atikmdag.sys BSOD loop

[rianneogi]

I'm getting this BSOD loop with error message MEMORY_MANAGEMENT. I have nailed down the problem to atikmdag.sys (AMD Display Driver) , it is corrupted or something.
If I rename atikmdag.sys to atikmdag.old via cmd, my laptop is able to boot up but I can't play games because the graphics driver didn't load.
If I reinstall or update to a new or old AMD driver, windows goes BSOD during the update.
I've tried using DDU for a clean uninstall, but windows still BSODs after I try to reinstall my driver.

Some info that might/might not be relevant:
BSOD first happened when trying to start Visual Studio after updating it. Doing a system restore to before the update does not fix the problem (causes BSOD right after system restore)
I have used OOSU10 to disable alot of windows 10 functionality (such as updates, defender etc.). Don't know whether it should affect this or not.

The various BSOD messages I have gotten are:
THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (the first time it happened)
MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (most common message)
BAD_POOL_ERROR
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

I hope my graphics card is not damaged.

 

[johnbl]

you should provide the memory dump files from c:\windows\minidump directory.
they are large files so you would have to put them on a cloud server like Microsoft onedrive, share the files for public access and post a link.

the memory dump for BAD_POOL_ERROR might be most useful.

the general procedure for a fix, would be update the BIOS or reset it to defaults if it is current,
boot and go to your motherboard vendors website and update the motherboard drivers and reboot.

depending on the error codes in the bugcheck you would then run memtest86 on its own boot image to confirm that the memory timings are correct. It is also possible that you have a driver that is corrupting POOl (which is shared memory structures recycled by device drivers) most often these bugs are fixed in motherboard driver updates from your motherboard vendor. Windows update will not provide the custom fixes for these drivers. It is pretty common for sound drivers to mess up the video sound support and crash the video driver.

 

[rianneogi]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HhG1iWQiE7iN7VJwSPD8gAYfz_FmRiZe link to the dump files. For some reason all the dump files aren't there. Maybe because I did a system reset recently?

You mentioned sound drivers. I did install new sound drivers (and reinstall the old ones) that day. Should I try to disable the sound drivers and see if it works?

 

[rianneogi]

Laptop has started to BSOD every 5 minutes now. MEMORY_MANAGEMENT 0x00001a with ntoskrnl.sys as the reason.

How can I update the bios if the laptop is BSODing so often? Should I boot up safe mode and update?

 

[johnbl]

I looked at the most recent memory dump. Looks like you reinstalled a old version of windows 10 and only a few of the custom drivers. The bugcheck looked like it was in the storage subsystem and could be due to a updated BIOS with out the matching CPU chipset drivers from the motherboard vendor.

I would go to the motherboard vendor and install the windows windows 10 CPU chipset drivers and any SATA 3 drivers they have on the website as a attempt to get this bugcheck fixed. You will then need to apply all of the various windows 10 updates. your graphics driver is from july 2015, all of the windows files are from 2015.
This is no longger a valid build of windows as the license agreement for windows only allows you to get 6 months out of date with updates. it means the device driver vendors do not have to test on builds older than 6 months. You have installed some device drivers that were dated in October of 2017.

generally it would be best to make a new current install disk of windows 10 when you reinstall, then copy the current motherboard windows 10 drivers to the new build. (it will be hard to find the old versions of the drivers that the motherboard vendor put out in 2015)

anyway, the update of the sata drivers and motherboard drivers might stop the bugchecks to the point you can get the 2.5 years worth of windows update fixes. At that point you can try to update the bios again.
(assuming you can not boot long enough to get the bios updated)

Laptop has started to BSOD every 5 minutes now. MEMORY_MANAGEMENT 0x00001a with ntoskrnl.sys as the reason.

How can I update the bios if the laptop is BSODing so often? Should I boot up safe mode and update?

 

[rianneogi]

I didnt reinstall any old version of windows, I just haven't updated my windows since a long time.
So should I just update my windows?
I fixed the BSOD every 5 minutes problem (hopefully) so I can update my bios now.
Do you want me to update chipset drivers first? I checked the site and they have chipset drivers (no motherboard drivers though) from 2017. Shouldn't I update windows first before I update the drivers (and bios)?

 

[johnbl]

bios and motherboard drivers should be updated as a set, just because there can be some custom fixes in the motherboard drivers that are related to hardware design bugs in the motherboard.

For the most part you should not hit the errors in the few hours that it would take to update windows.

just be sure you reboot your system after windows updates your graphics drivers.
(or make sure you reboot after you go to the AMD website and update the graphics drivers, just to avoid ending up getting a system that boots up with a black screen)

note: it might be faster to create a new install image to install the latest version of windows than trying to get all of the updates. see how to create a windows10 install image:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10


most likely the fix will be in the chipset drivers but you could have a virus infection of your storage driver or pagefile.sys. I would run a virus scan/Malwarebytes scan then go into control panel, turn off the windows virtual memory (c:\pagefile.sys) reboot, then turn the virtual memory back on so it creates a new pagefile.sys. Windows updates can help prevent hacks into the system

I didnt reinstall any old version of windows, I just haven't updated my windows since a long time.
So should I just update my windows?
I fixed the BSOD every 5 minutes problem (hopefully) so I can update my bios now.
Do you want me to update chipset drivers first? I checked the site and they have chipset drivers (no motherboard drivers though) from 2017. Shouldn't I update windows first before I update the drivers (and bios)?

 

[rianneogi]

I've tried updating windows via both the inbuilt updater and the link you gave me. In both cases, my laptop went BSOD during the installation. Then my laptop restarted and reverted back to the old version of windows.
The windows install image program gave me the following error:
0xC1900101 - 0x30018
"The installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with an error during SYSPREP operation."

I have uploaded the new minidump files to the same google drive folder: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HhG1iWQiE7iN7VJwSPD8gAYfz_FmRiZe

This is after updating the chipset drivers btw.

EDIT: I seem to have a new program called Windows Update Assistant and it automatically started downloading a windows update.... lets see if this one also BSODs. I cant seem to do anything to stop it.

EDIT2: I disabled autoupdate for now.