XPS 8940, lock up issue Bios > 2.3.0

Did you see one in ANY 8940 Lock up/Freeze thread here?

No? Guess why? Then have not posted once about it other than once a moderator claimed many thousands of these XPS 8940's have been sold and not all have this problem, not clear if it was only Nvidia cards included or not though, and no further comment.

Another thread was marked solved by a Moderator stating a 'service device replacement fixed the problem', but never responded to questions in the thread about what was replaced and on which Users XPS.

So, no, NOTHING official said.

I do know they have NOT recreated the problem and have not 'captured' a failing system debug on. Either people would not take them up on the exchange offer because of the conditions or at least one that offered to exchange it was not acted on.

My lockups are getting worse

I was wondering if someone can post a lay person's guide of how to down grade to bios 2.3.0 and stay there please ?

Well, it can be done, but you have to do it MANUALLY.

What you need to do is go to SUPPORT page from the menu up top. Then it should on the right find your XPS. Select it. Then select DRIVERS AND DOWNLOADS. Then MANUALLY find drivers. Then scroll down and then on the BIOS line, the far right down marker.to expand the selection. There is on the left "older versions', and from it, select V2.3.0. Now DOWNLOAD the file, and when it is completer, run the file. It will install it.

NOTE: There might be a FAILURE on REBOOT of the Intel Management Engine installing. You WILL be on V2.3.0 with a different Management Engine, and in my experience, this might continue to have lock ups happen as it did for me. The Management Engine can NOT be back-leveled is the reason.

Also, once V2.3.0 is INSTALLED, go into the BIOS and DISABLE CAPSULE UPDATE which could be on. Failure to do this will allow Windows Update to install the latest BIOS over it.

thank you

I am on

SMBIOSBIOSVersion
2.3.0

Will report back as today 24/9/22 is first day back on 2.3.0

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@Mark in the UK wrote:

bios 2.3.0 boots a lot faster ..

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Did you measure that or are you looking at the overall time, that is time the BOOT screen is up or when the Desktop is ready to use?

There is a program that will show it to you, BootRacer:

I did not notice a difference myself.

Boot times can vary too:

I never figured out why they do though?

You do understand that using an outdated BIOS can leave you exposed to Security Threats? Most if not all released have include in them CVE's or fixed known Security threats. For instance, this is listed on the V2.9.0 web page, "This update addresses Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE). Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) is a list of security vulnerabilities and exposures that are publicly disclosed."

Just wanted to make sure you knew this. I think most if not all BIOS versions have this line in the description.

In some cases, the specific CVE is listed too. Not only the Dell part, but the Intel Management Engine included within the BIOS has the same type of fixes. In some cases I recall they do document the ones included as well.

I've 'suffering' with the problem rather than risk exposure, even if minimal.

downgrading to 2.3.0 has not solved my problem

Maybe my issues are a different issue ..

Was browsing the web, screen went black, keyboard still active, ctrl-alt-del allows me to reboot and recover, but very disapointing .. cannot recover from black screen unless I reboot ..

Therefore is this a different problem ?

@Mark in the UK 

Well, probably 'yes''.

Why? The other (well probably almost all at least) can only recover from the use of the power button. No errors (if you probably have one if you got the Black Screen). Also, since you can recover via C-A-D is quite different.

I've locked up ONE time where I could move the mouse but nothing else. Another user I know was on Zoom and it locked up, ut the IN voice continued to work, nothing else, not even his sound out....

Also, once it seems you have installed BIOS V2,5,1 or higher (might have to be an even higher version?) going back to V2.3.0 doesn't seem to be a valid work-around and you'll still lock up occasionally.

My suggestion to you is to look at the Event Viewer and see if it catches anything around the time of the lock up, either in the Critical or Error section.

Another suggestion I have is to use DDU (https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html ) and completely uninstall the Nvidia items.Before doing that, go to https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us, fill in the form for your card, and then save it for loading after you remove everything.

I had to do that once before for a display problem.

This could fix at least the Black screen.

using my detective skills the black screen only happens when using the firefox browser ..

Have turmed off hardware acceleration and looks promising . so far ..