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

One thing I was wondering is how many of you live in a cold climate? I picked up my XPS 730x on a day that the high was only about 5F and it was ice cold sitting at FedEx. Considering the H2C is filled with water, I am 99% certain it was frozen at some point, which I would think could have jacked up some components.

The other question I had was, do you guys experience the restart more when doing mundane tasks or when the system is really working? Mine has restarted almost always when using internet, playing cards, abosolutely nothing, or waiting in the WoW queue. When actually running WoW on max settings or I had 5 instances of  Stress Prime 2004 (which 100% taxed the ram, but only had the cpu to 40%), I had no issues..I could even look at and make changes to the Thermal app.

Yep, mine usually reboots with little activity...

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I'm 99% sure mine probably reached 0°C while shipping too, since it arrived during a week where it froze every night

Hi All, hate to burst your bubble, but  the coolant in a computer cooling system in the same type of coolant used in an automobile. It will not freeze. Yes it has water but more then likely a 50/50 solution with an anti-fungal additive for alge. So don't I think cold weather has any effect on the problem. Besides I live in CALIF so when it was shipped it came thru TX, AZ and perhaps Utah, then CA,  I don't think it had a chance to freeze before getting to me. Do youself a favor and return you computer before the 21 days are up. Dell can't keep doing business like this and make a profit if we keep sending back their lame produces. They do not care about their customers and keep sending out these lame computers the only way to fight back is not keep them or buy them. By the way I haven't see a penny of my refund yet from dell, its been 16 days since i sent the unit back. I'm not out of the woods yet!

This is what I was told today by Dell: Thank you for the information.   While I can appreciate the concern, I know of no "known issue" with this system. Had there been one, Dell would have taken whatever steps were necessary to rectify the situation. While message boards and forums can provide valuable tips and information, those identifying "known issues" are, more often than not, basing their information on hearsay or opinion and not facts.   We carefully monitor all systems for any pattern of repairs which may indicate a possible issue. If one is suspected, further investigation is done by trained personnel, including engineers who, if necessary, can recommend remedial or proactive action. This has not occurred. XPS 730X H2C - Intel® Core™ i7-965 Extreme - Level 2 (Factory O/C'd to 3.73GHz) RAM - 6GB Tri-Channel DDR3 at 1066MHZ (3x2GB DIMM) Video - Gtx 280 Hard Drive -Raid 0 1tb - SATA-II, 3GB/S, 7200RPM, 32MB Cache Floppy Drive and Media Reader -- Dell 19-in-1 Media Card Reader with Bluetooth 2.0 Windows Vista® 64-bit Ulitimate (English) Service Pack 1

Wow, how did you get Dell to send this kind of information to you? (All Lies) read this entire thread and base your option on all of us lying to each other I guess, Dell is the victim here, we don't know what we are talking about....that's why Dell now has my computer because they could not repair it! Come on now! what's reality here?

Are you sure about the anti-freeze thing, cause everything that I have found that actually states what the fluid is, has said water. Additionally, anti-freeze is toxic and would require conspicuous labeling addressing that. Since I have a new on on the way (which will arrive within the 21 days) I figure I will try a couple of things. Has anyone tried OC'ing the comp past the 3.73? The theory here would be that it appears that when the H2C is working harder it seems more stable, thus increasing the OC would increase the CPU/mobo temp and make the H2C work.   Has anyone installed CooLIT's software/firmware? Just guessing...

Do a google on this product (Fluid XP+). It is a high end coolant that claims its made up of "Food Grade" ingredients so I'm basing my statement on this product. I don't think water would last in a cooling system because it is not stable enough for continued use, it must have additives for alge and boiling point surpression. Also read this entire thread and you will see many many others have oc'ed and under clock this produce and still have the same issues. Return it! But what do I know, we are just a bunch of winers on this forum per Dell!

Did you ask if they had ever seen a 730x in person? :emotion-3:

Are you sure about the anti-freeze thing, cause everything that I have found that actually states what the fluid is, has said water. Additionally, anti-freeze is toxic and would require conspicuous labeling addressing that. Since I have a new on on the way (which will arrive within the 21 days) I figure I will try a couple of things.

Has anyone tried OC'ing the comp past the 3.73? The theory here would be that it appears that when the H2C is working harder it seems more stable, thus increasing the OC would increase the CPU/mobo temp and make the H2C work.

Has anyone installed CooLIT's software/firmware? Just guessing...

I have been experiencing the same *** problem, and have spent literaly days and evenings with all levels of Dell support.  They kept telling me that I had to update my BIOS, which I did after the first time it had happened.  Then they went through the graphics card and on and on.

I have been using my computer, after using your solution, for well over 8 + hours now and it will not crash!!  It is so nice to utilize it to ifs fullest potential and multitask with numerous programs running and with the system not shutting down, I couldn't be happier.

Thanks ever so much...ross glen ellen, ca   reg549@yahoo.com

Which solution are you mentioning? There have been several listed here.

I uninstalled the Thermo program, and it still reboots, wouldn't blame the program for something hardware related.

I've also changed the bios from 120 to 140, also did it to 80 after I first got that number from Dell. On the first change to 80 it ran stable for 3 days then it rebooted on me again.

After the change to 140 it lasted about 4 hours before a reboot happened again.

No use updating the bios since there's only 1 version available on the site.

Running out of ideas

I uninstalled the Thermo program, and it still reboots, wouldn't blame the program for something hardware related. I've also changed the bios from 120 to 140, also did it to 80 after I first got that number from Dell. On the first change to 80 it ran stable for 3 days then it rebooted on me again. After the change to 140 it lasted about 4 hours before a reboot happened again. No use updating the bios since there's only 1 version available on the site. Running out of ideas

I agree with you that it's a hardward problem, but the Thermo Program is the key to this whole thing. Whatever hardware is failing the Thermo Program  hits it everytime! This program will fail the computer consistantly, see what the software is doing and find the problem to the hardware. The Classic hardware vs. software issue! My option anyway...GOODLUCK! (Still haven't got my refund!)

Hi. I've never posted here before Richsi, but I have my 2nd XPS 730 x and another scheduled tech to replace the motherboard, processor and heat sinks on this new on once again. Since we have purchased a separate i7 965 processor and memory, we decided to try a few things in an attempt to isolate the issue. We changed some settings in the CMOS and i recall (this happened a few nights back, say 5? not sure) correctly, on of them was the setting that allows the i7 core processor to dump cores, or slow down, not sure what the correct term is. Now this system is been running for 4 days...NON-STOP at 4GHz without rebooting, withou BSOD, and without any issues temp wise.

I have to reboot the machine (this is the one i'm using to type this) to write down the settings and post them here, but also, we removed the XMP option for the memory speed. Memory Volt I know for a fact is 1.5v and it is the 8500 dell ships. We have the TR3X6G1600C8D memory and has been replaced 3 times by corsair, thinking the memory was faulty, but the problem appears to be, and mind you this is for the BSOD with a memory page fault error, the problem seem to be the memory voltage or XMP option. Since the Samsung memory that dell ships does not have the Extreme Memory Profile, I guess it is not an issue, but with the corsair we were getting all kinds of BSOD all with a memory page fault with default voltages, with 1.5v and also with 1.65v which the memory is design to run at.

Now i dont know if this helps any of you, but we're running this thing a 4GHz non-stop and so far not one reboot. We've ran Spiderman Web of Shadows, Crysis with max settings (little sluggish), warhammer, dead space (which doesnt require much power, but still), we've ran MS Flight simulator x with a 6 hour flight and many more games. I'm a heavy gamer, and I hated it when it used to shut down and restart.

I can send you the settings or post them here. I'm not sure how to find this post again, but i'll try.

So the cooling issue is NOT the issue in my case, and this thing came from Texas. I think the setting to bring the cores back down is the problem, yet again, i'm not sure, but it surely works on mine...!!!

Sam

Hello, I recently posted another post, earlier today. I'm new to this and I am no expert. I've received my 2nd XPS 730x this month and this one is scheduled to get mobo and processor along with heat sinks replaced AGAIN, due to the same shutdown w/o warning problem. Since we have a 2nd processor we purchased a while back, we decided to try and play with the settings a little. I have been running this XPS 730x at 4GHz non-stop for 5 days REALLY NON-STOP, without any power loss, any BSOD or anything other issue. We ran Sandra and ran a burn in test for 12 hours, no power downs, no heat problems, no NOTHING. These are the settings we have on this machine (images below), and these are images of the settings. Use them at your own risk, like I said, our machine has NOT done a re-start or any other problems. The problem IN OUR MACHINE ONLY, not talking about anybody elses, just our XPS 730x with i7 965 EX, with 6GB Samsung mem, our problem was the c-state setting, this i guess, allows the processor to rest, or shutdown, or slow down. I'm not sure what term, but this setting was turned off, and after that, we can change anything on the overclocking or overvoltage and OUR MACHINE does NOT reboot, not once, not anytime. Try it, and if it works for you, pass it along. I'm tired of Dells inability to resolve our issue, and simply saying "oh, we'll send you another one" or "Oh, we'll replace the processor, motherboard, heat sinks, cooling system". So, we must do something ourselfs until they come up with the solution. Here are the pictures of our CMOS. YOU MUST HAVE LIQUID COOLING FOR THESE SETTINGS, IF YOU HAVE AIR COOLING, THE correct settings for your VCore Offset must not exceed 80mv, and your core cpu turbo ratio limits should not exceed 26 with a TDP value of 180 and TDC of 160. Anything outside this values is at your own risk.

Start with this, for those who have the stock O/C settings, change the values according to Dell's recommended. The settings above will o/c your machine to a steady 4GHz, with no sutdown, reboots or BSOD of any kind with temps of (see Dell Thermal App image below) Idle, and 53, 54, 56, 51 Loaded. Also, please be advised that your processor WILL NOT clock down once you change the cstate setting to disabled. If you get a steady working mahcine, try re-enabling your cstate setting, BOOM, your machine will reboot AGAIN. IF YOU HAVE CORSAIR MEMORY WITH XMP ENABLED, YOU MUST DISABLE IT OR YOU WILL GET A MEMORY PAGE FAULT UNLESS YOU ARE RUNNING THE VOLTAGE @ 1.65v for the memory. And this doesn't always work, the XMP for some reason is really tricky, and can be quite annoying with it's memory page fault.

Like i said, i'm no expert and I know nothing about overclocking, much less about dell machines, but these are the settings that WORKED FOR US. I SUGGEST YOU NOT USE THE BELOW SETTINGS AND LET DELL HANDLE IT, BUT IF YOU WANT TO ENJOY THE SPEED AND POWER OF THIS THING, THEN TRY THESE SETTINGS UNTIL DELL DECIDES WHAT TO DO, THIS MACHINE HAS A LOT OF POTENTIAL, A LOT OF POWER, BUT DELL MUST FIX THIS ISSUE, OR THEY ARE PUSHING PEOPLE LIKE US TO FIND ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS. These processor overclock with easy, giving you extreme power with minimal heat problem, but you must test first, DO NOT DISABLE YOUR DELL THERMAL MONITOR PLEASE, THIS LITTLE APPICATION DOES WORK AND IT DOES GIVES YOU CONTROL OF YOUR PCI CAGE FAN, REAR PROC FAN, HDD FAN WHICH YOU CAN INCREASE IF YOU DO SOME O/C. WE KEPT THESE FANS AT MAX WHILE WE CONDUCTED OUR TEST, JUST TO ENSURE THERE WAS LOTS OF AIR GOING INSIDE THIS THING. IT GETS HOT. If you have SLI enabled, I recommend disabling it until you get a steady OC working to minimize heat created by these two video cards, if they are 280's, they WILL generate LOTS OF HEAT. Get EVGA precision and crank up those fans to about 70% until you stabilize your system.

 Now, these are exceeding recommended levels, but if you enter the default Dell O/C settings, they will work, so long as you dont have the XMP enabled and the C-State Tech must be DISABLED.

If this works for you, please pass it along to another XPS 730x user who's frustrated because they can't enjoy their $5800+ investment, so they can at least enjoy a game or two with this machines incredible power.

DISABLE XMP FOR YOUR MEMORY, DISABLE C-STATE