m15 R3, SA installation throws BSOD

Question

I was facing issues with SA (SupportAssist), hence tried to reinstall. Once the installation reaches 100% I am faced with a BSOD with error code: REFERENCE_BY_POINTER. The system tries to restart and I am faced with another BSOD with error code: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION. After that the system restarts and if I try to uninstall the broken software, I am faced with an error saying SupportAssist installer package was not found at specified file path and prompts me to choose a file path for a specific .msi file which I could not find anywhere in m PC. On second attempt the program is removed. Unless I do so, my system keeps throwing BSOD on frequent intervals. I have tried to uninstall/install several times with this same scenario playing out every time. If anyone could help me with this, that would be great. Thanks in advance!

Device:
Alienware M15 R3

OS:
Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 21H2
OS build 22000.348
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22000.348.0

DELL-Cares · Answer

Follow the instructions here = SA uninstall/reinstall

WP4Windows · Answer

Same misery here.The Dell Support Assist attempts to install something, that installation hangs.

That causes BSOD + an 'SFC /scannow' scan revealed damaged files + my laptop stayed active/warm after shutting down, drained the battery to 1%.....

Dell XPS 15 9510,

Processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz 2.30 GHz
RAM 16,0 GB

Edition Windows 11 Pro
Version 21H2
Installation date ‎27-‎10-‎2021
Build 22000.348
Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22000.348.

WP4Windows · Answer

Same issue here.

LeapingKer · Answer

I got the same problem here with my M15R5, but when I uninstalled SA, problem fixed. I've send my minidump files to Microsoft community, and the analyst suggested me to delete all dell related apps, if u not sure about this, you can give it a try.

lmacri · Answer

@LeapingKer wrote:

I got the same problem here with my M15R5, but when I uninstalled SA, problem fixed. I've send my minidump files to Microsoft community, and the analyst suggested me to delete all dell related apps, if u not sure about this, you can give it a try.

Hi LeapingKer:

See crimsom's 22-Apr-2022 17 R5, SupportAssist v3.10.4 Blue Screen about BSODs (Stop Code: BAD _POOL_CALLER) on their Alienware 17 R5 that appear to have started when SupportAssist v3.10.4.18 tried to auto-update to v3.11.1.8. Other users are currently reporting a variety of problems with the SupportAssist v3.11.1.18 update, but this update hasn't been pushed out (yet?) to my Inspiron 5584 / Win 10 Pro v21H2 laptop so it might only be certain Dell computer models that are affected.

Is your M15R5 the same Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 model shown on the support page <here>, and what is your Windows operating system (if Win 10 or Win 11 include the version and build shown at Settings | System | About | Windows Specifications)? You didn't mention the URL of your thread in the Microsoft forum, so you might want to ask the person who analyzed your minidump files if there was any evidence that SupportAssist v3.11.1.8 tried to install on your Alienware laptop before you removed all the Dell software from your system.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H2 build 19044.1645 * Firefox v100.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2203.5-1.1.19200.5 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.8.191-1.0.1666 * * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.4.18 * Dell Update v4.5.0 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.6635 * Inspiron 5583/5584 BIOS v1.18.0
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

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m15 R3, SA installation throws BSOD

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