Question Windows flashing taskbar crash/freeze ?

[KalebPi]

Windows 10 home 64bit
AMD Ryzen 7 1700x
32GB RAM
Gigabyte AX370-gaming 3
Gigabyte 2060 super
BIOS ver F25 American megatrends

So normally how this problem goes is. I'm using my computer. Playing a game (ac Valhalla) or watching YouTube. ( It happened 6 times in a row while playing the game just now) my computer will kind of freeze. PS5 controler using ds4windows won't work and neither will the keyboard/mouse in the game. The game still plays though. Can go to the desktop via alt-tab, but the wallpaper engine isn't popping back up. I can open task manager but it's laggy.

I can sometimes open file explorer but even if it opens it's not very usable. Eventually, nothing will open. I have to hard shutdown using the button on my case. It either takes too long to reset in software or it won't. Then after i turn it back on and log in. My taskbar is flashing and nothing will load except task manager and sometimes things I can open through task manager. but it's really laggy and strange. But then I can reset in software this time. I have been fixing this problem by resetting and booting into safe mode and doing nothing but resetting again after that. Then windows loads and works fine. Sometimes if I just wait while it is flashing, it will stop and everything will boot up like normal.

The crash is now happening constantly while I am playing ac Valhalla (haven't tested other games) The crash has been happening every so often and I have 50hrs in ac Valhalla but it's all of a sudden unplayable.

This has become a serious issue. Thanks for any help! And let me know if you need any info. But I'm guessing not because I've come across similar posts around the internet and no one seems to have a solution.

 

[Colif]

What ssd/hdd do you have?
What PSU do you have?

Does it only happen in games? I was asking as I would run in safe mode otherwise and see if it still happens.

 

[KalebPi]

Oops yeah, I should have posted those. I have a

Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB
SanDisk SDSSDA240G
ST3000DM001-1ER166
ST3000DM008-2DM166
Western Digital WD Blue SN550 M.2 SSD 1TB

Seasonic S12III 550

It doesn't seem to happen in safe mode (but ill double check). And I think it has happened out of a game, but it defiantly gets worse with a game running now.

 

[KalebPi]

Update. Not a good one.

After trying many solutions. It keeps happening. So I figured I would update my BIOS I was on f25 since I got the motherboard. So I went to update to f31 after updating my AMD chipset drivers as instructed by a gigabytes website. I updated the BIOS. It reached 100%. But when the computer reset I am stuck on the BIOS splash page And I am unable to get into the BIOS And it won't boot. I have unplugged my RAM, tried using one stick, and two sticks. I have unplugged all the SATA cables. I unplugged the GPU. I reset the CMOs by removing the battery and also by shorting the cmos pins.
When I reset the CMOs it does seem to boot up differently so I'm assuming that it is actually resetting, but it doesn't seem to help regardless.

On this board there are four lights that it goes through when booting and I've noticed that it is stuck on the light for the graphics card. Indicating that something is wrong with that. (unless it just sits there because there's actually something wrong with the boot since that is the next light and it never actually goes to that light).

Also when it does boot it only beeps once.

I do have dual BIOS. But I have no memory of ever setting that up or doing anything with it. I tried to hold down the power button as it turns on and off. The next option with that would be to touch the one and six pins on the dual BIOS chip in order to force it. But I figured I would post here to see if I could continue to get help.

If not I'm assuming I'm just going to have to buy a new motherboard or a new bios chip If that works.

And at that point I'll probably just go ahead and reinstall windows Which one of those two things should fix the original problem.

 

[Colif]

Dual BIOS - There are 2 bios but you can only use one of them. The other one is there in case the main one fails. If that happens, the PC is meant to restart, flash the corrupted bios using the other bios and then restart PC again. It can't run off the 2nd bios

if it doesn't happen in safe mode it could be drivers

try running magician on Evo - https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/
try this on sandisk ssd - https://www.techspot.com/downloads/5363-sandisk-ssd-toolkit.html
Seagate drives - https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/
Western Digital - https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en&p=279

I don't know about that GPU light, test the drives and see if they okay

 

[KalebPi]

Yeah I will do that once I am able to get into Windows if the issue still persists at that point. Like I said stuck on the bios splash screen. Windows won't boot and I can't get into bios settings.

 

[Colif]

Can you get into windows now?

Can you download and run Driverview - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/driverview.html

All it does is looks at drivers installed; it won't install any (this is intentional as 3rd party driver updaters often get it wrong)

When you run it, go into view tab and set it to hide all Microsoft drivers, will make list shorter.

Can you take a screenshot from (and including)Driver name to (and including)Creation date.

upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

I am just going to look at what drivers you have and see what I can offer as updates.

 

[KalebPi]

I can not get into windows now. Sadly. It will sit on the bios splash screen. I can not use Del, F12, End...etc to get into the bios settings. It will sit there for at least 7min, assuming forever. keyboard and mouse light up as well. (tried another keyboard too). I'm guessing the bios got corrupted and the dual bios into activating. tomorrow I am going to try to force it by bridging pins 1 and 6 of the m-bios chip. Regardless of if that works, I ordered a better motherboard last night (wanted a new one anyway) that will arrive in a few days. So once I get back into windows, Ill try those fixes you suggested.

But also if you have an idea with the stuck on bios splash screen then definitely let me know.

Thanks a bunch for your help! Ill post when there is an update.

 

[KalebPi]

okay new motherboard. back in windows. booted up and still had the flashing taskbar, but it to in. here you go. and thank you for your help.

https://imgur.com/NBQXfLB

View: https://imgur.com/NBQXfLB

also, I installed Samsung magician and I am not sure what to run with it. i looked around and it says everything is healthy/ok.
and I'm going to just do a reinstall of windows soon. I've looked around with people having the same problem. looks like its windows screwing up another update that caused it. But ill wait to see what you say. maybe we can find another solution that could help others.

 

[Colif]

deleted messages - if you try to use Gyazo, you get that reaction. It was a guess.

Sorry mb didn't fix it.

which version of win 10

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

if you on 21H1, you could try a repair install since you think problem is windows - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html
that only replaces windows, it should fix it if probelm is windows.

 

[KalebPi]

ha yes it was gyazo.

it's all good, I didn't expect the mb to fix the original problem anyway. (plus it was a nice upgrade)

right now I am on 20H2
Should I just update to 21H1 then?

Edit: I updated and then did the repair. later today ill play the game to see if it still crashes and does the flashing on reboot.

 

[Colif]

how did you go?

 

[KalebPi]

Alright so after doing the repair. Just now the PC crashed again while playing the game and when I restarted. the taskbar was flashing. So not fixed. Anything else to try? and would reinstalling windows even do anything since the repair didn't fix it. (assuming it could since programs would be uninstalled)

 

[Colif]

i have asked somewhere to see if anyone else has any smart ideas as I might be overlooking something.

 

[Eximo]

If you did have a buggy motherboard, now would be the time to re-install Windows from scratch. Or at least test another operating system to see if the system is stable at all. Try a Live Linux distribution, maybe run some benchmarks in there.

 

[KalebPi]

I'll reinstall from scratch. it's nice to clear out applications I don't use anymore anyway. I won't do it immediately though, prob in a fewish days. so if anyone has any more ideas then definitely share! and thanks Colif and Eximo for your help so far! I'll post with any updates

 

[KalebPi]

think this could be a RAM issue? If it crashes while playing a game then it must be caused by something running. I say ram because I just noticed that Nvidia Container is consistently running at around 30% ram usage when nothing is happening. And keeps writing data to the files in C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\nvtopps.
Also, the C drive is where windows is installed.
This may be a completely different issue. there are forums on Nvidias forums for both of these problems with many having the same problem and with no solution as usual ha.

Just figured I would post. Just in case!

 

[Colif]

i think there is a way to read the output of nvtopps, I have seen it before

maybe a txt file in the nvidia folder

"C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\nvtopps\nvtopps.log"

btw, you not only one with large data reads in last 24 hours - https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics-cards/5/460415/what-is-nvtoppsdb3/

 

[KalebPi]

oh yeah, I actually posted on that forum. I looked at the logs, no clue what they mean, not much on google when I copy and paste them ha.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YCwbCMBvUvkKG_5HBelrUE7Qs-HzkfTl/view?usp=sharing if you're interested

But since this is happening to everyone recently, it may not be the cause.

 

[Colif]

It seems to be repeats of the same operations

example

Spoiler

[06:12:04.559 2021/08/13]INFO: nvtopps initialize...
[06:12:04.559 2021/08/13]INFO: Num GPUs: 1
[06:12:04.559 2021/08/13]INFO: NvapiAdapter initialize succeeded
[06:12:07.559 2021/08/13]INFO: [NvModel::Model::createStorageObject]INFO: NvTOPPS DB opened as C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\nvtopps\nvtopps.db3
[06:12:07.559 2021/08/13]INFO: [NvModel::Model::createStorageObject]INFO: NvTOPPS DB opened as :memory:
[06:12:07.559 2021/08/13]INFO: [NvModel::Model::createStorageObject]INFO: NvTOPPS DB opened as C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_253e24b785ea60ca\Display.NvContainer\nvtopps.db3
[06:12:08.311 2021/08/13]INFO: [NvModel::Model::initialize]INFO: NvTOPPS DB populated from C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\nvtopps\nvtopps.db3
[06:12:08.311 2021/08/13]INFO: model initialize succeeded
[06:12:08.327 2021/08/13]INFO: INFO! osPortGetNvContainerInstallPath: NvContainer install path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_253e24b785ea60ca\Display.NvContainer\
[06:12:08.327 2021/08/13]INFO: INFO! osPortGetMessageBusConfigFilePath: MessageBus config path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_253e24b785ea60ca\Display.NvContainer\messagebus_client.conf
[06:12:08.342 2021/08/13]ERROR! ERROR! osPortNvToppsRegkeyDword: RegOpenKeyEx Failed: 179
[06:12:08.342 2021/08/13]ERROR! ERROR! osPortNvToppsRegkeyDword: RegOpenKeyEx Failed: 179
[06:12:08.342 2021/08/13]ERROR! ERROR! osPortNvToppsRegkeyDword: RegOpenKeyEx Failed: 179
[06:12:08.342 2021/08/13]INFO: PmuDataMonitor::initialize: gpu=0000000000000800
[06:12:08.342 2021/08/13]INFO: JpacWorker initialize...
[06:12:08.342 2021/08/13]INFO: JPAC config ID 10
[06:12:08.358 2021/08/13]CRITICAL! System configuration does not support JPAC
[06:12:08.358 2021/08/13]INFO: JpacWorker cleaning up.
[06:12:08.358 2021/08/13]INFO: JpacWorker uninitialize...
[06:12:08.358 2021/08/13]INFO: JpacWorker uninitialize complete.
[06:12:08.358 2021/08/13]ERROR! Failed to initialize a worker
[06:12:08.358 2021/08/13]INFO: workerManager initialize succeeded
[06:12:08.358 2021/08/13]INFO: IpcDispatcher start 1
[06:12:08.358 2021/08/13]INFO: global settings start 1
[06:12:08.358 2021/08/13]INFO: PmuDataMonitor::start: gpu=0000000000000800
[06:12:08.374 2021/08/13]INFO: workerManager start 1
[06:12:08.374 2021/08/13]INFO: NVIDIA device has arrived: 0000000000000800
[06:12:08.389 2021/08/13]INFO: systemState start 1
[06:12:08.405 2021/08/13]ERROR! NVAPI ERROR, Error code -1
[06:12:08.405 2021/08/13]ERROR! NVAPI ERROR message NVAPI_ERROR
[06:12:08.436 2021/08/13]ERROR! NVAPI ERROR, Error code -104
[06:12:08.436 2021/08/13]ERROR! NVAPI ERROR message NVAPI_NOT_SUPPORTED
[06:12:08.436 2021/08/13]INFO: ScannerManager changing state to 4

ERROR! ERROR! osPortNvToppsRegkeyDword: RegOpenKeyEx Failed: 179 = GPU couldn't change power scheme
ERROR! NVAPI ERROR message NVAPI_NOT_SUPPORTED - this just means a function of app not supported by GPU

You could always run DDU in safe mode and reinstall Nvidia drivers and see if it helps - https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq...n-install-of-your-video-card-drivers.2402269/

 

[KalebPi]

hey sorry for the long time to reply. I just moved and am getting settled in with a new job and such. I will eventually reinstall windows and will update eventually if that works. Also on the GPU drivers. thanks, I will look into that as well before the windows reinstall. Oh, also Nvidia emailed me saying that the issue with NVIDIA Container doing crazy writing to the log constantly should be fixed in the next driver update. and that update came out a couple of days ago. So I'm installing that now.