Dell complaints

[Jenm]

I got an Inspiron 6000 as my replacement computer ::grumbles:: and the display drivers were working fine for about a week. Now though, when I play the Sims 2, I get an error message about 20 - 30 minutes into the game, saying that the display drivers stopped responding.

I've tried downloading display drivers from Intel's website, but according to them, I already have the latest drivers. I also downloaded some driver off of Dell's site, and it still didn't fix the problem. I'm about to call tech support, but I just wanted to know if anyone else has had similar problems, or if anyone working in tech support knows if this is a common issue.

[moT]

Does it only do this when playing your game, or have you had this error with other programs?
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Dell Laptop Repair
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[i_escaped_dell]

[sickofdell]

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

Generically, when a driver crashes it's because it encountered an error for which there's no handler. "Out of allotted memory" is such an error and depending how the game uses/releases memory, it can hit this brick wall.

Desktop BIOS has a choice for how much memory you want to share with Intel onboard display... if you find such a setting on laptop BIOS, set it to the higher number. I strongly suspect that reloading/reinstalling things would bring about the same result, work for a week then crash again.

For good measure, see where WXP pagefile size is set, that the upper limit is not too stingy. I don't think this has a whole lot to do with display memory allocation though.

Windows abuses memory, because of a typo in their original code. It's also in C++, if the programmer uses that call. They know about it (I know the guy who knows the guy who discovered it 5 years ago) but they declined the opportunity to fix it so far. It's not supposed to crash display drivers, just the whole OS, but who knows what evil lurks in Microshaft hack code?
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[Jenm]

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the game, and of course, that didn't help.

I also tried rolling back the driver, and that didn't help.

I only get the error message when I'm playing the sims2. It says "display driver stopped responding" and then it says something about iamlrnt.dll, which is the display driver. I don't really know what else to do.

I can't figure out what to do. I haven't found a way to change the amount of memory that's allocated to the display driver. I've also contacted EA Games about the problem, and scoured the sims 2 website for information about this problem. So far, everyone says that downloading new drivers helped them, or they still have the problem and haven't been able to play the sims.

This is driving me nuts, and I know if I contact dell their solution will be sending me a new graphics card ie a new processor. And we all know that's not really going to fix anything!

[sickofdell]

Hey Jen

I've been doing a little research, since you posted what was happening. Here are some threads from other forums with people having the exact same issue. Not just with Dell's but all sorts of computers. More so from people with integrated video cards, which, I believe, is what the I6000 has. Unfortunately, the only fix may be getting a mobo replacement, but then again, the worthless video card may not be able to handle the game.

here are some threads:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic20070.html
http://help.lockergnome.com/lofiversion/index.php/t26189-250.html
http://developer.intel.com/support/graphics/intel915g/sb/CS-016497.htm This one is from intel. I am not sure if you have the same vid card or not, but call tech support to see if this will be compatible with what you have.

This info sucks, I know, but there's not much to do with it. If you want to play games, get a gaming machine.

It may be good, if you could, to post the exact specs that you have for your new system. Maybe there will be some other upgrade solutions we could recommend for you.
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http://www.tgdaily.com/picturegalleries/gallery-20060731-1.html

(ok, so it's not mine, but it's freakin cool)

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

On desktop BIOS, you hit F2 while the Dell screen is showing (right when you turn it on) then the choice for shared memory is toward the bottom of the choices. The choice itself doesn't specifically SAY that's what it's for, so select and read them all one at a time. But again, I'm not sure laptop has this BIOS feature, the portables chipset is marginally different.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

[Jenm]

[Jenm]

But I'm going to continue bitching about this problem.

So I finally bit the bullet and called tech support, and what do I get? Nothing but classic Dell style problem solving. First, I get a person, and I tell him I need to speak to his supervisor, so he puts me on hold for 25 minutes, I get impatient and hang up and call again. The next guy I get puts me on hold for about 2 or 3 minutes in the process of transferring me to his supervisor, and then tells me, OOPS, his supervisors have left the building. Awesome. So he takes down my info and says a supervisor will call me back tomorrow.

Well 1 pm tomorrow rolls around and I still haven't heard from Dell. So I call them back and get a girl. I tell her my problem, and she starts asking me if I used the driver from the cd. I didn't, but I tell her I did just to shut her up. Let's face it, the driver from the cd isn't going to make a difference! So then she starts asking if I still have the drivers I downloaded from the websites, and of course, I don't. Then I tell her, look, I've already done this, and I find it kind of insulting that you would ask me to do this again. So that nips that in the bud. But then she tells me I should try reinstalling the OS! The entire OS. I told her that might fix the problem for the first week or so, but then the problem is just going to happen again, and I think it's unfair that they ask me to reinstall the OS every other week. So finally she begrdugingly transfers me to a supervisor.

Well, that whole call took about an hour. The majority of which was spent on hold. I finally talked to a supervisor, and at first I thought he was questioning me; I've had 2 replacement computers, and about 3 motherboards in 2 years. He asked me about that, and I told him if Dell didn't make such a horrible product I wouldn't have had to have so many replacements. Anyway, he told me he was going to give me a *new* new computer -- not just a refurbished one, this time around. He said he would also give me a dedicated graphics card, non of that integrated bull.

It's almost too good to be true. I really don't believe it, but I guess we'll see what happens. Could this be my last computer from dell? The last time I will have to call tech support and be on hold for about an hour? That would be a welcome repose.

[Rocke_T_Sinetist]

Whoa, that sounds great Jenm! Ya know, they really weren't obligated to make their hardware support your game. Sending you a new system PLUS a dedicated display card to handle your application, is really bending over backwards.

I wonder if a directive has gone out to callcenters, to lean more in the direction of responsiveness to customers. Yours is the second post in the past few days where Dell actually solved a problem, with 'only a few' transfers, hangups, and dead ends.

Two isn't exactly a trend, but after all these are real live customers who came here to journal their Customer Experience and aren't just chronic complainers--they came BACK and journaled the resolution they were promised. (Hoping Dell delivers.)

Dell is a dynamic operation. That's kinda what got them into the mess they are (were?) in. Their direction thrashes from extreme to extreme (too many lattes?). In engineering terms, they're under-damped but not wholly open-loop. In psychological terms, they're bipolar.

They drive every parameter of the business model to extremes, literally until it breaks. Rather like a 14-year-old takes skateboarding to extremes until something (his arm) breaks. They drove the 'cheapness' parameter of the entire model over the last several years. Not just support, but staffing, design, procurement, marketing. It has cost them a lot of credibility. To some customers, they've become "Packard-Dell" (and I don't mean Hewlett).

Have they caught on, turned a corner? One can hope.
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Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'