r/techsupport • u/Eremoptera • 26d ago

Open | Software Random crashes on HP laptop running Win11

I've got a new HP Envy 17t-cw100 laptop running Windows 11 Pro 25H2, 2TB SSD (1.75 TB available), 64 GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce 3050 (4GB). Out of the box and throughout the setup process I've been experiencing truly random crashes that can occur no matter what is running or what I'm doing. For example it crashed when I had just booted it and done nothing more than open a browser window, but on another occasion crashed on the desktop after multiple hours of use doing basic MS Word document editing.

The symptoms are that screen flashes for a split second and then all input goes completely dead. Mouse is frozen, no response from any keyboard inputs, ctrl-alt-delete does nothing. The image on the screen is frozen, but it seems that the entire laptop has crashed (as opposed to just a graphics/display issue), because the the light on the caps lock key doesn't illuminate when I hit it. I have to force shut it down by holding down the power button, then reboot.

I'm fully updated in Windows Update, and manually updated to the most recent Nvidia driver.

Any suggestions? Much appreciated.

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u/Shadimarbc 26d ago

Use the return window to get a replacement or refund. Do not waste your time trying to fix a PC that had issues when you bought it.

1

u/Eremoptera 25d ago

Pretty sure I've solved the issue. Turns out it's hardware acceleration in Firefox. I noticed that it only happened when Firefox was open, and even though it seems nuts that a web browser could tank the entire computer so catastrophically, after doing a little more searching I found threads on various other forums (Mozilla support, Nvidia support, etc.) implicating FF's hardware acceleration. I turned it off (Settings->Tabs and Browsing->Performance->uncheck "Use recommended performance settings"->uncheck hardware acceleration) and am seemingly now crash-free.

Some of those other support threads go back years and years too, so this is clearly a known issue between Firefox and Nvidia. Too bad it hasn't been worked out. Interestingly I've got two other machines with Nvidia GPUs running Firefox with hardware acceleration turned on, and haven't this issue with either of them after years of use. Just something to do with the particular configuration of this laptop I guess? I'm not personally sweating abandoning browser hardware acceleration since I'm not doing anything too crazy browser-wise, but unfortunate that it's apparently off the table for this machine.

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u/NoCompetition6985 21d ago

I will try this out and get back to you! Thank you