New Dell XPS 8300 constantly Locking up.. help

having same issues. computer locks up and freezes. uninstalling and installing seems to take ages, internet explorer locks up sometimes i just got this computer about 4 days ago and this is such an annoying problem. i updated all drivers to latest  versions and software yet still locking up. tech support is useless.

Oh no! Not you too!

This afternoon Dell Tech support is phoning me to see if replacing the video drivers to the most recent version solved the problem (as you can read above it didn't). I suspect that the only thing left for me to try is to do a factory restore and start over again fresh. If that doesn't work, I think I'll need to return this machine and either ask for a refund or a different system configuration. Very frustrating because others are clearly running their XPS 8300 without a problem. I wonder if it is a configuration problem with the new Sandy Bridge CPUs that still needs to be resolved?

This is interesting...

I still power up my new XPS 8300 while working on my old PC just to see how long it takes before the XPS 8300 locks up again.

Anyways, this time I had iTunes playing on the XPS and when it locked up, the sound immediately stopped. So it is not just the mouse and keyboard that are locking up there is something deeper in the system that is freezing if it also locks up the integrated sound.

Hmm... This last lock up was interesting. Again, I was listening to the radio over iTunes and when the machine locked up this time, loud low bass static started streaming through my speakers.

That was kind of weird.

the battery looks like this http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/lifesaver333/2009-05-01_111404_battery.jpeg (Not exactly the same look and size as the pic)

You can't miss or mistake it. Mine is a mitsubishi brand.

It has a metalic "trigger" you have to press to release the battery, one it's remove just bring it back until it clicks and you're done.

[EDIT :

Sorry my previous post has been removed by the moderator due to my cursings (yes i'm French ;)

So let me repost it without the f words :

Hi Aras, I've been following this thread for a week now, as my 1 month old xps 8300 has started to have the very same symptoms as your after 3 weeks of perfect usage. I tried to reinstall windows 7 from scratch but the lockup problems remained. I unplugged-replugged every single connectors of my system but if was still uneffective. But wait, there's a good news : 3 hours ago, i reopened the case, removed the CMOS battery to do a hard reset the bios and guess what, the system's been running perfectly for 3 hours now without any lockup now. I don't know what went wrong exactly but YES, THERE'S NO MORE FREEZING. Maybe you should give it a try : open the case, remove the CMOS battery, wait for a few seconds, put it back, close the case, and cross your fingers while switching your system on. ;-)

]

Just to make myself clear : yes everything's running fine after i did this.

Removing the battery then putting it back cleared the BIOS settings.

Oh, and  i almost forgot : after that, you'll be asked to press  "F2" to enter the bios to confirm your setting. Do it. And save (ESC, then ENTER)

thorkl,

ok, looks easy enough to find & to remove and re-seat the CMOS  battery.

Just to ensure that I am clear... once I re-start the system after re-seating the battery, I push F2 when that option appears on startup in the lower right-hand corner of the screen which takes me into the BIOS settings.

Then all I have to do is save? I don't have to change any of the settings in the BIOS setup? Just accept what is there?

Thanks again in advance for your help.

thorkl

Really! removing the CMOS battery did it?!

Where do I find the CMOS battery inside the box? Is it obvious on the motherboard when the box is opened?

:emotion-2:

Thanks for the reminder, but I did think of that just before I opened the box. Just to be extra cautious I unplugged absolutely everything from the box.

So, its done. Its up and running. I just reset the date and time.

Now we wait to see how it behaves.

Fingers crossed....

:emotion-2:

Yes tell us if it has worked for you.

I'd be glad to know that this issue applies to all XPS 8300 systems.

By the way, note that before that it tried a BIOS soft reset (a reset just through the bios settings without opening the case) and it didn't work.

So it'd be interesting to know what the hard reset does that a soft reset doesn't. Any Dell tech here ?

Once you've restarted the system, you won't be allowed to go further on unless you've entered the bios settings by pressing F2 (The system clearly states that)

Then you just exit the bios setting by pressing the ESCAPE key et confirm your leaving and saving by pressing ENTER.

As for me, i didn't change a single setting and it's working fine now (i'm typing this from my reborn system ;-)

 Oh wait ! one last important thing : unplug the computer power cord before opening the case !!! (sorry i'm a bit messy but i think i told you everything now)

30 minutes and still up and running.

Two things to note:

1. in the systray (or whatever it is named in Win7... under the arrow in the lower right hand corner where you can show hidden icons) there were missing icons when I first started up after removing the battery.

2. I went away for 15-20 minutes and came back and was at the login page. Apparently the system had rebooted itself. No idea why. But the missing hidden icons are back in what I am calling the systray.

3. When I go into Event Viewer it appears that there is a recurring critical system error: Source - Kernel-Power, Event ID - 41, Task Category (63). Last one that occurred was at 10:34:19 AM which would be approximately when the system might have rebooted itself. But it least it didn't lock up this time!

I can see the cmos battery but its located behind the graphics card which is too big and i cant remove the battery unless i take out the graphics card which i dont want to do as i dont know how to do it. is there any other way to hard reset the bios to sort out this issue? 

2.5 hrs and still running! Came back to my XPS 8300 after being out for awhile and the screen was blank yet I was able to restore the desktop by simply moving my mouse. I have never been able to do that since receiving this new system last week.

Looking good so far...