Intermittent BSOD 0xF4 at login

[arkane78]

I have attached both Health reports from SSD drives.
However, when I hit Health tab on HDDs, I get nothing at all.

Edit: Downloaded the Trial version and that seems to work better - so will use this going forward.
I've noticed that SSD 2 (D and HDD 2 (I both have issues - but HDD 2 shouldn't be causing my crashes as nothing on it that the OS would load or even look at - it's all media files.

 

[arkane78]

I tried SeaTools under Windows again on a whim - seems it came through this time.
Screenshot Attached.

Will do benchmarks shortly.
Do you have any early thoughts or good/bad news for me?
So far, it looks like my only saving grace is that SSD 2 isn't anywhere near full but it concerns me that it's having issues - it's only 3 years old, same as the rest of my PC hardware, except GPU (which is 2 years old).

 

[arkane78]

Have finished benchmarks as well.

 

[axe0]

but HDD 2 shouldn't be causing my crashes as nothing on it that the OS would load or even look at

That is unfortunately incorrect, all partitions from a HDD are optimized by Windows for example with a defragmentation in the background. If no defragmentation, then still the HDD is being optimized by Windows.

I'll wait for the error scan in HDtune before saying anything about the results

 

[arkane78]

but HDD 2 shouldn't be causing my crashes as nothing on it that the OS would load or even look at

That is unfortunately incorrect, all partitions from a HDD are optimized by Windows for example with a defragmentation in the background. If no defragmentation, then still the HDD is being optimized by Windows.

I'll wait for the error scan in HDtune before saying anything about the results

What I've done is disable background defrag, disk scans etc. In the case of HDD 2, I also disabled shadow copies.

It's all a mystery though - it only crashes after I login but sometimes it does it, sometimes not. I'd almost think it was an errant driver, but not a core system driver, but a user level driver or an app that loads, loads a driver and that causes it - but I just don't know.

But how would a ropey HDD and/or SSD cause another SSD on a different channel to just 'disappear'?

 

[axe0]

What do you mean with 'disappear'?

 

[arkane78]

What I mean is that sometimes Windows would act as if SSD 1 had been unplugged. Windows would either stop working entirely, forcing a hard reboot or would BSOD. Upon hard reboot, SSD 1 wouldn't show in the BIOS, it took another cold reboot to make it reappear. It hasn't done it for a very long time though, so I assume the problem has gone away or I fixed it somehow or has turned into something else. In any case, I still need to know why it is crashing now

Finally - we have error scans

 

[axe0]

Please check your SSDs for firmware updates, if you recently done this just let me know

 

[arkane78]

Hi Axe0,

I updated the SSD firmware when I first started having issues.
Whilst I couldn't find the release notes on the firmware, I updated it anyway.

I believe it was v5.05 to v5.24 (I hadn't updated firmware on SSDs since purchase).

In addition, which may or may not shed any light on what is going on, you may notice that my Intel drivers are out of date - this is deliberate.
If I update them to latest, I lose my DVD-ROM. The BIOS can see it, but Windows cannot, no matter what I do. Rolling the drivers back, fixes this issue - although I don't use the DVD-ROM much, I still have software on DVD.

 

[arkane78]

Just had a lock-up. Nothing in EventViewer except below.
It was like Drive-C disappeared again. It happened at 15:15 local-time.

The only thing I can spot in EventViewer is this:
Date/Time: 26/08/2016 14:25:31
Source: iaStorA
Event: 129
Message: Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued.

It may not be related to the BSODs or it may be related, not sure.

 

[axe0]

At least 1 drive seems to be having problems seeing its transfer rate being abnormally low.
I would suggest to remove this drive while troubleshooting.

 

[arkane78]

Which drive? The only one I can see have an unusually low transfer rate is HDD 1 (the 3rd benchmark screenshot). If so, I can't remove that drive. It houses the bulk of my data - removing it is not an option I can take, even whilst troubleshooting. I'll run another benchmark on it, it might be a one-off reading for it.

If the BSODs are caused by Hard Drives (be that SSD or HDD), what can I actually do to 'solve' it?
I cannot run without the 1st HDD though.

Could it be a bad driver?
Could it be a bad SATA cable?

I conceed that SSD 2 and HDD 2 have health warnings against them, but I'm not about to simply replace them and see if that fixes it.

EDIT: Have done new benchmark and it seems better than it was - more in-line with HDD 2.
I have also modified my registry to try and fix the 'reset to device \Device\RaidPort0 was issued' issue I have. I used this site: Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0, was issued. Event id: 129 storahci - General Hardware - Laptop - Dell Community - the last post on that page by Stratosgr. I didn't think it could do any harm and it might solve all my issues.

Although I will say, that since scanning the disks with CHKDSK /R, I haven't had another BSOD - but that doesn't necessarily mean I won't have one later and it hasn't solved all my issues which may all be related.

 

[arkane78]

Have disconnected and reconnected all drives internally to check for loose connections.

 

[arkane78]

It seems that running CHKDSK and checking connections has resolved the BSOD.
I say that, based on the last BSOD was on 24th August and the last time it hung on shutdown was 27th August.

 

[axe0]

Good to hear

If the BSODs are caused by Hard Drives (be that SSD or HDD), what can I actually do to 'solve' it?

To answer this, it depends on if the problem is within the file system or the physical hard drive.
If it is the file system, a reinstallation of Windows will do the job as it resets certain things.

 

[arkane78]

I think it's probably physical damage, rather than file system or structural.
Due to various issues in my last 2 properties, power-cuts were a little too frequent so it's not surprising it might have caused some damage.

Whilst I'm not overly thrilled about any damage, the important thing is, the BSODs seem to have abated, the system shuts down cleanly and everything seems to work. Data loss due to BSODs was minimal, except for a BSOD on Saturday (27th), which managed to completely corrupt one of my VM systems. Unfortunately it never 'complained' about the issue until I had to reboot it - post-backups.

I've spent the last day rebuilding the OS from scratch. Actual data loss though was minimal and have multiple redundant backups for that as it's very important data.