New
#1
Constant crashes&BSODs on MS Surface Pro 3: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Since about 2 weeks I have constant (i.e. 5-10 times per day) "black crashes" and BSODs on my MS Surface Pro 3 - roughly in 50%/50% mixture.
"Black crash" means: the screen suddenly goes dark followed by the appearance of the "Surface" Boot logo. But these "self-reboots" always hang, i.e. there is never any further progress, no circling dots appear, nothing. I then always first have to power down the system (i.e. do a hard-reset by pressing the power button for 15-20 seconds until the system switches fully off) and then I can power on and reboot again.
In the other maybe 50% I get a BSOD which states that this is due to a DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE. In these cases the system creates a minidump and then reboots properly.
Both, crashes and BSODs, always happen while the system is idle, i.e. typically a few minutes after leaving the system idling (e.g. just putting it on the table without any further interaction, no activity, no download, no mouse movements, just idling). Then it takes typically 3-5 minutes and I get either a "black crash" or a BSOD. Of course any unsaved work is then lost... :-(
I scanned the minidumps using the WhoCrashed utility, but the results all state the same.:
-------
On Tue 05.01.2016 20:59:32 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file:
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\010516-8359-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0)
Bugcheck code:
0x9F (0x3, 0xFFFFE000B19B6060, 0xFFFFD000DD674990, 0xFFFFE000B4CDAAB0)
Error: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug check description:
This bug check indicates that the driver is in an inconsistent or invalid power state.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel.
Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.
-------
I also searched extensively on the net but haven't found any useful explanation or advice what one could do to fix such a recurring DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (other than re-installing the system from scratch which will clearly be my very last resort only, since I have many apps installed).
I upgraded from Win8.1 to Windows 10 about 4 weeks ago without any problem. The first 2 weeks everything seemed to be running smoothly. But since then these crashes suddenly started (I don't know whether they were started by some Windows update, since once doesn't see anymore, if and when the system auto-updates due to Windows 10 new update approach). Unfortunately I didn't set any restore point yet after the system upgrade.
Another observation - not sure whether it has to do with the above but I strongly suspect so: I noticed that the system cannot restart any more. If I trigger a restart the system first behaves normal as if it were restarting up to the point where the screen goes black. But then the screen remains black (i.e. no boot logo appears, nothing happens) but the system also does not switch fully off (e.g. the fan keeps running and one can sense the vibrator reacting to presses of the windows button).
Also here, I then always first have to hard-reset the device and only then I can power on again and reboot.
Any ideas or advice?
BTW: I just located the update history.
There are 3 entries - see below. I suspect it was the bottom-most which causes these issues. Can one unroll that one? Is it possible to uninstall an update that is NOT the last one? I have never done that before...
Update history:
Update for Internet Explorer Flash Player for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems (KB3133431)
Successfully installed on 05.01.2016 (i.e. today)
Security Update for Internet Explorer Flash Player for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems (KB3132372)
Successfully installed on 30.12.2015
Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems (KB3124200)
Successfully installed on 18.12.2015