XPS 730 Overheating and Randomly Shutting Down

I have the same problem.  Did not adjust the fan speed, but replaced the motherboard and all the fans.  The silver tube for the H2C subsystem coming off the proceessor is very hot.  Their technicians did not know if that was OK or not.  I'm starting to suspect the problem may be with the H2C subsystem, which is currently out of stock.  The other possibility is that I'm using Geforce 9800s - 2 of them - and one sits directly above the processor.  It seems hot on the bottom as well.   

My system spec is:

Quad Core Extreme Q9650 3.0 Factory OC'd to 3.67, 4gig DD2 PC1333 RAM, 2x 500gig SATA HD (1TB Raid), Single GTX280 Gfx and SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer.

To me this is not an outrageously over the top rig considering Dell themselves sell them at even higher specs!

Once I've completed this reformat I'm going to start doing battle with XPS Technical Support (most likely in one of the Asian sub-continents since I'm UK based) and if their service is anything like the after-sales service I had I'm going to need to lie down in dark room or visit the doctor after!

My config is essentially the same - different video cards.  I'm not seeing where I can adjust fan speed with the nVidia control panel.  How did you do that?  Running Speedfan, I get readings of 70-80C for each of the processor cores.  Just before shutdown, the readings get a bit crazy (even negative numbers).  I'm not thinking that reformatting has anything to do with this.  Neither does the motherboard or the fans themselves, since I replaced these and had the same problem.  I'm left with the H2C subsystem as the probable culprit.  The wierd part is that once it shuts down, It typically can be restarted after two or three attempts in fairly rapid succession.  If the cores were truly overheated, it should take longer to cool down.  This would seem to indicate heat spikes - not a consistent cooling issue, but a sporadic one.  This can happen with virtually no load on the proecssors - for example when looking at streaming video from the web.  Just curious - does the silver tube from the H2C that's attached to the processor feel very hot to the touch?  Mine does - and Dell can't tell me if that's normal or not.  Oh well.

Just a quick update...

After a first call to XPS Technical Support and getting no-where I called back again where a rather nice chap spoke to his manager for me and agreed to book an engineer visit to look at the machine.

Lets hope this is both the beginning and the end of the issue although from other posts here I highly doubt it!

Let me know what they find out.  Good luck.

Same problems, 730HC2 finally the machine will not boot up at all. I get HC2 CPU pump failure and like you said the parts were out of stock. I have been waiting a month now for the replacement parts. However I have the feeling they wont show up with the correct ones when whatever dell is sending gets here.

I'm not sure the H2C pump is the problem in my case.  I used Speedfan to monitor the core tems, and just before shutdown they spiked above 100C.  Normally they operate around 60-80C.  During the spike I noticed the fans were not running at any kind of higher speed, and they normally fluctuate up and down.  I adjusted the CPU fan speed using the nVidia control panel to 50% and the CPU temps have stayed around 60C since.  No shutdowns.  I asked Dell to send a new Master I/O board, since that controls the fans, and should get that tomorrow.  Guess we'll see what happens then.  On the other hand, if you got a message about the H2C pump failing - that is more likely to be your problem than the Master I/O.  I have had other problems since day 1 with this machine coming back from Sleep, (huge delays in keyboard and mouse response) and they have never resolved those.  Perhaps they are also related to the I/O board. 

Wel the engineer came out today it seems my issue is resolved for now at least!

It seems my H2C unit had leaked and the cooling fluid ended up all over the bottom of the chassis :(

One new cooling unit and cleanup later and I'm back idling at 24 degrees celcius again with 100% CPU load giving between 50 and 55.

Fingers crossed it runs well for a bit!

Re-contact USA Unresolved Issues <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell> and get a tower exchange.

Good luck to you

After more than 5 weeks I still haven't had my cooling system parts even ship from dell. I call every few days with nothing but empty promises of the parts shipping within the next two days which they never do. Empty promises of call backs and escalating my case# with promises of resolving the issue never going anywhere. I dont know where to turn to next, $9000 for their top of the line PC with extended warranty and I have not been able to boot it up for over 5 wreeks now. This is criminal on their part.

I made enough of a fuss they referred me to the resolution team - which agreed to replace the computer.  They sent a 730x, which appears to have an improved cooling system, although the jury is still out as I am having some issues getting everything loaded back on it.  They installed a Vista-64 OS, and I was running Vista-32 previously.  I've also had a few quirky issues where a reboot was needed.  The system did not come overclocked as it should have been, and the calls to Dell support are continuing.  I'm not sure it's worth it.  At some point I'm going to start billing them for my time.  By no means would I EVER recommend the 730 product line to ANYONE!

I guess I will try unresolved issues again.

I contacted dell again yesterday after recieving an email from the unresolved issue people stating "I have escalated the issue through my manager to the highest level of support and you shall be getting a call from the within next 2 - 3 business days.". I waited 2.5 days with no call back but wanted to try to move forward or at least an update, as I didnt feel I would recieve a call before the end of the day. After doing the suggested online chat link supplied by the unresolved issues email I gave my case# to a gentlemen who said he would call back in 3 hours which he did and asked for one more day to resolve the issue. Well I just got off the phone with him and his manager and again I get the same exact speil. Please gives us one more day as your parts should ship in 2-3 days... And then they make talk of upgrading my replacement parts??? How can that even be possible, when I mentioned a tower swap I was told that would not be impossible as they do not have the parts in stock.... Its hard enough to understand the gentlemen that I was speaking to and it obvious they dont understand the situation with my case at all. This is so frustrating, I have been beyond patient with dell not losing my temper through all the discussion which apparently is a bad thing and gets you treated like dirt. I dont blame the people I am talking to so it not right to treat them badly but I cetainly am being played by the company as a fool.

Heard nothing back from dell after reporting to usresolved issues for the 2nd time. However the next day I was plesantly surprised to get a phone call from technician asking to schedule a time to change out my cooling components. Which after he did so cleared the cpu pump error, however now the computer just shuts off with no errors while booting up at the dell splash screen. So he tried reseating everything with no avail and called it in. Again I asked for tower swap out but was told its not possible we still havnt tried a new mobo and processor! This will be the 2nd mobo as the changed it when I received the computer because it couldnt boot up then.

Oh wonderful I get to take more time off from work for this balony. So i called back the next bussiness day to make sure things are set up properly and to find out if I will be stuck waiting another 2 months for components. Apparently its ok to sell and promise next day service and not deliver it if your Dell. So i chat with the online person who tells me there was a problem with the internal tools and my components were never ordered.... So they get them ordered  and tell me they may be delayed up to 5 days. Yet again no parts for my computer kept in stock? I am so glad Dell sold me next day service and decided to not stock any components for my computer, such a big profit margin for them. They are smart! Sell things then dont live up to your promises, who cares right?

 I again asked for a tower change out to 730-X that may actually be supported, again I was told no no thats not necessary we will get you your new parts out within 5 days. Why did I pay large money for next day service to company that apparently has no scrupples to up hold its end of the aggreement? Dell sells me a system then changes it to -X a few months afterwards and now doesnt stock my components? I think they owe all of us 730 owners change overs to 730-X's cause obviously they are not supporting the original 730's. I cant even find a link to Chris's old post for the 730's, is that anywhere? I will most likely need it after all the components in my computer are changed out one by one until my computer acutally boots up.

I've also suufered from this problem on my XPS 730.  I've had the system for 18 months and the problem started about 6 weeks ago.  The fans would run fast (and noisy) and then the computer would shut down without warning.  Using the nVidia System Monitor CPU temperatures rose to over 100C and then went negative.  Even setting fans speeds manually to 100% didn't keep the system cool. 

Since then I've re-installed Windows 7 and updated to the latest drivers for the GTX280's and the motherboard.  The problem hasn't re-occured since.  One thing I haven't installed though is nVidia System Monitor.  Now the fan speed adjusts gradually and automatically with increased CPU load and return to normal when the load is removed.  I've not had a unexpected shutdown since.  This may be co-incidence but I'm thinking that there may be some connection between running the System Monitor and these shutdowns.  Just a thought.