2 engineer visits this week plus one missed visit as he hadn't got the parts (today he admitted he was literally on my doorstep before he realised he didn't have them yesterday!). It did take me over a week of badgering tech support to convince them to send out an engineer at all though.
What wasn't perhaps clear from my previous post was that the visit today did result in the replacement of the motherboard, hard drive and some of the cooling systems. It was just the fan on the graphics card that was missed through being the incorrect part. The engineer also did the OS and driver installs himself so I'd expect them to be done right.....and it still died. I did have to show him how to enter the service tag in the BIOS though which is a little concerning. Even the guy he had to call to find out how to do this didn't know! Nice guy though - professional, courteous and punctual. It's not his fault the hardware's bobbins.
All-in-all, given the fact that there's now very little of this machine that hasn't been replaced, I'm of the opinion that there's an inherent design fault rather than being a single hardware issue.
As an aside, when will Dell list the drivers that need to be installed in the order they actually need to be installed in?! Where's the sense in putting them in any other order?! If something HAS to be installed first, put i at the top of the list - don't make us wade through all the help files first. The one that absolutely has to be installed first is about 13th on the list and you can't find that out without clicking each link and reading the installation instructions for every single one up to that point unless you've done it several times before and can remember which one it is! Absolutely senseless piece of software design.
At the moment the engineer has left it with A06 on it. If I can keep the thing up for long enough tonight I'll try and download A07 but I'm not holding my breath.
I've just come off the phone with them again and more escalations have lead them to consider a refund. I've asked them to confirm this with me on Monday but should they change their mind I'll happily pm you after then.
checked with best buy online to see some reviews of this product. but it is not sold online anymore. so i went to my local best buy to see if it's available and if the price has dropped because dell has dropped the price online and specially because of the new macs low price. but what the guy from best buy told his not sure if they are gonna sell studio xps13 again because of the high return rate and problems they encounter. i think it's true mine freezes out of the box. first time for me on a brand new computer. it doesn't freeze as much now after the bios update but the hotkeys rarely functions and the wifi turn on and off on its own. no wonder it's not sold online in best buy., if they don't carry it anymore. it wouldn't surprise me.
Well what a surprise - called Dell this morning to find out why they hadn't emailed me details of their proposed refund and they tried to deny any such agreement had taken place! Put them straight so we'll wait to see what happens.
@Bill - In the meantime, Bill, I'm going to send you those details you asked for as it will be Christmas before Dell pull their finger out at this rate.
Done - still locks up. Have even tried custom drivers from other sources where people have had problems with the drivers their hardware manufacturer provide. Still locks up.
Remove the memory -- Use a White eraser to clean the gold contacts, then remove the dust off... then reseat the memory into the computer...
Done. Still locks up.
ALso try running the computer with one memory card at a time to narrow down the issue...
Done. Still locks up.
Seriously - if there's a diagnostic test or something I can do to test the hardware, I've done it.
Had another go at getting it running this evening actually - managed 6 minutes and 20 seconds before it hung :(
Where are we supposed to get A07 if Dell have taken it off the site?
Why are Dell releasing unstable BIOS's?
Is your experience purely your experience or have you had someone from Dell confirm that A08 is unstable?
@Bill - I've sent you a PM but heard nothing back....
A07 is available if you go to the A08 download and click the link Other Versions to the right of the version number.
No idea why Dell would be releasing an unstable bios. My guess is that Dell is just not doing enough beta testing and therefore releases it to us thinking it will solve the issues. Then they get feedback and have to release another version just as quickly. I've also heard that they've had so many issues with this line that Best Buy here in the US is no longer selling this model.
This is purely my expierence with A08. It crashed my computer (the screen went black - the computer would not respond to keystrokes - the hard drive light was lit up but I wasnt able to get the computer to respond - had to manually shut it down by holding down the power button). With A07 I had 1 time in the last three weeks where it crashed. I installed A08 yesterday and had it crash 4 times last night after installing it. All I was doing was browsing the internet. Seems like the same issue from before.
Well, it's all over now bar the actual refund taking place. Yet again this morning they tried to deny offering a refund but it finally seems to be progressing. The only issue I have now is what to replace this useless black lump with.
Shame really - on paper it's an amazing piece of kit but in reality it's far from a saleable product imo. Having said that, even if it was working 100%, knowing what I know now about Dell's technical "support" would mean I still wouldn't buy another.
@Bill - don't worry about contacting your folks; this thing's out of my life on Thursday for good :)
Do me a favour and try something - remove the nVidia drivers and let the system revert to default VGA drivers. I'll be willing to bet it won't hang. Of course it's completely pointless having a tasty graphics card if you don't have the drivers to push it but I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the nVidia drivers and/or hardware. Of course it could also be the synergy of those and the BIOS but you can't get rid of that so get rid of the other.
Do me a favour and try something - remove the nVidia drivers and let the system revert to default VGA drivers. I'll be willing to bet it won't hang. Of course it's completely pointless having a tasty graphics card if you don't have the drivers to push it but I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the nVidia drivers and/or hardware. Of course it could also be the synergy of those and the BIOS but you can't get rid of that so get rid of the other.
May as well be a 1000 dollar paper weight then. I use it mostly for gaming so it has to have to the nVidia drivers. I'll probably end up reverting to A07 until they come out with A09 then ill try that.
I have read that other people have done the driver by driver install to see if it hangs and they seem to have the most issues when they install drivers for the Bluetooth and the nVidia drivers. I'm guessing the most of the hang up is in the nVidia drivers.
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 12th, 2009 07:00
Engineer arrived for the second refit - brought wrong fan :emotion-6:
Laptop crashed 20 minutes after he left.
Words cannot describe how angry I am with Dell and this heap of useless black plastic.
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 12th, 2009 09:00
2 engineer visits this week plus one missed visit as he hadn't got the parts (today he admitted he was literally on my doorstep before he realised he didn't have them yesterday!). It did take me over a week of badgering tech support to convince them to send out an engineer at all though.
What wasn't perhaps clear from my previous post was that the visit today did result in the replacement of the motherboard, hard drive and some of the cooling systems. It was just the fan on the graphics card that was missed through being the incorrect part. The engineer also did the OS and driver installs himself so I'd expect them to be done right.....and it still died. I did have to show him how to enter the service tag in the BIOS though which is a little concerning. Even the guy he had to call to find out how to do this didn't know! Nice guy though - professional, courteous and punctual. It's not his fault the hardware's bobbins.
All-in-all, given the fact that there's now very little of this machine that hasn't been replaced, I'm of the opinion that there's an inherent design fault rather than being a single hardware issue.
As an aside, when will Dell list the drivers that need to be installed in the order they actually need to be installed in?! Where's the sense in putting them in any other order?! If something HAS to be installed first, put i at the top of the list - don't make us wade through all the help files first. The one that absolutely has to be installed first is about 13th on the list and you can't find that out without clicking each link and reading the installation instructions for every single one up to that point unless you've done it several times before and can remember which one it is! Absolutely senseless piece of software design.
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 12th, 2009 09:00
At the moment the engineer has left it with A06 on it. If I can keep the thing up for long enough tonight I'll try and download A07 but I'm not holding my breath.
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 12th, 2009 15:00
I've just come off the phone with them again and more escalations have lead them to consider a refund. I've asked them to confirm this with me on Monday but should they change their mind I'll happily pm you after then.
charmaineq
10 Posts
0
June 14th, 2009 08:00
checked with best buy online to see some reviews of this product. but it is not sold online anymore. so i went to my local best buy to see if it's available and if the price has dropped because dell has dropped the price online and specially because of the new macs low price. but what the guy from best buy told his not sure if they are gonna sell studio xps13 again because of the high return rate and problems they encounter. i think it's true mine freezes out of the box. first time for me on a brand new computer. it doesn't freeze as much now after the bios update but the hotkeys rarely functions and the wifi turn on and off on its own. no wonder it's not sold online in best buy., if they don't carry it anymore. it wouldn't surprise me.
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 15th, 2009 08:00
Well what a surprise - called Dell this morning to find out why they hadn't emailed me details of their proposed refund and they tried to deny any such agreement had taken place! Put them straight so we'll wait to see what happens.
@Bill - In the meantime, Bill, I'm going to send you those details you asked for as it will be Christmas before Dell pull their finger out at this rate.
vj84
24 Posts
0
June 15th, 2009 13:00
Is this Windows Vista Home Premium?
Try installing the latest Video card drivers....
Remove the memory -- Use a White eraser to clean the gold contacts, then remove the dust off... then reseat the memory into the computer...
ALso try running the computer with one memory card at a time to narrow down the issue...
Cheers
Vejay
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 15th, 2009 15:00
Ultimate.
Done - still locks up. Have even tried custom drivers from other sources where people have had problems with the drivers their hardware manufacturer provide. Still locks up.
Done. Still locks up.
Done. Still locks up.
Seriously - if there's a diagnostic test or something I can do to test the hardware, I've done it.
Had another go at getting it running this evening actually - managed 6 minutes and 20 seconds before it hung :(
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 15th, 2009 16:00
Dell aren't publishing 07 on their site any more - just 08. Which I tried. Wanna guess what happened? :emotion-6:
rlp340
10 Posts
0
June 15th, 2009 22:00
A08 is unstable. I've had to reset 4 times since installing it and I had no issues with A07.
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 16th, 2009 02:00
3 questions:
Where are we supposed to get A07 if Dell have taken it off the site?
Why are Dell releasing unstable BIOS's?
Is your experience purely your experience or have you had someone from Dell confirm that A08 is unstable?
@Bill - I've sent you a PM but heard nothing back....
rlp340
10 Posts
0
June 16th, 2009 09:00
A07 is available if you go to the A08 download and click the link Other Versions to the right of the version number.
No idea why Dell would be releasing an unstable bios. My guess is that Dell is just not doing enough beta testing and therefore releases it to us thinking it will solve the issues. Then they get feedback and have to release another version just as quickly. I've also heard that they've had so many issues with this line that Best Buy here in the US is no longer selling this model.
This is purely my expierence with A08. It crashed my computer (the screen went black - the computer would not respond to keystrokes - the hard drive light was lit up but I wasnt able to get the computer to respond - had to manually shut it down by holding down the power button). With A07 I had 1 time in the last three weeks where it crashed. I installed A08 yesterday and had it crash 4 times last night after installing it. All I was doing was browsing the internet. Seems like the same issue from before.
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 16th, 2009 10:00
Well, it's all over now bar the actual refund taking place. Yet again this morning they tried to deny offering a refund but it finally seems to be progressing. The only issue I have now is what to replace this useless black lump with.
Shame really - on paper it's an amazing piece of kit but in reality it's far from a saleable product imo. Having said that, even if it was working 100%, knowing what I know now about Dell's technical "support" would mean I still wouldn't buy another.
@Bill - don't worry about contacting your folks; this thing's out of my life on Thursday for good :)
Jangla
26 Posts
0
June 16th, 2009 18:00
Do me a favour and try something - remove the nVidia drivers and let the system revert to default VGA drivers. I'll be willing to bet it won't hang. Of course it's completely pointless having a tasty graphics card if you don't have the drivers to push it but I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the nVidia drivers and/or hardware. Of course it could also be the synergy of those and the BIOS but you can't get rid of that so get rid of the other.
rlp340
10 Posts
0
June 16th, 2009 20:00
May as well be a 1000 dollar paper weight then. I use it mostly for gaming so it has to have to the nVidia drivers. I'll probably end up reverting to A07 until they come out with A09 then ill try that.
I have read that other people have done the driver by driver install to see if it hangs and they seem to have the most issues when they install drivers for the Bluetooth and the nVidia drivers. I'm guessing the most of the hang up is in the nVidia drivers.