Help! My new Dell Studio XPS 13 Laptop keeps on freezing up!

Hello,

I have the same problem with the freezing.  It seems to happen several times a day and I've never gone a day using my computer and not having it freeze at least once.  It does seem to freeze far more frequently when running on battery power -- which is, unfortunately, they way that I have to use it most of the time because I can't go traveling around with a power cord and plugging in everywhere.

I am running BIOS A02, I know, outdated, and I'm afraid to update it in case it might make matters worse.  Afterall, I suppose I could deal with once a day freezing.  I'm curious, for those of you who have updated your BIOS versions, is it possible to revert back to the old BIOS after you update should the freezing get worse?

Thanks for the update that the A07 still might not solve the problem.

-K

I'm frankly amazed at the number of people who are willing to put up with a thousand pound piece of kit that crashes repeatedly! I've lost so mch unsaved work in the last few weeks it's unbelievable - and when you're developing stuff like I am where you're experimenting with new ideas, that kind of performance (or lack thereof) is completely unacceptable.

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What gets me goat rather more is that despite statutory uk consumer laws, Dell are flat refusing to replace the system under any circumstances. Not to worry - if it continues to die after they've replaced the hardware mentioned above and they still refuse to replace, I'll just take them through the small claims court.

Jangla-

I know here in the States that Dell is replacing the whole laptop if they can't resolve the issue. Perhaps this is just in your country or because of where you purchased it?

Just some feedback; I have beenrunning A07 for a while howeve,r my laptop is still regularly locking up.

Everslea-

You should probably contact Dell support by phone - I have been running A07 and have yet to have a single crash. Did you do a fresh install of Windows Vista and all the drivers after installing the A07 bios update?

I am running BIOS A02, I know, outdated, and I'm afraid to update it in case it might make matters worse.

3909-

Update to A07, do a fresh install of Vista and the drivers (from the website if possible) and then report back if your still having issues. I have yet to have a single issue with freezing since installing A07.

I've lost so mch unsaved work in the last few weeks it's unbelievable - and when you're developing stuff like I am where you're experimenting with new ideas, that kind of performance (or lack thereof) is completely unacceptable.

-Jangla

I agree.But for the price I still think it was worth the effort in the end. I will be going to Apple in the future and leaving Dell behind next time I purchase a laptop or PC.

I'll add another lamentable story to the mix.  So after many frustrations with the computer repeatedly freezing and multiple conversations with Dell Customer Support, Dell agreed to let me send the computer in to their repair depot.  Two weeks later, I get the computer back.  According to the repair sheet, the fan + heat sink + MLB have been replaced.

The laptop is humming along just fine for 5 minutes.  Then it freezes.  Then Windows won't start.  It appears that Windows is now corrupted all of a sudden.  I am on the phone with Dell *again* and we are reinstalling Windows.

Another day, another issue.  This may well be a lemon sold under the disguise of a computer.  If this continues, I am simply mailing the laptop to Ronald G. Garriques, Dell's President of Consumer Products (http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d/bios/RonaldGGarriques.aspx) and asking him to use the laptop for 24 hours so he can feel our collective frustration.  After just 60 minutes, I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks we should have our money back.

I agree.But for the price I still think it was worth the effort in the end. I will be going to Apple in the future and leaving Dell behind next time I purchase a laptop or PC.

Then you're a richer man than me. £1000 is a ton of cash, regardless of what you're getting for it. My personal feeling about the whole thing is that while it might look like you're getting a lot for your money with the Studio XPS, you're not - the quality just isn't there. It's a pretty box for a cobbled together pile of substandard parts that haven't been real-world tested properly together. I mean the thing won't actually sit flat on a surface ffs, let alone work for more than 5 minutes! You would have thought someone at testing would have picked up on the basic physicality of the machine before they even began testing performance!

$800!!!!? What spec?

Mines the 2.53GHz - 4GB DDR3 -500GB SCSI HDD - 512MB nVidia

(at least it was SCSI HDD until the engineer replaced it with an inferior SATA drive)

I had some issues with freezing earlier that I posted about; I wanted to wait awhile to update regarding the effectiveness of my solutions. Here's the update:

After I uninstalled the program that was bogging things down, I installed BIOS A07. It has been almost 2 weeks since this occurred, and my computer has not froze even once. Other things I have done include: running mine almost exclusively on plug-in power and turning off automatic updates from Microsoft (I now only download selected updates manually).

I bought my XPS 13 at the end of March for just under $1700. My Dell runs on 32-bit Windows and is a P9600 (2.66GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6M L2 Cache), 4GB DDR3, and 500 GB 7200 rpm, 256 NVIDIA GeForce. The price includes about 150 in taxes and 400 in a 3-yr warranty, so about $1150 for the actual PC. 

With regards to customer service, I actually requested to have my Dell returned when I was in the midst of trying to troubleshoot the problem and they completed cooperated (I was within the 31 day period for a returns/refunds). They had a UPS man come and pick it up, but after running the PC with A07 for 2-3 days, I decided to just bear through it. My final decision was made because I really don't know of a comparable computer that is in this price range (Sony/Toshiba/Macs with the aforementioned specs run in the low $2000s without any warranties).

Anyways, good luck folks.

 _ Dell Studio XPS 13, Intel Core 2 Duo, P9600 @ 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR3, 32-bit Windows, 500GB 7200rpm, 256 NVIDIA GeForce

It's good to hear that this fixed it for you... I will most likely be doing the same once things at school/work slow down and I have time again. Just out of curiousity, do you run a 32-bit or 64-bit system? I'm wondering if that makes a difference. Also, I'm sorry to hear that some of you paid £1000 for this trouble... here it was $800 -- still too much to pay for an unreliable computer. My last laptop was an HP that didn't even make it to two years and the motherboard is shot, so I guess now I'm just happy to have a computer that works almost all of the time.

3909-

64 Bit. I have heard that people that went back to 32 bit had fewer issues overall and that the freezing stopped when they did. In fact some of them say all the issues went away. I wouldn't recommend it though - try it with the A07 and the new install and see if that fixes it for you then you can consider other options.

It appears that Dell just pushed out this product without adequate beta testing before hand so we got to be the beta testers. In all honesty they should compensate us for it or at least offer us proper tech support here in the states for being their guinea pigs. You would think they would want to keep us as customers but I guess not.

$800!!!!? What spec? Mines the 2.53GHz - 4GB DDR3 -500GB SCSI HDD - 512MB nVidia (at least it was SCSI HDD until the engineer replaced it with an inferior SATA drive)

Jangla-

I'm also in the States and paid 800 dollars for it. It came with 2.4Ghz - 4GB DDR3 - 320GB HDD - Same nVidia chip. I bought it at the end of March when it was discounted again. About three days later it went back up to 899.

.... My tip to anyone about to buy one - if you have to (and I mean REALLY have to), don't get the warranty. ....

I agree Jangla - The customer support for Dell is officially useless. We are also switching at my place of business because of the lack of proper customer support and I'll be recommending to family and friends to avoid Dell in the future.

(at least it was SCSI HDD until the engineer replaced it with an inferior SATA drive)

This system never shipped with a SCSI HDD. I have been supporting various lines of Dell hardware for 11 years now, and have never seen a SCSI drive on a consumer system. I have never seen a SCSI drive on any laptop, but if there ever was one, I plead ignorance, but know for 90% certainty that a Dell laptop never  had one.

Oh yeah! I've seen that in Device Manager before, too, come to think of it. I blame Microsoft for the confusion. :emotion-2:

This system never shipped with a SCSI HDD. I have been supporting various lines of Dell hardware for 11 years now, and have never seen a SCSI drive on a consumer system. I have never seen a SCSI drive on any laptop, but if there ever was one, I plead ignorance, but know for 90% certainty that a Dell laptop never  had one.

My Studio XPS 13 shows a "WDC WD32 BJKT-75F4T  SCSI" as the HDD device name even though the Western Digital site shows it is a SATA drive, so I can see why Jangla thought it was a SCSI drive.

Hello again to those participating in this topic, I'm just checking in to toss some positive feedback into the pot.

I have been running my Studio XPS 13 with BIOS A06 and Vista Home Premium 32-bit for several weeks now, both plugged in and unplugged, both online and offline, with not a single freeze or other aberrant behavior. My activities include watching DVDs, ripping and burning music from my CDs, messing with the webcam and video chat, and doing some web development work.

For me the problem ceased completely after reinstalling Vista 32-bit over my stock 64-bit from scratch (no reformatting or repartitioning), then doing the BIOS upgrade to A06 from A04.

I really don't know if that did the trick, or if I just happened to get a more cooperative laptop. FWIW...

Cheers,

Mark

My Studio XPS 13 shows a "WDC WD32 BJKT-75F4T  SCSI" as the HDD device name even though the Western Digital site shows it is a SATA drive, so I can see why Jangla thought it was a SCSI drive.

Mine had SCSI written on the label on the device itself.

I have another question for the masses too - is there any reason why I can't put XP on this thing? Technical support claimed it was impossible - the engineer said there was no reason why I shouldn't be able to. I've tried by just chucking in the boot install disk but it BSOD's about 60 seconds into the install.

I bet it will benchmark faster in RC1 than it will in XP. Just a hunch. I'd buy another SATA drive or Ghost my image out onto an external drive and give it a shot. Sounds like fun.