Some serious issues with XPS 730 H2C

My xps 730 h2c is completely dead after getting it on the first day, dell is sending me a new one thats how bad it got. I honestly think the soundcard messed up the whole system and i cant believe dell doesn't realize that yet. Goodluck man i feel your troubles.

---

@ArmandStanger wrote:

@@@ hbk123

i just checked and found out that my bios version number is indeed 1.0.4, which means i already have the update you are talking about.

---

 

Yes, try the new Bios 1.0.5, if that does not fix it then your best bet is to use on-board soundand take the Soundblsater out

---

@ArmandStanger wrote:

Dell was uber fast in shipping this beast of a machine. I'm now playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare with all settings set to Max at 80-90 frames per second with 4x AA. also, MSFSX, after installing the updates, run at around 50-55 FPS with most of the settings turned to High. Happy with the purchase.

 

However I am having some three serious issues:

 

1) the PC locks up. it locks up to the point that i have to press and hold the power button for a few seconds to turn it off. the freezing was more prominent before installing vista SP1. after installing SP1 and all updates, things improved significantly. after installing sp1, the computer froze only once last night and i wasn't playing any games. the PC was downloading COD4 from nvidia's website and that's about it. but after installing SP1 it didn't freeze even after i played FSX for 6-7 hours.

 

2) the sound card that came with it (creative x-fi or whatever it's called) is a complete piece of trash. but i don't know whether i should blame it or not because i'm not too familiar with computers at the moment. the sound is never too clear and i hear crackles, pops and weird noises. dell sent me a huge turtle beach headset at first it worked but then i started to hear weird noises. as time went by, the sound quality went worse and here's a big surprise: there is no sound coming out of the computer anymore. it's dead. that's about it. when i run a mp3, i can hear it but at a very low volume although all the volume settings in my PC are turned up to their max settings. headphone's volume knob is set to High too.

The sound card ahs caused issues with many people, i too had this issue but a bios update to 1.0.4 fixed this however other users are still getting this problems if the bios update dosent work your best bet is to use on board sound and take the soundblaster out.

 

3) i have 4 gbs of corsair dominator 1600 MHZ ram in it, but vista says i only have (or it can only see) 2556 MB of ram. in system information it says 4 GB but when i open task manager, i see that the total physical memory is 2556 MB. what is going on in here? 

You can only see 2.5GB RAM as you Vista 32bit installed, 32bit has a limitation of 4GB RAM, so once you take into account your Graphics Cards you are left with that much, however if you upgrade to 64bit(by phoning Dell) they should be able to send you a free 64bit Disk, once that is installed then you will see all your RAM.

 

here are my specs: Intel core 2 extreme qx9770 3.2 ghz factory overclocked to 3.8 ghz

4 gb corsair ram 1600 MHZ ddr3

dual nvidia geforce gtx 280 one gigabyte

one terabyte HDD 7200 RPM seagate

dual drives

790i nvidia motherboard

H2C (liquid cooling)

creative x-fi sound card (also it seems like there is an onboard sound card too. but i don't know how to disable the creative card and enable the onboard one. at this moment i just want captain price in COD4 to say something to me and i will be ever satisfied. but seems like sound in dell xps 730 is really messed up)

 

Please help

---

 

 

@@@@ ZEPFYA

i have bought three dell PCs in the past three years (a dell inspiron, a dell xps m1330 and this xps 730 h2c). i was lucky twice. the inspiron and xps 730 weren't DOA. but the m1330 was a DOA and instead of askinig for a new machine, i told dell to send a tech. everything's fixed now though and it's working fine. it's a pretty lightweight laptop and better than macbook air in terms of power, portability, gaming etc

 

I'm sorry to hear that your delivery was a DOA. I know it hurts but when the tech came to my house to fix the m1330, i asked him why it was a DOA. and he said that due to mass-production, it's easy for workers, who work for dell and actually manufacture the PCs themselves in the factory, to make a mistake. and then one mistake leads to another and so on. this was coming from a certified dell technician who can open up a xps laptop and replace the motherboard in 20 minutes. 

 

oh by the way i think dell now realizes the issue with the trashy soundcard which is why now they are giving you an option to remove it during your purchase. it costs 60 dollars to put it back in lol. i wish i ordered my 730 a little bit later so that i could have the option to save 60 bucks and buy a game with that money and stay out of trouble at the same time. bad luck! :(

@@@ hbk123

i just checked and found out that my bios version number is indeed 1.0.4, which means i already have the update you are talking about.

There are quite a few resources for uninstalling Creative's drivers; see, e.g., Clicky

 

As for the card itslef, you just simply take the screw out holding it to the back of the computer and then gently pull it out. 

hi hbk,

 

thanks for your reply again. it's really getting ridiculous at this point. i restarted the computer, plugged the headphone's jacks to their specific jacks and sound came back again. this time it was really crystal clear sound quality with no audible cracke, pop etc. I switched from Game mode to entertainment mode  in Creative Volume Panel that you can find in the system tray before restarting the PC.

 

Everything was going fine. so I decided to fire up COD4. and then all of a sudden, 10 minutes into the game, the whole system crashed again. the in-game audio got locked and started looping and repeating but at least the audio was working this time around.

 

I think i will go download and install the bios update and see what happens. i will never know unless i give it a shot. thanks for letting me know that a bios update exists at least. 

 

P.S. I think sooner or later i will have to throw away the trashy creative sound card but the PC is really big and heavy (like a live tank). I don't think dell will send me a tech just to take away the card. I would love a detailed procedure (step-by-step) as to how to do it perfectly (removing the card, uninstalling driver etc etc) from you if and only if you have enough patience and time.

i just installed the following three stuff: 1) nvidia graphics card update for the gtx 280s, 2) DELL ESA Utility and 3) the 1.0.5 update. now going to run COD4 at Max settings for an extended period of time. Will report back. So far the audio/creative card is working fine. Also, vista detected some additional vista related patches and installed 'em. 

 

Let's see what happens. by the way, by relying on what I have searched anf found out so far, I can say confidently that the creative card is the  main culprit and its drivers are causing problems during gaming which is why I am experiencing lock-ups. this card needs to go but dell won't give me a refund as far as i know.

 

after having been running COD4 and Crysis Warhead for 7 hours, it locked up again when i opened up a very simple application called Paltalk. I just entered a chat room and someone started speaking on the mic and it froze along with the sound loop. coincidentally, every time the machine is freezing, it's doing so with the sound loop and each crash has something to do with audio. i believe removng the x-fi card and going with the onboard sound card is the last resort now.

"As for the card itslef, you just simply take the screw out holding it to the back of the computer and then gently pull it out. "

 

Do i have to remove the card before or after uninstalling the drivers and anything 'creative' ?