Help! My new Dell Studio XPS 13 Laptop keeps on freezing up!

I've been watching this thread too and I get emails of the posts popping up in my inbox every so often.  I'm still not experiencing problems since my latest upgrade and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  However, for those of you in the US, I did happen to speak with a computer "geek squad" employee the other day at Best Buy concerning this problem.  He said that they will look at your machine and give you a new one if they are unable to determine what is wrong with it.  Like I said, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed because I don't want to re-install software -- but maybe those of you in the US who purchased this at Best Buy could benefit from the knowledge.  Apparently, you don't need any special warranty as long as you bring it back soon enough.  I bought mine at the end of May and apparently that is a short enough time. As for the Macbook... I may be biased as a PC user, but it seems to me that if you want any decent components in a Mac you have to spend a small fortune and $800 won't get you a Mac with these components.

Best buy ---I really don't trust them.  I live by a best buy My customers have delt with the Geek squard,  They all don't like them.  The machines come back messed up and they hold it for a long period of time. 

As far as there warrantee I once returned a HP because It made my recovery disks (hp does not give you backups) in 8 hours and it wrote to Cd's but not DVD's so it was  a defect.  I had a rude confrontation with the guy.  He said it did not freeze and was ready to give me back the unit.  I said wait did you try a DVD oh no well try that first then it froze. So he gave me back the money. Again if you have to proove everything with a fine point and pen otherwize they will do whats best for the company. (I am an obessive compluive so it does help :)  I didn't get another one because Dell's restore only takes 5 min's

I don't like best buy but it is conviannt.  I got my oringal dell studio xps 13 from best buy I immeditaly switched over the warrentee to I get the support from dell.  The reason was because of that issue stated above but I once had an inspiron and the restore didn't work,  Dell told me to call the Geeksquad The geek squad wanted to charge me money for that call I said no way I returned it and brought my vostro from dell (which got stollen) So after that I got this one.  As many problems I had with Dell support I never was charged, and even though they go by a script if you speak to them right they will do what they can to retifiy  the problem

I completely agree with you on the last passage about being nice, its a good point to keep in mind when speaking to some one you want something from.

I was having the same problem when I first had my studio 13 as well.  The first night I had my computer, it had frozen up on me 6 times within a period of 3 hours sitting on a cold slab of marble.  The computer does get very hot due to the way nvidia manufactures their chipsets (which typically run a lot hotter than the intel chipsets dell normally uses) but that generally doesnt effect performance all that much.  I seemed to have fixed my problem by uninstalling Vista and upgrading to Windows 7 RC. Since I have installed Windows 7, I have had not had one lock up.  I would strongly recommend to anyone who is experiencing lock ups on their XPS 13s to install Windows 7 ASAP.  If you do want you computer to run a bit cooler, I have heard some good stories about replacing the cheap thermal pads with thermal paste which incidentally cools things down 5-15 degrees.

Hello Luke,

I also initially had great success with Windows 7 RC, but as noted above, I have experienced another hard lock while the computer was asleep, so I don't think the problem is solved.

I have installed Windows 7 RC 64-bit and not had very minimal issues - i had previously had vista ultimate 64-bit.

When i say minimal issues, i've had lockups where i have tried installing programs and drivers AFTER installing the dell nvidia gfx drivers.  upon uninstalling the display drivers, i was able to install the programs and other drivers without any lockups.

now despite having reinstalled the nvidia display drivers, i have since been able to install further programs without any lockups - not sure if this is due to any windows updates, but so far so good.

the only other minor issue im having is when the display screen is turned off from inactivity, moving the mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard wont bring the display back until after a 5 second delay... i find it quite odd, but havent been able to pinpoint what could be causing it.  anyone with suggestions or fixes would be awesome!

I installed Windows 7 RC 64bit and the same problem occurs.  It runs okay but when you run a bittorrent client I would get instant BSODs w/ the same error "page_fault_in_nonpaged_area" or something similar.  The problem is definitely the nvidia chipset on this laptop.  I really want a Macbook Pro so instead I got MAC OSX 10.5.6 to run today on my 1340.  Hopefully, it is more stable than Ubuntu because that is my only choice since Vista and Windows 7 locks up right away when I start downloading something using bittorrent.  Is anybody also running bittorrent clients on their laptop(I try utorrent and bitcomet and had the same problems)?  BTW, I have the model w/ the 9400M not the 9500M that some of you guys have.

If anyone is interested in trying to install OSX on their 1340, here is the link:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=161650

UPDATE AGAIN WITH NEW REPLACEMENT LAPTOP--OH OH

Well I really love it, but as I said before the feet is uneven tech is comming out to give it new feet and bottom.   but now we have somthing new -Where the top buttons are the that  to turn on or off the wireless adapter or the button that  make the computer louder, or eject the cd sometimes when I boot up it does not work.  :( I thought I had a perfect laptop)  Only in my dreams right.  Anyway I updated  the a07 bios and took out the batttery and pressed the power button for 30 secs .  I'm just hoping it's a software windows issue.  it seems like when I reboot (warm) it doesn't release, but after a cold boot it does.  This must of happened like 4-5 times.  But has not happened since I tried what I did let me keep my fingers crossed. 

I really want to love this laptop it's got power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!please god in heaven fix this for me I have more faith in you then the techs working for Dell especally in inda and the philapines

UPDATE AFTER UPDATE YEP IT HAPPENED.  DELL IS SENDING OUT A NEW BOARD AND HINDGE SINCE MY LAPTOP KEEPS FREEZING UP AT THE MULIMEDIA BUTTONS THIS IS CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, this is insane!  I thought I was probably the only one out there with the wobbly feet problem!  But I guess not.  Apparently Dell is in the process of ruining the XPS name little by little.  I mean, tech spec-wise this is a great computer.  But guess what, I had the freezing problem (which even if it is gone, I shouldn't have had to deal with a month and half of that... imagine giving a presentation in front of a committee when your laptop could crash any minute), I have wobbly feet AND I also have the same problem with the hotkeys/multimedia buttons not always working.  (I am currently writing this from a now 6+ year-old Gateway laptop that only has two problems: it's slow and it needed a new CMOS... if only they made laptops like they used to!)  Anyway, the freezing has been gone for a couple of weeks and I can deal with the feet since I use it on my lap a lot, but I would like to fix the hotkeys.  There is an entire forum on here of people with the hotkey problem, but no one updates there often -- they probably all gave up on it.  I will repeat what I asked there:  Dell has an update for synaptics and I am wondering if the touchpad and hotkeys are related since Dell refers to them as "touch keys" or something like that.  Is there a driver update or anything like that covering the hotkeys??  Or are they covered in this synaptics update?

ive got a bit of a funny, but annoying update.

i was promised a new replacement laptop from dell, or so i thought.

dell called me today and told me that "the part 9500M" is unavailable and that the only option i have is "9400M" and asked me if i was okay with that. after talking/emailing/etc for a month, dell asks me if i am ok with a downgrade. lol

aw man, i am so tired of this. :(

Rasikajay

Sounds to me like they want to turn you into a dell outlet customer.

If you go and try to build a new system the 9400 is NO longer availible, so yhe dude..

P.S MY Dell studio 1340 MAXED out to the teeth just came in  8 seconds ago Wooo =)

Rasikajay   Sounds to me like they want to turn you into a dell outlet customer. If you go and try to build a new system the 9400 is NO longer availible, so yhe dude..   P.S MY Dell studio 1340 MAXED out to the teeth just came in  8 seconds ago Wooo =)

yeah it seems like so. i feel like im being tossed around.

im guessing you meant the 9500, it seems to still available on the dell uk site.

I epoligize, I did not notice you where looking at the UK website.

Im glad to say that My XPS looks like its in working order, I was and to some extent still worried about the problems I was reading about, I have my shoelaces crossed that its stays so for a good time.

Okay, i think I have it.

I think its something to do with the WIFI driver or card.
Im finding I can put the machine though its paces when using Ethernet and the WIFI switch is OFF.
Turn wifi on, transfer a file over my network., boom hard lock.

Disabled the card and turned the wifi switch back on (for BT) and it works happily again.

I have enable the card and as soon as I put any pressure on the network at all (download a few files from a webpage.. even some decent flash content, basically anything that access the wifi card) boom, gone.

the worst part is I have a spare mini PCI-E wifi card.. but the built in one is only half height.. hurr.

I guess I could test by putting it in the BT or WWAN ports (i guess the only difference is power management) but that doesnt eliminate the card.. it could be the port too. who knows.

There has been no update to the driver for vista x64 for some time...

UPDATE AGAIN i'M THE GUY THAT GOT THE REPLACEMENT AND HOPED FOR A WORKING LAPTOP.  GOOD NEWS MY DVD BURNER WORKS, AND NOW I HAVE AN HD SCREEN VS BEST BUY VERSON, AND IT'S COOLER WOW I THOUGHT.  BECAUSE IF THIS LAPTOP WORKS I'D LOVE IT.  BUT BUT BUT... MY MEDIA CONTROL BUTTONS DON'T WORK ITERMITLY, WHICH MEANS AT TIMES IF IT'S IN THE OFF POSITION THE WIFI DOES NOT WORK, i CAN'T EJECT THE DVD BURNER. 

WELL A TECH IS COMMING TO REPLACE THE MEDIA CONTROL BUTTONS AND THE MOTHERBOARD I WONDER WHAT NEXT AFTER THIS.  I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENEING. I REQUESTED ANOTHER REPLACEMETNT THEY WANT TO TRY THIS FIRST.  I MEAN COME ON.  I HOPE THIS WORKS.  THIS IS GETTING OLD I'M READY TO BUY A ANOTHER LAPTOP