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Windows 8.1 Bluescreens, crashes, and Explore.exe freezing

Poetart
By Poetart
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Ok, apologies for posting so late. I have not had time to get on my PC in a while (Work has been crazy) BSOD have stopped in games but the Drivers seem to be crashing when not in use. What I mean by that is that when I come back to it after a while, It gives me a warning that the driver has crashed and it has been recovered.

Posted

Let me preface this by saying that I am slowing going insane over this. Ill make this short and sweet. Blue-screen EVERYWHERE. 3 re-installs and I still have issues. I have run chkdsk on all drives and disk health checkers and all have come back clean. All drives and hardware are for the most part new, Oldest is maybe a year? Blue screens tend to happen in games. Shadow of Mordor, Dragon Age, ArcheAge (A lot) and also games tend to crash a lot. Only one I have gotten an error report from has been league of legends, all the rest just stop, close, and stay silent about it. I have run sfc /scannow and it turned up nothing. Event viewer shows very non-descriptive errors. Ran 4 full extended memtest without a single problem.
 
 
"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
 
Combing through them has been a huge pain. As for the errors themselves, I can dump anything you guys want.
 
Also, I have changed from and SLI config to a single card (Standard clock) and standard clock on my CPU and it still happened just as much. Temp has never been an issue. I am running in a V71 with 4 220mm fans, 2 120mm fans on the bottom and 2 140mm (Exhaust and my Nocturne NH-D14).
 
Adding on to this, I am having problems with explorer.exe. It tends to freeze up and become unresponsive from time to time. Only way to make it work again is to stop it, and start it back up with admin privileges. 
 
Like I have said before, I have reinstalled many times with different flash drives, different ISO's, and different ports. My diagnostic skills have just been drained by this point and I feel like I am missing something. If anyone could offer some advice, please do before this PC eats my very soul.
 

 

  • Windows 8.1 64-bit
  • MOBO: ASUS Z97-A
  • CPU: Intel® Core i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50GHz
  • RAM: 16 GB ( 4X4 ) Avexir Core Series DDR3 2133
  • GPU: MSI 970 X 2
  • PSU: EVGA 1000G2
  • OS Drive: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB
  • Other Drives: Toshiba 128GB SSD
  • Other Drives: 3TB WDB
  • Other Drives: 3TB WDB
  • Other Drives: 4TB Seagate Barracuda
  • Other Drives: 3TB Seagate Barracuda
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I would like to ask if there are any dump files you can see under the folder "%SystemRoot%\Minidump" in Windows explorer. If there are any recent ".dmp" files, please copy them to your desktop the zip them, and finally post on your favorite file sharing website, like Dropbox, Mega, or Google Drive, etc, and share the link here

 

These dump files will point out what it causing your BSODs. If you post them, I can take a look at what's happening.

▶ Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Einstein◀

Please remember to mark a thread as solved if your issue has been fixed, it helps other who may stumble across the thread at a later point in time.

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I would like to ask if there are any dump files you can see under the folder "%SystemRoot%\Minidump" in Windows explorer. If there are any recent ".dmp" files, please copy them to your desktop the zip them, and finally post on your favorite file sharing website, like Dropbox, Mega, or Google Drive, etc, and share the link here

 

These dump files will point out what it causing your BSODs. If you post them, I can take a look at what's happening.

 

Sure, I will post them as soon as I get home after work.

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Looks like bug check string is DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

 

This error code usually indicates a driver thats out of date, or incorrect.

 

I would start by making sure everything is updated. Here's a link for your Motherboard's drivers: http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z97A/HelpDesk_Download/

 

Most people forget the smaller things like their network adapter, and sound drivers. Make sure those are updated as well.

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I have done this but it is no harm to comb over them again. Also, I have always tried to find a driver scanner that is either free or actually worth the cost of buying. Anyone know of any?

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You can use the dxdiag tool to compare sound driver versions, bios, and display then compare those versions to versions available on ASUS's page.

 

You can open it by holding the windows key + R which will open the "Run" tool, you can type "Dxdiag.exe" and hit enter, then hit yes if the box pops up asking about digitally signed drivers.

 

For any other driver dates and versions, you can find it through Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management  and it will be under "Device manager"

You can right-click devices, go to properties and theres a driver tab that will give you all the information you'll need.

 

ASUS also might have their own "Auto-update" tool that you can try. Should be under the utility page.

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I have tired asus's auto updater, I am just reverting back all drivers to the ASUS page and making sure I have all of them. I didn't think of this before but I have updated the software past what is on the mobo page with newer versions. Dxdiag and device manager show that all devices are fine. What confuses me is the lack of info in event viewer. Usually, it will point specifically to a driver or a service but it seems to enjoy tormenting me by giving me slightly more info that "Something went bad with a driver". I have had better luck fixing 2003 SBS's with the hard drive space of a chromebook. I will post an update when I just the restarts and drivers refreshed.

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Looking further into the crash report it does indicate that the faulting driver was your graphics driver. Make sure you have the updated driver for your GPU for windows 8.1 x64

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hmmm...now that has me wondering... There was a firmware update for the MSI cards due to fan speed not running correctly. I applied it but it was in an SLI config. I was not sure at the time if the installer/flasher does both cards or just one..

I will have to look into that.

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Does your system BSoD when you're just browsing the internet and doing light work? Try doing a GPU stress test and see if it triggers the blue screen.

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I will stress test the cards now. Ill update after a little while.

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hmmm...now that has me wondering... There was a firmware update for the MSI cards due to fan speed not running correctly. I applied it but it was in an SLI config. I was not sure at the time if the installer/flasher does both cards or just one..

I will have to look into that.

I believe the firmware flasher only does one card at a time. Try reflashing using only one card at a time. Also, I still haven't been able to take a look at the dump files. When I get home in about an hour I can give you my in depth findings.

▶ Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Einstein◀

Please remember to mark a thread as solved if your issue has been fixed, it helps other who may stumble across the thread at a later point in time.

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I believe the firmware flasher only does one card at a time. Try reflashing using only one card at a time. Also, I still haven't been able to take a look at the dump files. When I get home in about an hour I can give you my in depth findings.

 

Ahhh.. We are getting somewhere. I am about 10 mins into the stress test at the moment (Went to sleep when I was making food). I will let it run for a while. Then test the Firmware on the cards.

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OP, I need more than one dump file. Can you compress all the dump files under "%SystemRoot%\Minidump"?

From the one dump file you provided, it points to a graphics issue. But the pictures you provide have a few other issues as well.

 

You mentioned that 2 Nvidia 970s that you tried to update the firmware on.

 

First, please insert only one card in your topmost PCIe slot, and flash the updated firmware. Then do the same for the other card, one card at a time. With restarts in between flashes. 

One both cards have been flashed, re-install your GPUs but without the SLI bridge. Boot into windows and run your favorite GPU benchmark for a while.

 

Do you get BSODs while benchmarking without SLI? If not, then re-install the SLI bridge and make sure SLI is enabled in Nvidia's graphics control panel, then re-run your GPU benchmark. Do you still get a BSOD?

 

Also, are you running some form of RAID with your HDDs? What kind? One of the bluescreens pointed to a filesystem error. This may be an appropriate time to set your RAID controller to rebuild or recheck the drive pool.

Are your SSDs running in AHCI mode of the sata controller?

 

Please take the time to concisely answer these questions, please provide all the dump files, and please update your GPUs firmware individually.

 

Also, just saw this while typing up my response:

 

Ahhh.. We are getting somewhere. I am about 10 mins into the stress test at the moment (Went to sleep when I was making food). I will let it run for a while. Then test the Firmware on the cards.

Make sure both your cards have the same firmware version, by flashing them one at a time, and please provide all dump files, not just the latest.

 

From the one you provided, it was a DirectX component that crashed, pointing to a possible GPU issue:

 

For reference:

112314-7421-01.dmp

Windows 8 Kernel Version 9600 MP (4 procs) Free x64Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTSBuilt by: 9600.17415.amd64fre.winblue_r4.141028-1500Machine Name:Kernel base = 0xfffff803`9827c000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0xfffff803`98555250Debug session time: Sun Nov 23 03:22:17.716 2014 (UTC - 5:00)System Uptime: 0 days 1:29:39.441********************************************************************************                                                                             **                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    **                                                                             ********************************************************************************DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (d1)An attempt was made to access a pageable (or completely invalid) address at aninterrupt request level (IRQL) that is too high.  This is usuallycaused by drivers using improper addresses.If kernel debugger is available get stack backtrace.Arguments:Arg1: ffffa0011a6a5f88, memory referencedArg2: 0000000000000002, IRQLArg3: 0000000000000001, value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operationArg4: fffff80061025d60, address which referenced memoryDebugging Details:------------------TRIAGER: Could not open triage file : e:\dump_analysis\program\triage\modclass.ini, error 2WRITE_ADDRESS: fffff80398542c60: Unable to get special pool infofffff80398542c60: Unable to get special pool infounable to get nt!MmNonPagedPoolStartunable to get nt!MmSizeOfNonPagedPoolInBytes ffffa0011a6a5f88 CURRENT_IRQL:  2FAULTING_IP: dxgmms1!VidSchiProcessDpcCompletedPacket+520fffff800`61025d60 f0410fc14118    lock xadd dword ptr [r9+18h],eaxCUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN8_DRIVER_FAULTBUGCHECK_STR:  AVPROCESS_NAME:  SystemTRAP_FRAME:  fffff803995912c0 -- (.trap 0xfffff803995912c0)NOTE: The trap frame does not contain all registers.Some register values may be zeroed or incorrect.rax=00000000ffffffff rbx=0000000000000000 rcx=0000000000000006rdx=0000000000000000 rsi=0000000000000000 rdi=0000000000000000rip=fffff80061025d60 rsp=fffff80399591450 rbp=ffffe001197bace0 r8=0000000000000002  r9=ffffa0011a6a5f70 r10=0000000017e197c0r11=0000000000000003 r12=0000000000000000 r13=0000000000000000r14=0000000000000000 r15=0000000000000000iopl=0         nv up ei ng nz na pe ncdxgmms1!VidSchiProcessDpcCompletedPacket+0x520:fffff800`61025d60 f0410fc14118    lock xadd dword ptr [r9+18h],eax ds:ffffa001`1a6a5f88=????????Resetting default scopeLAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from fffff803983d84e9 to fffff803983cc9a0STACK_TEXT:  fffff803`99591178 fffff803`983d84e9 : 00000000`0000000a ffffa001`1a6a5f88 00000000`00000002 00000000`00000001 : nt!KeBugCheckExfffff803`99591180 fffff803`983d6d3a : 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000070 fffff803`99591300 fffff803`982cf878 : nt!KiBugCheckDispatch+0x69fffff803`995912c0 fffff800`61025d60 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00da7a64 00000000`00000000 fffff800`6161811a : nt!KiPageFault+0x23afffff803`99591450 fffff800`61025770 : ffffe001`18278001 fffff800`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffffe001`16d50780 : dxgmms1!VidSchiProcessDpcCompletedPacket+0x520fffff803`99591560 fffff800`61025634 : 00000000`00000000 ffffe001`1a52abb0 ffffe001`19dec000 00000000`00000000 : dxgmms1!VidSchiProcessDpcDmaPacket+0xc0fffff803`995915b0 fffff800`60e9583a : ffffe001`17292040 fffff803`99591990 00000000`00000000 fffff803`9857f180 : dxgmms1!VidSchDdiNotifyDpc+0xf4fffff803`99591600 fffff800`614d3890 : ffffe001`1aade000 fffff803`99591990 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : dxgkrnl!DxgNotifyDpcCB+0x5afffff803`99591630 ffffe001`1aade000 : fffff803`99591990 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffff800`614d3823 : nvlddmkm+0xd3890fffff803`99591638 fffff803`99591990 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 fffff800`614d3823 ffffe001`1aade000 : 0xffffe001`1aade000fffff803`99591640 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 fffff800`614d3823 ffffe001`1aade000 00000000`00000000 : 0xfffff803`99591990STACK_COMMAND:  kbFOLLOWUP_IP: dxgmms1!VidSchiProcessDpcCompletedPacket+520fffff800`61025d60 f0410fc14118    lock xadd dword ptr [r9+18h],eaxSYMBOL_STACK_INDEX:  3SYMBOL_NAME:  dxgmms1!VidSchiProcessDpcCompletedPacket+520FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwnerMODULE_NAME: dxgmms1IMAGE_NAME:  dxgmms1.sysDEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  54505506FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_AV_dxgmms1!VidSchiProcessDpcCompletedPacket+520BUCKET_ID:  X64_AV_dxgmms1!VidSchiProcessDpcCompletedPacket+520Followup: MachineOwner

▶ Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Einstein◀

Please remember to mark a thread as solved if your issue has been fixed, it helps other who may stumble across the thread at a later point in time.

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That is the only dump that is in this new build. I have stoped playing games to find out the issue. I have installed the firmware on both cards and am not stress testing with the SLI bridge disconnected. I will let it run for around a 1/2 hour and then connect the SLI bridge and test again.

 

As for the HDD's. Both SSD's are solo drives. OS on the samsung, Games and apps on the other SSD. I then have a spanned on the WDB's and the Seagates. 

 

13IgbDH.png

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That is the only dump that is in this new build. I have stoped playing games to find out the issue. I have installed the firmware on both cards and am not stress testing with the SLI bridge disconnected. I will let it run for around a 1/2 hour and then connect the SLI bridge and test again.

 

As for the HDD's. Both SSD's are solo drives. OS on the samsung, Games and apps on the other SSD. I then have a spanned on the WDB's and the Seagates. 

 

 

 

As for the rebuild of the pool and the AHCI.

 

Rebuild: Have never done it before, Do you have any links on how to do it?

 

AHCI: I have never heard of this, I dont know if that's is because I am decently new to SSD's or just not paying attention. Could you provide a bit more info about it? other than the info that I just googled about it (Basics)

 

I will keep on test the GPU side until I go into the HDD's.

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As for the rebuild of the pool and the AHCI.

 

Rebuild: Have never done it before, Do you have any links on how to do it?

 

AHCI: I have never heard of this, I dont know if that's is because I am decently new to SSD's or just not paying attention. Could you provide a bit more info about it? other than the info that I just googled about it (Basics)

 

I will keep on test the GPU side until I go into the HDD's.

Rebuilding a pool is only necissary if your drives were running in RAID. Since they are not, it isn't needed.

 

As for AHCI, it needs to be enabled in the BIOS, it should be somewhere under the SATA setting.

▶ Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Einstein◀

Please remember to mark a thread as solved if your issue has been fixed, it helps other who may stumble across the thread at a later point in time.

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Rebuilding a pool is only necissary if your drives were running in RAID. Since they are not, it isn't needed.

 

As for AHCI, it needs to be enabled in the BIOS, it should be somewhere under the SATA setting.

My ssd's, OS drive, or just harddrives in general?

 

Ill look that up in my bios.

 

44mins in to test and no BSOD, going to test with bridge now.

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My ssd's, OS drive, or just harddrives in general?

 

Ill look that up in my bios.

 

44mins in to test and no BSOD, going to test with bridge now.

All your drives should be running in AHCI mode. 

▶ Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Einstein◀

Please remember to mark a thread as solved if your issue has been fixed, it helps other who may stumble across the thread at a later point in time.

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ok, that is what they are in currently. I will be stress testing the SLI config for a bit then trying a game out for a little while and see how it goes

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ok, that is what they are in currently. I will be stress testing the SLI config for a bit then trying a game out for a little while and see how it goes

Ok. If all goes well, it may just have been the mismatched firmwares on the cards. Knock on wood...

▶ Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. - Einstein◀

Please remember to mark a thread as solved if your issue has been fixed, it helps other who may stumble across the thread at a later point in time.

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Think I found something out, seems like the fans like to kick in late.... and I mean LATE. I was looking at the temps and noticed the cards getting hot fast and saw the fans not spinning up to full speed. This has never happened before but it might be an issue now. I am not sure. I will do a little bit more testing on this.

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Now this is just a question from someone completely new to SLI but is there a way to set the bottom card to the primary card or does that even matter?

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