Driver error hell

[HCHTech]

I've got a photographer customer with a 14-month-old Dell XPS 8700 desktop. Win7 Pro, i7, 24 Gigs of RAM, a 1TB OS drive and 2TB data drive, 2 printers, a scanner, 2 external drives, a USB monitor calibrator thingy - lots of peripherals.

We're getting 2 or 3x/day 7e BSODs from the iusb3xhc.sys driver. I had this in the shop last month and did a full hardware diagnostic, including long tests w/GSmartControl on both internal drives, 6 passes with Memtest, 2 hour burn-in, the works. No failures.

I've gone through every driver looking for updates, and everything is at the latest available version (used SDI, not the Dell site). The driver throwing the BSODs is dated 3/30/15.

I'm afraid we're coming down to hardware as the problem, but it would be nice to be sure before, for example, buying a motherboard.

Since the crashes are random, it's time consuming to test each peripheral, plus that has to be done onsite. As a test, I've renamed the troublesome driver to stop it from loading, but I won't know for a couple of days whether that helped or not.

My next step is to talk him through removing most of the periphals and then adding them back one per day to see if we can find the culprit.

In case it helps anyone, here are the BSOD details from bluescreenview:

=======================
Dump File : 052015-48968-01.dmp
Crash Time : 5/20/2015 7:38:17 PM
Bug Check String : SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug Check Code : 0x1000007e
Parameter 1 : ffffffff`c0000005
Parameter 2 : fffff880`0692c3b4
Parameter 3 : fffff880`0e0ed598
Parameter 4 : fffff880`0e0ecdf0
Caused By Driver : iusb3xhc.sys
Caused By Address : iusb3xhc.sys+6db00
File Description :
Product Name :
Company :
File Version :
Processor : x64
Crash Address : iusb3xhc.sys+4e3b4
Stack Address 1 :
Stack Address 2 :
Stack Address 3 :
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\052015-48968-01.dmp
Processors Count : 8
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 318,072
Dump File Time : 5/20/2015 7:41:07 PM
=======================

Does anyone have any suggestions before I start down the trial & error path?

 

[MichaelBits]

Well, its a USB 3 driver.... If he has enough USB 2 ports, have em only use those and see if he gets the error.

 

[FremontPC]

Check for multiple versions of that driver on the system and any outdated drivers that might be interfering. Looks like one guy out there had an old motorola driver for his phone that was tripping up the USB driver.

http://www.sysnative.com/forums/bsod-crashes-kernel-debugging/5406-bsod-windows-7-laptop.html

 

[glennd]

Sometimes when the latest driver does not fix the problem you may need to go back to an older driver. The old story, sometimes the latest is not necessarily the greatest. Also check for physical damage on all the USB ports, eg, someone tried to put a cord in upside down. Definitely unload any drivers that are not being used. In device manager select "Show Hidden Devices". Check Autoruns for weird/old stuff that can be removed.

According to:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff559239(v=vs.85).aspx

error code 5 is

• 0xC0000005: STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION indicates a memory access violation occurred.

possible steps to resolution:

• Make sure you have enough disk space.
  
  
• If a driver is identified in the bug check message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates.
  
  
• Try changing video adapters.
  
  
• Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates.
  
  
• Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
  
  
• Check the System Log in Event Viewer for additional error messages that might help identify the device or driver that is causing bug check 0x7E.

If you do not know the specific cause of the exception, consider the following issues:

• Hardware incompatibility. Make sure that any new hardware that is installed is compatible with the installed version of Windows. For example, you can get information about compatibility with Windows 7 at theWindows 7 Compatibility Center.
  
  
• Faulty device driver or system service. A faulty device driver or system service might be responsible for this error. Hardware issues, such as BIOS incompatibilities, memory conflicts, and IRQ conflicts can also generate this error.
  

 

[HFultzjr]

I've got a photographer customer with a 14-month-old Dell XPS 8700 desktop. Win7 Pro, i7, 24 Gigs of RAM, a 1TB OS drive and 2TB data drive, 2 printers, a scanner, 2 external drives, a USB monitor calibrator thingy - lots of peripherals.

Is there a "peripheral" causing the specific issue. Try and narrow it down to a certain "device". Start with none and add one at a time.

I agree with trying an older driver......sometimes it's best not to "fix" what's not broken.

You mentioned you didn't use Dell's site for driver. That would be my next stop. They may also have an older version.

Is it any particular USB port causing the issue.

IMHO,
A customer such as that should have an image to roll back to when things were working correct. Too many things to try and find/correct. If you get it working correctly, consider making an image. It's nice to go back to what was working and go forward, rather than tracing backwards. With the prices photographers charge for their professional work, they should have no issues with paying to have something in place.

Speaking of Photographers.............I would make sure he has a good, solid backup procedure in place. Nothing like losing 10,000 hi-res photos because his external drive failed.

 

[HFultzjr]

Dang, I hate when I get up this early!

Missing from my sleep deprived post above...............

You mentioned you didn't use Dell's site. That would be my next stop. Maybe they have an older one also.

Try with nothing attached......is it a particular port or device causing the issue?

IMHO,
A customer such as this, should have a recent good image to roll back to when things were working correctly. If you get back to that point consider making and making updated/versioned images of his system. Every time he changes something, such as a new "device" or "procedure".....image. With the prices they charge, a Photographer should have no issue with spending the money to get something in place.

Speaking of Photographers........what kind of back-up procedure does he have in place. Nothing like losing 10,000 hi-res photos to a faulty external drive.

If and when you get him set-up and working correctly.....lots of potential up-sells here.

 

[HCHTech]

Thanks for the suggestions, Harold. He has rotating backups going to separate external drives, as well as an online backup system. No imaging so far. He is a retired physician, so it's a hobby business. He does really nice work, though! He's on my monitoring system so I can see the BSODs when they happen.

To start, I'm going to go the "remove everything and add it back one thing per day at a time" to try and find the culprit. He had the old driver in place when the problem first started, and an update to the newest version didn't seem to help, so I don't think I'll roll back yet unless something points me there. This is going to be a long one, I'm afraid. I'm busy managing expectations now. He's a good customer, but he is clearly used to me "just fixing it".

 

[FremontPC]

He is a retired physician, so it's a hobby business.

Check out any drivers installed for his camera, perhaps they're out of date and giving the USB3 driver fits.

 

[Highlander]

I had a customer a few weeks ago getting BSOD with his brand new camera. His camera was one of the latest Nikons and it didn't like the previous version of Nikons software. He was on Windows 8.1. I uninstalled his obsolete Nikon software using UVK's Smart Unistaller , installed the latest version (the CD was still in the camera box) and all was OK after that. Long shot I know..........

 

[JustInspired]

A client of ours bought two very expensive CAD workstations from Dell in December. A month later one of them was BSODing every day, several times usually throughout the day.
We tested everything and finally determined it was a motherboard problem.
Dell support finally came and changed it after a lot of back and forth arguing about it.

Unfortunately I can't remember if that was the driver you mentioned. It may have been one of those generic, aggravating ntoskrnl type errors.

 

[HFultzjr]

Thanks for the suggestions, Harold. He has rotating backups going to separate external drives, as well as an online backup system. No imaging so far. He is a retired physician, so it's a hobby business. He does really nice work, though! He's on my monitoring system so I can see the BSODs when they happen.

To start, I'm going to go the "remove everything and add it back one thing per day at a time" to try and find the culprit. He had the old driver in place when the problem first started, and an update to the newest version didn't seem to help, so I don't think I'll roll back yet unless something points me there. This is going to be a long one, I'm afraid. I'm busy managing expectations now. He's a good customer, but he is clearly used to me "just fixing it".

Good place to start. Try and find the culprit, then try and fix it.

Good luck, been there, done that!

 

[HCHTech]

A quick update on this one - I could never isolate the problem, so just finished a N&P. Beforehand, I ran 8 full passes with Memtest, as well as my other normal hardware diagnostics - no errors, not one. Did a full format of the disk, reinstalled everything and so far, he's on day #2 with no crashes. It was all billable, but frustrating, nonetheless.

 

[HFultzjr]

Sometimes, you just got to bang your head against the wall and move on.

 

[HCHTech]

Yup. I think I'm developing a callus.