Dell studio xps 1640 Keeps slowing itself down every 5 minutes!

My partner and I bought a Studio xps 1640 ati 4670 at the end of September last year and have noticed extensive slow-downs with the CPU. We have now done some research and run some logs, and it's clear to see that when the system is on full load it slows itself down to around 30% of its full ability.

My partner and I will have spent a little over THREE THOUSAND POUNDS on this laptop and for us it was our major investment of the year. Previous years we've had Dell laptops and have had no problems with them, and found your service very reliable. We thought we'd lash out this year and purchase one of your best and brightest as we use it for work, data storage, video editing and gaming. Therefore we chose the best CPU you had to offer at the time; a T9900 3.6 GHz.

Unfortunately, for some reason the system won't let us use the chip to its full potential. In other words we might as well of saved ourselves TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS and gone with a net-book. Obviously we wanted more from our computing hence spending over THREE THOUSAND POUNDS and yet we haven't gotten what we're paying for.

Because of this, I rang the Dell service help line and explained what is happening, and at this point of the phone call he was UNAWARE of such issues and then vowed to get to the bottom of the problem (fantastic, a helpful positive person). I spent close to FOUR HOURS on the phone with this gentleman, running tests and all sorts, and yet still no improvement. After speaking to his supervisor he said that he was going to send a technician around with a new mother-board (fantastic, problem solved!??). I asked what type of mother-board and he said the same one.

I said “What good would that do?” He then wen't on to say that they were actually AWARE of the issue and that this was the answer to the problem. I said fine, go ahead with the replacement but was very doubtful that this would actually fix the issue- replacing a part with the same part?

We were very impressed by your service as the technician came with the motherboard replacement the next day at the exact time we organised. Unfortunately he was sent the wrong mother-board.

It was the older 3670 graphics mother-board and was not compatible with our newer system layout the 1640, 4670 graphics. We thought it was strange that the wrong part was sent as we gave our service code and you have all of our system information on file. We understand mistakes can be made and that we are all only human at the end of the day.

However the technician realised it was not going to fit halfway through installing it, so he said he would be back the next day with again a new mother-board and left us with the computer in pieces! (We have documented this with photos).

The new mother-board is now installed and the issue is not resolved. There are no improvements what-so-ever and the screen now looks to be fading all round the edges. We were also left with 4 screws that the tech did not know where to place them. We feel the system has been violated and we are left feeling upset and disapointed.

I have read through forums which shows the newer 1645 and 1647 have had the same issues with throttling but now Dell have corrected this and people say the machine is now working perfectly.

We can no longer afford to waste time on this matter as we need the machine for our work.

Could someone please sort this out for us :(