My brand new XPS 630i freezes randomly!

PS: I don't think it's the operating system because I have XP on mine.

Hello: I too am having the same issue. A rep will be calling me tonight to continue the troubleshooting. Has a solution been found since this was posted? I can't believe how many people are having this problem - it's unacceptable.

Hi Marioula,

Thanks for your comment.

It is good to know that this issue still repro in XP.

Please update and share with us when you talk to Dell customer support representative, and find some solution.

I have called XPS customer service twice and asked them whether any report / feedback from customer who purchased

XPS 630i who has this same issue, their answer was "No". They told me to run hardware diagnostic, if the test pass,

I need to call a number for software issue which will be charaged per minutes.  It is a sad thing but I can trust sources and people who are in

this forum rather than XPS technical support.

Best Regards,

Kenny

Hi Guys,

I had the same issue with my XPS 630i. Updated all the drivers, BIOS, and windows without luck...then after searching through the system logs found that the NVIDIA RaidPort0 was causing a "reset to device" warning. So I rolled back the Raid driver to version 9.99.0.9 and have not had a crash yet. Hope this helps.

-Mike

Hey Mike,

Thats some encouraging news on this!

How would I go about trying this?

Where do I look and how can I get a copy of the older driver?

Thanks,

Steve

Hi Mike.

Thanks for your advice.

Please share with us, how can we roll back the particular raid port driver.

From my side, I tested new HDD and the problem still repro, so HDD is out. I did clean install and still the problem repro, so clean install does no help this issue.

When I did clean install, I tried to make a recovery point for each driver and software installation,

1. Chpset driver and graphic driver, 2. Audio Driver, 3. Anti Virus software (AVG free edition) 4. Microsoft Office personal 2007.

At phase 4 the abobe, I had a problem of hangups.

Also, I found a forum thread of Japan which is saying that XPS630i has voltage problem. I will spend more time to explore this aspect if raid port driver

is not the one to causing this hangups.

Anyway, I would look foward for your reply so that people who are experencing this nigthmare can spend times for works or games, but not wasting time for

frustration and unproductive fixing time.

Best Regards,

Kenny

OK...Just tried Mike's fix and so far no freezes!!:emotion-2:

For everyone else here is a link on how it works....

http://www.pdsys.org/blog/post/2007/12/31/Possible-nVidia-driver-bug-in-Vista.aspx

Its worth a try!

Hope this helps....

Steve

Kenny,

Follow this link ...

http://www.pdsys.org/blog/post/2007/12/31/Possible-nVidia-driver-bug-in-Vista.aspx

The blog talks about our very same problem.

Just uncheck the enable command queuing and press ok.

You will have to restart to take effect.

Hope that helps!

So far no freezes for 1 hour! YEAH!!!!

Steve

Hi Kenny,

To roll back the driver you'll need to go to Device Manager and then to Storage controllers then to NVIDIA nForce RAID Controller. Once there under the Driver tab is an option to "Roll Back Driver". If you don't have any previous drivers to roll back to you'll need to go to NVIDIA's website and search for the older nForce drivers and then use them as the first you install on the system.

-Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your helpful instruction.

I will try tomorrow following your instruction.

Best Regards,

Kenny

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your comment and link to the blog.

I will try tomorrow to kill this command qeuing. By the way, this blog originally posted on 2007, December.

I wonder, why this issue has not come out to the public until today, and also I am very surprised that  Nvida, Microsoft, and Dell are not aware of this problem.

If they are aware, they should have been disabled this feature to avoid such major issue before they shipout from their factory.

I have already wasted my so many hours (during working hours) to cope with this issue, and manytimes,  my works, using excel and outlook data has gone due to this issue.

Whether this issue will be fixed or not tomorrow,  this will be the last PC from Dell for my company, including my related company in Japan, also for my family.

I used to value Dell as cost effective, reliable PC brand, but after this experience (Including XPS Technical Support, ) + XPS M1330 terrible experience, not any more.

I apologize for my grumbling, but I strongly believe that  I am deserved to say something about it.

Best Regards,

Kenny

Hi Kenny: I too am disappointed with my experience with Dell. If within 21 days,  tech support cannot fix my problem, I will request a refund. It has been 1 week now going back and forth with Tech Support with no results. The latest thing they has me do is restore my Windows XP os. After I reinstall all my programs, again, I will let you know if the total freezing stops. Otherwise I suspect a faulty cooling system that would need replacing.

Since multiple customers with the same model and same freezing issue, I think a formal complaint with the BBB should be filed against DELL, or at least a  complete refund should be provided. I understand from the refunds page that we only get a partial percentage back which is unfair for the frustrution we've been put through.

Hi Marioula,

I thought your problem has benn solved by replacing PC. I would like to avoid comment which can be considered as claimer, so I will put my opinion in best business manner.

I can understand that this kind of issue involves, not only dell but his supplier, Nvidia, Microsoft as well.  It is impossible for asking Dell to QC for every incoming parts and application. However, Dell is the seller of this PC and customer paid money to Dell, Dell needs to sincerely hear to customer who is having this frustrating issue and XPS technical support representavie should not treat customer by just reading off the support manual by telling "run diagnostic test, and if the test pass, call software support by paying per minutes". 

I do own business and if my customer call in for faulty product,  as CEO, I will track the problem and demand my staff to sincerely hear the problem. Otherwise, I will not only loose this customer, but others as well, since my business is so competetive. I feel very miserable that buyer has to struggle solving this issue themselves.

As cosumer,  my case as company, we have a choices over PC brands, HP, COMPAQ, TOSHIBA, SONY, APPLE and etc.  In future, we have a decision to buy other brand. I try to think in a way that, I made a mistake to buy this PC and my company notebook, XPS1330 from Dell.

I hope you will solve your problem.

Best Regards,

Kenny

Hi, Marioula

I forgot to share about temperature and cooling issue.

Before I did clean install, I tried to monitor fan speed and CPU temp, GPU temp  with free software, http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php.

I will post my captured screen for the above measurements.  Also, I installed Nvidia Performance software to contral fan speed to segregate the problem, whether this problem being triggered by heat problem. So far I do not have answer, but I found a way to make this hangup problem 100% repro by certain procedure. For my enviornment, I am using  anti-virus software called AVG free edition. Following step will repro this hang up (3/3 )100% in my enviornment.

1. Boot Computer, 2. Wait until startup item being fully loaded. 3. Launch Speedfan application to monitor heat and fan speed. 4. while speedfan's monitor window is launched, Open AVG control panel. 5. AVG has different scan setting, (Normal scan, Fast Scan-this mode use highest CPU resource ) 6. Initiate scanning and move the scan mode from normal to fast. 7. Within few minuites, my mouse and keyboard become not responsible.

My GPU temp was close to 61C with original fan speed, CPU Temp was around 40~47C with original fan speed.  I do not know whether heat triggers this problem, becasue, I increase fan speed with nvidia performance software to maintain GPU temp around 50C, CPU temp around 40C, my system still hangup.

Best Regards,

Kenny

Chris,

Thanks for jumping in...

Ron