Dell Venue Pro crashing

I'm not throwing up my hands and requesting a new unit.  I'm trying to see who else has this issue or if it's just me.  After calling support, they offered an exchange, so exchange it is.  I just don't expect it to help considering there are other people here experiencing the exact same issue I am.  An exchanged phone at this point is likely going to come from the same batch of manufactured phones, so if it is a defect, the new one will be defective too.  I hope to be proven wrong, but given the circumstances of delays and other launch snafus with this phone, I'm not overly confident in the process right now.

Anyway, here's answers to your questions since you asked:

1) I had it lock up during the initial setup process of doing email/facebook/etc.  So I had 100% free storage space save for what was used by the OS itself.

2) 0 apps pinned during my first 2 lockups, 1 or 2 pinned now.

3) Again, first two locks occurred even before I had contacts or email accounts finalized...it was during their their setup that I saw the first problems.  I now have around 80 via 3 Exchange accouns.

4) All Exchange, all push.

5) It locks up when dealing with network activity and/or storage, hence all the complaints and related stories of people browsing the web and/or installing a marketplace app and it freezing.

During the initial setup process for email, Facebook, etc. it's doing a heavy amount of network and storage activity so it's no surprise I saw it lock twice during that process after taking the phone straight out of the box.

I can't perfectly replicate the issue into a series of steps.  As close as I can get is "download something large from the marketplace and then either browse with IE or just use the phone" and sometimes it will freeze hard.

I can't go into details due to NDAs and whatnot, and probably shouldn't even say the following, but I've been using WP7 for close to a year now across several prototype and retail devices, and not a single device has behaved in this manner.  Given that we're seeing at least 4 or 5 other people here with similar issues, it would seem that this is not an isolated incident with the DVP, but an isolated incident in that it seems to ONLY happen with this phone.  Anyone heard of other retail devices behaving like this?

Better yet, anyone out there using a DVP, downloading marketplace apps, multitasking with other applications, and NOT seeing any lockups?

I'm also noticing my crashes seem to happen most often when I'm downloading larger files from the Marketplace. Xbox Live games in particular seem to have a tough time installing without locking up the phone. Smaller apps - no problem. No idea, and I'm grasping here, but could that also be related to this 256MB thing?

I noticed another comment on white noise with headphones - I have the same issue there. Partly I just assumed since I was using a phone for my music device now instead of my Zune HD, the sound quality was bound to be worse.

I don't think this issue has anything to do with the OS itself. It's more a phone issue. The moment I turned off the WiFi my phone has been extremely stable and is performing quite well.

What i would like also to understand is why i have only 225 MB of RAM when it has advertised to have 512 MB of RAM. Is this a production issue, in which case i could get it replaced? If not, i have no option but to return the phone. 225 MB of RAM is just un-acceptable after we were told repeatedly that this would have 512 MB of RAM. Also, dell.com has now conspicuously removed all information pertaining to the phone's RAM. 

This does not bode well for those of us who bought the phone.

Its looking like having wifi enabled is causing crashes, I've used the DVP for 2 days without issue, and after enabling wifi to test the theory as suggested by another user I experienced 2 complete lockups within 30 minutes. With wifi disabled, I was able to use the phone without issue. Please test your device with wifi on and off and see what happens; if the issue is wifi we need to confirm it and make dell aware.

I'd have to agree with EFJAY01! I had been having multiple lockups until I turned off WiFi. It seemed like any time the phone was in a poor signal area it would lockup. Turned off WiFi and haven't had an issue yet, and I've been trying everything that was causing crashes before.

It's definitely a WiFi issue..

I've been having it lockup multiple times daily when WiFi is on. Then today, after reading about the others having freezing problems with WiFi, I turned it off and didn't have it lock up once.

After 5-6 hours of non-freezing, I turned the WiFi back on and less than an hour later, it locked up.  It has locked up in a variety of ways, but the one that is most common is that it kicks me back to the tile view and it's frozen there.

Interestingly enough, all the squares showing my contact's pics on the people tile are filled up when this happens. That's one of the ways I know right away that the phone is frozen.

I haven't had any total lockups though, I can restart the phone with a long press of the power button when it happens.

I just managed to freeze it 6 times in a row with WiFi on.  Exact steps each time:

First time: Marketplace -> One page over to The Harvest, which had a grey icon and wouldn't fill in -> tap The Harvest -> tap Try -> tap Download -> Windows back to main Live Tiles -> IE -> loaded engadget.com -> Windows key back to main Live Tiles -> Freeze

Subsequent times: Marketplace -> One page over to The Harvest which still has a grey icon -> tap The Harvest -> see it's already partially downloaded and still downloading -> Windows back to Main Live Tiles -> IE -> loaded engadget.com -> Windows key back to main Live Tiles -> Freeze (repeat a couple times if it doesn't freeze the first time)

A couple times in between I got the freeze on the first press of the Windows key where it had a grey rectangle at the bottom of the screen, similar to an Application Bar, but with no icons.

I wish I could try this exact process over cell, but The Harvest is too big to download over a cell connection.  I have tried with a few smaller apps and have not managed to get it to lock up...

I have been having freezing problems with the DVP constantly since the 22nd when I, finally, received it.  For being so delayed I figured that most of these problems had been ironed out.  I can't seem to go a couple of hours without this thing freezing on me.  I got the WP7 phone to merge my ZuneHD and Win6 phone into one device.  However, downloading music results in a freeze most of the time.  Streaming is okay, though it has frozen while streaming a couple times.  Downloading applications more often than not results in a freeze, as does launching the XBL game flowerz.  I've never gotten a game of that going.  Also, launching Wyndrider results in a freeze 50% of the time and even d/ling it resulted in a freeze.  Now, I d/l stuff on my laptop and then do a USB sync.  I'm afraid what would happen if it froze while trying a wireless sync.  Actually, I'm not sure if this is possible, the ZuneHD can do it, but then again the ZuneHD could also handle Channels while the WP7 phone cannot. Go figure.  I loved my ZuneHD channels.

I'll give a call to the number above and see what happens.

So yea I called Dell just now, was passed around for 20mins then on Hold then I hear a voice "Good Bye" and they hung up on me. Thanks Dell thanks for that, great service!

Ok so finally got through to Dell and they told me something that I just can't believe is legal. They said if I get a replacement phone and that is also faulty then I CAN NOT get a refund at that stage. Excuse me? I'm from Ireland (living in LA) and that is the most absurd thing I've ever heard, surely that is not legal. Is this common in the US? Can this be right? In europe if you buy something and it's fauly and u replace it and it's STILL faulty you of course are well within your rights to demand your money back.

Im shocked! ha!

What?!  That's crazy.  I got an offer to replace my existing phone after I called Dell and did a hard reset on the DVP.  It still locked up after that.  If the phone I get from Dell locks up like the current one I have I will be returning it.  I can't have a phone that locks up virtually anytime you attempt to use features that you expect from a modern smartphone.

That is the most ridiculous policy I ever heard, and I was certainly not told that I was waiving my right to a return if I accepted the replacement.

I also bought the unsubsidized 16gb phone, so I will be getting my money back if this new phone does not resolve the problems I have been having with it.  Just now it froze while I was scrolling through Zune Marketplace.  I waited about 5 minutes and it resumed, but kicked me back out to the tile page.  I could not get back into the Music and Video app at all.  When I press on the tile, it clears the screen like it is going to launch and then the tiles fly back in as if I hit the the windows button.  I have to power cycle the phone to get back into the Music and Video app.  These random freezes happen at least 5 times a day.  Completely unacceptable for a $500 phone from a company with the expertise that Dell supposedly possesses.

They encouraged me to exchange the phone instead of just returning it, then when I read about the Ram issue I called back and they told me that since the exchange was already in process I would not be able to return it for a full refund at this time. After getting angry and speaking to a supervisor about this she informed me that since all of this was documented in their system that I would be able to setup a return if the replacement unit was also defective....I really have my doubts about that.

At this point I have just come to the realization that the $570 I spent on this phone was thrown into the gutter and I that I probably won't ever see it again. Hopefully the replacement will work this time..

Worse comes to worse we could always pursue a "Class Action" in regards to this matter.

Speaking of the replacement phones, has anyone received a solid ship date for any of the replacements that are supposed to be going out? I already sent the bad one back a few days ago, but the new order still shows "In Production" with a ship date of "N/A".

If someone gets their replacement soon, could you respond to this thread and say if the crashing issue was resolved with the replacement?