Problems with New Dell Dimension 4600

[Hankysmoo]

Anyways, I seem to have a problem with my ATI Radeon 9800 card that came with my Dell Dimension 4600. I purchased the computer online from dell.com last week like many others have and just received and installed it right now. First thing I do is install 3dmark2003 and run it and all of a sudden the whole program goes screwy -- the colors all change, random lights flash around, and bars of solid color keep popping onto and off of my screen.

Well, I quit 3dmark and am horrified to find that now my entire computer has the graphics problem, namely being that there are large purplish red vertical bars superimposed on my screen. It's as if I went and painted on my copmuter screen -- the bars are completely static, and they override everything. Every window or taskbar or whatever shows up underneath it. For this reason, it makes it extremely difficult to see anything that's going on. I also checked the dell forums and discovered that many seem to be having the same problem...Do you guys think Dell has a bad batch of Radeon 9800 pro's or simply the Dimension 4600 cannot properly handle the card (power supply or heating problems)?

Talk about a bad impression w/ the Dimension 4600...
What should I do now? Request a new video card or just simply ask for another system? I don't trust it one bit cuz it couldn't even last 30 minutes without having a problem and I don't really feel like wasting my time troubleshooting it myself. Anyone else having this problem?

Thanks for reading.

 

[Frew]

Dell tech support would probally tell you to reinstall windows.

 

[DarkAmeba]

Eww dell. I'd try reformatting, but 99% lodds are you got a bad video card. Time to call Dell

 

[OverVolt]

Yea, i would say a bad video card, call up dell and really cause them alot of trouble. They should be testing their products before they ship them out. 30minutes is ridiculas for it to show signs of trouble already. I would either ask for a working replacement or a refund.

 

[BaumerX]

Father-in-law got a Dell. It's been a pain. Dell's tech support even gives up cause he's not very computer literate then I have to travel 70 miles to fix the damn thing. Next time I'm building him one myself just to get rid of all the crap the install with the OS.

The one I have here at work sucks also.... I don't know if they still do but it used to be that some of the hardware components were some OEM version that wasn't quite up to par with the retail version you would normally buy.

 

[CVSiN]

You got a Dell man!
oh well despite being a member here and reading all the bad crap about Dells and other premade CPUs you bought one =/
My condolences welcome to the land of horrible support, shoddy componants, and not being able to upgrade..
big mistake.. huge even.

 

[Hankysmoo]

Sigh, I spent approximately 5 good minutes typing up a detailed response of the probelm through email, explaining thoroughly how I believed the video card was defective and was positive that it was not a driver/software related issue....look at the response I got this morning.

Thank you for using Dell Esupport and Services.

Driver installation can cause such problems as you are facing right now.

Please uninstall the previous drivers and and reinstall the drivers from
the folowing link:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?releaseid=R71889

Thank you for choosing Dell.

I thought this would be the fastest way to get a replacement card through Dell, as someone on the boards suggested to me, but apparently, they don't trust any of the diagnosing that I did myself. To confirm my suspicions, I swapped out the Radeon 9800 pro that came with my Dell with a Radeon 9800NP flashed with the Pro bios that is in my other rig and guess what...the graphic problems are solved.

Off to the phone I go...

 

[Fuchs]

CVSin: So the guys asking for help...and you have to be lame. Figures Mr. IT guy.


I don't think any other computer vendors are any different. They all will want to question diagnosing a problem when it concerns new parts. It's the nature of the beast. If you sold something to someone and they say...it's broke....give me a new one...you think you would just say yes?

Sucks Hankysmoo, I hope things get worked out for you. WHen you do get a replacement I too would start from scratch and reload the OS. Dell loads every bit of software bundled with it when they ship it out.

It would be great to load a clean os, then chipset drivers, Direct X9.0c and the Cats. You should be rockin and rollin!!

Good luck.

 

[Hankysmoo]

Ahhhh, for some reason this computer can't even run memtest86 (bootable cd image, didn't purchase a floppy). When I reboot, it enters the memtest screen and just resets. I thought that it might've been a media compatibility issue but I even tried burning it twice. To make sure that nothing was wrong with the burns, I tested both cds in two different computers, one even being a Dell Dimension 8250 and they worked flawlessly. Has anyone heard of this problem before?

Those that have a dell dimension 4600, can you test a bootable cd image of memtest for me and see if it works? thanks!

PS thanks for all the people that are actually providing helpful information, rather than just bashing about my purchase.

 

[sparky853]

Best thing to do is get on the phone with Dell tech support, tell them about your problems, and refuse to take anything less than a new card. They SHOULD send someone out to fix it, or more liekly ask you to send it back (thier cost) to be repaired.

Just so you know, Dells have a switch on the case that when opened, sets something in the BIOS letting them know the case has been opened. You might want to find it and try to reset it before you send anything back

 

[Fuchs]

true, by default there is no password. SO when you go into the BIOS look for Intrusion Detection and just disable it.

 

[Hankysmoo]

omg...I just called dell and was speaking to a technician about my problems...she hangs up on me by accident. Ahhhhhh

 

[bluemax]

If memtest doesn't work, your problems may lie in system memory!

Bad RAM = unstable computer. Period.

 

[Hankysmoo]

The ram passes the Dell Memory diagnostic tests though. Is it a sign of a faulty motherboard if memtest crashes?

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: CVSiN
You got a Dell man!
oh well despite being a member here and reading all the bad crap about Dells and other premade CPUs you bought one =/
My condolences welcome to the land of horrible support, shoddy componants, and not being able to upgrade..
big mistake.. huge even.

:roll:

 

[Lyfer]

Call, B!tch, and moan. Are your best solution. If it doesn't pass memtest then it is the RAM.

 

[PsharkJF]

[dell dude voice] Duuuude, you got screwwwwwwwed!

 

[talyn00]

Originally posted by: PsharkJF
[dell dude voice] Duuuude, you got screwwwwwwwed!

lol

 

[mrwxyz]

Originally posted by: CVSiN
You got a Dell man!
oh well despite being a member here and reading all the bad crap about Dells and other premade CPUs you bought one =/
My condolences welcome to the land of horrible support, shoddy componants, and not being able to upgrade..
big mistake.. huge even.

even in home built, there such things as faulty components.
and u actually can upgrade almost everything in a dell

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: mrwxyz

Originally posted by: CVSiN
You got a Dell man!
oh well despite being a member here and reading all the bad crap about Dells and other premade CPUs you bought one =/
My condolences welcome to the land of horrible support, shoddy componants, and not being able to upgrade..
big mistake.. huge even.

even in home built, there such things as faulty components.
and u actually can upgrade almost everything in a dell

Pay no attention to CVSiN. He has no idea what he's talking about. We've already gone through this.

 

[tart666]

what's with all the dell bashing all of a sudden...

i have 3 at home (4600/400sc), all working very nice. Their cases are way better then antec / chieftec.

tech support could be hard to deal with, but on pretty obvious problems like this, should be done with in one phone call. They will send someone to install a video card.

In the worst case, send it back (within 30 days), the DHL man shows up at your house to pick it up within 10 min of the scheduled time, very nice.