should i send back my 9400?

I have had my 9400 for a little over a week and i have had 11 blue screens. Every time it flashes the blue screen for about 2 seconds and then reboots. so far I have not found any pattern. I have reinstalled windows 3 times. I spoke to dell today and found out that they say I have to install the drivers in a special order and i tired that and it still rebooted. I have run the diagnostics that dell wanted me to and I didn’t find any thing wrong it all passed. i have been up for about 36 hours so I am getting a little tired at this point but I am at a loss at what else to do other then send it back. anyone have any ideas ?

on the second install I installed coolbits to OC the video card but the last install I did nothing other the OS, the dell drivers, and halflife 2. Sometimes it will happen when im using the machine but other times it will reboot when it is sitting and not being used at all. It did it this morning at 4am when I had been working on my other machine for almost 7 hours straight.

i got the complete care (which dell says dosent cover software trouble) so i should be able to have dell do what ever i need them to do.

 

Well your are still in your 21 day return period, so dell will cover it anyways. What I would do, is call dell and tell them you want a replacement. That this is their fault (which it is since it has started happening since you got it out of the box). Generally they'll request you to the send the laptop back in first and wait till your credit is issued, but I would just demand that you get a replacement now.

You might not want to keep the laptop from the sounds of it though.

As far as what could be wrong, could be anything. The diagnostics test don't catch everything. The only two suggestions that I have is to reseat the HDD and memory. Could just be loose in either of those.

 

Maybe it is a good idea to reinstall the whole system from the special partitition on the harddisk (as long as you have not deleted that), and then see how it runs without any software you installed yourself...

 

Yea... just return / exchange the machine for another one just like it. And hope for better luck.

 

I agree with them. Ask for replacement of the notebook. Your purchase is still covered with 21-days Total Satisfaction Policy. Just talk to Dell Tech support and if they can't solve it, demand a return/replacement/refund (whichever you want). They'll transfer your call to the Dell Customer Care who will send you an document to sign (another quotation and a letter head that says it's a free replacement and free shipping of the notebook with information on how long you'll get the new notebook and how many days before they'll get the original notebook).
Once you received the new quotation, review it properly and thoroughly. Make sure that it has the same configuration of your original notebook. If there's discrepancy, inform them soon and ask for revised quotation.

 

I'm going to use slightly different language: Specifically, you should return the computer, rather than exchange, replace, etc. You should then make an entirely separate order for your second. I say this because I can imagine customer service being a pain in the butt for the unit you receive in exchange; after all, in their eyes, you will have already replaced it once. That's just me being paranoid about incompetent and unfeeling customer service, though I think I have good reason to be.

 

Actually, the Dell Tech support and Customer Care will ask the customer what they want (to Replace/exchange, refund or return) if they found out that the problem is with the Dell computer (not a problem made by the user). That's my experience with them. One of the tech support told me that they've pass the incident to Customer Care after I told him that I'm not satisfied to know that some keys aren't functioning.
After few minutes, another tech support phoned me asking whether I want to return, refund or exchange. I choose exchange/replacement. The next day, the Customer Care contacted me by explaining how replacement works (receive the replacement then they'll send the courier service to take back the faulty one).

The replacement notebook covers another 21 days of satisfaction policy. I have a problem with the 2nd notebook - the LCD and screen resolution keep going back to blurred state no matter how I adjust it. I'm in touch with tech support again and I will ask for return this time or simply send me Inspiron 9400 then I'll return the i630m. I'll see what their tech support will say (who promised to contact me again). Maybe tomorrow... I'll find out.

 

at this point i have talked to our IT guys here at work (thats funny since by job class i am in IT but i dont touch hardware). they told me a few things to try one of which was to reseat the ram. i did that and now everything seems to be doing great. i will watch for a few more days and make sure but if it stays stable i wont bother with the return as i dont really want to install another machine.

 

The issue you are having I just recently experienced. It was a memory issue but the particular module that was giving me problems had to be replaced.

 

And so this should be the last of this saga. My system crashed again last night. so I ran memtest86 and it found trouble in the ram. I called dell and they had me run tests and do things like swap banks on the ram, run with one stick, even asked if I had other ram I could put in this system to test with. Everything they had me run passed. I didn't lock up once with them on the phone. So there solution was that everything was fine I just had to reseat the ram but when i ran memtest86 again it still found errors so I asked if they would just replace the ram. Since there tests didn't find any issues they said the ram was fine and would not replace it. At this point I was done with the whole thing I spent $3,556.00 on a laptop that doesn't work all the time in the first ten days so I told the tech that I would just send it back. he was kind enough to let me know that since the laptop was fine that I would have to pay a restocking fee to return it and it would take 3 to 6 weeks to get a refund. i said fine just get me to the people that i need to talk to to send it back. he transferred me to a very nice lady that after calming me down (its a cs game they play to calm people down but that is fine as long as at the end i get a solution) we talked about the issue and she said she also could not replace the ram but she could get me a new laptop sent out ASAP. she said it would take 5 days to get to me and I would need to send the other one back when i got the new one. If the new one works I will be fine if not i will just get a refund. first thing i am going to do this time is run diagnostics on the system before i do anything else.

 

Call Dell and explain to them what is happining. You are also withen the 21 return days so you could just return it.

 

Run all the test especially the extensive test.
I used to run using the simple test and it gave passed all the time.
When I ran the extensive test, It found 2 error codes.
Dell want to bring on-site support to fix the device (they checked their records and it seems the error codes can be fix by them). I said no. I asked for return because the satisfaction policy is active and I don't mind losing i630m now that I'm not satisfied with its screen and display plus the fact that the device got error codes when the notebook is very new. It's the 2nd i630m anyway. They agreed (tech support & Customer Care). Customer Care told me too that it will take 6 weeks to get the refund. I said no need to send back the money but send i9400 notebook. I'll see if i9400 will be my companion for months/years.

 

What driver are you using? I have had my 9400 for a few weeks and found that it really depends on what driver you are using. COD2 crashes for me everytime with the mobileforce 81.97 drivers for example. (a few minutes or hours but always does). I have not however had any crashes from the OS and the error message for my blue screens were always video related.

Don't know if that helps or not. The mobileforce 83.90 drivers are supposed to be very good.

 

Send it back!

 

i have tried every diffrent type of drive for the video. what sent me to think it was hardware was when it rebooted when it was sleeping. that and the many installs of windows says hardware to me. the new one should be here on monday.