XPS M1210 defect: Here's my story...

Here's my sob story...

I bought 3 Dell XPS M1210 's with identical configuration, the 7200 chip, 1 GB ram, video upgrade. After a couple weeks I upgraded each laptop's memory to 2GB and my problems started.

Each unit would get BSOD/stop errors (0x7f) intermittently, usually on startup or shut down. Sometimes 4 times a day, sometimes a few days.

I clean-reinstalled operating systems and applications several times (different XP versions, even), tested the ram extensively (10 hours at a time), no change. Dell replaced the ram chips (with refurbished, boo!) but no change.

At first they want to replace the motherboards, but Dell finally admits (after several hours on the phone and too much of it blaming my software, btw) that there is a known issue that they can reproduce in the lab but they have no solution for it yet.

Something between the builtin webcam, sound card and Windows, is the guess. Apparently the Logitech webcam drivers have clear conflicts with software like Alcohol 120%, but the errors are different than mine, and I don't use that software besides. I mention this as an example of the required drivers being buggy...also a good time to mention that the picture quality of the builtin webcam is embarrassing. Seriously, worst I've seen for many years. Compared to the Macbook webcam, it's prehistoric.

They refuse to replace the laptops because they have no reason to believe that the new ones will be any less defective. Instead, they offer a full refund and after some battle, to pay for shipping back. This is over $6000 and over a month of drama later.

So:

1) Anyone else having issues, particularly with 2GB of ram?

2) Should I keep the defective laptops and pray that Dell figures it out and fixes my laptops?

3) What other options do I have? I actually really like the M1210 (other than miserable speakers...oh, and terrible webcam). Macbook 13" with Bootcamp? Sony 13"? Who else makes a 12" powerhouse, with builtin webcam?

 

Take a look at the Asus W7J. It is very similar to the Sony SZ, except there is no integrated graphics option, and the maximum memory is 1.5GB. Otherwise, the Sony SZ is the best you can get, although a bit pricy.

Thats a pity that they dont work with 2GB ram, maybe they work better when the memory is factory installed?

 

I had similar problems with an e1505 and both my m1210's on dell factory installs, after fresh installs I havent had any issues to speak of at all, the 1505's been purring like a kitten for around 9 months, the m1210 was perfect for around three months, I eneded up having to exchange it to get the free vista upgrade, the one I'me running now has the webcam,t5600,2 gigg ram and gf, 7400, and no problems in the three weeks since I reinstalled windows, the original didnt have a webcam, I'm thinking it might be a buggy program you have running in the background, thats just a guess, but if it happens all 3 machines, I suggest taking one, do a fresh install, after you get windows on, drivers installed, and updated, install your apps one at a time, starting with crucial apps first, and test for stability in between, I had stablilty issues in general running alcohol a few years ago on my amd based desktop, I've never tried it since, hope you can figure something out

 

Run memtest86 on the machine, to make sure it isn't a hardware defect. It can't really be Dell's fault if it turns out to be a software bug causing the trouble.

 

Hi,

Just to respond to some points made:

I have run both Dell's battery of diagnostic tests and Memtest86 for hours on end. Overnight, thru the day, multiple passes....the memory checks out just fine, as well as the replacement refurb chips.

The ram chips were supplied by Dell. I did install them myself, but I'm an IT guy, and I don't think I'm at fault. Remember, 3 laptops, all same behavior. Dell is welcome to send a tech to do it, but really, the idea is silly.

I did reinstall all the operating systems, multiple times. The crap-ware loaded Media Edition from the restore partition, a much cleaner Dell-supplied version of same from disc (not bad at all, actually, thanks Dell!), and XP Pro SP2 from disc and all the latest drivers downloaded from the web site.

As far as my software being the culprit? If the M1210 has innate conflicts with the type of industry standard apps that I'm using, then that's a defect! For example, Office 2003, Firefox, Palm Desktop, Picasa, Nero, Skype, Photoshop, Winamp, Acrobat Reader... get the idea? No games, no flighty OSS stuff, nothing that I have not installed and used on countless other machines over the years.

What exactly am I supposed to do with a laptop with no software on it? Caveat emptor? $2000 laptop but will not work with Skype? Unacceptable...

And others seem to have no issue with 2GB ram (2x1GB chips) so why am I having issues times 3?

I should mention that I also bought a couple HP dv2000t laptops a month before I bought these. Same chip, same amount of ram, discrete video, also a builtin webcam...pretty similar actually but in a 14" formfactor and very pretty. Absolutely flawless stability, and with all my "suspicious" software, too. Kind of what you expect, really, so I was not impressed at the time. Don't tell me that I'm expecting too much, especially when I get a BSOD in the middle of a typing in Word.

And because it's as likely to happen at bootup as any other time, I have to discount the overheating idea. I'm actually kind of heartbroken, as I have come to love the little machine.

I hope I am not tempted to break my self-imposed boycott of Sony! (for a variety of reasons, but that's a whole new thread)

 

Are the RAM chips provided by Dell Samsung sticks?

 

well, the portableone ux (clevo m520n) is worth a look if you don't need a dedicated gpu. or the asus w5f

 

are you using final release versions of all your programs? more often than not its not the hardware conflicting with the software, but vice versa, especially in beta builds, and as I'm sure your aware, 90% of most final versions are in reality beta in quality, I'm running the majoraty of the programs you listed on my m1210, same config as yours except for the cpu with no problems at all, I've actually tried to make it crash and was unsuccesful, if you could isolate a specific app, you could perhaps find a workaround, other than that I'm out of ideas, good luck.

My m1210 is the best laptop I've ever used, one other thing, have you upgraded to the latest bios? That can sometimes solve stability issues .

 

I think I've had 2-3 BSOD since I got the laptop, but that's before I re-formatted. Right now, it works perfectly- and I even have 2 GB of Ram too. When you reinstalled windows, did you delete the other partitions (i.e. restore, media direct)? Also, is it possible that your setup disk is corrupted? I had a corrupted disk once and it gave me a lot of trouble...

 

lixuelai: No, they are Nanya brand, both original and refurb. I never heard of them.

Iceman0124: I upgraded to A05 (from A04) hoping that would do it, but no such luck. I read a popular thread here (11 pages!) about another XPS system that looks fatally flawed and they have narrowed it down to faulty firmware. The solution seems to be to flash back to A01 (from A06!) until Dell issues a fix, like they did with a similar Precision model. Terrible, as the BSOD skips several weeks before reappearing!

hehe299792458: Since I have three of them, I've been able to do some testing outside of the typical user. Like I wrote, I have done different things on each laptop. For example, one laptop has the Dell-provided TrendMicro anti-virus, where the other two have AVG. And yes, on one I have deleted all partitions and rebuilt from scratch. And no, I haven't done anything with the MediaDirect button.

All have Office 2003 though, so it's not like I've done strict lab testing...after all, people are actually trying to use these things as their only computers! I didn't drop $6000 so that I can blow weeks of my life beta testing Dell's products. I had this idea that they would work well out of the box...

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. The more I look at alternatives, the more I am reminded why I went with the M1210 originally: it has terrific specs! The ASUS units look pretty nice, though... (grrrr, Sony!)

I would be more open to troubleshooting and giving Dell the time they need (well, I don't know about 6 months!) to resolve this, but I'm afraid Dell will just move on with a new model (M1211?) and forget about the M1210, leaving me in the lurch, ready to sell a whole new round of laptops to us. Am I cynical?

 

Not problems here, DDR-2 667 1GB sticks working. I also briefly tried some eval 667 2G sticks we have here at work, for a couple of days, not problems, apart from the stupid price manufacturers are wanting for them....

 

Just got my new M1210 and have had 4 BSOD and the Web-cam microphone echos into a violent feedback loop. Video quality is very poor as well. I have been on tech support for three days and have been sent back and forth between hardware and software 3 times. A tech came to my house to replace the Logitech Web-cam Microphone combo. Still doesn't work. Many posts about this on the Dell forum and the Logitech forum. Wish I could get the answer, because this is the perfect machine if it worked as advertised. I musta got a lemon if the majority is happy with their M1210's.

My M1210 came with the
2GB RAM installed at the factory.
XP Media,
100GB 7200RPM drive.
DVD recorder.
Bluetooth.
Pre-n wireless.
and of course the web-cam / microphone.

 

is it just me or is dell the majority [ if not the only] company with bsods
i mean i dont see anyone having any problems with other manufactures i.e: hp,
lenovo, toshiba, sony

maybe im not looking hard enough

 

Can you tell me what error you were getting with the BSOD? We've been getting 0x0000007f very consistently. (I believe the proper format is to skip all the zeros and just write 0x7f, reading from the MS knowledgebase.

We have decided to return all three units for a full refund, as we can't trust that things will be resolved in a timely manner. I don't know what we will pick out as a replacement, but our trusty HP dv2000t's are still running flawlessly and so while they are bigger they might do for us.

I'm really upset over this experience, and I don't fall in love with computers as an IT guy. Still, I feel kinda heartbroken and betrayed. Sad to see 'em go...

Good luck to the rest of you!

 

The BSOD was always the 0x7f version. Most I could reboot into normal mode but one had to go through safe mode to get back to normal. Now I am considering returning for a refund and looking at the dv200t or Asus, or waiting till Vista release.

Has anyone been using their M1210 as a Skype Video Phone without a headset? (Just talking at the installed web-cam built in to the computer and listening through the built-in speakers). Works well with a headset. Feedback loop/ echo/ choppy audio transmission happens only when computer is used by itself.

Thanks for any help on this.

 

i had these same problems. was running avg antivirus, the free version that aol sponsored. after i dumped this crapware and installed norton (and since avast) i've had 0 problems. both xp and vista have been flawless!

 

Vav8r:
Yes, without a headset the builtin mic picks up terrible feedback, unusable. A headset is required for Skype-type uses. The HP dv2000t is not perfect in this respect, but it is better, though depending on volume of the speakers, etc, it may or may not be usable. Always better with a headset!

Tarfu:
Two laptops are using AVG, paid version. One laptop is using Dell-supplied TrendMico PC-cillin. Using Norton is inexcusable, never going to happen. Avast is ok, from what I've seen.

Either way, again, I should not spend $2000 per laptop to have to be scared of using any of the extremely popular and otherwise functional software on the market. I would be running Linux if I wanted that.

And come time to move to Vista, I hope to be able to do just that.

 

You are not the only one having trouble with XPS 1210, my advise is to steer clear of this crappy company and buy anything else. I was using an Compaq V2000 centrino 1.66 , without any problem for the last two years, then decided to upgrade to the XPS M1210, and my nightmare began, This peice of **** does not work with the logitech Webcam drivers, and any other software, the black screen of death is what you get after booting. I have reformatted 7 times in 7 days and still does not work. Dell Tech support has changed my motherboard but the problem remains, its rather well listed on all dell forums. I wonder why this product was well reveiwed. The problem has been there for the last 7 months but this company refuses to do anything.

I am based in New Delhi India and would recommend a class action suite against DELL, to pay examplary damages to all its harrased buyers(suckers).

I am reproducing below some of my correspondence with DELL tech support;

Send angry letters to Micheal Dell and their tech support, asking them to withdraw all buggy XPS machines.

Vivek Sharma
New Delhi India
[email protected]
______________________________________________________________
Dear Daniel

Firstly I thank you for your support and prompt responses which have been the best in all my experiences with support staff. You guys are doing a great job, so keep it up!!

Some concerns to be brought to your Technical team worldwide about manufacturing defects in the XPS series computers:

1. All XPS computers suffer from a serious problem with the Webcam and integrated Mike, this problem has been existing from June 2006, and Dell in all its wisdom chooses to ignore it. There are atleast 500 pages on Dell technical forums, some of which I have reproduced below with appropriate links.

2. This is a manufacturing defect and DELL should withdraw all computers with an intergrated webcam from logitech or give an immediate solution.

3. Regarding the wireless catcher light not working, your support site and manual P/N PF362 Rev. A03, August 2006 page 21 gives five states for the light from flashing green to amber and off. In the current machine this light is dead from the start, now I have been told by Dell Tech support
(a) that the light only works initially and then goes off forever
(b) that this is related to the software and after initial problems in the revised bios/software the light does not work
My question is that why should Dell Inc. not put an explanation in its manual about this??? Answers 3(a) and 3(b) are illogical answers without any basis, coming from the Official DELL tech Support.

4. Even after changing the motherboard both the defects remain, which means that all computers of the XPS range suffer from this defect, and should thus be immediately withdrawn from the International Market.

I have been told that a Dell support technicial is coming to help and reload the O/s after formatting the computer. Dell technical support has already tried for 4 hours on 25th January, including changing the motherboard but both problems remain.

I NOW REPEAT THE RELIEF WANTED:
1. Immediately replace my machine with a machine of similar or greater value which does not suffer from these defects, and that DELL should ensure that these machines are properly tested before delivery.

2. That in case the above is not possible to refund me the amount of Rs. 81,000 (US$ 1,832.05) immediately.

Sincerely

Vivek Sharma
Managing Trustee
Gandhi Ashram Reconstruction Trust
New Delhi

On Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:50:06 +0530, <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Vivek,

Appologies for the delay of my reply.
I have received all your emails and in the past 48 hrs, I have brought
your concerns to the attention of Customer Care.
As per our conversation over the phone a few days back, please bare with
me, as I have sought assistance from Customer Care to expedite your
concerns.
Our customer service representatives will assist you in your replacement
or refund request.


Thank you & best regards,

Daniel Wong
Dell Services - Technical Support
ANZ & SA - Online Team
Email: [email protected]

XPS Toll-Free Numbers
1300-790-877 (Australia)
0800-935-515 (New Zealand)
1800-88-5784 (Malaysia)
1800-394-7464 (Singapore)
1800-425-2066 (India)

How am I doing? Email my manager [email protected]

Visit the Dell Service and Support center at:
http://support.ap.dell.com. Great Tools, Tips and Information on
supporting Dell Equipment... 24 hrs x 7 days.


-----Original Message-----
From: Vivek Sharma [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 12:02 PM
To: Anandan, Rajan
Cc: Dell, Michael; Fruitwala, Zeena; CustCare, India; Wong, Keat Min;
AP, Indiaxps
Subject: Re: Hardware and Software Issues DELL customer No. 157118,

Dear Rajan and Michael

When purchases a DELL and gets only a dark screen after several
installations and 7 days, its very frustrating, and makes one wonder if
its been a great mistake trusting DELL.

Unfortunately this problem is very common on all XPS laptops with an
integrated camera, and there seems to be no solution. I have been
interacting with Mr. Daniel AND Mr. Roy at the designated Dell Support.

While both these gentleman have been very helpful and even uselessly
shipped a new board, the problem remains. Mr. Roy insists that the Dell
Support technician will have to install the new board and then format
and re-load windows. I have to point out and that I have already
formatted and re-loaded 7 times without any luck. Why cant the tech
support read dell FORUMS, its really costing DELL a lot of customer
goodwill.

Please NOTE that the computer works only with the webcam and mic
logitech drivers not loaded. I HAVE ALSO ALSO DOWNLOADED THE NEW DRIVERS
FROM THE DELL SITE AS SUGGESTED BY DANIEL. THIS ALSO DOES NOT WORK.

Without wasting any more time I now suggest the following to save us all
needless frustration and heartaches:-

1.Replace this laptop with another XPS without the Webcam and refund me
the difference.
2.Refund me Rs. 81,000 which I paid to Dell, immediately, as I have been
through 7 days of Hell.

Sincerely

Vivek Sharma


Please note the posts from DELL forum and see the links below, this is
for DELL technical support, so that they may correctly identify the
problem and extreme customer frustration.

Reply 2 of 14
KnightFall
Bronze
Posts: 8
Registered: 08-08-2005

Viewed 352 times
Yep,
This is one of the common problem, there is a conflict with the Logitech
webcam drivers, if you uninstall logitech, it works fine...
Unfortunately all xps m1210s have this problemn As usual Dell is not
response to this problem... Who cares
10-26-2006 01:10 AM


http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_po
rt_vid&message.id=1969&c=us&l=en&cs=19&s=dhs
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=xps_po
rt_genhdw&message.id=6746&c=us&l=en&cs=19&s=dhs
________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________

From: "vivek sharma" <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Cc:
Subject: Re: Hardware and Software Issues DELL customer No. 157118,
B6V6N1S
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:48:41 +0530

Dear Daniel

Tech Support specialist Mr. Pradeep was here to install the new
motherboard.
Even after installation and re-loading of all drivers the problem of the
blank screen remains, as well as the wireless catcher light does not
work. The original motherboard was re-fitted back on the machine.


Kindly suggest a solution of either testing and sending a new machine
which works without these problems, or refunding the cost of Rs. 81,000
which I paid for this machine.

Regards

Vivek Sharma

On 1/25/07, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:


Hi Vivek,

Here is the link to the Logitech Camera driver download.
Do remove the current drivers from your computer before installing the
new one.
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=in&l=en&s=g
en&releaseid=R142311&SystemID=XPS_M1210&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=11933&dev
lib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=2&formatcnt=1&libid=17&fileid=189924

Should you need further assistance, let us know.

Thank you & best regards,

Daniel Wong
Dell Services - Technical Support
ANZ & SA - Online Team
Email: [email protected]

XPS Toll-Free Numbers
1300-790-877 (Australia)
0800-935-515 (New Zealand)
1800-88-5784 (Malaysia)
1800-394-7464 (Singapore)
1800-425-2066 (India)

How am I doing? Email my manager [email protected]

Visit the Dell Service and Support center at:
http://support.ap.dell.com. Great Tools, Tips and Information on
supporting Dell Equipment... 24 hrs x 7 days.

 

Vivekvir:
What an ordeal you have been through. XPS is supposed to be the peak of Dell's products and support, and if you pay the price you are supposed to get the finest Dell has to offer. Unfortunately, it seems to be a farce, at least for us unlucky ones.

(I need to mention that every time I called their special XPS support number, no matter which service tag I entered I was always---and by always I mean a good dozen times---routed to their standard support queue. Which means a long hold time, and battling with the tech, and then hold again for the XPS queue and begin battle again. Terrible!)

And so I have no choice than to take my business elsewhere. And working in IT as I do, my recommendations are very influential to an amazing number of people, from soccer moms to CEO's. This is separate from my own company's purchasing decisions. At this point both HP and Lenovo are being tested. In this business, Dell would be wise to cultivate a very loyal following, aka Apple, and be willing to lose money and face short-term in order to keep customers coming back for years to come.

And finally, I feel terrible for all the well-intentioned support techs and engineers who have worked so hard on this laptop and its issues. Imagine the hard-working and talented engineers perfecting the motherboard only to have some idiot across the way screw up the webcam so bad that the whole project is doomed. And then the hapless techs who have to solve the inherent defects on their own, while dealing with the usual type of support calls...probably about why some WOW type game isn't working right or something. Best of luck, troops!

 

I have similar issues with BSOD and audio problems with skype. I can not believe that problems this laptop has out of the box. Being an IT for ten years I was shocked. Skype will not work with logitech web software and drivers installed. All you get is choppy horrible sound quality. One you remove them skype sounds fine. Of course once you do that you loose the ability to do video calls. The only solution i found was to use a headset that has USB sound card built in. Thus bypassing the buggy dell logitech sound device mic. Using a regular cheap headset with stereo plugs does NOT solve the problem, since it stills usies logitech for dell mic for incoming sound.

I tried it with...
- the dell OS out of the box untouched
- reinstalling with a clean Windows XP SP2 with nothing install but the latest skype and logitech only drivers. I still get choppy skype audio and BSOD
- I have the latest A06 bios
- Update to latest driver of logitech and everything else on the dell site

MY m1210 is one gig ram (2x512 Hyundai Electronics ), built in video, sigmatel audio, original dual core (not dual core2, I wish), Wireless 3945abg

if anyone has a solution please let me know

chris

 

Hi Folks!

I'd like to update everyone on this quagmire. (though Barfarf has an interesting idea about using a USB headset, sucks to improvise with a high-end, new laptop)

Dell Picked up the laptops (via UPS call tags) but will not ever seem to get around to issuing me the promised refund.

Yes: they keep the laptops and my $6000.

They torture me (as usual) on the phone and ignore my emails. I have been forced to dispute the charge with my credit card company. Yes, I have to treat Dell like a criminal!

So this must be the perfect end to this story. Michael Dell should be ashamed. I have purchased HP products instead and will continue to keep a personal and professional ban on Dell products indefinitely. Further, Dell should know that I work in IT, and will for some time. My purchasing decisions will surely cost them well beyond the $6000 that they seem to be trying to steal. To say nothing of my recommendations to friends, family, peers (that's you!) and clients. They sorely underestimate the power of consumers, and we are not talking about grapes or shoes...we throw down thousands of dollars at a time based purely on a trust we have in Dell. Well, no more. (poor US car makers learning this the hard way)

So whether this is an issue of incompetency or criminal act is irrelevant. Dell will refund my $6000 if I have to go to court to get it. And my local small claims court is very accessible, not an obstacle at all, so this is not an empty threat. Best part? No lawyers! Dell has to send an employee to my little town to show up in court that *is not* a lawyer or forfeit. Pretty ironic...I almost wish that my credit card company refuses my dispute just to see who Dell ponies up to defend this BS.

So for the rest of you: be wary of Dell, and do not accept a buggy, defective M1210. And don't allow yourselves to get tossed around by tech support forever.

Good luck.

 

Whoops, forgot to mention: A co-worker bought a M1210 with Vista on it, despite my warnings. A few days in....you guessed it....BSOD, or what passes for it in Vista.

So FYI for those wondering about Vista. Might be just a Vista thing, unrelated to our troubles, but had to let you know.