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

I called them before coming here and the foreigner on the other end was of no help, so they suggested I ask here Chris.

Why can't you just answer the questions and not dance around them?

Now I see more of the same..............Nice man. :emotion-7:

Duplicate post.

I also wanted to ask this:

What happened to the Dell XPS 730x 940?

I have one of those lemons built (after many, many rebuilds)  this year, and it has been nothing but trouble. :emotion-12:

Now I see Dell.com is no longer selling them.

Reason?

Look like my fix was to have dell throw parts at it after replacing the fans and heatsinks the issue still did not go away I told them on the phone that it is not an over heating issue with the system then the day before the tech was out to replace the part I got a sign from the system as to what may be wrong. There was a high pitched sound coming from the PSU one or more of the caps had gone thus causing a reboot tech was on site and heard this sound as well so new PSU and MB were ordered and after that. Issue is not back and I am still on the old bios rev looks like using cheap PSU is the problem. Now only if dell will understand that sometime the customer is right and can understand that some people have an idea were the issue is this would have resolved a lot sooner for my self.

Please hold off on getting any parts replaced. (1) Power the PC off, disconnect the PC power cord from the rear of the PC, open the case cover. Look for the screws holding the H2C cooling unit (8) to the motherboard. Tighten these. Were yours loose? Replace the cover and power the PC on. (2) Press F2 to enter the System Setup. Use the following settings - CPU Configuration Screen XD Bit Capability = Enabled SpeedStep = Enabled C-STATE Tech = Disabled C State package Limit = C6 (greyed out) Frequency/Voltage Control Screen QPI Frequency = Auto Memory Ratio = Auto XMP Support = Disabled CPU Core (Non-turbo) Ratio = 24 Overclock Configuration Screen Adjust CPUBC1k (MHz) = 133 Spread Spectrum = Enabled Adjust PCI Frequency (MHz) = Auto Adjust PCI-E Frequency (MHz) = 100 Intel TurboMode Tech = Enabled 1 - 4 core turbo speed limit = 28 H2C, 26 Air Cooled Tdc = 180 H2C, 160 Air Cooled Tdp = 200 H2C, 180 Air Cooled Overvoltage Configuration Screen Dynamic CPU Vcore Offset = +120mv H2C, +80mv Air Cooled DDR3 Memory Voltage = Auto I0H Voltage = 1.10V QPI and Uncore Voltage = Default (3) Once into Windows, remove the Dell Thermal Application 1.0.0.8 version. Restart the PC. Install the 1.0.0.11 version. Restart the PC. If you get an error, close it and restart again. I know this says it is only for the XPS 625, but, it works on the XPS 730x, XPS 730, and XPS 630. 1.0.0.11 XP, Vista 32 1.0.0.11 Vista 64 Remove the AlienFX 1.0.36 version. Restart the PC. Install the 1.0.36v2. Restart the PC. I know this says it is only for the XPS 625, but, it works on on the XPS 730x, XPS 730, and XPS 630. 1.0.36v2  <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell> Since I am running those two softwares, I removed the Nvidia ESA software (NVMonitor, NVPerformance, System Update). Since there are three sets of software to control the colored LEDs and the fans, only choose one. Running multiples at the same time will lead to software conflicts. (1) Dell Thermal Application 1.0.0.11, Dell AlienFX 1.0.36v2 (2) Dell ESA software (NVMonitor, NVPerformance, System Update) (3) Nvidia ESA software (NVMonitor, NVPerformance, System Update) ---------------------------------------------- Great stuff Chris, I have a few questions Where do we find the updated software you mention above? I checked online Dell's Drivers and Software updates, I can't find them? No, mention of this mysterious Bios v1.01 everyone talks about, where is it? Your recommendation of not changing out parts? Why aren't you or someone at Dell talking to the Tech's you guys can't speak with each other? Your actions are so mysterious, do you even belong to Dell? (Strange way to run a computer business)! Just my opinion of course!

This post saved my sanity.  My brand new Dell XPS 730X was rebooting within 2 minutes of booting up, and rebooting at least once an hour.  I followed these instructions (steps 1, 2 and 3), and no more reboots!  I also moved my CPU up on top of my desk instead of below where it was probably warmer, and I have a fan blowing away from the back to help *** out the heat.  My screws were *not* loose (although people who know me may disagree).  The only part I didn't do was this, because I wasn't sure what they meant by "remove":

>>Since I am running those two softwares, I removed the Nvidia ESA software (NVMonitor, NVPerformance, System Update). Since there are three sets of software to >>control the colored LEDs and the fans, only choose one. Running multiples at the same time will lead to software conflicts.
>>(1) Dell Thermal Application 1.0.0.11, Dell AlienFX 1.0.36v2
>>(2) Dell ESA software (NVMonitor, NVPerformance, System Update)
>>(3) Nvidia ESA software (NVMonitor, NVPerformance, System Update)

But, no more reboots so far!  It appears my Dell Thermal App and Alien Fx are working fine.  I set up an Alien Fx theme (called, of course, Paint it Black) with all the LEDs turned off because they're in my face now.  Right now, Internal temp 77F, ESA Board Temp 77F, Rear Temp 78.8F, Front Temp 69.8F, Ambient Temp 71.6F, and holding steady for the past 5 minutes.  I've seen them climb to 84-86F during the rebooting crisis, but it appears that they're staying under 82F now. 

Thank you, Richsi, for posting this, and Chris or whoever wrote up those original instructions.  And now, back to Oblivion. 

I spoke to soon looks like is has come back. System was running fine on old BIOS with cstate on then one day same problem happened again. So now tech support had the MB replaced tested and still doing it again. As well tech looks to have forgot to plug in a fan on the system. So now they want to replace the MB again PSU, CPU, Fans and Heat sink as well as the video card again. And they asked me to change to a Nvidia card if the issue still happened after that. So is there a issue with the system's yes. And as well i have tried all steps on this forum and dells own post on there website to disable cstate upgrade bios change voltage values. Maybe they should admit they have a bad config there selling and replace everyone's system with a different model of equal or greater value more on the greater as i think i should start charging the going rate for deskside support that we charge are customers and i have this system payed for two times over now with the hour's of time spent on the phone waiting for techs and troubleshooting on my own.

*** Update *** Tech installed the heat sink and fan on the CPU backwords and busted a screw holder at the sametime and lost a screw in system as well.

I am replying to all the post in the section. I was called by a customer who was experiencing the random booting. I learned about the C-State fix and when attempting to disable it in the bios it would not boot afterward. I returned it to previous config. if that didn't work, flashing the bios to latest rev was suggested. I suggested to the customer that we should backup their data before I flash the bios and went out and purchased a drive, return a few days later and just that morning the drive failed. Turned out that the seagate drive also had a rom issue and it was required to have drive flash to prevent it becoming inacccesable...too late. I happened to carry a spare sata where ever I go, installed it, did a fresh install (not a restore), manually installed the drivers. Ran like a champ! No issues. I was to return in a couple days to install any applications the owners were not able to and learned that they had already contacted Dell and requested a replacement computer, Dell was sending it.

So, just 4 days ago the new computer arrives. First thing I do is check the pc bios and drive, both current. I create the profiles and turn it over to the owner to start installing their programs just for testing. After a couple were installed, I requested computer back. I attached the external drive I bought to the computer and it ran great....fo about 2 minutes. The computer would just hang. After a couple reboots I figured it was the external drive attached to the computer and as it was hanging I would detach the drive and the computer would respond immediately. This happens with any type  of media, usb thumb drives, memory cards. I exported all the event viewer files for later viewing and scanned the drive for log files to take as well. I reviewed all the files and their was no useful information in the eventvwr but the iastor and intel logs reflected query, read, and update errors. Also the owner reported that he was unable to install a program because he was getting an access error to the folder the program just created and was attempting to write a .dll file to. I was able to install the program in safe mode. just today I reviewed the eventvwr amd found that the iastor is not loading every time the owner powers up his pc and when it doesn't load correctly, the system hangs for 5 min after power up. Sometimes, he will get bsod listing a not equal to zero error. I tried a fire wire external drive and same hang results. I am going to suggest re imaging, manual drivers, and clone before microsoft updates.

I am tired, I hope I did ramble incoherently to much. I am not proof reading this.

Anyone have issues with Intel installer? version incompatibility? External media creating issues?

re "I hope I did ramble incoherently to much. I am not proof reading this. "

LOL! that made reading it worthwhile. thanks for the chuckle.

I was just wondering if this problem ever got resolved. I purchased a XPS 730X and had many crashes at first. The BIOS release to 1.05 stabalized it and this summer I ran the BOINC app (Distributed Computing) to exercise the PC. Most of the summer, 24/7, I ran 10 logical processes- all the cores active and the GPU's on the Vidio cards. Even had the Thermal monitor hike the fan speed due to overheating. Ran fully overclocked. Everything worked great! Made impressive numbers.  Last week I went back to play Crysis, it crashed the system, similar to what this thread is showing. Dropped the graphics down from very high to high and got a bit further, still the crash.

The PC has two Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 running in SLI mode. I've checked the Crysis and NVIDIA sites for solutions to no avail.

Any suggestions?

any update on this issue? 

I never received and feedback. Dell support sent a tech over who replaced an NVIDIA GTX 280 card, but that wasn't the problem. I just ended up running with SLI turned off and it ran OK. Not too impressed with the service and will prevent me from recommending or acquiring another DELL in the future.

Thanks for the reply. It could explain why they stopped selling this computer within 6 months.

Being a tad naive - I would have expected a company of this stature to contact the people with these computers and at least explain what is going wrong with their devices. It's called being pro-active. Sort of like when Dell was starting up and was know for their great service response.

Sadly those days seem to be gone.  Perhaps if we, the purchasers lobby for a 'Lemon Law', for anything purchased. They will take notice then, or lose their market. There I go dreaming, again!

The computer its self is a great system but these issues and the way dell has handled is bad.

I think the issues is with the dell fan and lighting control board as that was the only thing not replaced in my system until I got the new one. 

My suggestion to anyone else with issues is get more defensive on the phone with them and keep calling and demand a new system like I did or tell them you want a credit or your money back and go with the alienware system that is like it. And if they still don't like to help you there is always web sites like the http://consumerist.com/ 

Mine shuts down and reboots and l haven't got the XPS thermal monitor installed so it isn't that