windows freeze DELL XPS15

axe0 · 22 Aug 2017

Some of those messages are not to be worried about, like the paging error. Paging errors can happen from time to time and are only problematic when you get several of it in a short period.

I wouldn't be (too) worried about the TMP logs.

Diagnostic Test

DRIVER VERIFIER

Warning

Please make a backup of your important files and get your rescue media or create one.
Please create a restore point.

Please follow this tutorial to run driver verifier.

Driver verifier stresses your drivers and will crash your pc if any driver fails due to a violation.

Driver verifier should be performed for a max of 48 hours, or when you have a bluescreen, whatever comes first.

If driver verifier has found a violation and you can't get back into windows normally, try to boot into safe mode and reset in safe mode driver verifier, or in the troubleshooting options open command prompt and type verifier /reset.

Note

Your system will act very sluggishly while driver verifier is enabled, this is normal as your drivers will be being subjected to heavy testing in order to make them crash.

carl pilkington · 23 Aug 2017

axe0 said:

Please follow this tutorial to run driver verifier.

From what I gather the methodology is to run driver varifier to try and get any "bad" drivers to crash my system. Is this correct? What would be the next step after driver verifier crashes my system?

Thanks for any elaboration.

carl pilkington · 23 Aug 2017

Spectrum said:

I'd suggest updating to the latest BIOSDell XPS 15 9550 1.2.29 System BIOS Driver Details | Dell US

Ok...I have updated the BIOS to 1.2.29. I am going to use my system as normal and not make any other changes until I see how this change effects things.

axe0 · 23 Aug 2017

carl pilkington said:

From what I gather the methodology is to run driver varifier to try and get any "bad" drivers to crash my system. Is this correct? What would be the next step after driver verifier crashes my system?

Thanks for any elaboration.

Correct.
Hopefully your system will crash and a memory dump will be generated, a new zip from the DM Log Collector is requested so we can analyze the dump to see what driver is causing problems.

carl pilkington · 29 Aug 2017

I updated my BIOS to the latest version and am still experiencing random freezes. I managed to catch a screen capture of task manager as the system started to act slow (a few seconds before it froze...mouse cursor continued to move around)...see attached image. Does this lend any insight to anyone?

Thanks.

Spectrum · 30 Aug 2017

Hi Carl,

Given that your system is completely locking up and not producing a crash dump, we'll need to force a system crash when it hangs.

1.) CrashOnLCtrlTildeTilde.reg - When merged with your registry it will trigger a bugcheck when you hold left control and tap tilde twice.

2.) ActiveCrashDump.reg - This will set your default crash dump type to "Active" which will give us more information about what is going on with your system during the hang.

Once your system hangs, try to force a crash with left ctrl tilde tilde. After a reboot you should see a new memory.dmp in C:\Windows. Compress that file and upload it to your preferred cloud hosting site, and post a link here.

axe0 · 30 Aug 2017

carl pilkington said:

I updated my BIOS to the latest version and am still experiencing random freezes. I managed to catch a screen capture of task manager as the system started to act slow (a few seconds before it froze...mouse cursor continued to move around)...see attached image. Does this lend any insight to anyone?

Thanks.

Unfortunately, the image doesn't provide useful information, because the data is not ordened.
Click on 'Disk', if possible, and make a photo.

carl pilkington · 30 Aug 2017

Spectrum said:

Hi Carl,

Given that your system is completely locking up and not producing a crash dump, we'll need to force a system crash when it hangs.

1.) CrashOnLCtrlTildeTilde.reg - When merged with your registry it will trigger a bugcheck when you hold left control and tap tilde twice.

2.) ActiveCrashDump.reg - This will set your default crash dump type to "Active" which will give us more information about what is going on with your system during the hang.

Once your system hangs, try to force a crash with left ctrl tilde tilde. After a reboot you should see a new memory.dmp in C:\Windows. Compress that file and upload it to your preferred cloud hosting site, and post a link here.

A while back I was getting BSOD because I had a bad display driver installed (has been resolved) . I was never able to see the crash dump files from those BSOD. How do I confirm that the crash dumb is working correctly before I start this process. Attached are my settings.

Is there any way to accomplish what you are suggesting without editing the registry? Doing so is someting I like to avoid. Would driver verifier accomplish the same thing?

Thanks
Attachment 151073

Spectrum · 30 Aug 2017

The only way to enable manually initiat crashes is through editing the registry. It's creating two keys, you can always remove them later. There is nothing magical about this registry edit at all.

If you'd like to edit it yourself, following Microsoft's official documentation:

Forcing a System Crash from the Keyboard | Microsoft Docs

As for crash dumps not being produced, it's likely because your pagefile is too small, it should be a little more than the total amount of RAM you have if you are using a complete memory dump.

carl pilkington · 30 Aug 2017

spectrum said:

the only way to enable manually initiat crashes is through editing the registry. It's creating two keys, you can always remove them later. There is nothing magical about this registry edit at all.

If you'd like to edit it yourself, following microsoft's official documentation:

forcing a system crash from the keyboard | microsoft docs

...I double click on your files and they automatically change the registry? What is the best way to remove these changes after I am done diagnosing?

spectrum said:

as for crash dumps not being produced, it's likely because your pagefile is too small, it should be a little more than the total amount of ram you have if you are using a complete memory dump.

I have had my pagefile set to 8500 MB and I have 8GB of RAM and I could not get a dump file to be created. Can you think of anything else that would keep the dumpfile from happening?

Thanks