XPS 8930, freezes for 3-5 seconds

Very frustrating that a solution has not been issued by Dell after all this time! 

@rjbards @John-Jay @nrshap 

Thanks for posting your profiles. Gives me something to work with

I sent you PM's with driver versions on two working XPS 8930 machines

Realtek Audio
Qualcomm QCA9377 Wireless Adapter
Qualcomm/Atheros Killer E2400 Giigabit Ethernet Controller
Intel UHD Graphics 630

Rather than take up space on the thread, PM me back if you want any other info on those two machines as you sort things out.

FREEZE CAUSES, ( THERE ARE MANY) REDUX 1: (MS is not doing and update now or one pending!!!!)

FIRST THE EASY WAY. wits end way. (last) posted 1st.

1.   off my shelf  is  pile of SSD (5 spare 128GB SSD 2.5" sata drives. $20 used and cheap why not have one? 
2. i remove my boot drive, and put in this blank SSD and load w10-64 fresh (sorry no w7 here ever again)
3. I then test the PC,  ok see it works, proving the other drive is bad or the OS was corrupted. and not bad hardward like bad USB ports,  etc.  see  just 3 simple tests, and w10 loads fresh in 30min to SSD so fast.

In the same VEIN, does the Ubuntu v16+ demo media run in "try me " mode 100% , y/n , hummmmmmmmmm

that is the easy way or for sure to learn what works and what does not so easy (asking is this a HW or SW issue)

the endless question that, ?

now lets do the harder way, most causes are bad drivers,  we can see modern PC are THIS,  w7 to w10 upgrade fail often. or those silly daily driver updates by (all) {sarc off}

• get the free and safe wonderful app called ANYDESK(tm) load it on pesky PC1 and good PC 2.
• test it fully end to end see, it works even to my servers, too. amazing thing this is, and POWERFUL tool.
•  see hot key use at end of this page.
• this is the hot key for PC2,  hit del key on PC2,  and like magic remotely you have Taskmanager, up remotely !!!!  any PC on your sub lan can do this even a laptop,connected. OR
• or Anydesk PC2 see remote desktop and right click its task bar, pick task manager. (anydesk will so CPU 3-10%) (im clicking on remote desktop taskbar  not local PC2 task bar) (tricky yes)
• Locally you do not know why the keyboard is dead (sure mouse too sure) and are STUMPED, why?
• now use both PCs, when PC 1 freezes see what PC2 shows in task manager.? (ok or dead)
• Does the remote die too, or keeps working if keeps going does TM show what is causing OVERLOAD?
• In most cases the drivers are bad. (or OS infected, run SFC?)
• On w10 you can use the great INLINE w10 to W10 update,  (click keep settings and apps and data )
• turn off w10 OS updates turn off auto driver updates with normal OS updates, win.
• does PC run ok GPU card removed?
• does PC run with WIFI diabled and or ethernet port disabled fully.
• does PC fail only on the internet or local only or BOTH, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
• Does PC pass all F12 diagnosics  (ePSA)
• Does PC have hdd, if yes does it fail smart tests,  ?  C6 not bad.? non 0  is bad.

the anydesk hot key is

ctrl+alt+shift + DEL

there is my thesis on freeze,  I can go 10 more pages, but the above, ways solve 99%,

1% gee overheating.  all CPU slow or freeze, too hot near 90c (and modern GPU same too)

the most dangerous driver is GPU.. remove the card, if cured put back and get the driver FROM CARD SELLER only.

more... did you look in f2 bios screen and click  BIOS logs,  and see if BIOS logs show UNHAPPY words

and last the W10 event viewer see hard failures, like video driver load errors or other key hardware?

in autoruns64 what is in the scheduled tasks, TAB?

try to reduce or delete things, not needed on the PC, in the above list.  for sure adobe updates and gee some PCs have like 10 updates there all fighting each other. (mindlessly) endless bloatware on some.

go to taskmanager screen click startup tab turn all that junk off

even disable sound chip> in device manager, sound drivers are #2 in the world of WRONG drivers loaded.

after GPU. (sure remove GPU card  and test)

disable wifi and run Ethernet wired, or the reverse.

or learn to keep a $4 ethernet dongle handy, (kit) and then disable all wifi/ethernet in the box

and run just the dongle.  to the web.  see lots of things to try.  but I call bad drivers. on most. 

that is all I have now.

To Tse991,

How old is your Dell 9830 desktop and what type/brand of disk storage do you have please (i.e. SSD only, HDD only, or a combination of SSD and HDD)?

How often does the micro-freezing happen on your PC please?

Thanks.

Its about 1 year old. 

I have a Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TB and a Seagate 1 TB.

Its hard to say how often it happens, once every hour? I think it depends on what I am doing.

I don't see anything in the wubdiws event viewer whenever it happens. 

Going away for a week or so, won't have time to dig into it further until I get back...

This is interesting, I have gone 24 hours now with no freeze issues...

Could the UHD driver be at issue?

Installed prior to Sept 22 with freeze issues:
Intel UHD Graphics 630 (Coffee Lake-S GT2) - Integrated Graphics Controller
Driver Version: 26.20.100.6951

Now installed:
Driver Version: 25.20.100.6615

I just checked the Dell web site today and the 26.20.100.6951 driver is no longer available for my XPS 8930 model.

The 25.20.100.6615 version is the recommended download now...

I do not see anything amiss in the Task Manager. This freeze for 3-5 second complaint is still being researched on our end.
DELL-Chris M

Thank you for posting this news!

I have been running that driver for sometime now and I still get the 3-5 second freeze unfortunately:

Since almost all of us have graphics cards with our PC's I wonder if the Intel Graphics chip even gets used but I could be wrong.

These are my drivers on two working machines

Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet Controller: 9.0.0.49   (Driver only)

Wireless Adapter Qualcomm QCA9377 Wireless Adapter: 12.0.0.714   (From A 12.0.0.714,A21)

Realtek Audio Driver  6.0.1.8205   ( From 6.0.1.8205, A00)               

Intel UHD driver  25.20.100.6615  (From 22.20.16.4758, A00)

Edit: 09/24/19  removed reference to Dell version of driver and software suite for Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet Controller.  Using driver only.from the Killer website.

@John-Jay from his profile and later confirmed, is not using RAID as his setup, so that potentially rules out the RAID BIOS setting being the root cause unless it is problem of a separate driver combo conflict.

@rjbards had the problem with his new machine with a Windows 1809 build and had the freeze issue so isn't solely a Windows 1903 build related issue.

Profile of my two working machines

August 2018 Machine

Windows 10:  Home 64 bit Version 1809 Build 17763.615 (installed 03/29/19)
Bios: 1.0.12  UEFI Secure Boot Off, other BIOS settings default
CPU: i7-8700
RAM: 16GB stock Dell 2666Mhz DDR4 non-ECC Micron RAM (2x8GB) 8ATF1G64AZ-2G6E1
GPU: MSI Sea Hawk GTX 1080 using DP
PSU: Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 850W
HDD/SSD:
-Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVMe PCIE M.2 2280 SSD as boot drive C:
-Samsung 860 EVO 1TB SSD as data drive

Nvidia Driver 416.34
Nvidia Control Panel 8.1.940.0

Same drivers are on this 05/2019 working machine:

Windows 10:  Home 64 bit Version 1809 Build 17763.615 (installed 05/18/19)
Bios: 1.1.13  UEFI Secure Boot Off, other BIOS settings default
CPU:  i7-8700
RAM: 16GB stock Dell 2666Mhz DDR4 non-ECC Micron RAM (2x8GB) 
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1070 Founders Edition using HDMI
PSU:  Corsair RM850X Gold 850W PSU
HDD/SSD:
-Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 1TB NVMe PCIE M.2 2280 SSD as boot drive C:
-WD Blue 1TB OEM 7200 RPM SATA HDD as data drive

Nvidia Driver 416.34
Nvidia Control Panel 8.1.940.0

Can any of you with an add-in video card go into Device Manager and disable onboard Intel UHD graphics? Then reboot boot and monitor for freezes...

If it's freeze-free for a day or 3, go back into Device Manager and re-enable UHD graphics and see if the freezes resume...

@HanoverB  it was a worthwhile test; I went almost 48 hours without a freeze, but just experienced a solid 5 second freeze this morning. I was really hoping that rolling back a couple of drivers to prior versions, including the Intel UHD Graphics, would solve the freeze issue. Unfortunately, it was not a perfect fix...

But almost 48 hours is better than once an hour, which is where I started.

I have been running the following drivers for the past 2 days:

Intel-UHD-Graphics-Driver_R0RNG_WIN_25.20.100.6615_A02.EXE

Killer-E2400-E2500-Gigabit-Ethernet-Controller-Driver_HN0PG_WIN_1.7.1042_A08.EXE

Hoping others are having better luck...

I just found something bizarre:

Just about the time of my latest freeze this morning, I had 297 events logged where MSIinstaller reconfigured various software products like the one below. These 297 events were all logged at the same time as "Information" events in Event Viewer. While individually these would not be classified as an error; a process calling for reconfiguration of 297 software products AT THE SAME TIME must have tied up the PC processor for a brief period of time... Like a "freeze" event?

Log Name: Application
Source: MsiInstaller
Date: 9/24/2019 10:59:02 AM
Event ID: 1035
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: SYSTEM
Computer: DESKTOP-AD62FCP
Description:
Windows Installer reconfigured the product. Product Name: Killer Ethernet Performance Driver Suite UWD. Product Version: 1.7.1042. Product Language: 1033. Manufacturer: Rivet Networks. Reconfiguration success or error status: 0.
Event Xml:
http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">


1035
4
0
0x80000000000000

5544
Application
DESKTOP-AD62FCP



Killer Ethernet Performance Driver Suite UWD
1.7.1042
1033
0
Rivet Networks
(NULL)


7B32393334383830392D453234302D343944462D413039352D3939383731343135343846307D3030303063333232363239623963633930363865646633613063313366363139386461663030303030393034