HP Omen 30L Freezing/locking up

[ThomasTTE]

Omen 30L (stats below) has been running perfectly fine for a few years. Suddenly a few weeks ago it would lock up completely, not respond to mouse or keyboard and the image would be frozen on the screen. Hard reboot required. I'll list the troubleshooting I've done below as well, I'm frankly at a loss at this point at even what could be wrong. It's out of warranty of course as well.

When I change a variable often, the problem goes away for hours (the longest period was close to 13 hours), but then as soon as it happens again, it becomes a regular event, sometimes with the computer only up for a few minutes before locking up. Also, BSD is more likely after I change a variable, then it settles back into just locking up. BSD never gives an error code of any sort, just 'collecting data to send' and never states any codes.

I also have an identical system purchased at the same time sitting next to it that is running all of the same SW and HW mix without issue.

PC:

Omen 30L

AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor 3.70 GHz

RAM 32.0 GB

NVIDIA 3060

HD: 2TB WDC WD Black SDBPNTZ-2T00-1106

Win 11 Pro 64bit

What I have done so far, roughly in order; its been a few weeks of troubleshooting at this point, though. After each change/step, I let it run until it froze twice before going to the next step. In all cases, the logs simply state, 'PC rebooted unexpectedly' upon startup. There are no errors logged during the crash itself it just stops.

1. Updated all drivers through MS, HP (SW and BIOS), and Nvidia

2. Removed all devices from the PC other than monitor, mouse, keyboard

3. Ran disk and memory checks via windows (forget the official names)

4. Reinstalled windows (OS only)

5. Ran hardware check for most of a day (no issues found)

6. Uninstalled one stick of RAM at a time

7. Swapped RAM slots being used as well as RAM sticks

8. Swapped GPU for known good Nvidia 1060 (still running this as the 3060 bracket is annoying)

9. Ran every HP diagnostic tool under HP Support

10. Swapped Keyboard with a known good one (replaced original after subsequent freezes)

11. Swapped Mouse with a known good one (replaced original after subsequent freezes)

12. Swapped Monitor with a known good one (replaced original after subsequent freezes)

13. Complete fresh install of Win11 wiping disk

14. Did _not_ reinstall ancillary software like Dropbox, chrome, games etc. Only Windows, Edge, and Windows Defender for security running.

15. Ran every HP diagnostic tool under HP Support, again

16. Ran startup diagnostic hardware stress test for just over 2 days. No issues were found (the one accessible via the boot menu). Crashed within an hour of normal Windows operations.

Every diagnostic I can find says the machine is perfectly healthy in all parameters (HW, SW, temp) all drivers on everything connected or installed are the latest.

There is no commonality that I can see between the times when it crashes/freezes. Sometimes it happens while the PC is in use; other times, it's just idling, sometimes when an application is accessing the USB bus or drive (Dropbox, for example), but other times, it works flawlessly for hours.

The machine testing out for upwards of 2 days in the hardware test tells me it is probably not a core component issue or temp issue. Also, swapping out all of the various components one at a time with no difference in behavior seems to rule out all the physical components other than two things I can think of that I can't check or swap:

1. The USB bus is messed up (maybe the freezing happens when some conflict happens on the bus that I can't see since the keyboard and mouse are USB)

2. Motherboard is messed up somehow

But somehow, these issues aren't showing up in the various diagnostic tests.

SW-wise, everything is up to date at all levels, and I've done a complete wipe and reinstall of the OS multiple times now, so it's not a legacy fragment of something sticking around that I can think of.

Yesterday, it ran for close to 13 hours at one point, and this morning, it hasn't stayed operational for more than a few minutes.

I'm definitely floundering in identifying what is wrong or even how to narrow down the environment to reproduce the issue at this point(other than just letting it sit turned on, and it will freeze sometime between now and tomorrow..) any ideas are welcome.

[ThomasTTE]

Forgot to add: I checked to make sure that all internal connections on all elements to the motherboard were properly seated.

[IreGaddr]

I have the same issue and it’s progressed to where I can’t even boot Linux from a usb 😡

[Bill_To]

Hi @ThomasTTE 

You have done very extensive troubleshooting. 

I can only suggest a possible power supply problem, or a MB problem, and maybe a CPU problem.

These three components seem to be the only ones left to explore on a potential troubleshooting list. It also looks like you have not tried a different, known good, stick of RAM.

I normally suggest having a local PC Tech take a look at this point. The Tech can check the RAM, MB, and CPU, and other components installed in your PC on a different MB using a different power supply. Or the Tech can use other components to check your PC's MB.

It is very strange seeing the system remain stable when running extensive hardware tests but you have problems running Windows. And reinstalling Windows should fix system file or driver corruption. 

You have a tough problem which is hard to diagnose.

Regards