XPS 8930, constant freeze

Yup, this is all very frustrating.  Different solutions for various machines. Maybe these are all different issues with similar symptoms, but no way to prove.

My fix was replacing Intel's RST driver with default MS SATA driver.  Who knows why that worked, or if it just somehow masks the underlying problem.  

Only other suggestion I would have is that since you seem to be using SSD for boot drive, try disconnecting your 2 hdd's (if you haven't already done so), and see if there is some random HD issue not showing up on diagnostics.

@smgarcia I just remembered one other thing people recommended that might be a factor, because I saw this mentioned many times when searching. Under the "Advanced settings" for the power management profile you're using, there is a setting called "PCI Express".  For the "Link state power", people were saying to set that to "off".  Mine is off and I think it was by default, but I might be wrong.  Nonetheless, I recall people saying this was an issue for Nvidia cards.

@smgarcia 

Disable these too: Groove Monitor Service, CLMLService_For-P2G8, and Killer Network Service.

If you disable Waves Maxx, you'll have poor audio output quality and low volume, so leave that alone.

Do the freezes happen now only when you're streaming music? Or also when doing routine browser or desktop activities?

Are you using WiFi (2.4 or 5 GHz? Does router support 802.11ac?) or wired Ethernet (How long is the cable and is it CAT5 or CAT6?)? How fast/good is your internet connection?

You can look on the Windows Firewall>Allowed Apps screen to see/change settings for apps. You could block things like updaters (eg Adobe Reader, etc) that phone home automatically to check for updates. You can always check manually from inside most apps for new updates.

Also be interesting to see what Process Explorer shows now.

My XPS8930 came with NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super graphics. There was an urgent driver update on the Dell website in April but I could not get it to load the new driver. I went to the NVIDIA site and installed their GE FORCE Experience software, which notified me of the driver update and installed it. I have not had the freezes since.

I seem to be having this problem as well. Every time it happens I hear a loud screeching noise like the NVME drive is getting overwhelmed. This occurs when I'm doing very little activity as well.

@Ryan Stanyan I've never heard of solid state drives making noises. There aren't even moving parts.  Maybe it's one of the cooling fans?  Perhaps your issue is something else that is causing something to stop and start again?  I've never heard my machine make a noise.

@Ryan Stanyan  - Do you have a spinning HDD too?

Could be a bad fan that you hear starting up, as things start to get warm.

And have a look at this, though it might not apply, since you didn't mention it happening at boot-up.

EDIT: And even if it's not the PSU 4 pin cable hitting the chassis fan that's discussed at that link I provided, check around to make sure nothing else is in the way of any of the other fan blades...

@Ryan Stanyan 

I seem to be having this problem as well. Every time it happens I hear a loud screeching noise like the NVME drive is getting overwhelmed. This occurs when I'm doing very little activity as well.

My wife's Latitude 7480 laptop with M.2 256GB PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive and no other drives would do this sitting idle all by itself.  I ignored it for quite a while, not wanting to mess with it.  I've since given it some love and updates and I can't recall it doing the same lately, so it may have passed.

Never could understand how the SSD made any sound, but that's the impression I got from it.

GK

I know this thread is old, but I recently reinstalled Windows on my machine and this problem plagued me again.  I went through all of the steps I had taken before one-by-one to resolve the freezing issue.  None of them worked.

I literally spent a week trying each thing to figure out what was wrong.  Finally, I got it resolved.  It is entirely possible that the issue is still a combination of things, but after turning off the game bar stuff, turning off power saving features, etc., the last thing I did was install the latest Intel chipset drivers.  Specifically, I installed a file from Dell's support center called "Intel-Serial-IO-Driver_WVVGP_WIN_30.100.1943.2_A08.exe".  With that, the freezing problem went away.

Given that nothing else really made a lot of sense, I suspect it has to do with these chipset drivers.  If I have to do this again, I'm starting with those driver files

Hiya,

I found some cool guides on this and these could relate to your problem:

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-uk/000132224/system-locks-up-freezes-or-an-error-occurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh0OzZZItpA

Thanks,
JC

@delluserflorida, I re-installed Windows and had to work through this issue again.  I was very methodical in find the solution.  What fixed it are Intel chipset drivers.  From Dell's support site, download and install the file Intel-Serial-IO-Driver_WVVGP_WIN_30.100.1943.2_A08.exe.  The freezing should stop.

My issue is I'm not a "tech guru", I'm a business owner.  I bought, and have bought Dell's in the past to help run my business.  I should not have to try and decipher what may or may not be the issue after spending $2500+ on this computer.  This is Dell's issue, it's a known issue, and they obviously choose to not address the issue proactively.  That's a serious business liability that doesn't typically end well.

@paulejWell, that' was another deception for me, since the XPS line is NOT the budget line, that's the Inspiron line.  XPS used to stand for good components and room for internal expansion.  Not anymore. 

I loved(still do) my XPS 9343 laptop from 2015, and Dell was a good brand back in the days.  But this XPS desktop burned more hours of my life than any custom built PC I ever built over the years. 

The loud fan was discussed lengthily in other threads too.  Dell went with a smaller fan than they should have to save a few bucks.  So if you do CAD or anything that pushes the CPU's it's like having a friggin jet in the room.  We have to buy a 3rd party fan and mod the PC to get it down to acceptable DB.

There was also a BIOS problem with video cards where GPU fan would not throttle down.  Dell solution?  Buy the nVidia card THEY are selling as they tweaked the bios to work with those.  I was stunned at this insane answer!!!  Luckily, a new BIOS finally came out to solve the problem for other cards after many people complained about it.

Same boat.  I've always custom build my PC's, but this time I bought a Dell to be sure there were no compatibility issue in the hardware and to have peace of mind for my work computer.  Well, that was a humongous fail. 

Dell is off the grid from the next decade as far as I'm concerned.  Not sure what they are hoping with this kind of non-support.

Dell XPS8930 = Unstable, insanely loud fan when you push the CPU(all to save a few $$ on the fan).  And don't bother calling support, you'll wait hours, get flushed 9 times out of 10, and lose more hours with level 1 support every time only to be finally told "Oh, we only do basic support, your problem seems more advanced, you need to pay for that level".

And what to say about this horrible website that flush logs you out every 5 mins and flush the message you are writing when it happens.