Clean Boot Diagnostics - Isolating The Problem Vs. Leaving All The Services Disabled

I have a frustrating problem (partly solved, but that's part of my question), that seems to be quite common with Dell Inspirons of a certain generation, circa 2017. (To be fair, with a popular computer model, ANYTHING you google appears to be common.) In my case it's an Inspiron 5559, and the issue is sporadic failure to wake up and also sporadic freezing, with whatever was on-screen at the time of the freeze remaining on-screen, but no alternative other than powering off (usually by holding the power button down for 20, 30 seconds, etc.)

It's particularly frustrating, because the computer might go hours or days between the problem acting up, so troubleshooting is slow going.

I finally decided to persevere, and troubleshoot via MSCONFIG and the Clean Boot method, and trying to isolate which service is the issue. (IMPORTANT - Don't forget to "Hide all Microsoft Services" if you take this approach, a lot of "how-to" articles fail to mention that, which can lead to a whole new set of bigger problems (can't restart at all).

Again, my situation was very slow going and frustrating, since it could be hours/days between the computer acting up, so it took over a week. (Yes, this computer has been relegated to surfing the web, it couldn't be counted on for serious work due to the freezing possibility.)

I took the binary-sort approach (Disable exactly HALF the processes (track carefully!), reboot, see if problem still occurs. Two paths remain: (a) If problem occurred, keep half of the previously disabled list disabled and repeat, or (b) If problem didn't occur, disable the OTHER half of the processes from the previous step and repeat.) This way, within about six to seven repetitions of the process, you've theoretically isolated down to the process that caused the problem, assuming you kept careful track and did it correctly.

A week later, possibly human error, I failed to specifically identify one process, but for sure, leaving ALL the processes disabled, the computer has stayed on longer than ever, with no apparent loss in functionality from having all the services (non-microsoft services) disabled.

So, I may keep trying and repeat the process by process step, but at the same time, I'm tempted to just leave all the non Microsoft services disabled (Again, I'm not talking about Microsoft services, rather other things like bunches of Intel services, one Realtek service, and a number of updaters.)

My main question is, mainly with respect to the Intel services, but the Realtek one too... Are any of those necessary for the computer to be properly protected from some of the CPU vulnerabilities that have come out in the past? Thanks in advance...

Appendix: The services I have left disabled semi-permanently are...

 

If the freezes don't seem to have anything in common I would suspect a RAM error. Win 10 has a built in memory checker -

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-check-your-pc-memory-problems-windows-10

 

@Earthling, Thanks for the reply. To clarify, the computer works fine when I run with ALL the non-microsoft services disabled via MSConfig, it was my attempts to isolate a specific service where I failed to identify exactly which one was the cause

I did forget to mention before, I've run MEMTEST86 from a bootable USB, no problems reported, a couple Windows based memory tests too including the Windows 10 one, as well as ChkDsk and other scans and hard drive utilities too, none result in a problem report.

I've also run a few stress testers, including Prime95, and the freezing is definitely based on one or more of the Services, since disabling all non-microsoft services makes the computer work without freezing. (My issue, is I haven't successfully identified which one yet.) But since it takes so painfully long, and since I'm tempted to just leave all the non-Microsoft services off, I'm asking if any of the listed services may be ones that should be mandatory. As a sidenote, all my Startup options are disabled too. Thanks again.

 

Enable the first five Services and restart the PC. Use it for a couple of days and run as many programs as possible.

Enable the next five and do the same.

You should do this in Services, not MSConfig.

 

Thanks for the reply. Tell me more about this approach, is there a sticky on doing it that way? I've mostly seen the MSCONFIG approach (supplemented by Sysinternals to see startup items)

Thanks. (By the way, I do open a ton of programs when I'm trying to make the computer fail while diagnosing.)

I'm now on week 2 of no freezing, which is a record. Again, right now, it's with none of the non-microsoft services listed in MSCONFIG set to start. I'll get back to more rigorous troubleshooting again, but I'm enjoying feeling like I have a usable computer again. It's even gone to sleep and woken up numerous times too!

 

My post is not entirely correct. MSConfig should be used for troubleshooting, not as a permanent solution.

Continue using MSConfig until we find the culprit. Then we'll use Services.

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess I celebrated early, because after going 4 weeks total (with nothing but Microsoft services running), the freezing started again.

Now, a two part question:
1. Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but I swear that the very first time I started messing with MSCONFIG, that when I chose DIAGNOSTIC STARTUP, that a handful of Microsoft services remained checked when I checked in the Services tab. Now, months later, dozens of restarts while disabling various services) later, when I check Diagnosic Startup and look at the services tab, none are checked. Did the default settings of which services to keep checked get lost during all my past troubleshooting attempts, or am I just not remembering correctly?

(FYI, I'm trying to be careful, to avoid a problem that seems to catch a lot of people, where the computer becomes unbootable due to basic services having been disabled. (It's possible that those people did "Selective Startup" with no services checked, which may be different to Diagnostic startup.) So, does Diagnostic Startup somewhere invisible to me, make sure the essential services still run?

2. I'm tempted to also (independently of the answer above), to do Selective Startup, with as many Microsoft services disabled as possible, while still being able to connect to wifi. Is there a list of absolutely essential Microsoft Services I can try? (Again, without making my computer impossible to boot)

Thanks again