Studio 1737 DPC Latency

I think this demonstrates what I mean about different technical support agents understanding, If your problems are due to DPC latency, which sounds likely, there is nothing they can do at present to fix it, so they'll be fitting a new mobo for no reason, not an easy procedure on a laptop, and not  a repair I would want undertaken needlessly, it could even end up causing problems that don't currently exist.

Agreed. If I were you I would not even send the system in. A new mobo will not fix the issue. The solution will come in the form of a new BIOS revision, most likely.

This afternoon I am going to work with one of our engineers who is replicating the issue on 1737. We should have all the testing completed by close of business today, and turned over to the sustaining engineering group responsible for implementing the fix. Then it is just a matter of time until they develop and web post a fix. I know they are working this issue for every affected platform. We just posted a new BIOS rev for the Studio XPS 1340, which has resolved the issue completely, save for some issues on units with the Dell draft N card. There is a pretty simple workaround for that issue posted on the 1340 latency thread, and I'm pretty sure there will be a new driver revision for the Dell N card that will render the workaround needless.

So, at this point, I'll be honest, you're best bets are to  either hang on to the system and wait for a new BIOS rev, or return the system.

UPDATING.

I spent the afternoon in the lab yesterday working with (read: for) one of our engineers who is opening the product support requests with the quality engineering team. We were able to make some headway. By platforms tested so far:

• Studio 14z/Inspiron 14- no trouble found with tested hardware running latest BIOS. Interesting that in 2 of the 5 tests I saw bad spiking in DPC Checker, but if I just reset the graph and started again, all green. No audible dropouts or lags in audio playback.
• Studio 1735/1737- problem still exists after latest BIOS rev. Issue replicated and findings have been documented. Expect internal product support request to be opened to quality sustaining engineering this week. No current ETA on resolution, but if the recent BIOS update fix for Studio XPS 1340 is any indication, we should see a BIOS rev to resolve for these platforms.
• Studio 1535/1537- arghhh. We had faulty hardware and no parts on hand to swap. We need to check out another one from the hardware library and replicate the issue. Should see the same basic path on this platform as that of the 1735/1737. No ETA as of this time, but we do expect to see a fix forthcoming.
• XPS m1330/m1530- update your WLAN drivers and BIOS.
• All Vostro- After we have the Studio's in the pipeline, we will begin the same process for all affected Vostro platforms.

Did I miss anybody?

did replacing the components resolve the issue ? ive been hearing that would not fix anything, of course some say yes others say no. i sent my 1536 off today, as dell said they would send it back to me ready to record, whatever it needs. who knows. my last post was deleted for whatever reason, saying i violated policies, all i did was thank you all for all your help and describe my problem so i hope ive said nothing in this post that offends anyone. thanks again, i would like to know if your issues are resolved, if they were high dpc spikes. i searched tons of forums and joined only this one, but maybe i'll look into others as well. it seems to be a wide spread problem. later.

Bill,

Thank you for bringing a new level of transparency to this thread.  I have been chasing this issue around on my 1737 since I purchased it about a year ago.  Dell was kind enough to replace the MB and power input PCB in the hopes of resolving the issue.  I can't recall exactly how many hours I spent trying to get someone to understand this issue.  I reverted to chat tech support with no success.  This thread is the best piece of tech support.  It just needed someone like you to jump on this and organize all of the info this thread was pulling.  Great job!

jared 

Hello to all of you who thought they were buying fast laptops and got a bowl of rice krispies instead.

I have two Dell laptops that I've bought over the past few years - an Inspiron 9200 and more recently an XPS M1710.  Both have the rice krispies problem (snap, crackle, and pop.) Like a lot of you, I've spent WAY too much time trying to figure out where the problem lies in order to use sonar and also Ivory (a great virtual piano which cost $350 but is pretty much useless, at this point.)  I've tried all of the "fixes" that I've seen on various forums (can't disable ACPI using Process Hacker on this machine, for some reason - get a message "requested control is not valid for this service".)

After I post this, I'm going to search for info related directly to the M1710, but I wanted to add my voice to those who are way disappointed that a supposedly super machine can't do ____ when it comes to digital audio.

btw - did anyone else have trouble connecting to this forum during the last coupla days?  I kept getting error messages from Dell until this AM.

Mark R.

being new to all this i didnt think i would need to research a studio pc for a studio, but oh was i wrong, i have 10 saved chats with dell, complaining and arguing with them not to give me the rehersed speech, after nothing working they finally sent me a box to send it in they are susposedly replacing the mobo and whatever else it needs, i will let you know what happens, i have read like you, many forums and after no fixes , seems the ones who had mobos replaced are successfully using their pc's for recording. they will send it back ready to record whatever the problem is, i cant say the support didnt try, they are just very limited and recommend you go to their pay support. i had to get serious about complaining before they acted. keep after them, thats all you can really do. and from what i hear you cant disable the acpi with vista. why would you buy two if one was like it was ? unless they fix this issue i am saying good bye to dell. maybe a no name brand wants to establish theirself with a good product. shame dell cant put something out usable. i have 4 dells in my home and i will replace them all. we'll see in 10 days when i get the studio 15 back.   best wishes, i know it sucks,

Neiasden,

Replacing the MB and power PCB did not change anything.  I just wanted to offer some positive reinforcement to a situation that seems to finally be getting much needed attention.  I purchased the Dell Studio 1737 specifically to do audio.  I own a Presonus Firepod that worked relatively fine on my Dell Inspiron E1505.  It was not completely free of pops and clicks however it was significantly better than what the 1737 is currently doing.  My work laptop is a Lenovo T400 and my Firepod is rock solid on that.  You can all imagine the frustration associated with putting all your money into a piece of equipment that should be considered an upgrade but in reality completely disables your livelihood.  While I have been more than disappointed with my purchase I am finally (after a year) seeing some progress.

As a note to Dell....I do not know what the intentions were in calling this product line Studio.  The name truly suggests that the system was designed with artists (musicians, videographers, photographers) in mind.  It would have been nice if ALL of these issues had been understood prior to product launch.  I purchased this systems because I could not afford the cost of a Mac.

Fingers crossed and hoping for a solution soon.

i had the same set up only without suspending the acpi, i could not do that, i also had errors trying to use the restoration drive. so there were obviously other issues, the only thing left to try was to replace some hardware, and since dell is going to do it, i will let them, hopefully it will correct it, i cant remember where i read that at, but i will report back with the results. if it doesnt fix it you can find the studio 15 on ebay cheap. dell is going to do whatever it takes to fix the problem, yea, we'll see. good luck to you, i couldnt find any fixes , gonna switch to wheaties.

I'd like to point out that even though I have my 1737 optimized to its fullest, (ALL unecessary hardware and drivers disabled)  Vista optimized to its fullest, including suspension of acpi.sys, I still get audio drop outs.

I like my rice krispies soggy, thank you.

-Peace

It's going to be a BIOS fix, but we may find there are some challenges related to some WLAN cards that still need to be worked. See my update on the Studio XPS 1340 in my last post. 

A new mobo will not fix anything. I apologize that they wasted your time and set your expectations.

I just read an email string from the engineers working this issue. Trust me, it can't be a higher priority. They are working it with all possible available resources. I will continue to keep you updated.

I have a Studio 1737 and have had a clicking problem ever since I purchased it a few months ago.  It does a crash dump if I do not turn it off right away.  I am not computer savvy.  Geek Squad said that they could look at it under the warranty.  Is the solution a BIOS update?  Not sure how to post on the community.

I have a Studio 1737 and have had a clicking problem ever since I purchased it a few months ago.  It does a crash dump if I do not turn it off right away.  I am not computer savvy.  Geek Squad said that they could look at it under the warranty.  Is the solution a BIOS update?  Not sure how to post on the community.

ginny333,

Your problem is unrelated. At first glance, it sounds like you have a bad hard drive. Can you start a new thread on the Laptop General Hardware boards, please? If you can do that and post back the URL to your new thread here, I will make sure your post is addressed. If Geek Squad wants to charge you any money at all, stop, don't do it if you are still under warranty. We can sort you out for free.

Hello to all of you who thought they were buying fast laptops and got a bowl of rice krispies instead. I have two Dell laptops that I've bought over the past few years - an Inspiron 9200 and more recently an XPS M1710.  Both have the rice krispies problem (snap, crackle, and pop.) Like a lot of you, I've spent WAY too much time trying to figure out where the problem lies in order to use sonar and also Ivory (a great virtual piano which cost $350 but is pretty much useless, at this point.)  I've tried all of the "fixes" that I've seen on various forums (can't disable ACPI using Process Hacker on this machine, for some reason - get a message "requested control is not valid for this service".)   Mark R.

For the 9200 and m1710, start by seeing what the latency looks/sounds like with the WLAN disabled. You can use FN+F2 to do this, but I prefer disabling the device in Device Manager. Let me know how that goes. Also, post back what types of WLAN cards are in each system, please.

Bill....I read that post.  Unfrotunately I will most likely be affected as I have the N card.  Thanks.