BSOD after BIOS update

[MarvelK]

I just built my new PC and it was working fine until I used Asus EZ update utility to update the audio drivers and BIOS. Audio update went fine and it restated as usual. It then started flashing BIOS and usual and when the progress was around 80%, it restated and it happened so fast that I could not see any error message other than "unable to ....".

It restarted and I saw a different post screen (whatever you call the screen that first comes up when PC starts) with "american megatrends". It usually shows Asus Rog. It then retarted again and came up with normal Asus Post screen.

Now every time I turn on my PC or restart, it blue screen right after I login. First time I get this:

error: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
What caused this: (IOMap64.sys)

It then reboot and again after login it blue screens with something like error memory management. After reboot it starts working fine like nothing happened.

I can not figure out what is causing this because I was installing and updating a lot of driver as it is a new PC with new OS install.

In event viewer I see two entries:


1) The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000001a (0x000000000006194a, 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 8226f5c9-0d0d-4fed-b92e-ad4113de8f2c.

2) The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000050 (0xffff86005f8d61a6, 0x0000000000000000, 0xfffff806e39c3377, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: f10a2d6d-410d-49fc-92c6-d0b463a72a61.

Please help me resolve this.

Below is my hardware:
CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS IX HERO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2800 Memory (XMP enabled in BIOS)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Founders Edition Video Card
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit

 

[Flyfisherman]

Hi,

error: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
What caused this: (IOMap64.sys)

IOMap64.sys belongs to Asus Smart Doctor or Asus PC Probe.
This is for examine and probe temps and CPU behavior, via s/w also to control it and such and are known for causing trouble once in a while.

It uses a certain driver who speaks directly to the hardware, and sometimes it will not function correctly, and therefore when the driver is not responding to the hardware it will hang the O/S.

It is not at all necessary for the Asus computer to work att full speed!

Uninstall this if possible, (Asus Smart Doctor and/or Asus PC Probe).
It might be that you should do it under fail safe mode.
Then restart the computer.

Just a thought, no garanti.
Best Regards from Sweden

 

[MarvelK]

I do not see Asus Smart Doctor or Asus PC Probe software.

I did a file search on IOMap64.sys and found below four paths:

C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\AI Suite III
C:\Windows\System32\drivers
C:\Program Files (x86)\ASUS\VGA COM\1.00.26
C:\ProgramData\ASUS\AI Suite III\DIP5\AppSetup\VGAService

Should I get rid of Asus AI Suite III? Or can it be something in drivers folder (VGA).

Also, do you think the second error code (memory_management) is also related to this? I did some research and some people say it might be RAM.

 

[Flyfisherman]

Well it could be the RAM, but Smart Doctor or Asus PC Probe software is installed together with Asus AI Suite III
Right Click on Start > Controlpanel > Program > right click on Asus Ai Suite 3 > Change =>
A window will open and tick the programs from there and click uninstall.

Restart the computer.
Se how it works. If You want them back later it is easy, just do the opposite and it will reinstall trough Asus Ai Sutie III.
Best regards from Sweden

 

[Flyfisherman]

Test Your memory's
Run memstest86+ Download and install Memtest86+ it's a free s/w http://www.memtest.org/
Create a bootable CD/DVD or USB-stick, it is a very small program, it will easily fit on a CD.

Then boot the computer from this, memtest will automatically start, and don't worry - it will not in any way compromise nor touch anything on the hard drives.
You must run memtes86+ until at least pass 8,9,10 and 11 (it uses different test pattern then) and for 8GB of memory with an Intel 2600K it will take the whole night, approx 4-5 hours, if 16GB memory - twice as long. Faster CPU will get the time down very much.
If an error occur, You can just shut it down. Then You know that it is a serious problem with your memory's.
Take out all memory stick but one and run the test again - it will be much faster.
If no problem, replace the memory stick and run memtest86+ again so that you now which memory stick is faulty.

Best regards from Sweden

 

[smorizio]

never flash bios from inside of windows. looks like the tool flash the wrong bios onto your mb. your mb comes with usb flashback port and button. fro manother pc download the newest bios file and the bios renamer.
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-HERO/HelpDesk_Download/
run the renamer to rename the bios for usb flashback. put the renamed bios on a usb stick. plug it into the usb flashback port and with the power off push the usb flashback button. it should blink for a few min then turn off. whe nyou boot back into the the bios it should be the same as the one online.

 

[Flyfisherman]

never flash bios from inside of windows. looks like the tool flash the wrong bios onto your mb. your mb comes with usb flashback port and button. fro manother pc download the newest bios file and the bios renamer.
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-HERO/HelpDesk_Download/
run the renamer to rename the bios for usb flashback. put the renamed bios on a usb stick. plug it into the usb flashback port and with the power off push the usb flashback button. it should blink for a few min then turn off. whe nyou boot back into the the bios it should be the same as the one online.

You are absolutely correct.
I thought of that in the beginning of the thread but i forgot to mentioned it.
That could very well be the root cause.

In modern Bios there is always another way how to flash the Bios microcode.
On Asus UEFI motherboards there is one way that i strongly suggest:

1. Download the latest Bios Version 0906 https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-HERO/HelpDesk_Download/
It is a .zip-file.
2. Put a Flash (USB) stick in one of the USB 2.0 ports at the back of the computer, right click in Explorer and format it to FAT-32
3. Dubbel click on the zipfile and extract the Bios-file onto the flash stick
4. Restart the computer and immateriality go in to Bios Setup
5. In Bios setup menu > EZ Update
6 Click Update button > and then click Flash from the USB-stick
7. This will take a while, dont touch anything, the computer will restart and come back to this menu.
8. After its done, check Boot priority of of your drives > [F10] save and exit.

Best regards from Sweden

 

[MarvelK]

@Flyfisherman, I already flashed the bios via usb and from within BIOS. I did however used the front usb port which I believe is 3.0. I will try again after work and this time use 2.0. I did notice that flashing took like 5-10 seconds which I thought is not normal.

Is there any way to check version of BIOS that is running so I can at least check if new BIOS got applied or not. There is a version # in the bottom that says something like 2.x.x American Megatrends but that can't be the BIOS version as the old version is 08xx is new is 09xx.

I will try re-flashing via usb 2.0, if issue persists then I will uninstall Asus AI Suite and if it still persists then memtest.

Edit: I did systeminfo in cmd and confirmed that BIOS is up to date: 0906

 

[Flyfisherman]

Don't re-flasf the Bios if You have the latest version. Either the flashing is successful or not, there are no between.
It uses checksums of the files and data, so You can't get corrupted data into the Bios flash memory.

If it has wrong checksum the flashing procudere will fail and it will revert to the older or pre-existing bios code.
This is different in the new types of UEFI Bios than let say for a decade ago.

The Bios ver. nr. is in the top of the first Bios Setup menu.

Best regards from Sweden

 

[MarvelK]

Too late, I already re-flashed it . It took 5 seconds and said it was updated successfully. It then rebooted into America Megatrends Post screen as before and has this message.

"Please enter setup to recover BIOS settings.
After setting up Intel Optane memory or the RAID configuration was built,
SATA Mode Selection must be changed to RAID mode to avoid unknown issues.
Press F1 to Run SETUP.

Is this normal? This always happens after every BIOS flash.

I press F1 and all my previous settings are gone. I then enabled XMP to get my RAM to 3200. I then saved changes and it restated but this time no blue screen. It always got blue screened twice right after BIOS flash. This is a good sign and I will keep an eye to see if it happens again.

 

[Flyfisherman]

Hi,

"

Please enter setup to recover BIOS settings.
After setting up Intel Optane memory or the RAID configuration was built,
SATA Mode Selection must be changed to RAID mode to avoid unknown issues.
Press F1 to Run SETUP.

Is this normal? This always happens after every BIOS flash.

No that is not normal, but I think perhaps I now what is gong on?

If You previously installed Windows with the disks in the Bios setup in IDE-mode instead of SATA AHCI mode and then change this in the Bios to Sata AHCI mode, Windows will fail too boot and give a BSOD.

However there is a way around this. Sata AHCI is the preferable way and it supports TRIM if You have an SSD as well.
Winaero: How to switch from IDE to AHCI in Windows 10

DriverTalent: How to Enable SATA AHCI Mode in BIOS on Windows 10

Best regards from Sweden

[Edit] To check wether the discs uses IDE or SATA AHCI:
Right click on Start > Device manager => Find the IDE/ATA ATAPI controller and see if its using an IDE or AHCI driver.

 

[MarvelK]

I never changed the setting to IDE or AHCI. According to my research this motherboard comes with AHCI mode as default and I did verify it after I installed Windows that it is in AHCI. Perhaps flashing the BIOS somehow changed it to IDE. I am going to cancel memtest and check this really quick. I will re run the test as it looks like it is going to take forever.

So I went in BIOS ?? Advanced > PCH Storage Storage Configuration. Here are current settings:

SATA Controller(s) Enabled
SATA Mode Selection AHCI

There is no IDE option under SATA Mode. There other option beside AHCI is "Intel RST Premium With Intel Optane System Acceleration (RAID). Mine is set to AHCI.

 

[Flyfisherman]

AHCI

 

[MarvelK]

Also, it just blue screened after I login to windows. iomap64.sys
I believe if I had changed SATA modes then Windows wont boot at all. It works fine after 2 reboots. I am going to get rid of AI suite III now.

I also checked control panel and I see this:
Intel(R) 200 series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller

 

[MarvelK]

No BSOD after uninstalling Asus AI Suit III so far. I picked your first answer as solution.