Can someone help me diagnose a minidump file?

[Zachary Roberts]

Hi, in relation to this thread: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-performance/pc-reboots-before-it-finishes-booting-up/73aed3b9-8422-4441-a806-47f7ce73df18

(forgive the linking to an external forum...I just couldn't be asked to write it out again).

The details of the error in event logs can be found in the linked-to post above.
The minidump files associated with those errors can be downloaded from here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g22j9tyyya8ia3r/Dumps.zip

Please help me diagnose. I am trying my best, if at all possible, to rule out PSU.
But with the information provided I'm hoping to receive "the fate" of my PC, so to speak.
If it is a PSU issue at least I'll know "for sure" that's the case...tho I hope it isn't hardware.

 

[COLGeek]

Your PSU should be okay and this does not seem to be a PSU issue.

What are your overclocking, if anything (CPU, GPU, memory)?

Also, what are your idle and loaded temperatures for the CPU and GPU, when the system is operating?

Next time, you could just cut and paste the info from the other thread and post it vice the external link....

 

[Zachary Roberts]

I am not overclocking actually...not at all. I never overclock so I hope that's not the issue (it can't be).
The current temps are (see screenshot...I used CoreTemp for this): http://i41.tinypic.com/15zh451.png
During high load (e.g. gaming) I don't know what the temps are then but immediately after it's like 50-60.
I know because I check CoreTemp immediately after playing a game for a long period of time (just to see).
It swiftly goes back down to the normal 30-40 though. I believe the temperatures are normal for Haswell.

Also, the Asus GPU tweak gave me this information: http://i44.tinypic.com/68yomt.png
(I have to say it's normal...during a game it must be higher but I have no issues gaming)

You've got my hopes up by saying "this does not seem to be a PSU issue".
Have you seen the dumps then? What is the issue, do you know? Thanks.

 

[COLGeek]

I can't access the dumps at my office, but this does not appear to be a typical PSU problem. More likely is a driver issue.

When you upgraded from Win7 to Win 8.1, did you reinstall the video and chipset drivers (from Nvidia and Intel), in particular after the upgrade was complete?

 

[Zachary Roberts]

No I did not. But before I do can I politely ask you, if you can find time to spare, to check through the dumps?
Obviously until the facts are deciphered it's impossible to say for certain what could be the problem. Is that ok?

I really hope it's a simple driver issue (or software issue)...those I can live with as I can fix those (usually).
It's just if it's a hardware issue I will have more reason to be concerned as it's a brand new PC pretty much!

 

[COLGeek]

Many users faced similar issues upon upgrading to Win 8.1 and updating the drivers solved nearly all of them. Sure, I can look over the dump files in a few hours, but updating the drivers will certainly do no harm.

Assuming you are using 64-bit Win 8.1, the video drivers can be found here:
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/71704

Your chipset drivers can be found here


Note on the Intel site there is a tool to scan and automatically update Intel drivers.

 

[Zachary Roberts]

In terms of my GPU driver, GeForce 332.21 is the latest version (and I have it installed).
I just ran the chipset drivers but see the latest is August 2013. I installed it anyway btw.
But I have a gut feeling it was probably already installed as my PC was newer than that.
If someone could please check the dump and let me know the results of the diagnosis...

 

[COLGeek]

Understood on both. The issue with other users was that the drivers needed to be installed after the upgrade process was complete. If you dug around the Windows 8 forum here on Tom's you would find many similar problems to your own.

When I get home tonight, I'll take a look at your dump files.

 

[Zachary Roberts]

Ok, in the meantime I'm going to download all drivers: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4567#dl
Reinstall them if they're already the latest version, update them if they're not. Please let me know the dump diagnosis.

 

[Zachary Roberts]

Ok I've installed all drivers from the above link (except for the VGA driver as I've disabled onboard graphics as use GTX 760).
In device manager, though, some of the drivers still show as being the old version? Even though I clearly just updated them.

Edit: I used this utility http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect and it STILL says old version of drivers are installed.
I literally just downloaded the very latest drivers from the official website, installed them, rebooted. Doesn't make sense.
Anyway I must have the latest drivers installed as I literally downloaded them from the official website, installed/rebooted.

 

[COLGeek]

Any difference in performance with the updated drivers? Will be a couple of hours before I can get to the dump files.

 

[Zachary Roberts]

I honestly can't say. My computer was fast either way, and continues to be fast.
It's too early to tell if driver updates have made any improvements to be honest.
I'll wait for you to get round to checking the dumps as that's fact, if you get me.

 

[COLGeek]

Looks like the most recent dump was caused by the Driver for Qualcomm Atheros CB42/CB43/MB42/MB43 Network Adapter (your wireless network adapter). The file that caused the crash was athwnx.sys.

Updating the drivers for that device should take care of that. Get them here: http://www.atheros.cz/atheros-wireless-drivers.html

The earlier crash was caused by ntoskrnl.exe. That could have been the result of any of the driver related crashes or the lack of a Windows Update.

Had a couple minutes to look over before heading out to dinner with my wife.

 

[Zachary Roberts]

So there are no hardware issues as far as you can tell?

 

[COLGeek]

Nope. Drivers and/or updates.

 

[johnbl]

If the updated network driver does not fix the issue look at getting a updated usb driver for the motherboard

Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product B85M-D3H
BIOS Release Date 05/10/2013

- update BIOS if there is one
-i would look for updated drivers for your motherboard from gigabyte (especially the USB drivers)

or remove this driver (disable the function in BIOS)
AppleCharger \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\AppleCharger.sys Mon Feb 18 20:17:09 2013 (5122FCC5)

(I would also run a copy of memtest86 and confirm that your basic machine is ok)

 

[Zachary Roberts]

I downloaded the latest driver for my WiFi card: http://www.tp-link.com/en/support/download/?pcid=201&model=TL-WN951N&version=V3
Hopefully that will resolve the issue. I had another reboot during startup today and used Windbg. It said the following:


Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.3.9600.16384 AMD64
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [C:\Users\Zach Roberts\Documents\012414-27812-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available


************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response Time (ms) Location
Deferred SRV*C:\Users\Zach Roberts\Documents\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Symbol search path is: SRV*C:\Users\Zach Roberts\Documents\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is:
Windows 8 Kernel Version 9600 MP (4 procs) Free x64
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS
Built by: 9600.16452.amd64fre.winblue_gdr.131030-1505
Machine Name:
Kernel base = 0xfffff803`5fa7e000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0xfffff803`5fd42990
Debug session time: Fri Jan 24 10:04:24.961 2014 (UTC + 0:00)
System Uptime: 0 days 11:59:20.602
Loading Kernel Symbols
.

Press ctrl-c (cdb, kd, ntsd) or ctrl-break (windbg) to abort symbol loads that take too long.
Run !sym noisy before .reload to track down problems loading symbols.

..............................................................
................................................................
.......................................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
........
*******************************************************************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck D1, {0, 2, 8, 0}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for athwnx.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for athwnx.sys
Probably caused by : athwnx.sys ( athwnx+f540e )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

I'm guessing that's also the wireless driver, right? Well I downloaded and installed the latest driver from TP-Link today.
Fingers crossed the issue will now no longer be an issue. Only time will tell. I'll let you know if it happens to me again.

 

[COLGeek]

Understood. Good luck! That is the culprit.

 

[johnbl]

from your memory dump:
memory:
bank: 0 4096mb @1333MHz CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9
bank: 2 4096mb @1333MHz CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9

CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 = Vengeance® — 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Kit

recommend:
- update BIOS to current version
- set memory timings in BIOS to 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24, 1.5V
- confirm memory settings ok via running memtest86.


Problem 2: updated drivers still showing the old driver.
Reason: download and install of a new driver does not always set it as the default driver for your device.
(you can have several net cards on the same machine with different drivers)

solution: uninstall the old driver or
start control panel, device manager, find your device, select update driver, select to update from the drivers on you machine, it should give you a list of all the compatible drivers for your device. select the new driver
version. when you are done, reboot and confirm you have the new one now.