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

I figured that one out when I had my first laptop and had that thing with the TSST burner.  When I disabled the video driver then it worked.  I trouble shot that laptop for 2 weeks and I saw differnt versions of video and chipset drivers for other  aptop models.  So in regards to this I looked all day on the websites. Nothing can be found.  It's funny though the 1515 card also had a simular problem  but some third party website gave out the aethoes drivers.  There was no third party website for this one.  So I searched (in dunkin donuts) dells site for every 1510 (4322) card at dial up speed (with old driver) I found that one and I rushed home at 80 mph and wamo it worked. 

BTW with the freeze ups with the TSST burner I kept screaming to them give me another manufacture (when the techs were comming out here)  That unit was from Best Buy.  On my first replacement unit (from the dell site) they gave me  HL-DT-ST burner and now i don't have freeze ups I demanded that DVD burner  come with my 2nd repalcment.  I was right and of course dell was wrong. ( I got my 2nd replacement becuase the eject and sound buttons were not working and the feet were wobbly. All seams to be ok I've had an issue with the burner but that was during a cpu benchmark test which froze up the whole system so I'll let you know.  Oh this morning attempted to get the comptuer out of non sleep mode but the display off and it wouldn't go and none of the buttons worked yet I had a lot of software running including aol.  I'll give this a few weeks to decide.  let me say this to This machines credit so far it's the best one I've had.   

If I may say a comment I am so angry with Dell.  I spent 3 months trying to get this thing resolved if they would have listened to me a lot of time would have been saved.  I brought my first dell p100 in the 90's with windows 3.1.  I learned a lot of what I know today from Dell's support from back then.  I even learned how to change a hard drive (because my unit needed one.) I remember being scared to do it but they assured me it can be done.  In fact I'm in the business today and besides my A+ and net+  I can attibute my knowlege to dell's support back then.

I cannot express the feelings I have for what this company has become today.  The only good thing that is left is that if you fight hard enough and know what u are talking about they will try to resolve the issue by (giving you refurbished parts :( and then replacement units.  But there Techs don't know anything, hardly speak english and not only that they are totally irresponsable in even putting updated drivers for a laptop that we spent close or over a thousand dollars for.  I remember I chose this company back in the 90's because consumers reports that rated Dell the best.  Now they are acting like a fly by nite company.  The real sad part about it is I think HP, Compaq, Gateway is worse.  I guess there is asus don't konw much about them execp for motherboards.   From what I've been told HP is being rated #1 but I won't go with them only because they don't give you disks and I like the fact that when you know somthing Dell does try to retify (I guess there are laws about that) but if I must say shame on Dell. 

[quote user="BeyondxFlatline"] Hi Everyone! I'm not sure if this topic has been covered before, I tried doing a search and couldn't find anything on it so that's why I started my own thread. I recently just purchased a Dell Studio XPS 13 laptop and just got it a little over a week ago. From the first day I got it, it froze up on me while installing firefox. I didn't think much of it so I just powered down by pressing the power button. Then a few days after that while trying to install the lojack for the computer it froze up again. I powered down and then before it even loaded completely on start up it froze again so again i powerd down. This happened 6 times over and over again and there were times when trying to boot back up the screen would just stay black and not load up at all. I finally talked to a dell tech support guy and he had me restore my laptop to factory. It didn't freeze up again after that for a couple days and then it started to do it again. Has anyone else have this problem with this particular laptop? Any suggestions on what it is or what I can do? Or do you guys think I have a defective laptop and should just exchange for another one? Help!

 No garantees but you have to trouble shoot this thing. 

1.  try the browser in safe mode with networking that will conclude if it's a driver issue. 

2.un install the drivers and download fresh and updated ones from the website.  make sure you are not installing the same versions.  As from what I posted before look up the driver because from what can be posted on one machine an updated driver can be posted only for another machine but it can be compatable.

3.  uninstall dell's bloatware, dell support, face reconsition software un install all the ie toolbars, restore ie back to orignal state  

4.  Try another browser such as chome, Ie8 oprera

5.   RELOAD OS USING THE XP DISK INSTEAD OF FACTORY PARTITION  I did that for a client and it worked wonders.  Sad but true.  She is so happy that she fed me chineese and calling me back for a italian supper.  She even refered me out to other people. 

6. make sure your bios is updated

if nothing works get another system I like firefox  but not using it now it's heavy on resources  but riht now I'm interested in making sure my laptop works with the other issues I had. hope to have been a help

[/quote]

(1) i think all of us here has tried it, and so far it pretty much it seems like a driver/heat/nvidia issue

(2) i think everyone has covered that as well

(3) yup

(4) thats personal choice and i dont think thats got anything to do with this (although use firefox :D)

(5) i dont think xp is an option here. it ships with vista 64. and i cant confirm if the mcp79 sata chipset boots up with xp (with or without AHCI)

(6) ive tried it with A06 -> frequency of crashes is low and A07/A08 -> frequency is higher, but system is faster

another system -> same issue iterates.

however, i'm happy to report that i no longer have a 1340 (being collected tomorrow). dell finally replaced it with a brand new, error free 1640. even though its a bit bigger and heavy, the 1080P RGBLED screen is pure breathtaking.

[quote user="thecomputergenius"] [quote user="BeyondxFlatline"] Hi Everyone! I'm not sure if this topic has been covered before, I tried doing a search and couldn't find anything on it so that's why I started my own thread. I recently just purchased a Dell Studio XPS 13 laptop and just got it a little over a week ago. From the first day I got it, it froze up on me while installing firefox. I didn't think much of it so I just powered down by pressing the power button. Then a few days after that while trying to install the lojack for the computer it froze up again. I powered down and then before it even loaded completely on start up it froze again so again i powerd down. This happened 6 times over and over again and there were times when trying to boot back up the screen would just stay black and not load up at all. I finally talked to a dell tech support guy and he had me restore my laptop to factory. It didn't freeze up again after that for a couple days and then it started to do it again. Has anyone else have this problem with this particular laptop? Any suggestions on what it is or what I can do? Or do you guys think I have a defective laptop and should just exchange for another one? Help!

 No garantees but you have to trouble shoot this thing. 

1.  try the browser in safe mode with networking that will conclude if it's a driver issue. 

2.un install the drivers and download fresh and updated ones from the website.  make sure you are not installing the same versions.  As from what I posted before look up the driver because from what can be posted on one machine an updated driver can be posted only for another machine but it can be compatable.

3.  uninstall dell's bloatware, dell support, face reconsition software un install all the ie toolbars, restore ie back to orignal state  

4.  Try another browser such as chome, Ie8 oprera

5.   RELOAD OS USING THE XP DISK INSTEAD OF FACTORY PARTITION  I did that for a client and it worked wonders.  Sad but true.  She is so happy that she fed me chineese and calling me back for a italian supper.  She even refered me out to other people. 

6. make sure your bios is updated

if nothing works get another system I like firefox  but not using it now it's heavy on resources  but riht now I'm interested in making sure my laptop works with the other issues I had. hope to have been a help

[/quote]

(1) i think all of us here has tried it, and so far it pretty much it seems like a driver/heat/nvidia issue

(2) i think everyone has covered that as well

(3) yup

(4) thats personal choice and i dont think thats got anything to do with this (although use firefox :D)

(5) i dont think xp is an option here. it ships with vista 64. and i cant confirm if the mcp79 sata chipset boots up with xp (with or without AHCI)

(6) ive tried it with A06 -> frequency of crashes is low and A07/A08 -> frequency is higher, but system is faster

another system -> same issue iterates.

however, i'm happy to report that i no longer have a 1340 (being collected tomorrow). dell finally replaced it with a brand new, error free 1640. even though its a bit bigger and heavy, the 1080P RGBLED screen is pure breathtaking.

Hey how are you doing.  For a brand new laptop by logic you are right. and I i'm inclined  to agree with you. But I also know firefox is heavy on resources.  The reason I believe reloading from the disk is a key indicator is because I did that with a brand new inpiron desktop and that seemed to solve her problem.  The model was  a 15 somthing.  She was taking forever to get on the web, and it was freezing up at times.  When I tested my old laptop on her modem it was fine.  When I tested her computer in safe mode it was fine.  I did a factory restore and the same thing happened.  So I went the extra mile and loaded it from the disk and it's fine.  When I did put on a firewall she was freezing with zone alarm.  I took off the firewall and told her to get a router.  she's a 75 yo women and doesn't put any credit card info on so.... But we all know the drivers and the hardware in this laptop has a lot of issues.  Both of my replacements are cooler.  (the first one had the mutimedia button issue)  This one has a lot less freezing.  But I'm still trying to evaluate when it did was coninsdental or real.  I think before returning the laptop let him try the reload by disk  and if he is still having a problem let him get a replacment.  After all to reload the thing with just drivers just takes an hour to get a replacemnt takes almost 2 weeks. That is just my opinion

BTW ENJOY THE NEW 1600 LAPTOP LET ME KNOW HOW IT IS :emotion-2:

[quote user="BeyondxFlatline"] Hi Everyone! I'm not sure if this topic has been covered before, I tried doing a search and couldn't find anything on it so that's why I started my own thread. I recently just purchased a Dell Studio XPS 13 laptop and just got it a little over a week ago. From the first day I got it, it froze up on me while installing firefox. I didn't think much of it so I just powered down by pressing the power button. Then a few days after that while trying to install the lojack for the computer it froze up again. I powered down and then before it even loaded completely on start up it froze again so again i powerd down. This happened 6 times over and over again and there were times when trying to boot back up the screen would just stay black and not load up at all. I finally talked to a dell tech support guy and he had me restore my laptop to factory. It didn't freeze up again after that for a couple days and then it started to do it again. Has anyone else have this problem with this particular laptop? Any suggestions on what it is or what I can do? Or do you guys think I have a defective laptop and should just exchange for another one? Help!

 No garantees but you have to trouble shoot this thing. 

1.  try the browser in safe mode with networking that will conclude if it's a driver issue. 

2.un install the drivers and download fresh and updated ones from the website.  make sure you are not installing the same versions.  As from what I posted before look up the driver because from what can be posted on one machine an updated driver can be posted only for another machine but it can be compatable.

3.  uninstall dell's bloatware, dell support, face reconsition software un install all the ie toolbars, restore ie back to orignal state  

4.  Try another browser such as chome, Ie8 oprera

5.   RELOAD OS USING THE XP DISK INSTEAD OF FACTORY PARTITION  I did that for a client and it worked wonders.  Sad but true.  She is so happy that she fed me chineese and calling me back for a italian supper.  She even refered me out to other people. 

6. make sure your bios is updated

if nothing works get another system I like firefox  but not using it now it's heavy on resources  but riht now I'm interested in making sure my laptop works with the other issues I had. hope to have been a help

CORRECTION RELOAD USING VISTA 64 DISK TYPO ERROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yea true i agree to certain extent. but i think the 1340 has a very distinct issue. i read here somewhere that dell is apparently working on a fix for this to be released this month or so.

and thank you, i am enjoying it :D

Same issue for me.  Think the nVidia driver has something to do with it as I accepted a nVidia driver offered through Windows Update after installing Win7 RC 64-bit.  The lockups were terrible.  I went back to the nVidia driver that shipped on the System/Drivers disk and things have been much better.

Funny thing is that the lockups seem to occur most often when I am NOT using my computer.  Haven't tried killing hibernation yet.  But quite a few occur when I am using the computer, often associated with a mouse movement.  I hardly use my 64-bit Vista install in my dual boot configuration but the times I have used Vista, I can't remember any freezes.  So I am wondering if my problems are self-induced by running Win7 RC?

You definitely don't want to forgoe the nVidia drivers (if you can find something that works!).  With a generic driver, the Win7 performance index rating is something like "1" whereas it's "5.2" for desktop, including Aero and "4.4" for 3-D graphics with nVidia  drivers.

I have an eSATA issue, too (If you haven't tried that, you're in for a treat).  On that, Dell called me offering to replace my motherboard after an initial tech session where I found BIOS A08 (which I installed around  6/13/09) has been recalled, had to downgrade to A07, and discovered that didn't fix my eSATA problems.  So Dell definitely has a problem or three with the XPS 13/1340.  I don't want refurbished motherboards, etc.  I want a brand new computer that works right out of the box!

Same issue for me.  Think the nVidia driver has something to do with it as I accepted a nVidia driver offered through Windows Update after installing Win7 RC 64-bit.  The lockups were terrible.  I went back to the nVidia driver that shipped on the System/Drivers disk and things have been much better. ......... I have an eSATA issue, too (If you haven't tried that, you're in for a treat).  ........

eSATA issue appears to be a Dynex cable-doesn't work with 1 Seagate and 2 WD external drives but does work with Startech 5.25 drive enclosure.  Returned Dynex and am ordering SIIG, said to fit many drive connectors well..

On lockups, may be My Bad.  Noticed in the Drivers Home page, that the default choice is Vista 32-bit and when I pick Vista-64 bit, there is a 5/7/09 nVidia update 179.82 A06 (instead of the urgent, 5/19/09 update).  When I download and install, the flash screen says "installing Windows 7 drivers"  So Dell could make the 32-bit vs 64-bit choice a bit more obvious..

Hoping now that I have the latest 64-bit nVidia driver, things will be smoothly sailing and will post back my progress in a few days.

.........Hoping now that I have the latest 64-bit nVidia driver, things will be smoothly sailing and will post back my progress in a few days.

Just had my first lockup with the 5/7/09 64-bit 179.82 A06 nVidia video driver.  I was away from my computer.  I  plugged in the power for a Shure wireless microphone (which will send some signal to the microphone input port on the front of the XPS).  When I came back, the screen had locked up.

[quote user="Jim Lewis"] .........Hoping now that I have the latest 64-bit nVidia driver, things will be smoothly sailing and will post back my progress in a few days.

Just had my first lockup with the 5/7/09 64-bit 179.82 A06 nVidia video driver.  I was away from my computer.  I  plugged in the power for a Shure wireless microphone (which will send some signal to the microphone input port on the front of the XPS).  When I came back, the screen had locked up.

[/quote]

179.82 A06 is not the latest nVidia driver. (it is the latest available from dell though). try the drivers on laptopvideo2go. frequency of the freezes will 'probably' be reduced, but well if you read the posts in this thread, you'll know whats what.

I tried the Vista x64 185.67 and I get an error saying no hardware is compatible.

the official nvidia drivers do not work with the 9500 at the moment. (unless if you modify the inf). try the laptopvideo2go drivers.

I tried the Vista x64 185.67 from laptop2go and I get an error saying no hardware is compatible. :)

I tried the Vista x64 185.67 and I get an error saying no hardware is compatible.

Ugh, it just keeps getting better. My laptop crashed again while sleeping (not hibernating) last night and now, even after re-installing the audio driver, anything I play that has audio - flash, a DVD, a WMV - all pop and crackle like rice krispies. I'm definitely calling support tomorrow. I have no faith in this laptop and I'm going to push for a replace for the Studio 16, even though I don't want a laptop that big.

Finishing up my call with Dell Support and they've requested that I send the laptop back to the Depot (7-10 business days) for diagnostic and repair, or send a technician on-site. They strongly suggested I send it to the Depot, so I've agreed, even though I will be without my laptop for almost 2 weeks. I requested a complete replacement or replacement with a different model (Studio XPS 16) if I continue to experience issues. Dell Support won't guarantee that, but she did say she would note my request in the case.

So now I get to send my brand new laptop off for 2 weeks. Wonderful.

Well Fellows I'm on my 3rd m1340 and this one seems to work.  I did go though a minor fear with it but it seems to be the model.  Since I found nothing else wrong with the laptop after I corrected the drivers but downloading drivers for other models I realized that this whole laptop has a vibration issue on the palm rests.  I was like OH NO NOT AGAIN.  I did check it out in by compairing it to the same model in 2 Best Buy Stores and the same vibration was present.  Other brands didn't seem to have this Vibration.  Maybe it's the DVD Burner, the 7200 RPM Drive , (yet the ones in BB are 500 gb with a 5400 drive so it rules that out) so now we are talking about either the fan or the slot dvd burners.  But as of now my laptop works perfectly no blue screens, no freezes with dvd burner and all the media buttons work.  Let's hope I didn't curse myself but anyway fellows just keep pushing them.