Login Screen - Frozen Forcing Hard Reboot

ericnixmd · 28 Feb 2018

On two separate occasions over the past month (the last being 2018-02-27 around 1830hrs), I've locked my computer using the Windows+L option only to return to find it frozen. I use Dell's Security Tools (DDP Console) on my Precision 3520 laptop for FIPS fingerprint identification for login.

With both occasions, when I attempt to login with my fingerprint, it is not recognized and nothing happens. If I click the login screen and type my password, I get the spinning login circle that does not go away. The first time I let it try to login for >10 minutes. Yesterday I rebooted the computer after about a minute. Each time the system becomes unresponsive and requires holding down the power key to restart.

I'm running a lot of programs (see below) when this occurs.

My system information is:

Dell Precision 3520
Intel Xeon E3-1505M v6 @ 3.00 GHz
32 GB ECC Memory
480 GB SSD
Windows 10 Pro Workstation Edition

Programs running at the time:

Amazon Music
Philips Device Control Center (for a SpeechMike Premium Air dictation microphone)
Nuance Dragon Medical Practice Edition v4 (based on Dragon Profession v15.1)
Citrix Receiver v4.11.0.17061 (network connection to my hospital's electronic medical record; Epic)
Microsoft Outlook 2016 (whatever the latest version with Outlook 365 is; can't find version number)
+/- Google Chrome
Dropbox 43.4.50

I've enclosed the recommended log files. Any help would be appreciated as this is a major pain to reboot during the middle of an active shift in a very busy emergency department.

Thanks!

simrick · 01 Mar 2018

Hi.
I'm not a BSOD expert, so I'll leave the logs to one of them.
But, have you turned Fast Startup off? Actually, with an SSD, you should have run the following command in an admin command prompt, to completely disable it:

powercgf -h off

Just a thought. It may/may not have any effect.

ericnixmd · 01 Mar 2018

It was turned off, but I'll check to make sure an update didn't disable it (it's done it before).

simrick · 01 Mar 2018

ericnixmd said:

It was turned off, but I'll check to make sure an update didn't disable it (it's done it before).

Yeah, does it all the time. But the powercfg -h off will also take care of the hibernation issue, which should be turned off anyway when using an SSD, as it causes unnecessary writes and space on the thing. That *may* be the problem for the lockup; it's just a wag though.

axe0 · 02 Mar 2018

Hi ericnixmd,

From where is the BIOS version downloaded?
The current installed BIOS version isn't from Dell according to their support page.

ericnixmd · 03 Mar 2018

It was downloaded from their support page last week.

axe0 · 03 Mar 2018

I see now that I made a small mistake and inadvertently looked things up about the wrong system.

Configure Driver Verifier
Please run driver verifier using the following settings for 48 hours.

Special Pool
Force IRQL checking
Pool Tracking
Deadlock Detection
Security Checks
Miscellaneous Checks
Power framework delay fuzzing
DDI compliance checking

Warning: driver verifier can cause boot issues and/or performance issues.

Make sure that you have recovery media, if needed you can create it.
Configure a restore point prior enabling driver verifier.

Resetting driver verifier options (recommended in this order)

In normal mode open an administrator command prompt and enter the below command
In safe mode open an administrator command prompt and enter the below command
On 3 boot failures, you'll boot automatically to the recovery options,
- click Troubleshoot
- go to the advanced options
- choose command prompt
- enter the below command
Boot with the recovery media, see above 4 steps in option 3.
Via the recovery options or recovery media, select a restore point prior enabling driver verifier

Code:

verifier /reset

Crashed when running driver verifier

Reset driver verifier
Boot in normal mode if necessary
Follow Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions to provide the requested logs

ericnixmd · 03 Mar 2018

I'm on vacation right now for my wife's birthday. I'll try this when I get back Tuesday. What does this do?

axe0 · 03 Mar 2018

Nothing more than validating actions the selected drivers do, if a driver does something it shouldn't driver verifier catches it and crashes the system.