Not BSOD but computer crash randomly

[Gil Levy]

Hi everyone,

Admin, apologies if this is not the right forum. Please move it if it doesn't belong here.

I'm getting random computer freeze which forces me to do a hard reset.

There's nothing special going on that stress the PC.
I'm just opening apps / browsing.

This is what happens:
1. The mouse pointer is stuck and keyboard is not responding anymore
2. 30 seconds later the 3 screens I have gone blank.
3. I then press lightly on the power button and the PC immediately reboots.

Opening the event viewer and looking at the time stamp of when this freeze happened:
1. Warning Event 4101, Display:
Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
This error appears 6 times in a row

2. Error Event 6008, EventLog
The previous system shutdown at 10:45:51 AM on ‎6/‎2/‎2018 was unexpected.

3. Critical event 41 kernel-power
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

4. Error Event 1001, Bugcheck
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000116 (0xffff9c80e83e4010, 0xfffff80b01e5fea8, 0x0000000000000000, 0x000000000000000d). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 01a8081b-8eb3-4d1f-8b31-3283e9091e13.

5. Error event 3, kernel-eventTracing
Session "Circular Kernel Context Logger" stopped due to the following error: 0xC0000188

Please see MSINFO attached and memory.dmp link to download

My PC is running:
2 x R9 290 GPU's
i7 3770K
16GB RAM
1 HDD
2 SSD

msinfo is attached.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!As0ZnYo5hTpnnS9VH9cwKB9NzYvk <-- MEMORY.DMP

Thanks for any help!

p.s. - sfc /scannow came clear.

 

[BigFeet]

Seems to be an issue with a graphics driver not responding. I would suggest downloading the latest amd graphics driver, then uninstalling the old one on your system using DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) in safe mode, then install the latest driver. Also I would keep a close eye on the cards temperatures.

 

[Trouble]

Yep..... little doubt it's blaming your GPU driver
BugCheck 116, {ffff9c80e83e4010, fffff80b01e5fea8, 0, d}
Probably caused by : atikmpag.sys ( atikmpag+fea8 )

VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116)
Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.
Arguments:
Arg1: ffff9c80e83e4010, Optional pointer to internal TDR recovery context (TDR_RECOVERY_CONTEXT).
Arg2: fffff80b01e5fea8, The pointer into responsible device driver module (e.g. owner tag).
Arg3: 0000000000000000, Optional error code (NTSTATUS) of the last failed operation.
Arg4: 000000000000000d, Optional internal context dependent data.

FAULTING_IP:
atikmpag+fea8
fffff80b`01e5fea8 4883ec28 sub rsp,28h
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_FAULT
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x116_IMAGE_atikmpag.sys
BUCKET_ID: 0x116_IMAGE_atikmpag.sys
PRIMARY_PROBLEM_CLASS: 0x116_IMAGE_atikmpag.sys

IF you are currently running the latest driver offering from AMD then you might consider rolling back to a previous version.
IT looks like you might be running the initial version of the Windows 10 Spring Update 17134.1
You might want to see if you can update to the latest version if that is correct 17134.81

 

[Gil Levy]

Yep..... little doubt it's blaming your GPU driver
BugCheck 116, {ffff9c80e83e4010, fffff80b01e5fea8, 0, d}
Probably caused by : atikmpag.sys ( atikmpag+fea8 )

VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116)
Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.
Arguments:
Arg1: ffff9c80e83e4010, Optional pointer to internal TDR recovery context (TDR_RECOVERY_CONTEXT).
Arg2: fffff80b01e5fea8, The pointer into responsible device driver module (e.g. owner tag).
Arg3: 0000000000000000, Optional error code (NTSTATUS) of the last failed operation.
Arg4: 000000000000000d, Optional internal context dependent data.

FAULTING_IP:
atikmpag+fea8
fffff80b`01e5fea8 4883ec28 sub rsp,28h
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_FAULT
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x116_IMAGE_atikmpag.sys
BUCKET_ID: 0x116_IMAGE_atikmpag.sys
PRIMARY_PROBLEM_CLASS: 0x116_IMAGE_atikmpag.sys

IF you are currently running the latest driver offering from AMD then you might consider rolling back to a previous version.
IT looks like you might be running the initial version of the Windows 10 Spring Update 17134.1
You might want to see if you can update to the latest version if that is correct 17134.81

I'm running the latest GPU drivers. Do not know which one from earlier drivers was better.
When I check windows update, I don't get anything new. Can you assist?

 

[Trouble]

Sorry, as an nVidia user I don't think I could be of much help with an AMD / ATI video card.
What you can take a look at is....
Device manager
Expand "Display adapters" right click and choose "Properties" and look at the "Driver" tab and see if the "Roll Back Driver" option is available.

Are you using the cards in "CrossFire" (native or CrossFire X) or are you using them independently on two separate monitors?
Have you considered testing the machine with a single card? Alternating between the two to determine if a single card produces different results in case one card might be faulty.

Something worth noting.....
I took a few extra minutes to unwind the stack from you dump file today and found two (2) other files called out in the stack that seem to be related to …..
Bitdefender
atc.sys
AND
gzflt.sys
AND one file related to an intel storage driver
iaStorA.sys

You might want to pursue that...
Perhaps remove Bitdefender entirely from the system.
After a conventional uninstall... They have a vendor specific, proprietary removal tool that you should probably employ to remove any left over remnants.
https://www.bitdefender.com/uninstall/

I've seen more than one third party, so called "security" software product produce BSODs in a lot of Windows operating systems.
See if that provides any relief from the problem.
IF not, you may want to check with intel and see if they have an updated driver product for your storage controller(s).

 

[Saltgrass]

A Z77 motherboard is quite old. The last Bios update was from 2013. Along with that, you have quite a few older drivers, which may be causing problems, but hard to say.

Sound Blaster drivers from 2004, AHCI drivers from before like the one below. Do you have any of the ASUS utilities which came with the motherboard currently running?

Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\asstahci64.sys
Image name: asstahci64.sys
Browse all global symbols functions data
Timestamp: Thu Oct 1 00:34:51 2015 (560CE21B)

I think if I wanted to keep that system running, I would get a new hard drive and do a clean install of Win 10, at least to test your system to see if some current driver/s are causing problems. You might be able to keep it running with just the Win 10 drivers but you could lose some of your devices.

I am not good at reading stack traces but this sort of stood out for me.

nt!KeBugCheckEx
dxgkrnl!TdrBugcheckOnTimeout+0xe4
dxgkrnl!TdrIsRecoveryRequired+0x193
dxgmms2!VidSchiReportHwHang+0x4b6
dxgmms2!VidSchiCheckHwProgress+0x23572
dxgmms2!VidSchiWaitForSchedulerEvents+0x326
dxgmms2!VidSchiScheduleCommandToRun+0x39a
dxgmms2!VidSchiRun_PriorityTable+0x30
dxgmms2!VidSchiWorkerThread+0x8e
nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x47
nt!KiStartSystemThread+0x16

 

[Gil Levy]

Are you using the cards in "CrossFire" (native or CrossFire X) or are you using them independently on two separate monitors?
Have you considered testing the machine with a single card? Alternating between the two to determine if a single card produces different results in case one card might be faulty.

The cards are in CF mode and I run 3 monitors. I have been doing so since 2014 with no issues.
I will probably test it with a single card at some point, but first I'd like to address the drivers issues.

Something worth noting.....
I took a few extra minutes to unwind the stack from you dump file today and found two (2) other files called out in the stack that seem to be related to …..
Bitdefender
atc.sys
AND
gzflt.sys
AND one file related to an intel storage driver
iaStorA.sys

1. Does atc.sys and gzflt.sys relate to BitDefender? Where did you see that?

2. The inel storage driver iaStorA.sys does this file relates to the SSD I own? My main SSD with the OS installed is Intel.

How do you know that these files cause issues in the past?

 

[Gil Levy]

A Z77 motherboard is quite old. The last Bios update was from 2013. Along with that, you have quite a few older drivers, which may be causing problems, but hard to say.

Sound Blaster drivers from 2004, AHCI drivers from before like the one below. Do you have any of the ASUS utilities which came with the motherboard currently running?

Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\asstahci64.sys
Image name: asstahci64.sys
Browse all global symbols functions data
Timestamp: Thu Oct 1 00:34:51 2015 (560CE21B)

I think if I wanted to keep that system running, I would get a new hard drive and do a clean install of Win 10, at least to test your system to see if some current driver/s are causing problems. You might be able to keep it running with just the Win 10 drivers but you could lose some of your devices.

I am not good at reading stack traces but this sort of stood out for me.

nt!KeBugCheckEx
dxgkrnl!TdrBugcheckOnTimeout+0xe4
dxgkrnl!TdrIsRecoveryRequired+0x193
dxgmms2!VidSchiReportHwHang+0x4b6
dxgmms2!VidSchiCheckHwProgress+0x23572
dxgmms2!VidSchiWaitForSchedulerEvents+0x326
dxgmms2!VidSchiScheduleCommandToRun+0x39a
dxgmms2!VidSchiRun_PriorityTable+0x30
dxgmms2!VidSchiWorkerThread+0x8e
nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x47
nt!KiStartSystemThread+0x16

Hi.
Regarding SoundBlaster, that is strange since the installation file I have is from 2017. I use SoundBlaster Z series card.

I'm thinking of increasing the TDR from 2 to 8 in the registry (after reading this)

I have the Asus AI suite running but I'm not sure it finds and updates any drivers.
Is there a good website or a recommended tool that can check for these drivers and update them?

Lastly, do you believe that my SSD is dying or the AHCI driver is that old that I need to replace my SSD?

 

[ram1220]

When was the last time you opened the computer and cleaned it? Heat issues can also cause problems with your graphic cards and cause all types of crashes. Normally lockups. I have also seen crashes if the cards are being over clocked too much. Are you over clocking your cards? Maybe back off on the over clocks if you are. I would at least open the computer and clean everything to help with the heat.

 

[Trouble]

1. Does atc.sys and gzflt.sys relate to BitDefender? Where did you see that?

It's what I do, as a professional Googler....
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=atc.sys

 

[Gil Levy]

When was the last time you opened the computer and cleaned it? Heat issues can also cause problems with your graphic cards and cause all types of crashes. Normally lockups. I have also seen crashes if the cards are being over clocked too much. Are you over clocking your cards? Maybe back off on the over clocks if you are. I would at least open the computer and clean everything to help with the heat.

MY cards are not overclocked but they are water cooled, so dust is not an issue.

 

[Gil Levy]

It's what I do, as a professional Googler....
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=atc.sys

Thanks
Will remember that for next time.

 

[Gil Levy]

Ok, I have removed BitDefender and I have also done a Windows InPlace Upgrade.

Can someone please assist with the iaStorA.sys and asstahci64.sys ?

How can I obtain versions which are compatible with my system? I did google it and couldn't figure out what to chose.

 

[Trouble]

Have you taken some time to see if the steps you've taken so far have produced any positive results??
Is your machine still suffering the same symptoms as you enumerated in your original post??

 

[Gil Levy]

It's too early to say since this error (PC random freeze) happens on random occasions. I can go for two weeks without an issue, and then it will happen.

However, after the kind help, I got here, it was pointed out that these drivers are outdated and specifically iaStorA.sys has caused a BSOD and it's old.

I've installed Smart Driver Updater (free version for now) to see what drivers it finds as outdated and if it can provide sources to update them.
I know that messing around with iaStorA.sys can cause the PC to not boot anymore. I do want to make sure I have updated, yet a compatible version of this file, but for this, I require some assistance.

That's what the software found:

 

[Trouble]

First.... I would warn against using any third party driver update tool. They can cause more problems than they resolve.
Second... iastorA.sys is an intel storage controller driver, so....
IF I were going to update a driver based on an intel chipset, the first place I would look would be Intel.
You might want to give their Driver Support Assistant a try and see if it spots any problems with your on board intel chipset(s).
I would certainly trust them more than any third party program
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html

 

[Gil Levy]

First.... I would warn against using any third party driver update tool. They can cause more problems than they resolve.
Second... iastorA.sys is an intel storage controller driver, so....
IF I were going to update a driver based on an intel chipset, the first place I would look would be Intel.
You might want to give their Driver Support Assistant a try and see if it spots any problems with your on board intel chipset(s).
I would certainly trust them more than any third party program
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html

Ok.
I ran the Intel driver support assistant. It didn't suggest to update anything.
The Intel SSD driver date is from 6/21/2006 with driver version 10.0.17134.1.

As for other issues, aside from the PC freeze which I've yet to encounter, I get many event viewer errors after the inplace upgrade.
Some are about Perflib, DistributedCOM, Kernel-EventTracing, and AppReadiness.

I've linked a CSV export of these events - https://1drv.ms/u/s!As0ZnYo5hTpnnTTCQWATx8y9Nwdb

I need to figure out how to fix the DCOM and Kernel-EventTracing issues.

 

[lonewolfmage]

Gil~

You CAN go direct to the ASUS Support site and get the latest drivers ( if they are needed) for your Motherboard. As matter of fact, going by what Saltgrass said in the above post about you having a z77 Motherboard.. Here's a link to the direct ASUS Download page for drivers and such for a Z77-a Model Motherboard.

As far as the mention of an old BIOS .. I as well have a ASUS Motherboard... it's an older/different model than yours, and I have the original BIOS that came with the motherboard and I haven't even attempted to update it .. it was actually suggested on multiple occasions to me by ASUS that its not 100% necessary to do unless there is a major issue that updated drivers dont fix.


If or when you go to the site and check for the drivers you can look by dates or version numbers ..

As far as the Asus Suite ( if you want that set of software you can get more information HERE .. from what I have read YES it does check your drivers against what is available on their website ( I dont personally use the suite I just check the website and compare the dates and versions that show up in device manager with the dates and version numbers on thee website) .

If you look at the 'snip' that Trouble posted above of his Nvidia card details you'll see the driver information there for HIS card.. the same hold true for ALL the components in your system so you can compare things that way instead of using a 3rd party software solution.

HOWEVER .. depending on the age of your components ( as in production age NOT the date you installed them in your computer) the drivers you find MAY not be available/compatible for Windows 10.

It does appear tho that ASUS DOES have drivers for Windows 10, 32-bit and 64-bit I would check there FIRST to make sure you have the latest drivers.

With regard to the iaStorA.sys error.. from what research I have done it seems to be related to an Intel Rapid Storage Interface. that file/driver should be updated if possible.. that ALSO can be done I belive at the ASUS site OR alternatively you can go HERE and install/run the Intel driver assistant.. and it will tell you if you need any updates and offer and POSSIBLY install the drivers you need for you .. IF you go this route with Intel .. you CAN safely uninstall the Intel assistant when your done with it .

I realize this post is rather long and possibly a little confusing, if you need any extra clarification ask away and I'll answer them as best I can

Good luck to you.
~LoneWolf

 

[Trouble]

I ran the Intel driver support assistant. It didn't suggest to update anything.

OK.... I wouldn't worry too much about it then right now.
IF the problem (BSOD) was actually being caused by the
iaStorA.sys
I would expect it to have been called out in the original stack which it was not.
Something like this

Bug Check String : SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug Check Code : 0x1000007e
Parameter 1 : ffffffff`c0000005
Parameter 2 : fffff880`014c43ad
Parameter 3 : fffff880`031ea828
Parameter 4 : fffff880`031ea060
Caused By Driver : iaStorA.sys
Caused By Address : iaStorA.sys+4e63b

Bug Check String : DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code : 0x000000d1
Parameter 1 : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 2 : 00000000`00000002
Parameter 3 : 00000000`00000000
Parameter 4 : fffff880`01724b21
Caused By Driver : iaStorA.sys
Caused By Address : iaStorA.sys+5eb21

Which AGAIN it was not. I only mentioned it because it was briefly mentioned in a stack unwind I did searching for more detail about your BSOD.
AND
It is a storage "controller" driver / software package and not a driver specific to any particular hard disk / SSD.

As for the DCOM event viewer messages....
One of our staff members wrote extensively about it here
https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/event-id-10016-distributedcom.47/

IF you want to pursue it you can follow his instructions.
I actually went through all the steps and it successfully resolved the issue, but.....
Subsequently a Windows 10 upgrade (which happens about every 6 months or so now) brought those same errors back again.
Now..... I just ignore them.

 

[Gil Levy]

Gil~

You CAN go direct to the ASUS Support site and get the latest drivers ( if they are needed) for your Motherboard. As matter of fact, going by what Saltgrass said in the above post about you having a z77 Motherboard.. Here's a link to the direct ASUS Download page for drivers and such for a Z77-a Model Motherboard.

As far as the mention of an old BIOS .. I as well have a ASUS Motherboard... it's an older/different model than yours, and I have the original BIOS that came with the motherboard and I haven't even attempted to update it .. it was actually suggested on multiple occasions to me by ASUS that its not 100% necessary to do unless there is a major issue that updated drivers dont fix.


If or when you go to the site and check for the drivers you can look by dates or version numbers ..

As far as the Asus Suite ( if you want that set of software you can get more information HERE .. from what I have read YES it does check your drivers against what is available on their website ( I dont personally use the suite I just check the website and compare the dates and versions that show up in device manager with the dates and version numbers on thee website) .

If you look at the 'snip' that Trouble posted above of his Nvidia card details you'll see the driver information there for HIS card.. the same hold true for ALL the components in your system so you can compare things that way instead of using a 3rd party software solution.

HOWEVER .. depending on the age of your components ( as in production age NOT the date you installed them in your computer) the drivers you find MAY not be available/compatible for Windows 10.

It does appear tho that ASUS DOES have drivers for Windows 10, 32-bit and 64-bit I would check there FIRST to make sure you have the latest drivers.

With regard to the iaStorA.sys error.. from what research I have done it seems to be related to an Intel Rapid Storage Interface. that file/driver should be updated if possible.. that ALSO can be done I belive at the ASUS site OR alternatively you can go HERE and install/run the Intel driver assistant.. and it will tell you if you need any updates and offer and POSSIBLY install the drivers you need for you .. IF you go this route with Intel .. you CAN safely uninstall the Intel assistant when your done with it .

I realize this post is rather long and possibly a little confusing, if you need any extra clarification ask away and I'll answer them as best I can

Good luck to you.
~LoneWolf

Hi Lonewolf. Thanks for the detailed reply!

I did go to Asus website and I already use their drivers, however, Asus (like many) use 3rd party components such as the Asmedia controllers for some of their SATA and USB3.0 h/w.
In these cases, they do not update their drivers at all or as frequent.
For the file asstahci64.sys this is the Asmedia file which I think I have the latest, which is old.

As for BIOS, mine is the lates version (2104) which was released in 2013.
I even went as far as flashing new IMEI version for the motherboard to make it compatible for Win8 when it came out.

Other than this, I don't know when my PC got BSOD due to iaStorA.sys. I do think that the recent PC hang I got was from my GPU drivers. They are up to date, and my GPU's are water cooled and the freeze happened during idling, browsing internet, not gaming.

So now I'm down to fixing event viewer issues and hoping to never get that PC freez again.