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Dell SA overheating my machine?
Hi. I've been loving my XPS 13 9370 with Windows 10 x64 for 3+ years now. Dell Support Assist, not so much.
A few weeks ago I installed DSA, or maybe I just upgraded it - not sure. I generally follow Dell's recommendations through the on-screen notifications without much scrutiny.
After installation, I gradually noticed the machine was running very hot. I would Shut Down for the night, but in the morning before power up, it would be on with fans running and very warm to the touch. At some point it started affecting the CPU, causing applications such as Digilent Waveforms and MSOffice to slow down severely or even fail to open after several hours of operation. When this happened, machine was very hot to the touch. Clearly a feverish CPU possibly on the brink of disaster.
Four days ago I removed the back panel (very easy = good job, Dell!) expecting to see lots of lint and gunk, but the vent path was clear and fans were running. The CPU heat sink was too hot to touch. This with no foreground apps running and airplane mode. Task manager showed two processes consistently drawing 'High' or 'Very high' power: McAffee (which came bundled with the laptop and which I never used) and Dell Support Assist. I uninstalled both of these on Windows Control Panel and the overheating problem vanished.
But today, four days later, the overheating with no foreground apps was back. Per Task Manager, the 'Very High power' culprit is something called 'Dell Support Assist Remediation', which somehow seems to have installed itself -- maybe piggybacking on something else I downloaded? So I stopped that process and immediately I'm running cool again, even with numerous foreground apps and online comms going.
I understand the idea behind DSA and I approve. But if DSA's idea of supporting my Dell is smoking the processor, I think we need to step back and think more about our relationship. An explanation of what might be going on would be helpful in restoring my decades long love/hate relationship with Dell back to 'full on love', where it belongs. Many thanks.
lmacri
3 Apprentice
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September 15th, 2021 07:00
Hi mnagy34:
If you have Dell SupportAssist Remediation listed as an installed program at Control Panel | Programs Programs and Features then that means that an "optional" program called SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools has been installed. See my 08-Sep-2021 post in rincon285's SupportAssist Questions that explains how to tell if the SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools were installed on your system and how this software will create daily system repair points (snapshots) for emergency recovery. Also see my 03-Aug-2021 thread SupportAssist OS Recovery v5.4.3.15135 Not Creating System Repair Points about how the latest update to SupportAssist v3.10.3 triggered an unwanted installation of the SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools v5.4.3.15135 on my system without my permission.
There have been several serious bugs in recent versions of SupportAssist OS Recovery / Dell SupportAssist Remediation, including a bug in the SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools v5.4.1.14594 that deleted data stored on partitions higher than C:\ drive during installation (see balji's 09-May-2021 SupportAssist Deleted My Partitions While Installing OS Recovery) and a long-standing bug where system repair points can exceed the maximum allotted disk space and consume > 50 GB of disk space (see Dell employee NilhilKiroula's 05-o8-2021 post in Reduce Disk Space used by SARemediation about a bug fix scheduled for the upcoming SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools v5.5).
In regards to your high CPU problem, when you open your Win 10 Reliability Monitor (Control Panel | System and Security | Security and Maintenance | Reliability Monitor) do you see a large number of events logged as "Successful Application Reconfiguration" approx. 30 min after your computer is booted up as shown in the image below? If so, see DELLKaren's "Successful Application Reconfiguration" and SupportAssist. This particular issue is triggered each day when Dell SupportAssist Remediation creates a new system repair point in the hidden folder C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\. As far as I know these "Successful Application Reconfiguration" events are logged due to poor coding of the Dell SupportAssist Remediation software (see my 02-Jul-2021 comments <here> on page 8 of that thread about a WMI call to the Win32_Product class) but Dell hasn't given any indication that this problem is ever going to be fixed.
I have changed the Startup Type of my Dell SupportAssist Remediation service at Start | Windows Administrative Tools | Services from "Automatic (Delayed Start)" to "Disabled" to prevent this software from running on my system and creating Dell system repair points. Instead, I've enabled the built-in Windows System Restore per the Windows Central support article How to Use System Restore on Windows 10 (which is disabled by default in Win 10) and also use Macrium Reflect Free to create emergency recovery media and the occasional full disk image in case I ever have to perform an emergency recovery. I will uninstall Dell SupportAssist Remediation permanently if Dell doesn't do something soon to fix the outstanding bugs in SupportAssist OS Recovery / Dell SupportAssist Remediation.
Also note that I've disabled automatic updates and system optimizations in Dell SupportAssist v3.10.3 [Options (gear icon) | Settings | Schedule Scans and Optimizations | Turn on Automatic System Scans and Optimizations At: | DISABLED] and only run manual checks for updates (and the occasional hardware scan) from the Home tab of the interface. My SupportAssist notifications are also disabled [Options (gear icon) | Settings | Notifications | I want to receive notifications about hardware and software issues, driver updates, Support Requests, and other alerts for my PC | DISABLED]. If you want to reduce the amount of CPU used by SupportAssist even further you might also want to disable the background collection and submission of telemetry data in your privacy settings [Options (gear icon) | Settings | Privacy | I authorize Dell to collect my Service Tag and system usage details mentioned above | DISABLE], although a few users have reported that this may interfere with the ability of SupportAssist and/or Dell Update to find the correct updates recommended for their unique Service Tag.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1165 * Firefox v92.0 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2108.7 * MB Premium v4.4.6.132-1.0.1453 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.3.3 * Dell SupportAssist Remediation v 5.4.3.15135 * Dell Update for Windows 10 v4.3.0
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G 256 GB NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620
DELL-Cares
Moderator
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September 13th, 2021 07:00
Thank you! We have received the required details. We will work towards a resolution. In the meantime, you may also receive assistance or suggestions from the community members.
mnagy34
2 Posts
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September 19th, 2021 05:00
Thanks very much, @Imacri, for the very thorough and helpful response! The history of issues with SupportAssist that you catalog is what I needed to see - it convinces me that DSA was the problem. For the moment, I've uninstalled DSA, laptop is running nice and cool. I will look into the alternatives you suggested once my current project gives me some time to breathe. Thanks once again - this was my first time on this forum and I'm really impressed!
lmacri
3 Apprentice
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September 19th, 2021 06:00
Hi mnagy34:
Glad to hear that removal of SupportAssist (SA) fixed your high CPU consumption. If you decide to reinstall SupportAssist and your high CPU returns be sure to try some of the setting tweaks I suggested <above> that will prevent many automated SupportAssist tasks (e.g., update checks, disk and registry cleaning, submission of telemetry data, etc.) from running in the background.
Also keep in mind that most of the bugs I listed were specific to the SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools / Dell SupportAssist Remediation v5.x programs that are responsible for creating daily system repair points (snapshots) of your system for emergency recovery. Uninstalling Dell SupportAssist v3.x will not automatically remove other associated programs like Dell SupportAssist Remediation v5.x and Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update v5.x that are listed as separate programs at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features (see image below). If required, employee DELL-Chris M's SA Uninstall/Reinstall has instructions for the complete removal (and reinstall, if desired) of all SupportAssist-related software.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1237 * Firefox v92.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2108.7 * MB Premium v4.4.6.132-1.0.1453 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.3.3 * Dell SupportAssist Remediation v 5.4.3.15135 * Dell Update for Windows 10 v4.3.0
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G 256 GB NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620
donwhite84
2 Posts
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June 26th, 2023 08:00
Inspiron 14 7000 (about 2 yrs old)
Solved (maybe?): For the past few weeks I've had problems of (1) HIGH CPU usage, and (2) overheating.
"Dell Data Management" kept popping up on Task Manager as a HIGH use app. After reading several (hopefully) reputable sites, I uninstalled it, and saw immediate positive results. I'm not an expert, so I cannot guarantee results, but my laptop was VERY hot to the touch, and I was concerned about potential hardware damage.