XPS 8940, locking up/freezing since 2.15 BIOS update

I also experienced the issue where I had updated the NVidia driver to the latest version on 2024/01/12 and since then my Dell XPS 8940 (which to date had been a pretty solid system), starting to hang intermittently through out the day locking up the whole computer and the only resolution was to do a hard reboot. This became exceedingly frustrating as even light workloads like browsing web sites would hang the system.

So I opened a Dell support case, and as with these things, we starting going down the problem resolution script e.g. updating the BIOS again and Intel drivers, running diagnostics, support assist to disable some start up apps etc.

 At the same time, I found this thread and recalled I had updated the NVidia driver. So I shared the article with Dell support, and they advised we try to create a new user profile to see if the system was stable under that profile. I created the new profile, but before signing into it, I thought I should roll back the Nvidia driver which I did as follows:

• Went to Control Panel > Device Manager > Display adapters
• Right-clicked on the NVidia GeForce card and selected Properties
• Went to the Drivers tab in the properties dialog
• Selected the Roll Back Driver button

My monitor screen went black and flickered a few times while the driver was rolled back. After the display came back, I rebooted the system just to make sure, and since then no issues what-so-ever. I have been running the system for the past two days with no hangs, and running much heavier & concurrent workloads. The system stability has been restored after rolling back the latest NVidia driver.

I advised the Dell support person to share this thread with the appropriate Dell team as this issue of the Dell XPS 8940 hanging seems to be quite prevalent based on searching for this issue, and in many cases it seems the latest NVidia driver is the culprit.

Thanks so much to all on this thread and community for sharing your fixes and insights!

I too, surprisingly had the same issue, but as an old man who chose Dell for the ease of communication with reps, I didn't find this thread until it was too late, wrongly assuming they would check their own blogs from disgruntled customers first to recognize solutions and I literally spent several hours over several days attempting to diagnose. To be fair, every staff member I dealt with was wonderful and accommodating. I just feel the tech supervisor should maybe have preformed a simple google search as I did to uncover this thread. I was given these links to update the NVIDIA drivers and have subsequently had no other issues. Will report back if it persists later. I did not revert my BIOS.

Please use these links;

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
 

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=4jrvf&oscode=wt64a&productcode=xps-8940-desktop

I am having the same problem after updating to 2.16. I tried many things, including resetting to the factory setting and rolling back the BIOS setting. The problem persists. I finally gave up, purchased, and extended Dell Basis Warranty for $151 a year, hoping to fix the issue. After letting a Dell technician remotely work on my computer for an hour, my hardware passed all tests, and he concluded that this was a software- not a hardware-related issue. Software issues are NOT covered in my purchased plan. He gave me a referral to their software team..... My PC is unstable now. What can I do? I spent another $99 to get their software team to fix this issue. Today, the technician spent two hours remotely working on my PC. After that session, my PC was locked again. So frustrated. 
The $99 has a no-fix-no-fee guarantee. The Dell technician will call back on Monday. Hope this can be fixed. 

Just very surprised to see so many people have the same issues. It has been a few months, and Dell and their CERTIFIED EXPERTS still have no solution to the problem! 

@xpschisw​

So far Zoroyoko​'s posted advice to use an older NVIDIA driver has done the trick.  This is the first morning in weeks and weeks that I didn't have to manually shutdown and restart my computer via the power button nor did I have any issues yesterday since the change. I have DELL extended support, so my rep walked me through the process as a last step before reinstalling Windows 11, which I didn't want to do, but all previous attempts to fix this did not work.  I did not change my current BIOS. 

I have installed both NVIDIA drivers so I can go back and forth if necessary but am currently using the older of the two, 3619. I saw that 3640 fixes some security glitch, so I might try switching to that at some point but wanted to give 3619 a good run before making another change.  The NVIDIA driver I replaced is 31.0.15.4584 dated 10/11/2023.

You will see that these two drivers are recommended by DELL for the XPS 8940:

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>= 31.0.15.3640 6/23/23 Dell Date 8/14/23

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=4jrvf&oscode=wt64a&productcode=xps-8940-desktop  =  31.0.15.3619 6/06/23 Dell Date 8/08/23

Once installed, the drivers will show up in a listing when you try to update the NVIDIA driver manually, browsing your computer instead of doing an automatic update, so you can go back and forth as necessary.  Be sure to reboot after making a change.

Hoping this is the resolution.  Good luck.

P.S. I see that @theslyfox​ also posted about rolling back the NVIDIA driver, but unfortunately that option was grayed out for me, but definitely the right solution.

@arlenev​ Thanks for this suggestion.

Unfortunately, my GPUs are Intel(R) UHD Graphics 750 and
                                             AME Radeon RX 5700XT.

@xpschisw​ 

Try opening the Nvidia Control Panel and under the 3D settings change the Power setting to Max. Power, see if that helps.

I was having all of the problems mentioned in this posting trail for the last few months. I tried everything mentioned above and ultimately reset Windows 11 and still had the freezing issue.  Then the NVIDIA Studio Driver Version 551.23 was released on January 24, 2024. I updated to this version a few days after was released, and I haven't had a freeze since that time. I still don't know if it was the Dell BIOS or the NVIDIA driver, but everything has been fine since that change three weeks ago.

@ssurpren​ 

I'm on the Game Ready driver of the same version number. Yesterday, my FIRST lock up since probably 5 months ago with the Control Panel set to Max. Power.

Like almost everyone one in these threads, NOTHING is a sure fire always fix. It always seems to come back and bite you eventually.

I'm still on BIOS V2.13.1 as that one is stable for me (mostly). Never went to a higher one. Sometimes rolling back to a stable BIOS doesn't work, so I'm not chancing it now.

I've had this issue for about 1 month or so since a bios update.  I read through this thread mainly and maybe some others.  Now I'm on 2.13.1 bios.  3060 TI, have that running 536.40.  Seems to work.  I tried the most recent game ready driver, froze in an hour or so.  Unsure if the newest 1/24/24 studio will work or if I just stick to 536.40.  wanting to run some games as well as music.  maybe I'll try latest studio and see what happens or I may contact support also, i'm still under warranty.

@onewattfury​ 

You have to CHECK the Nvidia Control Panel's 3D Power Setting after EVERY Nvidia Driver install. Some will RESET it to the Default (varies by card, Adaptive or Optimum) on you. It should always be on Max. Power.

@ispalten​ I'm using Dell BIOS 2.16.0 with NVIDIA Studio Driver Version 551.23 and not having issues anymore.  I may be one of the lucky ones.

@ssurpren​ 

I'm still on BIOS V2.13.1, and with the Nvidia CP 3D power set to Max. I have been 'basically' stable for months, no matter what versions of the Game Ready Driver I've been running and I update always to the most recent available.

Lock ups on an Nvidia active card is not guaranteed to occur on all systems, as there are some that have no problem it seems. Some that 'get' stable  as well with what appears to be a 'variety of fixes' that remain stable or fail at some point in time later as the fix no longer works.

No clue why this is?

I have two XPS 8940's. They are configured differently but both have NVidia cards. Each started randomly freezing after updating to the "Critical" 2.13.1 BIOS update. Along came the "Critical" BIOS 2.14.1 with no change to the freezing issue. Then the "Critical" BIOS 2.15.1 update was released and freezing still occurs regularly. I completely removed the NVidia driver using the DDU tool and installed the Dell-recommended driver; NO CHANGE to the freezing issue. I can only back up randomly since the computer tends to freeze during a backup. I have since updated to the "Critical" BIOS 2.16 and "Critical" BIOS 2.17. They still freeze randomly every day. I don't have any idea what to do and apparently, Dell doesn't either. My wife and I have had many Dell computers through the years. These two are our last!

@dlindsey103​ 

All I can see is set the power in the Nvidia Control Panel to Max. Power Preferred and test.

Thanks for the post - have been having the same issue over the last couple of months. My 8940 will just randomly freeze (even when not under load). I've been trying to downgrade the NVIDIA drivers with no success. I've just found this post, and then tried the specific June '23 driver from the Dell site. Will see how it goes.

Interestingly my Lenovo X1 Extreme laptop started bluescreening (at least then I get an error code unlike when it freezes) at a similar time with the NVIDIA driver referenced in the event log just before the crash as having sustained errors resulting in the blue screen.

Reinstalled latest Win 11 2H23 on both devices without any improvement. Fingers crossed this specific driver fixes my XPS.

Update March 14: That fixed it (the linked June '23 driver). Still on latest bios.