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

I've just come off the phone with them again and more escalations have lead them to consider a refund. I've asked them to confirm this with me on Monday but should they change their mind I'll happily pm you after then.

checked with best buy online to see some reviews of this product. but it is not sold online anymore. so i went to my local best buy to see if it's available and if the price has dropped because dell has dropped the price online and specially because of the new macs low price. but what the guy from best buy told his not sure if they are gonna sell studio xps13 again because of the high return rate and problems they encounter. i think it's true mine freezes out of the box. first time for me on a brand new computer. it doesn't freeze as much now  after the bios update but the hotkeys rarely functions and the wifi turn on and off on its own. no wonder it's not sold online in best buy., if they don't carry it anymore. it wouldn't surprise me.

Well what a surprise - called Dell this morning to find out why they hadn't emailed me details of their proposed refund and they tried to deny any such agreement had taken place! Put them straight so we'll wait to see what happens.

@Bill - In the meantime, Bill, I'm going to send you those details you asked for as it will be Christmas before Dell pull their finger out at this rate.

Is this Windows Vista Home Premium?

Try installing the latest Video card drivers....

Remove the memory -- Use a White eraser to clean the gold contacts, then remove the dust off... then reseat the memory into the computer...

ALso try running the computer with one memory card at a time to narrow down the issue...

Cheers

Vejay

Is this Windows Vista Home Premium?

Ultimate.

Try installing the latest Video card drivers....

Done - still locks up. Have even tried custom drivers from other sources where people have had problems with the drivers their hardware manufacturer provide. Still locks up.

Remove the memory -- Use a White eraser to clean the gold contacts, then remove the dust off... then reseat the memory into the computer...

Done. Still locks up.

ALso try running the computer with one memory card at a time to narrow down the issue...

Done. Still locks up.

Seriously - if there's a diagnostic test or something I can do to test the hardware, I've done it.

Had another go at getting it running this evening actually - managed 6 minutes and 20 seconds before it hung :(

Dell aren't publishing 07 on their site any more - just 08. Which I tried. Wanna guess what happened? :emotion-6:

[quote user="DELL-Bill B"] @david2009 What BIOS version are you running currently?

At the moment the engineer has left it with A06 on it. If I can keep the thing up for long enough tonight I'll try and download A07 but I'm not holding my breath.

Did you ever manage to get A07 installed?

A08 is unstable. I've had to reset 4 times since installing it and I had no issues with A07.

3 questions:

Where are we supposed to get A07 if Dell have taken it off the site?

Why are Dell releasing unstable BIOS's?

Is your experience purely your experience or have you had someone from Dell confirm that A08 is unstable?

@Bill - I've sent you a PM but heard nothing back....

3 questions: Where are we supposed to get A07 if Dell have taken it off the site? Why are Dell releasing unstable BIOS's? Is your experience purely your experience or have you had someone from Dell confirm that A08 is unstable?   @Bill - I've sent you a PM but heard nothing back....

A07 is available if you go to the A08 download and click the link Other Versions to the right of the version number.

No idea why Dell would be releasing an unstable bios. My guess is that Dell is just not doing enough beta testing and therefore releases it to us thinking it will solve the issues. Then they get feedback and have to release another version just as quickly. I've also heard that they've had so many issues with this line that Best Buy here in the US is no longer selling this model.

This is purely my expierence with A08. It crashed my computer (the screen went black - the computer would not respond to keystrokes - the hard drive light was lit up but I wasnt able to get the computer to respond - had to manually shut it down by holding down the power button). With A07 I had 1 time in the last three weeks where it crashed. I installed A08 yesterday and had it crash 4 times last night after installing it. All I was doing was browsing the internet. Seems like the same issue from before.

Well, it's all over now bar the actual refund taking place. Yet again this morning they tried to deny offering a refund but it finally seems to be progressing. The only issue I have now is what to replace this useless black lump with.

Shame really - on paper it's an amazing piece of kit but in reality it's far from a saleable product imo. Having said that, even if it was working 100%, knowing what I know now about Dell's technical "support" would mean I still wouldn't buy another.

@Bill - don't worry about contacting your folks; this thing's out of my life on Thursday for good :)

Do me a favour and try something - remove the nVidia drivers and let the system revert to default VGA drivers. I'll be willing to bet it won't hang. Of course it's completely pointless having a tasty graphics card if you don't have the drivers to push it but I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the nVidia drivers and/or hardware. Of course it could also be the synergy of those and the BIOS but you can't get rid of that so get rid of the other.

Do me a favour and try something - remove the nVidia drivers and let the system revert to default VGA drivers. I'll be willing to bet it won't hang. Of course it's completely pointless having a tasty graphics card if you don't have the drivers to push it but I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the nVidia drivers and/or hardware. Of course it could also be the synergy of those and the BIOS but you can't get rid of that so get rid of the other.

May as well be a 1000 dollar paper weight then. I use it mostly for gaming so it has to have to the nVidia drivers. I'll probably end up reverting to A07 until they come out with A09 then ill try that.

I have read that other people have done the driver by driver install to see if it hangs and they seem to have the most issues when they install drivers for the Bluetooth and the nVidia drivers. I'm guessing the most of the hang up is in the nVidia drivers.

Hello Everyone! Hello Bill! And please HELPPPPP!!!!

I bought a Studio XPS 1340, here in Colombia, a 1500 USD dolars laptop in 2nd april 2009.

After 15 days the first problem: Blue Screen and freeze up. Ok? We use windows we know the failures, sometimes happens. Ok, reboot and start to use again.

One month later, I start the windows and every text wasn't show, I couldnt click in anything. Ok we have to format the computer: lost of data. But Ok I still have the photos of my exchange beginning in my camera. I couldn't contact the dell support because they havent chat support in Latin America, and my apartment didn't have phone, once this is a student residence and everyone uses Skype to communicate with family.

2 weeks later, blue screen and freeze up. Ok I didn't have to format, it isn't a big problem.

2 weeks later, windows starts and couldn't find any information out of windows system, for example: Mozilla Firefox, "the system wasn't able to find tehe C:/......"Ok Format again. Maybe it could do de backup before this time? Yes it seems to be working, and when I connect the External HD again we the system is formated: Surprise MY ENTIRE EXTERNAL HD WAS ERASED!!! Cool so I couldnt use my 1500 dolars pc and it also erase all my backup!

1 week later: freeze up and blue screen again. I cannot belive! Ok I called the Dell support from my internship office, in my worktime. We install the a07 bios update, reinstall all the vista and all the drivers. Ok finally, maybe is the bios right? NO. THE NEXT DAY, IN THE MORNING BLUE SCREEN AND FREEZING! I COULDNT BELIEVE!

I CALL THE CUSTOMER CARE TO HAVE A REFUND OR SOMETHING, THE ANSWER: THE ANSWER YOU COULDN'T HAVE A REFUND AFTER  7 DAYS OF RECEIVEING, EVEN WITH YOU SPEAK WITH MICHAEL DELL. You have to go to technical support again!

With the technical support: Running all tests, everything passed. Running in Windows safe mode. Nothing.

The technical support answer: Oh with the system pass in  these tests is a problem of applications and Dell is not responsable for it. OOOOOhhhhh so I bought a 1500 usd laptop that cannot run common softwares as: Mozilla Firefox, Itunes, Skype made to run in Vista.

What I have to do to fix my problem or have my money back????

PLEASE HELP!