Question Undiagnosable PC hard-crashing, I'm at my wits end here ?

[Ralston18]

Nice work!

Do not forget Reliability History/Monitor.

I would start looking in Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to learn more about what all is running on my PC.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Objective being to determine is there are any other particular processes involved. May or may not be EasyAntiCheat related.

No need to take any immediate actions at first. Simply get a sense of what all is running and what each process actually is.

Any process that is not immediately identifiable should be researched to learn its' source and function(s).

I would also look in Task Scheduler for any triggers related to Software Protection Service or anything EasyAntiCheat related.

Something started or stopped that leads to system instability and the resulting crashes during that 5 - 15 minuted time period.

I would not expect any rules/triggers that intentionally "crash" the system. However, I can envision some buggy, corrupted, or mis-configured trigger resulting in a crash be the crash immediate or delayed....

Plus there is always the option to use PowerShell to search the EventViewer logs for entries with some specific word, code, etc..

 

[Nighthawk117]

I decided to search through my Event viewer for the billionth time. I may have stumbled upon an interesting Pattern.

Event ID 7045
A service was installed in the system.

Service Name: EasyAntiCheatSys
Service File Name: C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyAntiCheat\EasyAntiCheat.sys
Service Type: kernel mode driver
Service Start Type: demand start
Service Account:

Event ID 6:
File System Filter 'EasyAntiCheatSys' (6.1, ‎2023‎-‎05‎-‎23T06:13:48.000000000Z) has successfully loaded and registered with Filter Manager.

These two events from EasyAntiCheat are often the last two events in the logs before the system crash. They are just info logs however these are more often then not the last logs the system writes. In a few cases there are a few logs after but not always. Idk if its something to look at. I do find it weird for instance that these can be the last logs before the system crashes at all meaning it could crash 5 -15 mins after these logs but not write anything else after them.

Switching to Application logs these events happen at the exact same time:

Event ID 16384
Successfully scheduled Software Protection service for re-start at 2123-06-17T15:54:04Z. Reason: RulesEngine.

Event ID 903
The Software Protection service has stopped.

I'm going to dig further into this, Currently tracking down all my crashes and noting any pattern down.

What are you thoughts on this possibility?

I'm sceptical that the EasyAntiCheat could cause the PC to instantly shut off, I would expect a BSOD if it was responsible personally. I would be interested to hear the conclusion though.

 

[Ghost 0776]

I'm sceptical that the EasyAntiCheat could cause the PC to instantly shut off, I would expect a BSOD if it was responsible personally. I would be interested to hear the conclusion though.

I am as well however, I have found many posts experiencing similar if not exact same scenarios.

As always I'm running into the issue where I want it to crash right now so I can test a new PSU, but cant get it to lol.

But furthering my Suspicion of EAC I was attempting a crash just now and wasn't able to produce one, but I checked Event viewer to take a look at the logs produced by EAC and I see a 3rd log that I don't see with any of the crashes.

Event ID 1
File System Filter 'EasyAntiCheatSys' (Version 6.1, ‎2023‎-‎05‎-‎23T06:13:48.000000000Z) unloaded successfully.

I'm skeptical right now, but I think a may be on some thing. Furthermore though if I am onto something I have no Idea what to do. Seems to be at random in a sense or luck of the draw that maybe something is blocking or not starting on startup in only particular situations.

I had a reddit post I was gonna share with my exact issue but I can't find it again of course.

 

[Ghost 0776]

Nice work!

Do not forget Reliability History/Monitor.

I would start looking in Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to learn more about what all is running on my PC.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Objective being to determine is there are any other particular processes involved. May or may not be EasyAntiCheat related.

No need to take any immediate actions at first. Simply get a sense of what all is running and what each process actually is.

Any process that is not immediately identifiable should be researched to learn its' source and function(s).

I would also look in Task Scheduler for any triggers related to Software Protection Service or anything EasyAntiCheat related.

Something started or stopped that leads to system instability and the resulting crashes during that 5 - 15 minuted time period.

I would not expect any rules/triggers that intentionally "crash" the system. However, I can envision some buggy, corrupted, or mis-configured trigger resulting in a crash be the crash immediate or delayed....

Plus there is always the option to use PowerShell to search the EventViewer logs for entries with some specific word, code, etc..

I've been using reliability monitor to track down my recent crashes however it doesn't show me anything other than the crash.

Thank you for the Process Explorer recommendation. Also I've been looking for the Task Scheduler but couldn't for the life of me remember the name so thank you for that as well.

Going to take a look at those right now.

Furthering my Suspicion of EAC I was attempting a crash just now and wasn't able to produce one, but I checked Event viewer to take a look at the logs produced by EAC and I see a 3rd log that I don't see with any of the crashes.

Event ID 1
File System Filter 'EasyAntiCheatSys' (Version 6.1, ‎2023‎-‎05‎-‎23T06:13:48.000000000Z) unloaded successfully.

I'm skeptical right now, but I think a may be onto some thing. Furthermore though if I am onto something I have no Idea what to do. Seems to be at random in a sense or luck of the draw that maybe something is blocking or not starting on startup in only particular situations.

 

[Ralston18]

What to do: continue the focus on determing if EasyAntiCheat is or is not involved.

Something (hopefully one thing) that you can change or alter at will to make the crashes come and go.

Be methodical and change only one thing at a time.

Keep notes. You may be able to remember everything but writing it down in some organized manner showing the big picture may lead to a Eureka moment.

 

[Ghost 0776]

What to do: continue the focus on determing if EasyAntiCheat is or is not involved.

Something (hopefully one thing) that you can change or alter at will to make the crashes come and go.

Be methodical and change only one thing at a time.

Keep notes. You may be able to remember everything but writing it down in some organized manner showing the big picture may lead to a Eureka moment.

So I still can't get it to crash. May be another week till I do which is frustrating lol. However I have tracked down the past months worth of crashes.

The pattern is consistent with EAC being the last logs before crash. It works on the Kernel level as well. In the past two days with no crash however there is that 3rd log from EAC that I don't get when I crash.

At this point I'm about 70% sure EAC is the culprit as I see nothing wrong with my hardware. I have the back-up PSU I can rule that out with if needed but haven't crashed yet. I don't know what may be conflicting with EAC but it almost seems at random or by chance on any given start-up. I'm not even sure there is a real fix besides keeping up to date and hoping it eventually goes away on its own.

I do have a small theory it could be Windows new Core Isolation sometimes conflicting with letting EAC run at the kernel level.

I'll keep this thread updated as I'm doubtful I'll get any real answers anytime soon.

 

[Ralston18]

Please continue updates.

Where EAC is involved I am thinking that this thread should be moved from Systems to PC Gaming.

Someone in the PC Gaming Community may get involved - especially with respect to EAC and Core Isolation etc..

Just post accordingly.

 

[SatiricMoney]

So I still can't get it to crash. May be another week till I do which is frustrating lol. However I have tracked down the past months worth of crashes.

The pattern is consistent with EAC being the last logs before crash. It works on the Kernel level as well. In the past two days with no crash however there is that 3rd log from EAC that I don't get when I crash.

At this point I'm about 70% sure EAC is the culprit as I see nothing wrong with my hardware. I have the back-up PSU I can rule that out with if needed but haven't crashed yet. I don't know what may be conflicting with EAC but it almost seems at random or by chance on any given start-up. I'm not even sure there is a real fix besides keeping up to date and hoping it eventually goes away on its own.

I do have a small theory it could be Windows new Core Isolation sometimes conflicting with letting EAC run at the kernel level.

I'll keep this thread updated as I'm doubtful I'll get any real answers anytime soon.

Do you by any chance at all have the HUION tablet application? That was my problem. It was randomly stealing an immense amount of memory out of nowhere and the uninstall fixed it.

 

[Ghost 0776]

Do you by any chance at all have the HUION tablet application? That was my problem. It was randomly stealing an immense amount of memory out of nowhere and the uninstall fixed it.

That's interesting, I do have HUION but just a week ago switched to XP pen. However I don't believe its related to my issue I have that program set to not start at start up and I only use it occasionally. I've also never seen it do much in task manager. I have been testing a new PSU for about a week now with no crashes so I think it did ultimately come down to that hardware. Ill post an update when the RMA info comes through.

 

[Ghost 0776]

It was the PSU. Somehow. It may have been a mix of some weird issue with the PSU and 12vhpwr cable. No issues since tester PSU and replacement from Seasonic. Big Shoutout to Seasonic because they were immensely helpful and kind. They even upgraded me to an ATX 3.0 free of charge.