XPS 8940, Windows 11, freezes completely

Hi Jarred - I did a clean re-install of Windows 11 (without Dell's bloatware) and that seemed to fix the issue.  I'd definitely give this a go.

Same issue here with my new Dell XPS 8940. Haven't had a free day to work thru all the suggested fixes...

Hi Jarred, I have exactly the same problem with my new XPS 8940. No issues reported by any diagnostics. Dell Support directed me to re-image the machine with their Windows 11 image -- I did so, but problem returned almost immediately. Meanwhile, they closed the ticket as "Solved", and want to call Support again to start a new ticket (apparently there is no Chat support in Canada?).  A 3 week old PC which continually crashes and locks up -- pretty annoying.

Ornthorpe,

Following up to see if your freezing issue is resolved? Let us know.

I am having the exact same issue with my XPS 8940. The computer will be on over night or over the weekend and when i come in the fans are both on high gear like a plane and when I remote I get the blue screen saying it needs to be repaired. I have opened a ticket and no resolution.

I have the same issue. All drivers are current and the computer will A) overnight sound like a jet engine until I hold the power button for 5 seconds and B) crash randomly during the day -- could be during Zoom calls, Slack,  random apps, or even no user input at all. I have seen no pattern to the Windows-based crashes and haven't yet seen any error or event in the logs that would indicate the source of the problem.

@flitcroft  What version of BIOS are you running? Issues like this seem to have started with BIOS v2.4.0 and continue with later versions, though some users say the freezes are less frequent with the latest version, v2.8.0. 

BIOS v2.3.0 was stable and some users have reverted to that one to solve the problem, but lose all the security updates that were added in the later versions.

Excellent question - that's possibly one of the things I hadn't considered. I'm on 2.8.0 6/8/22. My computer has crashed at least twice this work week in the past 3 days for seemingly no reason. I'll look into going back to 2.3.0 and see if that fixes it. Thank you!

I bought my XPS 8940 SE in November 2021. Came with Win 10 Home, 16 GB (16 x 1) ram, no external GPU, and 11th gen i7. I had freezes daily during the first couple weeks of use.

A couple weeks into ownership, I upgraded the PC: added 3 x 16gb Crucial ram (total of 64 gb), RTX 2060 GPU (retail), 2.5gb network card, Win 11 Pro. Once I determined the new hardware was working as it should, I clean installed Win 11 Pro, using the download from Microsoft. I didn’t install any of Dell’s stuff (never been a fan of supportassist). I have updated BIOS as new versions were released. Now running 2.8.

Since adding the new hardware and fresh installing Windows, the PC has not locked/frozen at all. Not even once. It also runs 24/7. The PC acts as recorder for several IP cameras, serves up video in home and out via PLEX, and records various OTA programming. It works pretty hard and I have been satisfied with the performance. Anyway, seems either the new ram, new video card, or clean Windows installation stabilized the PC. I wouldn't think the new network card would matter, but who knows.

I've posted this in other threads but it's worth repeating here. I don't use Windows and installed EndeavourOS (a variant of Arch Linux) when I got my 8940 in January of this year (2022). It came with BIOS 2.4.0 and I had the same lockup problems everyone mentioned.

Hearing that 2.3.0 is stable I tried it. It was NOT stable for me! I went back to 2.2.0. I thought that was the answer but after four weeks, I suddenly had two lockups. So not the answer either.

There's no question that BIOS 2.4.0 made the problem, whatever it is, much worse. I also accept that a lot of people find 2.3.0 to be stable. But not everyone. Certainly not I, and there are a few scattered reports of others having lockups on 2.3.0.

I have made some changes and now have been stable since July 17 (and this is August 4). However given that I went 28 days on 2.2.0 before it failed, I am not yet convinced I've found the answer. To test my changes I've gone back to BIOS 2.4.0 and am stable now for 6 days in that configuration.

What did I change? I turned off "cstates" in BIOS and I disabled the nvidia.suspend service in Linux's systemd. Am I convinced that these changes make sense? Of course not, as I'm unable to explain anything. You would think cstates wouldn't matter. I am also suspicious of both memory and CPU handling differences between Linux and Windows.

The jury is still out. Dell should be the one to solve this but we're all still waiting.

@lem1 - What version of BIOS?

Exactly which Dell OEM RAM do you have and which Crucial RAM did you install? 

Do you know the "rank" of each module? You can use CPU-Z (free) to see each module's rank on CPU-Z's SPD tab.

There has been an indication these XPS 8940 freezes might be related to RAM rank. Dell installs either single or dual rank 16 GB OEM modules in the XPS 8940.  A user removed the single rank OEM RAM and replaced it with dual rank Crucial RAM and the problems disappeared.

@flitcroft - Same questions about your OEM RAM.

Also remember, if you want to downgrade to BIOS 2.3.0, you have to enable the BIOS downgrade option in BIOS setup first. And follow: Updating the BIOS from BIOS Boot Menu (independent of operating system) that's listed under Installation Instructions on the BIOS 2.3.0 page.

Let us know if the downgrade helps...

16 GB modules:

Dimm 1, 3, 4 Crucial CT16G4DFD832A.M16FR Dual Rank
Dimm 2 SK Hynix AO2P32NCSV1-BEVS Single Rank

I had full intention of replacing the Dell module to match the 3 Crucial modules I purchased. There was a supply issue, then I forgot all about it as there seems to be no issue running it this way. Now that I'm reminded, heading to Amazon to see if I can purchase another crucial stick.

It shows as 2x64. 

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@lem1 wrote:

16 GB modules:

Dimm 1, 3, 4 Crucial CT16G4DFD832A.M16FR Dual Rank
Dimm 2 SK Hynix AO2P32NCSV1-BEVS Single Rank

I had full intention of replacing the Dell module to match the 3 Crucial modules I purchased. There was a supply issue, then I forgot all about it as there seems to be no issue running it this way. Now that I'm reminded, heading to Amazon to see if I can purchase another crucial stick.

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Having 3 of 4 as dual rank RAM modules, and no freezes, could fit with there being an issue with using  only single rank RAM. 

Obviously that doesn't prove the issue since you've made a number of other hardware/software changes, but it's consistent with that other user's observation that replacing single rank RAM with dual rank stopped the freezes.

I pinged my Dell tech contacts several weeks ago to look into rank as the problem here.  I even suggested they could send dual rank RAM to a user(s) to replace the single rank and see if that stops the XPS 8940 freeze problem, but so far haven't had a response.

@lem1  And one more thing..Is CPU-Z saying  (Channel #) that RAM is running as single or dual channel mode on the Memory tab? (It might say "1x 64" or "2x 64" instead of "single" or "dual", respectively.)