Windows11 updates

[Grandchuck]

I have a Dell Inspiron desktop that started acting weird a month or three ago.  It froze up with Adobe Photoshop CS6.  Not just the application, the entire computer ... had to power cycle it to get it working again.  Then, I had a similar freeze issue with EPIC (the curve tracer software).  Yesterday or the day before, there was a major Win11 update and now both CS6 and EPIC are working.

My guess is a Windows update screwed up my computer and then a later update fixed it.

[golden_labels]

And what is the question?


With so little information one can only say one thing: maybe yes, maybe not. On many ends, starting with there being no causual link between updates and the breakage. Make sure your computer is in good condition. So to limit chances this is a hardware issue. That’s a very generic advice, but it fits how generic the description is.

It’s also possible you were just among test subjects for experiments with new driver features or versions. This would be unrelated to the normal update cycle. But you’re not in position to know that. So this path is also closed as an explanation rooted in actual information.

[Haenk]

Could very well be a graphics driver issue.
Or something else.

[Grandchuck]

I originally thought it was a graphics driver problem.  The keyboard sequence to restart the driver did not unfreeze the computer.  Tried reinstalling the driver, the programs, and so on and on and on.  Hardware testing yielded nothing.

Two online remote control sessions with Microsoft yielded nothing.  The Microsoft techs had the computer freeze up and the sessions were lost.  However, who knows, perhaps they logged their results and the problem was fixed in the latest update??

[paulca]

Hard system wide lock ups are 'usually' attributed to hardware.... or privileged driver code executing in kernel space and correcting kernel state.

A few checks can tell  you "how hung" it is.  Check if the caps lock/numlock responds on your keyboard.  If it doesn't then you whole kernel interrupt mechanism is locked up too.  It's a "RESET" or "5 second salute". 

In Linux I have had the GUI crash so badly it took the keyboard with it.  However, I was able to login via SSH and re-init the GUI and recover.  Windows doesn't provide many ways to "Drop back to the basic VGA console" like Linux does though.  (CTRL+ALT+F1-F10).  The key combo to restart the display driver is about all you have.  Linux has another combo, sequence that I can't remember, something about Raising Skinny Elephants", which the kernel itself captures and, IIRC will drop you back to a basic kernel debug shell.  Usually if it gets that bad, I just reboot.  Examples of where this happens in "untuned and unhardened" linux installs is when  you hit a load average of 100+ and the application event queue is longer than a TCP SYN timeout.

X11 'used' to have a "Interrupt/Term" signal bound to CTRL+ALT+Backspace which would send "SIGTERM" to the X11 server directly.  Killing it instantly.  "init" would then respawn it immedaitely.  This was a good "GUI layer" reset.  It's been deprecated now, same as CTRL+ALT+DEL being shutdown, don't ask, just do it.  These are all now 'trappable' in user space via desktop interactions and (can) pop up "Are you sure?" and options screens.

[Grandchuck]

When it occurred, the keyboard was not helpful.  Power cycle was the only resort.
It is not a hardware problem. Some kind of weird driver conflict or some such is my guess.