Dell laptops reportedly hit by nasty bug causing repeated crashes, and this time it's not Windows 11's fault — here's what's causing it, and how to fix it | Tech Radar
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Dell laptops reportedly hit by nasty bug causing repeated crashes, and this time it's not Windows 11's fault — here's what's causing it, and how to fix it
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There are multiple reports of a nasty bug affecting Dell laptops
It's seemingly caused by a recent update to Dell's Support Assist app
Affected laptops keep crashing every half an hour or so, but there's a fix in either removing or disabling the offending support services
If you have a Dell laptop running Windows 11 and you've been experiencing it regularly crashing every half an hour or so, you aren't alone by any means — and thankfully there appears to be a solution.
After a tip from a reader, Neowin picked up that there are multiple reports on the Dell community forum complaining that the laptop maker's Support Assist software is bugged, and causing crashes where the PC completely freezes with a Black Screen of Death (BSOD).
There are a number of reports on Dell's forum, and also on Reddit, noting that the issue is hitting fleets of PCs (in the business world), as well as individual laptops, including Alienware gaming notebooks (there are a couple of cases mentioned, including for example an Alienware M16 R2).
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Essentially, any laptop with Support Assist installed could be prone to this bug, and going by the number of complaints, it's not uncommon — though it isn't clear how widespread the glitch is exactly.
Seemingly this has been caused by a recent update to Dell Support Assist, and if you've encountered BSOD crashes and reboots happening regularly with your device, there is a solution that seems to have worked for most folks.
There are multiple reports of laptop owners or IT admins who have fixed this issue, and they all come back to the same solution: removing Support Assist or disabling the service.
If you're reaching the end of your tether due to crashes and want to get rid of Support Assist, that's as simple as heading into Settings and going to the Apps panel, then into the list of 'Installed apps'. Scroll down to find Dell Support Assist, click the ellipsis (three-dot icon) on the right, and select 'Uninstall'.
You're not quite done, though, as there's also a Dell Support Assist Remediation app — at which the finger of blame is actually being pointed by many — so you need to remove that as well. Some folks suggest removing everything pertaining to Support Assist, which means ditching a third service, Dell Support Assist OS Recovery Plugin, too.
After you're done with those, reboot your PC and hopefully you'll find the crashes are no longer happening. If you only removed the main app, and not all three, and that doesn't cure the issue, it's worth trying ditching them all. Remember that without Support Assist, you will have to manually search for and apply any laptop firmware updates (from Dell's support website).
You can always reinstall these apps at a later date, once we hear from Dell that Support Assist is fixed. Of course, remember that we haven't heard anything official from Dell yet, so this problem isn't confirmed — and ditto for the solution. But, going by most reports, removing Support Assist works (although do note that I've seen the odd comment complaining that a laptop is still crashing even after ditching the app).
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Another route suggested by some is to try merely disabling Dell Support Assist Remediation (rather than engaging in any uninstallation). Do this by typing the following into the search box in the Windows 11 taskbar:
Press Enter and this will pop up the services panel showing all local running services, so you'll need to scroll down and find Dell Support Assist Remediation. Right-click on it, then select 'Properties', and in the panel that appears, in the dropdown menu called 'Startup type', select 'Disabled' (you can reenable it later by changing it back to 'Automatic').
Neowin also observes that this bug has seemingly cropped up before — last year in fact, where a different cure was found to work. This involved opening Support Assist and running the 'scan hardware' option, and after that process had finished it seemingly did the trick (though it may take a while).
In the meantime, we'll just have to wait to hear from Dell about what might be going on here, but there's an obvious irony about an app that facilitates technical support causing a show-stopping problem on some laptops.
As one Redditor put it: "The irony of Support Assist being the cause. I'm so glad I'm no longer in IT."
➡️ Read our full guide to the best laptops
- Best overall: Apple Mac Book Air 13-inch M5
- Best budget: Apple Mac Book Neo
- Best Windows 11 laptop Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch
- Best thin and light: Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i
- Best Ultrabook Asus Zenbook S 16
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for Tech Radar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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