Various Problems with my Dell XPS M1730

Hi guys and gals

Intro:

I bought a new Dell M1730 (Vista OS) a few months ago and all I've had is problems from day one. The reason why I haven't tried to do something before - i.e send it back - is because what I use it for, it does perfectly, and I have other laptops to surf the net, listen to music, downloading stuff - torrents etc...

The main problems:

Randomly, I'll be surfing the net, and the web page will be constantly refreshing. Although it states that it is connected to my network fine? At the same time my other laptops would be working fine? The other laptops I use are XP machines and are lol-old.

Then programs start crashing, again randomly? The screen goes black, like it has been turned off but it is still running? After the refreshing problem, I use CCleaner to clear my temp files to see if this would help. A pop up usually appears stating that 'x' browser - usually Firefox or Chrome - needs to be closed in order to clear the private data, but I closed these programs already? At least 10 minutes ago...

I then open up task manager to see what processes are running, and sure enough loads of stuff is running which have already been closed? I then try and end the processes of said programs but it doesn't allow me to?

Everything is fine after a restart but how long the peace lasts for is again anyones guess? Sometimes a day, sometimes 30 minutes...

Sometimes it can take up to 10minutes to reboot. Occasionally it doesn't reboot and I have to remove the battery to make it restart.

I have NOD32 and Malware bytes as my secuirty as well as a firewall. I did a malware bytes scan the other day and a blue screen of death appeared about a memory dump? Unfortunately, the screen never appeared long enough to get all of the details. I've had to disabled UAC due to its annonyance and comflicts with other programs that I need to use everyday.


Thanks in advance

 

Sounds... for lack of a better word, ugly. Nonetheless, all of these seem like software problems; you might even have some malware on there. I think you should just wipe the thing and do a clean install. If the problems persist, at the very least, you'll be able to more accurately determine whether this is a software or hardware problem.

 

Unfortunately I've done this twice already!

One of the drivers on the dell disk doesnt install properly because I dont know how to install it as it isnt self extracting like all of the others? Maybe this could be the problem? I dont know...

I guess the only answer is sending it back to Dell.

Thx

 

Is it OEM Windows ?
Try to wipe HDD through live-cd, linux.

 

How are you reinstalling the operating system?
Cloning or through formatting and reinstalling everything?

I recommend you install XP, because it has much less bloatware than your factory Dell discs will have.
It seems like the random crashes maybe software, but they may be hardware related, as in a memory card becoming corrupt. Almost all laptop memory comes with a lifetime warranty, so if it is dead, than you can send the memory to the manufacturers, and you will receive new memory back.

You should run memtest86 on your system for a few hours if it lets you.
http://www.download.com/Memtest86/3000-2086_4-10524193.html

K-TRON