I have disabled all Dell services and even uninstalled all Dell programs, but it still happens. I have searched and found several threads, but I am not sure if this is the same case or if there is a universal solution.
The following diagnostics may help you with identifying causes of this troublesome behavior: 1) Task manager + Resource Monitor to check for application(-s) using most resources during freezes (CPU,RAM,Disk). 2) Task manager to view what hardware element is under most stress (e.g. 100% use of Storage, CPU, Network, RAM). 3) HWInfo64 to view temperatures and power usage by CPU/GPU. 4) Windows Logs for more detailed application activities or abnormal errors during these freezing spikes.
If everything is ok from hardware standpoint then good recommendation is normally to check for updated BIOS/firmware and fully reinstalling the system from fresh/latest Windows media (not necessarily supplied by Dell) and latest drivers (then checking behavior for couple of days before installing any software over a new system).
@akedna Your symptoms are very similar to those already reported, and there is no "universal fix". So read some of those threads and see if anything posted helps you, especially if you have an NVidia video card and a "funky" NVidia driver.
If you had these same issues with whatever BIOS was installed prior to v2.10.0, there's no point downgrading. If you didn't have these issues before v2.10.0, it might be worth reverting to 2.9.0 , but you do it entirely at your own risk.
Keep in mind that you lose all fixes/updates added to each new BIOS version the farther you go back, so don't go back too far. And you have to enable the BIOS Downgrade option in BIOS setup (Table 9) before attempting to downgrade.
Hi @RoHe. I have tried today downgrading BIOS to 2.3 and deleting Nvidia drivers with DDU and no luck, it still happens. I have seen several threads and tried lots of things, but I don't think I have seen another case in which it worked until 2 months ago, started failing for a month, worked again and a month later started failing again.
I would do a complete Windows reinstall as @sam55todd has suggested, but it takes too long and it doesn't assure that it would fix the issue, so I think I prefer trying other things before. I think it is somehow Dell's fault and they should provide better support.
Going back to v2.3 was pretty drastic. You lost a lot of security patches by going back that far.
There is a thread that says reverting to an earlier BIOS doesn't revert the Intel ME firmware to the corresponding previous version. So now you have a mismatch between BIOS and ME versions. And it's possible the problem is related to the ME firmware itself rather than just BIOS.
There doesn't seem to be a way for the user to revert the ME firmware to a prior version, so do you want to go back to v2.10 so BIOS and ME firmware versions should match? I don't know what to tell you...
Interesting observation about running VMWare. Don't know what that might mean, but if it isn't hogging too much CPU time or RAM, it's a reasonable workaround for now...
I just wanted to know if it could work, but as downgrading to 2.3 has not worked, I have come back to 2.10, it may be what you say with ME firmware, I don't know.
But I have discovered something probably helpful, it is a workaround but I can live with it, and maybe someone can make new hypothesis or conclusions with it. If the PC is running a VMWare Player Virtual Machine it works OK and does not freeze at all. If I turn off the VM, the freezes come back and if I turn it on again, they go away again.
redxps630
9 Legend
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15.4K Posts
0
December 4th, 2022 10:00
This forum thread may help.
akedna
2 Intern
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33 Posts
0
December 4th, 2022 12:00
I think it is a very different case, I get no BSOD, minidumps nor errors in event viewer.
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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December 4th, 2022 13:00
Try setting Startup Type to Disabled for all "Dell" services listed in Start>Run>services.msc - don't change anything else, and just reboot PC...
And lots of other threads about exact same problem, with no BSOD or errors in Event Viewer etc. So search for them.
What version of BIOS do you have?
akedna
2 Intern
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33 Posts
0
December 5th, 2022 00:00
I have disabled all Dell services and even uninstalled all Dell programs, but it still happens. I have searched and found several threads, but I am not sure if this is the same case or if there is a universal solution.
Last BIOS version: 2.10. Can I downgrade safely?
sam55todd
2 Intern
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243 Posts
0
December 5th, 2022 01:00
The following diagnostics may help you with identifying causes of this troublesome behavior:
1) Task manager + Resource Monitor to check for application(-s) using most resources during freezes (CPU,RAM,Disk).
2) Task manager to view what hardware element is under most stress (e.g. 100% use of Storage, CPU, Network, RAM).
3) HWInfo64 to view temperatures and power usage by CPU/GPU.
4) Windows Logs for more detailed application activities or abnormal errors during these freezing spikes.
If everything is ok from hardware standpoint then good recommendation is normally to check for updated BIOS/firmware and fully reinstalling the system from fresh/latest Windows media (not necessarily supplied by Dell) and latest drivers (then checking behavior for couple of days before installing any software over a new system).
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
0
December 5th, 2022 12:00
@akedna Your symptoms are very similar to those already reported, and there is no "universal fix". So read some of those threads and see if anything posted helps you, especially if you have an NVidia video card and a "funky" NVidia driver.
If you had these same issues with whatever BIOS was installed prior to v2.10.0, there's no point downgrading. If you didn't have these issues before v2.10.0, it might be worth reverting to 2.9.0 , but you do it entirely at your own risk.
Keep in mind that you lose all fixes/updates added to each new BIOS version the farther you go back, so don't go back too far. And you have to enable the BIOS Downgrade option in BIOS setup (Table 9) before attempting to downgrade.
akedna
2 Intern
•
33 Posts
0
December 5th, 2022 14:00
Hi @RoHe. I have tried today downgrading BIOS to 2.3 and deleting Nvidia drivers with DDU and no luck, it still happens. I have seen several threads and tried lots of things, but I don't think I have seen another case in which it worked until 2 months ago, started failing for a month, worked again and a month later started failing again.
I would do a complete Windows reinstall as @sam55todd has suggested, but it takes too long and it doesn't assure that it would fix the issue, so I think I prefer trying other things before. I think it is somehow Dell's fault and they should provide better support.
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
0
December 5th, 2022 14:00
Going back to v2.3 was pretty drastic. You lost a lot of security patches by going back that far.
There is a thread that says reverting to an earlier BIOS doesn't revert the Intel ME firmware to the corresponding previous version. So now you have a mismatch between BIOS and ME versions. And it's possible the problem is related to the ME firmware itself rather than just BIOS.
There doesn't seem to be a way for the user to revert the ME firmware to a prior version, so do you want to go back to v2.10 so BIOS and ME firmware versions should match? I don't know what to tell you...
RoHe
10 Elder
•
45.2K Posts
0
December 6th, 2022 08:00
Interesting observation about running VMWare. Don't know what that might mean, but if it isn't hogging too much CPU time or RAM, it's a reasonable workaround for now...
akedna
2 Intern
•
33 Posts
0
December 6th, 2022 08:00
I just wanted to know if it could work, but as downgrading to 2.3 has not worked, I have come back to 2.10, it may be what you say with ME firmware, I don't know.
But I have discovered something probably helpful, it is a workaround but I can live with it, and maybe someone can make new hypothesis or conclusions with it. If the PC is running a VMWare Player Virtual Machine it works OK and does not freeze at all. If I turn off the VM, the freezes come back and if I turn it on again, they go away again.