Video blacks out occasionally for a few seconds

Michial, I am having the same problem but the Dell service guy I contacted was clueless and said there was no such issue flagged against the XPS and GT 220. I am wondering if you would be able to share your Dell case number with me via email or private conversation so I can direct Dell Tech Support to that case to see what they did for your system.

Hello I am England and I had an xps 8000 and the NVIDIA card  GT220 AND it crashed within the first 10 hours!The whole machine was a piece of junk!Rubbish machineI still need a decent desktop.

I wanted the dell xps 9000 but the xps 9000 is onlt sold in America and Japan!

So my option is to go back to dell and get xps 8100……….This time I will get Intel core i5- 750 And a newer updated nvidia card GT440.Can I trust dell xps 8100 will work WITH THIS nvidia card? ----------------------------------

Michial I am glad you got your machine sorted

I did tell you earlier – to phone dell and get the machine returned and get a full refund.

Why are people accepting rubbish machines with JUNK internal parts?

You pay good money and you want a good machine!

I still need a desktop.

I am be crazy – I have phoned dell (again) for a new 4th desktop!!

Dell have released an xps 8100 with a nvidia upgraded card called nvidia gt440

Will this new Nvidia card work?

Ditto. New motherboard, new hard drive, new video card to be installed as well. Beyond the return period. TWO QUESTIONS for the experts who use this forum. Dell proposes to replace the GT220 with a Radeon 4850. Is this a good trade? SECOND - has anyone experienced hard crashes after installing software? My XPS fell into a complete blue screen, requiring system restore, and on one occassion 'forgetting' my login password. Granted, the offenders were first AVG, second Norton Internet Security. But still, this has never happened. Error messages, yes, but hard crash right after loggin in - never before. Having a second PC with internet access is the only thing that has allowed me to deal with all the XPS issues without going nuts.  While on the phone with Dell the driver error popped up twice. Rather lousy Christmas present, I'd say. Thanks for any experience others may have.

Dell are making MASS produced junk machines

That largely depends upon one's own tenacity.

I bought my "new dell" in july.  I returned it.  I tried yet again......the XPS 8000 had the video card issue........I returned it...

two weeks ago..........I received my third attempt....a new XPS 9000 with the works........and I have to tell you..........this machine is freakin SWEET!

if you have a problem.........get in Dell's face........early and often.......and fight the good fight.

eventually.........you will get what you want...or even better  ;)

then they will do this but a large cost e.g My new XPS 8100 HAS THE Following XFX Radeon HD 5770 Graphics adapter - 1 GB - GDDR5 SDRAM Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket LGA1156 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed ... Microsoft Windows 7 Professional - 1 PC 6144MB (2x2GB) (2x1GB)1067MHz DDR3 D £165.69 Dvd drive Dvd drive £59.00 micros works 9 1100 (English pounds)

ummm..... I'm not good at conversion....but I think I got a far better deal..... you tell me... and if it's not too late....get my deal....

Studio XPS 9000, Intel Core i7-920 processor (8MB L3 Cache 2.66GHz)
9GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz
Dell Consumer Multimedia Keyboard, US
Dell 21.5 inch S2209W Full HD Widescreen Monitor
ATI Radeon HD 5870
750GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive 7200 RPM

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, EnglishDell 1525 WLAN PCIe card with11n mini-Card & external antenna

2 year warranty

$1360.00

The first thing I did when I got my warranty replacement XPS9000 a month ago was to remove the nVidia GT220 (otherwise known as "junk") that came with it and replace it with an nVidia 9800GTX+ card that I had from another system.  I have not had a single video-related problem with this card in the system, and all my games run at full high graphics settings at 60FPS.  I've heard nothing but bad reports about the GT220 and I wouldn't use it at all.

As some others in this thread have stated, the Dell-supplied GTX260 is underclocked by Dell so that it will work with the puny 350W PSU in the 8000/8100. It will also work in the 9000 which has a 475 watt PSU, but why run an underclocked card at all.  Get a 9800 series card for your video.  They are relatively cheap, at under $200.00.  Yes, they are one generation old, but if you compare the two cards on the nVidia site, there's not a whole lot of difference between the GTX260 and the 9800GTX+.  This worked for me.  YMMV. 

I am in England

The dell xps 9000 is NOT available in England

After a week of talking on the phone – Dell said they will sell me a machine with:

Xps 8100

Intel 15- 750

Radeon hd 5770 card

6gb ram

Wind 7 pro

2 Xdvd drives

3YEAR mcfee

3 year full warranty

For (ENGLISH POUNDS) 1100

u.s dollars $2200

Yesterday the dell person rang and wanted me to agree straightaway with the deal

I replied on the phone I want time to think.

After reading the above – I think I am being OVERCHARGED

What do you say?

Thank you

I concur that is a WONDERFUL system configuration....but I too feel as you do...that when the deal is bad...people often try to push it on you and give you a time line.  the price is frankly about $300 to $400 too much...and that is including the warranty.

tell them they can keep mcafee.....it's best you demand as I did that it comes to you anti-virus free...because that clogs the system...and the first thing you can download...as I do...is AVG Anti-Virus...which is a wonderful program...and very small....and best of all...FREE.

The chipset and especially the video card are WONDERFUL....and unless you are a gamer like I am.... 6 Gigs of ram is fantastic.

I would simply tell them that you configured the system and added it up on the dell USA site..and found that that system was $300-$400 (US) cheaper.

Take the time to view that configuration step-by-step on the dell website there as if you were planning on making an online purchase...and see if that is the correct price point there.  I am just not comfortable with that much money for that system. you should not be either.

Update for anyone gathering information here: installing the driver on NVidia website dated late January did no good. I got about an hour and a half of hulu before it crashed again, throwing me into safe mode, forgetting settings, failing to recognize installed devices, freezing up, and other oddities.

@ XPSinUSA

Just for the record: did you follow the procedure of first uninstalling the existing drivers one by one until Windows installs the standard VGA driver?

Because I did and didn't have any driver crashes since then with the January driver. (Vostro 430 4 GB  RAM, NVidia Gt220 1 GB, Windows 7-64 bit)

To start with..as soon you as you upgrade the OS for Vista 64bit to W 7 64 bit and you look into your logs there will be a lot of errors which have to be  attended to.

But the positive thing is that you won’t be the first one having that challenge  and all the solutions are on Internet (Google, Seven forums, Dell forums) An even better way is to do a clean install of W7. BTW: after doing so you still will find a lot of errors due to the fact that most of the drivers you got are original Vista drivers and Dell doesn’t provide W7 drivers for those machines. So you must look for newer drivers on the Internet (producers etc) if necessary.  

Back to the black outs…I used to have them every day and more than 40 in total since I got the computer in September 2009. After upgrading to W7 64 bit the situation got even worse. Next to the black outs and errors I got critical kernel errors and BSOD’s.

After calling the tech Dell replaced the video card by another GT220.II went for a clean install of W7 64 bit and upgraded all the drivers to the W7 level. Using Driver Max.  Despite that I kept having non critical errors which I have solved in the meantime (W 7 forums on the Internet)

I know it is ridiculous that Dell doesn’t provided you with a smooth working computer. But I can’t complain about their tech’s They gave me great help and fortunately I could solve all the OS and driver problems and challenges  myself.  Succes I am error free (for the time being:-)

What worked for me:

(1) Download the January 2010 driver from the NVIDEA website, and

(2) In Control Panel, Power Options, uncheck the Dell power plan, and check the Balanced power plan.

I had the described problem several times per hour before doing the above.  It has not happened even one time since I did the above, after over two weeks and 80 hours of use. 

I have the same configuration as the original poster:  Studio XPS 9000 with Windows 7, 64 bit, with 1024 MB NVIDEA GeForce GT220, bought in November 2009.