I'm struggling - 100% CPU and non-responsive brand new Dell XPS 9300

Greetings Folks!

I got the new Dell XPS 9300 with Ubuntu and immediately I started to face problems. To avoid any doubt, I must clarify that I have MSDN enterprise subscription and we always buy Dell systems with Ubuntu to avoid unnecessary windows license cost.

Things I did to setup the laptop:
- Installed Windows 10 Enterprise, July 2004, build 19041.423 with all latest updates (including optional)
- All relevant drivers from dell website pertaining to my laptop***
- BIOS is up to date
- Installed ESET Internet Security
- Installed Malwarebytes Premium
- Office 365 apps
- Bitlocker is not enabled on any drive, however TPM is enabled in BIOS
- CPU turbo boost enabled in BIOS (default)

***The (i) Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver, and (ii) Intel Rapid Storage Technology Application were failed to install citing unsupported platform reason. I tried several of them from Intel and other sources but none of them got installed. So I see the following drivers for storage devices in my laptop:



Problem Description
To begin with, the laptop was super snappy and fun, but within 10 minutes, I started to feel sluggishness and hanging behavior. Soon the CPU reached 100% and I couldn't see any process utilizing this high CPU, almost all other processes listed in the Task Manager were 0% so I had no idea which process used 100% CPU. I restarted the laptop and as a test I closed the lid. After 2 hours I opened the lid, and, behold, my laptop was again using 100% CPU with no apparent reason. Now I removed every program from autostart and even non-MS services as manual start but still had the same issue. It has been several days and I am still unable to resolve this problem. A couple of times I observed System Interrupts process using 100% CPU but that is also due to some hardware problem (mostly I believe) and I couldn't notice any hardware issue. I double checked all system drivers and everything seems in order (except RST as stated above).

After following several forums, I tried power schemes hacks (I only have a balanced power plan in the system), but none worked. I also tried hacks like disabling turbo boost in BIOS but that made things worse. I tried to follow the tutorial to enable other power plans but it didn't help. My battery is set on max performance setting.

Yesterday I contacted Dell Pro Support (I have 3 years dell pro support next business day), thinking they would just fix it, but here is what the support said:
"You are only licensed for ubuntu, beyond that if we do anything, then we are on our own. If you install diesel in a petrol car, thats ur choice. we are not responsible. If you change a car firmware to make it run faster, it's your doing, we are not taking accountability for it. And finally, we sold you this system with Ubuntu, so please run Ubuntu and let us know if you have any problem with that. I repeated asked if this system supports Windows (blah!) and he said yes it does, but you got it with Ubuntu so we are not responsible if you run Windows!"

Honestly, this is the dumbest thing I have heard. I believe I caught a guy on his bad day, but hey, here I am, absolutely clueless on what to do.

Now, in addition, I did run some other tests like startup dell diagnostics and it reported highest CPU temp as 79 C. Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool reports all tests are passed.

I also notice a weird orange exclamation mark on my D drive. I couldn't find anything about it as all the explanations are about the exclamation sign in yellow triangle but nothing about the pic shown below. Is this due to bitlocker not enabled or some driver missing? My drive is 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive.



I believe I have captured all necessary details in the problem statement, I would sincerely appreciate if someone can help me get this laptop sorted. It is nothing more than a $3200 fancy paperweight as of today.

Cheers!

I assume you deleted all partitions as part of the Windows install and did a "clean install"?

I assume this is not a dual boot. Did you make any other overt attempt to rid the laptop of Ubuntu, such as wiping the drive with a specific application?

You say it ran well, but only for 10 minutes. Was the good 10 minutes AFTER you installed all the applications you list? Or BEFORE? At what specific point did the problem arise?

I'd probably start over, wiping the drive, doing a clean install and see if you can get good performance WITHOUT Dell drivers, ESET, Malwarebytes, Office 365, Intel RST, etc. Just a base Windows installation to give you a baseline and presumably eliminate the possibility of hardware issues. The idea being to find out at what point the problem begins---what subsequently added piece of software might be causing this.

Is that D an external or a partition on the same drive as C? If an external, I'd disconnect it if possible to ensure it is not involved.

- Yes, and I made one exclusive OS partition during WIndows installation.
- No, this is not dual boot. I didn't do any attempt to wipe Ubuntu off it.
- Yes, the good 10 minutes were after the laptop was fully equipped with all necessary software. And for a fact, everytime I reboot, it works flawlessly for odd 10ish minutes, and then goes bananas.
- I honestly dont know the long term performance on vanilla windows installation and I just kept installing stuff.
- D drive is the same 1 TB SSD (2 partitions, C drive is 150 GB, D drive is 850 GB).

Yes, I am leaning towards a fresh installation, guess I will try that and I will take up your suggestion and not install any dell drivers etc.

If you have any suggestions in the meantime, do drop. And thanks for your response!

Did you "make" C manually, before the Windows install?

Or did you let the Windows install make whatever partitions it wanted, and then later make D?

I'd expect a base Windows install to have 3 or 4 partitions.

I'd try to just manually delete all partitions during the install, leaving unallocated space. Then let Windows make its own partitions as it sees fit. Make D after all is well and the smoke clears.

Bear in mind that a clean Windows install is usually followed by considerable "housekeeping" as Windows sorts itself out and Windows Updates are added. Maybe for a few days? I'm sure it varies from instance to instance, but I can't recall it being outright crippling as you describe.

I'd try to keep an eye on Task Manager early and often in any clean install and app installs--with eyes peeled toward running services, disk activity, RAM usage, CPU cycle percentages, etc.

Maybe run a stress test of some type as a benchmark, with nothing installed to convince yourself the hardware is OK. Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, something like that.

There were (probably gone) Dell hardware diagnostics on the system drive. That would have been my next step. However at power on it does run self test (POST) and apparently no hardware issues are detected with the POST.

I do some support on the Dell forums and have seen others that bought a system with a certain OS and then installed something else, as you did, and they were told the same thing from Dell.

I have a Dell laptop I use in my recording studio. I needed a clean install. I used a different M.2 SSD rather than write over the Dell M.2 SSD image. I clean installed Windows 10 and it installed all the needed hardware drivers with the install. Too late now, but that would have been the best option (and what I see others on the Dell forums do) - remove the Dell drive and use a different drive for Windows. Then if needed just swap drives (to keep Dell support happy LOL).

alalit said:

- Installed ESET Internet Security
- Installed Malwarebytes Premium

The two are antivirus & anti malware that stay resident and run on the background. They can conflict, one with the other.

A recent installation will make the computer to search and install updates. This makes the process use 100% CPU and gives some lags. Don't close the lid. It can put the laptop in sleep or hibernation mode.

You have some storage missing drivers, so the priority now is to find and install those drivers. All them should be installed during an update. The yellow exclamation you see on devices and drives is due to the missing driver.

Is Windows Update blocked?

Yes, you are right and I removed both of them but still the issue persists.

- - - Updated - - -

Megahertz said:

The two are antivirus & anti malware that stay resident and run on the background. They can conflict, one with the other.

A recent installation will make the computer to search and install updates. This makes the process use 100% CPU and gives some lags. Don't close the lid. It can put the laptop in sleep or hibernation mode.

You have some storage missing drivers, so the priority now is to find and install those drivers. All them should be installed during an update. The yellow exclamation you see on devices and drives is due to the missing driver.

Is Windows Update blocked?

Hi, I removed both Malwarebytes and ESET, also O365 but the issue still exists. All the windows updates are up to date, including optional updates. Windows updates are not blocked. I have tried all possible drivers but it doesn’t help.

They are M$ so should be easy to find.
Open device manager, right click on the missing driver - update - search automatically (makee sure you have a internet connection).

If it can't find, right click on the missing driver - properties - Details tab - select pull down - Hardware ID
Select first line - right click - copy
Paste it here . It should be a string like PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A102&SUBSYS_B0051458&REV_31

Everyone - after all the struggle, I finally resolved the issue by:
1. creating a USB installer for Win 10 Enterprise
2. Added the Dell driver kit (.cab contents) for my model in the Win 10 Enterprise installer USB
3. After ensuring my BIOS is up to date, I booted via USB, deleted all partitions and reinstalled Windows. The best part was, after Windows was installed, all necessary drivers were installed and I didn't have to install any driver afterwards.
4. Installed all software one by one and it worked pretty solid afterwards.

Thank you everyone for the tips and help!