Question Can someone help me decode a BSOD/Memory dump???

[Mattaton]

I've been having an intermittent issue with DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE BSODs. They were happening here and there, but now yesterday it did it 4 times in a matter of hours.

I have run WhoCrashed and it says it's the Windows Kernel that's throwing the BSOD, but I know it has to be some hardware or something causing this. I have done full formats and reinstalls of Windows several times and the problem always returns.

I have looked up several remedies/tutorials for that particular BSOD. I have disabled power management on pretty much everything I can find. Still comes right back. I had a PCIe wireless adapter installed. I removed that, still no luck. Device manager looks good. No errors in event viewer that would indicate a hardware issue.

The trick is I'm not quite savvy enough to make heads or tails out of the memory dump files. Is there some guru here that can help me root out the cause of these BSODs?

Thanks!
Matt

 

[Colif]

I will ask @gardenman to read the minidumps as soon as you attach them

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE

could be software given it includes Driver in its name.

 

[Mattaton]

Thanks, guys. Here is a link to two of the mini dumps from the 20th.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1esQdwu8AacPdl32FrOjlBTCd77qcY0Qn?usp=sharing

If it's a driver, that's fine by me. I just need to determine which driver/device is the culprit so I can start fixing it!
Thanks!

 

[gardenman]

Hi and welcome to T.H. I ran the dump files through the debugger and got the following information: https://pste.eu/p/MYPK.html

File information:	022019-11187-01.dmp (Feb 20 2019 - 16:50:33)
Bugcheck:	DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (9F)
Probably caused by:	ACPI.sys (Process: System)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 2 Hour(s), 21 Min(s), and 18 Sec(s)

File information:	022019-11015-01.dmp (Feb 20 2019 - 14:27:46)
Bugcheck:	DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (9F)
Probably caused by:	ACPI.sys (Process: System)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 6 Hour(s), 44 Min(s), and 15 Sec(s)

The GPU tweaking driver "iomap64.sys" was found on your system. (AI Suite)

BIOS information was not included in the dump file. This can sometimes indicate an older BIOS is being used.

I can't help you with this. Someone else will post with more information soon. Please wait for more answers. Good luck.

 

[Mattaton]

Thanks for checking that out!

3902 is the latest BIOS for my Sabertooth x99 mobo and that's what I'm running.

How do you know AISuite (iomap64.sys) is the cause if ACPI.sys is throwing the error? What's the connection?
If AISuite is causing this, I'll just remove it and use something else to handle my fan speeds (that's all I'm currently using it for). Any recommendations?

Let me know if there's any other info I need to provide to make solving the problem easier.

Thanks again!

 

[gardenman]

Overclocks and overclocking software are often a source of BSODs. While I can't say for sure that is your problem, there is a small chance it is. It wasn't actually mentioned in the crashes. My software automatically detects overclocking drivers and warns of them. I doubt if uninstalling it will fix your problem.

The driver ACPI.sys was mentioned in both crashes. I would wait for more answers from others before deciding that your PC is fixed.

Usually Colif will reply later in the day and give you some tips such as updating specific drivers or removing specific software. Wait for additional replies.

 

[Mattaton]

Okay. Will do. Thanks!

 

[Colif]

Gardenmans script highlights certain drivers that can cause some errors but perhaps not these

The Windows ACPI driver, Acpi.sys, is an inbox component of the Windows operating system. The responsibilities of Acpi.sys include support for power management and Plug and Play (PnP) device enumeration

link

looks like its being blamed but I doubt its cause, parts of windows generally aren't.

it could be USB drivers, what devices have you got? is that a Blue Snowball Mic (guessing from CMUSBDAC.sys being used.

 

[Mattaton]

Yep. I do have a Snowball Mic. I also have:
Logitech G910 Keyboard
Logitech G602 Mouse
Logitech G930 Headset
Wacom Cintiq 21UX
Epson GT-20000 scanner
CyberPower battery backup
USB 2.0/3.0 Card reader

I have 3 USB hubs...
One in the card reader
One behind my desk that devices like the Snowball Mic and wireless mouse plug into (a replacement for an old one - had BSODs with the old one, too)
And one that sits on my desk for easy access to USB ports...the only thing plugged into it is the scanner. It has 4 data ports and 4 power ports. I'm using it mostly for charging devices. I could disconnect its data cable and plug the scanner directly into the PC.

The trick with trying to figure out which one of these devices it MIGHT be is that it hasn't BSODed for over 24 hours now. It may not for days (the 20th and 21st were more than I've seen in months). Unplugging something could result in no BSOD, and I could blame the device. I don't have a way to make the BSOD happen for testing.

Any ideas?

 

[Colif]

You can search cortana for Reliability History. Choose the control panel result
Does it show any red x?
click on them and in the bottom panel, click View technical details. Share anything here that might be useful

There are people around who can read dumps better than I can, they might pop head in but they not always around.

If reliability history shows nothing interesting, one possible way to find the driver is to run driver verifer. I don't suggest it without warnings - its safe, it comes with Windows, but it can leave you in a boot loop so I offer precautions

Before running this,

1) search for “Create a restore point” and create a restore point

2) Create a bootable USB of Win 10 installer to use as a boot drive. download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

Try running driver verifer, just read the instructions carefully. It is part of win 10 designed to find misbehaving drivers. It will cause BSOD, that is its job since it tests drivers.

Once it bsod, upload the minidump file and we see what it shows us.

Steps 1 & 2 are just precautions as sometimes driver verifer can put you in a boot loop. If this happen, follow these steps to get out of it

change boot order so USB is first, hdd second
boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose system restore and roll system back to restore point created in step 1. PC should boot normally.

 

[Mattaton]

The History did show errors, though I don't know if heads or tails can be made of it.

I have a deadline I'm working on, so I'm going to wait on the other steps you mentioned until I get some things done today.

Thanks!

 

[Colif]

Sure, that is fine, its your problem, I am just helping you, take all the time you need... I have to go soon anyway as its 12.30am here and I have to be up early tomorrow.

live kernel event 141 just means PC was restarted abnormally, the other 4 appear to be the driver errors we have above.

A more blind way is to ensure you have latest drivers for all the USB devices as its likely going to be a driver to blame.

 

[Mattaton]

Thanks, Colif. I'll get back to you ASAP with, hopefully, more info to go on. Have a good night!

 

[Colif]

New version of Logitech Gaming Software - https://support.logitech.com/en_us/software/lgs (I have a G910 myself, the version of the software I have is newer than yours so I knew there was newer than what is installed)

wacom drivers are fairly new (2018)
Epson? I would assume drivers built into windows?
How old is card reader?
Not sure about the Cyberpower battery backup, would it even have drivers?
Blue snowballs can cause errors but a lot of the time, the errors mention CMUSBDAC.sys in their description.

 

[Mattaton]

Cool. I'll update the Logitech drivers.
The Epson scanner is getting some age on it. I have to use an older 2009 Win7 driver for it: https://epson.com/Support/Scanners/GT-Series/Epson-GT-20000/s/SPT_B11B195011
Perhaps a Windows driver would work for it, but I don't know if it'd be full-featured. These large format scanners are expensive, so as long as it works, I don't want to replace it!

I installed the card reader in 2017: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B007YDJJFS

The battery backup has a USB cable to communicate with its software on the PC to shut the PC down when the battery gets below a certain threshold (during power outage).

 

[Mattaton]

Well, I tried the Driver Verifier steps and it BSODed on reboot. I did the system restore from the flash drive to get back into Windows. Said it was successful while still booted to the flash drive. After restarting, Windows looked like it was continuing the system repair. Then it said it failed, and offered the option to "system restore" again. I did so and it went through some additional message and rebooted. When it id, it came up "normally" but AISuite was back (which I had already uninstalled prior to the system restore. So, I assume it went back to an earlier system restore than the one I made prior to running DV. Bad thing is, when I try to uninstall it now, it fails, I guess because it's still sorta gone???

Had to reinstall Chrome to get it to open. Acting a little strange.

At any rate, I uploaded today's minidump (030219). Let me know what you can see.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1esQdwu8AacPdl32FrOjlBTCd77qcY0Qn?usp=sharing

Thanks!

 

[Mattaton]

I ran WhoCrashed on the latest dmp file. It indicates SonicWall NetExtender as the cause. That's the VPN software I use for my office.
Now that I think about it, it was throwing BSODs while I was working from home. Hasn't BSODed since Feb 22nd.

Do you guys concur that it's probably the cause? I am downloading the latest version now.

 

[gardenman]

Colif might be a little slow to reply the next few days. I ran the file though the debugger and here are the results: https://pste.eu/p/BVRP.html

File information:	030219-11000-01.dmp (Mar 2 2019 - 09:59:31)
Bugcheck:	DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION (C4)
Probably caused by:	ntkrnlmp.exe (Process: System)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 00 Min(s), and 33 Sec(s)

This dump didn't point to a specific driver. Verifier crashes usually do. This could mean it's hardware, but that's only a guess.

You could use AutoRuns to disable the ASIO.sys driver if you feel it might be the problem. Be careful with AutoRuns and don't go disabling things unless you know what they are. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns Basically run it and give it a minute to load (watch the status bar at the bottom). Once loaded, go to the Drivers tab and look around. I think you can hide all Microsoft entries from one of the menus also which makes it easier to find things.

While you wait on more answers, consider running memtest86. Forgive me if you've already done that, but I searched the thread and didn't see that it had been mentioned. Download memtest86 and place it on a USB flash drive. Test each RAM stick individually, one at a time in the first slot. I don't know how many RAM sticks you have because the dumps are not showing BIOS info which is where I usually get that info. You have to boot to the USB stick and running it will take hours. https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

 

[Mattaton]

Weird. I wonder why WhoCrashed named NetExtender, specifically, as the cause after reading that same dump file.

I have not run memory testing. I had read that DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE didn't usually imply ram. But I guess it's possible.

 

[gardenman]

Maybe WhoCrashed has some way to pull that info out that I don't know about. I'm no expert at reading dumps. It does appear that three (3rd party) drivers were loaded when the crash happened and NetExtender was one of those.

Aug 22 2012	AsIO.sys	ASUS Input Output driver http://www.asus.com/
Oct 17 2017	NxDrv.sys	SonicWALL SSL-VPN NetExtender driver (SonicWALL Inc.)
Feb 07 2018	iaStorAVC.sys	Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver

It's hard to tell specifically by the error in most cases what the actual cause is. Usually IRQL are driver errors, but not always. There's a few that point to CPU problems too but that isn't always the case.

I could be wrong, like I said I'm no expert on dumps. But RAM is often the cause of BSODs and we see it here time after time. It's a guess, nothing more. It might be a waste of time (and memtest does take hours) but ruling memory out as being the problem wouldn't hurt.

 

[Mattaton]

Gotcha. I'm going to watch it for a while now that AISuite is removed and NetExtender is upgraded and see if it does it again. If so, I'll move into testing RAM among other things. I'm hoping the problem is solved, though!

Thanks for the help!!!