30-40 Windows 11 Domain-Joined machines freezing at lock screen after idle as well as hanging at restart - all random.

Kevin 0

We have 30-40 (maybe more) domain-joined machines that all (randomly) tend to freeze at the lock screen after being idle but also if they're working and able to login they can and do hang at restart until we hold the power button, etc.

The event viewer has no information or indication as to what's causing these issues. It's occurring on W11 22H2 Enterprise and W11 23H2 Enterprise. I'm at a loss as what to else to investigate to resolve this issue. All drivers are updated, BIOS is updated. SFC finds no errors before capturing the image nor after applying the image. It has been fine for 2+ years and only started doing this in February 2024 which nothing was added or changed.

We do remove a number of AppX packages when creating our image (just the Xbox, Store, etc. type of stuff) but I don't know if that's a cause of the issue or not.

Any thoughts on where to look next to see what's causing freezing and hanging? I'm at a loss.

Kevin 0

We're not sure if it's something GPO related (though hundreds of machines in a completely separate GPO are getting the hang on restart issue). Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a list or post of what AppX packages are required so issues don't occur. This is what we remove:

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*People*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Xbox*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*3DViewer*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Solitaire*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*MixedReality*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Skype*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Store*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Wallet*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*windowscommunicationsapps*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; 

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Zune*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online;

2 answers

S.Sengupta 20,456 Reputation points MVP

2024-05-06T00:42:40.8+00:00

Use disk diagnostic tools to check the health and integrity of the storage drives on the affected machines. A failing hard drive or SSD could cause freezing issues.

Boot the affected machines into Safe Mode and see if the freezing issue persists. If the issue doesn't occur in Safe Mode, it suggests that a third-party driver or software may be causing the problem.
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Kevin 0 Reputation points

2024-05-07T17:50:13.9266667+00:00

Not sure a health/integrity check is feasible since it's so many machines, different types (desktops, laptops), etc.

I will try the safe mode option on a couple of them to see if anything happens. There's just no pattern to when they freeze. It may take a week or two to even know if it worked.

Kevin 0 Reputation points

2024-05-20T20:51:08.69+00:00

This hasn't resolved the issue, and in the past week and a half it seems to have gotten worse. I'm not sure if it's at all related to any AppX packages we remove on our image or what. It's not a hardware issue I know that much.

We're not sure if it's something GPO related (though hundreds of machines in a completely separate GPO are getting the hang on restart issue). Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a list or post of what AppX packages are required so issues don't occur. This is what we remove:

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*People*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Xbox*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*3DViewer*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Solitaire*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*MixedReality*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Skype*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Store*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Wallet*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*windowscommunicationsapps*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online; Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Where-Object {$_.PackageName -like "*Zune*"} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online;
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Kevin 0 Reputation points

2024-06-05T15:34:49.72+00:00

Turns out it was Trellix/FireEye causing this issue. We only found that it was causing the issue when we were told we were discontinuing the contract and needed to uninstall it - even on uninstall the service hangs and gives access denied at times. Since removing it successfully on many machines we've not had this issue before.
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30-40 Windows 11 Domain-Joined machines freezing at lock screen after idle as well as hanging at restart - all random.

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