Freeze Device

[Claribel Szwaja]

July2020 Update - Absolute Software now offers device freeze as a part of its Control edition and new Absolute Control Mobile App. Click here to learn more about Absolute's editions.

When Device Freeze is activated, a persistent full-screen message is displayed to the end-user, preventing normal use of the device. The IT administrator can customize the message to communicate why the screen is frozen and to identify what is required by the end-user in order to unfreeze it. Once the end-user carries out the desired behavior, the IT administrator can remotely unfreeze the screen, enabling normal use of the device.

"Our customers now have one more benefit from using Computrace to manage their computer population. Device Freeze can help IT improve efficiencies by reducing time spent on help desk cases," said John Livingston, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Absolute. "Not only can Absolute customers use Computrace to know where their computers are located and what's on them, they can use Device Freeze and its messaging capabilities to help ensure that computers are returned to IT in a timely manner."

Absolute Software makes security work. We empower mission-critical performance with advanced cyber resilience. Embedded in more than 600 million devices, our cyber resilience platform delivers endpoint-to-network access security coverage, ensures automated security compliance, and enables operational continuity. Nearly 21,000 global customers trust Absolute to protect enterprise assets, fortify security and business applications, and provide a frictionless, always-on user experience. To learn more, visit www.absolute.com and follow us on LinkedIn.

If Netflix freezes or gets stuck loading but the rest of your device is working, you can often fix the problem with these basic troubleshooting steps. This usually happens when data stored on your device needs to be refreshed, or when a network issue stops Netflix from loading.

This issue can happen when there's a problem with the domain name system (DNS) server your device connects to. For help fixing a DNS issue, you'll need to contact your internet service provider (ISP).

Note: Keep in mind that this feature only limits Internet access from your Wi-Fi network. Cellular data or Ethernet connections can still be used while this function is enabled and downloaded content may still be accessible.

When I do this (checked both the IP address and MAC address) it says it's pausing access and even counts down the time but does nothing to the device's actual access. This is an iPhone with cellular turned off and an iPad with only WIFI. I've tried different devices on different days. The app is freshly downloaded. The web-based app for the Home Hub 3000 works but is very slow and hard to use. I was told the phone app would solve all this, and it is much easier to use, but does literally nothing.

If you encounter error messages or a lack of response from your device's Windows operating system, preventing any further actions (such as sudden system crashes, freezes, black screens, or white screens) during usage, please refer to the troubleshooting steps outlined in this article.

If the problem occurred after installing or updating software, try to remove or roll back to previous version. Here you can learn more about How to uninstall Apps, Windows installed updates, Drivers.

If the problem happens recently, and if you have ever created a restore point or there is an automatic system restore existed, try to restore the device to a point before the problem began to resolve the problem. Here you can learn more about How to use restore point to restore the system.

If the problem persists after all troubleshooting steps are completed. Please backup your personal files, then reset the device to back to its original configuration. Here you can learn more about: How to reset the system.

This article describes how to troubleshoot freeze issues on Windows-based computers and servers. It also provides methods for collecting data that will help administrators or software developers diagnose, identify, and fix these issues.

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.

A complete memory dump file records all the contents of system memory when the computer stops unexpectedly. A complete memory dump file may contain data from processes that were running when the memory dump file was collected.

If the computer is no longer frozen and now is running in a good state, use the following steps to enable memory dump so that you can collect memory dump when the freeze issue occurs again. If the virtual machine is still running in a frozen state, use the following steps to enable and collect memory dump.

If you have a restart feature that's enabled on the computer, such as the Automatic System Restart (ASR) feature in Compaq computers, disable it. This setting is usually found in the BIOS. With this feature enabled, if the BIOS doesn't detect a heartbeat from the operating system, it will restart the computer. The restart can interrupt the dump process.

On some physical computers running earlier versions of Windows, you may generate a nonmakeable interruption (NMI) from a web interface feature such as DRAC, iLo, or RSA. However, by default, this setting will stop the system without creating a memory dump.

You can use Windows Performance Monitor to examine how programs that you run affect your computer's performance, both in real time and by collecting log data for later analysis. To create performance counter and event trace log collections on local and remote systems, run the following commands in a command prompt as administrator:

If it isn't possible to access the affected computer through the network, try to generate a memory dump file through NMI. The result of the action may not collect a memory dump file if some of the following settings aren't qualified.

In case accessing the OS isn't possible, try to remotely access Registry Editor on the computer. You can then check the type of memory dump file and page file with which the computer is currently configured.

From a remote computer that's preferably in the same network and subnet, go to Registry Editor > Connect Network Registry. Then, connect to the affected computer, and verify the following settings:

On some physical servers, if the NMICrashDump registry entry exists and its value is 1, you may take advantage of the NMI from the remote management provider such as DRAC, iLo, and RSA.

From a remote computer preferably in the same network and subnet, go to Registry Editor > Connect Network Registry. Connect to the affected computer and locate the following registry keys:

You can use VMware snapshots or suspend state and extract a memory dump file equivalent to a complete memory dump file. Use VMware's Checkpoint To Core Tool (vmss2core) to convert both suspend (.vmss) and snapshot (.vmsn) state files to a dump file. Then analyze the file by using the standard Windows debugging tools.

When working with Microsoft Support, you should use VMware's Checkpoint To Core Tool (vmss2core) to convert VMware snapshots to a dump file before uploading them to Microsoft. If you experience any issues with the snapshot conversion, contact VMware for support.

The memory dump process occurs by pressing the Right Ctrl+Scroll Lock+Scroll Lock keyboard combination. For more information, see Method 1 of How to Trigger a Memory Dump from a Windows Virtual Machine Running on XenServer from Citrix.

There's a second option if the system drive doesn't have sufficient space. You can use the DedicatedDumpFile registry entry. For more information, see Configure the destination path for a memory dump.

Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find additional information about this topic. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of third-party contact information.

My app has a background service which monitors for a bluetooth device and runs accept threads with 30 second timeouts. I believe I'm handling them properly as there's only ever 1 shown in my debug screen. I have seen this phone freezing behavior while having the device connected for the entire duration and not having it connect at all.

I have tried keeping the phone connected to logcat to see what happens when the phone freezes up but it always stops receiving updates from the phone after some time, maybe an hour or two at best? Hard to estimate since I'm usually doing something else while waiting.

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