D600 freeze/hang

dmehers,

Run the Dell diagnostics to test out all the hardware. If nothing is found you may need to backup your personal data, format the harddrive, and reinstall the Operating System due to a bad or currupted load.

Thank you for choosing Dell.

I also am running into the same arbitrary/random freezing problem with the D600 Latitude. Hard-reset is required to get the system up and running again. I am running XP Professional (version that came pre-installed with the computer [currently]) and Office XP. The OS is fully patched from MS update site.

No specific action on causes the freezing -- it is totally arbitrary. Freeze even sometimes happens on the login screen after booting up even in standalone mode, it happens using IE, using the Office Suite... basically just doing anything.

• I have upgraded to latest BIOS and downloaded all the latest drivers.
• Swapped out each of the 2 512MB memory chips. Removed physical memory as well.
• Bluetooth is not installed on the system.
• With/without a network jack inserted.
• Multiple configurations changes foe WI-Fi and Broadcom Card
• Physically disconnect the modem
• Physically removed the Wi-Fi Card
• Disable Wi-Fi Software/device
• Changed Power Supplies
• Changed Port Replicators
• Changed to multiple D600's
• Rebuilt image Multiple times with Dell XP Build
• Rebuilt image from a NON Dell XP Build (Using all drivers from Dell Site in addition to using Drives supplied by the Dell Resource CD, which come with the system.)
• Ran Dell Diagnostics

HELP!!!!!! Any thoughts?

Tom

I have run into the same problem, but I am running Windows 2000 SP3 with all the security updates. Most of the time my system lock up at the logon screen. I fgure it has to be some sort of device driver that loads in the beginning (IE Ethernet, Smartcard). I tried everything to resolve the problem but nothing seems to work.

Recently Dell has released and update to Dell Notebook System Software, which I applied in addition to reinstalling the current the ethernet drivers. After applying that update and reinstallling the ethernet drivers my system seems to have stabilized.

Hope it helps

Mike

Idid a clean install of the OS, and I still have the same problem. Sometimes it freezes up and sometimes it just crashes..I get the blue screen for about a sec and then it reboots.

I'm doing a detailed system diagnostic test right now.

Mike, where can i find the newer Dell Notebook system software??

Thanks...

Reinstalling the Dell Notebook System Software and Ethernet Drivers seems to have resolved the problem for me so far. I use to freeze every hour or so. It hasn't frozen since I reinstalled the drivers.

You can get the drivers for the Dell Notebook System from Dell's support site. 

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed / replaced from this post by Dell>

Just choose the system Latitude D600 in the drop down menu. After you sign in you will see a link for downloads. The update will be there.

Tom

Diagnostics showed all-clear for me.

Downloading the latest system drivers (R60690) seems to have worked for me too, although my posting this will probably be immediately followed by another freeze :-)

I have a clean install of WinXP, I  installed all the drivers again, Ran the diagnostics said everything was ok.

I installed the latest Dell Notebook System Software(R60690) and half an hour later....it hang..and the screen is frozen. Any clues??

 

I no longer get the freeze, but instead get occaisional BSODs.

My bluetooth (dell factory fitted) keeps on disappearing from my system, and then re-appearing ('device removed' sound, and the bluetooth light goes out -- then the reverse), occaisionally accompanied by a 'device not recognized' error.  I am hoping that this faulty bluetooth device is actually the root of all the problems I have been having, and that the bluetooth module can be replaced quickly.

Is the install of WinXP a Dell Factory install?  Did you reinstall the Broadcom Drivers as well? I have to do that to get my system to start working properly.

I got the BSOD after I rebuild the sytem from scratch. (Not using Del'ls image)  It happened at random and for no reason.

When I spoke to Dell support they had me remove hardware to check if that stopped the problem, of course it didn't, but the systems we had did not have a bluetooth device. I had to removed the Wi-Fi Card and disable the Modem (that one was a lot of fun to do) on the laptop  I would definietly try and disable the bluetooth device.

Good luck.

The bluetooth module in my D600 (which appears to be the cause of the freezes and crashes) started to get flakier and flakier and eventually did not even appear in the BIOS as being installed.

After many hours on the support lines, and doing many many things, including taking apart the computer and reseating the bluetooth module at the support-person's instruction, Dell finally agreed it was a hardware problem and sent me a new bluetooth module, which I installed.

Unfortunately the new bluetooth module was still not detected by the BIOS so again after an hour or so on the support line the person agreed with me that the problem was probably the motherboard, so they scheduled an engineer to come on site.

The next day the engineer came on site and replaced the motherboard (I was not watching) and much to our surprise the BIOS still showed no bluetooth -- we had replaced both the motherboard and the bluetooth module, so what else could be wrong!

The engineer left, having agreed to send me a completely new laptop.

The keyboard was a bit loose when I was typing so I looked at the back of the computer and discovered that the engineer had failed to replace two screws (which were nowhere to be seen), so I opened up the computer to see if the screws were inside the case and discovered two things.  There was at least one additional screw missing inside the case (one of the ones with the (p) around it).

I also discovered that there was NO BLUETOOTH MODULE installed on the new motherboard -- the engineer appears to have forgotton to transfer it from the old motherboard to the new one.

I am in the UK.  I am hoping this will get sorted quickly.  Anyone got any tips?

I have same issue here. My D600 Blue Screened randomly several time since I got it two weeks ago. It freezes/hangs once every one or two days. Mine is 1.6G centrino configuration (So bluetooth is not the cause, and can be ruled out)

Do you think reinstalling software will solve the problem? I'm afraid I'll make things even worse by doing this.

Did you ever resolve this hanging issue?  I have been having the same problem with my D600 for 4-5 mos.  The cursor jumps over to the right hand side of the screen and you are no longer able to select any open windows.  You can still move the mouse around, but you can't select anything.  The only way out of this hanging issue is to bring up the task manager and then close it.  This seems to release the hang, most of the time.  Doesn't really seem to matter what apps are open at the time either, it hangs with all of them.   I have even had the problem on 2 units now.  On the first unit I replaced everything; RAM, Motherboard 3 times, CPU, Touch Pad and I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled all system software.  Nothing helped.    Dell finally sent a replacement unit and within hours I was seeing the same issues, along with a new Bluetooth issue.  They replaced the motherboard on this second unit and the Bluetooth problem seems to be fixed (there was a bad Bluetooth connector on the board), but the hanging problem is still there.  All drivers/bios have been updated, but nothing helps.  I experienced the problem after having only installed some VPN connection software, eTrust and Office 2003, so I don’t believe it’s related to any installed apps, but who knows.  I did have all this same software on my old CPx unit and it worked fine.  Thanks in advance for any insight on what will finally fix this issue, it’s getting real old.

Bad news for all... I got D600 almost an year ago and have been having BSODs follwed by system reboots since then. I waited hoping they would release a new driver/bios update to fix this problem.. so far no luck... finally I had patience to call Dell and have them replace my system board... they also replace my cpu and heatsink... but it still crashed... I have tried swapping Crucial RAM couple of times now and will try to swap the Dell RAM.. but something tells me it won't work... Hopefully next thing they will do is replace my system. I had posted this on the forum about an year ago... haven't been able to find a fix...

• tried clean install
• latest bios/drivers/windows update
• swapped ram
• ran extended dell diags
• ran RAM test

Passes all the test but fails in real life :)

The problem on my system is gone after I exchanged memory.

I have two 512M memory stick. My system will freeze no matter if I put either stick or both. I can consistently repro the freeze by having wireless on, opening a web page (like www.msn.com) in IE and leaving the system on for several hours without doing anything. The technician checked the memory and didn't find any problem. He exchanged a laptop body (everything except memory, hard drive, battery and cd rom) for me. But problem still existed after that.

After exchanging the memory, the problem happens much less frequently (once two weeks). I know another guy who order his 600d last May (mine was ordered last may). He had the same problem. So if you have yours around similar time, you better exchange your memory to see if it helps.

Hope it helps.