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December 5th, 2018 21:00
XPS 8700, freezes when playing games
The system is a few years old and my second, after my first 8700 failed and Dell couldn't fix it. This newer system should be adequate to play more modern games, as long as I'm not trying to run anything new at max quality settings, but I've noticed that more and more often the system will randomly freeze up while attempting to play games that aren't even that new or having to demanding system requirements (ex. Half Life 2, Prey and even Plants vs. Zombies, in recent memory). When it freezes I've gotten both a white and black screen and the audio will continue playing whatever tone was part of the soundtrack when the freeze-up occurred. At that point I've had to do a hard shut down and cold boot and the system will come back up.
The system operates fine for web browsing, email and other normal, everyday tasks. Only when running games does the crash occur. I assumed it was maybe a video card driver or DirectX issue, but updating drivers hasn't changed anything. In fact the crashes happen faster after starting the game than they used too.
Problem is I've run support assist diagnostics and never find a problem. Even if I run the video stress test I can't repeat the crash. All the hardware passes the diagnostics and it's getting somewhat frustrating. The issue has occurred after reinstalling Windows 10 multiple times, so I don't believe it is an OS issue either. I don't have spare components sitting around or I might've tried another video card or even PSU. Any thoughts on what else to look at would be appreciated.
System summary
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.1K Posts
1
December 6th, 2018 12:00
Problems like this are either hardware, software, or firmware. You must troubleshoot to find-out which and resolve the issue. In my experience, intermittent problems are not easy to fix.
Machine should be on good UPS (like APC-1000 with LCD and AVR). No machine works without good/steady power.
First, you should press F12 on boot and check the hardware (outside of Windows) with ePSA Diagnostics. If any hardware is bad there is a 90% chance that ePSA will detect it. This should show all-good before continuing.
Check that you have the latest BIOS firmware. It's better to let Dell help you update it in case you kill/brick the motherboard. If that happens, they will supposedly help you get it repaired at no additional cost to you. Now-days, I think Extended Warranties are a good idea.
Inside Windows, re-create the problem with OCCT-Power-Supply-Test. This stress tester also allows checking for over-heating. This removes games from equation. Remove any extra PCIe cards and devices.
I continually watch the Windows Reliability Monitor report. Especially, any errors marked in red should be investigated and corrected. Events like a BSOD are also recorded here. If you are experiencing major system problems WITHOUT an entry here, it's often a core-hardware problem.
If a clean-install of Windows-10 does not help, there is a good chance you have a hardware problem. On old machines like this, I normally only use the Microsoft supplied drivers. Only load a Dell driver IF DeviceManager shows an error and can't find a usable driver on Windows-Update. Stop once DeviceManger is free of errors.
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/M-2-NVMe-bootable-options/td-p/6073037
If none of that helps, you likely have bad hardware. Maybe a bad motherboard. It will have to be replaced with a 100% working one. Try to get a good one (or one with a warranty) because a lot of used/refurbished ones out there are only 80-90% working (just like yours).
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Alienware-Desktop-General-Hardware-Troubleshooting/m-p/5555517#M57436
RoHe
10 Elder
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45.2K Posts
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December 6th, 2018 12:00
Any software updates available for your games? Have you tried disabling background apps to see if one of them is conflicting with the games?
Look in Windows Event Viewer for events at the time of a freeze, if any. That might point you in the right direction. Aside from software issues listed in Event Viewer, you might find "thermal event", meaning the system is overheating. But absence of a thermal event entry doesn't mean heat isn't part of the problem.
Have you used canned air to clean out the dust bunnies on components inside the case and air vents? Are all fans clean and turning freely? You should also reseat RAM, PCI-e cards, and all the cable connections too.
If that doesn't help, you might want to consider removing the heat sink, cleaning both surfaces and applying a thin, fresh coat of thermal paste (eg, Arctic Silver).
And when was last time you replaced the motherboard battery, CR2032 3-volt coin cell, ~$2.