Question Windows 10 Boot Error - Kmode Exception Not Handled

[GeraltH1]

Hello,

some time ago, I purchased a used gaming laptop which unfortunately has quite a few issues. Currently I'm struggling with the most recent one, resulting in a startup error (perhaps due to a failed update).

Windows 10 system on the SSD refuses to boot, showing a KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED error. The same happens when I try to boot from a Windows 10 USB drive. Windows Recovery and Windows Safe Mode are inaccessible, with the same bluescreen error. Recently, I somehow managed to get to a "Recovery" screen: "Your PC/Device needs to be repaired | A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed | Error Code: 0xc0000178 | You'll need to use recovery tools ..."
More interestingly, I still can boot from a Windows 10 DVD, but I can't make any changes to the system (repair or reset options don't work).

Meanwhile, the laptop boots to an Ubuntu 22.04 USB drive without any issues, and I have full access to the files on the SSD.

System specs:

15.6", Full-HD, 60Hz, non-glare, IPS
Intel Core i7-7700HQ, 4x 2,80GHz
16GB DDR4-2400 RAM
1TB HDD + 250GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Windows 10 Home 64-bit

If any logs are needed in order to further investigate the problem, please tell me where to find them.
I do have access to an another system with Windows 10, so if any drivers or startup files are damaged, I could copypaste them to the faulty system (if it somehow helps resolve the problem).

Thanks so much for any help!

Best regards
Geralt H

 

[rgd1101]

backup your data
fresh windows 10 install

 

[GeraltH1]

backup your data
fresh windows 10 install

Oh, okay... So nothing can be saved here? And is there a way to actually find out what is causing the problem?

The other issue is, even trying to boot from a Windows 10 USB drive - usually used to repair or reinstall Windows - is currently impossible, resulting in the same KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED error (with BSOD and immediate restart). So I don't even know how to reinstall Windows 10, without being able to boot from a Windows 10 USB.

My boot options are limited to USB devices only - I originally couldn't install Windows 10 from a DVD (with an external disc drive), so I had to create the boot medium in order to be able to install Windows at all. Neither can I change boot settings in the BIOS, since these are greyed out and hence locked (presumably by the previous owner who had set a supervisor password, which I can't remove).
But Ubuntu 22.04 boots flawlessly from the USB drive (I haven't tried to install it yet, I was just using the 'try Ubuntu' option').

 

[Colif]

try testing PC out in Ubuntu, perhaps run memory checks as you shouldn't get same BSOD booting off the USB, makes me think its a hardware problem.
Linux easier on hardware compared to Windows.

what laptop is it? make/model?

 

[GeraltH1]

try testing PC out in Ubuntu, perhaps run memory checks as you shouldn't get same BSOD booting off the USB, makes me think its a hardware problem.
Linux easier on hardware compared to Windows.

what laptop is it? make/model?

Okay thanks, will do. Is there maybe a website or a list with essential Ubuntu Terminal commands to test the system? I'm not particularly a proficient Ubuntu user, whenever I run into a problem I usually google the solution and copy/paste the command to the terminal...

Mainboard is P65_67HSHP (Clevo P651HS). It's pretty much identical to the Schenker XMG P507 2017 edition, just with a branding from a different manufacturer (Mifcom):
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-XMG-P507-Clevo-P651HS-G-Notebook-Review.193074.0.html

 

[Colif]

i don't really know Ubuntu myself but as PC actually lets you run in there, its somewhere to start

do you have access to another windows PC?
Try running memtest86 on each of your ram sticks, one stick at a time, up to 4 passes. Only error count you want is 0, any higher could be cause of the BSOD. Remove/replace ram sticks with errors.

Memtest is created as a bootable USB so that you don’t need windows to run it, just to make it.

same goes for this
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

or there is this version of Prime that runs in Ubuntu but I don't know if you can do that off the USB - https://askubuntu.com/questions/1350268/install-prime95-mprime-on-ubuntu-20-04

 

[GeraltH1]

Alright, thank you, this is very helpful. I'll try to test the system as well as I can, and will report back as soon as these tests are done (it might take some time).

I only hope that none of these bootable USBs require the legacy boot setting, since this is something I can't set. I had tried multiple times to install Windows 7 (for software compatibility purposes) or just get it to boot at all from the USB, but no chance.

 

[Colif]

take your time, its your problem. We be around here somewhere

i hate laptops, they never give you enough info in manuals - https://www.manualslib.com/products/Clevo-P651hs-8714065.html
might be it only supports UEFI boot but that seems odd.

I will see what I can find tomorrow. I have to go soon.

 

[GeraltH1]

take your time, its your problem. We be around here somewhere

i hate laptops, they never give you enough info in manuals - https://www.manualslib.com/products/Clevo-P651hs-8714065.html
might be it only supports UEFI boot but that seems odd.

I will see what I can find tomorrow. I have to go soon.

Thanks so much, you've already helped a lot.

I don't like laptops a lot either. The laptop was some kind of a temporary solution since my older PC had some issues, and I needed something with at least some computing power until the hardware supply shortage and prices in general have returned to a resonable level in order to consider building a new PC. The laptop seemed like a reasonable solution, both in terms of price and re-sellability. I certainly didn't expect it to cause this much trouble...

The Windows 7 boot issue is probably due to locked boot settings in the BIOS. In the "Security" tab, I can only select "Set User Password" which sets a password when trying to access the BIOS (which currently is just blank). The rest of the settings is greyed out. Same thing with the UEFI settings in the "Boot" tab; greyed out and cannot be selected or changed.
I can only assume that a supervisor password has been set by someone else, and it's impossible for me to remove it.

https://imgur.com/a/r4YYB3w

View: https://imgur.com/a/r4YYB3w

 

[Colif]

I think memtest and Prime 95 can boot off UEFI, so no need to swap to legacy to boot them. They are same as Ubuntu

if laptop came with win 10, it may not have any win 7 drivers so even if you could install it, it might not work all that well.

i think prices of parts a lot more sane now that they were 2 years ago when I made my PC.

 

[GeraltH1]

I think memtest and Prime 95 can boot off UEFI, so no need to swap to legacy to boot them. They are same as Ubuntu

if laptop came with win 10, it may not have any win 7 drivers so even if you could install it, it might not work all that well.

i think prices of parts a lot more sane now that they were 2 years ago when I made my PC.

Ok that's great, one less thing to be worried about.

Yes, the laptop came with Windows 10, and there are officially no Win 7 drivers. However, I found an forum thread where someone successfully tried to install Windows 7 on the hardware (german forum, google auto-translate):
https://extreme-pcgameshardware-de...._sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp
I had tried countless times to get Windows 7 to boot off the USB drive, but to no avail.
Interestingly though, I could start the Win 7 boot process when booting off a Win7 DVD in external DVD drive. It would say, "Windows files are being loaded" (or something like that), then the "Starting Windows" screen with the logo appears and then it's stuck in that state for all eternity (half an hour or so is the longest I waited) while the laptop fans go crazy, so that at some point I have to forcibly shut down the laptop by pressing the power button (which is not that good, I know). Maybe that's what caused the Windows 10 boot issue now?

By the way, there's no possibility to remove the BIOS supervisor password and to unlock the BIOS settings, right? I already tried a CMOS battery reset by pressing a key sequence on the keyboard which I found on a support thread for a similar laptop (there was a prompt that the CMOS battery reset was successful, but the BIOS remains locked). I didn't try to remove the CMOS battery, since it's somewhat difficult to access, and I certainly don't think I have the skills to do any kind of further modifications (I saw something about jumpers on the mainboard as a suggestion for other laptops, which would definitely be too difficult for me).

I bought the laptop at the very end of last year, back then the prices were somewhat higher. But yeah, if I had known how much trouble this laptop would cause, I certainly would have waited or bought something else. Well, now I'll have to fix this device first before I can decide whether to sell it and get something decent instead...

 

[Colif]

from what i can tell, there shouldn't be a bios password. As setting it was one of the steps towards disabling Secure boot, but I see it is off on yours now. If secure boot were on, the USB you have used already wouldn't have worked either.

installing windows 7 on a laptop that doesn't have any drivers is a problem. As does the laptop have any USB 2 slots? Win 7 doesn't know what USB 3 is until you install drivers. So if laptop only has USB 3 slots, you sort of stuck

I think you need to run those tests and see what problem is, as windows 7 could just as easily have same errors installing anyway.

 

[GeraltH1]

from what i can tell, there shouldn't be a bios password. As setting it was one of the steps towards disabling Secure boot, but I see it is off on yours now. If secure boot were on, the USB you have used already wouldn't have worked either.

installing windows 7 on a laptop that doesn't have any drivers is a problem. As does the laptop have any USB 2 slots? Win 7 doesn't know what USB 3 is until you install drivers. So if laptop only has USB 3 slots, you sort of stuck

I think you need to run those tests and see what problem is, as windows 7 could just as easily have same errors installing anyway.

Okay, so there's no BIOS supervisor password? Is there then some other reason why so many BIOS setting are locked (including "Set supervisor password" option)? The supervisor password thing seemed to me the most plausible explanation as to why the BIOS in this state would limit the user so heavily, without any option to unlock everything.
Actually, when looking through the "Boot" tab again, I noticed a small sentence explaining the UEFI settings:

https://imgur.com/a/jnI9F3I

View: https://imgur.com/a/jnI9F3I

And, as in the third image posted above, the "UEFI Boot" is set to Enabled and is greyed out. This contradicts the "Security" tab, in which it states that secure boot is disabled. Now I'm unsure whether secure boot is active or not..

Actually I had already stumbled upon the driver issue (and yes, the laptop is USB3 only). I found the "Gigabyte Windows USB Installation Tool" which injects USB3 and NVMe drivers into a Windows 7 image. So I created an ISO from my Win7 DVD, made a bootable USB with "Rufus" and then added the drivers to the Win7 Image via the "Gigabyte" tool. It still won't boot. I tried it at least a dozen times, I also tried a Win7 Image from the Internet Archive, but the result was always the same.
Maybe it's the locked "UEFI boot" setting that prevents Win7 from booting? But since I can't unlock the BIOS settings, it's impossible to know whether this would have made the difference. At this point, I guess I'll have to give up on Win7 altogether - I wouldn't even know what else to try...


I'm currently about to create a memtest86 bootable USB, but in the meantime I found out that I apparently still have access to the Windows Memory Diagnostics tool on the OS selection screen. I ran it once with default settings (2 passes), no errors were found. I saw that there are more options - expanded test, cache settings and number of passes, like here (picture not by me):

Should I run the expanded test 4 times (do cache settings matter?), as you had suggested above? And does memtest86 have advantages over the Windows Memory Diagnostics tool?

 

[Colif]

UEFI is a boot method, as well as a description of the BIOS

Over explanation

Spoiler

Up until 2009 all PC used Legacy bios.

They didn't know what a mouse was, you had to use arrow keys on kb to navigate them. They weren't very modifiable, they had to be a certain size and were only 32bit.

They only used Legacy boot method (it wasn't called legacy yet)

it uses MBR -
MBR stands for Master Boot record

MBR drives can only have 4 partitions
and max drive size is 2.2tb
Boot partition on MBR drives is always 1st partition on drive



In 2009 UEFI was released to replace Legacy bios. UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
it uses a graphical interface that knows what a mouse is
It can be expanded and have new features added

It can use UEFI or Legacy boot method
It can boot legacy drives since it was made to replace BIOS, can't not be backwards compatible.

It supports GPT drives. GPT stands for GUID (GUID = Global Unique ID - every GPT drive on earth has its own number) Partition Table

GPT drives can have up to 256 partitions and max drive size is a silly 18.8 million tb

Boot partition on a GPT drive can be anywhere.

All PC before win 7 used MBR

Win 7 32bit uses MBR only

Win 7 64bit can be MBR or GPT

win 10 64 bit can also be either but it prefers GPT

Win 11 only supports GPT



UEFI boot method can boot both MBR & GPT drives.

Legacy can only boot MBR, it doesn't know what GPT is for booting

Now UEFI and Secure Boot are 2 different things. You can have UEFI on and Secure boot off - I do.

Maybe it's the locked "UEFI boot" setting that prevents Win7 from booting? But since I can't unlock the BIOS settings, it's impossible to know whether this would have made the difference. At this point, I guess I'll have to give up on Win7 altogether - I wouldn't even know what else to try...

As per spoiler, UEFI AKA Windows Boot Manager can boot both legacy and UEFI drives, so that probably isn't why you can't install win 7.

extended test can take anything from 15 minutes to 20 hours, depending on amount of ram. Not sure how long 16gb would take.

Main thing with memtest is you test 1 stick at a time, and if stick fails, most memory makers will replace ram based on a fail mark. I don't know if they treat windows memory test as equally.

 

[GeraltH1]

Ah okay, thanks a lot for the explanation! I'll certainly need to read more on this topic, but I think I got the general idea.

Okay, if Windows Boot Manager is capable of booting both drives, then it would explain why I can at least initiate the Win7 boot process from the external DVD drive (which gets stuck then).
This is the what I see whenever I try to boot Win7 from the USB:

I tried two different Win7 images (both Win7 Pro 64bit SP1), I tried Rufus, the Gigabyte tool to copy the files directly from the DVD, the Windows Media Creation tool, and I even found a tool by Intel to inject USB3 drivers - nothing worked, I got the very same result every time.

Oh okay, 20 hours per pass? This would be a bit long.. Does it have any advantages over a standard test?

I see. Well, in my case, the ram stick replacement by the manufacturer is not particularly relevant, but it does make sense to test one stick at a time. I'll continue with memtest86 then.

 

[Colif]

i can't find anything that tells me what difference between short and extended is. I expect the extended is just more tests. That would be my guess.

this article says before this quote that the standard test is normally all you need.

When run in extended mode, the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool can take more than 8 hours to complete the process. At times the tool may get stuck at 21%, 88%, 89%, and 90% progression for hours. You may see no progress for more than 4 hours as well.

However, this is normal with the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool. Unless the tool is stuck at 21% for an entire day, you can let the tool run a few hours and let the process complete without any interruption.

If the tool has been stuck for more than a day without any progression, you may try other troubleshooting steps

none of steps in this will help you, its just where I got quote: https://windowsreport.com/windows-memory-diagnostic-tool-stuck/

@Karadjgne any ideas about installing win 7? Is it fact it is stuck in UEFI boot?

 

[Karadjgne]

That's a Legacy bios. Not a UEFI bios. And I'm thinking that's the issue. Back when UEFI first showed up, there was 3 types of bios. Legacy, UEFI and Hybrid. And out of those 3, Hybrid was a pain. It was a legacy bios with a UEFI mode added, which caused all sorts of issues with the Maxwell cards like 750/ti etc because the cards were looking for legacy or uefi and not finding either of them.

And you only found the Hybrid bios in HP, Sony, Apevia, Acer etc.

Windows also has to line up. If you install Windows as Legacy, it needs to stay legacy, can't then switch it to uefi or it changes the way it boots and the info isn't there. I know that's true of 10, so should be true of 7 since they use the same base code. So if Op originally setup the pc as Legacy, installed windows, and is now trying to reinstall with uefi mode enabled, stands a good chance of conflicting boot directives.

I'm thinking Op needs to start from scratch. Totally. Diskpart the drive so it's totally blank, remove the drive, boot the laptop in uefi mode, shutdown and reinstall the drive and boot with the usb

 

[Colif]

hybrid are the half way house between BIOS and UEFI.

I don't like Aptio lol. You right that its mostly in the Sony and older laptops.

some time ago, I purchased a used gaming laptop which unfortunately has quite a few issues.

it being a used laptop means we don't know what it was originally. It may have been UEFI all along
laptop is from 5 years ago and only has win 10 drivers.

you aren't missing any menus at least, not sure about choices though - https://download.gigabyte.com/FileL...3350_e.pdf?v=c9fc1ae22b07d161c64cf82e808c3708 (same bios version)

I don't see anything in Boot menu about swapping the legacy. It does mention UEFI though.

 

[Karadjgne]

Win7 platforms weren't designed with NVMe in mind as a boot drive, that didn't happen really until the Z97 mobo's. With a bios hack, the Raid drivers could be inserted at boot, which will initiate an NVMe at boot, but the basic ASCII didn't have them. Win7 did, the actual driver used in Win10 dates back to 2006, but the install media used didn't, so no actual recognition of an NVMe was possible for install media to install Windows. The Gigabyte version is just a rewrite of the install to include NVMe recognition.

With the amount of attempted installs, of both kinds of windows, coupled with that Hybrid bios and everything else, I'm not surprised it's glitched.

If the mobo generation is correct, it should have come with Win10, but whether that's Win10 or Win10CE is anyone's guess at this point, if it was the original Win10 and never updated or only partially updated, it would explain many issues as the drivers would have been closed 16/32 bit, not open ended 32/64 bit, which creates a ton of version conflicts and even date code errors.

Really is a mess as there's too many unknown variables. Starting from scratch, with a full Win10 install, from scratch on a blank, non-partitioned ssd is probably the only cure. Get windows working first, then fix the issues if there are any left.

 

[Colif]

1TB HDD + 250GB SSD

It might be easiest to remove drives, copy anything off them you want to keep, delete all contents and only put the ssd in when you install windows - windows has this habit of putting parts of itself in any extra blank space it finds, so only having 1 drive in stops it.
See if we can install then. I suspect the BSOD were from the old install.

Which version of windows is up to you, but finding drivers for win 7 on a device with only win 10 drivers is a challenge.

 

[GeraltH1]

Wow, a lot of interesting insights here! Thanks so much for everything, you guys are clearly experts on these topics. I definitely should have come here earlier.

I haven't done much with the laptop since I bought it half a year ago from the commercial reseller. I did a few tests and tried 1-2 games to test the GPU, and then went to try to customize it (i.e. try hard to install Win 7, which took me for ages and didn't yield any results). Until about 2 weeks ago, the preinstalled Windows 10 had worked (but had a few problems here and there), and then, after a failed update or something, it broke, with all the problems I described in this thread.
I have no idea what happened to the laptop before I got it; the only thing I could find that the HDD had 3000+ operating hours (via CrystalDiskInfo), so it certainly was in use before.

It might be easiest to remove drives, copy anything off them you want to keep, delete all contents and only put the ssd in when you install windows - windows has this habit of putting parts of itself in any extra blank space it finds, so only having 1 drive in stops it.
See if we can install then. I suspect the BSOD were from the old install.

Which version of windows is up to you, but finding drivers for win 7 on a device with only win 10 drivers is a challenge.

Well actually there's a third drive in there (a 2.5" SSD). Here's my original plans for the laptop (still not sure if feasible, but gaining hope):

• 250 GB M.2 SSD -> preinstalled Win 10 Home (the one that broke now). I wanted to preserve the OS in order to be able to resell it together with the laptop, but I didn't intend to actually use it myself. So I wanted to remove the drive and put it aside, and only reinsert it when I intend to sell the laptop.
• 1 TB 2.5" HDD -> this one will remain in the laptop for data storage. The only thing I did was a test install of Windows 10 on it, then I formatted it (now it's a one partition drive without any files).
• 1 TB 2.5" SSD -> this is intended to be my primary boot drive. It didn't come with the laptop, I installed it myself. I also did one test install of Win 10 and did a few tests on how to partition, and then wiped the drive clean again (I had to format it 10+ times). Right now, it should be completely clean (not even partitioned).

For the 2.5" SSD, I wanted to have a triple boot drive: Win 10 Pro, Win 7 Pro and Ubuntu 22.04 (there are use cases for each one). Ubuntu shouldn't be a problem since it's the only one I still can boot into now. Windows 10 should hopefully work without any problems as soon as I've implemented your advice. Win 7 is the tricky one, but I hope this problem will also be resolved after a clean reinstall.​

As for the Windows 7 drivers, here's what I found:
https://download.schenker-tech.de/package/xmg-p507-2017/ -> all drivers for my laptop (including BIOS updates)
https://download.schenker-tech.de/package/xmg-p506/ -> predecessor model, Clevo P651RE, which DOES have Win 7 drivers
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-XMG-P506-Clevo-P651RE-Notebook-Review.152021.0.html

On the Clevo Computer site, there's a link to their public servers for all their software:
https://clevo-computer.com/en/support-drivers

HiDrive

my.hidrive.com

Here, both devices share one folder; but P65xHx only has Win 10 drivers, while P65xRx also has Win 7 drivers:
https://my.hidrive.com/share/yze8mg-wf8#$/Drivers Laptops/P65x P67x

The guy in the German forum thread that I had already posted above claims to have successfully used the P506 (P651RE) Win 7 drivers for this hardware, and the manufacturer representative confirmed that some parts are in fact the same:
https://extreme-pcgameshardware-de...._sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp



What is the best way to proceed now? My thoughts would be, as you both suggested above, to first copy all files off the 250 GB SSD, wipe it blank, then remove all three drives, boot the laptop in UEFI mode (does it automatically boot in UEFI mode?), reinsert the drive and reinstall Windows 10 Home on the 250 GB SSD. Then, if everything works, I can safely remove it again and put it aside until I'll need it again for selling the laptop.
Do I have to format the 1 TB HDD again even if there are no files on it right now, just to remove every trace of a previous Windows 10 installation?
And what would be the best order to set up the triple boot? Do I have to format the drive again? Which system should I install first? I already found out that Windows likes to make extra partitions, so it wouldn't install on a pre-formatted drive. Maybe start with Win 10, then continue with Win 7 and then use the remaining space for Ubuntu?

Sorry for all the text, I just wanted to put out my plans and hear your opinion, whether it sounds like it could be something worth trying.

 

[Colif]

Do I have to format the 1 TB HDD again even if there are no files on it right now, just to remove every trace of a previous Windows 10 installation?

you shouldn't. Depends on how you intend to triple boot, one ssd with all 3 OS or something on this drive as well?

if you triple boot, you need to start with the oldest version of windows 1st
so Win 7
then install win 10
then install linux.

if you install 7 after 10, it has no idea what 10 is and will replace the boot details. win 10 won't boot after this.
If you add 10 after 7, it adds itself to the boot menu without removing 7
I assume linux just adds self without looking at windows.

 

[GeraltH1]

you shouldn't. Depends on how you intend to triple boot, one ssd with all 3 OS or something on this drive as well?

if you triple boot, you need to start with the oldest version of windows 1st
so Win 7
then install win 10
then install linux.

if you install 7 after 10, it has no idea what 10 is and will replace the boot details. win 10 won't boot after this.
If you add 10 after 7, it adds itself to the boot menu without removing 7
I assume linux just adds self without looking at windows.

Yes, the 2.5" SSD is intended to have 3 partitions, each for one OS - at least 500 GB for Win 10, and some subdivision of the remaining disk space for Win 7 and Ubuntu, respectively.
The HDD is for data storage purposes only, for general use from all OS's.

Okay, I see, thank you. I currently have one other system with Win 7/Win 10 dual boot, and I wasn't sure anymore which one I installed first, but apparently it must have been Win 7.

There's one more thing I maybe should figure out before wiping the 250 GB SSD: the preinstalled Windows 10 Home serial key. I don't know the serial since it wasn't me who installed it, but I'll need it in order to reactivate the OS after the reinstall. I know that it should be possible to read out the serial from the OS itself, but since it's currently broken, I need to find another way. Are there any methods to find out the original serial of the Windows 10 OS?
I should mention that I haven't seen any stickers on the case, and I have no printed manuals or anything for the laptop (all I got from the reseller was the device itself and the PSU).

 

[Colif]

I am not an expert on dual boot really. But I think you need to have a boot partition... not sure what linux would do.

i don't know what win 10 does to add itself in that situation.

I might ask others for help on this bit.

Win 10 will reactivate itself when installed. The details of that PC + a copy of the licence key are saved on Microsoft servers. When you reinstall win 10 and get to part of install asking for a key, you click "I don't have one" and win 10 will continue to install and once you reach desktop, will contact servers and check activation. And if it finds it, reactivate. You don't have to do anything.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

.....I assume linux just adds self without looking at windows.

Nope. Linux installs its own boot (GRUB). It should (once in a while it misses) add already present Windows installations to the GRUB menu.