freezing

i have an inspirion 8100 notebook with windows xp home edition i bought with the notebook, but i still have the same Bios and driver i bought in february this year.

Hi Uli

I have an Inspiron 8000, running Windows Me with BIOS Version Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A09. Mine freezes just like yours. Anybody any ideas on how to start debugging?

I have an Inspiron 2650 that is only 1 month old and it freezes regularly. The first time was when I opened up the Control Panel for the 1st time to set up my internet connection. Do I have some kind of black magic touch, or is this a generic problem?

I can't beleive the amount of people having freezing problem with all version of Dell laptop.  I have the same problem... 

 

Inspiron 8500 Bios A02, latest driver, clean install.... freeze every 5 to 30 minutes.

truemobile 1300,

S.

Mine is freezing randomly (Inspiron 8500 WUXGA, XP Pro).  Although I now think that it freezes when I use my IE, scrolling the page down and there are animated gifs on the page.  At least I've had this situation a few times since a week ago when I received it.  The screen locks up.  Fan running.  No response to any keystrokes or mouse moves.  Only way to reboot is to hold power key.  Called tech support a few times.  First suggestion: boot with the CD, go into recovery console, type chkdsk /r.   After the process completed, it reported a few errors found and fixed.   After this I had a perfect day and a half of work.  Then it froze again.  Called tech support.  They had me run the extensive diagnostics test for 2 hours.   Passed it with flying colors.  The tech called me back in a few hours and, after learning my results, suggested I re-install XP completely.  I did that.  Had a suspicion that maybe one of the updates caused the lock-ups.  Decided not to install any updates.   The machine locked up after about 4 hours.   Now, I've installed every update there is.  Downloaded and installed only the latest drivers from Dell support site ( not the ones that came on the CD with this machine).    Typing this message on it.  So far, 4 hours non-stop.  

I really want to keep this thread alive.  Will keep posting any updates.  I also have a friend with Inspiron 8200 running XP pro.  His machine locks up about once a week.

If I will continue getting these lock-ups, I will send my laptop back.   Still have about 3 weeks until my 30 day period ends.

 

OK.  It froze after about 5.5 hours.  It happened when I opened my IE and went to www.msnbc.com

There was a pop-under window with an image half-loaded.  I rebooted (power-down, start again).  Out of curiosity went to msnbc again.  Nothing happened.  I hovered my mouse pointer above their navigation menu on the left.   The computer froze immediately.  So, I am 95% sure the problem is with IE.

Edit: Went to msnbc again.  No freezes. 

Any suggestions (besides using a different browser)?

Service tag: 6NH6T21

Message Edited by DrGliuk on 05-21-2003 10:48 PM

Many of your freezing issues are probably being caused by bad or poorly written software. I would recomend either removing the software or some programs in the system tray and see if that helps resolve the problem. It's not just dell computers but all computers that can crash, you just have to learn to live with it or isolate the problem. Using improper drivers or hardware also may crash the system. If you can't stand the crashing, re-install windows. Generally XP and 2000 are the most stable platforms out right now. I'd need more information to determine the source of the crash.

Message Edited by Nerdtalker on 05-21-2003 09:58 PM

If you read my above posts you would see that I did reinstall XP from scratch and it crashed.  

I am also suffering the Inspiron random freeze (must cycle power to recover). I have a 3 weeks old 8500, WUXGA, XP Home, 60 GB, CDRW/DVD, TrueMobile1300.

I had 512MB of Crucial PC2100 DDR waiting when the system arrived, and immediately installed it (system came with 1 256MB DIMM). I am sensitive to ESD issues, and took precautions. The freezing started the first day, before I had installed any additional software or updated XP or any drivers. At first I suspected IE, then the touch pad, but eventually ruled those out. I installed all updated drivers from Dell, and all "critical" Windows updates. Problem persisted. Makes no difference if system is docked or not. Suspected the Crucial memory, so I took it out and tried the 256MB DIMM alone. Wasn't able to recreate the problem with the single DIMM in either slot. Got a NEW 512MB DIMM from Crucial and installed it WITH the 256MB. A couple of days later, the system froze again. I am now trying to re-create the problem with the 512MB DIMM ONLY.

I am not doing anything memory intensive when the freeze occurs. Typically I only have a couple of applications running (Messenger, IE/Netscape, Outlook).

Those of you experiencing the problem, are you running with 2 dissimilar-sized DIMMs? Anyone with any other tips for trying to isolate the problem?

I am in the same situation.  I have 2 brand new 8500.  One rarely if ever freezes the second freezes all the time.  Mostly it happens in IE.  I ran the diagnositcs but nothing showed up.  Now I am going to start a reinstall of XP but I am not hopefull.  Open to suggestions.

 

--kamie

Inspiron 8500 XP Pro

512 RAM, 60gig HD, 64Meg Nvidia

I have a Inspiron 2650.  About a month or so ago, my laptop started freezing up.  I was online at the time.  I thought it was just an isolated incident but then it started freezing up at other times.  The only program I had install within the past three months was an game I downloaded.  I removed the game but I'm still having problems.  Now I'm having problems powering up.  The power light comes on but then the system freezes.  I have to push and hold the power button to turn the machine off then push the power button again to turn it on.  I've done this ten times today!!  When I finally got into my system and started working, it froze again.  I do not want to reinstall XP - I will loose my current configurations! 

Hi,

i was suffering from the sudden FREEZING for several months (I8200, 1.6, 768MB RAM, 1600x1200 GeForce 4 440 Go 64 MB, latest bios and vbios, TrueMobile 1150).

DIAG did not find anything.

I tried several versions of all kind of drivers - nothing did help. Until i did a clean install of WinXP (not recover). Not one freeze since over 4 weeks now. Finally i won

Give it a try.

Stefan

Stefan,

Did you receive the system from Dell with the 768MB memory configuration, or did you add third party memory?  If so, do you recollect if the freezing problem happened prior to installing third party memory?

 

I really want to see this thread kept alive too.

Inspiron 8500
Mobile Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz
WUXGA
NVIDIA® GeForce4  4200 Go
CDRW + DVD Combo Drive
40 GB hard drive
512MB Ram (1DIMM)
Dell TrueMobile 1300 WLAN (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) miniPCI Card

Received laptop Wednesday May 21
Experienced my first freeze about 1 hour out of the box.
Went ahead and loaded a bunch of software thinking I'd be able to address the freezing later.
Intermittent freezing continued.
Yesterday, May 25 the big freeze became too much to handle.
I had just read this thread and was registering to join the club with my post and the 8500 froze again. Same thing as everyone else - no option but to totally power off.
(I'm writhing this from the office where I have a dependable desktop.)
So, like Stefan, I started from scratch. Deleted the partition, reformatted and installed Win XP Home myself with no Dell stuff. After I had the system back up I began loading drivers. Anyway, about an hour later I was feeling pretty good and was back surfing and it froze again.
Rebuilt the laptop again. Now I loaded only the video, sound, "SpeedStep patch", chipset drivers and wireless min PCI card. That's all that's on the machine - NO windows updates from MS - it still freezes!!!
In total desperation last night I signed up for and downloaded MSN8's free 2 month trial (Hey, I said I was desperate!) I only spent about an hour last night but experienced no freezing yet in MSN8. This morning before leaving I played on the web for about a half an hour. Froze in IE after about 3 minutes (on Dell support pages) but again, not yet in MSN8.
Here's what I KNOW:
it always freezes in IE.
I've never used the wired LAN connect; It's ONLY been on the wireless.
I suspected, but eliminated the touchpad/pointer drivers and Dell QuickSet

Anyone else only seeing this in IE?
Anyone else seeing this only on wireless?
Anyone tried a different browser?
How do we get Dell to acknowledge this problem?

Thanks all!
Tim

Tim,

If it is freezing right out of the box then call Dell Support ASAP.  Pull and reseat the HD and the memory just to be sure.  We logged several support calls with Dell from day one.  The last straw was wiping the machine and having a basic install of XP freeze.  Called Dell support, went through the list of everything we did and pointed out to them that we got 2 identical laptops, one is freezing and one is just fine.  I should have a replacement laptop by Tuesday of next week. 

 

--kamster