PC Crashing after upgrade

[__harry]

I just received my pc after having it sent out to pc specialist for an upgrade (New aio). The pc temps are much lower after doing a ryzen master stress test which is great, but every time i launch a game the game will crash and sometimes crash the entire pc. Within the last hour i have had 5 critical even in event viewer. I have attached a screenshot showing the errors. Not sure whats causing this, i just hope i don't have to send the pc away again.

Thanks

 

[SpyderTracks]

I just received my pc after having it sent out to pc specialist for an upgrade (New aio). The pc temps are much lower after doing a ryzen master stress test which is great, but every time i launch a game the game will crash and sometimes crash the entire pc. Within the last hour i have had 5 critical even in event viewer. I have attached a screenshot showing the errors. Not sure whats causing this, i just hope i don't have to send the pc away again.

Thanks

Could you post your full specs please?

Did PCS reinstall windows or anything?

 

[__harry]

they didn't reinstall windows or anything, although there used to be a pc specialist logo that would appear before the pc booted, this is now the Asus ROG logo. (Note the cooler in this specification is not the cooler in the system now)

Case	CORSAIR iCUE 465X RGB GAMING CASE - FNATIC EDITION
Processor (CPU)	AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard	ASUS® ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)	16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card	8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive	2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive	500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive	NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply	CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable	1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling	PCS FrostFlow 120 Series RGB High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste	STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans	3x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
Sound Card	ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Network Card	WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options	MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System	Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language	United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media	Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software	FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus	BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser	Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty	3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery	STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time	Standard Build - Approximately 12 to 15 working days

 

[ubuysa]

they didn't reinstall windows or anything, although there used to be a pc specialist logo that would appear before the pc booted, this is now the Asus ROG logo. (Note the cooler in this specification is not the cooler in the system now)

That indicates that they updated the BIOS. In the event viewer image you posted those two Driver Framework errors point at a driver problem - and that might be related to the BIOS upgrade.

If there are any related memory dumps either in the folder C:\Windows\Minidumps or the folder C:\Windows\LiveKernelReports then upload them here (if they're small enough) or to the cloud with a link to them here. Please check the date and time stamps of the dumps to be sure they're relevant to the issues you're having.

Also please export and upload your entire System and Application logs, see here for details on how to do that.

And please remove Bullguard completely, it's known to cause issues. Windows Defender is all you need in any case.

 

[__harry]

Removing Bullguard was one of the 1st things i did to the pc a year ago. I found 2 memory dumps which were created when my pc crashed so I've uploaded it to the cloud along with the system and application logs.

Application logs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XzelOK4kodbMQDzcuXuzcG4IFwC4F5UV/view?usp=sharing

System logs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11i1vUF3VHFZ2GJ1vsWv-hdTmMBVuc8aZ/view?usp=sharing

Memory dumps:

MEMORY__harry.dmp

drive.google.com

MEMORY__harry2.dmp

drive.google.com

Thanks

 

[ubuysa]

Removing Bullguard was one of the 1st things i did to the pc a year ago. I found 2 memory dumps which were created when my pc crashed so I've uploaded it to the cloud along with the system and application logs.

Application logs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XzelOK4kodbMQDzcuXuzcG4IFwC4F5UV/view?usp=sharing

System logs: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11i1vUF3VHFZ2GJ1vsWv-hdTmMBVuc8aZ/view?usp=sharing

Memory dumps:

MEMORY__harry.dmp

drive.google.com

MEMORY__harry2.dmp

drive.google.com

Thanks

Perfect, thanks. I will get back to you later today but I'm already 99.99% certain that you have a bad or missing driver. I can see several Driver Frameworks errors in your System logs and at least one 0x0A bug check. That's the classic IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and that's always a driver error.

I'll take a look at the dumps later this morning, hopefully I can tell you which driver is failing. This is EXTREMELY unlikely to be a hardware problem and no RMA is needed.

Could you please upload a screenhot of your Device Manager display as well?

 

[ubuysa]

The first of your minidumps (MEMORY__harry.dmp) has a stop code of KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE. This is indicates that a critical kernel structure was corrupted, in this case it was a list structure. These types of error are almost always driver related.

The process in control at the time of the bug check was the System process. In the list of calls made by the active thread is an error for ndextlag.sys, which is part of the ExitLag Game Booster software.

ffffee83`7fef45f8  fffff800`2e333a01Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ndextlag.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for ndextlag.sys
 ndextlag+0x3a01

Drivers like this are a VERY common cause of crashes and BSODs and I'd suggest the first thing to try is disabling or uninstalling the ExitLag software. It's possible however, that ndextlag.sys failed because some underlying network driver failed, or even because the network card itself is flaky.

The second minidump (MEMORY__harry2.dmp) has a stop code of REFERENCE_BY_POINTER. This indicates that the reference counter for a shared resource has become corrupted. Unfortunately because minidumps don't contain the whole kernel structure it's not possible to identify the object in question, but the error is almost certainly being caused by a driver.

The process in control at the time of this bug check was Chrome.exe, but there are no idications in the list of calls by the active thread of any errors. Chrome.exe is of course the Chrome browser and that is a network dependent tool, so the common denominator here is your network. If disabling/uninstalling ExitLag doesn't resolve the problem then I would check for updates to your network card driver. If you use WiFi I would try connecting via an Ethernet cable for a while to see whether that stops the issue (in which case it's likely to be a WiFi problem).

In your System log there is a record for a BSOD with a stop code of IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (0x0A) yesterday afternoon (12th Nov). This bug check indicates that a page fault occurred whilst the processor was running at an elevated IRQL, that is always a driver error. The log entry indicates that a kernel dump was written to C:\Windows\Memory.dmp and it would be useful to have that dump, so upload that to the cloud please? It will be large.

Your next actions should be as suggested, remove ExitLag and check your WiFi adapter (or LAN card if you use an Ethernet connection) and their respective drivers.

 

[__harry]

Alright thanks for this, I've uninstalled ExitLag so i'll check now if the system works. I've started uploading the memory dump to the cloud so i will post it here if the pc still has issues. Also updated network drivers so hopefully that issue is solved.

Thanks

 

[__harry]

Seems like the issues solved thanks for the help!

 

[__harry]

Nope, crashed again. Updated network drivers in device manager and uninstalled ExitLag. A new memory dump and a mini dump was created so i have uploaded them to the cloud. (the memory dump is quite large)

Minidump: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ula6XmjUwpwOSnbUbhmF61UQ3fOjaCsD/view?usp=sharing

Memory dump: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HX_kPUcTZMSOn6WSUeXBP8I-0-i9pqb-/view?usp=sharing

And this is from the folder LiveKernelReports from yesterdays crash, there was not a new one created today: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fNzmVSw3JGZA-uUyK8-YzHvj4OGCIEyO/view?usp=sharing

Thanks again for this

 

[ubuysa]

The minidump isn't that helpful - they often aren't - but the kernel dump is useful.

The stop code is a KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE again, caused by a corrupted list structure. This is almost certainly a repeat of the problems seen in the earlier dump and it suggests that ExitLag may not have been at fault (but I'd still leave it off until you get to the bottom of this issue).

The process in control was overwatch.exe, which I believe is a game? There are no errors flagged in the list of calls by the active thread and the trap frame shows that the error occurred in the Windows kernel - in the nt!ExInterlockedRemoveHeadList function that was manipulating the list that was corrupted. The exception record also confirms that it was a corrupted list entry, it shows a 0x3 FAST_FAIL_CORRUPT_LIST_ENTRY failure, which indicates a buffer overrun.

As I mentioned in the earlier dump, this will be a driver error, Microsoft code just doesn't make these kinds of errors.

There are a few clues in the dump to what the faulty driver might be....

Firstly the failure happened in a graphically intensive game.

Secondly the dump analysis blames amdkmdag.sys as the failing driver, this is a component of the AMD chipset driver package. Your copy of this driver is dated 10th November so it is relatively recent, it is worth checking for an update to the AMD chipset drivers however.

The real clues are in the stack trace however. We can see a call to dxgkrnl.sys (the DirectX kernel) followed by several calls to amdkmdag.sys and then the bug check - that's why the dump analysis is blaming amdkmdag.sys. It's clear therefore that a graphics operation was in progress so as well as checking for an update to the AMD chipset driver you should at the same time check for an update to your AMD RADEON driver. TBH I don't know what the RADEON driver is called so I can't check the install date on yours.

This BSOD looks like a classic graphics driver/graphics card/ chipset driver problem, so that's where you should be looking.

 

[__harry]

ok so i should update my chipset drivers? not sure how to do this, but radeon and gpu drivers are all up to date.

 

[__harry]

Another crash after updating chipset drivers..
My radeon adrenalin and chipset are now all up to date (I had a chipset driver update, but this didn't fix the issue). This is starting to get frustrating as I've been waiting to play some games for a while now and i need the pc for work so i can't really send it back to PCS again.

 

[ubuysa]

Another crash after updating chipset drivers..
My radeon adrenalin and chipset are now all up to date (I had a chipset driver update, but this didn't fix the issue). This is starting to get frustrating as I've been waiting to play some games for a while now and i need the pc for work so i can't really send it back to PCS again.

Remove and reseat the graphics card. Whilst you're in there remove and reseat the RAM and remove and reseat the M.2 SSD.

All those are known to cause issues.

 

[__harry]

Remove and reseat the graphics card. Whilst you're in there remove and reseat the RAM and remove and reseat the M.2 SSD.

All those are known to cause issues.

Did this and the problem happened again. Also did a clean install of Radeon Adrenalin and the problem is still happening.

 

[ubuysa]

Did this and the problem happened again. Also did a clean install of Radeon Adrenalin and the problem is still happening.

Your best option now then is to do a fully clean install of Windows and drivers (via Windows Update) and then install the latest AMD drivers. Don't install anything else.

If it crashes in that state then it's hardware and you'll need to contact PCS I'm afraid.

 

[__harry]

I really don't want to have to reinstall windows as this would take a lot of time which i don't have currently. I'm going to wait and see what pc specialist tech support say about this.

 

[Martinr36]

I really don't want to have to reinstall windows as this would take a lot of time which i don't have currently. I'm going to wait and see what pc specialist tech support say about this.

I would suspect they will suggest the same if you tell them everything you've tried, it's by far the quickest way

 

[__harry]

What are my options for updating windows? Will i have to use the media creation tool on a usb drive? Sorry for being a pain lol, i don't want to spend a lot of time redownloading everything, but the 1st or 2nd option on this table would be ideal so i can get essential applications for work and windows downloaded quickly.

 

[__harry]

There's also an option to go back to a restore point. Should i try select a date when the system was working fine? (A data before the pc went in for the upgrade)