Check / reseat / swap / change RAM memory - its user replaceable within warranty.

If 2 or more memory modules, try just 1 and see what happens

huh?  sorry, I don't understand what you're saying--could you possibly give advice in complete sentences?  And it sounds like you want me to crack open my brand new laptop??  Are you kidding?!  Do you know how hard it is to open a laptop?!  Maybe for an IT person or warranty support, but I will not just open my laptop and start messing with my memory.  If that is a truly reasonable explanation for a lockup and not being able to control+alt+delete and get anything then I will be calling Dell tech support and letting them send someone out for warranty service and let the pros crack open my laptop.

Anyone else with a more understandable idea for solution?

Thanks!

Okay, so for grins, I did open the bottom of my brand new laptop and removed/reseated my memory as the only responder so far suggested.  That did not work.  I did not try removing either of the memory cards and using only one because I bought it with two and refuse to use it with less than that.  I have also since called Dell Warranty support.  They walked me through running a battery of tests, all of which were fine.  Their final solution was that it was the operating system and so I was walked through the process of reinstalling the operating system from the Dell Datasafe recovery.  They promised me it would work.  It did not.  Today, as I was logging into the internet, it froze again.  I could not control+alt+delete to open the task manager, could not alt+tab to get anywhere, could not do anything at all.  The only way to recover from this freeze is to hard restart using the power button.  There are no error messages--so does anyone out there from Dell or anywhere else have ANY idea what is causing my brand new, fully-loaded laptop to freeze without warning.  It is really quite annoying to have to keep hard restarting it every day or so with no error or any other reason.  By the way, I have barely any software installed on the thing yet, just some gadgets, the Dell Dock, Office 2007, a game and Norton 2010 and my HP printer software.  I am at a loss for what to do and this really isn't an acceptable nuisance type problem.  Any other Studio 15 users experiencing this?

I had the same problem your experiencing on the 1st night I received my laptop was watching a video and it just crashed, a couple days later it started running really sluggish (opening and closing windows slowly, typing lag, choppy  video playback and it was really hot. Called dell and asked for my money back and im now looking to purchase a sony vaio gl with getting your computer fixed.

I have had exactly the same problem. Its generally when I'm on the net that it happens, but it also happened the first time I turned it on and logged in to windows. I have the backlit keyboard and I have noticed that that brightness button on the keyboard is the only thing that remains operational when it freezes. It's quite frustrating as I have only had the laptop for 4 days. I am running the same specs as you except with 4GB RAM rather than 6.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing it?

Cheers

Hi, i have the same problem, however i have noticed this only(so far) when i have an external device plugged into the usb port on the left of the laptop(not tried the esata/usb combo port) as i find that it is almost impossible to use the usb port on the right as it is so close to the power input point. 

It is almost as if there is some sort of conflict of the port firmware or power shortage, not sure if this laptop uses usb or ps2 internal sockets for the keyboard.

So far this laptop has been something of a disappointment if i continue to find or hear of problems its going back.

Raz

Have the same problem here. Tried restore to factory and Studio 1557 is freezing again, needs hard reset to reboot. Averages 2 incidents a day.

It is a real pain in the you know where especially when you can't even use your spanking new notebook for a customer presentation for fear of it freezing up.

The following link attributes to a hot GPU http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?s=dd7347f072905aeb57baa9dd6295009b&t=420768&page=71.

My experience is that freezing is more likely to happen when a USB thumbdrive is inserted. But it happens anyway, under any circumstance.

I am baffled! Help!

Hi, Getting more of these lock ups, I now have a cpu monitor on my desktop, what it is showing is that whenever the cpu goes into turbo mode it is causing the lock ups,

 Dell have so far not shown any intrest in rectifying this fault.

There seems to be a fairly significent problem with this cpu as others using it wether it is in the 15 series or 17 series or indeed any of there other models are having the same issue's.

Don't expect any help from this company as all they seem to be interested in is taking money and not supplying quality goods, that is unless you are prepared to pay for their premium service even then all you seem to get is indifferent help from a less than knowledgeable tech team.

They also have a habbit of not answering help messages and when you phone they will put the phone down on you when they realise that they have been caught out,

A very unimpressed customer

Raz

Hi, I'm writing from Italy and I had my new studio 1557 from 10 days.

I had the same problem, it freeze twice a day and i can't do anything, i only can shout down windows with the power button.

Help! What can I do? What you'lldo?

I need my notebook for work and I can't work with a pc that stops in that way!!!!!!!!!

nnavivan,

Not really sure what to advise this issue is on going and as you can see at the moment dell refuses to do any thing all you can do is phone, email and any other way of making contact to inform them of this problem, i suspect that the next step is to either take legal action and or start writing to the relevant Pc mags or news papers to see if that will promote some action from this lowlife uncaring company.

Be careful how long you take on the phone though as they will charge premium rates also don't sign up to their premium service as it is just another way for them to take money they don't deserve as their tech services are rubbish.

Raz