Is my system just borked?

I’ve been using my system for a while without issues, until about a few months ago when I ran into problems that would randomly occur which would ultimately have to result in a reinstall of Windows. It would be a case of fine usage for 2-5 days, then the next day for no apparent reason something would just break and doing things like trying to run dism, a repair install or chkdsk would just outright break the system and force a windows reinstall.

One thing that I have been noticing with these installs, is that running sfc /scannow would always report a “corrupted files found but could not be repaired” issue even on a fresh install. DISM either has actually never been able to actually work, usually giving a “source files not found” error (even when locally sourcing the file). So for the past week I have been trying to get a “perfect” install from the get go.

But it has been proving to be impossible. The installs seem to be a game of rng where sometimes it will go through all the way to desktop (and even then there might be some problems like MS Store not opening), other times it would bsod after the automated restart and some times it would give the “Why did your computer restart?” Error in an endless loop. The only thing I’ve noticed is that disabling secure boot (switching boot from uefi to other os) seems to make the success rate higher but not guaranteed

So I thought it had to have been a usb issue. I’ve been using my brothers laptop (fully updated) with both media creation tool and using rufus to mount an iso to create 3 usb installs now, now of which was a recently purchased flash drive. Differences were minimal. Just purchased an official W11 usb from Microsoft so will have to wait for tomorrow but really having little hope.

I’m not entirely sure if the issues persist on the hardware side of things. Running memtest and hard drive scans (can’t remember which one in particular) came back clean

It may be a failing hard drive. Take it to a computer shop to have them look at it.

A hardware malfunction can be harder to track down than software going kaput.

NormanF said:

It may be a failing hard drive. Take it to a computer shop to have them look at it.

A hardware malfunction can be harder to track down than software going kaput.

Click to expand...

It might be. The drive itself (crucial t700) was purchased relatively recently though

This thread needs to be under the forum category of BSOD Crash Analysis but I will flag it so it will get the proper attention. Follow the instructions here.
Gather the required information, put everything in a folder, zip the folder, and upload the zipped file to any cloud provider. Post a shared link to the zipped file in this thread.
@zbook or one of the others experienced in analyzing logs will look at it.

short_circut said:

It might be. The drive itself (crucial t700) was purchased relatively recently though

Click to expand...

That's one heck of a system.
The T700 is a PCIe 5 and should still be under warranty and Expensive.

short_circut said:

It might be. The drive itself (crucial t700) was purchased relatively recently though

Click to expand...

Do you have a drive laying around that you could install Windows on to see if it goes OK? Because if it does, that could very well flag your original drive as a problem.

And Welcome to the ElevenFroums, short_circut

glasskuter said:

This thread needs to be under the forum category of BSOD Crash Analysis but I will flag it so it will get the proper attention. Follow the instructions here.

BSOD - Posting Instructions

BSOD - Posting Instructions This will show you how to help provide needed information about your system and dump files. It will not contain any personal or sensitive information about you or your data. To get better help with your Windows BSOD issue, please read these instructions and follow...

www.elevenforum.com

Gather the required information, put everything in a folder, zip the folder, and upload the zipped file to any cloud provider. Post a shared link to the zipped file in this thread.
@zbook or one of the others experienced in analyzing logs will look at it.

Click to expand...

ah mb, I thought this was more of an install issue. Should I still post v2 logs even without encountering a bsod? In the cases where the bsod happens I just clean the drive (using diskpart) and run the W11 installer again. The actual installs that go to desktop don't encounter bsods

Flashorn said:

That's one heck of a system.
The T700 is a PCIe 5 and should still be under warranty and Expensive.

Click to expand...

yeah that's why I want to get to the bottom of what has been happening (has been driving me insane). Like even updating the system has been installing all the updates (apart from KB5034848 which i can't get to install no matter what I try)

antspants said:

Do you have a drive laying around that you could install Windows on to see if it goes OK? Because if it does, that could very well flag your original drive as a problem.

And Welcome to the ElevenFroums, short_circut

Click to expand...

I wanted to try that as one of my first troubleshooting things, but alas I do not have a spare I can use sadly

It does sound like a hardware issue. And the drive the most likely suspect even if quite new. Or could be ram. Could you try install Linux and see if it still crashes?

When possible post a V2 log collector share link.

Hazel123 said:

It does sound like a hardware issue. And the drive the most likely suspect even if quite new. Or could be ram. Could you try install Linux and see if it still crashes?

Click to expand...

That could definitely be something I could try, but I have no experience with linux as a whole so not sure how that would go

zbook said:

When possible post a V2 log collector share link.

Click to expand...

Ran a V2 log collector with this current install (idk if I'll even keep using this install or not). Install was created using a recovery usb purchased recently (to see if the usb is potentially the culprit). No other apps apart from firefox installed, only updates that show on windows update are KB5026372 and version 23H2 (which don't seem to be properly downloading for whatever reason)

bios is most recent update, no changes apart from removing armory crate auto install (and also switching off secure boot)

On a working Windows computer create a bootable Sea Tools flash drive.





Boot the problematic computer using the Sea Tools bootable flash drive.

Run the Sea Tools Long Generic test > take pictures of the test results > post images or share links displaying test results

Power supply with sufficient power ?
Device manager shows that everything is normal ?
Temperatures are within normal limits (HWINFO64) ?

short_circut said:

Should I still post v2 logs even without encountering a bsod? I

Click to expand...

Guess I'm confused. You said other times it would bsod after the automated restart and some times it would give the “Why did your computer restart?”
Zbook is the man to advise you with anything bsod.

abactuon said:

Power supply with sufficient power ?
Device manager shows that everything is normal ?
Temperatures are within normal limits (HWINFO64) ?

Click to expand...

Yep

glasskuter said:

Guess I'm confused. You said other times it would bsod after the automated restart and some times it would give the “Why did your computer restart?”
Zbook is the man to advise you with anything bsod.

Click to expand...

Maybe I wasn’t being clear. Sometimes when running the windows installer, after the automatic restart (so when it exits the purple background setup area) and before it loads the windows setup where you create the user and whatnot (the white background area) sometimes it would give a bsod (i think error 0xc000024 was the usual one). Sometimes it would restart and give that “Why did your computer restart” message thing where it asks to connect to the internet and sometimes it would properly go through with the windows setup (white screen). If it gave the bsod/restart message I would just reboot the installer and start over

The drive needs to be replaced.

Print the results @zbook posted above, claim a replacement drive. Terribly inconvenient, especially if bought online.

Check the computer for heat / cooling problems.



Run: HD Sentinel (trial version) > post images or share links
a) Overview
b) Temperature
c) SMART

The computer is also having problems with unidentified Intel hardware in the very large number of corrected hardware errors:

zbook said:

The drive needs to be replaced.

Code:

Event Name: InPageError

Code:

Exception code: 0xc0000006

Code:

Event[470]
  Log Name: Application
  Source: Chkdsk
  Date: 2024-03-08T19:19:12.6410000Z
  Event ID: 26228
  Task: N/A
  Level: Information
  Opcode: Info
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: Hamza
  Description:
Chkdsk was executed in verify mode on a volume snapshot.

Checking file system on \Device\HarddiskVolume3

Examining 1 corruption record ...

Record 1 of 1: Bad subtree in index "$I30" of directory "\Windows\System32\downlevel <0x1,0xea8>" ... The USA check value, 0x0, at block 0x3 is incorrect.
The expected value is 0x6.
The multi-sector header signature for VCN 0x6 of index $I30
in file 0xea8 is incorrect.
42 41 41 44 28 00 09 00 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  BAAD(.    .........
corruption found.

1 corruption record processed in 0.1 seconds.

Windows has examined the list of previously identified potential issues and found problems.
Please run chkdsk /scan to fully analyze the problems and queue them for repair.

Code:

Event[425]
  Log Name: Application
  Source: Chkdsk
  Date: 2024-03-08T18:57:29.7690000Z
  Event ID: 26228
  Task: N/A
  Level: Information
  Opcode: Info
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: Hamza
  Description:
Chkdsk was executed in verify mode on a volume snapshot.

Checking file system on \Device\HarddiskVolume3

Examining 2 corruption records ...

Record 1 of 2: Corruption in index "$I30" of directory "\$WinREAgent\Scratch\Mount\Windows\System32\downlevel <0x2,0x3155c>" ... The index entry length is incorrect for index entry type 0x5.
58 55 00 00 00 00 00 00 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??  XU..............
corruption found.

Record 2 of 2: Corruption in index "$I30" of directory "\$WinREAgent\Scratch\Mount\Windows\SysWOW64\downlevel <0x2,0x3171b>" ... The index entry length 0x70aa is incorrect.  The maximum value is 0x968.
corruption found.

2 corruption records processed in 0.1 seconds.

Windows has examined the list of previously identified potential issues and found problems.
Please run chkdsk /scan to fully analyze the problems and queue them for repair.

Click to expand...

dang, this is the result i was expecting to hear the least

zbook said:

Check the computer for heat / cooling problems.

Code:

TemperatureMax         : 87

Run: HD Sentinel (trial version) > post images or share links

Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring

Monitoring hard disk health and temperature. Test and repair HDD problems, predict disk failure.

www.hdsentinel.com

a) Overview
b) Temperature
c) SMART

Code:

      Drive: C:
 Free Space: 1788.1 GB
Total Space: 1906.9 GB
File System: NTFS
      Model: CT2000T700SSD3

Code:

Name                   : CT2000T700SSD3
Model                  : CT2000T700SSD3
Manufacturer           :
PartNumber             :
SerialNumber           : 0000_0000_0000_0001_00A0_7523_E878_D9DE.
MediaType              : SSD
BusType                : NVMe
BootDrive              : True
PartitionStyle         : GPT
FirmwareVersion        : PACR5102
Size(GB)               : 1863.02
GUID                   : {feef359d-d38f-457f-923d-f8836760a2a9}
Health Status          : Healthy
Wear                   : 0
Temperature            : 51
TemperatureMax         : 87
PowerOnHours           :
ReadErrorsUncorrected  :
ReadErrorsCorrected    :
WriteErrorsUncorrected :
WriteErrorsCorrected   :

Click to expand...

I do have my fans currently running at practically non-existent (so I can at least troubleshoot in peace). But if temperatures are an issue then I can always turn them up if needed

zbook said:

The computer is also having problems with unidentified Intel hardware in the very large number of corrected hardware errors:

Code:

8086&DEV_462D

Code:

Event[12588]
  Log Name: System
  Source: Microsoft-Windows-WHEA-Logger
  Date: 2024-03-08T19:28:44.2100000Z
  Event ID: 17
  Task: N/A
  Level: Warning
  Opcode: Info
  Keyword: N/A
  User: S-1-5-19
  User Name: NT AUTHORITY\LOCAL SERVICE
  Computer: Hamza
  Description:
A corrected hardware error has occurred.

Component: PCI Express Root Port
Error Source: Advanced Error Reporting (PCI Express)

Primary Bus:Device:Function: 0x0:0x1:0x1
Secondary Bus:Device:Function: 0x0:0x0:0x0
Primary Device Name:PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_462D&SUBSYS_86941043&REV_02
Secondary Device Name:

Click to expand...

Could it be referring to these? I've heard that drivers that aren't automatically updating are fine to move on (hence the reply to abactuon) but otherwise I can try looking to resolve these drivers

​

The Sea Tools Long Generic test can run while using Windows:







The drivers can be installed to fix: