BSOD CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED and UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION, ntoskrnl.exe

Mar 19, 2018
16
0
10
System Information/Dumps
I'm not entirely sure if this link work, so I've supplied some basic system information below for context.

- Samsung model 940Z5L
- x64-based PC
- Intel Core i7-6700HQ @ 2.6 Ghz, 4 cores
- Windows 10
- Nvidia 950m

I have been having these BSOD's for quite some time now. I have done:
- sfc /scannow, which comes up clean
- chkdsk, comes up clean
- Seatools, comes up clean
- dism /online /checkhealth, comes up clean
- Windows memory diagnostic and memtest, comes up clean
- updated drivers, I believe all of them but I may have missed some
- uninstalling and reinstalling my graphics drivers and sound drivers

The BSOD's seem to occur after a long period of my laptop in sleep, and usually in this case it is within minutes of waking, but it seems like every time I use it for an extended period of time, it will crash. I only added my two available dumps in the above folder, but many more than that have occurred. I think they were overwritten.

Also noted, Samsung does not offer the drivers or BIOS specifically for this device online, but only through the Samsung update app that comes pre-installed. I stay up to date on the updates, but I also try to manually update the drivers through device manager.

Any help would be much appreciated!
 
Solution
it would be very common for heat to cause this. Heat causes the card to use more power, more power used causes more heat. Bad cycle. blowing out dust from fans could help, extra case fans could help. setting the fans to max speed could help. overheated GPU memory can get glitches on screen. if windows detects the problem it might reset the card to get it to respond (minimum of a 2 second delay) The timing of electronic signals changes with heat also. The actual hardware can miss a electronic signal and mess up with overheating/overclocking.
the voltage drops when the card overheats and can cause improper voltage to the memory chips and cause graphic glitches

looks like plug and play issue. you need to change the memory dump type from minidump to kernel memory dump then on the next bugcheck provide the kernel memory dump.
c:\windows\memory.dmp

it will have the proper debug info on the plug and play subsystem.
basically the plug and play thought a device had been unexpectedly removed from the system and it cleared the data but then something tried to use the device and crashed.

it could be something like a loose connection on a drive data cable. or a solid state drive that has no space left on it (when the fill up they can take too long to respond)

you also seem to have a few old drivers installed on the system
Samsung Remote PC (Rsupport) Agent Driver
vrvd5.sys Mon Sep 7 11:41:24 2009

SDiskWindows10.sys Tue Oct 13 06:35:08 2015

MiniTool Partition Wizard
pwdrvio.sys Mon Jun 15 18:43:45 2009

 


Thank you for the quick reply! I will update the drivers, change the settings and update the dump files on the next bug check.
 


Update - Currently waiting for my laptop to crash again.
In the meantime, I have deleted two of the three drivers you suggested, as they were for programs that I no longer have installed. The other, SDiskWindows10.exe, I am not sure about. It is not in my device manager, and doesn't offer me an update in the Samsung update app. So I am not sure what to do about it.

Another recurring problem has happened again. I every now and then, the computer will freeze, for up to 5 minutes. Sometimes, a similar problem will occur, but the screen will go black. Sometimes the audio can still be heard, other times it will lock up and the black will flash. My previous way out of this state was to force a restart. Today it happened, but instead I plugged it into another monitor through HDMI and disconnected, and the display came back. After it came back, the word document I had been working on had an error message, something like, "There is insufficient memory or disk space, cannot display the font requested." Makes me think that you may be right about my SSD filling up. But, I still have around 70 GB free on my 256 GB drive. Any thoughts?
 
I am updating this post again. The laptop didn't crash at all today, which is odd, but it still had other problems that hinted at something still being wrong. For instance, in File Explorer, the files would not highlight when the mouse was over them. I decided to try and invoke a crash. Something that has worked before is changing the power settings. Instead of sleeping when I close the lid, I set it to shutdown. I closed the lid. Opened it to boot up again. Within seconds of unlocking the device, my desktop went black and all the icons went away, although the tool bar remained. It then crashed with a critical process died, but was stuck at 0%, so I had to manually reboot. A kernel dump was not created. I'm at a loss.
 
run cleanmgr.exe and do a cleanup of drive c.
then reboot into bios and leave your machine powered on for several hours. After 5 minutes the solid state drive will run its cleanup routines. Sometimes these routines do not get time to run because of sleep functions. when they get behind the drive starts to respond very slowly (up to 30 second lags) if it takes 31 seconds windows will bugcheck but you can have say (10) 25 second lags in a row without a bugcheck.

crystaldiskinfo.exe should also show the firmware version of your SSD. you might want to see if there is a firmware update.
----------
sdiskwindows10.sys seams to be part of Samsung SDISK
-------
also, make sure you have updated the sound drivers for your motherboard from the motherboard vendors website.
most have been updated to fix a conflict that they had with GPU drivers.

also, when Microsoft pushes out a GPU update they only update the base drive. This causes a lot of problems. You want to reboot your system, then go to your GPU vendors website and do a full install of the GPU driver. The full install will include the GPU sound driver for sound support VIA HDMI or other video cables. Be sure to reboot after the install even though it is not required. (just to avoid conflicts with windows setup updates)



 


I have searched for a firmware update from Samsung and LITEON (SSD maker) but none seem to exist, although I will say the firmware I have installed seems to be from 2006, I just can't find any updates. I stay up to date with NVIDIA's graphics drivers using their geforce experience app, and there are no current sound driver updates available to me from the Samsung app or Windows update center, which seems to be the only way I can get driver updates for my model.
I will attempt to run the disk cleanup and leave the computer in the bios for a few hours, and see what that does for me.
 
I had a crash today. Dump file was created. I do not have decent internet connection, so I cannot upload the full file. Using WinDbg, I have analyzed the file, and can copy it here.

*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED (ef)
A critical system process died
Arguments:
Arg1: ffffb081ecc1a080, Process object or thread object
Arg2: 0000000000000000, If this is 0, a process died. If this is 1, a thread died.
Arg3: 0000000000000000
Arg4: 0000000000000000

Debugging Details:
------------------


DUMP_CLASS: 1

DUMP_QUALIFIER: 401

BUILD_VERSION_STRING: 16299.15.amd64fre.rs3_release.170928-1534

SYSTEM_MANUFACTURER: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

SYSTEM_PRODUCT_NAME: 940Z5L

SYSTEM_SKU: ATIV A5A5-A5A5-A5A5-A5A5-A5A5-A5A5

SYSTEM_VERSION: P10AFC

BIOS_VENDOR: American Megatrends Inc.

BIOS_VERSION: P10AFC.096.171215.SH

BIOS_DATE: 12/15/2017

BASEBOARD_MANUFACTURER: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

BASEBOARD_PRODUCT: NP940Z5L-X01US

BASEBOARD_VERSION: SGL8554A1X-C01-G001-S0001+10.0.10586

DUMP_TYPE: 1

BUGCHECK_P1: ffffb081ecc1a080

BUGCHECK_P2: 0

BUGCHECK_P3: 0

BUGCHECK_P4: 0

PROCESS_NAME: svchost.exe

CRITICAL_PROCESS: svchost.exe

EXCEPTION_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xefe07040 - <Unable to get error code text>

ERROR_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xefe07040 - <Unable to get error code text>

CPU_COUNT: 8

CPU_MHZ: a20

CPU_VENDOR: GenuineIntel

CPU_FAMILY: 6

CPU_MODEL: 5e

CPU_STEPPING: 3

CPU_MICROCODE: 6,5e,3,0 (F,M,S,R) SIG: BA'00000000 (cache) BA'00000000 (init)

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: WIN8_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0xEF

CURRENT_IRQL: 0

ANALYSIS_SESSION_HOST: DESKTOP-HV9PTBU

ANALYSIS_SESSION_TIME: 03-22-2018 19:07:04.0790

ANALYSIS_VERSION: 10.0.16299.15 amd64fre

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from fffff800c73a326f to fffff800c6e04510

THREAD_SHA1_HASH_MOD_FUNC: 7aa9a19ef59fe3746268bd478e7e0a1f990afdf4

THREAD_SHA1_HASH_MOD_FUNC_OFFSET: 5d56274f3e1e32d97d50d7e1d516352dd0344b38

THREAD_SHA1_HASH_MOD: b02c8a2588a64371d76ed000f7ff53dca56bd97c

FOLLOWUP_IP:
ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry+185
00007ff8`8f5fef85 418b0482 mov eax,dword ptr [r10+rax*4]

FAULT_INSTR_CODE: 82048b41

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: a

SYMBOL_NAME: ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry+185

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: ntdll

IMAGE_NAME: ntdll.dll

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 0

STACK_COMMAND: .thread ; .cxr ; kb

BUCKET_ID_FUNC_OFFSET: 185

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0xEF_svchost.exe_BUGCHECK_CRITICAL_PROCESS_efe07040_ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry

BUCKET_ID: 0xEF_svchost.exe_BUGCHECK_CRITICAL_PROCESS_efe07040_ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry

PRIMARY_PROBLEM_CLASS: 0xEF_svchost.exe_BUGCHECK_CRITICAL_PROCESS_efe07040_ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry

TARGET_TIME: 2018-03-22T23:57:31.000Z

OSBUILD: 16299

OSSERVICEPACK: 0

SERVICEPACK_NUMBER: 0

OS_REVISION: 0

SUITE_MASK: 784

PRODUCT_TYPE: 1

OSPLATFORM_TYPE: x64

OSNAME: Windows 10

OSEDITION: Windows 10 WinNt TerminalServer SingleUserTS Personal

OS_LOCALE:

USER_LCID: 0

OSBUILD_TIMESTAMP: 2018-02-28 23:36:55

BUILDDATESTAMP_STR: 170928-1534

BUILDLAB_STR: rs3_release

BUILDOSVER_STR: 10.0.16299.15.amd64fre.rs3_release.170928-1534

ANALYSIS_SESSION_ELAPSED_TIME: a6b

ANALYSIS_SOURCE: KM

FAILURE_ID_HASH_STRING: km:0xef_svchost.exe_bugcheck_critical_process_efe07040_ntdll!rtllookupfunctionentry

FAILURE_ID_HASH: {ec6342a8-a7b6-99ff-5ced-b27e2015be10}
 
I would be looking at the list of services that are running on your system.
I think you have a old program running under a generic service host file.
(svchost.exe)

you can google "how to figure out what service is being run by svchost.exe"
or maybe look at this video:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+tell+what+programs+are+running+under+a+svchost.exe&qpvt=how+to+tell+what+programs+are+running+under+a+svchost.exe&view=detail&mid=D48DF6DD49BDEFD79895D48DF6DD49BDEFD79895&&FORM=VRDGAR


you would also want to apply the windows updates, since this could also be a bug in a ntdll.dll for a windows 32 subsystem emulation (wow64)


 


I am looking into this, but I'm not entirely sure how I will tell which programs are tied to which processes. This is the kind data I get when using the cmd from your recommended video.

Image Name PID Services
========================= ======== ============================================
svchost.exe 1008 PlugPlay
svchost.exe 392 BrokerInfrastructure, DcomLaunch, Power,
SystemEventsBroker
svchost.exe 720 RpcEptMapper, RpcSs
svchost.exe 676 LSM
svchost.exe 1256 gpsvc
svchost.exe 1324 NcbService
svchost.exe 1364 Schedule
svchost.exe 1384 TimeBrokerSvc
svchost.exe 1452 hidserv
svchost.exe 1464 EventSystem
svchost.exe 1540 ProfSvc
svchost.exe 1568 TabletInputService
svchost.exe 1660 EventLog
svchost.exe 1720 SENS
svchost.exe 1828 UserManager
svchost.exe 1880 nsi
svchost.exe 1896 BFE, CoreMessagingRegistrar, MpsSvc
svchost.exe 1996 Dhcp
svchost.exe 88 SysMain
svchost.exe 800 Themes
svchost.exe 2052 AudioEndpointBuilder
svchost.exe 2064 FontCache
svchost.exe 2072 lfsvc
svchost.exe 2160 NlaSvc
svchost.exe 2304 netprofm
svchost.exe 2444 Audiosrv
svchost.exe 2472 Dnscache
svchost.exe 2480 DusmSvc
svchost.exe 2488 Wcmsvc
svchost.exe 2616 wlidsvc
svchost.exe 2684 WinHttpAutoProxySvc
svchost.exe 2692 StateRepository
svchost.exe 2832 WlanSvc
svchost.exe 2884 ShellHWDetection
svchost.exe 3000 LanmanWorkstation
svchost.exe 3032 AppXSvc
svchost.exe 3224 DeviceAssociationService
svchost.exe 3256 DiagTrack
svchost.exe 3272 Winmgmt
svchost.exe 3280 IKEEXT
svchost.exe 3300 DPS
svchost.exe 3340 CryptSvc
svchost.exe 3488 SstpSvc
svchost.exe 3532 LanmanServer
svchost.exe 3540 stisvc
svchost.exe 3668 TrkWks
svchost.exe 3688 WpnService
svchost.exe 3144 iphlpsvc
svchost.exe 4104 WdiServiceHost
svchost.exe 4220 RasMan
svchost.exe 5412 SSDPSRV
svchost.exe 5564 PolicyAgent
svchost.exe 5972 NgcSvc
svchost.exe 6052 NgcCtnrSvc
svchost.exe 6920 lmhosts
svchost.exe 7332 CDPUserSvc_4f64d
svchost.exe 7372 WpnUserService_4f64d
svchost.exe 7388 Browser
svchost.exe 7572 TokenBroker
svchost.exe 7968 fdPHost
svchost.exe 7448 NcdAutoSetup
svchost.exe 6752 FDResPub
svchost.exe 10520 HomeGroupProvider
svchost.exe 10836 Netman
svchost.exe 6708 PcaSvc
svchost.exe 6192 OneSyncSvc_4f64d,
PimIndexMaintenanceSvc_4f64d,
UnistoreSvc_4f64d, UserDataSvc_4f64d
svchost.exe 11844 CDPSvc
svchost.exe 8584 WdiSystemHost
svchost.exe 1616 Appinfo
svchost.exe 7232 BITS
svchost.exe 7928 DoSvc
svchost.exe 2536 wscsvc
 
download autoruns64.exe from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns
select the services tab, then go to the options menu and select " hide Microsoft entries"
the list will be a lot shorter and may have the vendor name.
you can select a entry and hit the search online to get info about the item.
look at the file date info and look for a older file



 
 


The oldest one I have is BitRaider Mini-Support Service Stub Loader from 2014. Other than that things seem up to date.
 
bitraider looks like a old web client for some game. I would disable it and see if it helps.
http://www.shouldiremoveit.com/BitRaider-Web-Client-29705-program.aspx


the other driver is a anti game cheat driver, I would just make sure it has been updated. I don't see people having problems with current versions of this driver.



 


Will do. Should I still let the machine run in BIOS for a few hours? Would overnight be long enough?

 
I would only do the bios idle thing if the firmware on the SSD is pretty old or the drive was really full up.

the web client software is likely to be dinking around in memory to generate ad revenue and virus scanners will not detect it as a problem because of the license agreement during the install. Malwarebytes often will still detect and remove these programs because as potentially unwanted programs PUP.



 


I'm not sure about the firmware age, I haven't been able to find almost any information on it. It's definitely not full. But I am uninstalling the 2 services and will see if that works. Thank you very much for your help, I'm a computer science student at a university and it's difficult to code when my only machine BSOD's so much.

 
crystaldiskinfo.exe will display the smart error data of the drive and the firmware version



 
Got three BSODs in quick succession. This is the most recent dump created.

*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED (ef)
A critical system process died
Arguments:
Arg1: ffffde0bf0585080, Process object or thread object
Arg2: 0000000000000000, If this is 0, a process died. If this is 1, a thread died.
Arg3: 0000000000000000
Arg4: 0000000000000000

Debugging Details:
------------------


DUMP_CLASS: 1

DUMP_QUALIFIER: 401

BUILD_VERSION_STRING: 16299.15.amd64fre.rs3_release.170928-1534

SYSTEM_MANUFACTURER: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

SYSTEM_PRODUCT_NAME: 940Z5L

SYSTEM_SKU: ATIV A5A5-A5A5-A5A5-A5A5-A5A5-A5A5

SYSTEM_VERSION: P10AFC

BIOS_VENDOR: American Megatrends Inc.

BIOS_VERSION: P10AFC.096.171215.SH

BIOS_DATE: 12/15/2017

BASEBOARD_MANUFACTURER: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

BASEBOARD_PRODUCT: NP940Z5L-X01US

BASEBOARD_VERSION: SGL8554A1X-C01-G001-S0001+10.0.10586

DUMP_TYPE: 1

BUGCHECK_P1: ffffde0bf0585080

BUGCHECK_P2: 0

BUGCHECK_P3: 0

BUGCHECK_P4: 0

PROCESS_NAME: svchost.exe

CRITICAL_PROCESS: svchost.exe

EXCEPTION_RECORD: fffff0836f437830 -- (.exr 0xfffff0836f437830)
ExceptionAddress: 0000000000000001
ExceptionCode: c000000e
ExceptionFlags: 00000000
NumberParameters: 1866693120
Parameter[0]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[1]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[2]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[3]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[4]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[5]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[6]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[7]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[8]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[9]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[10]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[11]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[12]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[13]: 0000000000000000
Parameter[14]: 0000000000000000

EXCEPTION_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc000000e - A device which does not exist was specified.

ERROR_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc000000e - A device which does not exist was specified.

CPU_COUNT: 8

CPU_MHZ: a20

CPU_VENDOR: GenuineIntel

CPU_FAMILY: 6

CPU_MODEL: 5e

CPU_STEPPING: 3

CPU_MICROCODE: 6,5e,3,0 (F,M,S,R) SIG: BA'00000000 (cache) BA'00000000 (init)

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: WIN8_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR: 0xEF

CURRENT_IRQL: 0

EXCEPTION_CODE_STR: c000000e

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER1: 0000000000000000

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER2: 0000000000000000

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER3: 0000000000000000

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER4: 0

ANALYSIS_SESSION_HOST: DESKTOP-HV9PTBU

ANALYSIS_SESSION_TIME: 03-23-2018 11:12:50.0418

ANALYSIS_VERSION: 10.0.16299.15 amd64fre

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from fffff802d431d26f to fffff802d3d7e510

THREAD_SHA1_HASH_MOD_FUNC: a3d6c6f4d8430a0ddf46e836f10d792bf1237180

THREAD_SHA1_HASH_MOD_FUNC_OFFSET: ed015f54a1f0e2b1ccf39b0a8e40a2213078d365

THREAD_SHA1_HASH_MOD: a31f739daaa81a46c4dcf01dda24a3884b154acc

FOLLOWUP_IP:
ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry+185
00007ffd`e761ef85 418b0482 mov eax,dword ptr [r10+rax*4]

FAULT_INSTR_CODE: 82048b41

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: a

SYMBOL_NAME: ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry+185

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: ntdll

IMAGE_NAME: ntdll.dll

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 0

STACK_COMMAND: .thread ; .cxr ; kb

BUCKET_ID_FUNC_OFFSET: 185

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0xEF_svchost.exe_BUGCHECK_CRITICAL_PROCESS_f0594700_ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry

BUCKET_ID: 0xEF_svchost.exe_BUGCHECK_CRITICAL_PROCESS_f0594700_ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry

PRIMARY_PROBLEM_CLASS: 0xEF_svchost.exe_BUGCHECK_CRITICAL_PROCESS_f0594700_ntdll!RtlLookupFunctionEntry

TARGET_TIME: 2018-03-23T16:09:32.000Z

OSBUILD: 16299

OSSERVICEPACK: 0

SERVICEPACK_NUMBER: 0

OS_REVISION: 0

SUITE_MASK: 784

PRODUCT_TYPE: 1

OSPLATFORM_TYPE: x64

OSNAME: Windows 10

OSEDITION: Windows 10 WinNt TerminalServer SingleUserTS Personal

OS_LOCALE:

USER_LCID: 0

OSBUILD_TIMESTAMP: 2018-02-28 23:36:55

BUILDDATESTAMP_STR: 170928-1534

BUILDLAB_STR: rs3_release

BUILDOSVER_STR: 10.0.16299.15.amd64fre.rs3_release.170928-1534

ANALYSIS_SESSION_ELAPSED_TIME: 9d5

ANALYSIS_SOURCE: KM

FAILURE_ID_HASH_STRING: km:0xef_svchost.exe_bugcheck_critical_process_f0594700_ntdll!rtllookupfunctionentry

FAILURE_ID_HASH: {fba671b2-8c6d-122b-4897-0d0a3fe97e50}
 
same problem as before.
try autoruns from Microsoft
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sysinternals-suite

use the services tab to show the services, then select the hide Microsoft entries to make a smaller list of services to check. then you will just have to see which service is causing the problem. I would try and stop or start each one and see if you can trigger the bugcheck. most likely it will be a old .exe running as a service thru a service host file.
when you figure out the service, you can disable it so that it does not start up.

since the error code was
0xc000000e - A device which does not exist was specified.
it could also mean that the device became disconnected for some unexpected reason and the service still tried to access the device. This can result in a bugcheck because it is treated as a hardware failure.

hardware can also have bad connections (cables that are loose) for example a SSD data cable can be loose and make and break the connection hundreds of times a second. Just thermal expansion or the vibration of a fan can make or break the connection on a loose cable. Same can go with certain bugs in firmware or device drivers.


The strange thing is the service running out of a old .exe file good chance it is for a very old 32 bit version of windows.
I would focus on finding the service and disabling it.




 


I got rid of a built in, but unnecessary samsung app, but other than that all the services are mainly intel, nvidia, realtrek, samsung, adobe, apple, all attached to programs that I have installed currently. But I'l keep checking around.
Also I checked the dmp file I posted earlier in WhoCrashed, and it claims that a driver called windows_cloudstore.sys was the problem.
Shown here:

On Fri 3/23/2018 11:09:32 AM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP
This was probably caused by the following module: windows_cloudstore.sys (Windows_CloudStore!DllGetClassObject+0x273CD)
Bugcheck code: 0xEF (0xFFFFDE0BF0585080, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED
Bug check description: This indicates that a critical system process died.
There is a possibility this problem was caused by a virus or other malware.
The crash took place in a storage driver or controller driver. Since there is no other responsible driver detected, this could be pointing to a malfunctioning drive or corrupted disk. It's suggested that you run CHKDSK.

A side note. About a year or 2 ago, when I first got the device, I opened up the case to see the motherboard. There was a ribbon cable/bridge over the ssd. I unplugged one end, and plugged it back in, so I could see the ssd. Not sure if that's what caused the problem. Recently, I went back and checked it out again, to make sure the cable was plugged in okay. Seemed to be. I opened the case again today to reseat the ssd. It went smoothly and I'm waiting to see if that helped.

 
I have not had a crash since doing the above post. I have purposely tried to crash it and it has held up. Only problem is one that might not even be related, but they started at a similar time and I wasn't sure where to start. Sometimes the screen will flash to black, thin white lines running vertically flash for a moment, and then the screen stays black. I believe the computer freezes in the state, as I am not able to hear audio shutdown using commands. This happens most most not long after having used an HDMI cable, and then unplugging it. Sometimes restarting the computer fixes it for a while, other times the problem continues not long after rebooting. Another temporary fix is to close the laptop lid and re-open, but this does not fix the issue for long. Any suggestions on where to start?
 
- I would make sure there was no GPU overclock driver installed, and the GPU fans are running at full speed.
(in case of heating problems, or GPU taking too much power)

- I would also take a look at the monitor's setting for sleep functions and turn them off (on the monitor side)

- I would look at the dates of all of the GPU drivers, Microsoft does updates and you can have mixed builds since Microsoft only updated one of the files. (or do a clean install via the GPU setup program)

- replace the HDMI cable with another good quality cable (shorter the better)

- check the BIOS some will have automatic overclocking of the PCI bus. it should be set to 100MHz
some try to set it to 103MHz to get extra performance but it can cause video problems.

-make sure your motherboard sound driver or any add on sound driver has been updated. If your CPU has a GPU built in then be sure to update the CPU sound driver. after everything is updated then you can go into control panel device manager and disable sound sources that do not have speakers connected to them.
sound devices do direct memory access thru a DMA controller that has 3 channels. if a driver gets data from the wrong device on a DMA channel it can overflow the drivers buffer and crash the driver. IE motherboard sound driver overflows the GPU sound drivers buffer and crashes the GPU driver or makes it stop responding.

you will also want to look at the monitor specs, high frequency monitors (144hz) require different cable specs (revision numbers)
Gsync and free sync monitors can also have bugs related to them. (not sure if there are updates to the monitor embedded software, but their might be special monitor drivers when windows knows what your monitor profile is)
google your monitor name + ICC monitor profile to see if there is a special version. laptops tend to have extra issues related to hardware design trade offs made so you might have to google for the issue + the laptop model name




 


In light of your response, this could be a heating issue rather than a HDMI or GPU issue. I use my TV as a monitor when playing video games on the laptop. Sometimes I play for a while and the fans work pretty hard. Could overheating be causing the black screens? I will check the BIOS and GPU fans as well.
 

TRENDING THREADS