Today's BSOD, Code BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO - What's actually going on here?

[britechguy]

I now believe I know, but am not 100% certain because this is the strangest BSOD incident I've ever had to deal with. My belief is that it's a failure of the 256GB WD PC SN530 NVMe SSD that has to have been the C: drive on this system.

Background: Republic of Gaming Desktop with a Ryzen 5-3400G processor. In a perpetual loop of Automatic Repair/Diagnosing your PC/BSOD with noted failure code. Windows 10 machine.

Could not boot into Windows Recovery Environment.
UEFI/BIOS showed no option to boot to a USB device (and, believe me, I checked, and checked, and checked).
Cannot boot into any type of Safe Mode.
Can get Command prompt through recovery process and fire up Notepad.
Attempting to Reset Windows from local source fails shortly after 40%

When I get into command prompt, there is no A, B, or C drive. X is the indicated drive, and can switch to D and E.

When I examined the content of D:\Windows\system32\Logfiles\SRT\SrtTrail.txt, the following checks passed with exit code 0x0:
- Windows Directory D:\Windows (which strikes me as very peculiar right there)
- Check for Updates
- System Disk Test
- Disk Failure Diagnosis
- Disk Metadata Test (performed twice in succession)
- Target OS Test
- Volume Content Check
at the end of the file it states
Root Cause Found:
No OS Files Found on Disk (which is no surprise on D
followed by
Repair Action: Partition Table Repair
Result: Failed Error Code 0x490
Time Taken = 656ms


What I can't figure out is how I'm getting as much of Windows auto recovery as I am. I would have expected virtually instant death.

I attempted removing/reseating the SSD, but that made no difference.

I cannot figure out why the UEFI/BIOS would not allow me to boot from anything except what it had as Windows Boot Manager. I could not even get a choice for booting from USB (and trying to get that to work using Windows advanced troubleshooting options failed, too).

Any ideas of what's happening here, and the fix, would be appreciated. I can't see snagging a new SSD straight out of the shoot in case I am entirely off-base, which I absolutely could be.

 

[Rigo]

I now believe I know, but am not 100% certain because this is the strangest BSOD incident I've ever had to deal with. My belief is that it's a failure of the 256GB WD PC SN530 NVMe SSD that has to have been the C: drive on this system.

Background: Republic of Gaming Desktop with a Ryzen 5-3400G processor. In a perpetual loop of Automatic Repair/Diagnosing your PC/BSOD with noted failure code. Windows 10 machine.

Could not boot into Windows Recovery Environment.
UEFI/BIOS showed no option to boot to a USB device (and, believe me, I checked, and checked, and checked).
Cannot boot into any type of Safe Mode.
Can get Command prompt through recovery process and fire up Notepad.
Attempting to Reset Windows from local source fails shortly after 40%

When I get into command prompt, there is no A, B, or C drive. X is the indicated drive, and can switch to D and E.

When I examined the content of D:\Windows\system32\Logfiles\SRT\SrtTrail.txt, the following checks passed with exit code 0x0:
- Windows Directory D:\Windows (which strikes me as very peculiar right there)
- Check for Updates
- System Disk Test
- Disk Failure Diagnosis
- Disk Metadata Test (performed twice in succession)
- Target OS Test
- Volume Content Check
at the end of the file it states
Root Cause Found:
No OS Files Found on Disk (which is no surprise on D
followed by
Repair Action: Partition Table Repair
Result: Failed Error Code 0x490
Time Taken = 656ms


What I can't figure out is how I'm getting as much of Windows auto recovery as I am. I would have expected virtually instant death.

I attempted removing/reseating the SSD, but that made no difference.

I cannot figure out why the UEFI/BIOS would not allow me to boot from anything except what it had as Windows Boot Manager. I could not even get a choice for booting from USB (and trying to get that to work using Windows advanced troubleshooting options failed, too).

Any ideas of what's happening here, and the fix, would be appreciated. I can't see snagging a new SSD straight out of the shoot in case I am entirely off-base, which I absolutely could be.

Check that the boot selection mode in the BIOS is correct, CSM or UEFI?
You might need to mess around with the options in there to find out which one is correct.

 

[britechguy]

Check that the boot selection mode in the BIOS is correct, CSM or UEFI?

It's UEFI and, given the make/model and age of the machine that has to be correct. Also, unless this were to have been changed "by cosmic rays" I don't think the owner would have been capable of making any changes at that level.

I'll definitely recheck when I go back next week. I wanted to get opinions here as to what might cause something this odd. Particularly that you cannot pick a USB device as the boot device in UEFI/BIOS itself. Very strange indeed.

 

[Markverhyden]

What's the make and model of the MB?

 

[britechguy]

What's the make and model of the MB?

I have no idea at the moment. That's something I failed to put down on paper.

 

[Markverhyden]

All I can say it MB's have become much more complicated than 15-20 years ago. I've seen several models where a boot device has to be allowed in one place in BIOS before it can be added to the boot options list. This included the one time boot option many have.

 

[britechguy]

@Markverhyden

So I've noticed (the complications, that is). I intend to watch some YouTube videos where the same UEFI/BIOS interface is in use. But the more I've thought about it the more convinced I've become that the main system drive is dead. There's no reason for there not to be a C: drive present on any system "as they ship" these days, and I know this is not a custom build nor could the client "get rid of C" even were they to wish to do so.

Another thing in regard to USB is that it could be the port I used was a problem. When everything is working "fine" it doesn't seem to matter which USB port I plug a bootable device into. But when things have really gone south, very often top/front ports just aren't recognized while the ones that reside on the mobo and are generally on the back side of towers are.

But even if a new main drive is obtained, if I can't get this thing to boot from install media I'm still up the creek without a paddle.

 

[HCHTech]

I don't think I would have spent as much time as you onsite with this kind of problem. It's definitely a case where having it on the bench is a much more efficient way to work on the thing. I'd pull that SSD and try to backup the the data and/or test the drive. That process will likely confirm the health of the drive, then you can move on from there. This sure sounds like a drive replacement & fresh install job to me. If THAT process goes badly, could be a bad M2 port, or other motherboard problem.

Edit: On the USB port issue - I believe the rear ports have more power, and may be recognized earlier in the POST. Front ports are more statistically likely to be damaged, in addition to having less supplied power. Not to mention their power cables are long and likely unshielded in many cases.

 

[britechguy]

It's definitely a case where having it on the bench is a much more efficient way to work on the thing.

Not that I don't agree with you, but that presumes one has "a bench." I do not, and never have, because virtually all of my service calls are done on site and resolved while there, too. This one has been a rare exception in at least several ways.

I only spent 1.5 hours running down everything and anything I could before coming to the conclusion that I had a dead SSD. I've purchased a replacement since they're so inexpensive and will go back to see if popping it in will allow me to do a completely clean install of Windows 11 (which I will do rather than Windows 10).

We'll see how it goes, but it probably won't happen until after Thanksgiving given all the commitments I've got in addition to this client. Luckily, it is truly a gaming machine in a home environment, and they have another computer that's used for "household business," so time is far less of the essence than it might otherwise be.

 

[britechguy]

@Markverhyden

This YouTube Video:

shows what I have to believe is the same UEFI/BIOS, at the very least, and possibly mobo, too, though I can't swear to the second. The UEFI/BIOS interface is precisely the same as the one I was workign with.

 

[HCHTech]

Not that I don't agree with you, but that presumes one has "a bench." I do not, and never have, because virtually all of my service calls are done on site

I am at once amazed, and jealous! haha

 

[frase]

Corrupt registry, perhaps try and create a new user profile and see if that resolves the issue. If you can use a PE disk or win usb to get into the cmd.

You may need to repair the hive, registry.
If there is someway you can get to the cmd prompt you can do it from there.

 

[britechguy]

If you can use a PE disk or win usb to get into the cmd.

As I noted previously, I was not being given any option for booting from removable media.

A replacement SSD is supposed to arrive today, and I'll try again next week sometime and see what happens. My intention is to do a completely clean reinstall of Windows 10 (or 11, but I think I have to install 10 first, as that's what was running, and upgrade to 11 before I could do a completely clean reinstall of 11. And if I were to upgrade from a clean as a whistle Win10 install, I'd simply accept that as clean Win11).

 

[fincoder]

I think I have to install 10 first

No reason to. Clean install of Windows 11 will pick up the digital license.