Windows Crashes & restarts itself but no message

[dan99t]

Hello,

I got a brand new Dell Workstation 3660 with following specs.

i-7 12700
2 NVIDIA T-600 Cards To Run 8 Monitors
Win-11 Pro
Three M.2 NVMe 512GB where Win-11 is on one of them
Three 4TB SATA 5400 rpm HDD
Eight 24 inch Monitors ( 1920 x 1200 ) Resolution

I am running into lots of issues starting from day one when Dell guy installed the system & for last 3 weeks Dell engineers have worked on it online & in person & reinstalling Win-11 with no success even with a small issue like Microphone not working & Dell is not helping or responding to my emails. So I want to try something different.

Remove the NVMe that has Win-11.

Put the blank NVMe in that slot & Fresh Install Win-10 on it.

Will that work or am I going to create more problems ? Meaning which drivers will I have to change & where can I find some of those ? ( Graphics I can from NVIDIA ) but what about BIOS OR Chipset or Sound ( Realtek ) I can't install them from Dell because I got M/C with Windows-11.

I read up on How to download Win-10 iso from MS & create a bootable USB pen drive with Rufus. Would I need a key for Win-10 to install it or do I get a 30 day trial ?

Please help. Many Thanks.

[Steven P. Administrators]

If it is brand new, you should be able to call up Dell and get them to send you the proper Windows 10 image, or a link where you can download the recovery. The site says that it comes with Windows 10, but with a "free upgrade to Windows 11" so you might even be able to invoke the recovery options of the PC to install Windows 10 and then dismiss the Windows 11 upgrade prompts.

 

I would definitely explore that route first because Dell includes a lot of proprietary components that rely on their own drivers and might not be included with a vanilla Windows 10 ISO.

 

TL;DR: The PC comes with Windows 10 Pro, demand that Dell help you to rollback to Windows 10 (or look closer at the included PC recovery options).

[dan99t]

On 27/07/2022 at 16:45, Steven P. said:

I would definitely explore that route first because Dell includes a lot of proprietary components that rely on their own drivers and might not be included with a vanilla Windows 10 ISO.

I have been exhausted with their non cooperation so I thought of this option to eliminate problems of Win-11. The question is will Vanilla Win-10 at least boot & let me see some of the basic issues that aren't there in Win-10 which are huge for me in Win-11 ?

[Som]

just download the windows 10 ISO from microsoft, if you need any drivers they'll be on the dell website. You can either put the windows setup on a USB, microsofts software does that, or you can instal;l straight from windows

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 27/07/2022 at 13:32, dan99t said:

I have been exhausted with their non cooperation so I thought of this option to eliminate problems of Win-11. The question is will Vanilla Win-10 at least boot & let me see some of the basic issues that aren't there in Win-10 which are huge for me in Win-11 ?

There should be a key combination you can press during boot up, like F10 or something that will let you go to the recovery options of the PC, there you should be able to load Windows 10 Pro, if that is what it shipped with, then simply do not upgrade to Windows 11.

 

The other route is as you have said, use a Windows 10 ISO and then try to load the drivers from the Dell website that you need.

[dan99t]

On 27/07/2022 at 18:15, Steven P. said:

if that is what it shipped with, then simply do not upgrade to Windows 11.

 

The other route is as you have said, use a Windows 10 ISO and then try to load the drivers from the Dell website that you need.

It shipped with Win-11.

So I can not download Win-10 drivers from Dell's website. That is why I asked if I can install Win-10 & would I need any drivers different especially like BIOS or Chipset or something else ? & Would it cause any conflict ? 

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 27/07/2022 at 15:17, dan99t said:

It shipped with Win-11.

So I can not download Win-10 drivers from Dell's website. That is why I asked if I can install Win-10 & would I need any drivers different especially like BIOS or Chipset or something else ? & Would it cause any conflict ? 

I am kind of surprised you weren't able to specify that you wanted Windows 10 Pro and not Windows 11.

[dan99t]

On 27/07/2022 at 21:23, Steven P. said:

I am kind of surprised you weren't able to specify that you wanted Windows 10 Pro and not Windows 11.

I have never used Win-8, 8.1, OR 10 so I am going from Win-7 to 11 & didn't think of any such problems.

[adrynalyne]

I’ve successfully installed Windows 10 on machines shipping with 11. Grab an iso, just make sure it’s the same feature version (home v pro etc) so your license is still valid  and install the “Windows 11” drivers. 

[DKAngel]

the only issue u have acctualy mentioned is the microphone, which could just be a bad driver or "pebcak" what other actual problems are you having, as to be honest there realllly isnt that much of a diff between 10/11

[dan99t]

Hi,
I badly need help. I am 71 years old.

I bought a brand new Dell Workstation 3660.
It arrived on July 2nd & was installed on July 7, 2022 by Dell appointed engineer.
Right away after installation I told him that I wanted to check & make sure that system boots & all peripherals are working because I had paid for installation. Right away I found that Microphone was not working & he tried with no success. He was in a hurry & wanted me to sign the papers & just put a remark that microphone is not working & he said Dell engineer will call back. I refused to sign papers & he talked to his boss & left without my signature.

This is a multi-monitor system with 2 NVIDIA T-600 GPUs running 8 Monitors. Over the weekend after July 7th,
I found that resolution on Two monitor is different. These are the same monitors that I am working with another Dell system for many years & still do, so that ruled out that monitor was not the problem.

On following Monday July 11th 2022 a Dell engineer called & remotely worked on my system for almost two hours without success & he hung up. ( May be Dell has a time limit, I don't know ) I wrote to Dell that they should replace this system & give me brand new one that works. Instead they said that they will send parts & I said no as this is a brand new system that has not worked out of the box.

2 days later on Wednesday another Dell engineer called & worked online for 2 hours with no success.
Every time they want to log on the new system, I have disconnect 8 monitors from my current system & connect them to new system & back to current when they are done.

So after 3 engineer's unsuccessful attempts, they said we will dispatch a senior engineer ( From subcontracted Company ) for full day who came on Saturday & spent full day with no success so I raised the issue & told them that I am done.
So they asked the opinion of the engineer who worked twice & he called me & told me that it is not going to work because of lack of 2 full X16 PCIe slot ( They have put second card on X4 slot ) & he has conveyed that message to someone in charge of workstation.

So I thought that now they will make things right & waited another week but didn't hear from them.

So I wrote them again last Friday, July 29 & told them that they have wasted one month of my time & their time & gave them 3 choices :
(1) Send me a new system in working condition without any issues.
(2) Send me another model that has two full length PCIe X16 slots with similar configuration.
(3) Give me my money back.

I got a reply from my sales guy that they have escalated the case to the next level to look into the issue.

People who are using Dell system & those who are not or have used in past kindly help me as to what can I do ?

Thank You all.

[cork1958]

Personally, after all that, I'd tell them to bite me and send a refund! Definitely no sense working on a system that is obviously borked out of the box. If they can send you a fully functioning machine that actually works to your satisfaction, ok, but I'd still be PO'd!

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 01/08/2022 at 09:47, cork1958 said:

Personally, after all that, I'd tell them to bite me and send a refund! Definitely no sense working on a system that is obviously borked out of the box. If they can send you a fully functioning machine that actually works to your satisfaction, ok, but I'd still be PO'd!

Not to mention all the bloatware..

 

OP: Are you running Win 10 or 11?

[+BudMan MVC]

On 01/08/2022 at 09:36, dan99t said:

Right away I found that Microphone was not working

What microphone exactly?

[dan99t]

On 01/08/2022 at 21:26, Mindovermaster said:

OP: Are you running Win 10 or 11?

The new M/C Came with Win-11.

My current M/C is a 10 year old Dell workstation running Win-7 and 12 Monitors without any problems except that fans are making noise & I am afraid it might go dead.

[dan99t]

On 01/08/2022 at 21:44, BudMan said:

What microphone exactly?

Just a simple mike that you plug in microphone port.

[+BudMan MVC]

And WTF would that have to do with your pcie x slots? 

 

Did you get some discrete audio card?  From looking at the manual - I don't even think it suppose to work with a microphone

 

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/precision-3660-workstation/prec_3660t_ss/audio?guid=guid-f995e016-7265-40e3-86ec-5ce543915d98&lang=en-us

 

 

Maybe you want to just buy some usb microphone and try plugging it in..

 

 

[dan99t]

On 01/08/2022 at 21:44, BudMan said:

What microphone exactly?

I use this to make Skype calls. It works fine with my current Dell T-7500 workstation.

[dan99t]

On 02/08/2022 at 00:48, BudMan said:

And WTF would that have to do with your pcie x slots? 

 

Did you get some discrete audio card?  From looking at the manual - I don't even think it suppose to work with a microphone

No discrete audio card.

They cut the end of one x4 slot & shoved the full length T-600 NVIDIA Card there.

[+BudMan MVC]

On 02/08/2022 at 09:24, dan99t said:

They cut the end of one x4 slot & shoved the full length T-600 NVIDIA Card there

Your saying dell did this?  Your saying they offer 2 T600 cards for this model, when the MB doesn't have the proper slots so they physically alter the T600 card or the MB?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

They cut the X4 off? That just looks like a x1 port to me..  

[adrynalyne]

On 02/08/2022 at 07:24, dan99t said:

No discrete audio card.

They cut the end of one x4 slot & shoved the full length T-600 NVIDIA Card there.

That hasn't been cut; thats a single lane PCIe (x1) slot.

 

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.6c07558ec134393e199fb24cf7cbf004?rik=73YwACWYyH%2buaA&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 02/08/2022 at 16:52, adrynalyne said:

That hasn't been cut; thats a single lane PCIe (x1) slot.

 

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.6c07558ec134393e199fb24cf7cbf004?rik=73YwACWYyH%2buaA&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

Yeah, my assumption as well..

[Steven P. Administrators]

Like others have said, please get a refund. Looks like they don't even know what they are doing if they can't even provide proper support for both T-600's

 

 

But also because two different engineers, and whoever more people you spoke to on the phone at Dell could not find what @BudManfound with a simple web search?

 

They sold you a computer that does not have 2x PCIe (x16) slots, or native support for a microphone!

[spaceelf]

On 02/08/2022 at 16:52, adrynalyne said:

That hasn't been cut; thats a single lane PCIe (x1) slot.

 

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.6c07558ec134393e199fb24cf7cbf004?rik=73YwACWYyH%2buaA&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

Looks like an x4 to me.  The specs given say the same.

Quote

 

One PCIe x16 Gen5 (discrete graphics card only)

One PCIe x4 Gen4

One PCIe x4 Gen3

 

I don't think you can use an x16 card in an x4 slot, though I've never tried it.