[Windows 10] Semi-random freezes with no immidiate clear cause...

[Wildfire]

For a while, I've been experiencing semi-random freezes on my desktop system. Semi, because it seems to happen most when I'm browsing the internet using Firefox -- although I've had several occassions where I woke up to a computer that had frozen on the desktop.

Last week, I performed a clean install of Windows 10 -- even including starting a new Firefox profile to rule out old stuff being imported back on the new install. I've also made sure to use the latest drivers for everything and obviously, also made sure to have Windows fully up-to-date --- including the programs I use, verifyed by using Filehippo App Manager and Secunia PSI.

Unfortunately, I'm still getting those freezes. Today, I've experienced three freezes....

A bit of Googling had me bump into this forum. Seeing that I cannot do anything with the minidumps myself and that there are experts here who actually can, I thought it might be worth asking you guys (and girls?) for help.

---

As per the guidelines, I've included the Perfmon report and the output of the Sysnative reporting tool.

Your requested information:

· OS: Windows 10 Professional
· 64-bit version
· What was original installed OS on system? --- Nothing, I built this system myself. Although I started out with Windows 8 Professional, with which I also had random freezes.
· Is the OS an OEM version (came pre-installed on system) or full retail version (YOU purchased it from retailer)?: retail
· Age of system (hardware): most of the stuff is less than a year old
· Age of OS installation - have you re-installed the OS?: yes, last week. Problem was present before also.

· CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K (not overclocked!)
· Video Card: ASUS Strix GeForce GTX 980Ti (not overclocked beside the factory overclock itself)
· MotherBoard: MSI Z97 Gaming 7
· Power Supply - brand & wattage: Corsair AX760 (obviously a 760 watt PSU)

· System Manufacturer: myself
· Exact model number (if laptop, check label on bottom): not applicable

· Laptop or Desktop?: desktop

Some other info: Creative Labs SoundBlaster ZxR soundcard / Intel 750 SSD 400 gig (PCI-Express) / Samsung 840 EVO SSD 500GB / 2x Western Digital WD20EZRX hard drives / Marvell 88SE9123 PCI-Express controller for external hard drive / 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3-RAM (brand: GeIL; type: 2133MHz but I have it running at 1600MHz for a while now to see if would help) / Logitech G910 keyboard ("Orion Spark") / Logitech G602 wireless mouse)

Although I ran a memtest a month or two ago (when I was in my previous Windows 10 install which already had these issues), I'm going to have it run tonight and tomorrow morning to make sure it has not gone bad. I will also set up Driver Verifier so I can supply additional info after a new freeze occures.

Thanks for any help you can offer. :)

 

[Wildfire]

Already an update... Driver Verifier was a no-go: the system wouldn't boot due to a DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION BSOD. I've included the minidump from that BSOD in the 110315-16453-01.zip file.

 

[Wildfire]

Small update: my system just finished 4 passes of Memtest86 v6.2.0 without errors. So the memory seems fine. Also, yesterday I ran a full diagnostic scan of my Intel 750 SSD using Intel's SSD Toolkit. No errors were found.

 

[Wildfire]

By the way, I just remembered that I noticed the mouse pointer behaving "choppy"/"jumpy" one or two seconds before a freeze occurs. So I actually know in advance that the system is going to freeze.

 

[blueelvis]

Hi Wildfire & Welcome to the forums ^_^,

I have analysed your dump files and below has been provided an analysis of the same for informative purposes :-

Below is the stack

3: kd> knL # Child-SP          RetAddr           Call Site
00 ffffd000`5d1efb48 fffff802`e313fabc nt!KeBugCheckEx
01 ffffd000`5d1efb50 fffff802`e31341e0 nt!VerifierBugCheckIfAppropriate+0x3c
02 ffffd000`5d1efb90 fffff802`e3151907 nt!MmCheckMapIoSpace+0xa4
03 ffffd000`5d1efbd0 fffff801`28bb52f5 nt!VerifierMmMapIoSpace+0x43
04 ffffd000`5d1efc10 00000000`41500741 [COLOR=#ff0000][B][U]TeeDriverW8x64[/U][/B][/COLOR]+0x152f5
05 ffffd000`5d1efc18 ffffe000`e3dd4b78 0x41500741
06 ffffd000`5d1efc20 ffffe000`e3ddde20 0xffffe000`e3dd4b78
07 ffffd000`5d1efc28 ffffe000`e3dd4b78 0xffffe000`e3ddde20
08 ffffd000`5d1efc30 ffffd000`5d1efcb0 0xffffe000`e3dd4b78
09 ffffd000`5d1efc38 ffffd000`5d1efc98 0xffffd000`5d1efcb0
0a ffffd000`5d1efc40 00000000`00000000 0xffffd000`5d1efc98

It is the driver Intel Management Engine Interface driver.

If the problem happened before the reinstall as well, there is a chance that this might be a problem related to hardware compatibility or the hardware being broken itself.

Kindly follow the below instructions -

1. Please type in the below command in an Administrator Command Prompt -

   verifier /reset

2. You are supposed to run the Memtest86 test for a minimum of 8 passes. 4 passes are not sufficient to detect the errors.
3. I would suggest you to run the Hardware Diagnostics over here - Hardware Diagnostics
4. Kindly follow the instructions over here and upload the ZIP File - https://www.sysnative.com/forums/bs...ng-instructions-windows-10-8-1-8-7-vista.html
5. Also, kindly monitor the system temperature using the free tool called CoreTemp - http://www.alcpu.com/coretemp . Please monitor the temperatures while doing the tests and let me know the temperatures.

Let me know how it goes ^_^

-Pranav

 

[Wildfire]

Hi Wildfire & Welcome to the forums ^_^,

I have analysed your dump files and below has been provided an analysis of the same for informative purposes :-

Below is the stack

3: kd> knL # Child-SP          RetAddr           Call Site
00 ffffd000`5d1efb48 fffff802`e313fabc nt!KeBugCheckEx
01 ffffd000`5d1efb50 fffff802`e31341e0 nt!VerifierBugCheckIfAppropriate+0x3c
02 ffffd000`5d1efb90 fffff802`e3151907 nt!MmCheckMapIoSpace+0xa4
03 ffffd000`5d1efbd0 fffff801`28bb52f5 nt!VerifierMmMapIoSpace+0x43
04 ffffd000`5d1efc10 00000000`41500741 [COLOR=#ff0000][B][U]TeeDriverW8x64[/U][/B][/COLOR]+0x152f5
05 ffffd000`5d1efc18 ffffe000`e3dd4b78 0x41500741
06 ffffd000`5d1efc20 ffffe000`e3ddde20 0xffffe000`e3dd4b78
07 ffffd000`5d1efc28 ffffe000`e3dd4b78 0xffffe000`e3ddde20
08 ffffd000`5d1efc30 ffffd000`5d1efcb0 0xffffe000`e3dd4b78
09 ffffd000`5d1efc38 ffffd000`5d1efc98 0xffffd000`5d1efcb0
0a ffffd000`5d1efc40 00000000`00000000 0xffffd000`5d1efc98

It is the driver Intel Management Engine Interface driver.

If the problem happened before the reinstall as well, there is a chance that this might be a problem related to hardware compatibility or the hardware being broken itself.

The Management Engine Interface driver I have installed is a newer one than offered by MSI itself. I'll replace it with the official one from MSI and see how that goes.

Kindly follow the below instructions -

1. Please type in the below command in an Administrator Command Prompt -

   verifier /reset

Result: "No settings were changed." Which is understandable, as Driver Verifier wasn't active.

You are supposed to run the Memtest86 test for a minimum of 8 passes. 4 passes are not sufficient to detect the errors.

Tomorrow I'm going to the new Bond movie, giving me plenty of time I'll be able to miss my computer while it's running tests... :) So I'll have Memtest86 v6.2.0 start before I go. By the time I wake up the next day, it should have moved beyond eight passes. I'll post results here when I have them.

I would suggest you to run the Hardware Diagnostics over here - Hardware Diagnostics

My OS drive, the Intel 750 SSD, is fine, as verified by Intel's own SSD Toolbox. I'm certain my two Western Digital hard drives are fine too, but to be sure I'll run WD's LifeGuard Diagnostics on them as soon as I can.

Not so long ago, in my previous Windows 10 installation under which I also experienced freezes, I had Prime95 running for a day with the small FFT settings for stresstesting. No errors were found. CPU Temperatures would max out at around 75 degrees Celsius. But CPU cooling is most definitely not the issue here, as the freezes occur most often when the system is idling and I load up Firefox.

Also, I've never experienced freezes while gaming. Even when playing games like The Witcher 3, my system performes just fine. But I have already stresstested my videocard with Furmark on its most extreme settings, temperatures peaked around 85 degrees Celsius. And that was even when it was a very hot day, so under normal circumstances temperatures would be lower. But also, the same here as with CPU temps, this has nothing to do with the issue at hand since it occurs most often when the system is in idle state and I'm only loading Firefox...


---

When I have the results from Memtest86 plus the ones from the WD LifeGuard Diagnostics, I'll report them here.

Thanks :)

 

[MichaelB]

Morning

just from my experience at HP Consumer & Business-Forum:
the MEI driver brought by win10 is killing or slowing down a lot of machines, in the meantime each vendor offers an alternative driver which works.

kind regards
Michael

 

[Wildfire]

Morning

just from my experience at HP Consumer & Business-Forum:
the MEI driver brought by win10 is killing or slowing down a lot of machines, in the meantime each vendor offers an alternative driver which works.

kind regards
Michael

I hope that is what's happening here, it would mean that the problems should now be over as I installed the MEI drivers offered by MSI today.

Ah well... we'll see. I'll have Memtest86 run at least 8 passes and I'll see about testing my two hard drives, I doubt they're causing anything at all but let's just err on the side of caution.

 

[blueelvis]

Let us know how it goes ^_^

And any chance I could get a short review of Spectre?


@Michael - Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge :)



-Pranav

 

[Wildfire]

Let us know how it goes ^_^

And any chance I could get a short review of Spectre?

Spectre was just as I expected it to be - yet another excellent Bond movie :)

---

I let Memtest86 finish 8 passes, no errors were found. So we can reasonably assume RAM isn't the issue here.

Haven't yet had a chance (=time and opportunity) to test the two Western Digital hard drives. I'll see if I can this week.

By the way, seeing that I don't need the Intel Management Engine at all I've gone ahead and disabled it altogether. Let's see how that goes... :)

 

[Wildfire]

No freezes yet, I'll keep you all updated this week. I'm fairly optimistic the Intel Management Engine driver was the cause, so if after a few more days everything is still fine then I think we can safely conclude that the MEI driver was the bad guy...

 

[blueelvis]

Let us know how it goes ^_^

And any chance I could get a short review of Spectre?

Spectre was just as I expected it to be - yet another excellent Bond movie :)

---

I let Memtest86 finish 8 passes, no errors were found. So we can reasonably assume RAM isn't the issue here.

Haven't yet had a chance (=time and opportunity) to test the two Western Digital hard drives. I'll see if I can this week.

By the way, seeing that I don't need the Intel Management Engine at all I've gone ahead and disabled it altogether. Let's see how that goes... :)

Good. Spectre is not releasing in India till 20th November

No freezes yet, I'll keep you all updated this week. I'm fairly optimistic the Intel Management Engine driver was the cause, so if after a few more days everything is still fine then I think we can safely conclude that the MEI driver was the bad guy...

Yep. Let's hope that it fixes the problem ^_^


Keep us updated :)

-Pranav

 

[Wildfire]

Unfortunately enough, my computer juse froze again... and, as in previous cases, just after I started Firefox.

I've attached a ZIP of the minidump.

 

[Wildfire]

And just now, there the system went again... it froze. While starting Firefox. I'm seeing a pattern... :)

But why is it freezing while starting Firefox? Surely something must cause it.

I've attached the minidump from this latest freeze... (and to be clear, since my initial post here, nothing has changed in the configuration of my desktop PC, not in software, nor in hardware).

 

[Wildfire]

It's been a while and some things have changed. First of all, because the freezes most often happened when I started Firefox it got me thinking into the networking aspect. Suspecting the Killer E2200 drivers might be faulty, I've now got an Intel I210-T1 ethernet card in my PC and the on-board Killer E2200 network chip has been hardware disabled in BIOS (yes, I did uninstall the Killer drivers of course). And even though my Windows installation was barely a month old, I've performed a clean install again last week.

So far, so good -- no freezes yet. That's a good thing, because before it would happen nearly every day.

I'll keep you all updated.