XPS 630 General Hardware Discussion thread

DELL-Chris M, When my computer blue screens it restarts less than ten seconds later, making it very hard to write down an error message. So far I was able to get down, at the bottom of the screen, "Dumping physical memory dump," which has a number next to it that counts up to 100 before restarting. Where would any other error messages be? At the top or bottom because that would help a lot next time it happens.

Here's a way to keep it from restarting automatically:

1/ Click Start button

2/ From Start menu Click Control panel

3/ In Control Panel Click the System icon

4/ In the System Window look on the Left hand side of the window and you will see a list of options. Click on the Advanced System Settings option

5/ Because Computer management requires administrative privileges you may find the the User Account Control will pop up. If it does then enter the required information (if you are not the administrator) or, if you are the administrator, click the Continue button

6/ In the Advanced Settings window look for the Startup and Recovery section and then Click the Settings button

7/ In the Startup and recovery window look for the section marked System failure and remove the 'tick' mark from the 'Automatically Restart' option. Now press OK button

8/ Finally click the OK button on the System properties Window and then close the system window.

I got a new xps 630 a couple of days ago with the pre installed 64 bit vista option.

What I was wondering about was temperature and fan speeds when playing games because other then the Nvidia control panel I don't seem to have any software capable of showing component temperatures or fan speeds or warnings.

Under Dell software and utilities I only have the "dell getting started guide" installed.

I followed Chris's guide to make a custom profile for the case fan speeds set to 55% but its very loud and I was playing games before on the default settings with no problems, but I was worried that they may be too low and might cause damage or problems due to temperature.

Is there anything that will dynamically ajust fan speeds when temperature rises on my computer that I can download?, I tried the software and utilities from the support section on the website but on the 64bit option I can't seem to find anything relevant.

The fans just seem to stay at the same default speed even if I'm playing demanding games on high settings.

Another question I noticed I have over 60 processes running on task manager this seems very high, are these all necessary things for vista that Dell as installed because on xp I had a lot less.

And another sorry, when my computer goes into power saving mode when I try to return to normal the mouse and keyboard don't work so its pointless atm.

And one last thing has anybody got Left 4 Dead to work on there Xps630 without the CTD or sound loop freezes, I've tried every setting different drivers, SLI on and off, multi core on/off, can run it on high settings at max resolution or lowest or anything inbetween and it still randomly CTD or loop freezes, was a real shame because it was a wonderful experience to play it on my new Dell xps 630 when i first got it with the 24inch HD screen but this was a bit of a let down, I'm quite sure its not the xps 630 because of all the other complaints on the steam support forum.

you could "core temp" to monitor you cpu temps and gpu-z to monitor gpu temps.  I haven't played around with nvidia profiles but i think there are some rules that you can assign such as if the temp is above this value load this profile or when you exit this app load this profile.  I just set a profile that has my CPU fan at 80%, hdd cage at 40% and pci fan at 35% all the time.  That is because i Overclocked my cpu and these settings keep my temps at high 20s when idling and around mid to upper 40s when loaded.

If you move all of the case fans from the mio board to your motherboard you can use "speedfan" to monitor temps and control them.  I believe this way you can have the fans adjust dynamically, though i never tried the dynamically part i did move move case fans to the mobo for other reasons.

As for the 60 processes, that is typical of vista.  Windows 7 will correct this.

I never leave my machine on.  I always turn if off when not using it for a long time like overnight or when i'm at work.  Sleep, hibernate has always been a little flaky in general.

Okay, it blue screened again today (twice actually, one right after the other).

Both times had the error DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE.

Technical Information:
1st Time: ***STOP: 0x0000009F (0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA80086C3060, 0xFFFFFA800858DB00, 0xFFFFFA800ABB4C60)
2nd Time: ***STOP: 0x0000009F (0x0000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA8008584060, 0xFFFFFA80085CBB00, 0xFFFFFA800BCEDAA0)

And below that it had:

Collecting data for crash dump...
Initializing disk for crash dump...
Beginning dump of physical memory.
Dumping physical memory to disk: 100 [It counts up to 100 from 0.]
Physical memory dump complete.

EDIT: By the way, after doing some research on this error, I am NOT having trouble shutting down my computer (although I've never tried to put it into standby or hibernation), the blue screen happens RANDOMLY when I'm either browsing the web, listening to music, on AIM, or, just recently, when I wasn't even at my computer (shortly after starting up my computer). Although all cases except one occurred within I'd say 10 (or 20) minutes of starting up my computer.

I'd be grateful if anyone could help.

It's me again.

At last report, I had explained that I had random system crashes that occured mainly during playing either Assassin's Creed or Ghost Recon, Advanced Warfighter.  I had spent considerable time (say 4 hours) on the phone with tech support up to that point.  I posted on this thread, and it was recommended that I reset my computer back to the factory image.  I have done this.  I have since spent an additional 8 to 10 hours on the phone and completing various diagnostics and I start AC or GRAW, play for a couple of minutes...boom...system crash.  No way out but to hard boot the system.

I spent another 2 hours on the phone last night with Tech Support and was told that if I ran all the diagnostics, then there was no way it was a hardware issue, it would have to be a software issue.  This was in direct contradiction to tha last time I was speaking with the software Tech Support and they said "there are lots of things that will slip through a diagnostic, this is a hardware issue, not a software one."  One of the things that they said it could be, and I have read this elsewhere is the temperature of the CPU cores, or GPU core.

I have written all of the information regarding this that I could find on nVidia's System Monitor.  I also downloaded Speedfan and have a screenshot of that.  This is at system idle, I am not performing any functions except reading the data from the nVidia System Monitor

CPU1 Tj Temp - 51 C

CPU2 Tj Temp - 63 C

CPU3 Tj Temp - 56 C

CPU4 Tj Temp - 63 C

CPU fan = 829 RPM

GPU Temp - 55 C

GPU Ambient - 40 C

Box:

Front Temp - 24 C

Rear Temp - 30 C

HDD Fan - 1%

HDD fan - 1119 RPM

PCI Cage Fan - 12% / 1231 RPM

There appears to be no way for me to show you the screenshot from the Speedfan readout.   Here is the listing from the screenshot:

GPU: 61 C  (Interestingly this has a little picture of a fire beside it...I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but that would appear to me to indicate the unit is running a tad warm, non?)

Temp1: 51 C (also with a little fire beside it)

Temp 2: -78 C (has blue arrow pointing down.  Also, I'm not aware of any source of liquid nitrogen in my computer, so how it could be -78 C is beyond me)

Temp 3: -46 C (has blue arrow pointing down)

Core 0: 49 C (has green check mark beside it.  That sounds nice...a green checkmark)

Core 1: 40 C (another green checkmark)

Core 2: 47 C (yet another green checkmark)

Core 3: 40 C (with a red up arrow)

Can someone please help me here?

To paraphrase Winston Churchill: "Never in the course of human history, has so much been paid for such ***."  I am so frustrated by getting the run around from Tech Support who sends me from Software to Hardware. 

I am at work right now, so if someone wants to me post a hijack this posting, I will have to have another go when I get home.

Thanks for your help.

I have a brand new XPS 630. It takes about 10-15 mins to boot up. When I first set it up I freaked out. I then realized that it would boot, it just takes terrible amount of time. Can anyone tell me what may be the problem? I am just keeping it in low power most of the time rather than shutting down completing, because I am afraid that in given time it just won't boot up at all. I know this is silly, but I really don't know what I am doing. Thanks in advance for any help.

Thanks player8. I do have a printer hooked up via USB. I will check that out. Thanks again.

I have a brand new XPS 630. It takes about 10-15 mins to boot up. When I first set it up I freaked out. I then realized that it would boot, it just takes terrible amount of time. Can anyone tell me what may be the problem? I am just keeping it in low power most of the time rather than shutting down completing, because I am afraid that in given time it just won't boot up at all. I know this is silly, but I really don't know what I am doing. Thanks in advance for any help.

It definitely shouldn't take this long, between 15 and 25 sec is how long it takes for my system to boot up.  Do you have any USB devices connected other than the mouse and keyboard like maybe a Harddrive or those little usb sticks.  If so this could be a cause of the long boot ups.

Just a thought.

I have a brand new XPS 630. It takes about 10-15 mins to boot up. When I first set it up I freaked out. I then realized that it would boot, it just takes terrible amount of time. Can anyone tell me what may be the problem? I am just keeping it in low power most of the time rather than shutting down completing, because I am afraid that in given time it just won't boot up at all. I know this is silly, but I really don't know what I am doing. Thanks in advance for any help.

If by "low power" you mean you put it into Sleep or Hybernation, definitely try letting it boot from a complete shutdown.  Let us know how it does then.

I did not get any reply on the posting above, so I thought I'd send a quick update.

I saw somewhere on this site or the my630i.com that Chris M shows a way to set your fan speeds higher for gaming purposes.  Since I suspected that my problem was heat related, I set all the fan speeds at 60%.  You know what?  It bleeping well worked.  I could play Assassin's Creed as long as I wanted (at least so far).  Only one tiny problem.  Now it sounds like a jet is taking off in my basement, the fans are so noisy.

Should the fans be this noisy for doing something that this rig was supposedly designed to do?  It seems to me that if I buy a gaming rig, which is what they purport this machine to be, that it should have minimum specs that allow the machine to run without sounding like test facility at Jet Propulsion Labs.  I mean, come on.

I suspect that there is a heat related hardware problem and the running the fan speeds at 2/3's maximum capacity seems to allevite the issue, but that can't be right, can it?

Can someone please comment as to whether it should be normal for me to have to run the fan speeds at 2/3's maximum speed in order to play a game, on a gaming rig?

Thanks.

mine was doing they same as yours, after repeated calls to dell late at night, I took off work early and called during the day time hours, i got somebody that could speak English and was an American tech and this person did not read from a script. all the other techs wanted to go through the same test ever time, even though I explained that it had already been done, but that went right over their heads, finally this American tech decided it was the mother board and i have one on the way now to be installed by a contractor for dell. Dell has got to get their act together on these issues with blue screens on these xps 630 if they expect to keep selling computers, i got so flustrated that i bought another new computer that works way better than this junk pile, and yes it is a gateway fx 542x, that has more horses for the bucks, this was my fourth dell and by for my worst dell, the others were almost flawless, this one is supposed to be a gaming computer, it does do that okay  but the lockups and bluescreens have turned this computer with all the eye candy into a very ugly computer. I hope that the motherboard will solve my problems and if so then my faith in dell will be restored. the blue screen you mention with "Mini011509-02.dmp" is caused by the usb. maybe you can get them to send a tech to your home, but you have to stay with calling them. good luck

mine was doing they same as yours, after repeated calls to dell late at night, I took off work early and called during the day time hours, i got somebody that could speak English and was an American tech and this person did not read from a script. all the other techs wanted to go through the same test ever time, even though I explained that it had already been done, but that went right over their heads, finally this American tech decided it was the mother board and i have one on the way now to be installed by a contractor for dell. Dell has got to get their act together on these issues with blue screens on these xps 630 if they expect to keep selling computers, i got so flustrated that i bought another new computer that works way better than this junk pile, and yes it is a gateway fx 542x, that has more horses for the bucks, this was my fourth dell and by for my worst dell, the others were almost flawless, this one is supposed to be a gaming computer, it does do that okay  but the lockups and bluescreens have turned this computer with all the eye candy into a very ugly computer. I hope that the motherboard will solve my problems and if so then my faith in dell will be restored. the blue screen you mention with "Mini011509-02.dmp" is caused by the usb. maybe you can get them to send a tech to your home, but you have to stay with calling them. good luck

Thanks for the input. The thing Dell should look at is the issues/problems this computer is giving their customers, why are the problems occuring and be proactive in a viable solution that keeps the confidence in Dell as a computer manufacturer. The XPS 630/730 series I feel are really good computers given the source (Dell). Dell seems to use quality part in the computers, so I am not sure why the 630 in particular is having the problems it has. Maybe the uninstalling of the sound card drivers with resolve the Blue Screen issue. If not, I will be on the phone during the day.

If my computer blue screens again I'll force myself to try and call them instead of going through email and chats. So far Dell support has been worthless to me, as all the things they suggest don't help solve my problem.

I actually think I may be having a USB problem as well, although I'm not sure. I think it may be the USB cable that goes from my SP2208WFP monitor to my computer (connecting the computer to the USBs on the monitor and the built in webcam). I disconnected it about half a week ago and haven't experienced a blue screen yet, but since I've only been getting a blue screen once a week, I have to wait a little longer to see if my theory is correct. Although if it is my webcam, I'm not entirely sure where to go from there, or why it was randomly crashing my computer, even when I wasn't using it.

By the way, doesn't anyone know where to check for those minidump errors?