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XPS 8930 Dell Updates Necessary?
Hello
Recently I've had issues with a random system freeze that happens during gaming (low and high intensity doesn't seem to matter). Doesn't always occur so there is no real pattern to it. Since I got the PC around August, its done this about 7 times in total. I should note the games played were used on my last PC and did not encounter this problem despite running with lower performance hardware (save for the PSU, 750 in my last one).
I'm currently in the process of upgrading my PSU in the hope that fixes the issue, but I'm also wondering about Dell's updates. My reason for this is I get notification pop ups about updates all the time. I always click 'remind me later' now, because when I used to click 'install' nothing happened. Then I started hearing some nasty stories about these updates killing components.
When I rebooted after the last crash on Sunday night, the computer came back on and a pop up notification told me Dell Updates had installed, shortly before notifying me there were more to install.
Maybe it was a coincidence, but is there a chance its something related to a Dell Update that is causing this sudden freeze? I've tried to find how to disable or uninstall the Update program, but information is either outdated, doesn't match what I'm looking at in terms of program names, or isn't super clear on whether its a good idea to remove them or not.
I already set SupportAssist Remediation to manual and adjusted my HDD power settings to correct an annoying, frequent hang up of a few seconds, but I retain this sporadic full freeze issue (screen goes black, comes back on, all frozen with the last image).
In Control Panel I see the following list:
Dell SupportAssist Remediation (I set this to manual in services.msc per suggestions on another thread)
Dell Update - SupportAssist Update Plugin
Dell Update for Windows 10
Is anyone aware of these programs causing such problems as I've described, and if so can/should these be removed?
I appreciate any guidance on the matter. I just want a bit more peace of mind with my system.
JOcean
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
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12K Posts
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January 14th, 2020 16:00
So can you uninstall Dell Update and Dell Support Assist? Absolutely and at that point you would have to manually check for Updates. In other words you would be like every other user that has built their own system and manually checks for updates. The first thing I did with my Dell systems was to clean install Windows so I would not have those programs and any other bloatware. And I have built many a system and check for the updates on those systems manually. The Dell programs just make it easier to ensure that your system drivers and Dell programs are up to date but the previously mentioned programs are not mandatory.
Moab23
39 Posts
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January 14th, 2020 17:00
Thanks for the tip JOcean
JOcean
7 Technologist
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12K Posts
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January 14th, 2020 17:00
Glad to help out!
Anonymous
5 Practitioner
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274.2K Posts
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January 21st, 2020 06:00
Hey Moab23,
If you were still re-considering if it's worth to use a Dell tool to keep drivers up to date or to search manually to install updates, I found out after going through the same thing that you're experiencing (freezes, crash, false pop ups, issues with updates not installing), that I didn't have to do all the driver updates manually. And you can do the same thing if you want to. I don't think you mentioned it, but it sounds like these all came pre-installed on your new system. That's what I found at least came pre-installed on my XPS 8930, along with a few other tools.
What's going on is these Dell tools after a few months or longer on a new system will start conflicting with one another. I found a post on Reddit that explained all of this. They don't all play nice together and can actually wreak havoc if they're all running in tandem.
Here's how you can get your system running without all of those issues your facing if you're still on the fence.
First of all, Dell Update for Windows 10 and Dell Support Assist should not be installed together. You'll have problems all day long and until until Kingdom comes. Secondly, don't choose to keep Dell Update for Win10 over Support Assist. The right choice is uninstalling DU with one of the free tools like Revo, Geek Uninstaller, etc. and remove all traces of it.
When that's done, uninstall Dell Support Assist Remediation..Its old and useless and Dell doesn't give a . Use Revo, GU, etc and get rid of all traces.
As far as Support Assist Plug-in, the sole function of it is to maintain your Dell Support Assist OS Recovery partition with updates. If you don't care about the Support Assist OS Recovery being maintained, then uninstall it. It's been installed for almost two years on my system and both Support Assist and SA Plug-In both work fine together without conflicts.
The most recent version of Support Assist is all you need. In addition, SA will also update itself automatically to keep you with the most recent version of SA.