New HP ZBook Fury G8 17.3 inch i9-11950H freezing regularly even in idle mode

[DesignHeine]

I bought my Z Book at the beginning of March this year and it was working perfectly until the first week of May 2022 then the frequent freezing began, around 2 or 3 times a day.

After quick response from HP,  I have just received the unit back. The accompanying letter stated the unit was "repaired" by reinstalling the OS. Well, not happy to have to reinstall my stack, but hopeful that the issue was solved, I start to reinstall software. I didn't have to wait long for the first freeze.

I have decided to install some monitoring tools to capture what was happening when just letting the unit run  (with and without programs running in the background). Not so much for me, because I am not computer expert, but I was hoping someone out there may have the same issue or a hint what is happening (I will also be in contact with HP on Monday, but if we manage to get this resolved I can also post an update here to purhaps help someone else). Below are the units specs and I have uploaded the screen shots of the hardware monitor and task manager at the time of 4 different freezes over 2 days. I can find no event errors that logged consistantly at these times. Just by watching the monitor and task manager I can see that as various hp and microsoft background processes start, the cores start to increase thier speeds (from normally running at 1406 MHz to 4720 MHz) and to heat up (normal temp 50C jumps to 70 - 90C) and the fan kicks in and then if it is going to freeze I don't have to wait long and then the fan goes really crazy until I do a hard reboot.

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System Model HP ZBook Fury 17.3 inch G8 Mobile Workstation PC
Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11950H @ 2.60GHz, 2611 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 16 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date HP T95 Ver. 01.09.02, 05/05/2022
SMBIOS Version 3.3
Embedded Controller Version 82.48
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer HP
BaseBoard Product 886D
BaseBoard Version KBC Version 52.30.00

Description Disk drive
Manufacturer (Standard disk drives)
Model KXG60ZNV1T02 KIOXIA
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 32,0 GB

[johnkooijmans]

After six months of waiting on the delivery, it was finally delivered in the first week of June 2022.

The housing and cover of the notebook are poor quality, not what I expect from HP high-end product and this price range!

I have the same issues with frequent freezing for seconds, even if you start task manager.

Running various programs that use High CPU and Memory.  

I have tried different setups using docking, power cord, battery, and settings on the power profile.

Run full hardware check using HP PC Hardware Diagnostics.

So far, no success.

Reading this post that high CPU temp 'that the CPU cores where constantly overheating due to the "Turbo Boost Function".

ZBook Fury G8, 17.3 inch crashing randomly in combination wi... - HP Support Community - 8317540

The system is up to date:

Operating system Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Version: 19044.1766

Microprocessor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11900H @ 2.50GHz

System memory 32 GB

Memory slot 1 32GB Hynix/Hyundai 3200MHz

System board 886D KBC Version 52.30.00

System BIOS T95 Ver. 01.09.02

[ub6424]

Hello @DesignHeine 

1) Check your hardware

Using the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) to diagnose hardware errors ...

https://support.hp.com/id-en/document/c04499777

Watch how it works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14GKIpGPNRM&ab_channel=HPSupport

(2) Please report your results ( reports, pictures, error messages ... )

[johnkooijmans]

Monitoring the hardware during the night 22:00 <> 7:00 (non-working hours) my ZBook was idle!
The result below with a high core temperature is 93 celsius? my room temperature is 22.5 celsius this is insane?
Any advice other than this > HP ZBook G7/G8 Mobile Workstation PCs - Notebook skin temperature higher than expected | HP® Custome...

[DesignHeine]

Thank you for your reply my issue Ub6424. Unfortunately, doing the hardware diagnostics never gave any errors (have done this multiple times with and without the support hotline). I would also hope that having sent this machine for onsite repair, that any hardware problems would have already been localized.

There is good and bad news. The good news is I can use the computer now, the bad news it that I have had to take a crash course as a system administrator to do so. What seems to be the problem is that during the automatic updates the files become corrupted, most of the time. Then the machine will simply freeze when trying to do any further regular background updates.

I won’t call it a fix, because I did not buy such an expensive computer to have to deal with such software problems, but if it helps anyone else, here are the steps that I do to get the machine back working until the next corrupted files show up:

These are the steps instructed by the hp support hotline:

1. Open up a Run dialog box by pressing Windows key + R. Inside the Run box, type ‘services.msc’
2. Find windows update and set startup type to manual
3. In the file explorer delete the  C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder
4. Open up a Run dialog box by pressing Windows key + R. Inside the Run box, type ‘cmd’ and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open up a Command Prompt with admin access.
5. Once you’re prompted by the User Account Control, click Yes to grant admin access.
6. Inside the elevated CMD prompt, type sfc /scannow and press Enter to initiate an SFC scan
7. After the SFC scan is finished restart the machine

Thankfully I found these step by step instructions which I needed when I upgraded to windows 11 ( I had to do these 3 steps multiple times )

https://appuals.com/0xc19001-0x40021-error-upgrading-to-windows-11/

1. Run the Windows Update Troubleshooter
2. Reset every WU component
3. Run SFC, DISM, and CHKDSK Scans

If anyone has a suggestion how I can get this issue fixed long term, instead of having to treat this machine as a sick child for the next 5 to 10 years, I would be eternally grateful.

P.S. On top of everything,  the year long adobe software abo that was offered with the machine from the HP store, was removed by HP support and the installation code was no longer valid for another installation (support told me it is not their problem). After calling the store to get a working code I was told that it would be looked into, well after 3 weeks I guess I have been happily forgotten.

I have already put so much of my own time and effort into getting this brand new machine to work properly and now my goodie has been take away as well, I am just sad.

[ub6424]

Hello @DesignHeine 

Sad to hear your story ... 

You are dealing with technical problems that lead to software problems downstream. In the long run is not solved by a few mouse clicks and command inputs. I would switch to a model that has passed load tests. Manufacturer does not matter.

[johnkooijmans]

Has the upgrade to windows 11 resolved your temp issue?

What is the current core speed you running?

My experience is if your laptop is running on a battery or power small power adapter, the CPU frequency stays below 2.50GHz, and the temperature remains low at 70 ℃
In the office, I use the 200W power adapter and then the Intel Dynamic Tuning kicks in CPU frequency 4.29GHz this drive the temperature up to 100 ℃; at that temperature, windows system is no longer responsible...

Let me know if you have the same experience...
thanks

[DesignHeine]

The update to windows 11 hasn't changed anything regards to the high temperatures and freezing episodes. This still happens when Hp sureclick endpoint service, Antimalware service executable, System, Windows module installer and Service Host Windows update start their dance of death after a failed installation or update. But...under regular circumstances everything runs fine.

Just a suggestion, looking at your screenshot your Desktop Window Manager seems to have a high GPU usage. Typically it uses one to three percent of your GPU when idle. What you describe as frequent freezing for seconds could be something with the GPU (drivers, settings, screen resolution) causing lags in screen response?

[johnkooijmans]

update the drivers and didn't make a difference to high GPU usage.
Question why my HP ZBook uses integrated graphic instead of NVIDIA?
I have changed the settings to use NVIDIA instead of Intel, but it seems not to work that way!