Random crashes to restart - how to analyse?

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Lately I'm getting crashes-to-restart while playing various games (e.g. Civ 5 and TS2010/Surveyor) on a Win7/GTX580 machine. It happens at seemingly random times during these games, but never (so far) while just running other programs like Internet Explorer or whatever. After a re-start, I can always open the games again, and it can be stable for a long time, but eventually I get another crash.

I've run DxDiag and it reports no problems in any systems. I also updated the video driver to 337.88 using Geforce Experience, and got it to optimise all the games it supports, which included Civ 5, but not Trainz. In any case, this hasn't prevented the crashes.

So my question; rather than guess, is there a way I can get the computer to analyse itself and tell me what might be causing the crashes?

 

[whitepass]

Could be dirt or your PS is going bad.

 

[shaneturner12]

Is there anything unusual appearing under Event Viewer? (eventvwr.msc)

It may be an unusual series of errors or similar - usually in the Application or System logs.

It may also be worth running a disk check just to be safe in case the hard drive/SSD is part of the problem.

Shane

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Deleted.

See the next post for a more useful account of my problems and solutions



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[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Most problems sorted...I hope

Well, once I learned how to read EventViewer properly, I found there were many more errors, although the disk error was still the only one rated as critical. For anyone with similar problems stumbling on this thread, I'll summarize the errors and solutions. I just hope that by doing all this, I have fixed whatever was really causing the crashes. Only time will tell I guess.



Disk error. Event ID 7

Ran CHKDSK set to detect and repair errors automatically. The most relevant part of it's log was this;

"CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system."

Following a reboot, EventViewer no longer shows the disk error occurring after this fix was done, so I assume it's solved. I'll leave you with the puzzle of just where to find CHKDSK's activity log after it's done it's thing?



sptd error. Event ID 4

This is a driver something to do with "SCSI layers", that has gone missing. Fix for a Win7 64-bit rig was to download SPTDinst-v186-x64.exe from DuplexSecure.com and install it. After rebooting, EventViewer shows no more of these errors are occurring.



WMI error. Event ID 10

The error description was: "Event filter with query "SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA "Win32_Processor" AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99" could not be reactivated in namespace "//./root/CIMV2" because of error 0x80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected."

Apparently this problem originated in the Windows 7 SP1 DVD/ISO creation process, i.e. in the very disk that installs your new copy of Win 7. Lovely.

Googling eventually led me to this Microsoft support page with a handy little button to push (Microsoft Fix it 50688). It initiates a Wizard that fixes the problem with minimal input from the poor dumb victim. Nice.



Apple IE DAV.exe error. Event ID 1000

This one is something to do with synchronizing your PC with iCloud and has become somewhat notorious for not working. Best I could find was some discussion at Apple.com which suggests you go into Windows Control Panel, find iCloud and untick the "Bookmarks with Internet Explorer" box. I think that actually worked. I suppose it's deep-sixed some vital function of iCloud in the process, but heck, who needs iCloud anyway?



VSS error. Event ID 8193

"Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine ConvertStringSidToSid(S-1-5-21-1190365402-3970007805-1639116249-1004.bak). hr = 0x80070539, The security ID structure is invalid."

It's so obvious isn't it? The answer is to go into your Registry with Windows regedit.exe and delete an entry ending in .bak Details here.



VSS error. Event 8194

"Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error querying for the IVssWriterCallback interface. hr = 0x80070005, Access is denied.. This is often caused by incorrect security settings in either the writer or requestor process."


I used the preferred solution described in nice clear detail at remote-backup.com It makes an adjustment to the default COM service activation permissions, allowing Network Service (and possibly Local Service) user account(s) to activate the IVssWriter callback interface (whatever that means);

Start | Run | dcomcnfg. This brings up the Component Services application. On the left pane navigate to Component Services | Computer | MyComputer. Right click on MyComputer and select properties. Select the COM Security tab and select the Edit Default button under Access Permissions. Use the Add... button to add the "Network Service" account to the permission list. Verify that ONLY the Local Access box is checked and click OK. Close out of Component Services. A reboot is then required to make the requested changes to COM Security.



HomeGroup log error. Event ID 2

"Session Homegroup Log failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035".

Some web discussions I found suggested that Windows Troubleshooter can solve this problem, but it didn't for me. Worth trying though, since it's quick and simple. Access the Troubleshooter with a right-click on the little flag symbol in your Win7 system tray, then in the Search box (top-right of screen) enter "Homegroup" and follow that.

What did work for me was to run ipconfig from the Run dialog box;

ipconfig /Flushdns
ipconfig /release /all

Original advice is at Event ID.net here.


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