XPS 8940, randomly freezing

If it makes you feel any better. I have the same issue. The system locks up solid & the only resolution is to hold the power button in until it hard powers off. I am confident that this is a hardware problem but I know Dell will deny that.

Good luck getting ANY support from Dell even if you pay for their premium next day support. 

After 25 years of buying only Dell products I will never buy another Dell. They are now the worst.

TL;DR: Reinstalling windows with a clean install and a full wipe of the HD seems to have fixed my issue.  I've been up for 12 days successfully running a continuous video stress test on 5 monitors.

Details:

I followed this thread and figured it was hopeless... BIOS, driver reinstalls, hardware test... all were hopeless.

As confirmed in this article, when I ran this PC with only 1 or 2 monitors, I had no freezes.. but when I drive all 5 of my monitors, it always froze up within a day or two.  Also consistent with this article, my other same-model PC from a year ago running half the ram and an older graphics card never has had a single issue running the same multi-monitor setup.

As a last resort, expecting to ship this PC to dell and seek a refund/replacement.. I did a complete wipe of windows from this dell-support provided link below and I installed nothing else.  My computer has been up for 12 days, under a constant stress test of running videos that tax the Intel UHD and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 above 50% continuously with usage of 5 monitors (one 4k, four 1k monitors).  This test would always freeze my PC within 1-2 days.

I'm going to keep running the test and eventually reinstall my apps and see if I'm really out of the woods... but I wanted to share some hope with the community as I am sure many of us are still pulling our hair out on this issue.

For me the problem started after upgrading to windows 11, and I had numerous other issues coincide such as the printer queue not opening from windows and calc, notepad and other basic windows apps needing to be repaired from the settings/apps interface.  Maybe the upgrade to win 11 just didn't work right and the clean install is what was needed?

I'll share an update if I have the issue come back after reinstalling all of my applications... or to share it's fully resolved if that's the case.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-in/000192698/reset-or-reinstall-windows-11-on-your-dell-computer

Since you didn't read all this, or even other ones about freezes and/or lock ups, and this was your first post here, I'll assume; you posted here as you appear to have a similar problem. That is you have an Nvidia Card, and 8940, and a BIOS versions past 2.3.0.

If you are on BIOS V2.10.0, one can run a fairly long time without a lock up. Weeks, and some have months before it happens again.

As for what you did, many of us did the same, but it is not a cure.

Hope it does work for you though.

As for finding out what the cause is, no one has found the cause. That is NO dialog box pop-up error, Event View enter other than the improper shutdown via the power button (error 41), no log file, dump, or trap info either.

Would be interesting if you had a few months with no problem though and what BIOS version you have?

.

12 days isn't long at all but it's better than every day or two.  I once went almost two months without a freeze.

But you can't say a clean install of Windows is "the" solution as the same problem occurs on Linux.  It is not necessarily an O/S dependent phenomenon.

Neither is it necessarily a high graphics loading problem.  I have had lockups while the system was relatively idle when just trying to move the mouse.

As posted elsewhere, I've found that I've reached a relatively stable state by turning Turbo mode off in BIOS (136 days so far without a lockup). However I do NOT say this is "the" solution or even "a" solution.  We will not have a solution until this can actually be explained by something more than anecdotal evidence.  And that's not likely to happen as I think Dell has given up and moved on.

Hello Irv, - with all due respect: I did read this thread in its entirety, and many times - along with several related threads.  I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that I was a casual visitor.

I respect that there are many people here with longer and deeper experience.  I am simply trying to help the community.  I am own 2 8940s - my older 8940 has never had an issue, as many have shared in this and the related threads. The newer one from this last summer has the latest v2.10 BIOS, with an RTX 3070 - it was crashing until my OS refresh 13 days ago.  I was also running v2.10 with the most recent reinstalled NVIDEA drivers BEFORE the OS wipe and it was still crashing every day under this 5 monitor stress test (note: it the PC has always been stable when I run on only 2 monitors, but I bought this PC to drive 5, so that wasn't an acceptable solution).

I acknowledge that I didn't reference each update in this thread - but I did indeed read and study this and several related threads for months, looking at ram DIMMs, etc as I managed the issue.  It was helpful to try these ideas from the community and also take comfort in knowing that I wasn't alone.  At the same time it was very disappointing that a PC I bought just last summer was already failing and I was ready to throw in the towel... I only wiped the OS and the drives preparing to ship this back to Dell.  

I thought going from regular crashes to solid performance was notable in my experience, and it seemed worth sharing with the community that helped me try ideas up until this point. No disrespect to the community intended and my apologies if I missed an important detail. 

One other note: I noticed on both of my 8940s the Dell Support Assist app never rendered right and it was basically unusable.  I was surprised that after I used the fresh OS install, Support Assist worked correctly for the first time.

For context: here is another thread that thinks it was resolved with the OS re-install as the key.  
https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-8940-new-out-of-the-box-intermittent-crashes/td-p/8141014

Appreciate the kind reply chi[schap.  Maybe I should ship this thing back.  I'm not ready to invest in setting it up again only to have it continue being unreliable. 

@nrgflows,

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@nrgflows wrote:

Hello Irv, - with all due respect: I did read this thread in its entirety, and many times - along with several related threads.  I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that I was a casual visitor.

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Well, for starter's the first thing you posted, "TL;DR:", and to me, that translates into "Too Long; Didn't Read:" or alternately, "Too Lazy; Didn't Read".

Next, this was your FIRST post on the Dell Forum, and on the SAME day you joined?

That is why. Maybe you have/had another ID, but I only saw the above. I assume now that you stated "but I did indeed read and study this and several related threads for months" that is the case, you either used a different UserID or you never logged into here and read, then creating the ID to post?

Now with that out of the way, let's get down to some specific info between the 2 8940's you have.

There was one other user who had bought 2 identical XPS8940's at the same time, one for him, and one for his girlfriend. He took the 2x8GB Dimms out of his, put it into her 8940, and bought 2x32GB Dimms. She had 32GB's and he had 64GB's of RAM. His claim only her XPS locked up. He was also German, but it was never disclosed fully what the differences were... He did post some configuration data but it wasn't totally clear what each had I recall.

If you did read all the Subjects of 8940's either freezing or locking up, you should have seen that many did do what you did.

Many have posted 'how' they solved it, option changes, power plan changes, device driver removed, BIOS changes, RAM Rank changes, etc. In most cases, they came back to report they had the problem again.

In one case for instance one who claimed he has an 8940 that doesn't lock up and he has an Nvidia card. Turned out, he was using the HD750 Intel HDMI only. Yup, that will not lock up, only if one is using the Nvidia card.

As you can also see, it isn't a Windows issue, at least 2 Linux users have the same problem.

I will admit, there are 8940 users with Nvidia cards that do claim it doesn't happen to them though. Maybe your old XPS is one of those?

So what IS different between your XPS's?

Many have compared CPU's, RAM size and Rank, PSU, Nvidia cards and drivers. Is GeForce Experience being used, were changes made in the Nvidia Control Panel, stuff like that.

Not one worked, at least for everyone.

One thing is known, in the beginning, about this time of year, last year, BIOS V2.4.0 came out. That, and that alone started the problem. At that time going back to BIOS V2.3.0 and there was no problem. After installing later BIOS version, even going back to V2.3.0 no longer solved the problem.

With BIOS V2.10.0, time between fails is Random. I've had over 30 days, and then even days apart of lock ups. Just had 21 days before it happened again.

So, what IS different between your TWO 8940's? Also are you using the same Monitor connections and cabling? I mean all the same, x on the Intel HD, and y on the Nvidia card?

Since the 8940 spanned 2 generations of Intel CPU's, are they the same? These CPU's were shipped with the 8940:

KX53R Intel i9-11900KF Rocket Lake-S, 16MB, 3.50GHz, 125w, 8 core
M5WW1 Intel i9-11900K, Rocket Lake-S, 16MB, 3.50GHz, 125w, 8 core
0RG88 Intel i9-11900F Rocket Lake-S, 16MB, 2.50GHz, 65w, 8 core
X6R70 Intel i9-11900 Rocket Lake-S, 16MB, 2.50GHz, 65w, 8 core
3FCFJ Intel i7-11700KF Rocket Lake-S, 16MB, 3.60GHz, 125w, 8 core
267V6 Intel i7-11700K Rocket Lake-S, 16MB, 3.60GHz, 125w, 8 core
533FG Intel i7-11700F Rocket Lake-S, 16MB, 2.50GHz, 65w, 8 core
4X3CY Intel i7-11700 Rocket Lake-S, 16MB, 2.50GHz, 65w, 8 core
7FCVW Intel i5-11600KF Rocket Lake-S, 12MB, 3.90GHz, 125w, 6 core
7DPH1 Intel i5-11600K Rocket Lake-S, 12MB, 3.90GHz, 125w, 6 core
D4X2Y Intel i5-11400F Rocket Lake-S, 12MB, 2.60GHz, 65w, 6 core
CXRG1 Intel i5-11400 Rocket Lake-S, 12MB, 2.60GHz, 65w, 6 core

R56MP Intel i9-10900KF Comet Lake-S, 3.70GHz, 20MB, 125w, 10 core
3PH75 Intel i9-10900K Comet Lake-S, 3.70GHz, 20MB, 125w, 10 core
48X0T Intel i9-10900F Comet Lake-S, 2.80GHz, 20MB, 65w, 10 core
35G7Y Intel i9-10900 Comet Lake-S, 2.80GHz, 20MB, 65w, 10 core
NJV41 Intel i7-10700KF Comet Lake-S, 3.80GHz, 16MB, 125w, 8 core
C2T71 Intel i7-10700K Comet Lake-S, 3.80GHz, 16MB, 125w, 8 core
JCPGM Intel i7-10700F Comet Lake-S, 2.90GHz, 16MB, 65w, 8 core
DX5NG Intel i7-10700 Comet Lake-S, 2.90GHz, 16MB, 65w, 8 core
FGJ4W Intel i5-10600KF Comet Lake-S, 4.10GHz, 12MB, 125w, 6 core
R1PRN Intel i5-10600K Comet Lake-S, 4.10GHz, 12MB, 125w, 6 core
2D8P4 Intel i5-10400F Comet Lake-S, 2.90GHz, 12MB, 65w, 6 core
25PHV Intel i5-10400 Comet Lake-S, 2.90GHz, 12MB, 65w, 6 core
CT26X Intel i3-10100 Comet Lake-S, 3.60GHz, 8MB, 65w, 4 core

In addition, W10 was shipped on most, and it could be Home or Pro versions. W11 could be upgraded, are both running the same OS and BIOS?

That's fair, lots of casual contributors, I saw many of them in the thread, and I agree a lot of the ideas ended in a dead end (after all - that's why we are still talking about this right?).  You got it right - I was a consumer of the thread not a contributor before, I didn't feel I had anything helpful to contribute until I finally had something that felt worth sharing - so I created an account and shared it on the same day.  You don't need to create a log in to read and learn so I hadn't bothered doing so before this moment.  

I did find the other threads that concluded with the OS upgrade (shared above)... I thought my result was compelling to support that answer with the unique twist of a 2 week video card stress test - but maybe not - noting the reply above on the same issues with Linux!

I'm all about this group.  Is there a tool, report or information I could provide on my older and newer/problematic 8940 that would be helpful to others?

My original and working 8940 is running Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060Ti
My newer and 14 days up 8940 is running a Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11900 CPU @ 2.50GHz with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Both came with Windows 10 Home and I upgraded both to Pro and later to windows 11.
Both have stayed current on BIOS updates and drivers

I don't know how to get the detail model/version number of the CPU you provided. 

Let me know if more detail would be helpful, we're all in this mess together!

@nrgflows 

Well, I guess I basically was right about the new ID... No way to tell, and that TL;DR really threw me off. No harm done.

You COULD very WELL have the ANSWER.... Intel 10th Gen vs. 11th Gen CPU's.

Would explain why some don't have the problem.

See, for one, the early one or two Motherboards did support 10th Gen I recall. Newer ones ONLY 11th Gen. Different Chipsets on the motherboard.

For instance, these are the ones shipped with the 8940...

Motherboards =
KV3RP Foxconn 02012PQ00-600-G, Released July 9, 2020
2W4W1 Foxconn 02012TA00-600-G, Released December 1, 2020, Brazil only
F1H92 Foxconn 02012YJ00-600-G, Released March 15, 2021, Brazil only
427JK Foxconn 02012VY00-600-G, Released March 15, 2021
K3CM7 Foxconn ??, Released July 14, 2021

I have the 427JK for instance (forget about the Brazilian ones unless they were bought their). I would think the working one with the 10th Gen has the first one.

If you run MSINFO32.EXE from a Command Prompt it will show you the montherboard number and CPU model Iwhich is the same you posted by the way).

See, the BIOS interacts with the Chipset, and I think that might be the problem... but I can't be sure? Dell supposedly NEVER recreated the problem.

I've not had much luck finding it, but the Intel Driver and Support Assistant will show you a lot of info including CPU details and Motherboard. Might want to get that and run it on each XPS and compare.

A program I use, Speccy, will show the Chipset, and run it on both and they should be different. Here is what I see:

A fresh install of windows provided by Dell and the latest BIOS fixed the issue permanently for me.   I had a model about 2 years old now that never had any problems... and a new one (that just passed 1 year) that was freezing and crashing constantly.. shared earlier in this thread or this one that is showing solved....  Point is the issue does go away if you bite the bullet and completely reinstall windows and use the latest BIOS.  https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps-desktops/xps-8940-new-out-of-the-box-intermittent-crashes/647f9a40f4ccf8a8deddf454?commentId=647f9a4cf4ccf8a8dedf2656

Thanks everyone.. after nearly two years of beating my head on this .. updating everything.. reinstalling… adding memory.. jiggling connectors and boards .. upgrading to a 500 watt Dell PSU (thanks Dell for the non standard PSU here) and several Nvidia cards later I went to an AMD GPU and the freezing problem simply went away.  I am a happy guy now and love my 8940.