XPS 8940, locking up/freezing since 2.15 BIOS update

@ispalten​ 

You are a genius! I read your earlier post and set NVidia power to max. I'm now going on 3 days without a freeze on both computers! The computers also backed up without a problem! I was having 2 to 10 freezes a day (depending upon the software I was using), and there hasn't been a single issue in almost 3 days! Thanks for your suggestion and thanks for responding!!

In November of 2023, I made this post to explain issues that my XPS 8940 was having. I rolled back my NVIDIA drivers as was suggested, and that seemed to temporarily fix the issue with hangups/hard freezes. There were intermittent updates to the computer and BIOS which I did update. However, I have not updated the NVIDIA driver, and I don't know if that is causing the problem, and there are now additional issues.

I have a WDC WD HDD 500 GB storage that is supposed to be an F drive that the computer no longer recognizes. It just doesn't exist any longer. The computer takes minutes to restart and start instead of seconds and I imagine that's because of the issue with the drive. The hard freezes are back despite the fact that I have not upgraded NIVDIA since rolling back.

I tried to do a memory test using the windows memory diagnostic tool as was suggested in the comments of my previous post, but it was like the computer froze as there was no activity after 20 minutes or so, I had to hard reboot and then got an error of "windows failed to start" in black and white. after I hit enter, the computer started normally.

I don't know what's going on, but it's insane to me that the hardware could be degrading this quickly. Is there anything I can do to diagnose the computer, or can anyone tell me what might be going on?

Again, here are my hardware specs:

Windows 11 Home: Version 23H2 (Build 22631.3235)
XPS 8940

11th Gen Intel Core 17 - 11700 2.5GHz 8Core

32G RAM - NVIDIA GeForce 3060 Ti
BIOS Version 2.17 12/11/2023

NVME WD BLACK SSD 1000GB main drive

WDC WD SSD 1000GB 2nd drive

WDC WD HDD 500 GB storage

Thank you for any help you can provide. This has been an ongoing issue for a long time and I am growing increasingly frustrated and don't know what to do anymore.

I have a Dell XPS 8940 with NVIDIA RTX 3060.  In the fall of 2023 I began having problems with my display blanking and flashing. Later I had repeated problems when using Chrome with the display freezing; sometimes just pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Task Manager would fix the problem, but often I would have to reboot the PC.  I reset Windows, but that didn't help.  I tried other remedies and nothing worked.  

The other day I moved the HDMI monitor cable from the NVIDIA card and plugged it into the other HDMI port.  So far I have not had any problems.  This seems to have fixed the problems.

I am not tech-savvy, and I don't know if this will continue to work or why it would work.  I have not noticed any differences in how my monitor displays anything. (I am not a gamer.)  Windows indicates that my monitor (Dell U3415W) is Display 1 connected to Intel UHD Graphics 750.  However, I can start the NVIDIA Control Panel and it doesn't give any indication that my NVIDIA card is not hooked up to my monitor.

I don't understand why my graphics is not any different when not plugged into the NVIDIA card, or why the NVIDIA card could crash the system.  But, FWIW, moving my HDMI cable from the NVIDIA card seems to have stopped the issues. 

@PBN52​ 

I recall this was 'discovered' some time ago.

You are NOT using the Nvidia card, but it is powered up and the driver loaded, and it just 'sits' there.

You are on the Intel HD750 probably (most 8940's shipped with the 11th Gen Intel CPU which has that video device on it, but some did ship with the 10th Gen as well, which might have the HD740).

So not 'exercising' the Nvidia card of course avoids the problem.

If you have a large monitor, run High Graphics games, and need fast response, you would know in any of these situations why the HD750 would not cut it.

Check this link out, https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-RTX-2060-vs-Intel-UHD-Graphics-750/4034vsm1498842, and you can select your Nvidia card model on that page, this link is for my Nvidia card essentially (RAM size is not specified and can change some numbers).

If you are using the XPS for 'slow' or non-high resolution or graphics, the HD750 would probably be good enough for you. I mean running an email client to get email and reply, working with Word or Excel, even streaming video's. Don't try to use it for MS Flight Simulator, you would not be happy, or other high intensive speed/video game.

As you have discovered, Nvidia Control Panel can still interact with the card, but it is meaningless. Now if you go into Device manager and DISABLE your Nvidia card, it will not effect your experience, other than the Nvidia Control Panel will not have anything to display.

By the way, I also discovered by accident that with the Nvidia card disabled its HDMI port will still work, as it shares the bus with the HD750 and you are using the HD750 via the Nvidia HDMI port (and you will not lock up that way either).

You indeed have stopped the lock ups, but the issue still remains, when you use the Nvidia card.

@ispalten​ 

Thanks for replying to my post.

I guess I paid for a graphics card that I did not need.  I am still surprised that so far I haven't noticed any difference whatsoever in how graphics are displayed.  My monitor is big, 34" diagonal that I really like, and it predates my XPS 8940.

It seems like this may be malware on the NVIDIA card.

@PBN52​ 

I have a 32" Dell monitor. When I connected the HD750 I could tell the visual display was different, not as crisp. I run at a resolution of 3840x2160. With your size monitor, it should be about the same as the default suggested value though.

No Malware on the card (if it were, then how would ALL Nvidia models, no mater if Dell supplier or a 3rd party vendor have it, and it were, than anyone with such a card would be complaining on any PC). Not in the driver either, suspect is the Dell BIOS as this problem first appeared over 2 years ago when BIOS V2.4.0 was released. No problems before that one was released.

Dell has never 'taken ownership' of the problem, and have told people (here) to only USE Dell tested and posted in its Driver and Downloads page for you card. That does seem to work for some users, but not all. Same goes for the Power Setting in the Nvidia Control panel, or turning off Turbo in the BIOS. Works for some, but not everyone.

@dellio26​ Are you referring to the Cpu mosfets? 

I had this problem in 2022 with my XPS 8940 when bios 1.10 came out. They couldn't fix it. Gaslighted me. Time me it wasn't an issue (under warranty). Refused, even with video, to acknowledge it was a problem.  Sent me a new machine. Sent me a new motherboard. Didn't matter because both were on 1.10. 

I finally elevated, threatened, cried, harassed. Until they sent me an 8950 as a replacement that has a different motherboard and doesn't have this issue. 

I think I found the solution to this problem. I've been fighting this for about a year and a half now!

I purchased my XPS 8940 with Nvidia 1600 SUPER graphics card and received it Nov. 2022, It came with Windows 11 installed and I immediately downgraded to Windows 10. At first, the lockups were only about 1 per month. I've only had 2 BIOS upgrades since, the last one about 2 months ago, but the problem became noticeably much worse with each upgrade. I leave my computer on 24/7 and, since the last upgrade, I would find the PC was getting daily lockups/freezes every morning when I woke. It would be rare to have a morning without a lockup. The only way to recover from them has always been a hard reset.

After this last BIOS upgrade, I researched this problem more extensively and found an article that said you should not get your driver updates from anyone except your PC manufacturer, such as DELL. It said that companies like DELL will sometimes have their own hardware/license codes for 3rd party OEM equipment and an upgrade from the OEM manufacturer (like NVidia) may not be compatible with your PC and BIOS. I had been getting my updates from both DELL and NVidia, as NVidia's drivers were always much more current.

So, I decided to download the DDU driver uninstall program ver. 18.0.7.4  https://www.wagnardsoft.com/display-driver-uninstaller-DDU- and uninstalled the old NVidia drivers and installed a clean copy of the latest driver from the DELL website. Since doing this, I've gone from having daily lockups every morning, sometimes twice a day, to not having a lockup for the past 5 days. 

When Running DDU, it's recommended to have the PC in Safe Mode (without Networking or Command Line). You also need to download the DELL Driver and have it ready to install, then disable your network so the PC doesn't auto-update while the Driver is removed. Inside the DDU program, you can click on the top right drop down box to select GPU, and then click to uninstall the drivers at the bottom right of the screen. it will remove the Video and Audio drivers in less than a minute and you can see the progress. Then, update with the DELL latest version of the NVidia driver/software and reboot normally.

I hope this helps you all like it did me. DELL's support has proven to be pathetic and not worth the cost or aggravation they typically cause consumers. All they can do is to go through the same sheet of "Try This" options, have you doing numerous unrelated reinstalls and resetting things, and then they don't know what to do. If they are using special hardware and licensing codes in their systems, this should be an obvious solution and their DELL technicians should already be made aware of this and have a solution available. I think I'm done again! They can have their messed up SupportAssist, too!

I've got all of the above freezing systems with an XPS8940 with AMD RX5600 graphic card. Started last fall. I've rolled the bios back to 2.13.1 and the amd driver back to a June version. Still freezes. I've been monitoring CPU core temps and the highest they ever get is 85 Celsius. If I disable the amd driver and just use the motherboard Intel driver issue goes away but that's not an acceptable solution.

Prior to all this Dell support had me do a clean OS install then update to current latest software/firmware releases (still froze) and then replaced the SSD and motherboard which accomplished nothing either.

I saw a thread somewhere that the IME (Intel Management Engine) could be a suspect. Haven't tried rolling that back yet.

I am having all the same issues of freezing.  Tried everything.  So aggravated.  Hoping there is a fix soon.

@Vonra​

I am having all the same issues of freezing.  Tried everything.  So aggravated.  Hoping there is a fix soon.

Have you tried opening the NVidia Control Panel and changing the Manage 3D Settings>Power Management option to "Prefer max performance"?

Dell released a new driver yesterday after 8 months, replacing the August 2023 Nvidia studio driver as the newest one on the support site. It has both the gaming and studio versions listed. So far, it seems stable using the gaming version, but I will continue to monitor it.

I'm happy to have some resolution after thinking of tossing this desktop to the curb with little help from Dell.

Driver VER. 31.0.15.5168 on BIOS 2.17.0

@cale9770 - In NVidia Control Panel, how is Manage 3D settings>Power Management set in this new driver, and did you change it or keep the default setting?

@cale9770​ 

That driver is the 551.68 version Nvidia's numbering system. Still old, Nvidia does have one newer though, 552.12.

I doubt did any changes though as the version number is the same as Nvidia release is.

I've been using the Nvidia released Game Ready drivers with BIOS V2.13.1 and as long as I set in the Nvidia Control Panel Power setting to MAX. POWER, I do NOT lock up. However, I do use the CLEAN INSTALL and 'randomly' it  will reset the setting of power to the DEFAULT... not every time it seems, but often it does. When after I install a new Nvidia Driver I forget to look, I soon lock up... and then when I power back on, first thing I check, and yup, it was at the default setting. Good to go after that.