XPS 8920, Windows 10, boots normally, then crashes

This XPS 8920 shipped from Dell on July 3, 2018 to Costco in California. The warranty ends on December 17, 2019. So are you saying that you purchased it from Costco in November 2018?

You need to transfer it into your ownership.

Here is the Service Manual.

* Disconnect the power cable and all other cables from the tower
* Lay the tower down on its left side
* Remove the right side cover
* Disconnect/reconnect all cabling. Be sure that all cards and ram are snug on the motherboard
* Replace the right side cover
* Stand it up
* Reconnect all cabling
* Power on and retest

If still crashing, then the Windows 10 image is corrupt. Read this.

Look in Windows Reliability Report history and see what was logged about that time.

So, does F12-at-boot ePSA diags pass (outside of Windows)?

Do you have a valid hardware warranty with Dell?

Do you have a valid software support contract with Dell?

Thanks for your prompt reply. No, I purchased it from Amazon.com on Dec. 3, 2018.

I had gone in the Dell website and registered it—at least, I thought I did. I went through some registration steps. Perhaps I didn’t do what you’re talking about. I’ll go back to the site and try to transfer it to me.

Since I purchased this on Amazon from a 3rd party, do I fill out the Warranty and Ownership Transfer for a Used product?

Yes, all the F12 boot diagnostics Pass. There are no hardware problems reported. The PC sees both drives, the SSD and the HDD.

Hardware warranty? I went through a Registration process on the Dell site; however, it appears it wasn’t recognized and/or I completed the wrong one. Seems Dell wants me to register the product as Used since it was sold to me by a 3rd party. So I’m doing that now.

Softwarw support “contract”? Not that I’m aware of. I haven’t signed up for any type of subscription service, if that’s what you’re referring to. 

I have completed the form to transfer ownership, but I don’t know how to verify that Dell granted it. How do I find out?

Also, I followed your advice and (wearing a static electricity grounding band) opened the tower and made sure all cables were completely connected in their sockets.

I’ve run multiple scans from ePSA to scannow to chkdsk to DISM, etc. The results from all the various tests come back that there are no hardware problems ans Windows is not corrupted.

So who’s lying? LOL! I still have the issue that if the PC is on for 30 minutes or so, it crashes and gives the “Boot failure on device” message when it tries to restart.

I’m down to assuming either the SSD is bad or maybe Windows is has corrupted files. If Windows has corrupted files, why does it boot at all and only crash and try to restart after 30 minutes?

Please share the service tag on a private message to me. I will check the warranty transfer status.

Enter BIOS setup & stay in the BIOS screen for some time & check if the system restarts or turns off. If it does it could be a hardware issue, maybe the system is heating up. Have you observed any heating issues?

For my reference, please click on the message tab next to your avatar– click “New Message” & search for my Dell username (Sreejith R) & send a private message with the service tag, registered name & email address.

How to locate the service tag

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@Yaking_Yeti wrote:

The results from all the various tests come back that there are no hardware problems and Windows is not corrupted. So who’s lying?

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1. That's what we are trying to figure out.

Again ...

Look in Windows Reliability Report history and see what was logged about that time.

Thank you again. I searched the Reliabilty Monitor reports and it indicates a problem with the disk. Also, immediately following the last BSOD with “critical_process_died” notice, I booted into the F2 setup menu and discovered my SSD did not appear there as before. Of course, th SSD is where Windows is installed.

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@Yaking_Yeti wrote:

Thank you again. I searched the Reliability Monitor reports and it indicates a problem with the disk. Also, immediately following the last BSOD with “critical_process_died” notice, I booted into the F2 setup menu and discovered my SSD did not appear there as before. Of course, th SSD is where Windows is installed.

 

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You could remove/dis-connect all existing drives.

Clean install Windows to a new SSD. See if your motherboard and other stuff inside is good after-all.

Thank you. I finally did find an email from Dell indicating that the ownership transfer was successful.

it appears like the SSD is defective. After the last BSOD crash, I rebooted into the F2 setup menus and saw that the SSD was not showing in there like it does during a normal boot (one not following a crash). Also, my Windows Reliability Report showed a problem with the hard disk at the time of the crash. 

At this time, the tower only has the one SSD that came installed from the factory and one HDD that came installed from the factory. I don’t have a 2nd SSD to install and if I did, I’d be afraid to do something that might void the warranty. I’ve tried a clean install of Windows with no improvement. For the record, I bought this to use in a small home business so there is no other software/apps installed yet. I’ve been struggling with this issue since I bought it. Since I work 12 hour days (and raise a kid), I haven’t been able to pour enough time into this to get the issue resolved faster.  The only software on this is Windows 10, Dell SupportAssist, and a few pack-in bloatware apps. At this point, I’m going to look into Warranty replacement of the SSD. Perhaps, Dell had received a bad lot of them and one of those was installed in this PC. I understand that these things happen. The PC is new. I just want what I paid for and I want it fixed ASAP so I can get on with business. I sincerely appreciate all the help you guys are trying to give me. If Dell honors the warranty without hassles, I expect I’ll get the hardware issue resolved soon and be a happy customer. This is my first “store bought” PC. The last desktop I owned, I built myself, but that was 20 years ago and I haven’t kept up with all the changes in technology. Thanks again for taking the time. 

I will be glad to assist you with the warranty query. Please share the service tag details on a private message. I will look into this for you.

Have you confirmed that there are no heating issues with the system?

Thanks, 

 Sreejith 

Thank you. I finally found the email indicating that my Ownership Transfer was successful. The ePSA test didn’t find any problems with any of the hardware. The only heat issues that I saw was a dramatic increase of 20° C during a video card stress test. The tools I’ve used so far are: ePSA, SupportAssist, and the Diagnostic test available in the F12 boot menu. The Windows Startup Repair tool was never successful, though I’ve tried it several times. It always gives me a screen saying that it was unable to make the repair. Windows 10 is updated, all the drivers have been manually updated via the Device Manager tool, and I used the Dell SupportAssist app to update the BIOS and keep the other apps and drivers updated that I may have missed in the Device Manager.

If there is a tool or test that I didn’t try but should, please advise me. I’m new to Windows 10 and to owning a Dell product. I plead ignorance. 

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@Yaking_Yeti wrote:

I searched the Reliabilty Monitor reports and it indicates a problem with the disk. Also, immediately following the last BSOD with “critical_process_died” notice, I booted into the F2 setup menu and discovered my SSD did not appear there as before. Of course, th SSD is where Windows is installed.

 

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Disconnect the other (spinning) HDD to remove from equation.

Sounds like a problem with SSD. A bad SSD will usually fail SMART testing (like with Crystal DiskInfo or the free PassMark util).  However, it could also be the disk controller on motherboard. 

Your pic is finally online. PC-Doctor-Module is just diagnostic plugin for Support-ASSists .

Thanks to everybody trying to help. The issue was resolved with a return and 100% refund. Turns out I was taken by deceitful advertising. The seller I bought the machine from had bought it and modified it from its original configuration prior to reselling it but did not indicate this in his Amazon listing. Essentially, making the machine no longer a Dell PC. At that point it basically became a Techno Intelligence brand PC, really. So I’m back to square one. Need a PC but don’t have one yet.

Thanks to all you guys walking me through this. I’m impressed by the Dell support community and will very likely end up buying a Dell PC before it’s all over.