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HP Recommended

I purchased this HP Envy desktop about a year and a half to two years ago and periodically it will freeze and become completely unresponsive until you hold the power button for 5-8 seconds and hard reset the computer.  The screen just freezes and CTRL + ALT + DEL does nothing, unplugging the monitor and plugging back in does nothing, waiting an hour does nothing.  I've had this happen at all stages of use on the computer, so it's no specific thing that's setting it off.  I've gone a month without it freezing a single time and I've also barely made it 25 seconds after logging in before freezing again.  It's extremely frustrating and I can't seem to find the absolute cause of the issue but I've seen many other people talking about this freezing issue with their desktop.  I'm sure I'm outside of my window to return the desktop to where I purchased it, but this has been an issue since I first purchased the product.  It doesn't happen frequently enough that I felt the need to return it but now since having owned the computer for well more than a year, it frustrates me that it happens at all. 

 

There must be a component in the tower that's causing this critical failure but you can't just run a test because the component works until it doesn't.  Any test I run shows full pass.  This is an HP component failure and I'm hoping that someone has figured it out as this seems to be a known issue.

3 REPLIES 3
HP Recommended

Hi @Zmann86 

 

Intermittent PC problems are very difficult to diagnose. It is unfortunate you did not contact HP Support during the warranty period.

 

The PC sporadically freezes. You do a forced shutdown. I am surprised you did not see any OS recovery options when restarting the PC. Forced shutdowns usually cause some type of OS corruption. Have you looked at Event Viewer for clues?

 

Do you regularly clean the internals? Dust buildup can cause weird stuff.

 

Did you run HP Diagnostics at system startup?

 

Have you ever reset the OS or used HP Cloud Recovery? Your PC (two years old) should support this HP recovery option.

 

Generally, the following causes in your situation are:

 

1. Corrupt OS files. 

2. Hardware problem. HDD, RAM, power supply, CPU, MB, or other component.

3. Possible thermal issues. However, HP PCs usually provide thermal warnings and then shut down the PC.

 

Wildcard could be a faulty peripheral connected to the PC.

 

1. Check this Site. Run DISM command, then run sfc command at an administrative command prompt.

 

2. Finding a bad component is tedious and may require swapping in known, good components. It is best to have a local PC Tech do this. I think you have a faulty component. I can't tell which component is causing the problem.

 

3. I don't think you have a temp problem. However, anything is possible.

 

Regards

 

 

HP Recommended

Thank you for the response @Bill_To

 

Yes I understand how difficult intermittent problems can be to diagnose.  My full time job is fixing airplanes; avionics work and electrician work.  I'm quite familiar with general troubleshooting and that's why I'm convinced that this problem must be a known problem or at least a common problem with this HP desktop.  It's not heat and it's not dust.

 

I never get any errors or failures and every diagnostic test I run comes back clean as a whistle.  That doesn't stop the desktop from freezing completely unprovoked.  When it happens, everything is frozen and nothing works.  No mouse, no keyboard, nothing.  There's no way I can think of to re gain access to my desktop other than a hard reset.  I've never come back to a blue screen or been forced to start up in safe mode or anything of the sort.  Every time I force shutdown and bring it back up, it works fine until it freezes again.  Sometimes it takes a week, a month, 6 weeks, sometimes it takes 30 seconds.  I've never had an issue with a desktop like this before.  If I had to estimate, I'd say I've force shut down this desktop 100+ times over the couple years.

 

I was honestly just hoping that this forum would have heard of this issue before and could narrow down the component that is getting the critical failure and causing the desktop to freeze.  I may end up just junking this PC and moving away from HP if this is going to be a recurring thing with HP. 

 

I appreciate the response.  Thank you again.

HP Recommended

Hi @Zmann86 

 

Cool, you are fixing stuff way out of my paygrade!

 

Flaky power supplies can cause strange symptoms. I don't know if HP Diagnostics can look at the power supply.

 

I agree, system diagnostics will only detect a fault if the fault happens when the tests are active. I can't vouch for the thoroughness of HP Diagnostics. 

 

Have you ever reinstalled the operating system? Maybe you have a flakey OS image from the factory. Unlikely, but nothing is off the table.

 

You have to systematically troubleshoot each component, one at a time. Reduce the PC to a minimum config and swap in components.

 

Don't know what else to say. You may have a faulty component since, I guess, day one.

 

Power supply?

MB?

RAM?

Other component or peripheral?

 

I don't think anyone in this Forum can magically tell you what component has been messed up since you purchased this PC.

 

Regards

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.