Systems runs in safe mode - Normal mode locks up

Bierra · 29 Jul 2010

I have a HP Pavilion A6352c desktop pc. I have recently installed a clean copy on win 7. I have listed the issue I am having below. I hope you can assist me in getting this system to a stable state.

1. System locks up running in Normal Mode - I will take about 3 minutes before the entire system locks up, I have to do a hard shutdown when this happens. I can start the system in Normal mode, but only if I use the diagnostic startup option in MSConfig. I can enable some services, but I am in the process of trying to figure out which one is making it lockup.

2. The system will run fine under safe mode with networking and such. I have the normal startup option in msconfig enabled in safe mode and no issue except it's in Safe Mode!

I have attached the requested documents/files in the attached zip file. I was unable to get the Perfmon report.

I look forward to your response.

Thanks in advance

SCA

**cluberti** · 29 Jul 2010

The dumps are all over the map, but they all are having issues in amdk8.sys (the OS's CPU driver). What's really interesting is one of these dumps looks almost exactly the same as the issue that is documented in KB 975530, but that's for Intel CPUs running hyper-v. However, you *are* running into a watchdog timeout on the CPU (it's causing other drivers to crash and confuse analyze, but it's not that code's fault that the CPU stopped processing it's requests). This means you might have a bum core on that CPU when entering/exiting C-states. Try running this:
reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Processor /v Capabilities /t REG_DWORD /d 0x0007e066

Reboot, and see if it still causes problems in regular boot mode. Either way, you probably need to have that CPU looked at as a potential bad part.

whs · 29 Jul 2010

I would guess that one of your startups is on the blink. Disable them all including the AV (but stay off the net) and see what happens. If that works, you have to reenable them individually to find the culprit. The AV program is usually the first suspect - but not always.

Bierra · 29 Jul 2010

Thanks for the quick response.

I tried the first suggestion....System still locking up. I think I will continue the process of elimination of these services to determine what one is causing the issue.

Thanks!

**cluberti** · 30 Jul 2010

You can do what you'd like, and I wish you well. I still say your CPU is failing coming in and out of C-States, and fiddling with running software isn't likely to fix that unless said software keeps the CPU from entering C-States

.

Bierra · 30 Jul 2010

Does the system still come out of C-States in safe mode? or running in a diagnostic startup?

Bierra · 30 Jul 2010

Looks like the Power service is causing the issuse. I have the system up and running now, following the info i found in the below link.

Windows 7 freezes\locks up.

Thanks,
SCA

**cluberti** · 30 Jul 2010

Safe mode or diagnostic mode would load a generic driver for the CPU, and it wouldn't be powering down in idle states like it would in a normal boot. That's a good thread to follow, though - let us know how it goes.

baffled88 · 27 Oct 2010

Bierra recaps my situation perfectly. Thanks Cluberti and WHS for your insight. So now that the Power service is disabled, I am good to go--without audio. Does this problem point to a problem with hardware that replacing the CPU would fix, or is it a software issue that would be resolved by reinstalling Windows 7? (I reinstalled Win 7 once and the problem seemed fixed for about a month. Thanks again for you help.

whs · 27 Oct 2010

baffled88 said:

Bierra recaps my situation perfectly. Thanks Cluberti and WHS for your insight. So now that the Power service is disabled, I am good to go--without audio. Does this problem point to a problem with hardware that replacing the CPU would fix, or is it a software issue that would be resolved by reinstalling Windows 7? (I reinstalled Win 7 once and the problem seemed fixed for about a month. Thanks again for you help.

It is pretty safe to assume that this is not a hardware issue - especially not with the CPU.

I reinstalled Win 7 once and the problem seemed fixed for about a month

This points to a "third party" throwing a monkey wrench into your system. Maybe a program that you installed at that time. Think hard what that could have been. If you find nothing, it will not be easy to track this down.
For that very reason I always recommend to do frequent imaging and to keep as many images as possible. Then you can go back in time and undo the damage.