Win 10 October Freeze

@support

Hello

I wonder if anyone else has been experiencing this issue and whether there are any suggestions on moving forward.

Roon Server - up to date

PC
Win 10 October Update 64bit
Intel i3-7100
16GB
Samsung SSD 950 Pro system disk
Western Digital HDD

I usually run this as a headless server, always on. I currently have display, keyboard and mouse attached as I try to diagnose the issue.

I installed Roon Server on 2 November. On 8 November, I started to get full system freezes, I have thus far had 12 of them.

System completely locks up. No response to ping or mouse/keyboard. Requires full reboot to regain control.

Nothing in the Windows logs - logs are normal, they just stop at the point of freeze.

I have updated the critical drivers, uninstalled some unnecessary software, as far as I can tell everything is up to date. I suspected a temperature issue so ran a stress tress, 100% cpu for 40min, temperature maxed-out at 75C and system continued to perform as normal.

I have now disabled Roon, running the system without it to see if it is actually a Roon problem. It might take a couple of days to confirm if this is the issue as freezes are happening every 1 to 2 days.

Any help welcome!

Regards.

Hello @M_C,

Have you run an antivirus scan yet? May be a good idea to give Malwarebytes a scan of the system just to make sure that there haven’t been any malicious applications causing your system freeze. I suspect the issue may be a hardware one or related to a recent Windows update. How have your tests been without Roon running?

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris

I’ve run Malwarebytes, not found anything.

I had another failure yesterday, but this time I had a monitor connected. GSOD, hung at 0% creating a dump, DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION. The 0% hang might explain why I’ve never found anything in the logs. I did a bit of research, Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) was mentioned in a few places as a possible culprit, so I have removed it.

PC has been running for 24hrs, no issues so far, however probably too early - it has been running 24-48 hours between crashes. I’ll give it another day then restart Roon.

Regards

Max.

Hello @M_C,

Thanks for letting me know. Please keep me posted on your findings with Intel RST disabled.

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris

2 days without a failure, so I’ve restarted Roon and we’ll see what happens with it running.

Regards

Max.

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Hi

Well, just as I was about to declare victory, another crash. I got a dump this time, implicating dxgkrnl.sys. Graphics driver related. As part of the previous diagnosis, I updated all the drivers, the graphics driver is the latest Intel new technology WMD driver, version 25.20.100.644.

I will keep working this but not sure of next steps.

Max.

Hello @M_C,

Sorry to hear about the most recent crash, just to confirm here, you are seeing Blue Screen of Death with these crashes and it’s not just Roon freezing anymore? I was looking up dxgkrnl.sys/watchdog and have found this article.

Roon does not operate in kernel space so the issue you’re seeing here is very likely due to one of your PCs drivers and not Roon, I would start troubleshooting in that direction.

Have you been able to test for this behavior with Roon closed and possibly using other Audio Playback software such as iTunes or VLC?

Thanks,
Noris

Hi

Still working it. I now don’t think it is Roon causing the issues, still getting crashes and although I am not getting dumps, there’s a few error messages pointing to graphics drivers. I manually updated every driver in Device Manager, but a further crash today. I am now uninstalling the Intel graphics drivers - I am on the latest, new Windows DCH version, will try to get back to a ‘legacy’ version.

Max.

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If you have the funds it might be worth buying the cheapest graphics card you can and putting that it in the system - saved frustration> cost.

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Great idea, Ged, wish I had thought of that. I have an old nvidia card in my ‘spares box’. If my latest change, rolling back the video driver to and end 2017 version doesn’t work, I will fit it and give that a try.

Thanks.

You might want to do it anyway as MSFT updates often screw over video drivers so you might be in Groundhog Day sooner than you want.

Well, hope I am not jinxing it, but might be time to close this one. Following ged_hickman1’s suggestion, I installed an old Nvidia graphics card (Quadro 2000) that I had in my spares box. This allowed me to install Nvidia drivers and completely ditch the Intel drivers for the motherboard built-in display adapter. I have now had 5 days continuous uptime, so this might have done it. Irony is that the box sits without a monitor most/all the time, I use it as a server and access it via RDP or TeamViewer, so I don’t think the motherboard display adapter ever gets used!

All going well and fingers crossed.

Thanks to Noris and in particular Ged for your help.

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