XPS Gen 1

Megaman88 · 04-22-2006, 06:08 PM

I've been reading a lot on these forums and it seems like everyone on here is very helpful so I figure this is as good a place as any to start my search.

During November of 04, I purchased a Dell XPS notebook for a little over $2,500, expecting that (with all of it's amazing power and fancy numbers) it would be able to play a fairly demanding game like EverQuest or, more recently, EQII.

Now, I'm sure everyone will ask for at least three things: background info, my question, and my specs.. So, here is some background info.

I got the computer, installed my silly little game and started playing. All was well. The computer ran fine for about a month.. then slowly the frame rate starts to drop. I mean.. not a little, I'm talking 80fps to 8fps and eventually about 1 frame ever 8 seconds. Yeah, it's that bad. The computer itself was getting really hot so, thinking this would fix the problem, I cut a hole in an old desk and mounted a fan to blow air on the bottom of it (Yes, I really did this. Yes, it looked really funny) This didn't help much. The computer was sent in for repair about 6 months after I got it because I spilt water on it (whoops) The system shut off, then turned on and worked perfectly but I called them anyway, told them I spilt water (bigger whoops) and they said they'd be happy to fix it since it was out of warranty. 500 dollars and a week later I have my computer back and it's working.. ok.. say 60fps. About a month later we're back at 8fps and it's just.. really really bad. Now.. I start making calls to Dell, asking them what was wrong with it. I got in touch with a customer service rep who actually dropped off the script they have and told me that this computer has had tons of problems with over heating due to it's ****-tastic design. The only reason they fixed it for me the first time was because I told them I spilt water on it and they had a reason to charge me. Every time I call back with the same problem, they're is nothing they can do. The most common answer is for me to send it in so the techs can run some tests (The same tests that I can run from the start-up menu). So it's been a little over a year, the warranty was up in Nov of 05 and it's pretty much impossible to get in touch with anyone from dell at this point without paying 40 bucks.

Now, my question.

I'm 3000 dollars into this piece of **** computer and it still doesn't work; why and what the heck can I do?

And finally, my specs:

Dell XPS Gen1 (aka. Super Awesome Paper Weight)
Pentium 4 w/HT 3.4GHz
1gig of ram
128mb ATI 9700 Radeon graphics card
80gig HDD

cy007 · 04-22-2006, 06:31 PM

Since you bought the "laptop" two years ago, it really shouldn't be a surprise. No matter how high-end your computer is, chances are, it'll be outdated (or might I say obsolete) by two years end. It's been that ever since I started to learn about computers (9 years ago approx) and it'll not possibly change anytime soon.

Aivyn · 04-22-2006, 06:31 PM

hmm...I suppose heat could be an issue but it sounds more hardware related. I am running the same GPU and a P4 3.0 GHz with 2 gig of ram and I can pretty much run any game I want. The extra RAM helps a lot, i remember that I got a bunch more performance when I added the extra gig. I'm not sure, others will know better some test programs to run and see what may be going on, the only thing I would suggest (how i would tackle the problem) is to reformat, a clean install and update every possible driver and then see how things are. The machine should still game well even with newer games.

DMB14 · 04-22-2006, 07:43 PM

When you talk about the drop in FPS, do you mean that the frame rate keeps getting lower and lower while playing the same game?

Megaman88 · 04-22-2006, 11:07 PM

Today 07:43 PM
DMB14 When you talk about the drop in FPS, do you mean that the frame rate keeps getting lower and lower while playing the same game?

Well when I first turn the game on (EQII for example) it runs OK.. then the computer starts to heat up and the FPS fall fast.

Today 06:31 PM
Aivyn hmm...I suppose heat could be an issue but it sounds more hardware related. I am running the same GPU and a P4 3.0 GHz with 2 gig of ram and I can pretty much run any game I want. The extra RAM helps a lot, i remember that I got a bunch more performance when I added the extra gig. I'm not sure, others will know better some test programs to run and see what may be going on, the only thing I would suggest (how i would tackle the problem) is to reformat, a clean install and update every possible driver and then see how things are. The machine should still game well even with newer games.

Hmm, the additional ram could help. Do you have same size laptop (15 inch screen I think)? Did your computer ever lag up really bad when you played games before you got the extra ram.. like so bad you couldn't play it? I've reformatted and installed all the new drivers. If anyone knows any test programs I can run, let me know or link it.

Today 06:31 PM
cy007 Since you bought the "laptop" two years ago, it really shouldn't be a surprise. No matter how high-end your computer is, chances are, it'll be outdated (or might I say obsolete) by two years end. It's been that ever since I started to learn about computers (9 years ago approx) and it'll not possibly change anytime soon.

Well, I bought it a year and a half ago and the problems (same ones I have now) started about two months in. It was good after they replaced the heat sinc and some fans and stuff when I spilled the (TINY) bit of water on it, but that only lasted a months or so. I know computers get out of date but this one shouldn't have trouble playing music with WinAMP and surfing the net with Foxfire.. right?

Anyone else in this situation with a Dell laptop gen1? Let me know since I'm fairly sure this is a defect they corrected when the gen2 came out and anyone who got the first edition are just stuck with a ****py machine. I don't even think you can get a gen2 with a Pentium4 HT with 3.4GHz.

Aivyn · 04-22-2006, 11:53 PM

The P4's generated too much heat as I understand...I dont know if its an anomoly but when I got the extra RAM my machine cooled down a lot. before I had the 2 gigs I struggled with Doom 3, afterwards I ran fine(for the most part). You should be able to play most games with 1 gig though so before you go spending 100$ on more let's try and get to the root of the problem first. Try and run a benchmark using 3DMark. Lets see what you get there.

Megaman88 · 04-23-2006, 12:00 PM

Hmm, yeah this one seems to make way too much heat. I don't know if the fact it has HyperThreading matters or not, but it does. When you were playing Doom3 before the extra ram did it lag so bad that you couldn't really play the game? I mean.. this laptop has trouble running AOL and playing an XviD at the same time. AOL will lag up (windows and stuff, not internet connection) and the video will quickly get off track from audio and stuff. But if I turn it off, leave it off for 10 minutes and turn it back ok it can play the video just fine, no problem at all. I know the computer is getting kinda old.. but this is just bad. I've had these problems for at least a year now and I'm just getting sick of it so here I am.

Thanks a lot, by the way, Aivyn. I'm downloading 3DMark right now and I'll run it as soon as it's done. Are there any other specs or something I can give you that would help?

Aivyn · 04-23-2006, 12:06 PM

actually, if you Ctr + Alt + Delete and run task manager, can you take screenshots of how many processes you are running and your performance chart? this may give us an idea if unwanted programs are consistently running in the background.

Megaman88 · 04-23-2006, 12:10 PM

I'm constantly closing those programs and I used run: msconfig to turn off anything that was unwanted on the start up. Let me take a screenshot.

Megaman88 · 04-23-2006, 12:17 PM

Here is the screenshot.. I think. It's an attachment? Performance.JPG