HP Spectre 15-BL012DX Completely Freezes Momentarily

[florifulgurator]

Yes, I did manually update drivers. Several times etc. - problem was (I hope...) the box froze too early.

Then I deinstalled MacAfee... !!!!!!

(Oh, and switching the darn pile of bad engineering (back to IBM PC + Windoze 93? or NT? wrrr...) to ENGLISH (yet German keyboard hahaaahahahaha) was an hour long experience in itself...)

So,

couldn't find any energy saving options for whatsit driver (some German remains spake of MIMO something),

That "HP Support Assistant" button kept reminding me of a graphics driver update. First time it worked without crash/freeze/weird took one hour to complete. (Heck, is the modem broken?) Now, the other times it went smooth. (Still need to check that darn button in Admin...)

Typed from my Ersatz box. 

[FrozenMario]

KC_Syd thank you for your proposed steps to tackle the freezing incidents of some Spectre x360 models, while on battery.   

I have applied all 3 steps you suggested but unfortunately for my laptop this has not helped.   Actually my computer is undergoing yet another 'seizure' as I am trying to post this note !

I wanted to ask all those who posted that the KC_Syd steps solved their problem, whether indeed they continue to have no freezing issues with their pc.

I  have tried numerous suggestions and endless troubleshooting to resolve this,   including clean installing Windows without any HP apps a couple of times as well as using the HP Recovery Manager to reset to the initial factory setup,   but each time the random freezes while on battery, were present, even before adding any additional applications (with the exception of Microsoft Office).

I have a 13 inch Spectre,    HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13-ac0XX   and I have the same broad symptoms as most people in this forum have described, ie while on battery the laptops somethimes undergoes random freezes / hang ups which last a few seconds and repeat over a period of a few minutes.

It does not appear to be a hardware problem as the laptop functions 100% while on mains power, and as all the hardware diagnostics came out clean, including the battery test.

If anyone has had any luck to resolve this using any other technique, please let us know.

Thank you.

[pblanton]

I followed KC_Syd's steps and it did resolve my problem. The laptop works fine now whether plugged in or on battery. I haven't had a single hanging issue since turning off the power saving feature for the wifi adapter.

I didn't have to update the drivers for the wifi adapter since they were already at the most current, but turning off the power saving feature for the wifi card did the trick for me. 

[Eric_Mtl]

Hi FrozenMario,

Same here. The steps provided by KC_Syd fixed the issue for my computer and I have not had a single freeze event since, which has been a month now. And I believe we have a very similar model.

I had to update the WIFI driver at the time, and change the WIFI power saving setting in the power plan settings. This appears to be a critical part of the solution so ensure you have applied it as described earlier by KC_Syd. 

Good luck.

[FrozenMario]

Eric_Mtl hello and many thanks for your response.

Let me put down exactly what settings I have right now, and please let me know if yours differ in any way.

1 ]

Device Manager:  Network adapters:    Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265  

         Driver =>     Provider=Intel      Date=02/04/2017       Version=19.60.0.7

(date format is day/month/year)

2 ]

Device Manager:  Network adapters:    Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265

       Power Management =>    'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power'           UNTICKED

(the remaining options on this tab, which are inactive in any case,  are also   unticked)

3 ]

Advanced Power Settings of the active power plan i am using

     Wireless Adapter Settings:   Power Saving Mode

    On Battery  =>   Maximum Performance

Eric_Mtl and indeed anyone else who has solved this random freezing issue,  do you have any comment on these settings ? Do your settings differ ?   Have you changed anything else in addition to these, that you suspect also contributes towards solving this ?

Thank you again for your assistance.

[pblanton]

I have the Spectre model 15-blo12DX with the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 adapter. It is currently running the Intel driver 19.60.0.7 dated 4/2/2017.

In the device's settings dialog's "Power Management" tab, I have the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" unchecked.

In the power plan, I'm using the "Balanced" settings.

Under "Change Advanced Power Settings | Wireless Adapter Settings | Power Saving Mode" I have it set to "Maximum Performance" for both "On Battery" and "Plugged In".

I performed the KC_Syd steps on July 29 and haven't had the issue again since. It was happening multiple times EVERY TIME I'D USE THE COMPUTER and now it's fine so I call it solved.

Without the KC_Syd steps, this laptop was useless. Now it's awesome, aside from the fact that there are no Linux drivers for all of the hardware. Running Linux on it is a real compromise and that sucks but that's a discussion for another thread that HP will ignore.

[Eric_Mtl]

Hello FrozenMario,

My config is exactly like yours for all 3 items you listed.

And to me making these changes directly corrected my freezing problem. There was no other action taken at that time that could have had this effect. 

[FrozenMario]

We may have a potential solution and the final piece to this puzzle.    

So let me give you an update for my case.  I actually did not have the latest available driver for my wifi card.   The driver I posted yesterday has been replaced by a newer version HOWEVER this is not accessible via the Device manager.   

So if you go to Device Manager and right click on ‘Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265’  chose Update Driver then select Search automatically for updated driver software, this will only get you an older version:  Provider=Intel   Date=02/04/2017   Version=19.60.0.7.

Even the ‘HP Support Assistant’ application, which is supposed to help you get the latest and most appropriate drivers for your laptop, will not prompt you to update to the actual latest version.

To actually get the latest version, you need to go via a completely different route and use the Intel website.  
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/94150/Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-8265
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26924/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-and-Drivers-for-Windo...
Once you download the intel software, you need to run it to install the driver. And the end result is the following driver:      Provider=Intel   Date=17/05/2017   Version=19.70.0.5

Since getting this latest driver for my wifi card, I have been running the laptop on battery for over 5 hours and so far there has been no freezing incident.     This is very promising, but not conclusive as there have been cases in the past where many hours would pass without any hang up, only for the freezing incidents to reappear afterwards.    

If you don’t hear from me, over the next week, then that would confirm yet another case solved using the method of KC_Syd.    

[KC_Syd]

A quick update after 6 weeks. My laptop has been running perfectly, so I'm confident the steps I described did fix my issue. Seems quite a few other people have applied the same fix and it worked for them too - thanks for the kudos, everyone.

[Hunt3r]

Same here. I have the same configuration and I applied KC_Syd fix. It's been more than a month and I haven't seen the freezes yet.