BSOD Error 0xF4 CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION 1 hour after cold boot

Sidio47 said:

I have a system image that I created when I built the system. I put in the system recovery disk (that I also made) and rebooted. All extra cables are removed (except keyboard /mouse / Ethernet / monitor / power). When I reboot, I change the boot order to the DVD drive and it just sits with a black screen and a white blinking cursor. The drive works fine in windows. I then tried with an external USB DVD drive and the same thing happened. I take the same recovery disk and boot off it with my laptop and it shows up fine.

Do the following steps and see if you can then boot from the DVD.

1. Shut down and turn off the computer.
2. Unplug the computer from the wall or surge protector (then remove the battery if it is a laptop).
3. Hold down the power button for 30 seconds. This closes the circuit and ensures all power from components is drained to clear the software connections between the BIOS and hardware and clear any corruption in the temporary memory.
4. (If it is a laptop, plug the battery back into the laptop and then) Plug the computer back into the wall.
5. Turn it on to reinitialize the software connections between the BIOS and hardware, and post back your results.

Sidio47 said:

Another line of thought:
Could I physically disconnect the RAID array (SATA cables and power); make sure bios is then set properly (to have no RAID devices); boot up the system on the SSD and wait the typical hour to see if the system indeed freezes up? If it did have something specifically to do with the RAID would this not take it out of the equation so to speak? Would I have any problems hooking the RAID up later and still having access to the data?

Could I not do the same thing with the SSD? Take it completely out of the computer; hook up just a regular spin up drive; restore the image to this new drive and see if the system freezes?

Yes, these are all good troubleshooting steps. Make sure you backup your important data in case the RAID re-initialization fails, though. It would even be prudent to backup anything important from the SSD even though you are not too likely to lose that data.

In short, those steps are good steps to take to narrow the problem down.

I unplugged, held down power button for 30+ seconds, booted using the F8 boot menu to DVD -> black screen with blinking cursor. It seems there is no light up from the SATA DVD drive LED.

I changed boot priority to the DVD drive in BIOS; saved and exited.
I unplugged, held down power button for 30+ sec, booted with no intervention -> black screen with blinking cursor; i.e. it never moved on to the SSD as if the DVD drive was "doing" something.


I will discuss backup options with the owner and prepare to physically remove the RAID array first.

Could be the BIOS needs to be reset to defaults to clear the CMOS, but that will reset the RAID, which is why I did not recommend it.

I turned off the machine, removed the HDD's associated with the RAID array completely, reset CMOS via popping the jumper, booted up and setup basic BIOS settings. I set the DVD drive as first in priority and it was able to boot off the Windows recovery disk. I changed the boot priority back to the SSD and I'm waiting for the 1 hour mark to come as I type.

Well, even though I did not see it directly (I was out of the room) I believe it blue screened again. Typically, the system will stay on from cold startup for 1 hour, lock up over a few minutes, blue screen, count down 100 seconds and restart.

I found the system on the Windows System Recovery screen from the DVD drive. Now, BIOS is set such that the SDD with Windows 7 is booting first and DVD drive second. I canceled the recovery and it prompted to restart. I restarted and the startup screens were very sluggish. I entered BIOS to find that the SSD was not detected in the SATA 5 port where it lives. I confirmed the boot order (which now had "hard drive" instead of the M4-**** typical tag) as SSD then DVD. I exited BIOS and it went to a black screen with blinking cursor. This time, though, it picked up and started booting the DVD drive since it couldn't do anything with the SSD. I did a hard shutdown (holding power button for 5 seconds). I then started up again and went straight to BIOS. The SSD was back, as normal, in the SATA 5 slot. I exited and windows started as normal.

I'll let others suggest what it might be without me influencing the decision.

We have seen many problems due to SSDs on these forums, as well. usasma has a QUOTE he uses anytime SSD BSODs result. The quote and what usasma recommends can be found in post #2 of BSOD playing Battlefield 3, just got a new SSD is that the problem ?.

Interesting...

It just so happens that there is a Marvel 91xx controller for eSATA drives (this is how the RAID is backed up). So, I will take this controller card out first, start up and wait the 1 hour to see if a blue screen appears.

Best of luck!

Well with the Rosewill RC-226 eSATA controller card out of the motherboard, the system still tanked. I have now taken out the SSD and have replaced it with a 500 GB WD Caviar Black 7200 rpm drive. I am currently loading a windows recovery image onto the new spin up drive. Once that is done, I'll boot up cold and wait an hour to see what happens. writhziden, thanks for the support.

You're welcome. Look forward to hearing back how the HDD does. At least these steps will narrow down possible hardware issues.