BSOD - even in safe mode - The CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED bug check has a value of 0x000000EF

[dtolman]

I'm running Windows 10 Pro build 1703, on a system with a MAXIMUS VII GENE motherboard, i7-4770 cpu, nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti (latest drivers as of last week). Using a Samsung SSD boot drive, and uh... some kind of data drive

My machine started getting occasional blue screens with the code "The CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED bug check has a value of 0x000000EF" pointing to ntoskrnl in August. Maybe once every few days.

Starting in September though, its stepped up to hourly, or even within minutes of each other. I thought it could be a driver update - but I'm getting this even in Safe Mode.

Some other odd facts - sometimes before the crash I'll notice that both drives are no longer accessible via Explorer. Also, whennever I get the bdod, it can't restart - fails with a startup error that it can't access a critical device. If I do a physical reboot, it works fine.

Brought it to a hardware shop, but they couldn't find any problems - only time it stopped crashing was when they swapped in another hdd running a new OS - but I'm not convinced that its my OS install. Ran SFC /scannow and DISM - they found nothing. Chkdsk was clean too.

Not sure what to do at this point to narrow down the problem source
Any advice appreciated!

Minidump uploaded here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwURIAEZJGDrZlZDeVhHYjRGQTg

 

[Colif]

Did you ever try a fresh install? or since DISM reports no problems, a reset?

It might be drivers but if you can't boot, working out what actual truth is might not help too much, hard to remove drivers if safe mode doesn't work.

is there anything on C drive you want to rescue? try making this on another PC: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

Also, on another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB - if you don't have one already

NTOSKRNL = windows kernel. It handles all driver requests, power management, and memory management. It sits between Hardware and Applications. It got blamed but its not the cause.

reset might be fastest way to flush it as you can at least keep files (everything in the library folders like Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos), and Settings (think logins), everything else on C partition gets removed so it forces windows to download new drivers

backup everything using ubuntu, then boot off the Win 10 installer
on 2nd screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install
choose troubleshoot
choose reset this PC
choose keep files/settings
PC will restart and reinstall win 10 on C partition. It doesn't touch any other drivers, they will be left as is. You will need to reinstall all programs, if you have steam libraries on other drives, you can download the client and point the default drive location at old libraries and Steam will find them and not dl them again.

 

[gardenman]

Hi, I ran the dump file through the debugger and got the following information: https://pastebin.com/amhfU1AF

File: 090817-15703-01.dmp (Fri Sep 8 17:00:10.373 2017)
BugCheck: [CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED (EF)]
Probably caused by: ntkrnlmp.exe (Process: svchost.exe)
Uptime: 0 Day(s), 0 Hour(s), 12 Min(s), and 27 Sec(s)

I can't help you with this. Wait for someone else to reply. Good luck.

 

[dtolman]

Did you ever try a fresh install? or since DISM reports no problems, a reset?

Trying to avoid that (so far) as I have a lot of non-steam software that would have to be manually reloaded.

I might try grabbing a spare drive with vista installed (I know), unplug from the internet and let it run doing something cpu/disk/memory intensive to see if anything happens. I just want to rule out a motherboard/powersupply/hardware problem before committing myself to a long weekend reinstalling software

 

[Colif]

Try updating BIOS, you are on version 0401 dated 2014/05/12 whereas the latest is version 3003, dated 2015/11/23. An old bios can cause issues, especially since you have the release bios. https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VII_GENE/HelpDesk_Download/

Drivers that are older that July 2015 (JUly 15 is release date of Win 10, any drivers before then aren't likely to be win 10 drivers):

ami_ipower.sys (Dated Apr 23 2010) - American Megatrends India Private Limited IPower driver - I don't even know what this is, probably part of a utility from Asus.
rikvm_38F51D56.sys (Dated Oct 29 2010) - CyberLink driver
GEARAspiWDM.sys (Dated May 03 2012) - Gear Software Advanced SCSI Programming Interface Windows Driver Model http://www.gearsoftware.com/
VClone.sys (Dated Jul 24 2013) - Virtual Clone CD Driver
DuoVMDrv.sys (Dated Feb 17 2014) - DuOS DuoVM Driver (This might be part of a motherboard utility)
ElbyCDIO.sys (Dated Dec 17 2014) - ElbyCD Windows Input/Output driver


Remove AI Suite or PC Probe 2 or GPU Tweak 2 - based on ASio.sys dated Aug 02 2010
Update Realtek HD Audio - https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/5993-latest-realtek-hd-audio-driver-version.html

 

[dtolman]

Try updating BIOS, you are on version 0401 dated 2014/05/12 whereas the latest is version 3003, dated 2015/11/23. An old bios can cause issues, especially since you have the release bios. https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VII_GENE/HelpDesk_Download/

I updated my BIOS, and while I was at it - the firmware of my SSD boot drive. Then I rebooted, and watched in nt explorer while my C:\ drive disappeared - while my D:\ drive remained. Then the machine blue screened, as usual.

Swapped in a new cable and tried new ports for the SSD - same thing. The Samsung SSD software (wizard? Magician?) came up clean. So if its hardware, its either the disk or the motherboard's disk controller. Probably. Right?

So at this point I can't tell if its a bad disk, a corrupt OS, or something else. Since options 1 and 2 both require an OS reinstall, I think at this point I'm just going to get a new SSD, install Windows 10, and see if the crashes clear. If it turns out its not the disk itself, at least I can use it as a data drive for games

 

[Colif]

GEARAspiWDM.sys (Dated May 03 2012) - Gear Software Advanced SCSI Programming Interface Windows Driver Model << what is this part of as SCSI is used for ssd and it might be interfering.

DuoVMDrv.sys (Dated Feb 17 2014) - DuOS DuoVM Driver - https://amiduos.com/support/knowledge-base/article/enabling-virtualization-technology-in-asus-systems

I would check ssd out in another PC if you can before buying new one and finding problem still exists.

 

[dtolman]

Final update (?)

I bought a new SSD, installed Windows 10 again, and I loaded my old system drive as a data drive on my new OS. After a few minutes... it disappeared. Unplugging/replugging the data cable did not fix it. So it appears to be some kind of power problem on the old system drive - a hardware problem that no hardware scan reported to me

Thanks for the advice and suggestions everyone.