Dell NEW, w/ 9800 - OVERHEAT

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tony Gaylord
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T

Tony Gaylord

I've been tweaking and playing with computers for years but just dont simply
have the time to build one from scratch (career, 7 year old son etc:) so I
bought a Dell Dimension 4600 with: P4 2.6 ghz@800mhz fsb / 512 DDR ram
@400mhz, with a Radeon 9800. Now problem number one. How do I tell if its a
pro or a non-pro? Sisoft and various other diags show PRO, some others show
9800.
i
To the subject. This system is less then a week old and when running d3d
software, I consistantly have blue screen, lock ups, auto-reboot and or just
plain frozen screen. Running DX 9.1b / current latest cat. from NVidia,
settings in advanced set to minimums (no AA, ano etc.)1280,1024 at 16bits /
75mhz refresh on a new 19". w/ XP home eddition.

This habbit reminded me of the OC days..... so I yanked the side off and put
a home floor fan blowing throughout the case. NO MORE lock ups - none. Dell
will NOT take responsibility for it saying "Its 3rd party software - SORRY".
F*ucking wrong!!! This is new software that is DX9 compat and multiple
software and 7 demos lock this up, so does 3D Mark 2003 all without the case
off and the fan blowing through the thing....

I've uninstalled, safe mode, reinstalled, same thing with the drivers. Is
this the Radeon overheating? I dont get any artifacts on the screen, just
the symptoms above.
I've argued with Dell four times and they still will NOT take responsibility
for it saying "When it left Dells manuf, all compnents work right?" OH yeah,
ONLY when I try and run fu*king software on it - it must be my problem ;)

Thanks guys, sorry for the rant.

All the best,
Tony G. / Portland, OR.
 
Dude. Keep calling and calling. Ask for managers. If not you could write to
the Better Business Bureau or (even better) to some magazine (like Maximum
PC) asking for help.
 
Dude. Keep calling and calling. Ask for managers. If not you could write to
the Better Business Bureau or (even better) to some magazine (like Maximum
PC) asking for help.
Click to expand...
Send it back.

Consider building your own or having a private vendor build
one for you to your specs with "real" cards and "real"
software and not OEM versions.

I am on my third Dell - I used to love them. But mine
overheats a lot since I upgraded it and there's no room in
the case to properly add cooling. It's not worth the time
and/or money you save to buy a pre-configured Dell rather
than building or having one built for you - not in the long
run...or at least not IMHO.

Louise
 
not sure if this will help, but I had to put a lower profile network card in
the slot nest to agp card. belkin makes one about 1 1/2 inch tall.
 
To the subject. This system is less then a week old and when running d3d
software, I consistantly have blue screen, lock ups, auto-reboot and or just
plain frozen screen. Running DX 9.1b / current latest cat. from NVidia,
Click to expand...

Whats the power output of that Power Supply?
 
I am on my third Dell - I used to love them. But mine
overheats a lot since I upgraded it and there's no room in
Click to expand...

Its not Dell -- its the tiny low-ventilation quiet PCs *most* their
customers want them to sell. Don't buy a Dell, or any mass-produced
PC, if you want to run fast graphics cards in them. Buy a gaming PC
instead, or kick the wife and kid out of the house for a day and find
the time to build it yourself.

And ATI and NVidia need to design cooler-running GPUs....

jw
 
I've uninstalled, safe mode, reinstalled, same thing with the drivers.
Why are you arguing? Simply ask them "Are you going to fix this"?
If they say anything but "yes", then tell them that it is useless
to you as it sits and you would like to take advantage of their "Total
Satisfaction Policy"
<http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/misc/policy_010_policy.htm#total>.
Click to expand...

Welcome to Dell. Interesting how this once mighty company has taken
it's eye totally off the ball. I wouln't buy a Dell again after all
the grief I have had from them here in the UK. Dell's customer service
has taken a major slip. A lot is outsources to entirely incompetent
telephone operators in India, questions are never answered, promised
return calls never come. Customer Beware! Strange how Dell management
has allowed their reputation to go so easily. I for one will never buy
another Dell again.

Mark
 
Dell makes such shitty computers now it's not even funny, they
especially aren't for tweakers because most of their hardware is
specific to dell only. They got a good rep over the past 5 years for
making good systems, then they started doing commercials up the ass
all over the place and just sold the name. My neighbor bought that
totally piece of shit $499 model. I could have built it for near $150
and I'm sure their prices are even lower because they dont pay retail
for components.
 
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