Yet another update: I have said up front that I am within my 30 day window.  That is based on the fact I received my system on August 12th.  Apparently, though, Dell's 30 day return policy is based on the invoice date.  My particular system was shipped from China and was held up in Customs on both ends (over a week on the US side) and thus it took THREE WEEKS for my system to arrive after it was shipped.  The invoice/shipping date is July 20th, which with my return request I am several days outside the 30 day window.  Personally, I feel this is unacceptable because my real return window was exactly 7 days after receiving (Aug 12 - 19).  It was during that time I was spending setting up the system and trying some of the other software conflict resolution issues on top of the schedule of real life.  When making the return request by phone, the Dell automated system announced that I was outside the window and that no exceptions could be made.  To me, this is pure (censored). To make matters worse, Dell's return department is closed on weekends (this thread took place on a Saturday and Sunday, August 21 & 22).  I have responded to all service requests (including my tech support call) to make clear I wish to have the 30 day return policy honored by replacing my system with one that is not defective.  I also initiated a new service request with that same message.  I also plan on calling Dell directly on Monday as soon as I am able. I appreciate the help crimsom and JOcean have provided, but at this point my challenge will be dealing with Customer Care to have this defective m15 R4 replaced. August 21 = Everything is now taken care of - the old (defective) system has been shipped back for a week, and my replacement system is running just as expected.
I just got a new m15 R4 in the past two weeks, and have been becoming frustrated at issues I've been having with pretty much everything I try to run game-wise.  All seem to be video-related issues, and I have been trying a myriad of solutions to try to find and eliminate any sort of software conflicts but have (for the most part) come up empty.  I've gone so far as to disable TDR checker in my registry, change refresh rate for the whole system to a default of 60Hz, etc etc.   Below are the games I've been trying to run and how they're crashing.  You'll notice that nothing is a brand new screamer of a game that would really tax my system, so the RTX 3070 SHOULD be able to run them with one hand tied behind its back, and thermal issues have never popped up - even on the heels of a crash (everything CPU & GPU is < 60).  But I've also tried to ensure that the system wasn't being overclocked just to be certain.  I've done the System File Checker a few times as well, and probably a couple others I can't think of off the top of my head.  Here are the games and crashes experienced: Civilization VI: Won't run, either DX 12 or DX 11.  When loading the game itself (start game after the menus) it crashes out.  Occasionally I'll get "display device has failed."  Other times its simply the Firaxis Crash Reporter that pops up. Civilization V: Black screen of death.  Often I will get the box blaming the crash on "DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED. Driver Failure." Aim Lab: This is about the only thing that has run without issue. Minecraft: Has improved with its stability with some of my fix attempts.  But still getting Exit Code 0 crashes occasionally.  Sometimes I can play for 5 minutes, sometimes 20-30.  The biggest help I've had here is turning off the GeForce Experience overlays. Splitgate Beta: Crashes after maybe 10 seconds of getting into the game (if that).  Sometimes crashes out while still waiting in the queue.  UE4 crash reporter is the only clue here. When researching issues individually with these games the solutions are always update drivers, then check integrity of the install / reinstall.  I'd be okay with integrity if it was just ONE game, but this is obviously something that's across the board issue.  I'm still within my 30 day window, so if I got a bad system out of the box I still have some time to get it taken care of, but I'd also be happy with a fix if its not a bad hardware issue so I don't have to deal with the headache of shipping something back and waiting for a new one. Thanks in advance for advice and solutions!
m15 R4, all games crashing