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    XPS 1645: Computer switching off during games after flashing A13 bios

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by XtremStudio, Nov 23, 2011.

  1. XtremStudio

    XtremStudio Newbie

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    Hey All,

    Today, I flashed the A13 bios to my XPS1645 (using the Dell support page installer and file) and installed Catalyst 11.7 (Driver packaging version 8.872, Direct3D Ver. 7.14.10.0847). This was meant to get my computer up to date for a beta event I'm going to be involved in.

    I know... I know... what was I thinking.... ;)

    Now when I play a game, my screen blacks out and the computer switches off after a few minutes of play (3-10 mins). I don't really see a degradation in performance, that I'd expect to see from throttling. The game seems to be flying along very nicely one second - and the next I'm looking at a black screen and my computer powers down. In fact... up until the black screen, the performance seemed to be a good deal better than before.

    I have been having the now pretty well known issues with gaming on the XPS 1645. I had my power supply exchanged a long while back, but have continued to have problems with games lagging badly for periods while playing. I have it up on a back support to improve ventilation - and it's been good enough to manage to play most games reasonably well, so I've just been putting up with the intermittent lag.

    The new thing certainly feels very different, as I say. There doesn't seem to be any lag or frame-rate drop-off. It just goes from playing well to black screen of death. Having said that... I'm obviously looking at the bios update as being the most likely culprit. Does anybody have any thoughts as to that being the cause? Or is it likely to be something else?

    I looked at the Dell Support site and they only seem to offer the A06 Bios (Dos Version) or the A13, which is causing me the problems now. I'd happily roll back to an earlier version (I hear that the A09 seems to be a favourite) - but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that or where to get the file.

    Any help, advice or just /facepalm grunts will be gratefully received. ;)

    X
     
    XtremStudio, Nov 23, 2011
    #1
  2. XtremStudio

    XtremStudio Newbie

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    Oh I should probably mention that it's the Radeon Mobile HD4670 graphics sub-system in my XPS.

    X
     
    XtremStudio, Nov 23, 2011
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  3. reas_seammes

    reas_seammes Notebook Geek

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    reas_seammes, Nov 26, 2011
    #3