BSOD that seems to be related to wireless adapter

Cynthia Moore

Cynthia Moore

Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2021
Posts
11
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
I am posting this for a friend. I have full access to her computer for any tests that need to be done.

About 8-10 days ago, while she was away, her Dell laptop started failing with the BSOD. The error message was:

Stop Code: SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED

She got some help from a granddaughter she was visiting and they got it working for 2-3 days. She cannot remember what they did. :unsure:

When she returned, I did a little checking, but could not fix the problem. I then posted a question on the Bleeping Computer forum.

BSOD - system thread exception not handled - Windows Crashes and Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Help and Support (bleepingcomputer.com)

Since it's running Windows 10 and Office 365, I posted a question on the Microsoft Community forum.

I keep getting the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) even after a - Microsoft Community

I got a lot of help there. They requested the Windows minidump files, which I uploaded to Dropbox. I was told that the problem was with the wireless adapter. Based on that, I plugged her laptop into our LAN using a cat5 cable. When connected that way, it runs fine -- no BSOD failures.

I was instructed to install the latest Qualcomm driver, then uninstall, and a few other tests. The uninstall seemed to work. The PC was running fine without the cat5 cable for a day. Then this morning, it failed again with the same error. I plugged it back into the cat5 cable and it is running fine now. The details of what was tried are listed in that thread.

I also called Dell. I was told that the PC was out of warranty, but I could buy a one-time support ticket for $99, which I did. I was told a tech would call between 11 and 1. They never called. About 1:30 I called them. They connected my with a tech who logged in remotely, ran all kinds of tests, and eventually reinstalled Windows. At one point, he said it would take about 2-3 hours and would call me back. It took less than an hour and he never called back. I called them. Another tech did a coupole of tests and said they would call back the next day. They never called. So I gave up on Dell. Nothing they did made any difference.

I just ran your BSOD collection app a few minutes ago. I also ran it twice before. I have uploaded all three ZIP files here:

Sysnative

They are time stamped (PT) in the filename to show when they were taken.

I have also uploaded two ZIP files containing the minidumps, if they are helpful. One was taken 3 days again and the other this morning.

Minidump

Please let me know if you need anything more.

Thanks,

-cm
 
OK. I think I have most of the additional information you requested.

Her PC is a Dell E5470 laptop. It's about 5 years old. Here's a screen snippet from the Device specifications page in Settings. I think that answers most of the system spec questions. If you need more, let me know what and how to get it.

04 Device specifications.jpg

This PC is used primarily for email (Outlook), Zoom calls, saving photos of the grandkids, and browsers (Amazon, jetBlue, etc.). I think she mostly uses Chrome, but I am trying to get her to switch to Firefox or Edge. It is not use for games other than things like Solitaire.

The security software is Malware Bytes. I just did an update and ran a complete scan. It found 94 threats. I had it quarantine then all. I then rebooted with the cat5 cable not attached. It got the same BSOD failure. Here's a screen shots of the initial scan.

I attached txt files of the before and after scan logs and a screen snippet of the results. I could not get the txt files to insert. I hope you can see them in the attachments. Here's the screen shot.

02 Quarantine log.jpg


She also has Microsoft Defender, I think.

I then downloaded and ran the speccy tool. Here's that URL:

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/dmSIgqd5Al1FlSikwenARa3

Let me know if you need anything more.
 

Attachments

PS: I already did all of the steps in the Troubleshoot page such as uninstalling third party software (she has very little of that), with the help of the techs on the Microsoft community, we disabled, uninstalled, and reinstalled the Qualcomm driver multiple times. It seems to be the problem, but without it, she cannot access any wireless networks.

PPS: I just ran a test by disabling the Qualcomm driver. Here a snippet of the device manager:

29 Qualcomm driver disabled.jpg

I then rebooted with the cat5 cable still plugged in. No problems. I then shut it down, disconnected the cat5 cable, and restarted it. It came up without a BSOD error, but, of course, she cannot do anything that requires an Internet connection (email, browsers, etc.).
 
Last edited:
Hi Cynthia,

I read the other threads briefly and have two guesses on the cause.
1. The Qualcomm network adapter might physically be defect therefore causing repeatedly crashes, unlikely
2. There is a bug in this Qualcomm driver, most likely after looking at the dumps.

From what I read, you have installed the same drivers multiple times, right? I suspect there is a bug in this version of the Qualcomm driver.
Rich (BB code): 
SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M (1000007e)
This is a very common bugcheck.  Usually the exception address pinpoints
the driver/function that caused the problem.  Always note this address
as well as the link date of the driver/image that contains this address.
Some common problems are exception code 0x80000003.  This means a hard
coded breakpoint or assertion was hit, but this system was booted
/NODEBUG.  This is not supposed to happen as developers should never have
hardcoded breakpoints in retail code, but ...
If this happens, make sure a debugger gets connected, and the
system is booted /DEBUG.  This will let us see why this breakpoint is
happening.
Arguments:
Arg1: ffffffff80000003, The exception code that was not handled
Arg2: fffff8032bd03863, The address that the exception occurred at
Arg3: ffffdc85961f6e88, Exception Record Address
Arg4: ffffdc85961f66c0, Context Record Address
Once the driver hits some piece of code, it stops in the middle of a process. As this driver is from Windows Update, have you checked Dell for a different version?
 
041021-34609-01:

Rich (BB code): 
3: kd> lmvm Qcamain10x64
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff800`794d0000 fffff800`7976f000   Qcamain10x64 T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: Qcamain10x64.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\Qcamain10x64.sys
    Image name: Qcamain10x64.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data
    Timestamp:        Tue Dec  8 22:31:57 2020 (5FCFFEDD)
    CheckSum:         00262858
    ImageSize:        0029F000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
    Information from resource tables:

Unloaded modules:
fffff800`94000000 fffff800`942a0000   Qcamain10x64
    Timestamp: unavailable (00000000)
    Checksum:  00000000
    ImageSize:  002A0000

It seems like the Qualcomm driver is causing the problem as you've found. It looks like someone has left an assert statement or something similar in the code, and since there is no debugger attached at the time of the crash, the system will simply throw a bugcheck as shown.

There does appears to be a newer driver on the Dell support page - Challenge Page

I'm not sure if they've tried that particular driver?
 
axe0 said:
Hi Cynthia,

I read the other threads briefly and have two guesses on the cause.
1. The Qualcomm network adapter might physically be defect therefore causing repeatedly crashes, unlikely
2. There is a bug in this Qualcomm driver, most likely after looking at the dumps.
Click to expand...
I just ran a series of tests as directed by the philc43 on the Microsoft forum. Device Manager lists 2 drivers. He had me do driver updates selecting each one. If I select the first one, no BSOD. If I select the second one, I eventually get a BSOD, usually after a reboot.

I'm pooped. It's 3 am here. I'm going to bed. If you can tell me how to remove a driver so Windows cannot install it and how to make sure I get the right one, I'll do that tomorrow morning.

Thanks.
 
x BlueRobot said:
It seems like the Qualcomm driver is causing the problem as you've found. It looks like someone has left an assert statement or something similar in the code, and since there is no debugger attached at the time of the crash, the system will simply throw a bugcheck as shown.

There does appears to be a newer driver on the Dell support page - Challenge Page

I'm not sure if they've tried that particular driver?
Click to expand...
Somehow, I got the machine working back in April. Then about 6 weeks ago, it happened again. I had a local tech come to the house. He said it was because of a recent Windows update. He backed it out and the BSOD went away. He told me he disabled updates until January. Well, now it's January and the BSOD is back.

Yesterday, I spent over 2 hours on the phone with Dell. Since it crashes shortly after logging in, he was not able to remote in. I ended up having him remote into to this machine, then I turned on the rear camera so he could see the screen of the failing PC. He had me do a bunch of stuff including downloading 3 drivers. One of them was that Qualcomm driver. The other 2 drivers installed without a problem, but when I tried to install the Qualcomm, it said something like, "not compatible with this platform". We tried several times.

The machine no longer gets the BSOD, but it cannot connect to our LAN, so no Internet.

I just went to the support page you referenced and downloaded that driver. It's the same one I tried to install yesterday with the Dell tech.

We have decided to buy a new PC. I just posted another question about using Macrium to take a backup so we can migrate the data to the new PC. But if there is a way we can get this one working until we get the new one, that would be great.

Thanks
 
Hmm, I'll have to check the driver package myself, it may be targeting a particular build of Windows.
 
Cynthia Moore said:
I just went to the support page you referenced and downloaded that driver. It's the same one I tried to install yesterday with the Dell tech.
Click to expand...
There is a later version released back in June 2021? Were you attempting to install that one?

Challenge Page

The one which I originally referred to was from February 2021.
 

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