New $4,000 Computer Crashing and Freezing

[Seekster]

Hi all, I am new to this site. I posted in this general forum because quite frankly I do not know what my problem is. If this is the wrong forum then I apologize.

So I graduated from college last December and as a Christmas/Graduation present my parents promised to get me a new desktop computer. I am an avid gamer and so I wanted to get a top-of-the-line desktop that could handle even the most recent games with ease. After several weeks of researching the best computers, video cards, processors, storage methods, and other components, and after talking with some of the tech people at the office where I work, and haggling out an agreement with my parents, I finally got this (roughly) $4,000 monster:


Dell Studio XPS 9100

Processor: Intel (R) Core i7 CPU X980 @ 3.33 Ghz 3.33Ghz

Installed memory (RAM): 12.0 GB DDR3 SDRAM, 1333MHZ, 6x2GB

64-bit Operating System

Windows 7 Service Pack 1

Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5970

Sound Card: ATI High Definition Audio Device, X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCle

Serial ATA II RAID 1 with Dual 1TB Hard Drives

Anti Virus: I got the PC with a 15 month subscription of McAfee Security Center. I recently added avast Free Antivirus as well to see if it detected any viruses. So far neither program has been able to detect any viruses in scans.

(I am still unfamiliar with Windows 7 since up until I got this computer I was using Windows XP. If there is a diagnostic program you want me to run or if there is a way for me to get more detailed information on my computer and its components then please let me know).


So anyway, after assembling the computer and naming it "Behemoth" (because carrying it up the stairs nearly broke my back) I decided to test my new computer by seeing how it ran all the games my old computer simply did not have the ability to run. So proceeded to install Mass Effect and ran the thing on about the highest settings. I think the machine only crashed once during my entire play through of the game.

Pleased with the way the machine performed I next installed Fallout 3. Now the problems began. Sometimes the screen and the entire computer would randomly lock up. I am not sure but I think this happened whenever a certain sound tried to play, because when it froze the sound would play repeatedly as if stuck in an infinite loop. Alt+Ctrl+Delete did nothing as both my mouse and my keyboard were frozen too. The only way out was to press and hold the power button. This freeze became such a common occurrence while playing Fallout 3 the I have since had to abandon the game.

This particular freeze did not start with, and is not limited to Fallout 3. Recently I re-installed Dawn of War Soulstorm, a game my old machine ran like a charm on fairly high settings. I encountered the same problem here. Even worse, sometimes while watching a video online, even on youtube, the exact same freeze with the looping sound will occur forcing me to hold down the power button and force the machine to shut down.

At first I thought maybe it was just that my machine was new and needed driver updates but I have manually gone into Device Manager and searched for updates until it tells me that I have the latest updates. The sound loop freeze still persists and its not the only issue. I have also encountered seemingly random blue screen crashes (sometimes these happen when I am not running anything on the computer), and instances where my mouse and/or keyboard freeze up (I have to restart the machine to get them working again).

The weird thing is that I have run games like Sims 3, StarCraft II, and Call of Duty: World at War and I do not think I can remember any of them freezing or crashing (if they did then it didnt happen often).

When I described what was happening to a tech guy at work, he suggested that I might have simply gotten a bad sound or video card installed and that I should call Dell and request a replacement. However I don't want to have to go through all that trouble if its possible that the issue is not related to a defective component.

Now I am not sure if this has anything to do with it but I think I might as well mention it at least, my machine has no audio speakers plugged in. As a gamer I am currently using a set of headphones.

Personally I think the sound loop freeze is the most pressing issue I am having because it occurs far more often than any of the other issues, forces me to hold the power button which damages my computer, and lets face it, a $4,000 machine should NOT be freezing while playing a youtube video. If anyone here can help me with this problem I think I can tackle the others by myself.

[rthompson80819]

That's a nice machine.

I won't guarantee it's the source of your problems, but in general you shouldn't run two av programs at the same time.  It can cause some odd problems and slow downs.  I'd run McAfee until the free subscription runs out (some people don't like it but I used for years without any problems) then go to avast.

[Seekster]

Ok ill get rid of avast for now but I only recently added a second av program a few days ago, this freeze issue and the others have been going on for months.

[Spoiler]

I would call Dell.

You paid big money for this machine and should work. Call and have them fix it.

[Seekster]

I would call Dell.

You paid big money for this machine and should work. Call and have them fix it.

Do you mean call tech support or just their main number or what?

[prosportal]

Start here.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/contact_technical_support?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=hea&~ck=anavml

[Jairus]

try to uninstall and reinstall your audio drivers. http://support.creative.com/Products/Products.aspx?catid=1

[Seekster]

Ok so I spent the last day or so on the phone with dell support. Had to pay about $150.00 to have them walk me through partioning my hardrive and making a backup and then doing a system restore to factory. I got everything set back up and the problems were still there. I called back and the guy said there was a problem with my video drivers. He uninstalled them and reinstalled them and told me to install drivers from ATI now on and not automatically with windows updates.

The sound freeze problem at least appears to be gone (though I could be wrong) but I still get some random cases where the screen freezes or the computer turns itself off or the mouse and/or keyboard stop working.

[patio]

I would be taking advantage of the Warranty...Pronto.

[Seekster]

They told me they would call back on Tuesday and if I am still having problems, which I am (it doesn't seem to be as bad but its still giving me some random freezes and last night the sound loop problem did manifest again so for all I know its just going to get worse) then they would send someone over to replace my video card.

I am pretty pissed that I spent another $139.64 just to have a guy walk me through how to partition my harddrive and restore my computer and then have that not work but at least they were able to isolate the problem (at least I hope they did) and paying $4,139.64 to get a working computer beats paying $4,000.00 to get a computer that doesnt always work...then again they again I paid for a working video card so if they expect me to pay to replace it after I bought the warranty then they are just plain ripping me off.

What I thought was dumb was yesterday I played Dawn of War: Dark Crusade for several hours, no problems. I even reinstalled Fallout 3 which had given me more freezes and sound loops than any other game...I still got a few freezes but it was just the game, I could alt+ctrl+delete out of it with basically no problem, and no sound loop freezes so far. The only thing that gave me a sound loop yesterday was a bleeding youtube video of all things. So in short this machine can run a game that was built for an xp system, and a graphics heavy game adapted from the XBOX 360 without having the sound loop issue but it cant handle some guy's youtube video (actually that is not exactly true, I mean its random, I can play the exact same video again and it wont freeze the second time).

By the way is it usually better to manually download my driver updates from ATI instead of letting windows update get them automatically?

[milesrf]

If the videos are frequently pausing when you view them over the internet, mention how fast a connection to the internet you're using.  Too slow a connection at any point along the path to the source of that video can cause that problem, but you aren't likely to be able to change the speed anywhere except in your connection to your ISP.  Very seldom causes crashing, though.

Since you have a high-performance computer, you may want to look at this site to see several BOINC subprojects you could have it run for assorted non-profit projects when you aren't viewing videos:

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.jsp

Click on the small pictures under the big picture to read about their current subprojects.

I've had my three computers connected there long enough to get several ruby badges.

[patio]

If the videos are frequently pausing when you view them over the internet, mention how fast a connection to the internet you're using.  Too slow a connection at any point along the path to the source of that video can cause that problem, but you aren't likely to be able to change the speed anywhere except in your connection to your ISP.  Very seldom causes crashing, though.

Since you have a high-performance computer, you may want to look at this site to see several BOINC subprojects you could have it run for assorted non-profit projects when you aren't viewing videos:

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.jsp

Click on the small pictures under the big picture to read about their current subprojects.

I've had my three computers connected there long enough to get several ruby badges.

You only need to read the entire thread to determine it's not a connection issue...

Pay attention...

[Seekster]

Yeah its not a connection issue. The same freeze problem occurs when I am playing games offline. I am supposed to get a call from Dell this evening and I think we will talk about replacing my video card or something.

[patio]

I would be taking advantage of the Warranty...Pronto.

[Salmon Trout]

At the risk of making myself appear stupid, I have to confess that there is something here I am not getting. A person has a computer under warranty, and has to pay $150 (one hundred and fifty dollars!) to call their warranty support? And then another one hundred and thirty-nine dollars because the first call didn't lead to the problem being solved? Is that right? If so, I'm glad I live in a country with consumer protection laws!