free now in Safe Mode with network connections since yesterday morning.
RoHe
10 Elder
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43.6K Posts
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May 18th, 2011 19:00
Good luck with the new system. Post back and let us know how it goes... :emotion-21:
Ron
DSMac
40 Posts
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May 19th, 2011 11:00
Just thought I would add my two cents worth and will keep it brief since I have already detailed my experience thus far elsewhere in the forum under XPS - Who has one of these bad boyz.
Some of you may want to consider un-installing the Catalyst Control Centre portion of the ATI package to see if that helps. On my system, it hammers away with hundreds of informational messages a minute in the Windows Event Logs which in turn may trigger crashes or freezes; I happen to have a 5670 ATI Radeon.
Just removing this sped my system up significantly. If anyone attempts this, I would very much appreciate hearing of your experience.
aras1
97 Posts
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May 19th, 2011 20:00
Have been setting up and updating my replacement XPS 8300 since the middle of the afternoon. I am very happy to report that it has been freeze-free and running hassle-free for a number of hours now.
I am so happy!
:D
DSMac
40 Posts
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May 20th, 2011 06:00
Hi Aras1,
What a joy to hear that you're new beast is running well! Mine is still a nightmare and in my case, I'm awaiting a new motherboard and power supply. Hopefully, this will resolve my issues.
Dsmac
RoHe
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43.6K Posts
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May 20th, 2011 11:00
:emotion-21:
I hope the others with similar problems get them resolved.
Ron
aras1
97 Posts
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May 20th, 2011 17:00
Indeed! I am still a little gun-shy but this is the 2nd day and still no problems. This machine is behaving like it should. I am looking forward to installing my SB audio card and some extra backside USB ports and a faxmodem over the next few weeks.
Good luck to the rest of you. Seems my initial machine was simply a bad egg.
thephonebarn
2 Posts
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May 26th, 2011 07:00
How is XPS 8300 #2 a week later?
[Mine ships Mid-June]
ProtectTheUser
14 Posts
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May 29th, 2011 18:00
Same here. Going to monitor this thread with great interest hoping the system won't encounter the same lockup issues that aras1 has been having. If not, the current sale on the XPS 8300 (Core i7 prcoessor) is a GREAT deal! :)