BSOD at Random

Hi

First time posting. Everything was good until I updated my GeForce Game Ready Driver for my GTX 1080 Max-Q. The version(s) in question is: 418.91 - WHQL and possibly the older version 418.81 - WHQL.



For better context. My laptop is almost constantly on and is connected to my Soundbar via HDMI almost all the time to view movies and shows. 4



FIRST TIME (THIS IS LONG):
When I update, I always chose to do custom and perform a clean install as I like it to have no interference with previous versions. However, lately, I would sometimes when I return to my computer, I find it to have restarted by itself. After a few instances I check Event Viewer and saw a 'DUMPFILE' was created so I assume it was BSOD. I've only briefly read it and my knowledge of them isn't very good but I inferred it was to do with the graphics drivers. So I proceeded to uninstall the drivers from 'Device Manager', selecting 'Delete the driver software' as well and restarted. I downloaded and installed the newest set of drivers at the time, also selecting a clean install because why not. It failed for some reason so I restarted and installed it again (again, selecting clean install). After I restarted, none of my audio worked! Both internal (from the laptop, even ASUS boot up sound) and external (HDMI to the Soundbar). I pretty much repeated the process for a long time and I gave up so did a 'System Restore' to a time well before the driver update. After that, the external sound worked but the internal ones didn't. So I then proceeded to reinstall the internal driver (Realtek). No luck. As a saving grace I booted up the BIOS but couldn't find anything useful but I though "might as well do something" so pressed restore default and saved and exit and now everything works.


Now that was I quite a bit a go and silly me decided to install the latest driver (418.91 - WHQL) recently. Note that I am unsure which versions were involved in that story but I provided it to give some background



SECOND STORY (NOW):
With the latest drivers (418.91 - WHQL) I also notice the random restart of the computer and Event Manager does reveal a 'DUMPFILE'. It's less frequent but does happen. I pretty much did the same thing, reinstalled the drivers although this time uninstalling them first using REVO Uninstaller and deleting remnants. Same thing happens when I select clean install, presents an failed error so I just restart and install no problem. This time round the audio is working fine except the external audio refuses to enable Dolby Atmos for Home Theater. I've tried plenty of times reinstalling both the drivers and the 'Dobly Access' app. I decided to install the previous version (418.81 - WHQL) which I am currently using right now. I did some digging on Google and found a temporary work around, if you go to the Device Manager, update NVIDIA High Definition Sound locally and picking the one that doesn't say NVIDIA fixes the issue until the next restart, which happened because of a BSOD I assume.



I never seen the actual BSOD but I'm definitely sure that's what's happening. The attatched file is with the older driver (418.81 - WHQL). Might have to revert to 417.71 - WHQL which last month's drivers. But if you can assist me for now, please help
Should I stop doing clean installs since they keep failing lately?



Thanks in advance and sorry for text haha
Delos

Attachment 225171

philc43 said:

Hello Delos,

Welcome to TenForums

Thanks for the detailed background. I think you are right in that you will have to go back to an earlier graphics driver such as the 417.71.

There is a record of the crash and also a mini-dump file which I have reviewed. It shows a driver power state failure (0x9F bugcheck) and the crash was caused by the nvlddmkm.sys driver blocking the IRP for too long.

Code:

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (9f)
A driver has failed to complete a power IRP within a specific time.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000003, A device object has been blocking an Irp for too long a time
Arg2: ffffc903c72b8080, Physical Device Object of the stack
Arg3: fffff8822524f7d0, nt!TRIAGE_9F_POWER on Win7 and higher, otherwise the Functional Device Object of the stack
Arg4: ffffc903ca099a20, The blocked IRP

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nvlddmkm.sys


3: kd> !irp ffffc903ca099a20
Irp is active with 6 stacks 5 is current (= 0xffffc903ca099c10)
 No Mdl: No System Buffer: Thread 00000000:  Irp stack trace.  Pending has been returned
     cmd  flg cl Device   File     Completion-Context
 [N/A(0), N/A(0)]
            0  0 00000000 00000000 00000000-00000000    

            Args: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
 [N/A(0), N/A(0)]
            0  0 00000000 00000000 00000000-00000000    

            Args: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
 [N/A(0), N/A(0)]
            0  0 00000000 00000000 00000000-00000000    

            Args: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
 [IRP_MJ_POWER(16), IRP_MN_WAIT_WAKE(0)]
            0  0 ffffc903c72b8080 00000000 fffff8025491d870-fffff88225217790    
           \Driver\pci    dxgkrnl!DpiFdoPowerCompletionRoutine
            Args: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
>[IRP_MJ_POWER(16), IRP_MN_SET_POWER(2)]
            0 e1 ffffc903c799a030 00000000 fffff8076fa1c930-ffffc903ca92b238 Success Error Cancel pending
           \Driver\nvlddmkm    nt!PopRequestCompletion
            Args: 00000000 00000001 00000001 00000000
 [N/A(0), N/A(0)]
            0  0 00000000 00000000 00000000-ffffc903ca92b238    

            Args: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

There is usually no problem with doing clean installs but as you have found it can take a little while to get the drivers sorted out. If you need to stop Microsoft from updating the drivers automatically as part of the Windows Update procedure you can do this - follow instructions in the tutorial: Enable or Disable Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10

Also note that free space is getting low on the C:\ drive - this will make it harder for some memory dump files to be created.

Thanks

I've reverted back to much earlier version, stable so far but the audio issue is still present. I have a feeling it's to do with 1809 version of Windows, there's bunch of people affected.