[SOLVED] ntoskrnl.exe blamed for various BSODs

[ttws]

I built a pc and since day 0 it has had some BSODs. I reinstalled Windows 10 a handful of times and it persisted, until one time, it kinda fixed itself... It would still face a BSOD about 2 or 3 times a month, but it was manageable. Until this week that I was to play some csgo, and was facing some lag, and noticed that I had not installed the AMD Radeon software. After I installed it, the BSOD came back. I uninstalled the software, and it continues. I uninstalled from windows' Add or Remove Programs APP, reinstalled and uninstalled it from the Display Driver Uninstaller v18.0.4.2 program and it still persists.
Note that BSODs DID happen without the Radeon Software, just much less often.

My setup is:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-AB350M-DS3H V2
Power Supply: Fonte Gigabyte GP-P550B 550W, 80 Plus Bronze
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 32MB 3.6GHz (4.4GHz Max Turbo) AM4
GPU: Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT, 4GB, GDDR6
Memory: HyperX Fury, 16GB, 2666MHz, DDR4, CL16 (2, dual channel)
Storage: SSD WD Black SN750 Heatsink, 500GB, M.2 NVMe, R:3470MB/s, W:2600MB/s
Display: Monitor Warrior LED 23.6´ Full HD, HDMI/DisplayPort, FreeSync, 144Hz 1ms - MN101 (Using: DisplayPort, 144hz, 1920x1080)
OS: Windows 10 Pro 20H2 (build 19042.1110)

• No 3rd party antiviruses
• No overclocking (never did, but did reset bios settings just in case)

The most common (but not only) BSOD errors I’m getting are:

• APC_INDEX_MISMATCH
• IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
• DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
• KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE

Blamed Drivers:

• Ntoskrnl.exe
• Win32kbase.sys

Blamed Filenames:
%WinDir%\system32\win32kfull.sys
%WinDir%\system32\win32k.sys
%WinDir%\system32\PSHED.dll
%WinDir%\system32\drivers/afunix.sys
%WinDir%\system32\BOOTVID.dll

Some triggers I noticed:

• When I alt+tab
• While watching a video (on youtube the video image would freeze in front of the blue screen happening)
• When opening a livestream on discord

It does not happen ALWAYS I do these things, but they happened with synchronicity at least once.

Somethings I already tried:

• sfc /scannow - fixed some things, but the problem persisted.
• chkdsk /scan - no problems
• memtest (extended, 6 steps) - no problems
• dism /online /ScanHealth
• dism /online /RestoreHealth
• Disabled virtual memory
• Updated every single driver
• Downgraded some drivers
• Installed Realtek LAN and Audio drivers
• Updated BIOS (F50 to F51)
• Installed Optional Windows updates
• Uninstalled recent already installed Updates
• Tried using only one RAM stick, tried the other one, and changed channels from 0+2 to 1+3

Minidumps: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16mLlyJiQTVbePs1W3TF3X98qTgeMwPT7?usp=sharing

Verifier:
***
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19042.1110]
verifier /querysettings
Verifier Flags: 0x03b5efbb
Standard Flags:
[X] 0x00000001 Special pool.
[X] 0x00000002 Force IRQL checking.
[X] 0x00000008 Pool tracking.
[X] 0x00000010 I/O verification.
[X] 0x00000020 Deadlock detection.
[X] 0x00000080 DMA checking.
[X] 0x00000100 Security checks.
[X] 0x00000800 Miscellaneous checks.
[ ] 0x00020000 DDI compliance checking.
Additional Flags:
[ ] 0x00000004 Randomized low resources simulation.
[X] 0x00000200 Force pending I/O requests.
[X] 0x00000400 IRP logging.
[X] 0x00002000 Invariant MDL checking for stack.
[X] 0x00004000 Invariant MDL checking for driver.
[X] 0x00008000 Power framework delay fuzzing.
[X] 0x00010000 Port/miniport interface checking.
[X] 0x00040000 Systematic low resources simulation.
[ ] 0x00080000 DDI compliance checking (additional).
[X] 0x00200000 NDIS/WIFI verification.
[X] 0x00800000 Kernel synchronization delay fuzzing.
[X] 0x01000000 VM switch verification.
[X] 0x02000000 Code integrity checks.
Internal Flags:
[X] 0x00100000 Extended Verifier flags (internal).
[X] Indicates flag is enabled.
Boot Mode:
Persistent
Rules:
All rules are using default settings
Extensions:
ndis: rules.default
Verified Drivers:
amdkmpfd.sys
amdpsp.sys
cimfs.sys
rt640x64.sys
amdkmdag.sys
amdpcidev.sys
amdgpio2.sys
amdgpio3.sys
atihdwt6.sys
rtkvhd64.sys
dump_dumpstorport.sys
dump_stornvme.sys
dump_dumpfve.sys
ndis.sys
netadaptercx.sys
mbbcx.sys
wificx.sys
wdiwifi.sys
***

Thanks in advance for your time

 

[Colif]

i seen most of the blamed driver names before
AFUnix is the odd one out.
anything labelled .sys is a driver, 3 parts mentioned are part of the kernel.
pshed.dll - Platform Specific Hardware Error Driver
ntoskrnl is special

NTOSKRNL = windows kernel. It handles all driver requests, power management, and memory management. It sits between Hardware and Applications. It got blamed but its not the cause

they all parts of windows though so not very helpful longterm.

I will ask a friend to convert dumps for me. He will post later with a link I can use.

try running the tests in this on your ssd - https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en&p=279

 

[ttws]

try running the tests in this on your ssd - https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en&p=279

S.M.A.R.T. Diagnostic Extended Test found no errors.

Firmware: Up to date
Driver health: Normal
Life Remaining: 100%

 

[ttws]

I added 3 new minidumps to that google drive folder. They are errors I have not seen before:

Filename:	Caused by Driver	Code:
081721-5531-01.dmp	bam.sys	KERNEL_AUTO_BOOST_INVALID_LOCK_RELEASE
081721-5484-02.dmp	win32kfull.sys	SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
081721-5437-01.dmp	ntoskrnl.exe	INVALID_WORK_QUEUE_ITEM

 

[Colif]

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-AB350M-DS3H V2

Memory: HyperX Fury, 16GB, 2666MHz, DDR4, CL16 (2, dual channel)

Do you know if ram was tested to work with motherboard? i know it passes memtest but if it wasn't tested by either, its hard to say

I can find mb here but their tool only seems to list value ram underneath - https://www.kingston.com/en/memory/search?model=99762&devicetype=7&mfr=GIG&line=GA-AB350M-DS3H V2 but site shows your ram if you go to main finder page - https://www.kingston.com/en/memory
I didn't look at the Gigabyte website, they might have it there.

just based on errors, seeing unusual ones makes me think ram

do you have a wifi USB adapter?

 

[gardenman]

Hi, I ran the dump files through the debugger and got the following information: https://jsfiddle.net/skrLncq9/show This link is for anyone wanting to help. You do not have to view it. It is safe to "run the fiddle" as the page asks.

Spoiler: Dump File Results

File information:	081721-5531-01.dmp (Aug 17 2021 - 02:12:58)
Bugcheck:	KERNEL_AUTO_BOOST_INVALID_LOCK_RELEASE (162)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: System)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 03 Min(s), and 51 Sec(s)

File information:	081721-5437-01.dmp (Aug 17 2021 - 02:06:44)
Bugcheck:	INVALID_WORK_QUEUE_ITEM (96)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: svchost.exe)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 1 Hour(s), 57 Min(s), and 44 Sec(s)

File information:	081621-6218-01.dmp (Aug 16 2021 - 18:29:04)
Bugcheck:	APC_INDEX_MISMATCH (1)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: dwm.exe)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 17 Min(s), and 18 Sec(s)

File information:	081621-5984-01.dmp (Aug 16 2021 - 18:45:53)
Bugcheck:	IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (A)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: dwm.exe)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 06 Min(s), and 37 Sec(s)

File information:	081621-5843-01.dmp (Aug 16 2021 - 18:30:29)
Bugcheck:	KERNEL_AUTO_BOOST_LOCK_ACQUISITION_WITH_RAISED_IRQL (192)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: chrome.exe)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 01 Min(s), and 03 Sec(s)

File information:	081621-5625-01.dmp (Aug 16 2021 - 18:38:39)
Bugcheck:	KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE (139)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: atieclxx.exe)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 02 Min(s), and 21 Sec(s)

File information:	081621-5203-01.dmp (Aug 16 2021 - 18:08:55)
Bugcheck:	KERNEL_AUTO_BOOST_INVALID_LOCK_RELEASE (162)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: dwm.exe)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 01 Min(s), and 27 Sec(s)

File information:	081721-5484-02.dmp (Aug 17 2021 - 02:08:40)
Bugcheck:	SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION (3B)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: BlueScreenView.exe)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 01 Min(s), and 27 Sec(s)

Tip: If you upload additional minidumps, please put them in a new folder and link to them each time. This way I don't have to go back and sort out the ones that I've already reviewed from the new ones. Thanks.

Possible Motherboard page: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-AB350M-DS3H-V2-rev-11/support#support-dl
If you using Revision 1.1 of the motherboard then you have the latest BIOS already installed. You are using version F51.

This information can be used by others to help you. Someone else will post with more information. Please wait for additional answers. Good luck.

 

[ttws]

Do you know if ram was tested to work with motherboard?

Don't know. I have been using this site to check MB https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-AB350M-DS3H-V2-rev-11
On their support list i cannot find the exact RAM code I have (which is https://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/HX426C16FB3_16.pdf), but I found ppl asking about this RAM and same MB compatibility and they said they were fine.

do you have a wifi USB adapter?

No.

The only connections I have on my pc are:
USB mouse
PS/2 Keyboard
DisplayPort Monitor
Ethernet Cable
Headphone(pink+green)

Don't know if its relevant but I am using 5 extra fans.

 

[Colif]

Just by looking at the spoiler from Gardenman I can tell 3 are caused by GPU drivers
APC Index Mismatch
IRQ less than or equal
Kernel auto boost invalid lock release

victim of all 3 is Windows Desktop Manager (DWM.exe). It sits between Windows and GPU drivers

1st BSOD mentions bam.sys... I had to look it up, Background Activity Monitor... I see it mentioned in relation to GPU crashes, part of windows.
2nd isn't obvious
3rd mentions dwm.exe, see above
4th mentions dwm.exe
5th is unclear
as is 6th, though victim was an AMD driver i hadn't seen before
7th mentions dwm.exe again
8th looks like GPU related crash

Lets replace those GPU drivers.
Run DDU in safe mode, and install newer drivers

How To - How to perform a CLEAN install of your video card drivers.

Updated 9-19-19 How to do a CLEAN install of your graphics card drivers using the Wagnard tools Display Driver Uninstaller A major issue on many systems is the presence of multiple graphics card drivers or drivers that have been incompletely uninstalled followed by the installation of...

forums.tomshardware.com

Download Win10 Auto Installation Program from under windows header here to update Ethernet drivers - https://www.realtek.com/en/componen...0-1000m-gigabit-ethernet-pci-express-software

these can't hurt - https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/b350 (only chipset drivers, you probably don't want raid)

I leave audio alone for now.

 

[ttws]

Done.
I uninstalled driver from safemode DDU
*
then installed the latest AMD Radeon driver while offline.
Realtek did upgrade the ethernet driver
Installed the chipset drivers.

* - Must say that while back at normal mode, just before running amd installer, faced two BSODs, one which I never came across before.
Here are both minidumps if you want to check: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19mW1NSH4RCjUvVOo-ooyE8R4gZiqhlAI?usp=sharing

Lets see if it gets better now.

EDIT
Not more than 5 minutes after I post this reply, another BSOD

 

[gardenman]

I ran the dump file through the debugger and got the following information: https://jsfiddle.net/9ybj5318/show This link is for anyone wanting to help. You do not have to view it. It is safe to "run the fiddle" as the page asks.

File information:	081821-4187-01.dmp (Aug 18 2021 - 15:08:50)
Bugcheck:	APC_INDEX_MISMATCH (1)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: dwm.exe)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 00 Min(s), and 44 Sec(s)

File information:	081821-3812-01.dmp (Aug 18 2021 - 15:07:40)
Bugcheck:	DRIVER_OVERRAN_STACK_BUFFER (F7)
Probably caused by:	memory_corruption (Process: System)
Uptime:	0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 01 Min(s), and 05 Sec(s)

This information can be used by others to help you. Someone else will post with more information. Please wait for additional answers. Good luck.

 

[ttws]

So, here a few things I figured...
The AMD radeon software made a power profile that set the Processor Power Management Processor State Min and Max to 99%. So I put back to my default setting (5% min, 95% max) and the BSODs seem to be a little less frequent... (maybe just coincidence though?)

Also, I just spent the whole day playing csgo and terraria, not a single BSOD what so ever, but as soon as I watch a youtube video, or a discord stream, bsod came back about 5-10 minutes after I started watching.

One more thing, I installed an opitional windows update graphic related, and now I cannot open the AMD radeon software:
"The version of AMD Radeon Software you have launched is not compatible with your currently installed graphics driver. [...]"

Does any of this ring any bells?

 

[ttws]

update

Also, I just spent the whole day playing csgo and terraria, not a single BSOD what so ever, but as soon as I watch a youtube video, or a discord stream, bsod came back about 5-10 minutes after I started watching.

*Its not the discord app or channel connection, as I was connected to audio chat while gaming.

** I left Google Chrome open without any video playing, only two tabs opened (this one plus gmail.com) and a bsod happened about 40 minutes after.

 

[Colif]

I didn't know radeon could set power schemes, I know there are 2 Ryzen power schemes, Balanced & High Performance and the Radeon one sounds like HP.

which version of win 10

1. right click start
   
2. choose run...
   
3. type winver and press enter
   
4. current version is 21H1
   

2 BSOD occurred with as far as I can tell, no GPU drivers installed but if it was the power plan, that could be enough.

try installing Ryzen master, it might have drivers that could help. You don't need to use it for overclocking, i just use it for temps mainly - https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/ryzen-master

 

[ttws]

winver is 21H1 (OS Build 19043.1165)

2 BSOD occurred with as far as I can tell, no GPU drivers installed but if it was the power plan, that could be enough.

I think at that time I had the basic scheme yet

[edit]
About Ryzen Master, is there anything you want me to set in the software or just let it be?

 

[Colif]

just let it be, i got it more for drivers it may include.

top bsod has same victim as previous, windows desktop manager
second BSOD, although clearly a driver, given error name, isn't as obvious

Where did you get the Radeon software from?
not sure if this is the reason -

Due to the generic device support with AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin, Windows® Update may override the existing Adrenalin graphics driver with a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) version of Radeon Software. In this situation, there will be two Radeon Software versions installed on the system, resulting in the error displayed when trying to launch Radeon Software.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/pa-300

 

[ttws]

Where did you get the Radeon software from?

Downloaded from here:

https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon-5500-series/amd-radeon-rx-5500-series/amd-radeon-rx-5500-xt

not sure if this is the reason -
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/pa-300

This happened after I manually installed some Windows Update opitional updates yesterday. One was a graphics driver, so I installed anyway to see if it would fix any problems.

One other thing, it is not conclusive yet, bc it might be coincidence as it is such little time but I'll say already just as a heads up... I just watched 50 min of downloaded videos on the Movies&TV App, and faced no BSOD yet.

 

[Colif]

It doesn't always help to get all the optional updates, they can cause problems. I normally don't get any of them but well... I am not in a good position to argue against it right now
My winver is different to yours even though you on latest version of 10:

Driver updates should maybe show some info about driver version if you look in settings/update & security/Windows update Update history

 

[ttws]

It doesn't always help to get all the optional updates, they can cause problems. I normally don't get any of them but well... I am not in a good position to argue against it right now
My winver is different to yours even though you on latest version of 10:

Driver updates should maybe show some info about driver version if you look in settings/update & security/Windows update Update history

My is windows 10 PRO, maybe thats why?

On windows update it say theres no upgrades left, only that optional graphics that caused the AMD conflict. (I already reinstalled like before, using the DDU and so)
(that is "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Display - 26.20.....)

 

[ttws]

So, ok, the pc was idle and threw a BSOD... Just when I thought we were getting somewhere...
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SDgQW13MMFfsauGN_DbskhigWCvxDNk_?usp=sharing

My hope is kind of all gone...

[edit] or i better say, I was on discord, just connected to a audio room, nothing much, there was a stream going on but i was not watching. and that is all

 

[Colif]

don't lose hope. you can always ask on https://www.tenforums.com/bsod-crashes-debugging/ as there are more people there who can actually read dumps, saves you waiting for me to get them converted. Not giving up but no reason you can't ask elsewhere. Can link to this in thread to maybe save them suggesting things we already tried.

 

[ttws]

ok, i'll soon make a post there.

but where can we go from now? I'm trying to think if anything done in the past may ring a bell... A few details I didn't bother to mention maybe?

• My windows is not activated yet (crises, you know...)
• The first OS image I installed in this SSD was a lite version a friend got for me that he said it was sooo good and fast, but It came with that KSM activators... I'm not very into this kind of piracy, so I made a clean install of windows 10 downloaded from the miscrosoft website. Question is... might that left traces or something that would conflict? I just installed the os from the bios, deleting all partitions, but didn't made a full formatting, just the default OS installing thing.
• These BSODs happen since day one. and they happened even with that lite image. the thing is, after the -idk...- 5th OS install, it just stopped happening. I have been running without the AMD radeon software since then, and the BSODs came back right after I installed it. (remember I have had BSODs every now and then, like twice a month maybe not even that much), and by analyzing the windows update history I noticed that the last update I installed back then was that "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Display - 26.20xxxx" but like version 2.xxxx.

 

[ttws]

I booted to safemode and put a video to play on google chrome and the bsod happened anyway, tho was a diferent code that i couldn't read in time.
Heres the minidump: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1e0HNa2D1_Lr1bHFYpUl0uiZ7DCtBOEJg?usp=sharing

 

[ttws]

So, I found an old HDD and installed windows 10 pro on it.
First, I faced two BSODs right after the first boot (They didn't record any minidumps tho) (found it https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UkZjGRcQ_ABCUicz_vgi3Qa7RyFKiTtq?usp=sharing), like, even before setting up the initial windows things, like cortana, localization tracks, agreeing to that things, etc...
After that, I installed windows updates, google chrome and the AMD radeon software. That's all I have installed on this HDD. I'm watching videos for about 2 hours now and got no bsods yet.
If I didn't have had those 2 bsod I'd be convinced that its problem on the SDD, but as they did happen, i don't know... what do you think?
Maybe the NVMe? Could it be the connection to the MB? maybe my SDD speeds are too high? Maybe conflict to other softwares installed?

 

[Colif]

The first OS image I installed in this SSD was a lite version a friend got for me that he said it was sooo good and fast, but It came with that KSM activators... I'm not very into this kind of piracy, so I made a clean install of windows 10 downloaded from the miscrosoft website. Question is... might that left traces or something that would conflict? I just installed the os from the bios, deleting all partitions, but didn't made a full formatting, just the default OS installing thing.

So do you have a licenced version of win 10?
the installed version on old hdd, what installer did you use? Have you made a new installer since? As they are free from Microsoft, its the licence that costs money. If not, it could include extra files that could be cause of BSOD.
On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB - if you haven't already.

Tenforums can tell if your version isn't right, they won't help if it is pirated/hacked. Not sure about inactivated, I haven't sent anyone over there in that state. We can't really help either if its hacked but I would suggest a clean install with a known good installer if you haven't now.

 

[ttws]

So do you have a licenced version of win 10?

It is inactiveted yet, but is the original, from microsoft website,

Have you made a new installer since?

Yes, back then, when I noticed it was an hacked version, I already got rid of it. Just mentioned it to you bc I don't really know if it can leave something even after a new installation;

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB - if you haven't already.

That's exactly how I did it both on the SSD back then and now with the HDD. (It is a new download tho, not the same iso from that time, but its the same way.