Video blacks out occasionally for a few seconds

I argued for a good several hours and demanded an upgrade.  They replaced my gt 220 with a new motherboard and a gtx260. They tried to replace it with a 220.  I said no, its not compatible,etc,etc.  Had to talk with supervisor after supervisor.  I put almost 300 cell phone minutes for it.  I was within my 30 days when the black outs started happeneing and read forums where others had same problem.  So I finally talked them into at gts 240 but it didnt work so I said Id take back the whole system and tell everyonw I knew how bad dell is.  He gave in and overnighted a new motherboard and gtx260.  I can hardcore game or do just about anything, even run a 50 inch plasma and a 22 inch screen simul in HD. It works great. 

Same thing here...tech came out and replaced with the same card, refurbished.  Still having problems but haven't had the time to sit on the phone for hours with them yet again.  Very aggrevating!

My post was deleted because it contained language which was against their policy. I am not sure, what I posted that was bad. I did not use any cuss words or profane language. Dell does not want to hear about problems.

Thanks everyone for reading my post while it was still there.

Hi

My post was deleted by Dell. According to them it contained language that was offensive. I am not sure what offensive language I used. I did not use any cuss words or profane language. This proves it they do not want us discussing the problems that Dell owners are having. Way to go Dell.

RanRuth - glad to know that at least one 8100 replacement user has a box that works. I got the ATI 5770, and, that too suffers from the "Crash at Print: (or print perview) Curse' and overloads on web flash video. I read these posts and each contributer thinks 'it might be this' or 'it might be that', but the pattern seems to be failure - for many unrelated reasons, by minor provocations that should not produce a failure. Why should a souped up video card fail and bring down the system when a print command is given? My event log shows video card each time - even with the new system and ATI 5770 card. Component failure is possible, but the odds are long against two in a row - or at least I hope they' be.  For me it's been long hours protecting and backing up data, re-purchase and reinstalling programs and hours on the phone, tech appointments, and anxiety.  Dell has been gracious to call the new card a failure and send a replacment. But this is my last trusting shot at it. If this expensive, high end PC won't run without incident, I'm afraid I must abandon this new 'hobby' of  reading these posts and trying to understand why it doesn't work and what I can do to somehow make things right. I have a couple of old XP boxes which I've been using ever since I got my XPS 8000, and now 8100. They work just fine with no crashes at print preview and I never worry about whether they will boot up or lose my settings. Hmmmm

Back on February 15th user XenophonAnabasis mentioned that they had a XPS 9000 with a GT220.  They found success by updating the video drivers AND by setting the Power Option to "Balanced power plan" instead of the "Dell power plan".   I have selected the balanced power plan on my XPS 8100.  Don't really know if that is part of the reason my XPS 8100 appears to be OK.  But I thought it couldn't hurt.  I do have the ATI 5770 card that some people still have trouble with.

When this all started, I read somewhere outside of Dell, that this was a Windows problem that started in Vista.  So it may be a combination of things that cause it or fix it.

I haven't had any obvious xps 9000 graphics problems since updating the Nvidia driver as described in my post about eight weeks ago.  My power options check is still the original Dell power plan.  I have had several lockups while using Corel's new Video Studio Pro X3, but I suspect the problems may be related to typical new program bugs.  Time will tell, however.

Dell Studio XPS 435T/9000, 8G Ram, i7 CPU 920@2.67,GT220/1024MB, Integrated Audio Dell S2209W Monitor with DVI cable, Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, bios A14

Hi Herb, could be that, but could be something simple, too.  One of my posts in January was deleted because I used asterisks instead of the last three letters of the word wrap.  Any my bad word was not wrap.  And the word referred to something I had done, not Dell.  Who knows, maybe this post will be deleted too!

Chris:

I have the same problem with my XPS 8000 having GT220 video card.  Have you found a satisfactory solution yet?  I am anxious to get this fixed and I have been watching the posts on this topic and waiting for three months now.  Thanks.

Hi Chris

I escalated the problem to Customer resolution department. I did not accept the refurbished GT220 card that they offered me earlier. So a gentleman named Mr shree called me two three times and offered me a GT240. He had to pull some strings to do it. But anyway the new card is on its way. I told him that I would install it myself. I wil return the old GT 220 back to them. Hopefully this will solve the problem From all the reviews that I have seen the GT 240 is a much better card.

So I am happy with Dell's resolution right now. Will post at a later time to tell everyone how the new card is working. It will arrive sometime next week.

Thanks

Thanks for the reply.

After you have installed the GT240, could you let me know the results?  I will ask for the same thing if that would solve the problem. 

Thanks again.

After downloading the latest NVDIA Driver from its web site, I thought I was in the clear.  It had been several weeks and everything seemed to be working okay.  However, while I rarely see the black screen, occasionally the screen does freeze up.  I am forced to manually shut off the computer.  When it reboots, I get a message, asking if I want to open Windows in the Safe mode.  Typically, the computer then has to reconfigure the volume, which takes a while.  I have not noticed any one thing that triggers this freeze or occasional black screen.  I have a Dell Studio XPS 435T/9000, 9G Ram, i7 CPU 920@2.67,GT220/1024MB, with a 24" Dell monitor, using a HDMI connection.

Could you let me know what version of the driver you downloaded?  I have just downloaded 196.21 driver yesterday, and everything seems to be working ok, no more black screen locking up the computer and not more blacking out for a few second either.  I hope that would fix it.

While downloading, I notice on the Nvidia site that they are rolling back the 196/75 and 197.15 drivers. 

Yes, I also downloaded the 196.21 driver.  While I did not have problems for several weeks, I have noticed that not all of my problems are completely gone.  I did not have a black screen for weeks, then I would get one.  Not nearly as bad as before, just happens rarely.  The most annoying problem is the fact that the computer occasionally freezes up. When I reboot, the computer needs to validate the volume.  As I said, the new driver has worked mostly.  It  is just that I believe that the small problems I still have are still related to the video card.  I could be wrong, however.