XPS 8930, freezes for 3-5 seconds

@dustynz Did you notice any unusual bursts of activity in the event viewer at the time of the freeze(s)?

@RoHe 

Sorry Ron, false alarm. It seems that the nVidia card sharing IRQ 16 with the Audio Controller is normal.

Therefore I came up with nothing obvious. 

@RoHe,

I "thought" I had!

The User Interface seems to be significantly different from my previous Win-10 PC &, hence, I ended up selecting the wrong configuration!

Eventually have managed to create the requisite Directory Structure!

However I'm STILL getting the same errors.

Suspect this has nothing to do with the Freeze issue, but it is frustrating to see that the PC is "Riddled with Unexplained Errors"!

As an example, overnight (whilst I was in bed) I notice my PC has flagged up an error with Microsoft Windows Calculator - something that I clearly was NOT using overnight (in fact, on this PC, I've NEVER used it)! So why is it suddenly reporting Errors?

****************************************************

Whilst trying to write this response, I had another Freeze!

Have checked Process Explorer & the CPU had peaked at 39.9%, with the "highest User" being "dwm.exe" at 5.02% - hardly enough to justify a freeze.

Have also checked out Event Viewer - NOTHING recorded for that time!

Regards,

John-Jay

Note that the directory problem with the errors in the Windows Event Viewer appears to be a Windows problem, not a Dell problem. See here for a full thread: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/event-viewer-erro-esent-455-since-update-1903/624a2548-06e5-47f4-bb99-76d6412895a0?page=2

The solution posted there by 'AJWE' (that's me) worked for me:

Open a CMD shell as Administrator.

That started me off in c:\Windows\system32.

cd config\systemprofile\AppData\Local

mkdir TileDataLayer

cd TileDataLayer

mkdir Database

This does not have anything to do with the 3-5 second freezing problem, which, btw, I still have on my computer as well!

@rjbards.

Hi, Bob,

A very helpful/useful Post! Many thanks for your efforts!

However, I'm intrigued at your comparisons between ver 1809 & ver 1903 as I've NEVER noticed any obvious difference - hence, I just assumed that it was primarily a Bug-Fix!!

Regards,

John-Jay

@HanoverB @DellCan @John-Jay 

This has been an interesting week for testing new drivers, operating system versions and hardware configurations for my XPS8930 PC.

After finally getting fed up with ongoing "freezes" and Dell Tech Support's lack of viable solutions, I tried some more drastic measures. All data backed up to external drives, I reinstalled Win 10 1903 over the C:\ drive (original Dell 1TB drive). This re-install included all the Dell software and drivers. After loading many applications on the system, the "freeze" issue continued. I saw spikes in the Event Logger with MSIinstaller 1035 messages pouring in. This was upsetting. I gave up after less than 48 hours...

I then reinstalled the Dell Factory Image for the PC, wiped out the C:\ drive and returned to Win 10 1809, a step backward in my view (on original Dell 1TB drive). I added a few applications over a 48 period and did not load the drive up with lots of data. No "freeze" issues over 40 hours. MSIinstaller 1035 messages dropped off... That was OK but how do I move forward from here...? I want to migrate to 1903 and stay current, but how...

Then on Friday afternoon, the new WD Black 2TB drive arrived from Amazon. That went straight into the PC and I loaded up Win 10 1903 from USB; a clean install of the newest MS ISO download. No Dell software, no Dell drivers, everything via MS Win 10 update. I have been loading up applications over the past 24 hours and no "freeze" issues. The system is running perfectly so far... And I really like 1903.

Have we been having driver issues with our XPS8930 PC's all along? Maybe not... Maybe it has been something in Dell SupportAssist that has been corrupting system operation. Maybe SupportAssist does not play well with certain drivers. SupportAssist has major security issues that were recently patched.

To date, you have not seen a single Dell Tech Support guy tell you to uninstall that software or roll it back to a prior version. And they have not come up with another fix on their own. My warranty will run out by the time they get around to fixing the problem...!

Will continue loading data today, happy so far... Some of the weird system behaviors seen with earlier OS installs are gone.

I'll keep everyone on the forum up-to-date once I complete 48 hours of operation on the new drive.

Bob

Hi, @Ajwe ,

Thanks for the clarification!

I strongly suspected that it had nothing to do with the current issue, but having those "Errors" i

does tend to "confuse-the-issue"!

Regards,

John-Jay

@rjbards 

Thank you for your continued debugging efforts! Forget Dell Support, we should have the customers pay you since you seem to do more than I could ever get out of Dell Support 

Q1:

Reading between the lines would I be correct in understanding that the system where you were ONLY using Win10 software (i.e. no Dell drivers) did not micro freeze at all? Did this last long enough for you to believe that the problem wasn't going to occur on your PC? I ask because in my scenario the micro freeze is unpredictable and I cannot reproduce it at all. There's been a time where I ran for four days without a problem and at other times I would get the freeze once a day.

Q2:

Further to Q1 was that system using any drivers from their OEM manufacturing? For example nVidia (for the graphics card) or Killer (for the Gigabyte ethernet) or Toshiba (for the SSD) drivers?

Q3:

Given your comments about Dell Support Assist do we need some sort of test where we don't have this utility running, perhaps disable it from starting when Win10 boots? Maybe in the utility's efforts to keep the Dell PC current it is accidentally causing the micro freeze?

Thanks to you Bob and the rest of the folks working away at this problem! You guys/gals are the best and I appreciate your team work and help.

Steve

@rjbards 

In your A2 answer you listed these drivers, where did they come from? Were they loaded as part of your "clean" Win10 install?

Thanks,

Steve

If necessary, you can use the free version of Revo Uninstaller to rid your system of SupportAssist (and/or Dell Update).

@DellCan 

Microsoft keeps track of drivers that work well with various versions of their operating systems. Windows will fetch a copy of this driver if it sees a commonly-used piece of hardware that does not have a driver installed. This driver may not be the newest; but it was documented to work with that version of windows.

My "clean" install of Win 10 1903 "fetched" copies of all drivers needed. 

Bob

rjbards

nice work there !, so now you proved the HW is good, and its just bad SW, called  OS corruption.

a great binary test and answer, there are many ways to do that, 

run Linux for a week, 2 ways,(using spare SSD or booted to live media linux) or w10 PE live?

or put  in the  same spare SSD (always have one in the tool kit, ok) as you can see dell support can do that on  call.  FIXING PC is hands  on business not some , phone call 12,000 miles away, right?

DIY !

Never trust a HDD, always replace it with SDD and test the PC now,  (and smart tests pass)

As many learn the SUpport Assistant can be a help or pure pain. (toss coin, I PASS ,remove that !!!)

so 161 pages of  answers here, and we learn the OS is simply corrupted. 

You know too the task manager is dead and that proved OS corruption in my book , using a real keyboard, wired USB. (no wireless junk)

so there you go 2 proofs , OS is corrupted.

only question is, what  did the corruption? (apps loaded, drivers (video tops my list of drivers bad.GPU/iGPU)

finding  how you corrupted it will  not be easy. (you or SA, support assistant or MS PnP)???

There are like what, 1trillion posts now on line on Windows corruption?

The topic is endless . The endless story, but in MY book , VIDEO GPU drives, I lock those in once stable.

learn how the HAL works for GPU and now you know the GPU weakness for the HAL.

Wise choices running pure v1903 ISO from MS, and run it for week, if runs for a week, then the OS is not corrupted, but then steal your self, install all those bad APPS 1 by 1, and not ALL AT ONCE

or this post goes to 1000 pages.

1: fresh new SSD, erased, 100% (never trust any HDD)

2: fresh new V1903 from MS, fresh installed, let the installer do it all don't play with partitions ,

3: turn off driver updates in windows update its just 1 check box, then uncheck same table for applications updates NO.

4: now run PC make sure it is stable, if is? try your apps 1 by 1. 

5: IF STILL STABLE and you like pain, put back SA and undo step 3 with fingers in your ear.

In the future this daily update malarkey will be  the laughing stock. for sure endless drivers and BIOS updates.

like when BILL Gates told these woppers.

@rjbards 

Hi, Bob,

If I may quote a valid point that you have made:- "I am not sitting in front of the box on the desktop all day long, I actually have a life..."

I think this sums up my frustration with the current issue!! Unless someone can advise otherwise, the ONLY way that I can tell that my PC has frozen is when I'm using either the Keyboard or the Mouse & they get "stuck" (I don't sit & watch Videos etc) - hence it is extremely restrictive as to when I can tell I've had a Freeze!

For all I know I could be getting multiple freezes every hour but, if I'm not using Mouse/Keyboard, I simply do NOT know about it!

Regards,

John-Jay