Windows 10: W10 1703 - Machine Freezes Then Crashes

For the past couple of months my computer (built back in May 2017) has been freezing up. At first, I was only getting a graphics freeze with Elite Dangerous - game would crash, but game video would remain in foreground. The system still responded (could Alt-Tab amongst programs and use ctrl-alt-del to bring up menu and start Task manager), but the frozen game stayed in the foreground. My only option was to choose sign out after hitting ctrl-alt-del and then sign back in again. Annoying, but not a major issue.

In the last week, however, the system has completely frozen and would not respond to ctrl-alt-del. The first time was while playing Elite Dangerous. The second time was while playing Subnautica. The third time was just about an hour ago - I'd finished playing Elite Dangerous, was back at the desktop (ED Launcher was still open though), and switched to Firefox and boom - system froze. In the past incidents, I cycled the power and the system came back up and was fine; however, I don't think it actually had a crash log. This time I waited, while continuing to try ctrl-alt-del and then I noticed my mouse pointer had disappeared from the screen. I thought maybe the computer was going to start responding again, waited, and then it rebooted itself and dumped a log.

After the crash, I could not get Firefox 58.0.0 (64-bit) to run; it had been running in the background when the computer crashed. Firefox wouldn't start in my account nor under the administrator account. I uninstalled it, downloaded 58.0.1 (64-bit), and installed that. Firefox is now working again under both admin account and my account.

I haven't had any major problems with my computer since last May/June, when I first posted to this forum. At that time, with the help of someone on this board and a LOT of tests, we determined I had a bad core on my new CPU. I got it replaced and everything has been fine until recently. This new problem is not at all like the problem back then - then the system constantly crashed anytime a 3D game was run. This new problem isn't happening everyday. I think is either driver (graphics card?) or game related.

Only other symptom to note is that twice in the last month, when the computer was first turned on it sounded an alert about a new CPU being detected. The first time I went into BIOS, made no changes, exited, rebooted and the system was fine. The second time happened a week or two later. That time I let the BIOS run it's self config and set the computer for game performance. It has been at least a week, if not two, since then and it hasn't prompted me again. Not sure if this is related or not.

Thanks,

Scott

:)

 

update 1703 freezes then crashes at 87% updated. Not a new problem Microsoft unable to help

I have spent 4 whole days trying to resolve this issue - my computer worked fine before the update. Unstable updates should not be forced on users. Give us the option to shut off all updates. Our time is valuable too

 

update 1703 freezes then crashes at 87% updated. Not a new problem Microsoft unable to help

See the following:

Troubleshoot
Windows Update Problems in Windows 10 Using These Five Tips

 

Hi,

theres something strange with your graphics. The analysis are showing the NVIDIA drivers as culprit:

Code: 0x00000133: [SPECIAL] DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION (2018-01-31 02:25:23) [Windows 10] CAUSED BY: dxgmms2.sys * DirectX Graphics MMS nvlddmkm.sys [2018-01-04] * nVidia Video drivers * => Download Drivers | NVIDIA PROCESS: firefox.exe[/quote] Code: 0x00000116: [SPECIAL] VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (2017-09-08 23:16:13) [Windows 10] CAUSED BY: nvlddmkm.sys [2017-06-27] * nVidia Video drivers * => Download Drivers | NVIDIA PROCESS: System Usual causes: Video driver, overheating, bad video card, ?BIOS, ?Power to card (see Significant Posts section below)[/quote]
1)



0x116



VIDEO_TDR_ERROR

A VIDEO_TDR_ERROR always relates to the system's graphics card (TDR = Timeout Detection Recovery). This could be down to a number of reasons including drivers, heat, power to the card, a faulty PCI-e slot or simply a defective GPU. It's in your best interests to employ common sense trouble shooting techniques in these situations.

• Try later and/or earlier drivers
• Measure the GPU's temperatures at idle and under load
• Ensure the GPU is free from dust build up and that the fan is working correctly
• Reseat the GPU and check all connections are securely made
• Check PSU voltages in BIOS
• Try a different card in the system

2)






Diagnostic Test

GPU TEST


Run FurMark - GPU Stress Test - Windows 10 Forums





Note Run Furmark for around 30 minutes.

Warning Your GPU temperatures will rise quickly while Furmark is running. Keep a keen eye on them and abort the test if overheating occurs.
Take a Screenshot and post it here.

3)
Read carefully before proceeding.



Warning If you're overclocking your system, revert back to stock clocks now.


4)
Please download and run the newest version of screenshot of the "System Summary" window here.



Note Check the "Summary-only" box at start.
HWiNFO64
Hardware Info (HWiNFO) is a powerful system information utility designed especially for detection of hardware.

5)
Please reinstall graphics driver using DDU



Display Driver Uninstaller: How to use
Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) is a small software that can help the user to uninstall the display driver from the users PC. It can uninstall the driver for all the lead display chip developers, viz. Nvidia, AMD and Intel.

 

1. The drivers I was using when the ED would freeze in the foreground, but the system didn't crash, were versions 387.92 and 388.71. The drivers I was using when the system completely froze both time was 390.65. After making my post yesterday, I did a clean install (always) of 390.77.

2. I ran Furmark for the requested time period and have attached the screenshot. I also ran the HWINFO and attached that screenshot.

3. I will run the DDU to uninstall the current driver and then reinstall tomorrow or Friday. I'm afraid I don't have time to do that right now.

Please let me know if anything from those screenshots indicates a problem and/or if there any other diagnostics I need to run.

Thanks,
Scott

 

I have now used DDU to uninstall the Nvida Graphics drivers (while in safe mode) and then reinstalled the latest ones. I guess I just need to wait now and see if it crashes again.

Only two other things to report:
1. A fan (sounds like the GPU fan) makes a grinding noise when it first starts up (on and off for first 30 minutes) after that, it quiets down. It wasn't making any noise at the time of the crashes nor during the Furmark test (where temp never went over77 C).
2. Just before running DDU this morning, when I logged out of my user account, I briefly saw garbage (like those 3D barcodes) in a middle band of the screen. This was only up for a split second during the time when the screen normally flashes black (for a split second) between a user logout and the background screen coming up for the login screen.

No problems while playing games last night. Not sure what to think.

 

I'm really starting to think that this is an issue between Firefox and the Nvidia drivers:
1. I always have Firefox open. So it was always in the background during those freezes, and more recently, complete crashes.
2. My log information which you parsed lists Firefox as the related program.
3. That crash, which was the most recent, happened when I was no longer playing any video games (just finished) and was clicking on Firefox to bring it to the foreground. After the crash, Firefox would not load under my account, nor the admin account. I had to uninstall and then reinstall the just released new version (crash was with 58.0.0 and updated to 58.0.1)

There's a whole slew of reports about this: firefox causing nvidia drivers to crash - Google Search

The first three results are all very recent (last two months, same for when my problems started).

I've disabled hardware acceleration in Firefox as a precaution (as recommended in one of the threads.

 

Everything in your screenshots looks good. And yes, the active process in the most recent dump is firefox.exe.
I think an GPU driver problem can be ruled out. Temperatures look allright.

You should watch the behaviour between firefox and the BSODs a while and what happens.

Another thing is which has nothing to do with your problem. I see u have 2x 16 GB RAM modules installed?
Check how they are seated because its running in single-channel mode. But it should be dual-channel.

 

I've had no problems since:
1. Disabling Firefox's hardware acceleration
2. Hardly using Firefox at all and instead relying on Chrome

Clearly this was an issue bet