XPS 730x H2C loses power / resets / reboots "randomly"...

I'm having the same problem.

My 730x arrived yesterday, I installed it, spent the entire evening installing software (Visual Studio, SQL Server), had 1 reboot, thought it was a driver issue at first.

However, today I started working on it, doing some light development work, and out of nothing it reboots again. After lots of rebooting and trying to figure out what the problem was, I'm finding the temp issue a realistic answer.

First I looked at my sound drivers, since it rebooted twice when I started winamp, however, on other times it gave no problem.

Then it also rebooted on heavy hard disk activity, or heavy cpu load.

Are there ways to configure this "lets shut myself down for safety because I think i'm running hot"-feature? Or to troubleshoot it?

Very annoyed to read all of these posts only after a day of owning this nice machine :(

Sadly, we welcome you to the club. Others have documented temps surrounding the random re-boot behavior without clear cause and effect relationship, but the problem may be multifacited ... with the common result being the shutdown. Remember that Dell provides the 21 day "grace period" ... and from my experience X2 and others referenced on this forum ... you can bet that you'll want to take advantage of this "grace period" ... sad, but true. Watch your dates and this forum for Dell (Chris Mixon's) response. I am encouraged by Mr. Mixon's post (just above yours) that tells us that our reported problems are being discussed at some level at Dell. I suggest that you "priviate" message to Mr. Mixon re- your service tag number as he has asked us to do in the past ... and Darrell in his above post).

Chris Mixon ... how are you doing so far in this matter. When can we buy with confidence again?

Could anyone confirm if this sequence is the same they're having:

• *user working*
• Power goes off
• PC tries to power up again
• Right after reset and starting coolers again, power goes away again
• PC tries to power up once again
• And we're up and running again

It seems to do a double reboot, as if it first shuts down for some temp fail safe, tries to boot again but decides it's still failing and does it another time.

Yes that was exactly the sequence my computer would perform before I returned it! Keep in mind the 21 days, thats important advice!

Just got off the phone with XPS support, at least the procedure is started now...

They want me to restore the Dell OS and reproduce the reboot with their default settings.

I guess I'll restore it and then run prime on it to create a heavy load or use some heavy disk activity tool?

How could I convince support that it's a problem with the H2C thermal unit? ;)

Just got off the phone with XPS support, at least the procedure is started now... They want me to restore the Dell OS and reproduce the reboot with their default settings. I guess I'll restore it and then run prime on it to create a heavy load or use some heavy disk activity tool? How could I convince support that it's a problem with the H2C thermal unit? ;)

 Try running coretemp along with prime95 to see what your cpu temps are. Check out page three of this thread you will see temps another member posted.

 Post your temps. I would like to see what it runs at.

Idle it's running at 32-35 Celcius (42watt TDP)

Prime running, 100% load it jumps to 67-68 degrees and 223 Watt TDP

After a while it stabilizes around 71-73 degrees.

No reboot so far though, maybe I should run a disk load tool after this, any good ones?

@Richsi,

Funny thing, I ran for 10 minutes with Prime and Coretemp and everything's stable.

I run the Dell Thermo thingie for barely 1 minute and BOOM, reboot!

When I first opened it, I was annoyed with the Fahrenheit (I'm European and I bought it in dell Belgium :p), when I clicked around a bit in it, to see if I could put it in Celcius, tried to create a profile and the program itself just crashed on me :s

I doubt I'll get Florida coverage, spoke to a guy in the Netherlands today, during business hours I get Dutch apparently. Going to try out some BIOS settings now and if it reboots again I'll be calling now, and probably be patched through to an English speaking center, *finger crossed I get a smart guy*

Well goodluck, the guys in Florida ROCK, at least they try. The XPS Thermo Monitor is IMO the key to this whole thing! It appears the software can kill every computer on this thread or at least it appears that way to me! Still put my money on the "COOLING Unit"! One guy had his replaced along with his CPU and its been running fine so far. Think that's the key to this HUGE problem, wish Dell would read these threads! OH WELL, I still haven't seen my refund yet, been a week and a day since I sent it back! They take your money QUICK, but take their time giving it back to you!

Did you, or has anyone else read the "XPS Thermal Monitor Disclaimer" "XPS Thermal Monitor END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT"? This comes up before you use the program for the first time.

It basicaly says that if you use this software it may do serious damage to your computer and void the warrenty!!! ???

I'm tring to find a copy of this online.

DavidCmps, if you read through this thread you will many of us had / have the exact same problem you are having.  I went through all the things you are about to encounter, and 28 days later, I returned the system (this past Monday).  We have seen the "double reboots" (rebooting on reboot), random reboots, Dell Thermal Monitor seemingly aggravating the problem (although I have turned it off and would still get reboots).... we've re-installed the OS, BIOS, Drivers, reseated the memory, video / audio cards, made sure all connections on board were secure, checked power status on back of unit (PSU button w/ green light).  We have run countless tests and have including CPU temp monitors, video temps, case temps.  Run a variety of apps that stress the system including Prime95 and current games... We have tried different voltage settings, turbo settings, frequency settings.  Had tier 1 Dell support do silly things like modify the power settings in the control panel to see if that helped (yes, they really did that!!!) or uninstall my video drivers and then try to put on 32 bit drivers!!! (system is a 64 bit with 64 bit OS!).  In the end, we could not finger the problem.

So, my advice is to get on the phone with Dell and 1) have a tech come out and replace the guts or 2) get a whole replacement Dell.  From what I have read (other than the one 730 owner, not a 730x) doing those things will not help but you might want to try on the outside chance something has been fixed since you ordered yours.  Otherwise, you will have to setup a RMA with Dell and return yours as several of us have had to do.  I returned mine after 28 days but it sounds like you would be safer inside of the 21 day grace period (I'm not sure exactly what Dell's policy is on this).

I really do hope Dell fixes this issue and it would be beneficial if they would be more vocal about what they think the problem is or what they are working on to solve it.  

Good luck.

I will add my name to the growing list of 730x owners with the same sudden power loss issues.  I got my system two days ago, and it is an air-cooled i920 with the ATI HD 4870 X2.  Spent the day with tech support (very polite and tried their best) doing most of the same things everyone else has been asked to do without success.  I gently but repeatedly mentioned this forum and the experiences being shared here to little avail.  They are going to swap out the power supply and GPU next.  If that doesn't work they say they might swap out the CPU.

I fear I may be returning the system if a solution isn't rapidly found.  Ironic since I decided to replace my home-built with a Dell as I don't have time to tinker and need a powerful, low maintenance system.

Fullcode

XPS 730x i920 2.66GHz 6GB ATI HD 4870 X2 Air-cooled

Dell has the Tag numbers and several of our returned units for their own experts to evaluate the problems recurrently described on this forum. With the tag numbers they can track all of the efforts that Dell technical support has expended in this 730X nightmare. At present, it seems irresponsible to continue to sell the 730X product. Others are foolish to spend time attempting to "fix" a faulty product that they have spent several thousand dollars to purchase! Insist on sending the unit back as soon as possible. For others researching this forum prior purchase ... DON'T Buy ... until Dell has responded as to recognition of the problem(s) and can describe the problem and how they can work around the random shutdown issue. Chris Mixon is a Dell insider assigned to this forum. We need to hear from him. What is going on Chris?

I did see the disclaimer flash up (XPS Thermo Monitor Software), but figured it was junk and shut it down before reading it. WOW, that's like  handing you a loaded gun and telling you to pull the trigger to see if it works or not! I think what it means is if you play with the manual settings and take it off automatic you may set the fans speeds lower then what they need to be to cool the computer correctly. I think thats it anyway, still can't figure out why they would load a bogus piece of software like that anyway! GEEZ, this thread is sure frustrating to me. I'm GLAD I sent my computer back, they don't seem to have idea on what's going on and it appears to me all they do is throw hardware at it instead for trying to troubleshoot the thing. Maybe they should hire some of us to fix it for them LOL, GEEZ!