Dell not honoring hardware stipulation.

capa3400,

They have to try to replace the hardware in your XPS 630 before a system exchange can occur. There is no way around this.

Yes I know this and understand it completely, but they told me even if it gets to that point as far as a exchange that there is no replacement for my system. Yesterday they ran a hardware diagnostic and nothing turned up to be faulty. The thing is with the random lockup after seeing other people with this problem is their systems showed nothing faulty either. So, the question is how do I prove to them that there is a problem even though the PC checks out hardware wise. Now I am sure you know they go by the book with everything and since the test showed nothing wrong, they feel the PC is fine. I also told the rep. that over the past year that I reinstalled the operating system twice, which would overall eliminate a software problem. The rep. also went on telling me how I need to upgrade to Windows 7 because Windows vista is known for bugs. The part about the Windows upgrade that does not seem fair is that they said they would not replace/upgrade any parts until I installed windows 7. So for me I would have to go out and spend $100 or more to get Windows 7 just for them to do anything.

They should be able to "remote" into your system and use it. Then they would see the issues themselves.

Well they did remotely connect to my system yesterday and the guy removed a virus program that I am no longer using to help speed the system up. The problem with this random lockup is it can happen any time, from a day or 2, to a week or more, or even a month or 2. Now yesterday when the rep. had me start a diagnostic program the computer locked up, but he did not say anything about the lockup. I feel the computer did it right there, since there was no activity on the hard drive light, which is what happens when it locks up on me and you have to hold the power button down to restart it then. There would be a very slim chance of the PC locking up while the rep. is remotely connected to it. Now I have been told that since the computer was bought with Windows Vista on it, that it should function properly with Vista without upgrading to Windows 7.

I think you need to run all of this by these guys and see what they think. The entire Forum is dedicated to the XPS 630.

Actually, I am a member of that forum already and most people have told me the same thing, that it is hardware related for the random lockup problem. A guy over at the My630i.com forum with the forum name of m3th0d1c4I says he knows you and he is 1 of the people who has told me to stand my ground to get something done with this problem. I can honestly tell you from spending the last 2-3 years on that forum, that most people with this problem either replaced most of the internal hardware theirself (warranty had expired). Or they got Dell to replace hardware such as the motherboard and found that they could not resolve the issue, which a replacement was then issued. My630i.com id is mark034 and I have it posted about this problem there and I have been  discussing this with My630i.com m3th0d1c4l member. 

Okay. Push them to replace the motherboard, CPU, and ram. If you still have issues after all of that is replaced, then a system exchange would be warranted. I have a pre-productions XPS 630 and have never had issues with it. I have upgraded the ram and went from SLI 8800GT to SLI 9800 to SLi GTX280. 

I will probably be calling Dell back tomorrow about this. Is there any way by chance you could notate my account or some kind of push to get this hardware replaced? I could give you my service tag and express code if by chance you could help. I wanted to see if you could possibly help because I want to avoid getting into a possible heated argument with either the rep. or their supervisor. The problem I see is this, since the hardware diagnostics passed, the Dell technician will see this notation and insist that there is nothing wrong hardware wise. Also, after talking to m3th0d1c4l yesterday, he said since the system locked up when trying to initialize the 2nd hardware diagnostic test, that it would have nothing to do with a software problem, since Windows was not even loaded.

Well just wanted to update you that I called Dell today and the rep. adjusted the CPU voltage and ran the express hardware test. He is supposed to call me back Wednesday evening to see how things are going. All I can say is i'll let Dell tinker with the computer and change hardware once or twice at the most. However, I am not going to let Dell come out to my house 5 or 6 times to change hardware and drag it out for 6-8 months like I was just reading over on the desktop forum, which another customer had happen to them. I got 6 months or less on my hardware warranty and will contact the Better Business Bureau, if I have to go though a scenario like that.