Topic: Is MC 27.0.66 causing my PC to Blue Screen crash? [Solved] (Read 2976 times)

FenceFurniture · « **on:** March 04, 2021, 01:58:15 am »

I did an update of MC to 27.0.66 about 5 or 6 days ago (and is there a way of getting date/time of the update?). It seems to be that since then I have been getting Blue Screen crashes with several Critical Errors Kernel-Power 41 (63) in the event viewer. (4 today, plus another 5-7 in the days since the update of MC). I don't recall ever getting a BS crash before, in the nearly 5 years of this laptop.

Win 10 64 bit
MC version 27.0.66
MC is always open on my PC.

I have only had MC, a couple of Chrome windows, a Firefox window, and Excel running (apart from Windows explorer folders).

Most (but not all) of these crashes are precipitated by clicking on something in the MC window, the hourglass comes up for perhaps 20-30 seconds, and then a blue screen of death.

Under advice, this morning I ran (in the cmd box):
C:\WINDOWS\system32>DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /Restorehealth
C:\WINDOWS\system32>sfc /scannow
C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk /r

but they did not show up any errors. I also ran chkdsk on my two external drives (that have the music files) but nothing showed up.
A scan by Malwarebytes revealed nothing.
Currently doing (a slow) Windows Defender full scan, but it so far has revealed nothing.

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #1 on:** March 04, 2021, 02:52:16 am »

If your PC is creating minidumps, use an app like BlueScreenView to open the minidump(s) to see what file(s) are involved with the BSOD.

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #2 on:** March 04, 2021, 02:56:38 am »

Hmmm, the Win Defender scan didn't get to finish - I left the room for 20 minutes, and there was a BS crash. I had only reopened MC a little while before that. So now I am going to leave MC closed and see if there are any crashes. If there are only crashes while MC is open, then that would surely indicate that there is a problem in the lastest update wouldn't it?

How can I roll back to the previous version of MC? There are only 3 restore points in the system - all of them from this month, so none from before Monday and I did the MC update on Saturday. I do not know why there are only 3 restore points (I know that I did one manually about a year or so ago, but that is gone, and I would have thought that Windows would take one before each update, like it did this morning when I updated to 20HP).

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #3 on:** March 04, 2021, 03:03:53 am »

Quote from: Awesome Donkey on March 04, 2021, 02:52:16 am

If your PC is creating minidumps, use an app like BlueScreenView to open the minidump(s) to see what file(s) are involved with the BSOD.

I don't think it is creating minidumps - I downloaded BSV and ran it but it can't find any in C:\WINDOWS\MiniDump. Unless they are stored somewhere else?

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #4 on:** March 04, 2021, 03:05:10 am »

Here, you might try enabling minidumps then.

https://www.windows10forums.com/articles/how-to-enable-minidump-logs-in-windows-10.50/

zybex · « **Reply #5 on:** March 04, 2021, 03:09:32 am »

Quote from: FenceFurniture on March 04, 2021, 02:56:38 am

If there are only crashes while MC is open, then that would surely indicate that there is a problem in the lastest update wouldn't it?

Not at all, it just means that MC is perhaps a good test case as it is stressing whatever problem is causing your bluescreen. Could be an Audio or network driver, disk corruption, bad memory, etc. Anything really. Blue screens are not all alike, there's technical info there that points to the actual cause. Without that, you can only speculate. So you must enable Minidumps and then run the tool to check what exactly crashed. There's also some info in EventViewer than you can check.

Control Panel > System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery > check all the boxes and select "small memory dump" (or you might want to leave "automatic restart" unchecked)

Quote

I don't recall ever getting a BS crash before, in the nearly 5 years of this laptop.

That's a possible cause right there... electronics are like light bulbs, it works until it doesn't

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #6 on:** March 04, 2021, 03:23:02 am »

This is now ridiculous. I'm getting a crash every few minutes - can't reply quick enough. Minidumps active now, and will try to check. Last crash happened moments after I activated minidumps.

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #7 on:** March 04, 2021, 03:25:09 am »

Sorry about the short posts but needs must in case of another crash. No dump to check. Will see if it really is active or whether it crashed during the activation.

MC was not running during the last two crashes.

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #8 on:** March 04, 2021, 03:27:49 am »

No, it didn't get activated, but it is now I think. Shouldn't be long before the next crash....

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #9 on:** March 04, 2021, 03:43:04 am »

I have installed some new stuff from Intel, will see if that helps. (screenshot attached)

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #10 on:** March 04, 2021, 04:39:30 am »

Installed a new chipset as well. No crash for about an hour so far....

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #11 on:** March 04, 2021, 05:49:36 am »

I've had at least two crashes since the Memory dump was set to "Small 256k" (and still is set to that), but there are no dumps to be read.

zybex · « **Reply #12 on:** March 04, 2021, 06:08:56 am »

Run the BSV tool anyway to see if it finds any crashdump, it looks in other locations too.
If there are no crashdumps, it means one of 2 things:
- it's actually not a Blue Screen but a power issue or hardware fault causing the PC to instant reboot
- it's a disk issue (or disk driver), so windows fails to write the minidump because the disk system goes offline

Check the EventViewer around the Kernel Power events to check if there are other related events. Typically for a BSOD you would have a "BugCheck" event with a STOP code and some other details. If not... it's either A or B above.

Do you actually see a blue screen? Uncheck the "Automatically Restart" option to see it - it also contains a STOP code. If you don't see it even with that option unchecked, then it's an instant reboot caused by some hardware problem.

Since it's a 5-year old laptop... try taking out the battery. And check the temperatures - do you hear the fan running?

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #13 on:** March 04, 2021, 03:58:27 pm »

Laptop was warmer than it should be last night, checked underneath. Vacced clean, and got another crash 10 minutes later.

No dumps being taken. WHere do I untick the auto restart option?

Now thinking it must be the hard disk. Have run chkdsk which found nothing.

zybex · « **Reply #14 on:** March 04, 2021, 04:47:43 pm »

Ah, you do have blue screen

So it's not an instant reboot.
The picture is very low-res, but I think it says "CRITICAL PROCESS DIED". This one is a bit generic, and without the actual dumps it's not easy to find out what's going on. One big possibility though: you may have a virus.

I think it's time for you to do a backup and try a fresh windows install. If it still happens after that... time for a new machine.
If this all goes a bit above your head, you should consider taking it to an IT service shop.

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #15 on:** March 04, 2021, 06:31:53 pm »

Thank you for your assistance zybex.

Win Defender and Malwarebytes (free version) are not picking up a virus - still possible though I guess.

Intel software is saying only 15% life in the hard drive. Speaking to a friend here (Australia) he is suggesting that we clone the hard disk onto a new one (512GB SSD like current). SSDs have a limited life, and I may be approaching the very end of it. A new SSD is only $100 USD plus cloning and installation, so not a hugely expensive exercise, and I can pick up a new drive tomorrow. Hopefully the clone won't pick up the same corruption.....

Do you think this is a reasonable approach?

In the meantime I have backed up all the data twice to two external drives (all except the Windows folder).

JimH · « **Reply #16 on:** March 04, 2021, 07:01:26 pm »

Quote from: FenceFurniture on March 04, 2021, 03:58:27 pm

Laptop was warmer than it should be last night, checked underneath. Vacced clean, and got another crash 10 minutes later.

Heat could definitely be the root cause.

Have you thought about putting it in the fridge as a test?

I had a hard disk drive go bad once and I was only able to salvage data from it by putting it in the freezer. No kidding.

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #17 on:** March 04, 2021, 07:12:18 pm »

Well I had hoped that it was the blocked vents causing overheating which caused the BS crashes (and wouldn't you think that such a sophisticated device would give a warning of overheating....) but I had a crash immediately after I cleaned it, then all ok for about two hours, another crash.

Temp of the surface immediately above the blocked vent is now 34° Celsius (a little cooler than human temp). I didn't measure it last night but it would have been well into the 40s.

I suppose it's possible that there is dust inside still causing some overheating somewhere, and perhaps it takes longer to get to problem heat, but I think it's probably a good idea to change the SSD anyway, given that it will wear out one day fairly soon. It may not solve this problem though.

DJLegba · « **Reply #18 on:** March 04, 2021, 07:28:26 pm »

If the vent was blocked you probably have all kinds of dust on the internal CPU fan, and the CPU's thermal paste may need to be replaced too. It really does sound like a heat problem.

zybex · « **Reply #19 on:** March 05, 2021, 04:10:45 am »

Heat would cause instant reboots/shutdowns, and/or random blue screens - not always the same (so check if it's always "CRITICAL PROCESS DIED").
IMHO the missing minidumps point to the disk or disk driver, or a rootkit virus misbehaving and killing some system driver by mistake.
Anyway, it's not MC related.

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #20 on:** March 05, 2021, 05:06:26 am »

ATM, the way forward is to put a new cloned hard drive in and clean out the dust from the laptop innards (about $350 Aussie all up, so ~USD240) and that will be twice the current size (512GB to 1TB). The current drive will fail soonish anyway (15% life left). The local repair guy can do it on Monday (I will pu the drive tomorrow). I may, only may, buy another chassis and use the old hard drive for (dunno what) until it fails altogether.

In the interim, I have put a small fan on the desk to blow cool Autumn air at it.

If there are still crashes after that then it will be.....summink else!

Certainly it is not being caused by MC v27.0.66 ( but the timing was just WAY too coincidental - same day).

My hearty thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.

dtc · « **Reply #21 on:** March 05, 2021, 03:07:12 pm »

Not sure it is your problem, but I use a little program called CoreTemp to check the temperature of the CPU. It can help confirm problems with clogged vents and broken fans.

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #22 on:** March 05, 2021, 03:50:35 pm »

Yes I installed CoreTemp yesterday, along with GPU Monitor. GPUM doesn't work for me because the laptop has a cheap Intel Graphics card with no temp sensors on it.

JimH · « **Reply #23 on:** March 05, 2021, 06:53:51 pm »

Put it in the fridge. Seriously. Try it.

FenceFurniture · « **Reply #24 on:** March 25, 2021, 03:48:45 am »

Sorry chaps - rude of me not to have posted my solution after all your help.

I had a new SSD installed, and cleaned out the dust and the BS crashes have ceased. The fan is a bit noisy now, so I expect that the bearing is wearing. I may have to get a new fan put in at some point. Funny how the dust kept the fan noise down.

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Author Topic: Is MC 27.0.66 causing my PC to Blue Screen crash? [Solved] (Read 2976 times)