Studio & XPS Users experiencing video lockups and freezes / Throttling issues

Frank,

Have you uninstalled the soundBlaster xFi software?  For a handful of folks here, the 'random' freezes stopped after uninstalling this software.  It turns out they weren't random.  The freezes were happening when an event occurred causing a sound to be played.  For me, an incoming e-mail would occasionally cause the freezes (when the notification popup came up in the status bar, and tried to play the little "ding" sound).  I was having 3 or more freezes a day.  Uninstalled SB, and no freezes for weeks.  It is not a solution, but gets rid of the symptom enough to use the machine until there is a real fix.  The sound works fine without the SoundBlaster software, too.

Frank, Have you uninstalled the soundBlaster xFi software?  For a handful of folks here, the 'random' freezes stopped after uninstalling this software.  It turns out they weren't random.  The freezes were happening when an event occurred causing a sound to be played.  For me, an incoming e-mail would occasionally cause the freezes (when the notification popup came up in the status bar, and tried to play the little "ding" sound).  I was having 3 or more freezes a day.  Uninstalled SB, and no freezes for weeks.  It is not a solution, but gets rid of the symptom enough to use the machine until there is a real fix.  The sound works fine without the SoundBlaster software, too.

You are assuming there will be "a real fix". The Dell people have been noticeably absent from this board. I think we have been abandoned.

Mitch

The fact that the issues with this laptop manifest in so many different ways probably means there is something seriously bad going on under the hood.  I tried 1080p video last night for the first time, and immediately saw THAT problem.  Why installing the Beta version of Flash 'fixes' the issue is beyond me, but it did the trick.

I am guessing that Mitch is right in that if Dell can make the symptoms go away for most users, they will probably just sweep it under the rug, and everyone else will be out of luck.  Sad.

Good point, Mitch.

Unfortunately, I can confirm for sure that uninstalling the SoundBlaster X-Fi software DOESN'T solve the problem. It is true that freezes occur now much less often than before, but I still have the same random freezes from time to time (something like once a week).

My machine is 1747, Core i7 720QM, 8 GB 1066 MHz RAM, 500 GB HDD.

I suppose this is some hardware fault that cannot be resolved by changing the software (because I really tried a lot of possible solutions). And it seems that other Studio models have the same problem (Studio XPS 16), so this is a huge issue. It's a pity that this otherwise wonderful piece of hardware has such a serious problem. I really like everything in my laptop but freezes is not something that I can tolerate. I'll probably never buy a Dell Studio again...

These Core i7 laptops are using the newest and latest hardware, not just the Core i7/series 5 chipset, but newer GPUs with more hardware video acceleration, which could account for the rise in particular video related crashes, I too once was upset with Dell for putting out a system with these particular issues. In fact, Dell was prepared to ship me out a system replacement for my 1747 system, which was a replacement for my 1737 which a Qualexserv technician screwed up. After tweaks and work on my system, I'll say I have absolutely no complaints and think everything is a sweet design, except for no 1080p native resolution screen available for my replacement since I had a 1200p display. The more of these newer systems get sent out, the more hardware/software developers will be able to work with the unique issues of new hardware. Dell has costs to try and keep down as well, their suppliers aren't throwing them components for free. Dell is able to take a loss on certain things where it has agreed to, and their support is great. If everything else fails, just keep going through support and work the system like you are supposed to - and as long as its under warranty, Dell will work with you and eventually replace the system if all else fails, it may take a few attempts though.

And Soundblaster X-Fi MB is also free of issues, I can confirm.

Are you seriously making excuses for Dell selling broken computers?  Most of the people in this forum are experiencing crashes several times a day.  Dell could at least have someone try to use the computer for a week before selling thousands of them.

I had a Studio XPS 1645.  Support was absolutely clueless as to why it crashed consistently on flash videos.  After talking to 5 people over a week, they were going to send someone out to replace the video card and motherboard.  I convinced them to send me another laptop.  I got the new one, and I could crash it in 5 minutes by watching a flash video.  I could reinstall the OS and watch a flash video and crash it.  As it's sold, it's completely broken.

And I don't even have to mention the X-Fi crashes and the throttling issues.

I still have absolutely no idea how Dell is getting away with selling these.

I could crash mine in 3 seconds watching flash videos initially. I installed Flash beta - fixed immediately. As I said, it could be software related - where software makers did not account for new hardware changes. I had several issues, and it wasn't too much work to resolve 100% of them. I didn't have to reinstall the operating system either. At first, my system crashed nearly 50 times before I resolved the issues. Now, my system hasn't dared to think of crashing for months now. Read some of my previous posts for ideas to resolve your issues. I've worked on nearly a hundred systems in my early career so far, from desktops to laptops to servers. I can say this is now the most reliable laptop I've used to date.

Woofer00 it looks like we got the same laptop and the same problem so pls keep me up to date if you got any crashes...

I have a lot less crahes now but I wan't to be 100% proof!

I read you got the 10.4 catalyst, you also got the latest flash and java 20 installed?

Thx

Installed the A05 BIOS last night, didn't experience any lockups or other issues whilst streaming video via Hulu Desktop for a few hours (I have a backlog to catch up b/c of the lockup issues).  Hopefully it remains stable!

Never uninstalled the SB X-Fi, ATI drivers still at 10.4, and still running flash 10.1 RC4, so I'm going to preemptively rule those out as the source of my problems.

Spec list again - Core i7 720qm, ati 5470 1gb, 4gb pc3-8500, win7hpx64, drivers/plugins are noted above.

The new BIOS versions are up for 1645 and 1647.   (links below).  According to the "Fixes and Enhancements" list it should help with some of the various issues people have been experiencing.   Please try these BIOS updates and let us know if they help.

*Features update: 1. Update Processor Power Management(PPM) from 0.60 to 0.63-1 . 2. Support 2nd source SPI ROM EN25F32(BIOS) and EN25F80(EC). 3. Update ME bin file in BIOS for 2nd source SPI ROM EN25F32(BIOS). 4. Modified flash part size to prevent BIOS crash in failsafe part for factory only. 5. Support over 230W adapter to treat as 130W(EC). 6. Update Clarksfield thermal table to V.03(EC). 7. Enhanced PPM RC code for P-state thread count. *Issues fix: 1. Fix S4 long run failed on DC mode with BSOD 9F. 2. Paltrow freeze issue: Hang up when playing youtube HD film. 3. Fix unable to communicate with battery error under delldiag. 4. Fix ACPI_PSD error in "powercfg -energy" tool under windows. 5. Fix Micron DDR3 memory can not boot up issue.

Links directly to the BIOS downloads.  NOTE:  these are for the Windows executable versions.  If you want the DOS versions you can download as well from http://support.Dell.com.

Studio XPS 1645 BIOS A09

Studio XPS 1647 BIOS A07

Dell has released BIOS A09 for the Studio XPS 16, this is supposed to fix all HD video lockups/throttling.  I installed the other day and everything seems to be working nicely. 

Hi,

For me to get rid of the lock ups and freezing and BSOD, I had simply to remove the MAcaffe software, since than the machine is running very well/ The lockups started when my liecence with mcaffee reached it's peremation date. So You may give this a try.

Studio  1747

0J509P model;

Bios A08.

130 W adapter

The new BIOS versions are up for 1645 and 1647.   (links below).  According to the "Fixes and Enhancements" list it should help with some of the various issues people have been experiencing.   Please try these BIOS updates and let us know if they help. *Features update: 1. Update Processor Power Management(PPM) from 0.60 to 0.63-1 . 2. Support 2nd source SPI ROM EN25F32(BIOS) and EN25F80(EC). 3. Update ME bin file in BIOS for 2nd source SPI ROM EN25F32(BIOS). 4. Modified flash part size to prevent BIOS crash in failsafe part for factory only. 5. Support over 230W adapter to treat as 130W(EC). 6. Update Clarksfield thermal table to V.03(EC). 7. Enhanced PPM RC code for P-state thread count. *Issues fix: 1. Fix S4 long run failed on DC mode with BSOD 9F. 2. Paltrow freeze issue: Hang up when playing youtube HD film. 3. Fix unable to communicate with battery error under delldiag. 4. Fix ACPI_PSD error in "powercfg -energy" tool under windows. 5. Fix Micron DDR3 memory can not boot up issue. Links directly to the BIOS downloads.  NOTE:  these are for the Windows executable versions.  If you want the DOS versions you can download as well from http://support.Dell.com. Studio XPS 1645 BIOS A09 Studio XPS 1647 BIOS A07

Hi Todd, can you provide any details on what changes the A05 BIOS made for the Studio 1558?  The download description simply states "New CPU Support"

dr_serious > Yes, java 20, running the latest flash rc from adobe labs, using MSE and just the basic Win7 Firewall.  (Norton, McAfee are dead to me)