BSOD - 0x0F4 can't login in Windows

[victorg]

Hello,

Please excuse my ignorance, I had many computers in my life and I met the Blue Screen many, many times before but I never read the errors messages ( it was very short time! ), it always entered the windows and the problems were infrequent...

I did this also on my ASUS N73SV laptop, which I have for about 3 years, I had a few Blue Screens which I didn't gave any importance but they become more frequent lately... a while ago, a few months I think, I did a windows update, the windows installed the updates except one, sometimes ( frequently ) when I was shutting down the laptop it was saying intalling update 1 of 1 and at the beginning I let the instalation run and it took forever with no results, I once let it like this overnight and in the morning it was still installing that update... so I forced to close the laptop with a long pressing of the power button... After this 'closings' I noticed the Blue Screen appearing more frequent.

Last week my son was watching cartoons on it on the sofa and dropped the laptop, this incident is the first one like this, my laptop is in perfect condition but this incident ended up in a broken display which I changed and it worked perfectly since I made the last windows update a few days ago, on 14.08 - also on my wife's laptop! After this exact update, the next time the laptop openned with this BSOD error 0x0F4.

I tried everything: all safe modes, repairing ( it's saying 'can't autommatically repair...' ), restore ( it's not finding any restoring points or image ) but I just can't login into windows. I am searching for a solution on-line for 2, 3 days now and I was able to enter the Bitdefender Rescue Mode and scan for viruses, it found some infections ( not critical ) which it can't solve ( delete nor disinfect ), but most important that it's staying open in this mode for very long, the laptop it's not closing and I can access the partitions, it's seeing everything except sr0 (?) which I believe is cd - it's saying "Could not mount sro - no medium found".

I haven't tried the SATA cable solution, I ordered a USB-SATA cable to preventively copy all my files to other device - when it comes I'll open the laptop and try this options.

I have read many posts in this forum, how can I post a crash dump file or MSINFO32.nfo file since I can't enter windows, can I?

Any other suggestions or solutions, please? I prefer anything rather than a clean install, even if I have all windows recovery disks. ( did I mentioned that I run a WIN 7 home premium 64 bit original version on an ASUS N73S? )

Please excuse my language and the very long story, I want to provide as many information as possible and if someone needs more I'm all available!

Thank you for your time reading this and for your amiability to suggest some solution! Have a nice day!

 

[Arc]

First boot into the BIOS. Try any other storage controller mode. Like AHCI or ATA/IDE.

If it happens the same, test the HDD using Seatools for DOS.

Let us know the result.

 

[victorg]

Hi, thank you very much for your suggestions, I did everything as you told me, first solution without any result and the second one, I'm posting an image, I can't select any option, you can see the message... I believe I have to open the laptop and check the cables, isn't it?

 

[Arc]

Read it.

View attachment 330035

 

[victorg]

Sorry, I thought I left on the IDE mode after the first solution test with another storage controller mode, but I didn't...

Now I ran boths short and long tests with SeaTools and I present you the results:

Any other next suggestion, please? I still haven't checked the SATA cables yet...

 

[Arc]

Good to know that the HDD is OK itself.

You are right, the next place to look at is the SATA cables. Check the SATA and power cables. Make it sure that those are properly seated. Apply the cables to different unused SATA ports on the motherboard. And, if you can, apply a new SATA cable.

Does it do any better?

 

[victorg]

Hello,
I'm sorry for the late posting, I've been in holidays... And, also, I've been waiting for the new display to come!

When I oppened the laptop I couldn't find the sata cables or the power ones... there was only a small pice of board with the two hdd connectors attached on it, from boths slots, connected to motherboard through a connector... and is was written 'HDD TO MB' on it!

But, since I had the laptop open I though to give another look at the display, as something it felt different from the old one which I replaced... and I was right, they sent me the wrong part, with a different resolution... So, my laptop worked with this slightly different, but compatible display for a couple of days then, right after a windows update, it started this BSOD problem. Could this be a driver issue?

Of course, I removed the wrong display an have it changed, it came two days ago, I installed yesterday the good one, but the BSOD is still there!

How can I reach for the dump file if I'm not able to enter windows? Is it possible to connect my hdd to another laptop, with the sata-usb cable and look for its location in windows directory? What if I'm using DM collector or the SF Diagnostic Tool, are they gonna collect the fies from the other laptop instead of my hdd, isn't it?

If it's a drives issue, like I'm supposing, is it possible to update a driver whithout entering in windows? What about a windows update, can it be done in this conditions?

Thank you for your time and amiability!

 

[Arc]

You dont need a dump file, the bugcheck code tells about the dump.

Boot into the BIOS. Try the other possible storage controller modes (AHCI/IDE/ATA) and see what happens.

 

[victorg]

The same results with different storage controller modes...

The bugcheck code is the one with STOP: 0xF4, right? The next 3 code are:

0x00..3 ( Process, right? )
0xFFFFFA800BEFC060
0xFFFFFA800BEFC340
0xFFFFF800035CD270

for the last BSOD, but I noticed that with the exception of the first 2, the others are changeing with every BSOD:

0xFFFFFA800BE20B30
0xFFFFFA800BE20E10
0xFFFFF800035E1270

On the other hand, I was able to enter the Bitdefender Rescue Mode and search into the partitions, copy the dump files from the minidump to an external device. How can I upload them? I know that Arc needed them...

Anything else that I can try, please? If I can copy files to an external device, I think I can copy files on the hdd, also... does this helps at anything?

 

[victorg]

Here are two dmp filesView attachment 335588

View attachment 335589

 

[Arc]

Neither of the crash dumps are strop 0xF4, both of them are stop 0x4A.

[COLOR=Red]BugCheck 4A[/COLOR], {7737132a, 2, 0, fffff880092c6b60}

Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KiSystemServiceExit+245 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

And, both of them have another thing common. They are blaming BitDefender for it.

fffff880`0a87a838 fffff880`02ed1a9aUnable to load image \??\C:\Program Files\Common Files\Bitdefender\Bitdefender Firewall\bdfwfpf.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for bdfwfpf.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for bdfwfpf.sys
bdfwfpf+0xca9a

You said safe mode does not work, too? Let us take another way to try to keep BitDefender away during startup. Boot to System Recovery Options . Try Safe Mode with Command Prompt. In the command prompt .... enter the command ....

start msconfig
​

It will open the system configuration window, with the "general" tab selected.

• Click the "startup" tab. Click "Disable all" > Apply > OK.
• Click on "services" tab. Check the "Hide all Microsoft Services"; Click "Disable all" > Apply > OK

Then try to boot again normally. Is it failing still? Let us know.

If it still fails, wi will have very limited options left.

 

[victorg]

Why it displays this STOP: 0xF4 then if it's a different error?

The Safe Mode with Command Prompt, from F8 menu is not working... it stops at CLASSPNP.SYS everytime!

It works from System Recovery Options but the command 'start msconfig' is not working: Windows cannot find msconfig'.

Is this because the App Path MSConfig.exe is missing? Is it possible to create a new one? I understand that normally is shoud be located in Windows\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\msconfig.exe but, I looked at it from the Bitdefender Rescue Mode with the Disks option and, at this location, in PCHEALTH, there is a directory named ERRORREP of 0 bytes...

What options do I still have? I want to give this all the shots before the last drastic one... like someone said, it's not possible to rebuilt all the house because of a plumbing problem...

Thanks for the contribution & suggestions!

 

[Arc]

The victim as stated in the dumps is the bitdefender antivirus. If its file system monitoring mechanism is involved too, then the stop 0xF4 BSODs are most possible.

Now, as all the other ways are failing, follow this guide, from the beginning to the end: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html

Does it make any change there? Let us know.

 

[victorg]

Meanwhile, I was did this:

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/how-to-fix-windows-cannot-find-msconfig-error-at-run-command/

with no success...

After, I did this:

Mike's Technology and Finance Blog: How to Perform an Offline System Integrity Verification

also with no success! I really don't know why the msconfig doesn't work for me!

Is there any way that I can stop Bitdefender to start? What if I try to delete some of its files ( or all of them? ), will it fail to load or I can make a bigger dammage?

 

[Arc]

If you cannot access even safe mode with command prompt, there is no way that you can stop bitdefender.

If the link I posted in post #13 does not work, too, then you will have only one option remained ... to perform a clean reinstall.

 

[victorg]

Hello, I started the guide you suggested...

I already performed a full scan with Windows Defender Offline as on post #3, which found an infection with an trojan and removed it:

View attachment 335892

I've ordered a sata usb cable to have my hdd scanned for malware from another machine. I downloaded an Win7 installer and made a bootable DVD... I'm planning to move all my data somewhere else, I saw that I don't have enough space on the other machine so I was thinking to buy an external hdd. While searching for smth like this, I thought of a SSD - which I was planning to buy right after I bought the laptop and... didn't.

One question, please: what if I transfer the OS as it is to the SSD ( using another computer ), will it behave the same on the SSD like is doing now? I suppose yes, as it is only moving the location of an already affected windows, but are there any chances to at least boot into windows and solve the problem from there?

Thanks for your time!

 

[Arc]

You can try to transfer the existing installation to another disc, but it will be always good to start afresh. Specially when the existing installation is suffering from some issues.