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

Hello all,

I was planning to spend over $6400.00 for the XPS 730X on Monday.

I am really glad I found this forum, which I came accross through google. I most certainly will not be buying it now. I read all the pages on this topic & am sure glad I did.

I previously bought 2 dell systems. Not many issues with them. Would be afraid to buy the XPS 730X now.

Can anyone suggest any other reputable online companies to buy from. Preferably a company with support.

Thanks

Rick

Thanks  Ebaul for your Help.

I tried what U said but have some problem.

My system start...allo OK. Than i try to render something with maxwellrender and after some time my PC give me a BLUE screen with a dumping memory error and reboot.

My brand of memory is ELPIDA DDR3 SDRAM (6 gb). any solution? Maybe 1.55V is not good for this kind of memory.. may I have to swithc to 1.65V ? I cannot find in the DELL BIOS the option to DISABLE this XMP function. how can i disable?

http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010838zy3.jpg

http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010839qs4.jpg

Thanks . U give me an Hope

PS: any offical answer from DELL's Engineers?

Hello all, I was planning to spend over $6400.00 for the XPS 730X on Monday. I am really glad I found this forum, which I came accross through google. I most certainly will not be buying it now. I read all the pages on this topic & am sure glad I did. I previously bought 2 dell systems. Not many issues with them. Would be afraid to buy the XPS 730X now. Can anyone suggest any other reputable online companies to buy from. Preferably a company with support. Thanks Rick

Smart move Rick! I don't think Dell will keep this post up but try these guys (digitalstormonline.com) they have great customer service. Look at their forum you can learn alot from them!

[quote user="red10"] Hello all, I was planning to spend over $6400.00 for the XPS 730X on Monday. I am really glad I found this forum, which I came accross through google. I most certainly will not be buying it now. I read all the pages on this topic & am sure glad I did. I previously bought 2 dell systems. Not many issues with them. Would be afraid to buy the XPS 730X now. Can anyone suggest any other reputable online companies to buy from. Preferably a company with support. Thanks Rick

Smart move Rick! I don't think Dell will keep this post up but try these guys (digitalstormonline.com) they have great customer service. Look at their forum you can learn alot from them!

 When I found this forum, I was actually searching for the motherboard used in the XPS 730X. It was no where to be found. I do not understand why Dell is so closed mouthed about the motherboard they use. Other companys tell you what motherboard they use & some even give you the option to purchase. The only reasons I could see Dell not telling me which board they used, was, it was either a low end board, or, they do not stick with  any one brand of board when they put the 730x together. Being so closed mouth about such an important part of the computer, would get anyone thinking in a negative direction. I should have the right to know what I was going to purchase.

Thank you so much Richsi. I really appreciate your response!

Have a great week!

Not sure how this helps with the reboot/restart issue. I'm also having a problem as soon as I turn on the computer it turns on then shuts off then turns on by itself. Its very weird.

Any insights on this problem.

daraj,

The Cooling unit is not making a solid connection to the thermal paste, causing the PC to overheat. Thus, do my instructions below.

Chris M, thanks very much for keeping us informed, a little bit of communication goes along way. Thanks Again. :emotion-2:

Yes, thanks Chris M for a technical reply such as your first one. Just a few comments, the first reply did not explain much just settings and tighten some screws, your second comment about the CPU not making contact with the cooling unit cleared that up and thanks.

Ok folks here it goes: First before I returned my "DEFECTIVE" computer I took pictures of the "BIOS" screens just in case I would need them in the future. Good thing I did, it save me a few times. The settings that Chris M. stated in his first post are spot on! Exactly what my machine looked like! One exception he stated a setting in the "Frequency/Voltage Control Screen" "XMP Support = Disabled" is missing from my bios screen from my computer. I looked all over for it and its no where to be found? How can this be? There is only one "BIOS" version available (v1.00) I looked online and no other "BIOS" version is available. So my question is why Chris M. is stating something different? Do you have a different version of the "BIOS" Chris? Can you explain this?

Second: Folks be careful about tightening the screws on the mounting unit of the CPU, the posts are made of "PLASTIC" yes, cheap plastic! If you over tighten them you run the risk of stripping the plastic threads! Then you won't be able to tighten the screws....yes more problems! By the way when I had my computer and the "DELL Tech" changed out the CPU he handled the CPU with his hands and was not careful about leaving his fingerprints on the top surface of the chip! This is taboo for CPU chips you do not do this. He didn't even bother to clean the top of the chip and the replacement came with a alcohol wipe and he never used it! He also put way to much thermo grease on the top when installing the cooling unit. This is another taboo which creates a insulation effect between the chip and cooling pad, defeating the purpose of putting the thermo grease on in the first place! No sure why "Dell Tech" aren't trained in these things, I'm always baffled with Dell. If you need to apply grease the proper way, go a "Google" search on installing thermo grease there are some good ones on the Internet!

So that's my two cents! GOODLUCK All!

Dear Chris, Thanks for the answer.

i Use the XPS for 4 days regular and without reboot after i disable C-state.

Why U tell us to re-enable it? After enable , even if I made you "pc cooling operation", my pc reboot.

You are  the Dell engineer....do you think "REALLY" that the problem was tightnening the screws on mounting Unit?

sencond thing: my Bios is 1.0 and non 1.0.1 as your .

third thing : XMP suppot is not in my bios.

Thanks for your patient.

Best regard.

First Post ... after joining the DC and reading this 39 page thread. Wow , sure seems like a production problem for Dell's Business Model. But didn't we all kinda expect problems when we bought brand new Intel leading edge machines with a 64bit OS... I've been learning/setting/restore pointing the software (where I quessed problems would be) and while I've fixed some error/warnings through the log review process - my 730x H2C Random Reboot has been no fun. 

Now after reading this thread (and somewhat lurking) and with all the range of posts , I decided to join in. So it looks like a thermal problem that can be worked around through bios settings. I did like the posts of ebaul and his entry into 4G overclocking with C-state Tech disabled. But for my weekend project I'll open the case again and check the H2C cooling assembly screws and reset the Bios values as above (page 37). I saw were Chris opened himself up to private message overloads , but I'll hold off until I try this quoted post suggestion.

It does look like this RR problem is getting closer to a "official" solution that doesn't require hardware replacement as a first step...

Looks like the two current outstanding questions are : 1) Where is the XMP Support parameter located in our current only available Bios and

2) Why is the Forum concensus that Disabling C-State Tech works ,  when Chris is keeping it Enabled ?

Other outstanding post questions are What model motherboard did we get and can we run 12 gig DDR3 ... Also regarding my search for drivers, looks like the Seagate SATA 340as fix is available thru Dell (but thats another thread...)

Keep us informed Chris and I'll PM you after I've tryed the above posted solution...

I can confirm that disabling C-State Tech works!

I'm on my 5th day with it disabled and not a SINGLE reboot.

I have the i7 965 Extreme CPU with air-cooling.   At 3.73GHz settings in the BIOS.  Temps are in the upper 40s, lower 50s at idle.   Upper 30s when the fans are at MAX for a few hours.  However I do have to ramp up the fans when doing any CPU intensive task as temps can get in the 60s pretty easily with the default fan levels.

2-3 weeks ago I tried it at the 3.73GHz settings with C-State Tech enabled and got 2 random reboots within a couple of hours.

Hi "digitalheat", becareful about changing settings in the bios, you may void your warranty. It's pretty clear now from Chris's post that Dell wants to keep the settings in the bios as they came from the factory. I did some research on the "C-State" setting and this is what I found;

In order to save energy when the CPU is idle, the CPU can be commanded to enter a low-power mode. Each CPU has several power modes and they are collectively called “C-states” or “C-modes”.

The basic idea of these modes is to cut the clock signal and power from idle units inside the CPU. The more units you stop (by cutting the clock), reduce the voltage or even completely shut down, more energy you save, but more time is required for the CPU to “wake up” and be again 100% operational.

These modes are known as “C-states”. They are numbered starting at C0, which is the normal CPU operating mode, i.e. the CPU is 100% turned on. The higher the C number is, deeper is the CPU sleep mode, i.e. more circuits and signals are turned off and more time the CPU will take to go back to C0 mode, i.e. to wake-up.

I'm not sure how this could help the shut-down issue except maybe the CPU is in energy save mode all the time and when you wake it up to task it, it overheats and shuts down. That would be my best guess!

Also you asked about 12 GB's of memory on this board....Can't happen there is only 3 DIMM slots on the MOBO. The only way it could happen is if you could find 4GB memory chips and I haven't seen those yet!

If you get a hold of Chris on private chat, share your knowledge with us, I'm still curious about this issue and still upset with Dell, haven't seen my refund yet! GEEZ

Hi Richsi , Sorry to read you are going for refund. Today I have the time to attack my 730x H2C so after checking all cables and fittings the first step is to only change the Vcore offset to +120mv and look for the parameter regarding XMP Suport to disable that , additionally I scroll thru all the settings and match them to factory overclock settings that Chris published. The C-state change is for much later...

Regarding the 12 gig memory question , yes we have only the 3 slots but Crucial has 4gig ddr3 simms available (of course 12 gig is priced over $1000 , but it is available for future needs) - just not sure our MSI motherboard/Bios can address that much...

More to come...

Well I tryed all the settings mentioned by Chris and the reboot situation was not solved. I even tightened the six screws on the H2C unit that cools the 965,etc as documented earlier , still no change - random reboots. The System is much more stable in SAFE mode , but that won't work. The ONLY solution that has worked for me is changing the C-STATE to DISABLED - NO random reboots at all in 48 hours.

This doesn't seem logical - when we turn off the throttle back on the CPU cores (C-state) then the Thermal Application doesn't get a reading that causes the System to reboot ?? and when I run in SAFE mode for 24 hours there is no reboot ?

Anyway I'm logging CPU and ESA temps with C-State Disabled. I feel much better about playing games without the reboot craziness. Now I quess the next step is to PM Chris and let him know my Service Tag #...