Trouble shooting a blue screen after win10 update

gizmo1990 · 30 Aug 2020 at 15:58

After updating this morning, my pc has been continuously blue screening with the following,
Stop code: KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED

There's no mention of what kind of driver issue might be involved and I've just spent the best part of 2 hours discovering how much MS has completely changed (for the worse imo!) the way to get into safe mode, since win7 days!

I've restored to a point which was supposedly last night but checking windows update and it's still listing the 3 updates it did today. It then blue screened again with the following error,
BAD SYSTEM CONFIG INFO

I'm now stuck in a loop where I can't get back into the desktop. I've tried enabling safe mode but it immediately returns to the blue screen. Automatic repair does nothing. Startup Repair just returns that it couldn't repair either.

Does anyone have any idea how to proceed? I'd rather not do some sort of nuclear option, yet I've never come across any issue like this?

A little more into. I thought I'd try system restore again and got the following screen.

Does anyone know what this is telling me? I don't understand why it's saying e: is the system? It should be c: as it was the previous time I restored.. Basically I only have a c and d drive anyway.

Any help much appreciated.

gizmo1990 · 30 Aug 2020 at 21:11

ED209 said:
Head over to this site and follow step two

https://windowsreport.com/bad_system_config_info-windows-10/

Hopefully this will fix the BAD SYSTEM CONFIG INFO error.

Thanks for the replay @ED209 I've tried running those 2 command lines but all I get is

An error occurred while attempting to delete the specified data element

I presume this is because the command line I'm taken to is X:\windows\system32\ instead of C:\ drive. I have no idea why C has been changed to X?? This is getting a bit worrying! I've run DISKPART/LIST VOL and also run chkdsk with the following results.

I'm a bit at a loss how to proceed. Does anyone know a way out of this? I've found a thread here which details a very similar issue and they seem to have got no where!

Any further help greatly appreciated.

gizmo1990 · 30 Aug 2020 at 22:48

Thanks again for the replies guys.

@darael Urgh, yeah you're right I really don't want to hear that!

I take it you mean removing my SSD boot drive, putting it in a portable enclosure, sticking that in another pc running Macrium and taking an image from that?

@ED209 Yes I have an internal sata 1tb drive as my D drive and a DVD burner. I'll try unplugging them tomorrow. I did try the repair option too I think, but again I double check it tomorrow.

Any other advice would be really appreciated. I really could do without a windows install (who can?) and I'd like to exhaust everything before that option rears it's head. I can't believe a windows update has caused this.

gizmo1990 · 31 Aug 2020 at 09:50

Thanks @darael you're likely right tbh. I'm preparing for that eventuality! I've only used Macrium to clone a drive via a working system in the past. Just so I'm clear on what you're suggesting, do you mean I can create a macrium boot usb (via another pc) which I can use to boot into macrium's interface on my main pc? I'd then plug in another external backup drive, which Macrium will allow me to copy an image of my ssd onto?

gizmo1990 · 31 Aug 2020 at 14:06

I thought I'd prepare to make a copy and I've booted into Macrium Reflect. @darael I wonder if I could just run the process past you and the forum to sanity check the process?

After selecting Backup I can see all my attached drives. My Disk 1 system ssd is correctly identified as C: and my sata one as D: No bizarre X drive designations! There are 2 partitions on my Disk 1 with one being the system reserved space. That's designated as G: which I presume is normal? Below this section are 'Clone this disk' and 'Image this disk' buttons. I presume I select one of these and it will then ask where I can to place the image/clone.

The issue now is, should I Clone or Image? Wouldn't a Clone be better in this instance, since it will not require any other software to read the Clone? Where as an Image will be compressed and require Macrium to unpack and view?

Again, thanks for all the help everyone.

gizmo1990 · 31 Aug 2020 at 16:17

Thanks for that @darael I've created the image, everything went smoothly. I'm now psyching myself to reinstall win10. I checked the Fix Boot Problems you mentioned, my windows install didn't even show up unfortunately. I think I'm looking at a reinstall now tbh.

As an aside and this may be slightly OT. Does anyone know if you should install win10 with separate video cards hooked up OR install it using onboard video initially? I ask because Ive had issues ini the past with my monitors not picking up a signal for some reason during the install process. It took me ages to work out that I had to plug a monitor into the onboard video to complete the installation. Then swap over to the the card later.

gizmo1990 · 31 Aug 2020 at 21:41

Thanks once again @darael I've installed Win10 but got a hell of a shock when I got the same blue screen error again! :eek:

This has me quite worried now as a system re install is always the fix all. But seeing it keep getting this KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED error is damn worrying.

I've tried disabling fast startup, which hasn't stopped it happening. I've also just run windows memory diagnostics which passed fine with no errors. I'm not seeing any driver errors appear in device manager either. There seems to be no logic to when the blue screen is happening. It can be 1 min after starting or 20 mins.

Can anyone think of anyway I could narrow this down or troubleshoot it? Here's a quick run down of my, old I know!, machine.
Intel motherboard Dh67cf
Corei5 2500k 3.30Ghz
8GB
250gb Samsung EVO 850 ssd
Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB

Any help really appreciated. I'm sweating here!

gizmo1990 · 1 Sep 2020 at 10:56

@darael Yep, that's a interesting story in itself. It was quite tricky to do initially. Window's install process wouldn't resolve the 2 partitions down to one. So I had to go into troubleshoot command line and run diskpart. By using the clean command I managed to get one partition. AFAIK, partition wise it should be fine now. Is there anyway to check?

Checking around the net, people with the same error keep getting pointed to driver issues by MS. However, since the error doesn't mention any specific driver problem I'm not seeing how I can diagnose it? Device manager reports everything is fine. I'm running the system via onboard video too currently so I don't think its my 1060.

Diving into the partition stuff again, I'm considering reinstalling just to make sure. Are there any guaranteed ways to prepare a SSD for installing windows? ie how to erase EVERYTHING. What partition style to use MBR or GPT?

gizmo1990 · 1 Sep 2020 at 12:09

@darael thanks, yep that's exactly what I did. I'll give it another go though, see if it makes any difference.

Before I do, one oddity I've noticed is that going into the command prompt via troubleshoot I'm presented with,
X:\windows\system32>

Is that normal? Should it be C:\windows\system32 ??

Edit, some more info. I thought I'd run chkdsk again. At stage 3 I'm getting a line which says,

Errors detected in the uppercase

Then below that,

Windows has checked the file system and found problems

It suggests running chkdsk with the /f switch. However when I do I get the following,

Cannot lock current drive
Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected

Is this normal? Perhaps the disk is locked because it can't chkdsk the system disk?

gizmo1990 · 1 Sep 2020 at 17:15

Thanks again @darael I've managed to get a reply from Microsoft's community forum. Apparently they suspect it might be related to the version I upgraded to which (apparently) is the dreaded v2004. It's the first I've heard about it, but a quick google reveals an INSANE amount of problems with the update.

Does anyone know how I can rollback to a previous win10 version? The media create on Microsoft's site includes the 2004 update, hence why I might still be getting this BSOD.

gizmo1990 · 2 Sep 2020 at 13:47

Great, thanks a lot for that @darael I've now installed 1909 and... so far so good! Although I'm not counting my chickens yet. I want to do more testing before my faith is restored.

I installed offline but obviously need to go online eventually. Does anyone know a definitive way to stop Windows automatically installing updates? I've set feature updates to 365 days now and quality ones to 30. I presume that should keep me on 1909 for the foreseeable future?

gizmo1990 · 2 Sep 2020 at 18:09

Brilliant, thanks for that. I'd not heard of Snappy before. I'll dl their offline install and use it find 2 device drivers I'm missing. Then I'll create a system restore.

gizmo1990 · 3 Sep 2020 at 12:34

@darael Could I ask a quick question about Snappy. Running it I get 2 yellow driver available selections. Which correlates with the 2 I have missing in my device manager so that's fine. However, each of the driver headings has a drop down arrow, which reveals many different versions of the same driver.

What is the accepted way to go about installing these 2 missing drivers? Should I just tick the main checkbox of each driver (if so which of the drivers does it install?) or should I actually choose a specific driver from each driver menu's dropdown?

gizmo1990 · 3 Sep 2020 at 13:50

@darael I downloaded the entire thing, good to know I have a offline copy if necessary. So running the 64bit setup I get this screen.

Ignore the tick by the novoton driver, that's me. I forgot to uncheck it for the photo.

I'm not bothered about updating the other drivers, even though it's saying there re more optimal ones. I'd rather keep things stock for now. The ones marked yellow, I presume are the 2 that I'm missing in my device manager? So them I'd like to get working.

gizmo1990 · 3 Sep 2020 at 14:23

@darael Cool. How should I proceed though? Should I just tick each parent box? Or should I click each drivers pulldown and select a specific driver from the list?

gizmo1990 · 3 Sep 2020 at 14:27

For instance, clicking the nuvoton pulldown I get all these drivers. Which one gets installed if I simply check the parent field? Or should I select a specific one? And if so which one? :confused:

I'd presume the first one as all the others aren't signed..

gizmo1990 · 3 Sep 2020 at 18:45

@darael Thanks, the 2 missing drivers installed fine.

I think I'm going to call this a wrap. I've been running the system since yesterday and it seems solid. Thanks so much for everyone's help, especially darael.

The issue does indeed seem to have been caused by the 2004 update. What a mess. At one point, prior to the 2004 tip off, I'd had to start familiarising myself with new motherboard/cpu/ram bundles.. Given the severity of the issue I had and from what I've no read about other peoples problems, I find it amazing that Microsoft released it in the first place. I don't know why it was served to me either.

Anyway, lesson learned! Never allow a feature update again without checking the tech news!! Goodness know when I'll do a feature update again. Who knows when (if!?) Microsoft will fix my issue??