BSOD ATTEMPTED_ SWITCH_FROM_DPC while using AOMEI Backupper

Thanks, Axeo. FYI, I ran SpinRite on the disk a couple weeks ago - about 1/4 at Level 4 and the remainder at Level 2 (I didn't have time to let it finish at Level 4). I also ran the Dell disk diagnostics. It passed everything except for the SMART Self-Test, which timed out. Should I still go ahead and run the tests you recommended? Or should we examine something else first?
Many thanks,
Yosh

Just touching base to let you know I ran HDTune last night. I went to sleep while it was running the Error Scan. In the morning I found my computer had restarted in the middle of the night :-(

I am re-running it now. It's gone for 3 hours so far & I'd estimate it's got another 2 hours to go. I saved the interim results of hte Health & Benchmark tests, so even if it crashes my system, I've at least got those. Meanwhile, I've also burned SeaTools to a CD and will move on to that when HDTune is done.

BTW, the diagnostics I ran a couple weeks ago did complete (except for the Dell extensive disk test, which hung on the SMART Self-Test). The Dell short disk test and the SpinRite and the Dell BIOS tests did complete. SpinRite was not able to connect to the SMART system, but otherwise, showed no errors. It included a full read scan of the disk. The Dell BIOS test showed no errors. The Dell online short disk test showed no errors except for a time-out on the SMART Self-test.

If I don't hear otherwise from you I shall continue with the disk tests you prescribed and report back. Meanwhile, I am wondering about the meaning of the specific STOP CODE I got. Any ideas related to it?
Many thanks,
Yosh

axe0 said:

Why the BSOD happened is straight forward, but why the action was performed is unknown.Just for explanation, I've written a little about DPCs in this post
Basically, the system is already waiting for a DPC routine to finish when a driver decides to wait in the DPC routine, a double delay in execution that cannot be allowed due to several reasons.

Thanks. I followed up with a google search & found this page:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...(v=vs.85).aspx
There it says

Resolution
The stack trace will lead to the code in the original DPC routine that caused the error.

So I am wondering if we examine the stack trace if we could find the code/program that caused the stop? I don't know where to look, but would it be in those log files I originally submitted?

axe0 said:

I don't suppose you still know the details of the scan?

The SpinRite scan said all was OK.

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Meanwhile, the HDTune has finished, so here are those results:
HD Tune Pro: WDC WD7500BPKX-75HPJT0 Health

Code:

ID                              Current  Worst    ThresholdData          Status   
(01) Raw Read Error Rate        200      200      51       4             ok       
(03) Spin Up Time               184      184      21       1775          ok       
(04) Start/Stop Count           99       99       0        1449          ok       
(05) Reallocated Sector Count   200      200      140      0             ok       
(07) Seek Error Rate            200      200      0        0             ok       
(09) Power On Hours Count       85       85       0        11272         ok       
(0A) Spin Retry Count           100      100      0        0             ok       
(0B) Calibration Retry Count    100      100      0        0             ok       
(0C) Power Cycle Count          99       99       0        1441          ok       
(BF) G-sense Error Rate         1        1        0        44650         ok       
(C0) Unsafe Shutdown Count      200      200      0        92            ok       
(C1) Load Cycle Count           199      199      0        4823          ok       
(C2) Temperature                107      97       0        40            ok       
(C4) Reallocated Event Count    200      200      0        0             ok       
(C5) Current Pending Sector     200      200      0        0             ok       
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable      100      253      0        0             ok       
(C7) Interface CRC Error Count  200      200      0        0             ok       
(C8) Write Error Rate           200      200      0        0             ok       
(F0) Head Flying Hours          85       85       0        11203         ok       
(F1) Unknown Attribute          200      200      0        160859330646  ok       
(F2) Unknown Attribute          200      200      0        101239767154  ok       
(FE) Unknown Attribute          53       53       0        147           ok       
 Health Status         : ok

HD Tune Pro: WDC WD7500BPKX-75HPJT0 Benchmark

Code:

Test capacity: full
 
Read transfer rate
Transfer Rate Minimum : 0.3 MB/s
Transfer Rate Maximum : 57.2 MB/s
Transfer Rate Average : 2.2 MB/s
Access Time           : 78.0 ms
Burst Rate            : 51.4 MB/s
CPU Usage             : 10.6%

Attachment 126023

HD Tune Pro: WDC WD7500BPKX-75HPJT0 Error Scan

Code:

Scanned data   : 749 gB
Damaged Blocks : 0.0 %
Elapsed Time   : 5:29:57

Attachment 126024

And here's the Speed map. The reason it slowed down in the middle is that I had to get some work done (couldn't put it off any more) so it was competing with me.

Attachment 126025

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So.... I won't be able to run SeaTools until later. I've still got to get some work done.
Meanwhile, I was puzzled as to why my computer restarted last night while running HDTune. I checked and there were no new minidump files, so I didn't see evidence of a crash. I also did not see a record of restart by Windows Update (looked in History). But then I poked around in the Event Viewer and saw that at about 1:20 AM this happened:

The process C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe (YOSH-M4800) has initiated the restart of computer YOSH-M4800 on behalf of user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM for the following reason: Operating System: Service pack (Planned) Reason Code: 0x80020010 Shutdown Type: restart

Grrr.... Thank you, Bill Gates! I did not know Windows was planning to do a restart!

OK - that's the story so far. Thanks for your help. Will appreciate any new ideas. Meanwhile, tonight I'll try to continue the other disk testing (unless you tell me it's pointless). Before that, though, I'm going to find another way to backup my disk. Remember this whole thing started because it blue-screened in the middle of AOMEI Backupper.

Many thanks,
Yosh

Hmmmm.... So I can proceed with the SeaTools test. Will that give us confirmation of your suspicion?

How long should I expect the SeaTools test to take with a 750GB drive?

Here's another idea I had: what if I try booting from Gandalf's WinPE and try running AOMEI from there? If it succeeds, that would indicate the problem may be OS or software caused. If it fails, also, that would indicate that the H/W issue is more likely the root cause. What do you think?

Meanwhile, I'm asking Dell to get my hard drive replaced. But that means getting a complete backup is even more urgent!

At any rate, I'm copying off what I can to an external drive, but I'd like to do a proper full backup.

Thanks,l
Yosh