Dell Studio XPS "Freezes" while gaming..

[shirazhansen]

Hi all,

One of my frns recently bought a dell studio xps 15" with ati 4570 graphics. (The rest of the config is standard with 3gb ram and a c2d procy.. forgot which one though..)

We tried playin GRID on it, but halfway through a race, everything just freezes for 10-20 seconds, and then the game continues where it left off.. Is this becoz i hv Vista premium? Coz i've heard tht apart frm vista ultimate, all other Vista versions have trouble with gaming.. If that is the case, can i install XP on it?

Are there any known issues with installing xp on dell laptops?

Pls help me out, i'm trying to decide whether or not to buy this lappie for my younger brother, and he's into gaming.. nothing heavy though.. mostly FIFA and GRID kinda stuff..

[The Sorcerer]

Did you, run stress test for 3-4 hours, update the drivers and windows before concluding its a windows issue?

[hunk_freak]

first of all its not xps its studio 15 and regarding issues update all drivers once again

[dOm1naTOr]

defenitely a driver issue. update ATI drivers from ati.amd site.
dell driver updates are kinda slow in release and most of the time servers are down...with file missin errors n all.

[shirazhansen]

Oops! my mistake.. i'd assumed that the drivers were up to date, coz it's a brand new laptop, and the rest of the stuff on it like the antivirus and vista were updated already.. i'm downloading the latest ati drivers now.. will see if that solves the problem.

So, apart frm tht, is this a gud laptop? I know it's kind of a new entry, (and i'm pretty sure it's Studio xps 15, not studio 15..) and since i've never bought a dell computer b4, i would just like to know if anyone has had any bad experiences with Dell laptops..

[dOm1naTOr]

DEll laptops are gr8 in design and build quality.
u can read my old review of XPS here and do check those last pages which is my warranty experience.
XPS M1530: a brief review

i even oced my laptop GPU like hell, form 475 to 645 without any effort. GPU runs very cool [bout 60c max], thnks to the copper heatpipe design.
have seen the same GPU, 8600GT on desktops goin above 110~120c[XFX electric stove edition of course]. 60c on a highly oced GPU is cool really.

aslo do check for bios update on dell site. it gets rid of ny freezing issues, and fan speed issues.

[The Sorcerer]

Systems are always as good as the user. Unfortunatly, when one doesnt do the obvious, they usually blame the system- or the ISP or the OS . Therefore I never see user reviews at all. DOA, defective parts, over volting/heating is something is pretty rare and usually ends up with you as a matter of sheer bad luck. Update the drivers properly and if it does work. Update the game patch as well as the dx version.

[shirazhansen]

Problem solved. Driver issue.
That was a nice review, dominator.. really thorough..
And hunk_freak, my apologies.. it's a studio 15 after all.. thanks for pointing it out. My pal was positive it was an xps.. had to check on dell's site myself.

Thanks a lot, everybody.. sure appreciate the help.. Cheers!

[uchiha_madara]

Originally Posted by The Sorcerer

Systems are always as good as the user.

+1