My new computer continues to experience unexplained freezes and reboots, and I’m running out of ideas for fixing it. A few weeks ago I wrote about crashes in the Intel integrated graphics driver, and the symptoms have since changed, but problems continue. I’m now looking at either
- reinstalling Windows and all my applications, which would be a huge undertaking and might not fix anything
- replacing the whole computer and reinstalling all my applications, which would also be a huge undertaking
- resigning to accept a computer that can’t go more than a few days without crashing.
My previous Windows 7 computer easily ran for weeks without trouble, so this kind of instability is disappointing.
The new computer is a Windows 10 laptop (HP Elitebook x360 G2 1030). I use it with the lid closed, connected to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I suspect this is the root cause of my problems. While this setup should work and does work most of the time, running a laptop with the lid closed doesn’t seem 100% robust. The computer sometimes seems to lose communication with the external monitor, or gets confused because the primary (internal) monitor is off. I see occasional event log entries like “A pointer device has no information about the monitor it is attached to”, window manager crashes, and other graphics related errors. And all of these problems happen while I’m away from the computer, when the external monitor is in power-save mode, but the computer is not asleep. When I return to the computer later, I sometimes find that it has frozen or unexpectedly rebooted.
I should emphasize that the computer rarely sleeps and never hibernates, so I don’t believe this is a sleep-related problem.
History
The first problem was crashes in the Intel integrated graphics driver igdkmd64.sys while I was away from the computer. Nearly every day, I’d return to the computer in the morning to find that it had crashed and rebooted sometime since its last use. Here’s what’s happened since then:
June 15 – I forced an update to the latest Intel graphics driver version 26.20.100.6890. This required completely uninstalling the HP-provided graphics driver first. Since then, I have not seen any more crashes in igdkmd64.sys.
June 16 – The computer was still running since the day before, but the Start menu and Cortana did not work. I restarted the computer and Start/Cortana began working normally again.
June 17 – The computer fan was blowing 100%, but both the external and internal screens were dark. I could tell that Windows was still running, because I heard the Windows disconnection sound effect when I unplugged USB devices, but nothing I did would get an image to appear on any screen. I forced a reboot with the power button. The event log showed several prior errors about the embedded controller (EC) not responding. In light of this, I disabled the 3rd-party program Notebook Fan Control. After rebooting, the computer hung on the boot screen with the HP logo, and did not proceed into Windows. After rebooting a second time, all seemed normal.
June 18 – The computer was still running since the day before, but once again the Start menu did not work. I used the task manager to terminate WindowsShellExperienceHost.exe, which then automatically restarted and restored normal Start menu functionality. Afterwards I fully uninstalled Notebook Fan Control. Following a tip related to broken Start menus, I also turned off the Windows option for Settings -> Accounts -> Sign in Options -> Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device and reopen my apps after an update or restart.
June 19 – All OK. The computer was still running since the day before, with no problems.
June 20 – All OK.
June 21 – All OK.
June 22-23 – Didn’t use the computer.
June 24 – All OK.
June 25 – The computer was still running since the day before, but again the Start menu did not work. I terminated WindowsShellExperienceHost.exe to get the Start menu working again.
June 26 – All OK.
June 27 – Didn’t use the computer.
June 28 – The computer fan was blowing 100%, but both the external and internal screens were dark. Nothing I did would get an image to appear on any screen. I had to hold the power switch to reboot the computer. The event log showed lots of errors in the preceding hours, including multiple desktop window manager crashes, and an application hang error from Microsoft.Photos.exe every 15 minutes stretching on for hours, all during a time when I wasn’t using the computer.
June 29 – The computer fan was blowing 100%, but both the external and internal screens were dark. Nothing I did would get an image to appear on any screen. I had to hold the power switch to reboot the computer. Nothing interesting was found in the Windows event log.
I don’t understand what’s going on here, but it’s a hot mess.