Why does HP Envy laptop periodically freeze up and require force reboot?

[DBAtechno]

From the time I first started using my HP Envy 360 it will sometimes just completely and totally freeze up.  Usually I can see the screen (though sometimes if laptop was asleep it's a black screen that won't wake up).  But usually I can see the screen and the clock shows the time it froze up.  When that happens I try to unplug USB hub and push the power button to "wake it" up, but that has never worked.  Instead I have to press and hold the power button for several seconds to force a reboot. Sometimes it happens once a week, or it can happen two days in a row.  Often times it happens when the laptop has been idle for a time (maybe idle for 10 minutes, or idle for 2 hours, etc - there is no pattern).  And other times I can literally be typing an email when it locks up, so it doesn't just happen when the laptop is not being used.  Several months back I contacted HP support but all that agent did was have me reboot, go into the BIOS, disable a lot of services from starting automatically, and things of that nature.  Not once did he request the event logs or anything like that.  Since my laptop didn't freeze up while I was on the call with him he wasn't helpful.  In fact it didn't happen again until about a week later, and by then he had just closed the ticket. I didn't have the energy to spend 2 hours again going through the same steps only for him to recommend a complete OS reinstall.  I somehow doubt that this problem only occurs with my HP Envy.  I suspect this has been a problem for other people and I am hopeful somebody here can provide some suggestions on what the underlying problem may be.   

[iomare]

Hi,

Can you provide the exact model or product number of the notebook

HP Notebook PCs - How Do I Find My Product Name or Number? | HP® Customer Support

Can you also try performing HP diagnostics at boot (could be a hard drive problem

Turn off the PC by holding the power button until complete shutdown.

Turn on the PC and repeatedly press ESC until the startup menu appears.

Press F2 to enter diagnostics.

Try performing the fast system test and see if there are any failure ids.

Let me know,

David

[DBAtechno]

Hi David, 

System model is HP ENVY x360 Convertible 15m-ed0xxx.  SKU is 9HP24UA#ABA.  

I ran the HP diagnostics tool at boot when I contacted HP support back in October (case #5055787124 ) and worked with support rep Mandeep.  HP diagnostics showed nothing wrong with the hardware including disk.  He had me disable most services from auto starting up.  None of that helped though 😞   I've collected Event Viewer logs for time periods when this has happened before, though I don't know what I'm looking for, and realized I couldn't open a support ticket and attach those (only business customers can submit problem tickets, so I would have to call and go through the same things Mandeep had me do previously.  I put it off and  put if off because I work in IT from home and need my computer.  Finally decided to follow back up with support and my 1 year support has expired, sigh.

[DBAtechno]

Some other weird quirks with this HP Envy laptop is that sometimes when I wake it up, the mouse and keyboard are nonresponsive.  I use a USB hub and have external keyboard and mouse plugged into that.  So when that happens I have to unplug the USB hub for a few seconds and then plug it back in and those devices usually start working again.  But if I see that the clock is frozen in time from a previous time, I know that nothing will "wake up" the computer, only a forced reboot will work.  That happened this morning when I turned on the external monitor at 8:00am and the computer was showing a time of 3:26am.  Weirdly the USB fan I had plugged was still running, but everything else was non-responsive and I had to force a reboot.  But when the computer is not completely frozen but only the peripherals, unplugging and replugging the USB hub works.  I used to think this particular problem was related to the wireless mouse and keyboard I used.  But a while ago I started using a corded keyboard and mouse, and the problem still occurs, a few times a week.  It's just one annoyance on top of another 😕