Question BSOD: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT ?

[zerotekno]

Hello,

I recently updated my motherboard, CPU, and PSU (specs provided below), and after having some blue screen issues with Windows 10, I decided to do a fresh install. However, I just experienced the blue screen above (this error came up previously) after going through Windows Update and installing some software, and figured I should try to get some help here.

Here's a link to the minidump that was created; thank you in advance for any help! The link still works, but this dump is probably not relevant anymore?

Specs
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z690 EDGE WIFI DDR4
CPU: Intel Core i3-14100F
PSU: Seasonic FOCUS GX-850
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING
RAM: 2x Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000MHz C15 (CMK16GX4M2B3000C15)

 

[ubuysa]

Hello, and welcome to the forum!

It's interesting that you're saying that you've had the same BSOD both before and after a fresh install of Windows. Before I get into what the dump is showing I have a few questions...

• How did you do the 'fresh install'? Did you, for example, use the Windows Reset feature to refresh Windows? Did you boot a Windows install USB and clean install Windows, deleting all existing UEFI partitions? Did you do something else?
• From where did you source all the drivers? Was it through Windows Update, the motherboard vendor's website, or from somewhere else?
• Did you install all available Windows updates?
• Did you test your system with just Windows, drivers, and updates installed? Or did you go on and reinstall all your third-party software before testing?

It's important to know how Windows was reinstalled and whether any third-party software was installed before testing because the most likely cause of this BSOD is a bad driver.

The bugcheck code is a 0x4E PFN_LIST_CORRUPT, this means that one of the structures that windows uses to manage virtual storage (the page frame number list) has been corrupted. The most usual cause is a driver mishandling its use of shared memory pages. We don't see any third-party drivers in this dump but that's not unusual. It's likely a bad driver corrupted the PFN list and then exited and it's not until we clean up the address space of a process that was also sharing that page (which is what's happening in this dump) that the corrupted PFN list is detected. It's a bit like a bank robbery; the robbers have stolen the money and fled, but it's not until the bank staff come in the next morning that the robbery is detected.

There is a tool that we can use to help detect the bad driver that may be causing this problem. However, before we go down that road it's important to get answers to those questions above please, because they will impact what we do next.

 

[zerotekno]

Thank you for the welcome ubuysa!

I'll make a long story short and just say that after taking some more time to try and figure out the issue myself, I ended up deciding to reinstall Windows again. I hadn't done much before the crashing, and a recovery seemed to resolve the PFN error, but then a new error came up and I decided to "wash my hands" of the matter. I'm on that install now, and both times I booted a Windows install USB and deleted all UEFI partitions (as far as I can tell).

I'm going to cross my fingers that I don't have any further issues, and try to be careful about any drivers or install/updates I do, but should a new issue crop up I'll be sure to keep your questions in mind if I make a new thread.

Thank you again!

 

[zerotekno]

Soooo, hello again haha. It seems that my problems persist, in spite of a reinstall. What I've done since, and keeping ubuysa's questions in mind, is:

• Did a new install of Windows using the MCT downloaded from Microsoft's site, loaded onto a install USB.
• Use the MSI provided USB to install Intel and Realtek drivers. The Intel drivers specifically let me use the LAN and connect to the internet to
• Use Windows Update to download only the main updates (no optional updates).

After this, I installed Firefox and did a little browsing, and everything seemed fine, so I went about installing a few more 3rd party softwares (Discord and Epic Games Launcher). It was when I was attempting to download a game that the PFN error came up.

I attempted to contact Microsoft support, to no avail, and their attempt solution (reinstall Windows) only resulted in further PFN errors. I've included a link to all minidumps, and they should be in chronological order.

Thank you in advance!

Edit: hoping that adding some context for the dumps will be helpful. Unfortunately, I'm a little under the weather, so I don't remember when all of them were made. Sorry!

022724-9453-01 occurred after support had me create a W10 .iso and attempt to use it to repair Windows.

022724-9468-01 occurred when I attempted to update my video card driver to current. Windows Update had previously updated it to 531.something.

 

[ubuysa]

All these dumps show the same picture as earlier. They are all shared pages failures and all are most likely being caused by a bad driver.

Soooo, hello again haha. It seems that my problems persist, in spite of a reinstall. What I've done since, and keeping ubuysa's questions in mind, is:

• Did a new install of Windows using the MCT downloaded from Microsoft's site, loaded onto a install USB.
• Use the MSI provided USB to install Intel and Realtek drivers. The Intel drivers specifically let me use the LAN and connect to the internet to
• Use Windows Update to download only the main updates (no optional updates).

After this, I installed Firefox and did a little browsing, and everything seemed fine, so I went about installing a few more 3rd party softwares (Discord and Epic Games Launcher). It was when I was attempting to download a game that the PFN error came up.

I'm concerned that you didn't allow Windows Update to find all drivers. I appreciate there are several school's of though on the wisdom of using Windows Update supplied drivers, but they are actual drivers submitted by the device vendors. I would much prefer to see a clean install of Windows and then multiple runs of Windows Update (across reboots) until no more updates are found. Not only does that install all necessary updates for Windows but it should also install all the necessary drivers.

Once Windows, all Windows updates, and Windows Update sourced drivers are installed, then open Device Manager. If there are no devices with a yellow triangle containing a black exclamation mark then you're good to go. If there are any such devices then look first in the optional updates in Windows Update and install any related drivers from there. If that doesn't find drivers then go to your motherboard vendor's website and find drivers there.

Once you're sure that every device has a driver installed then start testing the system. DO NOT install anything else and DO NOT plug in any external devices (except mouse, keyboard and one monitor). Use Microsoft Edge as a browser and test the system for as long as you can and as thoroughly as you can to try and get it to BSOD - using only the features within Windows.

I realise that this is tedious and you just want to get back to working again, but there are no shortcuts to troubleshooting. You must be 100% certain that a clean install with all drivers and updates, but with nothing else installed, and with no devices plugged in, does not cause BSODs before we move on.

 

[zerotekno]

All these dumps show the same picture as earlier. They are all shared pages failures and all are most likely being caused by a bad driver.

I'm concerned that you didn't allow Windows Update to find all drivers. I appreciate there are several school's of though on the wisdom of using Windows Update supplied drivers, but they are actual drivers submitted by the device vendors. I would much prefer to see a clean install of Windows and then multiple runs of Windows Update (across reboots) until no more updates are found. Not only does that install all necessary updates for Windows but it should also install all the necessary drivers.

Once Windows, all Windows updates, and Windows Update sourced drivers are installed, then open Device Manager. If there are no devices with a yellow triangle containing a black exclamation mark then you're good to go. If there are any such devices then look first in the optional updates in Windows Update and install any related drivers from there. If that doesn't find drivers then go to your motherboard vendor's website and find drivers there.

Once you're sure that every device has a driver installed then start testing the system. DO NOT install anything else and DO NOT plug in any external devices (except mouse, keyboard and one monitor). Use Microsoft Edge as a browser and test the system for as long as you can and as thoroughly as you can to try and get it to BSOD - using only the features within Windows.

I realise that this is tedious and you just want to get back to working again, but there are no shortcuts to troubleshooting. You must be 100% certain that a clean install with all drivers and updates, but with nothing else installed, and with no devices plugged in, does not cause BSODs before we move on.

Alright! I do believe that I did several Updates, but no harm in running this again. I've started a clean install of Windows with no devices aside from my mouse, keyboard, and a single monitor. When it's completed, I plan to:

• install the MSI provided drivers so I can connect to the internet Done.
• do as many Windows Updates & restarts as necessary until the list is empty.

Just so I'm understanding, I should hold off on the optional installs entirely, and only install them if there's an exclamation pointed device? Also, is it okay to log into my Microsoft account, or should I hold off on that?

 

[zerotekno]

On the 1st update, there was a download error for one of the Windows updates, KB5034441, which returned a code 0x80070643. Shortly after, a MEMORY_MANAGEMENT bsod dropped while a different update KB5034763 was installing. I've uploaded the minidump.

The computer restarted and completed a pending update, and when I opened Windows Update back up, KB5034763 resumed and finished updating. I think I'll stop here for now, in case that MEMORY_MANAGEMENT needs to be investigated first.

 

[ubuysa]

If you're getting BSODs during Windows Updates and immediately after a clean install, then this is a hardware problem and almost certainly a RAM problem I would think. That latest BSOD is another PFN corruption.

The best course of action now is to remove two of those RAM sticks. Remove two that came as a pair in a pack (you bought two packs of 2x8GB sticks, so remove one pack). Ensure that the two remaining sticks are in the correct slots fo a two-stick installation.

I would clean install again to be sure of a stable OS. If you get BSODs during installing or updating then swap out the existing pair and replace with the other pair. If it BSODs on one pair but not the other then you have your culprit. If it doesn't BSOD on either pair on their own but does BSOD with all four sticks then there is either some sort of timing incompatibility between the four sticks, one of your RAM slots is bad, or the memory controller on the motherboard is bad.

 

[zerotekno]

I removed two of the memory sticks, and I noticed that one pair says ver 4.32 while the other is 5.32. I never noticed this before and wonder if they were mixed in the slots in some way that was causing the issue. They look identical otherwise, but I did buy one set (not sure which) months after the other. Anyway, will give one matching pair a go and hope this works out.

For how long would you suggest running this Edge test? And should I switch out the pair of sticks at some point?

Update: Windows Update ran twice (and I restarted after both updates) and there hasn't been any updates found on a third check. I opened Device Manager and there don't appear to be any devices with a yellow triangle containing a black exclamation mark. I will attempt to test the system now with Edge.

 

[zerotekno]

Coming back after a few hours of testing the first pair. I did what I could with only Edge, which was mostly using YouTube and Twitch, but I encountered no BSOD. I then switched them out for the second pair and did more testing for a few (fewer) hours, and had no BSOD there either. I'm currently testing with all 4 sticks in the correct slots and haven't encountered any issues yet.

I might just revert to 2 sticks, so as not to tempt fate, but it does seem that the root of the issue was with the RAM.

 

[ubuysa]

RAM needs to be in matched sets to be trouble-free, that's why the wise always buy RAM in packs rather than singly. That you have different version numbers on the two sets of RAM does make it more likely that they may struggle at times to work together.

 

[zerotekno]

I see. The RAM was bought in packs, but I had no idea that buying the same pack later could end up being different! A lesson to take forward at least. Thank you for the help! Hopefully this has been resolved haha