Question BSOD or random freezing except when I'm gaming ?

[komrade13]

Hello,

I have a second-hand ASUS TUF FX505DU gaming laptop that I bought in 2020. Since a few months ago, my laptop has been having freezing or BSOD problems that can occur randomly when I'm using the laptop for anything except gaming, including literally doing nothing on the desktop. I also never had any overheating, malware attacks, or C: drive problems.

When my laptop crashes, it usually just freezes indefinitely, forcing me to turn it off via the power button. But sometimes, it may also lead to a BSOD that says DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION before auto-restarting. Sometimes the crashing would even be preceded by my laptop stuttering severely, which allowed me to painstakingly check Task Manager and Resource Monitor before my laptop eventually crashed. Turns out, my CPU usage reached 100% due to a process called ntoskrnl.exe.

I have tried the following things to no avail:

• Update Nvidia drivers through Geforce Experience
• Run a Windows Memory Diagnostic
• Reinstall Windows 11 through settings
• Physically reconnecting my SSD, HDD, and RAM sticks
• Check both of my drive health through CrystalDiskInfo; both are detected as healthy
• Update some drivers through Driver Easy, since Windows 11's "Search automatically for drivers" feature is useless

I'm not sure if this means anything, but yesterday I also tried using Kingston SSD Manager software to check my SSD health, but when I load it up nothing comes up, only the events do. Could this mean my SSD is faulty or a counterfeit? I'm kind of worried.

Here is my complete specs as generated by CPU-Z, and here is my minidump.

I don't know what to do anymore, so any help would be very appreciated. I would also love it if someone could help me pinpoint the cause based on my minidump files. Thank you!

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Update Nvidia drivers through Geforce Experience
You're advised to use DDU to remove all GPU drivers in Safe Mode, then manually reinstall the latest GPU driver in an elevated command.

Reinstall Windows 11 through settings
Recreate your bootable USB installer for Windows 11, then reinstall the OS in offline mode, then manually install all relevant drivers in an elevated command with the latest driver versions. Connect to the internet to update the OS.

Update some drivers through Driver Easy, since Windows 11's "Search automatically for drivers" feature is useless
Never use a third party ap to tell you what is pending an update. You should cross reference your laptop's support site with the latest version and the version installed on your laptop. DriverEasy and some other apps have been known to even brick functioning platforms.

nvlddmkm.sys
Using WinDBG that's what I'm seeing is the fault. It's your GPU drivers.

 

[ubuysa]

All the dumps reference nvlddmkm.sys, the Nvidia graphics driver, but for several different reasons. One is a 0x9F bugcheck for a power transition failure and the device in question is your GTX1660Ti (mobile) graphics card.

The thing about laptops is that the graphics drivers (in particular) are often customised for operational and power-saving reasons. The generic drivers from Nvidia don;t contain these customisations and so may cause problems, even BSODs.

In addition, laptops graphics devices often use both the iGPU and DGPU, even when the dGPU is the selected grapohics device. The iGPU driver (amdkmdag.sys) is quite old, dating from 2020...

4: kd> lmvmamdkmdag
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff802`9ab80000 fffff802`9ef8b000   amdkmdag   (deferred)            
    Image path: amdkmdag.sys
    Image name: amdkmdag.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data  Symbol Reload
    Timestamp:        Wed Aug 12 01:09:07 2020 (5F331703)
    CheckSum:         043DD0BD
    ImageSize:        0440B000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
    Information from resource tables:

I think your wisest course of action is to uninstall (vioa DDU) the Nvidia driver and then download the latest Nvidia and AMD graphics drivers from your laptop vendor's website and install those. If it's stable with those drivers then the problem was the lack of customisation in the generic Nvidia driver.

BTW. I also see that you're using mismatched RAM, you have an 8GB Micron 8ATF1G64HZ-3G2J1 stick and an 8GB Samsung M471A1K43CB1-CRC stick. Whilst they might look the same the internal timings are likely to be different. It's always unwise to use mismatched RAM, it should always be bought in a pack of matched sticks.

 

[komrade13]

All the dumps reference nvlddmkm.sys, the Nvidia graphics driver, but for several different reasons. One is a 0x9F bugcheck for a power transition failure and the device in question is your GTX1660Ti (mobile) graphics card.

The thing about laptops is that the graphics drivers (in particular) are often customised for operational and power-saving reasons. The generic drivers from Nvidia don;t contain these customisations and so may cause problems, even BSODs.

In addition, laptops graphics devices often use both the iGPU and DGPU, even when the dGPU is the selected grapohics device. The iGPU driver (amdkmdag.sys) is quite old, dating from 2020...

4: kd> lmvmamdkmdag
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff802`9ab80000 fffff802`9ef8b000   amdkmdag   (deferred)           
    Image path: amdkmdag.sys
    Image name: amdkmdag.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data  Symbol Reload
    Timestamp:        Wed Aug 12 01:09:07 2020 (5F331703)
    CheckSum:         043DD0BD
    ImageSize:        0440B000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
    Information from resource tables:

I think your wisest course of action is to uninstall (vioa DDU) the Nvidia driver and then download the latest Nvidia and AMD graphics drivers from your laptop vendor's website and install those. If it's stable with those drivers then the problem was the lack of customisation in the generic Nvidia driver.

BTW. I also see that you're using mismatched RAM, you have an 8GB Micron 8ATF1G64HZ-3G2J1 stick and an 8GB Samsung M471A1K43CB1-CRC stick. Whilst they might look the same the internal timings are likely to be different. It's always unwise to use mismatched RAM, it should always be bought in a pack of matched sticks.

Thank you for your replies. Based on Lutfij's and your suggestion, I have tried reinstalling both of my GPUs' drivers through DDU and performed these things in the following order:

1. Created a system restore point
2. Downloaded "NVIDIA Graphic Driver", "AMD Graphics, Chipset and HDMI Driver", and "Realtek Bluetooth Driver" (my laptop's Bluetooth has also been malfunctioning since ages ago) from this page, and "AMD Radeon Driver V24.2.1 For Windows 10/11 64-bit" from this page
3. Booted up in safe mode, then used DDU to uninstall Nvidia drivers and AMD Cleanup Utility to uninstall existing AMD drivers, then restarted the laptop
4. Booted up again in safe mode to install the three downloaded drivers, then used DDU to uninstall AMD drivers, then restarted the laptop
5. Booted up normally, then tried to install the AMD drivers through the downloaded AMD Adrenalin software. At this point I was faced with an Error 182 in that software, saying "Radeon Software install detected AMD graphics hardware in your system configuration that is not supported with this software installation."
6. Downloaded "Windows® 10/11 Drivers" from this page, booted up in safe mode, and installed it successfully

Unfortunately, I have now ended up in an even worse predicament. My laptop became even more unstable, BSODing or freezing sooner and more frequently than before. On top of that, Device Manager now displays my iGPU as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter instead of its actual name (AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 Mobile or something like that).

Here is my most recent minidump.

I fear that I may have messed up my laptop even further, and I am now genuinely scared. Please help me out, thank you.

 

[ubuysa]

I rather think you have reinstalled the old Nvidia driver. When I look at the most recent dump, dated August 11th, the version of nvlddmm.sys installed (that's your Nvidia graphics driver) is dated 30th July 2024. If I compare that dump with one from 9th August, the version of nvlddmkm.sys there is also dated 30th July 2024 - it's the same driver!

On the Nvidia driver website there is a game ready driver for your GTX 1660Ti (mobile) dated 6th August 2024 (560.81). That's the driver you need to download and install.