[SOLVED] Mysterious freezes

B

Blackcrimson

Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2022
Posts
10
Mysterious Total System Freeze (Forcing manual restart)
I have already posted it on techsupportforum, but I will repeat it here, as it was suggested I come here.

· OS - Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 or Vista? Windows 10 Home
· x86 (32-bit) or x64 ? x64 , Version 21H2, Build 19044.1566 , Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4170.0
· What was the original installed OS on the system? Windows 7 Home PRemium Service Pack 1 X64
· Is the OS an OEM version (came pre-installed on system) or full retail version (YOU purchased it from retailer)? Installed by the retailer, updated to Windows 10 by the tool
· Approximate age of system (hardware) Around six/seven years (2015)
· Approximate age of OS installation (if you know) The same, I suspect
· Have you re-installed the OS? No

· CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz (8 CPUs), ~4.0GHz
· Video Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
· MotherBoard (if NOT a laptop) MSI Z97-G45 GAMING Sockel 1150, ATX
· Power Supply - brand & wattage (if NOT a laptop) EVGA 650W,80Plus Gold
· System Manufacturer Atelco Computers (The retailer I bought it from)
· Exact model number (if laptop, check label on bottom) Laptop or Desktop? Desktop


My PC freezes completely at random, but only when I play games. At first, I thought it was a specific game but it happened during others too.
Usually 10 or 20 minutes in, and other times no freeze for days even if I play a game for 8+ hours (Even if a more demanding game, such as Warhammer 3).
It may be important, the freezes happened on "Subnautica" which uses Unity engine, afaik, and on "Path of Titans" Which uses Unreal Engine 4.
If these two games have something in common, like a library or something that causes the freeze, perhaps that's it. Hopefully it's not a hardware problem, that's gonna be painful.

The freeze causes the image to stop, no response of any controls and the sound also starts buzzing, forcing me to manually reset the PC.

I used DISM and SFC and didn't see any results. It patched/repaired a NET Framework thing, but freezes still happened. I used windows memory thing, didn't see any errors.
I have Malwarebytes Premium installed and Avira Security. The freezes began a few weeks ago.

On these days:
26.02.22 around 16:00
03.03.22 around 13:20
09.03.22 around 17:51
I know this from the event viewer logs, where I looked. I do not find the particular error, but it shows a Kernel-Power errors because of the manual restart.
There were some perflib errors and DistributedCOM warnings in yellow.
Maybe knowing where exactly the freezes happen helps one of you who is looking through the file collection app.

Perhaps it is related to some windows update? There are optional intel drivers available.
I updated my Nvidia driver and that did not fix the freezes.
 

Attachments

Could this be what causes the freezes?

"Windows cannot open the 64-bit extensible counter DLL C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\aspnet_perf.dll in a 32-bit environment (Win32 error code C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\aspnet_perf.dll is not a valid Win32 application.). Contact the file vendor to obtain a 32-bit version. Alternatively if you are running a 64-bit native environment, you can open the 64-bit extensible counter DLL by using the 64-bit version of Performance Monitor. To use this tool, open the Windows folder, open the System32 folder, and then start Perfmon.exe."

I am too afraid of playing any games since a week because of those freezes. I don't know what causes them, that's the most annoying part.
 
My advice to you:

1. Make sure your UEFI/BIOS is up to date. Do whatever it is your manufacturer requires to boot into BIOS and look at what version is shown. Then go to the Drivers & Downloads page for your make and model and if there is a newer version, get it installed.

2. Doing a Windows 10 Repair Install or Feature Update Using the Windows 10 ISO file

See if the problem is now gone. If it is not, follow it with

3. Go to the Drivers & Downloads page of your computer's OEM support and fetch the latest drivers they have there, particularly video and other media related drivers. Manufacturers do all sorts of customizations to drivers to match their hardware. Install these.

4. If you have a video card, get its latest driver from it's OEM support pages and install it.

Then do some watchful waiting to see if the issue is now resolved.

The order of the steps is to work from "the foundation up." The second post you made does suggest a "shaky foundation" and the repair install can (and most often does) fix that, but you may need to go further. If you want to do all four of the above steps it absolutely cannot hurt before you start watchful waiting.
 
By the way, I did just notice that your machine is a custom build.

If the manufacturer of your machine does not feature drivers & downloads support page(s), as far as UEFI/BIOS goes, updates should be sourced from the motherboard maker's site. All other driver updates should be source from the component maker's site.

My gut tells me that your BIOS is likely long overdue for an update, at a minimum.
 
Thank you. I used the MSI Live Update 6 program to install a few drivers that were outdated.
I cannot flash the BIOS because it requires an USB stick which I do not have access to currently. If there is a way to 'fake' one of my SSDs to appear like an USB Stick, or some other way, that would help.
I do have a digital camera that has an USB cable, but I am not sure if using that as an USB stick is a good idea. Not sure if it requires a specific type of memory.

If I use the windows 10 repair install or feature update with windows 10 ISO file (Dont know what that is, really), will it reset my PC or windows? Will I have to update a lot?
Are DISM and SFC something else? Because I ran both of those, and they did not give errors.
Is using the Nvidia Geforce Experience to update my GPU driver good, or bad?

The curious thing is that the freezes appear infrequent and on specific games. Such as on Subnautica and Path of Titans, both games I consider 'weaker' than, say, Total War Warhammer 3 , which is newer and far more demanding and so, should freeze more.
Even stranger is that, if these two games I mentioned don't freeze early, they run for 6+ hours without issues.
 
You absolutely do need to update BIOS, and using the technique specified by the update issuer. I find it odd that any external media is needed these days, as most UEFI/BIOS updaters are issued as self-installing package executables. But if your motherboard maker uses a "from USB thumb drive" method, that is what you should use. You NEVER deviate from what the manufacturer specifies for a UEFI/BIOS update in any way, shape, or form.

A repair install is just that, a repair. It does not remove or wipe anything. You don't need to understand what an ISO file is, per se, just follow the instructions. You should not need to apply any Windows Updates unless a couple were issued subsequent to when the ISO that you fetch from Microsoft was put together.

If the utility from Nvidia does driver updates it should be perfectly fine. I constantly say there are three, and only three, sources that can be trusted and used for driver updates:

1. Microsoft, via Windows Update (and even that has the occasional burp, but I don't turn it off)
2. Your computer manufacturer's "drivers & downloads" support page or any "service station" type utility issued by them to keep drivers up to date.
3. A given component's "drivers & downloads" support page or the "service station" utility dedicated to that component.

There is no way I can say what it is that is causing these freezes, and unless someone were to do some deep forensic diving, they can't, either (and still may not be able to after lots of digging under the hood).

What I have suggested are techniques to rebuild a solid foundation, without the need to do a complete nuke and pave (completely clean reinstall of Windows and all your programs). I don't know where, exactly, the fault lies, I'm just recommending what you can do to kill off a lot of possible faults, some very subtle, all in one fell swoop.
 
Done it all except the Bios flash, which I will do tomorrow when I get an USB. Will also get a new PC soon because this one is old , so it will serve as my backup.
Where can I ask general questions about what to do to optimize my new PC and about update security? (very afraid of day 1 update problems)-
 
All I will say is that Micry Security is an excellent security suite, and antivirus testing organizations agree.

You don't need to optimize a brand new Windows machine.
 
These are some steps to tune up the computer:

1) Increase the free space on the Windows drive so that there is > 25 GB free

Free up drive space in Windows
TreeSize Free | JAM Software

2) Uninstall and reinstall Malwarebytes

3) Upgrade the BIOS: 2.6 > 2.9

MSI USA

Description
- Improved memory compatibility.
- Support PSC B-die DDR3 Memory
- Fix that system is not able to boot from legacy DVD ROM when RAID is activated.
- Updated CPU microcode.
- Updated BIOS Code.
- Improved VGA compatibility.
- Improved Blu-Ray ODD compatibility.
- Updated VBIOS and GOP driver.
- Updated M-Flash module.



4) Upgrade Windows:

19041 > 19044

20H! > 21H!

Perform an in place upgrade repair:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/videoplayer/embed/RE201WL
Download Windows 10




Code: 
      Drive: C:
 Free Space: 18.5 GB
Total Space: 113.8 GB
File System: NTFS
      Model: KINGSTON SV300S37A120G


Code: 
+++ WER7 +++:
Fault bucket 1306781106859692127, type 5
Event Name: BEX64
Response: Nicht verfügbar
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: MBAMService.exe
P2: 3.2.0.1035
P3: 61f8b252
P4: MBAMService.exe
P5: 3.2.0.1035
P6: 61f8b252
P7: 00000000003ea89d
P8: c0000409
P9: 0000000000000007
P10:


+++ WER8 +++:
Fault bucket 1306781106859692127, type 5
Event Name: BEX64
Response: Nicht verfügbar
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: MBAMService.exe
P2: 3.2.0.1035
P3: 61f8b252
P4: MBAMService.exe
P5: 3.2.0.1035
P6: 61f8b252
P7: 00000000003ea89d
P8: c0000409
P9: 0000000000000007
P10:




Code: 
Event[1551]:
  Log Name: System
  Source: EventLog
  Date: 2022-02-26T16:13:01.4600000Z
  Event ID: 6008
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: N/A
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: Admin-PC
  Description:
The previous system shutdown at 15:35:42 on ?26.?02.?2022 was unexpected.


Code: 
Event[1170]:
  Log Name: System
  Source: EventLog
  Date: 2022-03-03T13:33:59.4480000Z
  Event ID: 6008
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: N/A
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: Admin-PC
  Description:
The previous system shutdown at 13:30:37 on ?03.?03.?2022 was unexpected.


Code: 
Event[268]:
  Log Name: System
  Source: EventLog
  Date: 2022-03-08T17:51:58.4050000Z
  Event ID: 6008
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: N/A
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: Admin-PC
  Description:
The previous system shutdown at 17:44:30 on ?08.?03.?2022 was unexpected.



Code: 
Event[222]:
  Log Name: Application
  Source: Microsoft-Windows-Perflib
  Date: 2022-03-08T17:52:13.3310000Z
  Event ID: 1023
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: Info
  Keyword: N/A
  User: S-1-5-18
  User Name: NT-AUTORITÄT\SYSTEM
  Computer: Admin-PC
  Description:
Windows cannot load the extensible counter DLL "C:\WINDOWS\system32\sysmain.dll" (Win32 error code The specified module could not be found.).
 

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