Dell Studio 1555 stuttering in Win7 64-bit? Can't narrow it down

The hardware/software specs on this laptop are:
Studio 15 Notebook (Studio 1555)
Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 2.2GHz, 800Mhz, 2M L2 Cache
4GB, DDR2, 800MHz 2 Dimm
15.6Inch High Definition+(900P) Bright LED Display with TrueLife and Camera
512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
500G 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive Free Fall Sensor
Integrated High Definition Audio 2.2
McAfee Sapphire MUI, 15-Month
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

It is my wife's computer that I bought for her for Xmas. She uses it like any girl would, using Firefox for surfing Facebook, plays that Farm game on the Facebook (based on Flash I believe?), plays the Sims 3 on it, iTunes to her iPhone, and some light photo stuff.

She is claiming that it has some stuttering (from the sounds of it less than 1 second of stutter) every now and then when she is doing anything on it, internet, Flash based games, Sims 3. She said it does occasionally freeze completely and she has to restart it during the Flash game and Sims 3, I don't think it has done this since I updated it to the latest BIOS last week though, time will tell I think.

I just can't narrow down what the problem is though. All of her drivers are completely up to date from Dell's website, Windows 7 Home is fully updated (it autoupdates daily) from Microsoft.
I haven't seen widespread complaints about the Studio 1555 having stuttering/freezing issues so I'm having a hard time narrowing down a specific hardware component within the computer. If I were to guess the two biggest culprits would be either the 500gb 7200rpm HD or the Radeon 4570.

Does anyone else have this stuttering/freezing problem or have seen common complaints about this?
I wanted to research this here before turning to a Dell tech that barely speaks English.

 

I have the Studio 1557, but I'm experiencing similar problems.

When I open a flash-based program on the internet (even youtube), from time to time the screen starts to flicker and freeze at some point.
Sometimes the video card recovers from the issue but most of the time, i have to reboot my laptop manually or in the worst case, a BSOD appears.

It happens sometimes when I watch HD movies in full screen as well.

I'm sure it has to do with the flash version and/or the video card driver but I have no idea how I can fix it. I'm running the latest drivers like you do but the problems remain..

Any other suggestions from other users?

 

Hey spetz, I'm wondering if it has to do with the video driver. My wife plays Sims 3, and she mentions it freezes and/or stutters on that game, which I don't believe uses any portion of Flash within the game.

 

Anyone else experiencing minor freezing with their Dell Studio?

 

I'm getting the same thing. I have a Studio 1557 with the I7 processor and the 1570 HD At Video Card. It is definetely a video card problem. If I can't get it fixed, I'm thinking about just going with the Studio XPS 16 because I've only had this computer for a week now. I tried 4 different driver including a latest version beta (version 8.69) driver. No success yet. Same black screen. If i watch any videos online or dvds it will play for about 15 min in full screen and then it will go blank. If I can catch it fast enough when it starts to slow down I can recover, but still have to reboot. Otherwise I have to force restart. I will keep you posted. Let me know if you find a solution.

 

Recently I watched a newspaper through a flash application and the first second I opened it, the system froze and I had to reboot...

Therefore, I am sure that flash apps also have something to do with it...

Concerning playing games..
I mostly play warcraft 3 and left 4 dead on this lappy and haven't had one single problem with it during the last 3 months since I bought this laptop.
I know these games are not high-demanding but nonetheless, it is evident that the laptop can handle them with no problem at all..

However, the video driver sure is an issue as well since the freezes also happen during DVD play and, like you mentioned, playing Sims 3.

I have tried updating/rolling-back the video driver to different versions but didn't make any progress on finding the source of this issue.

 

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19310587/19645358.aspx?PageIndex=17

 

That's awesome it worked. Thank you.

 

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19303691.aspx?PageIndex=2

this is worth a read

people are experiencing the same problem with the video driver like we do, and one of them gives a possible solution to the problem.

i haven't tried it out yet because i think dell will release a driver update soon and i don't want to risk bricking my video card.. but i thought it might help to share the info