The DELL Studio XPS 13 horror thread

Remember that the Warranty is only good from the date when the computer was shipped to worstbuy not a year from when you bought it .

 

Thanks, bestbuy just barely received the stock, so should still have lots of time left. But of course I'm just running this to test it out make sure it doesnt freeze and die like the last one.....gonna leave it on 24/7

 

Guys.got a question.. my SXps13 runs fine... pretty hot but much better than than before...here is a small problem. The exhaust vent cover... the piece of plastic that makes up the exhaust plate is loose...not to the point where its gonna fall off or anything like that, I'm sure its not going anywhere. But the fitting is off and whenever i set the laptop down it would make a loud clicking sound due to the loose vent plate make contact with other plastic pieces now.

I couldnt find document or stuff on how to service this.. any suggestions? it does not impede any functions but rather it make loud clicking noise when i move laptop or put laptop down....

 

That piece is held together by screws and plastic clamps. When i took if off last time i forgot to put enough pressure so that the clamps fall into place and it was also loose. A nice strong push solved it. In case any clamps are broken, I'm sure you could order a new one from dell spare parts.

 

Where is the screw..? is it under the rubber feet? I couldnt seen to find the screw and kinda hesitant to rip off the rubber feet if its not there..

 

I can vaguely see a clamp there near top right of the vent, and i pushed things different way nothing would clamp into place....any idea where where screw is? under the rubber feet or do I have to take off the whole bottom plate of the laptop to get to it

 

I'm going to retract my post from yesterday. Last night a few things happened that really irked me.

First: While playing games the computer just froze and BSOD'ed about 4 times. The CMOS had a checksum error and then any time after that when booting into Windows the computer would freeze up and artifact terribly.

Second: The LCD cover popped right out of the laptop, without me even pulling on it or anything.

So, I called Dell tech with these problems, and they asked me to open the laptop myself to reseat the RAM and HDD. I've done this before so I followed their instructions, no big deal. But when I tried to turn the laptop back on, the media keys would just flash and nothing would happen. So essentially, the rep had bricked my laptop. Next he asked me to take pics of the LCD, which I did and he said he would be replacing that as well as the motherboard in my system, but I wouldn't be getting a call from Dell for replacement for about 2 more days.

I'm pretty mad right now, and I really just want to return this laptop, but I cant.

 

now u have a serious problem !!! damn... i guess i better pack mine up, return and keep the G51 then..

 

I would, just to be safe. Games run great on the XPS 13 for the first 5 minutes, but after that it just freezes and hangs there. Dell's coming sometime next week, so I'm out of a computer for quite a while now. I asked the tech online what I could do if the new motherboard and LCD don't fix the problem, and she just said that it will fix the problem, and there's nothing to worry about, even though I could have sworn I've seen people on this forum who've gone through 3 or 4 different motherboards and are still having issues.

I didn't receive the laptop until a few months after it was built, so returning it is probably out of the question. I'm pretty much stuck as far as this goes, and I'm out $900

 

back from Bestbuy...they are so retarded..at the counter, I showed the guy why I wanted to return and the loose piece and the loud clunk it makes.. he was able to consistently reproduce the problem and said oh yea.. this is not good. Then he had to take it to Geek Squad to inspect it, ok fine.. had me waiting freaking 20 mins!! then i walked up and ask the guy on whats the delay, he said oh they have to check it out some more and to make sure its defective ( hello...?????) or else there would be 15% restocking fee, and its gonna take 15-20 mins more....finally I had it.. took out my premier silver member card and told them..disregard everything I said before..just refund me minus the restocking fee...finally they did......god........................

 

You mentioned your buddy's g51 overheat? i read lots of review.. it does run hot in game with GTX 260 video card of course I understand, but never to a point of overheat.......hows ur buddy's holding up?>

 

Far as I know he returned it. His is for college, so he need's it to be quite dependable. If it isn't a know issue though, I'd see no reason not to buy it. He probably just had something wrong with his.

 

Roger that.. thanks for reply.. did you see previous page my encounter with bestbuy?

 

Long time lurker, first time writer.

I've had the Studio XPS 13 for 3 months now (P9600, WLED, 256GB SSD) and I haven't had any troubles with it so far. In fact, I love it (my first laptop, really). The heating issues were a bit troubling at first, though.

So, as any computer geek would do, I removed the thermal pads and put AS5 on. The thing is, I have no idea how the current performance (temperature-wise) compares to other people's and I'd like to share data.

Right now, I have the CPU undervolted to 0.9250 with RMClock (btw does your laptop lock up in SuperLFM?) and it's running at about 38-40 degrees Celsius (browsing and listening to music) - I actually cut some 5 degrees off the thermometer compared to the original pads. Also, I can watch 480p XviD movies now without it going above 40 degrees. How does that compare to yours? I'm not convinced I did a perfect job on the cooling, so I'm considering changing my strategy and doing some more modding.

Don't know about you but I'm eagerly awaiting the new BIOS update - I hope once the DPC issues are fixed, the CPU can spend some more time in the deeper C-states.