Having more problems

[Dayve]

I made the other thread, where my PC was freezing up solid at random (usually when turned on and as soon as the desktop loads, before I even start doing anything) but it only happened three or four times, then for 3 days everything was totally fine, so I chalked it up to just some freak error with it being a totally new PC.

Now I had another problem today. Before I explain it I will just say I'm not using Windows Defender, I use Avira antivirus (used it for years), I did a full scan with Avira and Malwarebytes just before making this thread, my machine is 100% clean.

So I'm watching a documentary, website is vidbull.com, it's a streaming website. I get blue screen, it says something about "computer encountered an error, we're gathering some info and will restart for you".

It also said "If you call your computer manufacturer give them this error message: unexpected store exception".

I don't get it. Once again the computer was working 100% fine all morning, I played Civ 6 for 2 hours and then I played Witcher 3 for an hour and a half or thereabouts, I watched stuff on Youtube, went to various news websites and so on, and everything was completely fine. I go out, come home, turn the PC on, random blue screen error and restart.

 

[ubuysa]

I realise you've been an Avira user for some time but it is possible that this is the cause of your BSOD. I would suggest uninstalling AVira and running with Windows Defender for a couple of weeks, if you no longer get the BSOD talk to Avira support.

It's always worth checking your hard disk with problems like this. Open up a command prompt and enter "chkdsk /r" (without the quotes. You'll have to reboot so do so, chkdsk may well take a long time to run on big disks. If you have more than one hard disk check them all.

Also run the system file checker. Open an elevated command prompt and enter the command "sfc /scannow" (without the quotes). This also takes a long time to run. If there are any errors reported and corrected see whether your BSOD has gone. If errors are reported and not corrected let me know.

Of course it's always important with any BSOD to make sure all your drivers are up to date and properly installed.

 

[Dayve]

I realise you've been an Avira user for some time but it is possible that this is the cause of your BSOD. I would suggest uninstalling AVira and running with Windows Defender for a couple of weeks, if you no longer get the BSOD talk to Avira support.

It's always worth checking your hard disk with problems like this. Open up a command prompt and enter "chkdsk /r" (without the quotes. You'll have to reboot so do so, chkdsk may well take a long time to run on big disks. If you have more than one hard disk check them all.

Also run the system file checker. Open an elevated command prompt and enter the command "sfc /scannow" (without the quotes). This also takes a long time to run. If there are any errors reported and corrected see whether your BSOD has gone. If errors are reported and not corrected let me know.

Of course it's always important with any BSOD to make sure all your drivers are up to date and properly installed.

Thanks, I'll run those two things and report back. My graphics card driver was way out of date (GTX 1060 6GB) but there has been no problems at all playing games so I doubt it was that. That's updated to the latest driver now anyways.

 

[Dayve]

I scanned c drive which is my SSD, how do I scan d drive which is my 2GB HDD? Or did that one scan check them both? I'm guessing it found no errors with the previous scan though since it didn't report any to me?

Edit: Ran the system checker, it found 1 corrupt file, but it was just a desktop wallpaper (from what I could gather from the end of the log generated). Surely that couldn't cause total system freezes?

 

[ubuysa]

I scanned c drive which is my SSD, how do I scan d drive which is my 2GB HDD? Or did that one scan check them both? I'm guessing it found no errors with the previous scan though since it didn't report any to me?

Chkdsk test whichever drive has the focus, so to test your HDD (the D: drive?) just enter D: and press enter to switch drives, then run chkdsk again.

Edit: Ran the system checker, it found 1 corrupt file, but it was just a desktop wallpaper (from what I could gather from the end of the log generated). Surely that couldn't cause total system freezes?

I'm not at all sure that desktop wallpaper would count as a system files but I could be wrong. Was the error corrected? That's what's important.

Good move updating the graphics driver. I'd run chkdsk on the HDD and assuming that's clean see how thing go for a while before making any further changes.

 

[Dayve]

I'll scan the D drive (which is my HDD) later. Just had another freeze, same old story. PC is working absolutely fine for more than 2 days, heavy usage. Came home tonight, turned it on, Geforce Experience told me there was a driver update as soon as the desktop loaded up, so I hit "download" and the whole PC froze again.

I think I'll probably send it back (unless this next scan fixes something and it doesn't happen again) because there's obviously something very not right.

 

[ubuysa]

Before you send it back, backup all your data and do a completely clean reinstall of Windows. To do that boot the Windows install disk and choose a custom install. Delete all partitions on your system drive (if you use secureboot there will be several) so that all the space shows as unallocated. Then click new and all the required partitions will be created if you use secureboot or a large partition and a very small partition will be created if you use legacy boot. In both cases select the largest partition and install WIndows into that.

Once Windows has installed install all the PCS supplied drivers. They might not be the latest but they were the ones PCS used to test it and they should work.

Then run Windows update until there are no more updates found. You now have the most stable software platform you can get, so leave it in that state for a while (ideally a couple of days) and see whether it fails in that pristine state. Do not install any other software at all. If it does fail then it's likely hardware and you will need an RMA. If it doesn't fail it was likely a software or driver error and you've probably just fixed it.

 

[Dayve]

Before you send it back, backup all your data and do a completely clean reinstall of Windows. To do that boot the Windows install disk and choose a custom install. Delete all partitions on your system drive (if you use secureboot there will be several) so that all the space shows as unallocated. Then click new and all the required partitions will be created if you use secureboot or a large partition and a very small partition will be created if you use legacy boot. In both cases select the largest partition and install WIndows into that.

Once Windows has installed install all the PCS supplied drivers. They might not be the latest but they were the ones PCS used to test it and they should work.

Then run Windows update until there are no more updates found. You now have the most stable software platform you can get, so leave it in that state for a while (ideally a couple of days) and see whether it fails in that pristine state. Do not install any other software at all. If it does fail then it's likely hardware and you will need an RMA. If it doesn't fail it was likely a software or driver error and you've probably just fixed it.

When you say don't install any other software, you mean like... other drivers and stuff right? I mean, it can't be Firefox or STEAM or STEAM games causing this.

 

[Dayve]

Here's a bunch of errors I consistently get in the event viewer. I'll put them here in case anybody recognizes them as something that could potentially be causing this and help me out.

Also I disabled Microsoft OneDrive because I don't use it. Also the "chkdsk" on both my SSD and HDD came out fine and found no errors.

Error: Failed to add firewall exception for C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\bin\steamwebhelper.exe

The above is the most common one, I get it every single time I turn on the computer. Googling doesn't help me with this at all.

Cryptographic Services failed while processing the OnIdentity() call in the System Writer Object.

Details:
AddLegacyDriverFiles: Unable to back up image of binary Microsoft Link-Layer Discovery Protocol.

System Error:
Access is denied.

and

Windows failed fast startup with error status 0xC00000D4.

and

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{8D8F4F83-3594-4F07-8369-FC3C3CAE4919}
and APPID
{F72671A9-012C-4725-9D2F-2A4D32D65169}
to the user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM SID (S-1-5-18) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC) running in the application container Unavailable SID (Unavailable). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

^^^^ I think the PC froze after I got this error yesterday. The next event in the log after this one was 7 minutes later and said "the operating system has started".

 

[ubuysa]

When you say don't install any other software, you mean like... other drivers and stuff right? I mean, it can't be Firefox or STEAM or STEAM games causing this.

Actually I do mean no other software. It is unlikely, I agree, that Firefox or Steam could be causing this, but you don't know for sure. The only way to know whether it's hardware or software is to install the most stable platform you can - and that's just Windows, the drivers and Windows updates.

BTW. You should also disconnect all external devices except for the mouse and keyboard. I realise all this will make your PC effectively unusable for two or three days but that's preferable to being without it for two or three weeks if you send it back - especially if they find nothing wrong with the hardware.

From the problems you report in you last post this looks like a software issue to me, a clean reinstall will probably fix it.

 

[Dayve]

Actually I do mean no other software. It is unlikely, I agree, that Firefox or Steam could be causing this, but you don't know for sure. The only way to know whether it's hardware or software is to install the most stable platform you can - and that's just Windows, the drivers and Windows updates.

BTW. You should also disconnect all external devices except for the mouse and keyboard. I realise all this will make your PC effectively unusable for two or three days but that's preferable to being without it for two or three weeks if you send it back - especially if they find nothing wrong with the hardware.

From the problems you report in you last post this looks like a software issue to me, a clean reinstall will probably fix it.

Right then. I'll give PCspecialist a ring at 9am to see if they have any other suggestions and if not I'll do a clean windows install. If I'm going to test it for a few days after that though... I'll need to install SOMETHING, otherwise how will I know if it's freezing or not? So far the only times it has frozen have been when I'm doing something.

Using Firefox to watch videos/order takeaway food, or updating my GeForce driver. So I'm going to have to use internet explorer to watch some videos and stuff to see if I get any freezes (which will require me to download and install flash and java), and I'll need to update my graphics driver too. I'll need to do stuff to see if it freezes.

Also, if it WAS STEAM/Firefox and/or STEAM games causing those freezes... then surely it has to be a hardware problem? For such stable and commonly used worldwide programs like those to cause total system freezes... gotta be something wrong inside the box.

 

[Dayve]

Someone at Pcspecialist thought it might be the LAN driver. I've re-installed that from the ASUS disk. We'll see if it happens again now!

 

[ubuysa]

If you do a reinstall you really do want to keep things as simple as possible. The more you change and the more you install the greater the risk of you reinstalling the problem.

 

[Dayve]

If you do a reinstall you really do want to keep things as simple as possible. The more you change and the more you install the greater the risk of you reinstalling the problem.

I will. Before I go with the nuclear option (reinstalling windows) though, I'll give this LAN driver I just reinstalled another chance. If it freezes again they told me to call them back, and they'll remotely take control of the computer and see what they can do. If it's still doing it after then, then it's reinstall time.

 

[ubuysa]

I will. Before I go with the nuclear option (reinstalling windows) though, I'll give this LAN driver I just reinstalled another chance. If it freezes again they told me to call them back, and they'll remotely take control of the computer and see what they can do. If it's still doing it after then, then it's reinstall time.

Yep, excellent idea. It's always wiser to follow PCS's instructions that anything we might tell you on here!

 

[Dayve]

Nope, sending it back lol. Froze again today immediately after booting up and opening Firefox after the desktop loaded. Had to hold down the power button to turn it off, now it's not booting up. Something comes up on the screen but it only stays there for such a short time (like a quarter of a second) that all I can make out is "error". There's more but I can't read anything in time.

Anyway it won't boot up at all now. That screen comes on for a brief second, then the screen goes black and there's beeping noises. I'm pretty confident in saying something inside there is faulty. Has to be. I knew none of the programs/drivers I've installed could be causing problems like this, it's all common stuff that everybody uses all the time.

Back to my trusty old previous PCS PC! (the middle one in my sig) for a week or two I reckon!

 

[ubuysa]

Fair enough. Backup any user data you have on there first though, even if you have to pull the drives to do that.

 

[Dayve]

Fair enough. Backup any user data you have on there first though, even if you have to pull the drives to do that.

Meh, there's nothing on there worth backing up. All I've done is install STEAM, a few games, and make a few bookmarks in Firefox. I'm not important enough to have data that's worth backing up, I just work in a care home and play games in my spare time.

 

[Dayve]

Update (if anybody cares lol)

PCS have had the PC for 5 days now give or take, and it's fixed. The problem was a faulty SSD which has been replaced. If I'm reading the updates right it has been dispatched back to me today, so with a bit of luck I should have it back before Friday!

 

[overthehill]

Are you up & running now Dayve , problem solved?