New XPS 1645 Crashes constantly!

Hi,

Into Day 2 without the SB audio stuff and so far so good, still very early but I would probably have had a crash by now otherwise. One thing I did experience this morning were a few browser crashes that I never had before, mostly in youtube or other flash-embedded apps. I reinstalled the hardware-level IDT sound manager from the Dell site, back up and running.

In addition to the things you have adjusted on your computer, you might want to disable the power management settings that put your computer into hibernation or sleep mode.  That is apparently a holdover problem from Vista.  It sounds like you have other problems, too, though. For my computer,  Dell sent out techs with new parts a few times, and now my computer seems to work quite well.  It was a lot of hassle to make a very expensive computer work the way it should have when it came out of the box.

(For some reason, your post from yesterday did not show up on the Dell Forum site, but came in e-mails for those receiving updates on this thread.)

Crashed again today.  Changed order of steps 3 and 4, undid step 2, and implemented the (new) step 3 as noted in my previous post shown below: Re: New XPS 1645 Crashes constantly!   15 Feb 2010 02:55PM http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19303822/19657200.aspx#19657200

After almost 2 weeks I my XPS 1645 has not frozen up (locked up) after implementing only step 3 (Uninstall SoundBlaster X-Fi MB)  as described below in the first link in my history on this subject.

My history (so far) on this subject is below.

15 Feb 2010 02:55PM: http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19303822/19657200.aspx#19657200 (with edits)

19 Feb 2010 01:09PM: http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19303822/19660614.aspx#19660614

23 Feb 2010 12:48PM: http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19303822/19663519.aspx#19663519

I don't know if some of the other ideas will help me in any other way, but I choose to only do what I know I need to, and I think I've got it (keeping my fingers crossed :emotion-43:).  

Others have made good recommendations though, e.g.:

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19303822/19656774.aspx#19656774

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19303822/19672278.aspx#19672278

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19303822/19672298.aspx#19672298

If I experience a lockup again, I'll be sure to report back.

Thanks, I was wondering where that first post went!

So far so good on the X-Fi uninstall strategy, computer's working great (shouldn't say that!). Time will tell if the bugs get ironed out with updates, I don't think I have any hardware issues per se (motherboards or memory). I have disabled all automated hibernation or sleep modes, never use them anyway. I do occasionally force one or the other and so far no issues.

Interesting business model where we pay Dell big $ to be their guinea pigs, shoulda thought of that myself.

Whats the point in Dell offering Soundblaster xfi MB onthe laptop if all they do is make the computer lockup constantly... im at the same situation where i get random lockups but after uninstalling SB MB, I never had a lockup since.

History: Had several lockups when i first got my dell laptop (factory preset)

After a clean install, i never had a lockup.

I installed SB Xfi MB, i started getting lockups again.

I then uninstalled the Software, no lockups.

The problem was the software that Dell gave out for $25 which constantly gave lockups, which is ridiculous and a waste of money!!!!!!!!!!

Just had my first lock up two times within 3 hours.

I've had my 1645 for over 10 days and today was the first day it locked up on me. 

History:

Received PC, installed all updates necessary.  installed Autocad 2010.  Have use the computer everyday since then but not as intensive as today.  My IE started giving me some msg upon opening about "some program on my computer reset the search engines "  It got annoying and I couldnt take the msg window on every IE page that was opened.  So, Yesterday,  I opted to Restore to factory imgae.   

Earlier today:  I closed the lid and it went to sleep.  I unplugged the cord, took it upstairs, plugged it back in and when i opened it up the screeen wouldnt come on.  All the buttons worked, sounds worked, keyboard backlight worked, CD ejection worked as well.  So i figured my video card was shot or something.  Called dell, they said to unplug everything as well as battery and hold down power button.  This was supposedly a static electricity problem and I was clearing it by holding down the power button.  I dunno if there is any truth in that but it worked.  First computer I have ever had to do that one except one I was repairing/replacing something in it. 

Later in the night was on Autocad with about 5 IE pages open.  Crashed while trying to draw a line, set me back about 15 minutes drawing-wise.  Had  to do a hard shut down.  Did it a second time. 

If this happens again, I am going to try the Soundblaster disabling.

Also ordered the 130W PS while I was on the phone with dell.  2-3 day shipping but its a refurbished one.  Kinda makes wonder whether I have a new or refurbished dell.

I was able to fix this out of the box new by

1. Un installing the pre installed Adobe Flash components (there is a base x32, 64, and Active X Component.)

2. Google Search " Adobe Flash Beta "

3. Install the Beta for your system both flash and the active x.

Voila farmville is rocking on the new Studio XPS 16 (i7 820). Woooot!

Its lots less invasive than re installing Win7. I wasnt looking forwad to digging up all the approriate drivers for the Studio XPS.

so until now there is no solid solution found??? i just received my xps 16 2 days back and had been experiencing lockups intermittently and it was so annoying !! i didn't expect to pay that much for this..... :(

Hey,

have you tried un-installing the creative soundblaster X-fi software? It works as a pretty solid solution. I haven't had a single crash ever since (fingers crossed!).

Hope it works out for you as well.

cheers

OK guys, went through all the posts (mostly). I bought a studio 16 XPS around first week of Feb, and faced intermittent problems in watching full screen flash videos in HULU. Tried to solve the problem by updating display drivers and bios but the problem was not solved. Dell customer care suggested that I may have a faulty graphic card / motherboard and they offered to replace it, since the laptop was pretty new I asked them to send me a new replacement laptop.

Guys I got a  BRAND NEW studio 16 from dell as a replacement and guess what, this one had the same problem (read cant play FULL screen flash videos ) as my previous one. So basically this is a  problem in the entire assembly of studio 16's. the dell customer care strangely does not acknowledge this as a prevalent problem with studio 16 laptops and all the agents/supervisors i spoke to refused to admit this as a common problem.

I am returning both the machines back to Dell, and am waiting for apple to launch their core i5 Mac book pro. I don't know if there are comparable models which match studio 16's h/w might apart from the mac.

return these laptops if you still can

Peace

yea, i did that and it worked! :) by the way do you know if i adjust the 3D and video level in the ATI ccc program to the highest level, will it have negative affect to my system?

Am glad it worked out for you! It's a solid solution alright :)

As for maxxing out the settings in ccc. It won't do your system any harm, but if you plan on playing any of the latest games, the frame rates might suffer with AA and AAA settings set at the highest level. For those options it's better you leave the 'let application decide' box checked.

cheers

@gautam2010 : Have you tried to update the flash drivers in the browser by using the adobe website? Using the Flash beta drivers gets rid of the problem where in you can't view full screen videos. Agreed, this laptop had it's share of issues, but for pretty much all of them permanent solutions are available (flash on full screen, lock ups, and throttling). I for one am very happy with it's performance ever since I ironed out all the problems and haven't had any instability issues ever since (over a month now!). Maybe you should give them one last shot before shipping them back? Out of the current stock of i5 and i7 processors, this one has amongst the best price to performance ratios. But then again, that's just me... 

p.s. - If you are looking for something else, there is the Sony vaio F series to consider. Haven't really heard news yet on the Macbook pro i5 versions.

cheers