Dell laptop freezing randomly

Have you tried a BIOS flash or the latest firmware for your SSD?

I've seen a bad CPU cause this, but I can't image you'd have 4 bad ones

I think it's got to be something in the software. If it's not a driver (which most of the time you could track down via event viewer, so I'm leaning towards not), then is there a piece of software that's installed on all of the machines in question? Especially if it's something that either creates a service or process that runs in the background.

Carl Holzhauer wrote:

Have you tried a BIOS flash or the latest firmware for your SSD?

I've seen a bad CPU cause this, but I can't image you'd have 4 bad ones

Yes I've flashed the BIOS and all firmware/drivers are up to date.

_V_ wrote:

I think it's got to be something in the software. If it's not a driver (which most of the time you could track down via event viewer, so I'm leaning towards not), then is there a piece of software that's installed on all of the machines in question? Especially if it's something that either creates a service or process that runs in the background.

I've got three of the four machines in production right now. One of them is just sitting in the back with a base image. That includes the drivers (which are up to date), Chrome, our antivirus, Silverlight, Office Standard 2016, and a remote viewer.

Have you tried to replace the mouse and keyboard when this happens?

I had the same issue with an HP desktop and it turns out that the computer was not freeze, the peripherals were not working.

You have had Dell support and carried out many actions and you still are not sure whether it is hardware or software. If it were me I would try one or both of these actions:

1. Clone or swap the SSD from a working machine to the non working one and see if the fault swaps or not. If the freezing goes with the SSD then it is either the SSD or Windows.

2. If you can take a freezing machine away and either fire up a Live Linux Distro or install one to a spare SSD then see if the fault reoccurs. If it does it is the hardware and if it does not then it is most likely Windows.

Also, I did wonder if it could be anything to do with the RAM timing

Dinko07 wrote:

Have you tried to replace the mouse and keyboard when this happens?

I had the same issue with an HP desktop and it turns out that the computer was not freeze, the peripherals were not working.

On four different computers though? Two of them did ask for wireless mice instead of wired ones, so I swapped those.

2300peterw wrote:

You have had Dell support and carried out many actions and you still are not sure whether it is hardware or software. If it were me I would try one or both of these actions:

1. Clone or swap the SSD from a working machine to the non working one and see if the fault swaps or not. If the freezing goes with the SSD then it is either the SSD or Windows.

2. If you can take a freezing machine away and either fire up a Live Linux Distro or install one to a spare SSD then see if the fault reoccurs. If it does it is the hardware and if it does not then it is most likely Windows.

Also, I did wonder if it could be anything to do with the RAM timing

I have Dell keep your hard drive so when they replaced one of them I put the old one in a different model of computer and it's humming along just fine.

I have a Veeam recovery USB that I can boot from and let it sit there for a while?

Power supply. Bad power will cause lockups.

This sounds exactly like an issue we had where a bulk of our PCs would freeze randomly (mouse and keyboard), yet not all of them. Ultimately it was our antivirus, and it caused such a headache that we switched to a completely different one. So with that in mind, have you investigated the anti-virus or any other software installed?

Does it freeze outside of Windows? Have you booted into Linux or another bootable environment? That would rule out bad hardware *mostly. I say mostly because when you install proper drivers and the OS goes to use the full extend of the hardware, hardware issues can pop up.

Rollback the video driver to one from 2014 or 2015.

by any chance are you using malware bytes ? I had the same issue and it was one of the newer releases that was causing the issue. if I installed the version before the issue would stop. as soon as I updated.. freeze again.. sorry I didn't keep my sticky that had the version number on it.. but if your using Malware bytes try removing it and leave it for a day or so and see if the issue happens again.

donald moore wrote:

Power supply. Bad power will cause lockups.

I can request that be replaced next.

rburch wrote:

This sounds exactly like an issue we had where a bulk of our PCs would freeze randomly (mouse and keyboard), yet not all of them. Ultimately it was our antivirus, and it caused such a headache that we switched to a completely different one. So with that in mind, have you investigated the anti-virus or any other software installed?

I can try removing the antivirus on the one just sitting in back.

Specter01101 wrote:

Does it freeze outside of Windows? Have you booted into Linux or another bootable environment? That would rule out bad hardware *mostly. I say mostly because when you install proper drivers and the OS goes to use the full extend of the hardware, hardware issues can pop up.

I have not, but I will add that to the list.

-Aldrin- wrote:

Rollback the video driver to one from 2014 or 2015.

The oldest one available for this card is from March 2018.

jermL wrote:

by any chance are you using malware bytes ? I had the same issue and it was one of the newer releases that was causing the issue. if I installed the version before the issue would stop. as soon as I updated.. freeze again.. sorry I didn't keep my sticky that had the version number on it.. but if your using Malware bytes try removing it and leave it for a day or so and see if the issue happens again.

I am using Malwarebytes and it would be up to date with the latest version! I'll try removing that.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! The freezes are intermittent and it will sometimes go a day or two without happening. I have a couple things to try and I will report back on my results.

make sure you try one at a time so you know which one fixes the issue so you can repeat on the other work stations

I suggest that you ask Dell to replace them.

grsl wrote:

I suggest that you ask Dell to replace them.

We've discussed that as an option but apparently there is a 4-6 week lead time. The tech also said he didn't want give me new systems just to have the same error occur...

Do you allow driver updates through WSUS or just Windows updates? There have been issues where a new SSD driver causes a PC to freeze in a similar way. When you can get the machine to run properly, open the Device Manager and attempt a driver update for the SSD. Browse your PC and choose the "Let me pick" option. How many driver options are listed? If there is an option for a Microsoft Generic Driver and an Intel driver, choose the Intel driver.

My first question would be do all the failing computers fail at the same physical location? If you swap two computers A working one with a failing one does the same one fail? You may have a power problem to some of the desks.

LS.Norwesco wrote:

grsl wrote:

I suggest that you ask Dell to replace them.

We've discussed that as an option but apparently there is a 4-6 week lead time. The tech also said he didn't want give me new systems just to have the same error occur...

I recently had a similar problem where Dell had changed everything in the box apart from the cables. As long as the pcs are off the shelf delivery is 3-4 days so I asked for a refund and ordered a new one. Then I refused to pay the original invoice until I got the credit note.

The tech doesn't have much faith in the product if she thinks a new one is going to be duff as well! I think this is just company policy.

I would definitely boot into Windows Safe Mode with networking. I would then see if it freezes at any point. This would isolate the issue to drivers/OS. If it is happening to 3 - 5 computers, it is definitely a model issue. Did you uninstall all the Dell bloatware that comes with the Dell? Are you pulling in image down or building with shipped OS?

What model DELL? We have had this in the past and it turned out to be bad capacitors on the mobo, leads to unclean power. Check the visible capacitors on the mobo, see if any of them are bulging. This was many years ago, the Optiplex GX-790, they were so bad Dell extended the warranty 2 years for any ones that showed the bad caps. Great customer service in my mind.

I was curious if there was an update on this situation? I had a batch of around 100 desktop computers from NEC (years ago) where we had more than 20 that gave us trouble. Turned out there was a power connection that intermittently would ground out against the chassis. When this happened, it would cause the system to fail, but it took a while to happen in the systems where it did happen and some systems never failed at all. After over a month of testing, It turned out to be a spot where insulation had rubbed off a wire where the wire was routed through the chassis. A little chunk of electrical tape fixed the problem on the systems that ever had the problem, but it took so long to figure it out.

CooperJS1 wrote:

Do you allow driver updates through WSUS or just Windows updates? There have been issues where a new SSD driver causes a PC to freeze in a similar way. When you can get the machine to run properly, open the Device Manager and attempt a driver update for the SSD. Browse your PC and choose the "Let me pick" option. How many driver options are listed? If there is an option for a Microsoft Generic Driver and an Intel driver, choose the Intel driver.

Drivers are included in our image, I manually update them before and after deployment.

Albert9359 wrote:

My first question would be do all the failing computers fail at the same physical location? If you swap two computers A working one with a failing one does the same one fail? You may have a power problem to some of the desks.

I said in the OP that two are here with me and two are at a remote sites. I've moved one of the ones I have here around on my workbench and it continues to freeze.

grsl wrote:

I recently had a similar problem where Dell had changed everything in the box apart from the cables. As long as the pcs are off the shelf delivery is 3-4 days so I asked for a refund and ordered a new one. Then I refused to pay the original invoice until I got the credit note.

The tech doesn't have much faith in the product if she thinks a new one is going to be duff as well! I think this is just company policy.

These are unfortunately not off the shelf. It didn't take that long to get them originally and I didn't get a real answer when I asked what the delay was.

SHNOOL wrote:

What model DELL? We have had this in the past and it turned out to be bad capacitors on the mobo, leads to unclean power. Check the visible capacitors on the mobo, see if any of them are bulging. This was many years ago, the Optiplex GX-790, they were so bad Dell extended the warranty 2 years for any ones that showed the bad caps. Great customer service in my mind.

I said in OP these are 5060s. I replaced the motherboard on one system already and it continues to freeze.