BSOD Unexpected Store Exception when system wakes up from sleep.

Ten64BitUser · 03 Feb 2018

Hello,

My Windows has been crashing since I installed it. I've attached the logs as suggested on the page detailing the BSOD Posting Instructions.

My observation suggests that the crash usually happens when I wake my computer from sleep. It never happen when shutting down/restarting the system. It doesn't happen in my regular usage of this system either! (And I don't play Games on my system so that scenario may also please be ruled out.) However, it isn't like it happens whenever I wake my system from sleep.

I ran the Dell's built-in diagnostics. The machine passed all the tests. (The option to run these diagnostic comes when I press F12 when the laptop boots).

Kindly suggest what I should do to remedy this problem.

axe0 · 03 Feb 2018

Diagnostics Test

HDD TEST

Note

Run the tests on all hard drives/partitions!

Please run HDTune first, in the order posted!

Run HDTune to

check the health,
scan for errors, no quick scan but full scan
run a benchmark.

It may take some time, but please take the time you need to perform it properly.
When above is done please make screenshots of the following

the health,
the error scan,
the benchmark incl. following
- transfer rate,
- access time,
- burst rate,
- cpu usage.

Run SeaTools DOS to check the integrity of your HDD. SeaTools for DOS and Windows - How to Use - Windows 7 Help Forums
Run the long test.

Note

Do not run SeaTools on an SSD as the results will be invalid.

Make a photo of the result and post it.

Run chkdsk
Disk Check - Windows 7 Help Forums
Use option TWO with parameter /r
Upload the chkdsk log

Check Disk (chkdsk) - Read Event Viewer Log - Windows 7 Help Forums

Ten64BitUser · 06 Feb 2018

Hi Axe!

I ran the HDTune software and the results were as follows:

Attachment 175812 Attachment 175813 Attachment 175814 Attachment 175815

axe0 said:

Note

Do not run SeaTools on an SSD as the results will be invalid.

Regarding SeaTools, I wanted to ask. Mine is an SSHD. Would the results of running Seatools on an SSHD be considered valid?

axe0 · 06 Feb 2018

Don't think so, I believe the SSD part is only in the boot part?

Your hard drive doesn't look very good, seems it's at the end of life.

Ten64BitUser · 09 Feb 2018

Hi axe0,

I'm not sure whether the SSD part is only in the boot part. Is there a way I can confirm this?

And please also you explain a little as to why you think that the hard disk isn't in good shape.

And regarding Seatools, should I run the Seatools on my SSHD?

axe0 · 09 Feb 2018

A new average hard drive's speed is around 100MB/s - 150MB/s, or 150MB/s - 200MB/s depending on if there are bottlenecks in the system.

After a few years, a hard drive ages and some notice performance degradation, at that point the hard drive's speed is usually around 50MB/s - 100MB/s.

Your hard drive is between 0MB/s - 25MB/s, meaning it is very old, the performance isn't what it used to be and slowly the hard drive will physically degradate, it will fail and your system gets more and more problems regarding performance and reading/writing data to/from the drive.
The issues with reading/writing results in a few specific BSODs (usually), the performance issue usually results in freezing problems.

If I'm wrong regarding the age of the drive and you have warranty, use the warranty to replace the drive and backup your data beforehands.
Either way, I would recommend to replace the hard drive and backup data beforehands.

Ten64BitUser · 10 Feb 2018

Hi axe0,

You might indeed be correct regarding the age of the Hard Disk. My laptop is going to be 6 years old now. It was bought sometime in 2012.

My laptop is under extended warranty. Can I prod Dell to replace this laptop's Hard Disk because of the degrade in performance?

axe0 · 10 Feb 2018

Not for degrade in performance, but for stability.
To prevent data corruption that could occur when the drive starts to physically fail and ultimately to prevent boot issues.

Ten64BitUser · 15 Feb 2018

Hi axe0,

The Dell engineer did the following:

Disabled all non-Microsoft Services.
Disabled all startup items.

After this, he asked me to run the HDTune software and surprisingly, the performance improved significantly. Attachment 177229

I'm at a complete loss of words with this. He insists that I format my hard disk, remove Windows 8 from the laptop, and install Windows 10 and other applications afresh. Since this would be a major undertaking, could you please help me understand this phenomenon? How did the hard disk performance improve so significantly?

Also, I have a concern. Even after disabling the startup items and non-microsoft services, the minimum transfer rate is 40 MB/sec. Is that acceptable? Or is it severe enough to cause BSODs?

Lastly, does dual booting affect system performance/stability in any significant manner? I've have had dual booting machines before...had Windows XP with Ubuntu on an old desktop, have two copies of Windows 7 installed on my other laptop...but never once did I face any such issue. Should I believe this Dell engineer?

P.S.: Windows 8 came pre-installed on my laptop. But I use Windows 10. I've kept Windows 8 installed on the laptop for just-in-case scenarios, giving only 14.5GB drive space to it, of which 10.25GB is occupied.

axe0 · 15 Feb 2018

When you install programs, each of them could add items to the startup process, so when Windows boots, it loads those items and the program related to the item will then start.
This engineer disabled all these items, preventing them from loading when Windows boots, to speed up the boot process.
There are certain programs that, in the background, require a lot of the resources (CPU, hard drive, RAM), if they have an item in the startup process these programs will continuously run in the background until you close them. When you run a HDTune with such a program running in the background, most of the hard drive's focus goes to the program in the background which results in HDTune performing not as expected.

When this happens, it's often a sign of bad maintenance, the quickest fix for bad maintenance is to go for a clean install which is why you got the recommendation to install Windows all over again.
I mean, getting the performance of a system to a certain level, and making sure stability is intact is a task that takes a long time, several hours if not a few days. Reinstalling the system is much easier, all you have to do is reinstall the OS, copy all necessary data from a backup, install necessary programs and remove some items in the startup list is usually all there's to do (for me). Took me 2 hours to do compared to days of analysis why something unknown wasn't loading faster preventing a system to load the taskbar.

The average speed is ~80MB/s, good enough for a long time :)

Dual booting shouldn't affect performance / stability, it is recommended to have the Windows installation as #1 boot option. Some have experienced stability issues when Ubuntu was #1 boot option instead of Windows 7.