[SOLVED] BSOD "Windows page fault in non-paged area" during fresh Windows 10 install ?

[RutnitheDwarf]

So to start from the beginning, I've been trying to upgrade my PC currently running Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. In trying to update straight on the same HDD it would get to about 50% and then reset, revert changes, and I'd get error message 0xC1900101 - 0x30018 saying that the installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase during SYSPREP. After trying a few things I'd found with a bit of amateur google-fu, I decided instead to try a clean install from a USB onto a brand new HDD instead of risking completely bricking a currently working set-up.

Both flash drive and HDD arrived today, and I disconnected both of my current HDDs to connect only the new one. All other USBs besides keyboard, mouse, and flash drive are unplugged. It gets through most of the installation process, asking me about customizing my experience, do I want to try MS Office, do I want Cortana, etc. and then goes to a BSOD with the error named in the title. The first BSOD was before getting through all of those questions, but all those after have been after them at the same spot. So far I haven't tried too much, just checking cables and tried with only 1 stick of RAM (first took one out and tried, then swapped them) and now it always BSODs at the same point in configuring the OS installation.

For the moment I've taken a break, re-connected my original 2 HDDs and everything is running perfect as it was before. But I am at a bit of a loss for what exactly to try here. Of note (of course it comes to me now as relevant while typing this), part of the Frankenstein set-up I have going is using an LG TV connected via HDMI as my primary display and an old Dell monitor as my secondary one. For almost all of the set-up process everything is default displayed to the Dell monitor, except for slightly before the BSOD where it switches over to the LG for a minute before displaying the BSOD on the LG. I could certainly try disconnecting the LG and just using the Dell until the installation is complete if it seems it could be relevant. Otherwise, if anyone has any suggestions of what else to possibly try it would be greatly appreciated. I haven't listed my specs as of right now just to try to avoid filling this thread with a bunch of unnecessary info, but certainly I can post whatever is relevant to help resolve this as requested.

 

[Colif]

Could be:
Bad USB drive, could be the image is corrupt. Try using another USB drive or remake image.
Bad hdd - I would attach it to pc with normal drives attached and run some scans, what brand is it?
should not be bad ram if it works normally without drive in PC.

shouldn't get BSOD during install process, sometimes they are caused by network drivers. Could try installing without internet connection.

 

[RutnitheDwarf]

Alright, thank you. That gives me a good direction to start in. It's late now so I'll begin again at this tomorrow but thinking I'll check the HDD while remaking the image on the USB drive (HDD is a Western Digital Red Plus btw). Then assuming HDD checks out try again with fresh image on the USB and no internet connection to see if either of those make a difference and update here on results. Thank you!

 

[Colif]

could try running the tests on this on WD Red - https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en&p=279

what are specs of PC?

 

[johnbl]

-usb drives that are quick formated can still have bad spots on the drive that are not marked as bad.
- usb drives are slow, so by default files are not verified when they are copied to the drive.
(you have to turn verify on, and copies take twice as long)

so you might consider doing a full format of the drive before putting the OS image on the drive.
(full format rather than a quick format, it takes a lot longer to do but it will mark blocks as bad when it finds them)

also during boot of a new OS image, you will want to make sure you have updated the BIOS first.
the BIOS sets up the electronics for the USB and there are often a lot of BIOS bugs in USB support that are not fixed until the correct driver is installed. IE bugs until windows completes the final install.
generally USB that is directly supported by the CPU will work better than USB addon chips.
on older machines you might find that a usb 2 port works correctly during the install but the usb 3.x port causes corruption. IE you might try the slower usb 2.x port and get the install done.
but it might take 45 minutes.

after the install, you can often fix corruptions from usb install issues
by running the
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /Restorehealth
command.

 

[RutnitheDwarf]

Alright, apologies for the late reply. So after work now I combined solutions from both suggestions and have made some progress. I completely wiped the new HDD, I did a full format of the USB drive and put a fresh Windows image on there. I then tried a fresh install with no ethernet cable and was able to get a full bare-bones install with no issues. I then plugged in my ethernet cable to begin updating and after a few of the updates it crashed to BSOD with the same error as before. I was not able to check the new HDD with the linked tool as that tool requires Windows 10/11 and so the only way it would work for me is if I ran it after the fact.
But I feel like this is progress. Unless I am mistaken this confirms the issue to be with an update and not a hardware issue? And if so, now, is there a way to circumvent the problematic update? I apologize that I was not able to see which update it was performing when it crashed as I'd looked away while it was doing its' thing. As of now the HDD with Win 10 on it is stuck in a BSOD loop and so with next attempt I'll try another fresh install to try whatever is suggested.

Edit: As requested because I forgot current specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690K
RAM: 16GB Dual-Channel DDR3
Mobo: MSI Z97 PC Mate (MS-7850)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

 

[johnbl]

Alright, apologies for the late reply. So after work now I combined solutions from both suggestions and have made some progress. I completely wiped the new HDD, I did a full format of the USB drive and put a fresh Windows image on there. I then tried a fresh install with no ethernet cable and was able to get a full bare-bones install with no issues. I then plugged in my ethernet cable to begin updating and after a few of the updates it crashed to BSOD with the same error as before. I was not able to check the new HDD with the linked tool as that tool requires Windows 10/11 and so the only way it would work for me is if I ran it after the fact.
But I feel like this is progress. Unless I am mistaken this confirms the issue to be with an update and not a hardware issue? And if so, now, is there a way to circumvent the problematic update? I apologize that I was not able to see which update it was performing when it crashed as I'd looked away while it was doing its' thing. As of now the HDD with Win 10 on it is stuck in a BSOD loop and so with next attempt I'll try another fresh install to try whatever is suggested.

Edit: As requested because I forgot current specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690K
RAM: 16GB Dual-Channel DDR3
Mobo: MSI Z97 PC Mate (MS-7850)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

it is hard to conclude that this is not a hardware problem. there are just too many assumptions.
it is a old machine,(2014 parts) voltages set by the bios drift over time as capacitors dry out and fail on the motherboard and in the power supply.
heat sink paste fails over time and cpu, and heat sinks on chips on the motherboard get hot and errors pop up.

just hard to say without looking at the machine setup and maybe a memory dump to see what the errors are being reported in the bugcheck.

you will also want to boot and run a memory test and a cpu test to confirm the hardware is setup ok. (done outside of windows is best)

 

[RutnitheDwarf]

Fair enough. So far I ran 1 pass of Memtest86+ with 0 errors. If I'm not mistaken you need minimum 8 passes to be accurate, right? I can run 8 fresh ones overnight/while at work and update once those are done tomorrow.

I'll admit I don't really know how to test a cpu and especially outside of windows so any guidance there would be appreciated. In the meantime I think I'll try something silly that probably will have no effect but will at least rule out one common variable I keep noticing: retrying the installation with only 1 monitor (the actual PC monitor) plugged in, since it seems like each time it is very shortly after the display finally shifts over from that to the LG TV that it crashes. I figure it at least rules out a weird unlikely possibility in the meantime before I have the Memtest results.

 

[Colif]

you can use this western digital tool to look at drive, it runs on older versions of windows - https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=3&lang=en&i

how to test CPU outside windows
Prime 95 bootable - https://www.infopackets.com/news/10113/how-fix-bootable-prime95-stress-test-hardware

Prime 95 how to Guide: http://www.playtool.com/pages/prime95/prime95.html

retrying the installation with only 1 monitor (the actual PC monitor) plugged in, since it seems like each time it is very shortly after the display finally shifts over from that to the LG TV that it crashes.

that could be the stumbling block. generally helps to have as few things attached as possible when installing windows.

 

[RutnitheDwarf]

So the update of where I've gotten before I set my computer to run Memtest for the night: I played around a bit with a few settings just to look for consistencies and to see how far I could get in the entire process. The monitor issue was indeed irrelevant and made no difference. With my ethernet cable unplugged I can fully install Windows 10 and have a factory fresh version of Windows 10 that runs fine. I let it idle for a half hour, no crash. I installed the most up to date display driver for my GPU, no crash. This so far is the only driver I've attempted to manual install. At this time I also set up a recovery point so that I can spend 10 minutes recovering back to this exact point instead of about a half hour to an hour completely reinstalling Windows each time I get a BSOD loop. So at this point everything appears stable.

Then I plug in my ethernet cable. The automatic Windows updates begin, the automatic driver updates begin, and within less than 5 mins I have my BSOD. I tried turning off automatic windows updates, but it still downloads them and crashes. I turned off automatic driver updates and still crashed due to the automatic windows updates. So this is where I sit currently.

Edit: Saw your reply after posting this one. I can try both of those tomorrow and update results.

 

[Colif]

shame i didn't see your reply before my edit.

We don't know what cause is. We know updates cause it but its not exact really. Are the BSOD at boot or after startup? just thinking we need to let them happen and record them. Not updating isn't an option really. But also need a way to exit the problem without a reinstall each time.

Can always make a system restore point now
type "restore" then open "create a restore point"
create a new Restore Point now for C-drive
then if/when you get a BSOD at boot you can use windows recovery on USB to run system restore and roll back again.

could be the hard drive has bad sectors.

John suggested this already:
right click start button

choose powershell (admin)

copy/paste this command into window:

Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth and press enter

Then type SFC /scannow and press enter

First command repairs the files SFC uses to clean files, and SFC fixes system files

 

[RutnitheDwarf]

So, the issue has been solved! It was in most part a PEBCAK error, unfortunately (or fortunately since then it was solvable). When I had originally had issues, I'd updated the BIOS to the latest version. Last night after setting Memtest86+ to run (and it did come back no errors after 8 passes!) I did some internet searching from my phone just to find any other issues that sounded similar and might give some direction of where to go. I'd found people with similar sounding issues with the same family of MOBOs though their issues were with a specific 2020 Windows update but one thing mentioned was a few people having to revert BIOS versions.

Today after getting home, I went and re-checked my BIOS version to see if it was one of the problem ones and noticed instead that I did not actually have the most recent BIOS but rather the 2nd most recent. I must have picked the wrong one and not realized initially. Anyways, a quick BIOS update to the actual most recent version and everything is running and updated. Have been stable for 2 hours now with all Windows updates installed and all drivers up to date.

Anyways, as of right now it seems the issue is resolved and I want to thank both of you for your help, suggestions, and most importantly patience. For the record I am marking John's original reply as best answer since he mentions updating the BIOS and that is what solved it in the end, but thank you Colif so very much as well for all of your help and time!