New computer from Dell - anyone ever experienced this problem?

The Howling Wolves said:

lior,
Welcome to 7 Forums!
Sorry to hear about you experience with a new system.
Make sure you document all contact with Dell. I mean day, time, how long you talked with Dell and who you talked to.
Brand new system going bad...fast ....so keep tract of everything.
I would get tech to send Studio XPS back and get brand new replacement or your money back.

Thanks! I keep records meticulously. I talked to probably half a dozen people to arrange the exchange alone. I'll have a look inside the new system to make sure it's the exact same thing (or better) because I gotta swap the hard drive anyway. They're getting it replaced because the tech who was at my house specifically requested a brand new system and for someone to double check the system before shipping. I don't know whether this would actually help. On the dispatch page at Dell my first order status shows dead on arrival. He was more pissed about it than I was.

The Howling Wolves said:

The only alternative is to build one yourself, have one built for you, or online buying.
These options have little or no warranty or tech support.
So it's darned if you do and darned if you don't.
Just glad Dell is sending out a new one.

That's very true. And all the components, even for a custom made system, are made in Asia anyway, most of the time by contract manufacturers. So even if you try to be a purist, it doesn't necessarily mean it would be a problem-free experience.

I feel that so far the service was fine. I complained about the issue last Friday and spoke to either an American or Canadian (OMG!!!). She gave me 3 options: return the unit for a full refund (they pay shipping), exchange it for a new system, or have a tech come to my house and fix it. I went with the third option. Tech called on Monday morning and wanted to come the same day. Unfortunately I couldn't accommodate him so he came yesterday with a new motherboard. When we realized the problem wasn't the motherboard, he ordered the top panel and came today to install it. He's also the one who handled the exchange and arranged a new system to be dispatched. I got the dispatch number so now I'm waiting to see when they'll ship the new system. While I'm certainly agitated by this problem, the service so far has been fine. I'll definitely keep everyone updated.

This new system is replacing an older Dimension 4700 that was delivered 6 years ago. The old system works very well on the original component to this day (Pentium 4, 2 gigs memory, 128MB graphics) but the cooling design is pure crap. With the new system my HDD runs at 35C even under constant load. In the old system is used to run 55-60C. Hot as it ran it held up (knock on wood).

The Howling Wolves said:

The only alternative is to build one yourself, have one built for you, or online buying.
These options have little or no warranty or tech support.

How do you figure that? Dell gives one year standard, which covers everything in it. Build it yourself and most if not all components have at least one year, with most (motherboard, CPU, etc) having 2, 3 or more, even some with lifetime (a lot of ram falls here).

For tech support most manufacturers these days have forums, live chat, toll free numbers; and failing that you can get as good or better tech support at forums like here.

Actually he posted 25 minutes ago.

Anyway back to the staticy it could be any of a number of things including a badly designed front panel assembly like this one,

https://www.sevenforums.com/overclock...usb-panel.html

It could also be due to how the wires for the jacks are routed through the case, which changing the front panel won't fix. Only way to really test this one is to locate the cable and move it around and away from possible causes of interference (USB cables, SATA or IDE cables, power cables, etc). A possibility that Dell should be aware of, but who knows. Found this of the inside of a XPS 9100,



which if lior's looks anything like that, then I could see it quite possible interference induced static as the front panel audio cable has to go past who knows how many power cables, the front case fan, the video card, the hard drive, etc.