Dell SupportAssist Bug Is Triggering BSOD Crashes on Windows PCs

Over the past few days, many Dell PC owners running Windows have reported unexpected restarts accompanied by Blue Screens of Death (BSOD). Dell has identified the culprit: SupportAssist, one of its preinstalled applications.

SupportAssist is a software suite developed by Dell and included by default in the Windows image used on the vast majority of the manufacturer’s computers. Over the past few days, users have reported repeated crashes on their machines, notably on Dell forums, as is the case here. The user says that their machine reboots abruptly about every 30 minutes and that the error message refers to the Dell SupportAssist Remediation service.

Key  : Failure.BucketValue: 0xEF_DellSupportAss_BUGCHECK_CRITICAL_PROCESS_e61f8080_nt!PspCatchCriticalBreak

Dell has officially addressed the issue on its forum, and the problem has been acknowledged: "Dell engineering is aware of the BSOD issue and is working on a fix. As many have noticed, version 5.5.16.0 of the Dell SupportAssist Remediation service or Alienware SupportAssist Remediation may cause these BSODs". Clearly, it is better to avoid this version of the application for now.

The workaround suggested by the community

While waiting for a fix that will permanently patch the application, what should you do? Dell has shared a temporary workaround to get out of this mess: "As a workaround, many users report success by disabling the Dell SupportAssist Remediation service or simply uninstalling the SA application entirely," it says.

Uninstalling it may seem drastic, especially if you later want to reinstall the application. Disabling the service is probably the preferred option, and it is also easy to deploy across a fleet of machines. In addition, Dell notes that uninstalling this service means that system repair points previously created by Dell OS SupportAssist Recovery will no longer be available.

If you really want to uninstall this application, you can find it in the list of installed apps on your machine under the name Dell SupportAssist Remediation (or Alienware SupportAssist Remediation).

Blue Screens of Death (which are now black on some versions) have been observed on Windows 10 and Windows 11 machines. This issue is not limited to any specific Dell product line either, so it can affect XPS, Latitude, and even the Alienware gaming range.

Have you encountered this bug on your side?

Source

Florian Burnel Co-founder of IT-Connect

Systems and network engineer, co-founder of IT-Connect and Microsoft MVP "Cloud and Datacenter Management". I'd like to share my experience and discoveries through my articles. I'm a generalist with a particular interest in Microsoft solutions and scripting. Enjoy your reading.

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