Aurora R12, keeps freezing

Anything showing in Reliability Monitor as critical (red) is a problem. Those events can also lead you to the cause of BSoD or crashes.

Since 2/10 I am seeing a lot of entries for Nahimic32svc.exe and NahimicService indicated as stopped working.  Initial research says this might be audio related?  Tech details says the faulting module path is this: C:\ProgramData\A-Volute\DellInc.AlienwareSoundCenter\Modules\ScheduledModules\DynamicSMShortcutsDaemonModule.dll

Nahimic is audio related. I would install the latest available audio drivers directly from the Dell drivers site.

Dell uses a cut down OEM version of Nahmic, so you cannot use the "full" Nahimic drivers.

R12 audio drivers 

My 3 month old R12 (i7 11700F, 3070 RTX) has been freezing up almost on a daily basis since I updated my BIOS to 1.1.9.  Hardware diag. shows nothing.  Dell support walked me through a restore to no avail, still freezes.  I'm thinking it's either Windows 11 or Microsoft Edge.  Mostly freezes when using the MS browser.  But same as you, everything freezes up on the display, audio, no response from input devices; control, alt, delete doesn't work.  I have no idea.....

Is there a way to downgrade the BIOS?  Support is also telling me to reinstall, but if it didn't work for you, I'm not going to bother.

FailSafeNY,

Following up to check how things are with the system after the reversal of the BIOS update. Let us know by marking the thread as an accepted solution.  If not, please post back so that we can reach a resolution..

I downgraded to 1.1.8 about a week ago and that seems to have stabilized things.  So, I hope someone at Dell takes note since there seems to be an issue with 1.1.9 and maybe future revisions as well.

I have an R12 I bought last August and it's doing the same thing.  This PC has been the most horrible experience I've had with a computer.  I reported the issue to Tech Support.  I was walked through a bunch of steps and nothing worked.  They sent someone out to replace the video card.  Worked for a day and then same issues.  Tech Support had me return it and they replaced the motherboard and processor.  I got it back and did the same thing after an hour.  Tech Support sent another Tech and replaced the motherboard yet again and still same issue.  Now I'm on month 3 of waiting for a complete replacement.  It won't even boot up at this point and is a useless paperweight.  I'd rather just get a refund but Dell won't go for that and they're going to keep stringing me along with continued delays for a replacement.  I guess I learned my lesson by trying to trust Dell/Alienware, next PC will be home built versus buying from a crappy company.

Still working okay after the downgrade?

@ Dell folks: this isn't a workable solution long-term. Please keep us informed as to why the newer firmwares are locking up our machines and what the plan is to mitigate this in future releases. We can't stay on an old firmware version forever.

Yes, still stable.  I made the same comment in my support ticket about being on a back-level version of the firmware was not an acceptable solution forever.  They said they would pass that back up the chain but who knows if it will ever be addressed.

I downgraded the firmware and the exact same thing happened. Since we're all running into the issue, let's see if we can find some common root cause.

I am running Windows 11. I don't recall this issue occurring before upgrading to Windows 11, but who knows. 

I have an Nvidia GPU with the latest drivers.

I also have a variety of games and game clients installed, including Steam, Battle.net, and Riot. I had Valorant installed, which also installed Riot Vanguard. When I tried to uninstall Vanguard, my computer rebooted, then blue screened twice. So, I am wondering if that may be the issue. I uninstalled Valorant, which took Vanguard with it, and will see if that resolves the issue. My hope is that I don't have to roll back to Windows 10, as that'll take a LONG time.

What OS is everyone on? What GPU? Is anyone else using Riot Vanguard?

Windows 11 (pre installed from Dell).  Was on latest Nvidia driver and downgraded to Aug. 2021 version.

I have a variety of dev tools, Steam, Xbox and just two games (Total War: Warhammer III and Halo Wars) plus 3DMark.  I have not had any blue screen issues, just the freezing.

The issue happened again to me earlier, so Riot Vanguard wasn't the issue. I'm going to roll back to Windows 10 (UGH) in hopes that resolves the problem. I did notice that my GPU and memory clocks spiked, which explains the freeze. I just don't have an answer as to why.

Rolled back to Windows 10 and the issue seems to have disappeared. I even updated to the latest BIOS.

I'll keep everyone posted.