# Windows 10 HP Laptop Keeps Restarting



## 104011

My computer keeps restarting itself. I've taken a look at the Event Viewer, but as a layman, I have difficulty reading it. This seems to pop up a lot: "The description for Event ID 5010 from source Netwtw02 cannot be found..." It usually lists as a warning right before the computer restarts. 

I'm attaching what I think is the event log. Let me know if there's something else I can do. 

Thanks in advance for your help in diagnosing the problem.

Windows 10 x64
HP Spectre 360 Laptop


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## spunk.funk

Go to the HP Drivers site for your model: HP Software and Driver Downloads for HP Printers, Laptops, Desktops and More | HP® Customer Support Go to Driver-Network and download the *Intel Wireless LAN *driver which Event *5010 *alludes to. Also update or Reinstall* McAfee*. the McAfee Service Control Center is corrupted.


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## _nobody_

Hello Daisy,

I found (more then) two serious problems. :grin:

But for starters:

*[1] Event 1001:*



PHP:


Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-WER-SystemErrorReporting
Date:          14/02/2016 03:37:23
Event ID:      1001
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Lavendar
Description:
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck.  The bugcheck was: 0x0000007e (0xffffffffc0000005, 0xfffff801ec55514d, 0xffffd000231d1738, 0xffffd000231d0f50). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 9d9ba9e7-f05e-4e74-99c8-297b42a415ab.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-WER-SystemErrorReporting" Guid="{ABCE23E7-DE45-4366-8631-84FA6C525952}" EventSourceName="BugCheck" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="16384">1001</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-02-14T02:37:23.355934900Z" />
    <EventRecordID>42212</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>Lavendar</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="param1">0x0000007e (0xffffffffc0000005, 0xfffff801ec55514d, 0xffffd000231d1738, 0xffffd000231d0f50)</Data>
    <Data Name="param2">C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP</Data>
    <Data Name="param3">9d9ba9e7-f05e-4e74-99c8-297b42a415ab</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

Probably driver error, as spunk already suggested (and actions by his advices should be taken, my best guess). :thumb:

*[2] Event 11:*



PHP:


Log Name:      System
Source:        disk
Date:          14/02/2016 19:33:05
Event ID:      11
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      Lavendar
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk1\DR2.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="disk" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="49156">11</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-02-14T18:33:05.889058300Z" />
    <EventRecordID>42453</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>Lavendar</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>\Device\Harddisk1\DR2</Data>
    <Binary>0F00800001000000000000000B0004C0030100000000000000000000160000000000000000000000A801380000000000FFFFFFFF06000000580000050000000000000612280108000000000073000000000000000000000080826C4F00E0FFFF00000000000000001040C04E00E0FFFF000000000000000000000000000000001B000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

For this one, you should run System Diagnostic and see if HDD passes these checks. Also, please, do some checks/fixes from WIN 10:



> _I would suggest you to run check disk and check if it fixes the issue.
> Follow the steps below to run the check disk:
> Press Windows+X keys and select Command Prompt (admin).
> *Type the following command and check for the errors: “chkdsk /F /R”*_


Please, report back your results (after corrective actions taken for topics [1] and [2]) here! :whistling:

_nobody_


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## 104011

I reinstalled the LAN drivers and reinstalled McAfee. I don't know yet if that has worked, but so far, the computer hasn't crashed. It was crashing about once a day, so there hasn't been enough time for me to know for sure yet. 

As for scanning the HDD, I tried the chkdsk /F /R but the Command Admin window tells me the drive is in use and cannot be "unlocked" for checking. Do you mind telling me how to do that test? It claims it will do it automatically the test time I restart, but when I restart, nothing happens (i.e., no notification or check that I can see).


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## 104011

Ok, it did it again! Darn. 

Here is the event log again. The restart happened at 933 PM on 20 Feb. So the error had to have occurred just before then. It only ever happens when I'm away from my computer for some time, so it must occur when its been idle for some time.

If I need to just get rid of McAfee, I'm happy to use Windows Defender instead.

Let me know if there's another test I can run as well to diagnose.


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## 104011

I did a regular error check (Right Click on C drive, Properties, Tools, Error Check) and it came back clean.


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## OldGrayGary

Hi all

daisi145 -- when you reinstalled the network drivers, did you get newer drivers specifically for Windows 10? If HP doesn't have recent Windows 10 drivers for your Intel wireless device, you can go directly to the Intel site for Windows 10 drivers. The model Intel adapter that is in your laptop should be listed in Device Manager (in Control Panel).

Any trouble, by the way, with overheating? Some users have had issues with their x360s overheating ... more likely with the x360s with the i7s inside, and the larger screen models (the 15.6" screens, rather than the 13.3" screens).

The bugcheck 0x0000007e in your latest Event Viewer log matches at least two of your previous bugcheck errors. It has been associated with Intel network drivers - which is why we want to make sure that you *update*, not just reinstall the older drivers. 

I see the reports that some of your partitions report as healthy - the DSKCHK X: /F command (you replace the X with the drive letter of your system drive - usually C), when issued from an elevated command prompt, should have prompted for a restart, and then run just after the restart. The administrative command prompt is easy to get to - just right-click the Windows Start icon, and select Command Prompt (Admin).

Re-check your Intel network drivers, and check to see if the laptop seems to overheat or not. 

If you spent money on McAfee, try again to get it installed without problems. It's making a mess of things. The Event logs are full of nonsensical errors for that program. 

If you'd like a decent free alternative, I find Avast free Antivirus to be a reasonable choice - but don't agree to any of their free trials (short lived, not free) and install using the CUSTOM method, un-check the Remote Assistance, Cleanup, Secureline VPN, Passwords -- you likely don't need these --- the antivirus portion is the best part of their software. Ignore, too, the promos from time to time to upgrade to the Pro versions. Also, after installing Avast, go into the Settings, and set the Sensitivity for the Shields to HIGH, and have each Shield search for "PUPS".

Let us know how things go, or if you have questions.


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## jenae

Hi, you should most definitely remove McAfee, it is simply not suitable, and is more then likely the cause of your problems (it won't hurt to update your intel network card drivers, as well)

To be properly rid of McAfee run their uninstaller (important):-

Download McAfee Consumer Product Removal Tool - MajorGeeks

After this open a cmd as admin (search type:-cmd right click on the returned cmd.exe and select "run as administrator" at the command prompt copy paste the text in red below:-

netsh winsock reset press enter, restart computer to take effect.


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## 104011

Ok. I have done everything! 

-uninstalled McAfee (using the tool one of you posted)
-Installed Avast (after a restart) and selected all of the suggested settings
-Installed new drivers from Intel (rather than HP) for Win10
-Did the restart through the Command prompt window (netsh winsock reset) as suggested

My computer does not appear to be overheating. I have an i5 processor and a 13 inch screen.

Will let you all know if I get any more crashes/errors...

Thank you all again for your help. Let's cross our fingers...


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## _nobody_

Hello Daisy,

Here is what is the problem, it seems... ?!



PHP:


Log Name:      System
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date:          20/02/2016 20:33:53
Event ID:      41
Task Category: (63)
Level:         Critical
Keywords:      (70368744177664),(2)
User:          SYSTEM
Computer:      Lavendar
Description:
The description for Event ID 41 from source Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event: 

126
18446744072635809797
18446735285616595277
18446691297720678200
18446691297720676176
0
0
0

the message resource is present but the message is not found in the string/message table

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
    <EventID>41</EventID>
    <Version>3</Version>
    <Level>1</Level>
    <Task>63</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000400000000002</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-02-20T19:33:53.477888200Z" />
    <EventRecordID>44925</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>Lavendar</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="BugcheckCode">126</Data>
    <Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0xffffffffc0000005</Data>
    <Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0xfffff801dcd7514d</Data>
    <Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0xffffd00021ee3738</Data>
    <Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0xffffd00021ee2f50</Data>
    <Data Name="SleepInProgress">0</Data>
    <Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
    <Data Name="BootAppStatus">0</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

I found from HP web site, that you have the new BIOS from yesterday:* HP Notebook System BIOS Update (Intel Processors) F.03 Rev.A	25.9 MB	Feb 20, 2016*

Please, update your BIOS to the newest/latest, and then test your laptop again! :grin:

Thank you,
_nobody_


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## 104011

The saga continues. It restarted on its own again (before I saw the BIOS recommendation above), so I have now updated the bios. Will try again with the new BIOS and post the event log if it happens again.


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## spunk.funk

I would also invest in a laptop cooling pad to keep the computer from overheating. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...ooling+pad&sprefix=laptop+cooling+pad,aps,244


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## OldGrayGary

Hope all your work gets your laptop running smoothly at last. That's a very nice model. I'm glad _nobody_ noticed the new Bios release - let's hope that puts the icing on the cake.

If you continue to experience crashes for seemingly no reason, since the laptop should still be under warranty, you can return or exchange it. I read of one customer who was on his 4th laptop (he returned the first three) of your ultrabook series - but he had the larger 15.6" screen, and an i7 (his were overheating).

Heck, I'd consider that model if I was looking for a laptop today... Light as a feather, snappy looks, and very good performance.


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## jenae

Hi, if it is under warranty I would certainly take it back, error 41 is logged whenever there is a forced or unscheduled, unusual shutdown of windows. It simple informs you of what you already know and because it has happened suddenly you are not getting a dump file.

I would normally say overheating, although other issues can cause this (software corruption , malware) unusual for a bios since you can boot OK normally bios issues usually effect immediately during boot, still updating is a good idea.

If you cannot return under warranty then a cooler pad (as spunk suggests) and perform a clean boot:-

Perform Clean Boot in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

In addition go to search and type:- cmd right click on the returned cmd.exe and select "run as administrator" at the command prompt copy paste all text below in red:-


echo [php] > 0 & ipconfig/all >> 0 & tasklist /svc /fi "imagename eq svchost.exe" >> 0 & tasklist /v >>0 & Tasklist /m >> 0 & net start >> 0 & systeminfo >> 0 & echo [/php] >> 0 & notepad 0


Press enter, a notepad will open with a lot of text, you can remove the Hotfix's (these are windows updates we do not need them, will shorten the list) please copy and paste the contents (with hotfix's deleted) here.


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## _nobody_

Hello Daisy,

Could you do me a favour? Since I am not convinced that present BIOS (February 20th, 2016) will fix your problem... But I'll wait if/until you get other event id 41. :grin:

In the mean time, please, could you stop in BIOS and report to me the following:
[1] MCU of your latest BIOS (expecting 0x6A and later)?
[2] ME version (expecting 11.0.0.1100+)!? :angel:

Thank you in advance,
_nobody_


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## 104011

You're right, _nobody_. BIOS update did not fix it. 

Event log attached from the latest crash. Errors look a bit different to me.

How do I find the BIOS information you requested? I googled it but couldn't figure it out, and MCU info doesn't appear to be under System Info. Let me know where to locate that...

The laptop is under warranty... but in a different country... unfortunately. The laptop does not appear to be overheating... it's not ever hot to the touch. But I propped it up anyway to see if it will help.

I will also follow the Clean Boot + Cmd suggestions of Jenae and report back. 

Event log attached.


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## _nobody_

daisi145 said:


> You're right, _nobody_. BIOS update did not fix it.


:grin: :grin: :whistling:



daisi145 said:


> Event log attached from the latest crash. Errors look a bit different to me.


To me, not. I see clearly event 41 repeating... Do not like it at all (scares me), and it is causing all new queues/waves of problems (one of the reasons what I am here, trying to understand new circumstances... What is going on, maybe I really chase ghosts INTEL Inside, not sure)!?

All the following errors (my best guess) are event 41 postmortem consequences, and they are masking the real cause. :banghead:



daisi145 said:


> How do I find the BIOS information you requested? I googled it but couldn't figure it out, and MCU info doesn't appear to be under System Info. Let me know where to locate that...


You have to stop in BIOS (CMOS), and try to search for 'em. _*In CMOS page: System Info*_, most likely. :huh:



daisi145 said:


> I will also follow the Clean Boot + Cmd suggestions of Jenae and report back.


Please, do so. Highly appreciated! :thumb:



daisi145 said:


> Event log attached.


All Good. I inspected it... I need to re-think more. :angel:
_______

Please, report all info here. I have some new steps re-thinked/developed. But at first, I need info I requested. They are important... Indeed! :thumb:

Thank you,
_nobody_


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## _nobody_

This is also alternative to try! :grin:

http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...zing-i-dont-know-why-1094570.html#post6917737

You can also try to download advanced system care 9 with driver booster (and upgrade the drivers). :whistling:

_nobody_


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## satrow

_nobody_ said:


> This is also alternative to try!
> 
> http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...zing-i-dont-know-why-1094570.html#post6917737
> 
> You can also try to download advanced system care 9 with driver booster (and upgrade the drivers).


No, please let's not start throwing random fixes at it until we've had time to work through the current data, more info might well be required before specific fixes can be offered.


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## jenae

Hi, yes i agree with Satrow, please do not download advanced system care it is not a recommended program, would help if you responded to post #14 this will give us a lot of info regarding your machine, before this please run the clean boot, as advised.


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## 104011

Here is the task list requested. 

Performing clean boot and getting BIOS info now... will post in a few...

Please note that I've noticed the issue of a restart does NOT occur when I put the computer to sleep. The computer also does not crash. This may sound obvious, but I'm just throwing it out there - it's only if I leave my computer running for several hours after I've walked away from it that the freeze or auto-restart (due to a freeze) happens.


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## 104011

_nobody_, I could not find the MCU and ME numbers. I looked in all of the pages of the HP Diagnostics page (F2 when I restart) and the CMOS page (F10 when I restart). I didn't see those acronyms nor any numbers that looked like your examples (e.g., 0x6A and 11.0.0.1100). 

Please let me know exactly how to find that info. Thanks!


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## _nobody_

Hello Daisy,

From the file you posted today, I have noticed the following (in *RED*):



> Host Name: LAVENDAR
> OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Single Language
> OS Version: 10.0.10586 N/A Build 10586
> OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation
> OS Configuration: Standalone Workstation
> OS Build Type: Multiprocessor Free
> Registered Owner: ******************
> Registered Organization: Hewlett-Packard
> Product ID: 00327-60000-00000-AA757
> Original Install Date: 12/19/2015, 3:57:20 AM
> System Boot Time: 2/22/2016, 9:07:50 PM
> System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
> System Model: HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13
> System Type: x64-based PC
> Processor(s): 1 Processor(s) Installed.
> * [01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 61 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~2200 Mhz*
> *BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc. F.2F, 12/15/2015*
> Windows Directory: C:\WINDOWS
> System Directory: C:\WINDOWS\system32
> Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume2


Two things.

[1] It seems that I made wrong assumption what CPU you have in your HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13 (*instead SKL-U U have BDW-U*):

U do have:


> *CPU Model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz*
> Default clock: 2195 MHz
> CPU info: Family 6 Model 61 Stepping 4, GenuineIntel
> Number of detected and active cores: 2 Cores HYP ON!


[2] Did you really re-programmed new BIOS (*the dates of new one says: February 20th, 2016, and text file says: BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc. F.2F, 12/15/2015*)??? :grin:

Thank you,
_nobody_


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## jenae

Hi, as i said BIOS has nothing to do with this problem, it is only active at boot and your problem happens long after that , so while updating the BIOS will do no harm it is unlikely to effect your problem, similarly the event log errors are of no use as they record after the event incidences.

You do have a limited amount of memory for the great number of processes you are attempting to run Slack.exe and bonjour service are two well known problems, and should be considered for removal.. meanwhile your most likely cause is overheating, please download this free util (it is well regarded)

HWMONITOR | Softwares | CPUID

Run it after your computer has been under load for some time and save the outcome (file save) save to desktop and post the text file here please.


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## OldGrayGary

Hi all 


I happened to be up late, figured I'd see how everyone is doing. 

Daisi145 - thank you for posting all the latest info. 

Not that this is related to your crashes, but I don't think you need both SpyBot Search & Destroy and Avast active on your system. They might not get along all that well, since SpyBot does have a few "always-on" functions that Avast also has, and they might clash trying to scan the same files. I'd keep Avast and remove SpyBot.

I noticed that you have an Intel storage driver ("iastor.sys") running on your system that has been an issue for some Windows 10 computers (can cause restarts such as you are seeing). Intel & Microsoft were working on an updated driver, but I haven't been able to see if the newer one is available yet (I'll let you know if I find one). In the meantime, it shouldn't hurt to use a harmless generic driver in place of the problematic Intel driver. 
Here's how:
1) *Right-click* the *Windows 10 Start Menu icon* and select *Device Manager*.
2) Select the *right-facing arrow* in front of *IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers*.
3) Select the controller with “*SATA AHCI*” in its name (such as Standard SATA AHCI Controller). 
4) To verify that you’ve selected the right controller, right-click the controller, select *Properties*, click the *Driver tab*, and then *Driver Details*. Verify that *iastor.sys* is a listed driver, and click *OK*.
5) Then, from the *Driver tab*, select *Update Driver*…
6) Select *Browse my computer for driver software*.
7) Select* Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer*.
8) Select *Standard SATA AHCI Controller*.

Eventually, a newer "iastor.sys" driver that is more compatible will be available, and it will likely arrive with a Windows Update. Till then, at least we'll be able to rule that out as a cause - by using the generic AHCI driver. By the way, the generic will read something like "StorAHCI.sys" and show Microsoft as the "Provider".

I'm also curious to hear what happens when you clean boot and leave it on for several hours ... (does it restart?). And is the laptop still under warranty? (in case the laptop refuses to behave). [We'll look for temps in the readout jenae has recommended for you]

If we are very lucky, the Intel storage driver might be the cause. If not, you have some clever techs here helping you.


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## 104011

Thank you, all.

I uninstalled Spybot and Bonjour. 

I also installed the fan monitoring software that was recommended and will post back the results.

HP also did a bit update today including BIOS (_nobody_ was right - mine was still the old one) and some drivers. So I'm going to let it run overnight to see if it still crashes after all these changes. 

If so, I'll switch over to the generic driver as suggested in the last post and see if that resolves it.


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## 104011

Well, one of these solutions has created additional problems for me. Now my computer is ramping up a lot and over-processing. The fan gets going really fast. This only started happening once I uninstalled Spybot and Bonjour and installed the HW monitoring program. I will likely uninstall the HW program and see if that helps.


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## satrow

The fan speed change is most likely down to the new BIOS version, you should be able to tweak that by setting it to use PWM instead of Always On in the BIOS, that way you can adjust the fan/speed curve so that it is running slow until, say 40 deg. C, and only reaching 100% from ~55=60 C.


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## 104011

Here is the HW log when it is running normally. 

Let me know if there is an overheating issue!

On my to-do list:
- Leave it as-is tonight and see if it restarts itself/freezes

If so:
- Do a clean boot
- Turn off the specific driver mentioned (as recommended)
- Change the BIOS settings as recommended


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## OldGrayGary

Hi again all


Just curious - everything working better now?

The highest temp in your last log was 50 degrees C ... a bit warm, but within tolerances.

If the restarts keep recurring, go ahead and try the IDE Controller driver idea (the generic "StorAHCI.sys" instead of Intel's "iastor.sys"). It has proven itself as a decent workaround for quite a few computers with a problem similar to yours.

bonne chance mademoiselle


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## 104011

I am still having problems with the restart. The fan also seems to be running faster (which it never did before - even when the restarting problem first began).

Is the new BIOS update the reason for the fan speed, as one user suggested? Should I go through the PWM settings that he suggested? If so, I need someone to explain how to set that up in a bit more detail. 

Do you all think overheating is causing this issue? Should I buy a fan? 

It seems odd that it always happens ONLY when the computer is going to sleep. That seems to me to not be an overheating issue since the computer would be the most idle at that stage. It never restarts in the midst of using it. I only find that it restarted after I've walked away from it for hours. 

I did the clean boot. Windows also did an update, and it BSOD error-ed with a system_thread_exception_not_handled (igdkmd64.sys) error. 

Do I need off the clean boot settings now and put it back to normal?

I will try turning off the driver as recommended. I've been doing one thing at a time trying to figure it out!

Apologies for the slow responses. I only work a few days a week!

Thank you all for your patience in helping me sort this out. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.


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## OldGrayGary

Hi again

I'm curious if your computer starts up OK, at least for a while anyway - in the time since it had the latest post-Windows Update Blue Screen. That error points to a driver for the Intel HD Graphics 5500 in your HP. Let us know if that error shows again. It might. If it does, we'll have to fix the video driver.

The computer came with Windows 10 pre-installed, right? Or? 

The clean boot helps us figure out if anything goes wrong when you are running in that "clean boot" condition. If everything seems to run OK and be stable, then that tends to indicate some software is the likeliest culprit. If you continue to have restarts in a clean boot state, that can shift the focus to including hardware issues as well.

The fans running a bit louder and faster are likely either because of the clean-boot state, or the new BIOS. If there is a utility that saves power - these usually limit the running of the fans unless the system detects a certain level of heat - and the fans spin more slowly if its just a bit warm, speeding up if the temperature continues to rise. If such power-saving modes are off - either from the clean-boot conditions, or from a setting in the BIOS - your fans likely run on a high setting a lot. Other than the noise, it won't hurt anything for now to have them running a bit more than usual.

Since you know where the HP Diagnostics are, why not give them a go. I think they usually finish in an hour or so, depending on how many of the tests you select. Nice that you can access them so easily, using ESC and then F2. 

I should have mentioned this before - but can you check and see if your system is set to "Automatically restart" after a serious error? If your system is running well enough to boot into Windows:
1) Right-click the Windows Start Menu icon
2) Select System
3) Select Advanced System Settings
4) In the Startup and Recovery section, Select Settings
5) In the System Failure section, make sure that there is no check mark in the option-box "Automatically Restart" [you can click on the check mark to make it disappear]
6) Select OK

Changing that setting will allow you to actually see the Blue Screen error. If you get another Blue Screen, you'll now be able to copy down the error message. 
_______________

No apologies necessary for hard work! I'm impressed that you've been able to keep trying as well as you have been. 

... By the way: you mention only working a few days a week - is this your own computer, or is it from your work? (If it is owned by a company, of course you always have to check that it is okay for you to work on repairing it yourself)... 

Hang in there.


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## 104011

Hi there,

Thank you SO much for your help. 

I do have the automatic restart already off. I had read about that somewhere on Google right after the restarts started happening. So originally, I'd come back to my computer after a few hours, and it would have restarted itself. Once I turned off the auto-restart, it kept crashing but not restarting, but I can't see an error message. The problem is that the "crash" happens during the sleep state, so when I come back to the laptop, I just can't get it to wake up. It's crashed... but is also asleep... so the only option is to hard reset it with the power button. So I've gone from auto-restarts to blank crashes!

The one workaround is for me to put it to sleep before I leave the computer. Then everything is fine. When I come back, I wake it up, and there's no problem. It only crashes when I leave it "on" (i.e., not in sleep mode) and walk away. 

I still have it in Clean Boot mode, so I'll also keep the computer on tonight / this afternoon to see if it crashes again under those settings. The bluetooth driver was also updated through HP automatically. 

I suspect the BSOD was just a post-update one-time thing, but I'll let you know if it happens again. 

I'll run the HP diagnostics as well. 

It is a personal computer. I'm a freelancer. So I only spend a few days a week actually working. Hence the delayed responses from me


----------



## 104011

It just crashed again upon falling asleep! Darn!

I will run the HP diagnostics and turn off the driver that one of the guys recommended before. Will post back with the results.

Is there a way for me to track the error that occurs when it crashes?


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again

If the cause of the freeze/crash/restart produces an error (this is most common when the culprit is a software error), then that error usually gets reported in the Event Viewer Logs. You posted a few Event Viewer logs for us earlier in our troubleshooting. If you simply want to see the latest errors:
1) *Right-click* the *Windows Start Menu icon*
2) Select *Event Viewer*
3) In the left-hand pane, make sure that *Event Viewer (Local)* is highlighted (if it isn't, click on it to highlight it).
4) You'll see *Summary of Administrative Events*, *Recently Viewed Nodes*, and *Log Summary*. *Click the up-arrows* in the upper right-hand corner of the Recently Viewed Nodes & Log Summary windows, that will collapse those windows, and give you more room to view the events in the Summary of Administrative Events window.
5) Your BSOD errors are likely *Critical* errors. If Windows was able to catch them in action, you'll see a brief mention of them in that top category, Critical. *Click the plus sign* (+) in front of *Critical* to view the list of critical errors. Do the same procedure to view the *Errors* category (these are, of course, the "non-critical" errors).

The other thing that Windows does when a Blue Screen type of error occurs, is to try and capture information about what your computer was doing when it ran into trouble. These are called "Memory Dumps" or "Crash Dumps" (since Windows "dumps" whatever it finds still loaded into memory into a file) ... the "Minidump" version is the most commonly saved type of crash dump file. In Windows 10, they are stored in a folder -- C: \Windows\Minidump. There is a forum here at SysNative that specializes in analyzing BSOD "dump files" - if we can't sort you out here, we can always try posting your system troubles in that forum.

There are utilities that give a quick guess as to the source of the Blue Screen - "Blue Screen View" is one, I imagine there are a few. For some simpler BSODs, the clue given by such utilities is enough to let you know what driver or program to repair/replace. 

If Windows is completely unaware of an issue until after it starts up following a sudden system crash, the only error it will be able to report upon restarting is that "Windows did not shut down properly". This will show in either the Critical or Error category in Event Viewer. Such crashes tend to be either due to problematic hardware, or a problem with the operating system itself. Once and a while a driver issue is bad enough to cause these, too. If I had to place a bet on the most common cause for this type though -- I'd say hardware.

So: if you look for, and don't find, a C:\Windows\Minidump folder on your computer, Windows wasn't able to create a "minidump file" to help us troubleshoot.
_______________

Did we have you disable "fast startup" for your laptop yet? I generally wouldn't expect it to be a problem with your model, since it is so new - but some systems have troubles when it is enabled. Here is a link to a nice little tutorial that tells how to turn "fast startup" on or off:
Fast Startup - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
_______________

Sorry that you've been so busy trying to get your very nearly brand-new computer to run well. The good new is: even if it turns out to be bad hardware - it's all under warranty, and eventually you should have a wonderful computer to use and enjoy.


----------



## 104011

I changed the driver and I ran some diagnostics. I only did the "quick" diagnostics, but they came back clean. I'll try a lengthier one one night when I sleep. 

The computer did the crash once yesterday after I changed the driver but hasn't done it since. It hasn't NOT crashed in a while, so that's a good sign. If it does it again, I'll get the event log and check the minidump folder. 

Although it is under warranty, it's under warranty in a different country (UAE, not Lebanon). Hopefully they would cover me whereever I am! I learned the hard way that buying a computer in the US sometimes means your warranty is really only valid in the US (they say it's valid abroad, but I found out it is only if you're a tourist - if you're a resident, it doesn't count). I bought this HP after my Acer S7 was a lemon. Three times to repair with international shipping... and I finally just got rid of it. Loved the S7... but it was a disaster hardware-wise.

Will post back in a day or so when I see how it's acting with that driver changed.

Thanks much!


----------



## OldGrayGary

Fingers crossed!

Thanks for keeping us up to date.


----------



## 104011

Ok, so it crashed again. It is doing it less! But it's still doing it.

Here are two files:

- The HW Monitor file that shows temperatures. I ran the program right after I restarted, i.e., this should be showing the temperature of the computer while it is in "crash mode." It's pretty hot, no?

- The event files from today where I had either 1 or 2 crashes. I'm losing track. I did a restart at 627 PM, so the crash was before then. Any sign of what might be causing it? There are some errors beforehand. 

Anything else I can try? (P.S. My computer does keep the dump files).


----------



## satrow

I see 2x 0x7E bugchecks logged.


> STOP 0x0000007E: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
> *Usual causes:* Insufficient disk space, Device driver, Video card, BIOS, Breakpoint with no debugger attached, Hardware incompatibility, Faulty system service, Memory, 3rd party remote control,


Better if you followed the BSOD posting instructions at this point, the data collected will give us more details to work with: http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...ions-windows-10-8-1-8-7-and-vista-452654.html


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again

Satrow's recommendation sounds like a good choice. 

I had thought that the blue screens weren't producing "dump files". But it is good that they are being saved. This means - like Satrow mentions - that the techs who specialize in analyzing the BSOD dump files can narrow down the probable causes.

The two bug checks that you just received match the one from your previous Event Viewer Log, and at least one from the February log, too. 

Hope you have some good success over in the BSOD forum here at TSF, we'll hope satrow and jcgriff and fellow techs can pin it down. 


[P.S. .. odd that your temps jumped up quite a bit since last time -- it shows a 72 degrees Celsius and an 84 degrees Celsius ... not sure if the 84 degrees C is an actual detected temp, or just a upper-tolerance specification. (it's easier to read the CpuZ screen than the text)...]


----------



## 104011

Ok, great. I will do what that list says. Do I post here or in a different forum?


----------



## satrow

You can post here, if we get stuck, I can move it for more help


----------



## 104011

Oh shoot. I already posted here:

http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...frozen-in-sleep-mode-1101842.html#post6942882

Is that ok??


----------



## jcgriff2

New BSOD thread - http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f299/computer-crashing-frozen-in-sleep-mode-1101842.html


----------



## _nobody_

_nobody_ said:


> Here is what is the problem, it seems... ?!
> 
> 
> 
> PHP:
> 
> 
> Log Name:      System
> Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
> Date:          20/02/2016 20:33:53
> Event ID:      41
> Task Category: (63)
> Level:         Critical
> Keywords:      (70368744177664),(2)
> User:          SYSTEM
> Computer:      Lavendar
> Description:
> The description for Event ID 41 from source Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.
> 
> If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.
> 
> The following information was included with the event:
> 
> 126
> 18446744072635809797
> 18446735285616595277
> 18446691297720678200
> 18446691297720676176
> 0
> 0
> 0
> 
> the message resource is present but the message is not found in the string/message table
> 
> Event Xml:
> <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
> <System>
> <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
> <EventID>41</EventID>
> <Version>3</Version>
> <Level>1</Level>
> <Task>63</Task>
> <Opcode>0</Opcode>
> <Keywords>0x8000400000000002</Keywords>
> <TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-02-20T19:33:53.477888200Z" />
> <EventRecordID>44925</EventRecordID>
> <Correlation />
> <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
> <Channel>System</Channel>
> <Computer>Lavendar</Computer>
> <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
> </System>
> <EventData>
> <Data Name="BugcheckCode">126</Data>
> <Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0xffffffffc0000005</Data>
> <Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0xfffff801dcd7514d</Data>
> <Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0xffffd00021ee3738</Data>
> <Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0xffffd00021ee2f50</Data>
> <Data Name="SleepInProgress">0</Data>
> <Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
> <Data Name="BootAppStatus">0</Data>
> </EventData>
> </Event>


Hello Jenae The Cat, Old Gray Gary,

I got dragged very far from this forum... Vary far (survival game, don't ask)! :banghead:

But, YES, this issue DEFINITELY cot my eye(s). And YES... :grin:

Gary,

You concluded that I am learning a lot from this forum, and, YES, I MUST DEFINITELY admit this. U R right... 1000%!

I tripped over this issue (very far from here). Now it is for some things/theories: To Be or NOT To Be, that is the question?

I do (implicitly) verified the proposal:



OldGrayGary said:


> *I noticed that you have an Intel storage driver ("iastor.sys") running on your system that has been an issue for some Windows 10 computers (can cause restarts such as you are seeing).* Intel & Microsoft were working on an updated driver, but I haven't been able to see if the newer one is available yet (I'll let you know if I find one). In the meantime, it shouldn't hurt to use a harmless generic driver in place of the problematic Intel driver.
> Here's how:
> 1) Right-click the Windows 10 Start Menu icon and select Device Manager.
> 2) Select the right-facing arrow in front of IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
> 3) Select the controller with “SATA AHCI” in its name (such as Standard SATA AHCI Controller).
> 4) To verify that you’ve selected the right controller, right-click the controller, select Properties, click the Driver tab, and then Driver Details. Verify that iastor.sys is a listed driver, and click OK.
> 5) Then, from the Driver tab, select Update Driver…
> 6) Select Browse my computer for driver software.
> 7) Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
> 8) Select Standard SATA AHCI Controller.
> 
> Eventually, a newer "iastor.sys" driver that is more compatible will be available, and it will likely arrive with a Windows Update. Till then, at least we'll be able to rule that out as a cause - by using the generic AHCI driver. By the way, the generic will read something like "StorAHCI.sys" and show Microsoft as the "Provider".


The generic inbox WIN 10 SATA AHCI driver does NOT make this problem, now I (also) found out!!!! :angel:

And... I am not sure, but event 41 (critical) is somehow for sure connected to the C-states (in other words - Power Management)... Here what is left to (_*probably*_) make reliable workaround to this problem is to disable in BIOS CPU's C8-C10 states (C-states allowed up to C7). *I think/I hope* this will make workaround to this problem, for even generic inbox WIN 10 SATA AHCI driver! :whistling:

Thank you,
_nobody_


----------



## jcgriff2

Kernel power 41 event simply states that the system unexpectedly shut down - like someone pulled the plug on it. It is informational only and is after-the-fact.


----------



## jenae

Hi, thanks john, I mentioned that quite awhile ago. The post #31 caught my attention when Daisi mentioned sleep, windows uses the hiberfil.sys file for this and it is know to corrupt (it is a hidden system file and can grow very large).

It is also not possible to read this corruption with dump files, the data is too scrambled (dog chasing tail), the solution is to create a new hiberfil.sys file.

This is easy to do and can cause no harm, go to start search and type:- cmd right click on the returned cmd.exe and select "run as administrator" at the command prompt type:-

powercfg -h off (press enter) Restart computer. 

Next open a cmd prompt as admin (as shown) and type:-

powercfg -h on (press enter) Restart computer, this creates a new hiberfil.sys file and removes the corruption... worth a try as it does no harm.


----------



## 104011

A few updates for those still interested in this problem!

I spoke with HP, and they are sure it's a software problem in part because the crash never happens when I'm working - only in sleep mode. They want me to try reinstalling Windows. 

Before I do that, I am testing two other ideas:

(1) I turned off sleep mode yesterday. So far, I haven't had a crash. If another one doesn't happen in the next 24 hours, then "sleep" is the culprit.

(2) I redid the hibernation file as the previous post suggests. I did that just now so we'll see if it also helps.

Will post back with the results.


----------



## 104011

Update:

The problem is caused by the sleep settings. When they are on, the computer crashes. When they are off, it doesn't. I tested it for 3 days - no crashes with sleep turned off. 

I think that suggests a software issue. Replacing the hibernation file did not help.

Any other ideas? My next plan is to reinstall Windows as suggested by HP. Would love to avoid that hassle if there's another idea. 

Thanks again for everyone still paying attention!


----------



## OldGrayGary

Thank you, Daisy, for keeping us up to date.

There seem to have been a fair amount of issues with sleep states in Windows 10 on some models of HP PCs. [If you do a search with your favorite search engine for "HP PCs sleep problem Windows 10" the top dozen or so results will show HP threads, some including tutorials, on troubleshooting the sleep problems. Trouble is - your system doesn't have the usual problem that most of those threads refer to [most of those threads are about HP PCs that won't wake up after they sleep ... like a college student on spring break  ] ....

Sometimes these issues are helped by Bios updates, and some of the other adjustments we've already tried - but so far the "magic key" for your system has eluded us.

If you'd like, for any last-ditch efforts, can you post the error message that you see (if any) from the last few sleep-induced crashes? [If you weren't able to copy down any "Blue Screen" error message showing on your monitor, have a quick peek in Event Viewer's "Summary of Administrative Events" window: there should be an error or two in the Critical and Error categories that match the times of the last crashes. You can view the details for an event by double-clicking on it.]

Good Luck ... sorry that you've had such a long battle with such a nice new machine.


----------



## 104011

Thanks so much! Please find the errors attached prior to the most recent crash in sleep mode.


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi Daisy

The error looks much like most of the earlier errors: the 0x0000007e error. As jcgriff mentioned in his analysis of your earlier BSOD logs, it's usually a driver problem or faulty hardware. 

Since the errors started within 24 hours of your last install of Windows 10, I imagine if you decide to reinstall Windows - and the problem resurfaces within a day or two, it's time to send the computer to HP - no matter what they think the problem is. You have a warranty, and they are obliged to configure the computer so that it works properly. Sometimes the tech help you receive on the first phone call to HP isn't of the highest quality ... often you have to "bump up" to a higher level tech to find a better resolution of the trouble. 

I'd say make backups of your data, and try the reinstall. The easiest way to reinstall would be to use the System Reset option built into Windows 10. 
1) Click on Windows 10 Start Menu icon
2) Select Settings
3) Select Update & Security
4) Select Recovery
5) Select Reset this PC ... and follow the onscreen instructions. You can opt to "Save files" if you'd like ... if the reset works, you won't have to add all your backups back in - they'll still be there.
___________________

I believe we had you update the Bios a while ago. If you want one more last-ditch try before the reinstall, you could enter Bios Setup, and look for an option that says "Reset to Defaults". ..... This might help with Sleep settings, if anything in your Bios Setup options has been set in a problematic way.

Good luck!


----------



## 104011

Thanks! I will try reinstalling Windows. 

I agree that HP owes me a working computer. However, the warranty is only good in the US (even though I bought it abroad). So it would cost me several hundred dollars in international shipping (HP only pays domestic) plus the loss of my computer - which is where I do all of my professional work - for weeks. I did this with an Acer computer two years ago... sending it back and forth to repair in the US... and $500 and two repairs later... I gave up, sold it on Ebay, and bought this HP. Trying so hard to avoid that fate again by fixing it myself.

At least with this one, it works as long as I don't have sleep settings on. So worst case, I just turn that setting off. That's worth a few hundred bucks. 

Will keep trying...


----------



## zarawatsonn

I also have same problem with my brand new laptop, I also contact to HP technical support team, but they are saying it is due to virus in the system.
I also scan my whole system twicely.

I don't understand, how to fix this problem?


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi zarawatson

If you are under warranty, & have local service in your area - since so many of the HP models are experiencing the same issues, you have the option to return it to them. Virus, hardware, software - doesn't matter: they are obligated to fix it - or replace it.

Since our forum members receive email notification when we post answers in their threads, it's best if you start a new thread of your own .... It's easy - just click on the "New Thread" button at the top of the forum....

Good luck!


----------



## 104011

Hi all - it's been a while since I posted. I was waiting to find the time to do a full Windows re-install. I've done that now... and I still have the same problem. In fact, it's worse. 

I have attached a series of files:
- Sysnative File Collection
- Event Files for recent crashes

I tried to run the Performance test (perfmon) but it will not produce a report. It just hands on the "checking for 60 seconds" page. 

My issue with the warranty is that I bought the laptop in the UAE, I live in Lebanon, and the warranty is apparently only good in the USA. So to take it to a HP repair would require a 15 hour flight OR a $500 round trip UPS shipment of the laptop back to the states for repair (plus the time I'm away from it - at least a month). This is not ideal. 

I thought I'd give you guys another shot at helping me. You're way better than HP support!

I should note that I also posted this on my BSOD thread here. I wasn't sure which one was better, but I do not mean to duplicate anyone's time, so I wanted to make you aware.

Thanks!


----------



## 104011

I haven't received a response for a few days. Anyway I can get on the radar? Let me know how to bump request. Don't want to start new thread...!


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again daisi145


I'm just getting back from a holiday weekend (visiting family, fixing computers - both!) ... I downloaded your files just before I left, & I should hopefully get to them sometime on Tuesday. 

In the meantime, try disabling as many Sleep options as you can - since we know that your system's handling of sleep states seems to precede the errors. You'll want to visit Power Options from Start - Settings .... and also from Control Panel - Power Options. 

Because you are using this computer mostly for work, you likely need it for long enough periods of time that you'll have the AC adapter cord plugged in most of the time. Disabling sleep won't change much of anything about the way you work ... and it should keep your computer from crashing upon entering or leaving a sleep state.

I took the briefest of glances at one of your Event Viewer lists before I left on my travels, but the one "Critical Error" or "BugCheck" that I saw was another of the same type as you saw earlier (before you reinstalled).
_______________

I'm curious - how did you perform the Windows 10 reinstall? Did you use a "recovery partition" on the hard drive that returned things to exactly the way the computer was on it's first day home from the store? Or did you try a "clean install" using a DVD, USB (or online connection) that had the latest build of Windows 10 from a Microsoft website?

I would expect that things would go better using the "clean install" method - from a Microsoft website.

I'll check back again tomorrow, cheers!


----------



## 104011

Thank you so much! No worries. Enjoy your vacation!! It's much deserved, I think!

I have disabled Sleep settings, but it seems to create more of a problem - or maybe the same amount of problem! It's still resetting itself regardless of sleep settings. 

Sleep helps actually if I manually engage it. Then the computer tends not to reset itself, although it has done it even during actual sleep. 

I reinstalled using the Restore PC option in Windows 10. My computer apparently came with Windows 8, and I upgraded. It has a function that deletes all your software but keeps your files. I used that option. I have reinstalled most, but not all of my software/apps. 

It's such a frustrating problem since I'm abroad. Hopefully your investigation will turn up something new!

Thanks again!


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again


I ran your lastest crash dump file through an analyzer, and it points to the Intel Graphics Driver. 

I also checked on the HP Support website for your model (visit the link below, and if it doesn't match your model exactly, change the model to match your exact model #) ... and there are many brand-new drivers for almost all the major devices in your Spectre 360. Even a brand-new Bios update from May 27th, and a new Intel HD Graphics 5500 driver dated May 26th. 2016, by the way.

Visit the HP support website for your EXACT model,download and install:
1) new Audio driver (most are Realtek HD)
2) new Chipset drivers 
-----Intel Chipset Installation Utility & Driver
-----Intel Management Engine Interface
-----Intel Virtual Buttons Driver
3) new Controller drivers
-----Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver
-----Intel Serial IO Driver
4) new Intel Graphics driver
-----Intel HD Graphics driver (for your Intel HD 5500)
5) new Wireless Network driver
-----Intel Wireless LAN Driver (for your Intel AC 7265)
6) new Storage driver
-----Realtek Card Reader Driver (for the memory card reader)
7) new Diagnostics
-----HP UEFI Diagnostics 
8) new Bios
-----There are two new versions = F.35 Rev. A and F.2F Rev. A .... They both have the same release date. Since Bios updates are cumulative, they should include any fixes in prior releases. I'd try F.35 Rev. A first.
9) OPTIONAL --- Hp has also released newer versions of software bundled with your Spectre 360 (should be available from the same webpage as the drivers)
-----CyberLink Media Player
-----CyberLink Power Director
-----Intel Wireless Display
I'd recommend updating all three.

Here's an example HP Support webpage with the latest updates for a model similar to yours (if it happens to match yours exactly, you can download things (except the non-matching SanDisk firmware) from it. Otherwise, change to the same type of download page for your EXACT model. 
HP Software and Driver Downloads for HP Printers, Laptops, Desktops and More | HP® Customer Support

_____________

There are firmware updates available for many SSDs to better get along with Windows 10. The HP support website lists firmware updates for some SanDisk SSDs, buy your system has an ADATA M2 SSD in it. If you'd like, try downloading and installing the ADATA utility for your drive, it can check to see if a firmware update is available for your ADATA AXNS381E-128GM-B ... since this is likely your system drive, a firmware update might indeed help. (the "system drive" is where the operating system is installed) ... I imagine you keep things like pictures, videos, and music on your external WD Passport hard drive.

Here's a link to the ADATA Toolbox (which can run diagnostics & update firmware for the SSD when available)
Valuable Software_Downloads_Support_ADATA Technology
_______________________________

By the way, whenever updating drivers and firmware, make sure to have the AC adapter cord plugged into your laptop. It wouldn't do to lose power or enter sleep while doing such an upgrade.
________________________________

Let's see if this helps. Seems like HP has finally gotten around to some important updates, I think you've a good chance of success this time.


[P.S. ... (I always forget something!) .... also make sure that you have installed all the latest updates from Windows Update. At least the "Critical" and "Important" ones anyway. You can pick and choose among the "Optional" ones....]


----------



## OldGrayGary

Take your time with these ... no rush -- just a few more things.

I just checked a few more of your error files ....

When you install the new drivers, that should help reduce (or completely eliminate) the fairly large amount of graphics errors and bluetooth/wireless network errors. 

There are a few things producing errors at Startup that you can fix easily.

OneDrive:
I don't remember if you use OneDrive for backing up your files. If you do - it is waiting to be run and setup (it is loading two setup applets at startup everytime you start your computer). If you don't intend on using OneDrive, here's a guide to disabling it in Windows 10:
https://support.office.com/en-US/ar...OneDrive-f32a17ce-3336-40fe-9c38-6efb09f944b0

EverNote:
If you are using EverNote, then you are fine. If you are not using EverNote, you can disable the two processes that are running every time you start your computer - EverNote "Clipper" and Evernote "Tray". You can disable them in the "Startup" tab of Task Manager (right-click the taskbar - Task Manager - Startup). Or if you don't every plan on using EverNote, just uninstall it from "Programs & Features" in the Windows 10 Control Panel (right-click the Win10 Start menu icon - select "Programs & Features" at the top of the list).

I will assume that you want the following startups: Chrome update, Chrome autolaunch, Google Drive update/sync, Google Photos backup, and Rescue Time .... since none of these are "built-in". 

Realtek Audio at the moment is starting three tasks at startup, and Synaptics is starting an applet too. I'll assume that at least two of these startups are for the tray icons (in the system tray) .... It's likely these will be updated when you update both the Realtek HD Audio drivers and the Synaptics touchpad drivers.
____________________

As I said, these aren't in dire need of getting done right away. Something to take care of when you have a little extra time.

Cheers


----------



## 104011

Hey Gary! Thanks again for your help.

I installed all of the new updates (took a while, but I did it!). I also made the updates to the startup stuff. 

I am still having the problem. 

Since the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 keeps being a problem, I did some investigating on it and found two possible areas to fix it:

(1) The driver for the Intel Wireless-AC 7265 in Device Manager is from 4 February 2016. That's about the time I started having these problems!! The updates I made from HP's website did not change the date of this driver. 

I tried asking it to Update Driver but it says it is the most up to date.

Should I try "rolling back" this driver to an old one?

(2) Other people have this problem! https://communities.intel.com/thread/99534

They suggest downloading the new IntelPRO software from here: Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265

I've now done that and installed it. However, it did not change the date of the driver above.

--

If you want me to post the Event Log, I can. I suspect it's the same as always!

Shall I roll back the driver if the IntelPro software update doesn't help?


----------



## 104011

The IntellPRO update did not help. 

Under Power Management in the Properties of the Intel Wireless driver, there is an option to uncheck "allow the computer to turn this off to save power." I unchecked that box. I'll see if it helps.

If not, assuming you agree it's a good idea, I'll try rolling back the driver...


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again


When you were installing all the updates from the HP site, did you also try the new BIOS version? If not, give it a go.

Since the only "bug-check" error listed in your last EventViewer log pointed to the Intel video/graphics driver, I was hoping that the newer graphics driver would help. Can I guess that other than the restarts, the graphics performance of the system seems OK?

I'm guessing that the same might hold true for your network drivers. You had quite a lot of network-related errors in the logs earlier ... Hopefully, with the newer drivers, you might see less errors. Otherwise, have you noticed any change, good or bad, with the recent drivers?

Perhaps you should turn off hibernation as well as sleep for now. Many of the user posts in the HP forums center around sleep/hibernation issues - and since sending the machine back is so expensive, turning off both sleep and hiberation might be a reasonable workaround solution. All it really does is restrict you to starting the computer up when starting your work, and shutting the computer down when you are done. Not the worst situation in the world.

Here are the instructions on how to turn off "fast startup" (which is a form of hibernation) as well as turning off hibernation completely. I recommend that you disable both.
_______________

*To Enable or Disable Fast Startup in Windows 10*

1) *Right-click* the *Windows 10 Start menu*
2) Select *Power Options*.
3) Select *Choose what the power buttons do.*
4) Select *Change settings that are currently unavailable*.
5) Scroll down to *Shutdown settings*, and
.......a) *To ENABLE* fast startup: *Place a checkmark* in the option box "*Turn on fast startup*".
or
.......b) *To DISABLE* fast startup: *Remove the checkmark* in the option box "*Turn on fast startup*".
6) Select *Save changes* to save and exit.
_______________

*To Enable/Disable Hibernation in Windows 10*

1) *Right-click* the *Windows 10 Start menu icon*
2) Select *Command Prompt (Admin)*
3) When asked "*Do you want to allow this program to make changes to your computer?*", select *Yes*
4) To change the hibernation setting:
.......a) Type *powercfg.exe /hibernate on* [to *enable* Hibernation]
or
.......b) Type *powercfg.exe /hibernate off* [to* disable* Hibernation]
5) Type* exit* to close the Command Prompt window.
_______________

In your Power Plan settings in Settings - Power Options, have everything set to NEVER for sleep and hibernation.
_______________

And - did you remember to change the setting to not have Windows restart after a system failure? We made that change earlier, but that was before your reinstall of Windows. Why not visit that setting again, and make the change if necessary:

*To Turn Off Automatic Restart after a System Crash*

1) *Right click* the *Windows 10 Start Menu icon*
2) Select *System*
3) Select *Advanced Settings*
4) In the *Startup and Recovery* section, select *Settings*
6) In the* System Failure* section, *remove the checkmark* from the option box in front of "*automatically restart*"
7) Click on *OK* to save and exit.
_______________

See if, at the very least, this stops the crash-from-sleep/hibernation issues. Hopefully no more unwanted restarts, too. 

Cheers


----------



## 104011

Hi Gary!

A few updates... still having the problem. 

Since I last posted, I have tried the following and none of them have corrected the problem:

(1) Uninstalling One Drive (no luck, when I try to run gpedit.msc, it tells me it doesn't exist...?) I was able to hide it though, and it's not linked to any of my accounts.

(2) Rolling back the Intel Wireless AC 7265 driver to the December 2015 version. No luck. Still have the restart issue. So I upgraded it again.

(3) Unchecking the box in the Intel Wireless driver properties about performance. No effect.

(Note: Yes, I did update BIOS before.)

(4) I also turned off the automatic restart, but then my computer sits in "frozen" mode for hours with the fan running like crazy. When I come back to it, I can't do anything with it - not even get the screen to come on (even with sleep settings off). It's just jammed up. So I have to hard restart anyway. I may as well let it restart on it's own!

None of the above helped.

I have just now done the following, and we'll see if any of this works:

(1) Disabled hibernation through the Cmd window

(2) Disabled fast startup (one of my fave features, but I'll give it a shot!)

(3) I downloaded new updates for the Intel Wireless/Bluetooth direct from Intel (rather than HP). There were a few drivers for Intell stuff. 

(4) I had some issues with updating the graphics file but finally got it. So that's new. Let's see if that does anything.

(5) Attached a new event file. Let me know if the event files have anything of new interest in them. 

Thanks for hanging in there for me. 

I'm hoping the graphics or Intell drivers do something...


----------



## OldGrayGary

Thanks for sending the latest files - I'll take a look as soon as I can.

For OneDrive ... since it is "built-in" to Windows 10, it can't be uninstalled ... but you can disable it from running at startup by using Task Manager's "Startup" tab [you just right-click on the program that you don't want to start, and select "Disable"].

I'll let you know what I find in the latest files ...


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again


In your latest Event Viewer logs, you had two more "bug checks" one on June 6th and one on June 7th (the same day you sent us your latest error logs). They match your earlier Critical Errors, and it's likely that the dumps will again point to the Intel Graphics Drivers. In May, the version of your Intel HD Graphics 5500 drivers was 20.19.15.4377, and showing a file date of February 2, 2016.

You mention installing new Graphics drivers - have they helped at all? Do you happen to know what version you installed? 
_______________

Regarding the Intel Wireless drivers: your latest logs do show a few instances where the wireless card is being reset. Have you had troubles maintaining a connection at all? If not, don't over-worry glitches with wireless connections: there are a lot of things that can interfere with wireless connections, and some of those issues have more to do with local interference (signals causing your wireless stream of information to be disrupted) or simply modem/router/gateway Internet device overheating or losing track of a setting.... 

If you are having fairly constant wireless problems, I've noticed that some folks with your Intel wireless card are doing better with the 18.40.0.9 version of the driver..... And I've heard that some get better wireless performance by disabling Bluetooth (if you don't use any Bluetooth devices, that won't hurt) .... and some also disable the 5 GHz part of the wireless signal (that is a much more extreme change ... but it doesn't hurt those users who don't have any devices capable of 5 GHz connections). 

Your tiny wireless card holds both the Bluetooth chip and the Wireless chip .... all on one tiny little "M2" card. That is likely why its possible for some users to benefit from turning one of the functions off.
_______________

The most puzzling thing about your system restarts is that sleep/hibernation has seemed to be part of the issue. At one point earlier on, you were able to say "When sleep is enabled, it crashes. When sleep is turned off, it doesn't" (I'm quoting from memory - so the wording might not be exact)... But the crazy part is how sleep/hibernation trouble would show up as a blue screen error pointing to your graphics driver. 
_______________

I'm hoping that perhaps your latest efforts will have helped resolve the restarts .... or at least have provided us with helpful clues.


----------



## 104011

Hi Gary. So far, so good post-driver update.

I had originally not installed the new graphics driver because it kept telling me that it was older than the one I had installed. I came to find out the notes on the June 2016 driver said it was from June 2015. I can only assume that's why it was telling me it was old. I over-rode that yesterday and installed anyway... and now it's showing up as a June 2016 driver. Go figure. Probably a typo in the notes. 

Since then, no restarts... it's been about 24 hours... so cross your fingers...

As for wireless issues, I live in Lebanon where the electricity cuts back and forth between 'real' electricity and a generator several times a day (trust me, it's so annoying). So that's why it's showing up as wireless disconnects most likely... (also my ISP is terrible, but that's another story). 

I do use Bluetooth, so I'll leave it as-is for now. I may downgrade to the 18.40.0.9 if I have any issues...

Let's wait and see if this graphics card update does the trick...! Gosh, I hope so!


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again

Sorry that the electrical is so off and on. If you don't already, make sure that when the laptop's power is drawing power from the AC adapter, it is plugged in to a "surge suppressor". They can limit any damage to the sensitive chips in your laptop from the over-voltage surges that can follow black outs or lags in power.

Glad to hear that things might be getting better. We'll be optimistic!


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## 104011

I woke up this morning to a non-restarted laptop. That's now 48 hours. I'm cautiously optimistic that it's fixed!! 

Funny enough... we couldn't have fixed it when I first raised the issue in February because there was no new driver. Thankfully one came out!

Will post again tomorrow. If we go three days with no restarts, I think it can be considered fix. I'll test putting on sleep settings and see how that goes.


----------



## OldGrayGary

Thanks for keeping us updated!


----------



## 104011

Gary, it's fixed! It's been something like 4 days now with NO RESTARTS.

I have resumed sleep and fast startup settings with no problems.

Oh my gosh. What a miracle. No thanks to HP and all thanks to you. Can I donate to this website in some way?

Also, should I delete all the files/info attached on this thread for my privacy?


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## OldGrayGary

Hi there -

What happy news! Very glad that the new driver is working out so well.

You asked about removing old files & donations and such ... funny thing is: although I know a little about computers, I don't know much about forums! I believe we are 100% free (the site revenue comes from ads, I think). 

A moderator/administrator would know about removing old files. But I don't think you need to be overly concerned about privacy, since the details in your files don't include any sensitive information (no license numbers, no contact information ... it's all mostly just information about driver versions, software versions, startup programs ... things like that ... even your Internet privacy is not compromised, because you don't use a static IP address - your IP address changes every time you connect).

You can, if you'd like, mark this as "Solved" ... I think you look up in the upper right-hand corner of the thread's page - and in "Thread Tools" you select "Solved". Since you are the original author, you get to decide if it's solved 

That is such a nice looking and capable laptop, I'm glad that you get to enjoy it now!


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## 104011

Gary... 

The computer worked really well for a few days. Then HP offered a few new updates, and I did them. One was a graphic card update and another was a BIOS update. I created a restore point and updated. The computer started having problems again, so I tried to restore. It said the restore failed and the restore point was corrupted.

So, I reinstalled the graphics driver I had before (the one from June 2016). For some reason, the HP Support Center program wants to install an older one, so I overrode that and installed the correct one from the website. 

Everything was fine again. There are no restarts. But now, something keeps happening where I lose my entire background, i.e., no systray, no desktop, no taskbar. It keeps Chrome or any other applications open, but if I minimize them, the entire screen is black. It's like a partial crash. To fix it, I have to hard restart.

I'm attaching event logs. Should I just get rid of HP Support Center and only download direct off of their website? Should I reinstall the BIOS (that was the only other thing that updated)?


----------



## 104011

I should add that the HP support website updated ALL of the drivers for my computer again yesterday - 19 June. Should I try installing everything?

HP Software and Driver Downloads for HP Printers, Laptops, Desktops and More | HP® Customer Support


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## OldGrayGary

Hi Daisy

It sounds like HP has updated everything twice in just a few days? Or did I read things wrong....

If things have updated yet again since the reappearance of misbehavior, test things out for stability & see if the recent trouble has disappeared again. 

There are some odd things in your latest logs that I want to check on, I'll get back to you on anything significant. Most of the things I want to double-check have to do with your Intel graphics driver, your Intel wireless driver, and some speed throttling of your processors. All these problems had shown up quite a while back, and got better with some updates and settings changes.
_______________

Background Note: over the years, it has been my experience that HP devices are well made, as far as the hardware goes. The parts are well-designed and well-manufactured. But the software (both drivers and utilities) that HP provides are generally not nearly as good. Sometimes downright horrific.

I will probably suggest, depending on how your system performs over the next few days, that once your graphics, network, and power drivers and settings are stable & your PC is running well -- that you uninstall as many HP utilities as you can get away with. To be honest, these are some of the first things I remove if one of my clients buys an HP computer. 
_______________

You asked about the updates from the Hp Support website: I was fooled, too, by the dates Hp has started to show on that first "summary" page (that shows all the updates available for your system) ... it turns out that date has nothing to do with the date of the driver (it is only the date for the last time they refreshed the list). If you click on the "Details" button, you will see the actual version of the driver and the date of its release. 

For example, in the "Details" description the graphics driver shows as July 22, 2015. I'm not sure if it was Hp's version from July 22, 2015 that helped us, or if a newer generic Intel driver did the trick. That's one of the things I want to check on.

Let us know if the restarts & odd menu/background behavior continues -- or if the trouble has disappeared again.


----------



## OldGrayGary

.... still looking a few things up ...

But if the Intel Graphics seem to be acting up or causing errors at all, you can try the latest drivers directly from Intel:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/pr...5500-for-5th-Generation-Intel-Core-Processors

You'd likely want to try the latest stable drivers first ( and not the "beta" drivers at the top of the list). The latest stable drivers are the second link on that page. You'll then have to choose the 64 bit version for Windows 10.


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi Daisy

As promised, I looked over the files when I had a little time. Here are a couple of the things I noticed in your latest logs.

*Wondershare Application Framework Service*
This service hasn't been too happy lately. If you use any of Wondershare's apps, you can try uninstalling & reinstalling them, to see if that helps their background service stop crashing. If the apps have newer versions, you could try those.

*Intel Update Manager (iumsvc.exe)*
This has been creating error messages in the background. It might get installed as part of a driver package - but it is also available as a separate download at the Intel support website. I believe it scans your system for the Intel components present, creates a list of your Intel devices, and then starts a service (the Intel Update Manager service) that checks to see if new updates are available, and if so, downloads and installs them (I'm hoping that it would ask before installing ... but I haven't found that information just yet.

Since your older version of this utility is giving you errors, you can try uninstalling the older (it likely will be available to uninstall in Programs & Features in the Windows 10 Control Panel) ... and installing the latest version:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24345/Intel-Driver-Update-Utility

If you have any new difficulties introduced by the utility, you of course could then uninstall it [and you always have System Restore to use, to get you back to the point just before you installed the utility  ]

*Bluetooth*
Do you use any Bluetooth devices (generally these are wireless keyboards/mice ... sometimes speakers ... and some smartphones) with your HP laptop? Quite a lot of Bluetooth related error messages and warnings (although nothing much to get excited about ... they are likely fairly harmless) ... If you don't use any Bluetooth devices, and don't ever plan to, you can disable any Bluetooth device listed in Device Manager ... you can also disable Bluetooth in your system BIOS/UEFI if you'd like, as well. Some folks with wireless chips that combine both WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities find that their wireless performs better with the Bluetooth portion disabled. I would imagine that this will improve as those dual-purpose chips evolve. But if you want to give the Bluetooth disabling method a go, it shouldn't hurt anything.

I'm hoping that things are back to their crash-free state soon.


----------



## 104011

No restarts for the last few days after I reinstalled all of the new drivers from HP's website. I will check into the Intel manager, and I removed the Wondershare application. I do not need it. 

I do use Bluetooth. I saw a new driver so will update that as well. 

So far, so good... I think I just have to stick with this graphics driver and never update it!


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi Daisy

I'll stay tuned ... have a good weekend!


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## 104011

I had the background issue again this morning. Funny enough, it's very similar to my prior problem. I come into my office, and my laptop is running really hard (the fan), and I just think "oh no." Before, when I had the restart issue, it would often just be frozen. I move the mouse and keyboard... and nothing. Now, I can get the screen to come up, and whatever window I had open is open and working but everything in the background is gone. No taskbar, systray, desktop, etc. It's all a black abyss! I can't get the Windows menu to come up so I have to hard restart.

Usually when I do that hard restart, my computer starts back up, then the fan runs like crazy for 10 minutes before it chills out.

As I mentioned before, I tried everything above except the Intel updates before (i.e., uninstalling Wondershare, etc). Those things didn't work. This morning, I downloaded the Intel Update Utility. It has two updates:

- Bluetooth
- Graphics Driver

It gives me an error on the graphics driver saying there is a "customized manufacturer" driver currently installed on my machine and switching it out for the "generic Intel driver" may not be a good idea. Should I give it a shot anyway or see if the BT update alone fixes the issue?

(Installing bluetooth now... will wait to hear on graphics driver)


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again

Can't hurt to try the Bluetooth driver, it might be interesting if it affects the wireless at all (since both of those chips are on the same card ... maybe if the Bluetooth behaves better, it won't disrupt the WiFi - if it turns out that it was affecting it before).

See how it goes with just that change for a bit. If all is OK, you can hold off on the generic Intel graphics driver. If there is no change for the better, you can try the generic Intel graphics driver right away. If the Bluetooth changes anything for the worse, and you don't use Bluetooth - you can disable Bluetooth entirely (in Device Manager - and if you want to be extra thorough, in the BIOS/UEFI settings). Actually, just disabling the Bluetooth in Device Manager should be enough, since Windows should no longer load the unused Bluetooth drivers.

Let's see how your mystery machine does.... It likes to surprise us, so it seems!


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## 104011

I do use Bluetooth, so hopefully that isn't the problem. Updating the graphics driver through Intel did not work (in fact, it wouldn't let me install the driver - it said it was incompatible and I need to check with HP). So I reinstalled the most recent graphics driver from HP. No fix. I don't have the restart issue anymore, but I am losing my background - apps remain open, but the rest of the computer crashes. It just remains in a state of "crash."

I am updating two additional things through Intel - both new updates. Both are versions of Intel ProSet Wireless software, one for Bluetooth. 

We'll see... if it happens again, I'll post an event log again.

After we figured out it was the graphics driver, everything was great for about a week until I installed a new HP driver for something-or-other. I had created a restore point and tried to go back to it, but then the restore point was corrupted. So here we are... diagnosing again!

I can't thank you enough for your patience and help.


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## OldGrayGary

Let us know how the system performs after the latest drivers get in.

If things don't behave, I'm thinking that perhaps the older Intel graphics drivers from the HP website might be the ones that misbehave the least. We might have to download and use an special Microsoft utility to let us stop offering the newer Intel graphics driver that has problems.

I'm a little worried that your restore point reported itself as "corrupted".... just to make sure: you could try another run of the built-in diagnostics (test everything that you can, especially the memory and hard drive).

See if we can get the prodigal HP to reform!


----------



## 104011

Still having issues - with the collapse of the background of the computer every morning.

I also had some issues yesterday with my wireless internet - it kept telling me "no networks," and I had to toggle disable/enable to get it to "take." That has never happened. It may be nothing... maybe just a glitch. But they say say you're supposed to tell the doctor everything... so I'm telling you! 

Just now, I reinstalled the HP version of the Bluetooth Driver and the Wireless LAN Drivers from the downloads I did weeks ago (which, after we installed, my computer worked for a few days with no problems!) So we'll see if installing those "old" files helps. Should I also reinstall any others (Serial IO, Virtual Buttons, etc)?


----------



## 104011

I still have the issue of the background disappearing, which is the same as a crash because I have to hard reset. What info can I send you to help diagnose?


----------



## OldGrayGary

I suppose it's time to send along the latest EventViewer logs again. The background disappearing could be a symptom of the sleep/hibernation issues that we've been having trouble with for quite a while now.

If you haven't had time to run the diagnostics recently, give them a go. Restore points shouldn't show as "corrupt" without a reason. Something's wrong there.

Watch for error messages, or the start/stop of certain programs, or updates, that coincide with the background disappearance & non-responsive system troubles. Might be a pattern.


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## 104011

Ok, I'll send some event logs. This time because it doesn't crash, I can't tell where the error is. Usually it was right before the "critical" error, but now it could be hours back. Will see what I can figure out (I can sort it by errors and see).

I will run the diagnostics through the startup screen. Will let you know...

Will post event log next time it happens...


----------



## 104011

I woke up this morning (around 930 AM) and my computer had no graphics/background, so I hard reset. 

I've attached two sets of files. One is from last night. I was using my machine until around 1215/20 AM. You'll see lots of errors around that night (and shortly after I left the computer).

I'm also attaching more recent event logs from this morning after the hard restart. Nothing has gone wrong yet in those logs, but there were errors, etc, so I thought it worth sending.

So the 4 JUL file is probably the most relevant to the problem.

HP has offered to extend my warranty. Should I take them up on it? I have 2 months to decide. It's obviously not really worth much since I can't get service abroad... but at the same time, the fact that I'm having so many problems makes me think I should... about $130 for a year...

See attached! Running diagnostics as soon as I send this!.


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## 104011

I ran the diagnostics for the hours it takes, and they came back clean.

Plus, sleep settings are not on :-/


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## OldGrayGary

Hi Daisy

*Diagnostics*
Interesting to hear that the diagnostics didn't show any trouble. The corrupted System Restore files are a bit of a mystery. I see that you ran a check on the NTFS file system for some of your drives, and they show as "healthy" - that's good too.

*Malware scans*
Just to make sure that malware isn't playing a part, let Avast run a boot-time scan on all of your drives on its highest thoroughness settings.
_________________________

*Event Viewer logs*
Your latest logs show a nearly continuous complaining about *Cortana* permissions and your_* Intel Dual-Band Wireless AC-7265*_. Three instances show that the *Intel Graphics driver* failed & had to recover. And there are repeating instances that show *Avast* resetting a Power policy. There is one instance of a _*controller error on DR1*_ (you can check in Disk Management in the Windows Administrative tools [in Control Panel] to see which drive is DR1 on your system). If your DR1 happens to be a USB drive, the trouble isn't likely to be serious, but it is something to keep in mind if it shows up again: especially if its frequency increases.

*Intel Graphics drivers*
We've known that these have been having trouble on your system. Have a look to see what drivers are installed now (Device Manager), and try one of the other versions. I believe the one that you've had the best luck with was the one you installed somewhere around June 7th or 10th (see post #65 in this thread). 

*Intel Wireless AC-7265 drivers*
Try something older or newer - the current ones seem to either be misbehaving or their installer isn't configuring things well....

*Disable Automatic Driver updates*
Once working drivers are installed for your Intel Graphics and Intel Wireless, let's have you temporarily disable automatic driver updates from Windows Updates. If you haven't already uninstalled the automatic HP Updates, uninstall that utility as well. Neither Windows nor HP are doing your system any favors with their automatic driver installs lately. See how things go without them.
Stop automatic driver updates on Windows 10 | Windows 10 content from SuperSite for Windows

*Cortana permissions errors*
Two quick things we can try for this: 1) simply turning Cortana off while testing - and 2) reinstall Cortana.
Turn Cortana off: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...f3-afa3-187f9ce290e8/switch-cortana-on-or-off
Reinstall Cortana: How to reinstall all the Windows 10 default apps with PowerShell

*Avast Antivirus*
I really like Avast, and I've never had any issues with the versions I've had (I use the free antivirus ... it's just the antivirus program - without the firewall - I leave the Windows Firewall on). But some systems don't get along with Avast. Test things with Avast uninstalled (make sure that Windows Defender automatically enables itself after you uninstall Avast ... it should). You can make sure that Windows Defender is on by checking it in Settings > Updates and security > Windows Defender. Let Windows Defender provide a little basic protection while testing for stability.
_________________________

*HP Extended Warranty*
I'd say no to the extended warranty. Your current warranty is no help to you right now: because of the steep shipping expenses you've mentioned for the notebook (you mentioned $500 as a possible cost). The extended warranty would seem to be a complete waste of money. I'm thinking that $500 is at least 2/3 of the cost of an entirely new replacement for your current laptop. If you could get the laptop to HP for under $100 round-trip, I'd recommend doing that right now - because that warranty is already paid for - and because the laptop has been so much trouble. But I wouldn't spend any more money than that on it. No guarantees that you wouldn't be "throwing good money after bad".

So ... you could try _*researching if a shipping method less than $100*_ round-trip is feasible, and send it back under its current warranty, or not bother with such long distance & ineffective warranties at all.

*Intel Storage Driver*
During our first session of repairs, we had you replace an Intel storage driver with a generic one. Why not try that again (it can't hurt).
1) *Right-click* the *Windows 10 Start Menu icon* and select *Device Manager*.
2) Select the *right-facing arrow* in front of* IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers*.
3) Select the controller with “*SATA AHCI*” in its name (such as Standard SATA AHCI Controller). 
4) To verify that you’ve selected the right controller, right-click the controller, select Properties, click the Driver tab, and then Driver Details. Verify that *iastor.sys* is a listed driver, and click OK.
5) Then, from the *Driver tab*, select *Update Driver*…
6) Select* Browse my computer for driver software*.
7) Select* Let me pick from a list of device drivers* on my computer.
8) Select *Standard SATA AHCI Controller*.

*Disable Fast Startup & Hibernation*
We tried this one earlier, too, you can try it again.
Fast Startup ..... Fast Startup - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
Hibernation ..... Windows 10 Tutorials 60 â€“ How to Enable or Disable Hibernate
_________________________

Sorry that this is so long .... [time for a sandwich & a smoothie  ] ..... Take your time, and let's see how it goes this round.


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## 104011

Ok. I will try everything step by step and get back to you. It may take me a few days to go through everything! Thanks SO much.


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## 104011

Interestingly, Cortana is OFF on my machine. (I hate it, so I never enabled it in the first place). Apparently there's no way to uninstall it except through this: How to uninstall and remove Cortana in Windows 10

What do you think?

Also, re: Avast, is it possible the Power policy is due to my electricity going on/off several times a day? Of course, my laptop is plugged in, but would switching from regular power to battery several times create that error? 

Re: warranty, I agree. I think the problem might be ultrabooks. I had an S7 before and had to send it to repair 3 times. It completely crapped out... i.e., would not start up, etc. Three times! They refused to replace it, so I eventually sold it for parts (paid $1700, got $400 six months later). Then I bought this HP in Nov/Dec, and I've been working to fix it since February, only 3 months later. I paid about $1500 for it. Makes me think I should give up and buy a $300 laptop. I just travel a lot so the lightness of the ultrabooks is awesome. Am I just having bad luck or are ultrabooks difficult machines?


----------



## OldGrayGary

Mid-Week Hello

Well, we've made it to Wednesday ...

*Cortana*
It seems odd that Cortana is showing so many errors in your Event Viewer logs - when it is turned off. You could try turning in on for a day, see what happens, and then turn it off again. I don't recommend trying the method in the link you posted: using that method breaks too many things (notably the Start Menu, and the Taskbar can be badly affected).... 

*Avast*
I have the same Avast power policy changes noted in my Event Viewer logs as you do. ... The notices are just "informational" (not errors). I use the free Avast. I don't experience any problems with Avast on Windows 10, but I know that some users have had issues with Avast on their Windows 10 machines. Since your issues seem connected to power states (sleep & hibernate), I figured that possibly your system might be adversely affected... You could remove Avast temporarily, just as a test (you'd want to enable Defender during the testing, of course ... it will likely enable itself, in fact).

*Power outages*
The surges that tend to follow power outages can indeed cause havoc with computers. If you haven't got a surge protector in between your laptop and your office power outlet, I'd recommend getting one. They aren't expensive ($20 USD, as an example). UPS systems can help too, but these tend to be expensive, and their battery life is so short they don't offer all that much relief. There is a BIOS/UEFI setting that you can check on, though, to make things easier on your laptop. That setting should be in a Power section, and it sets the "Power State" or "action" to use after a power out. You want that setting to be something like "Off" or "stay off" (or similar). 

*Ultrabooks*
Most ultrabooks perform quite well, and last just fine. They ought to, for the money! I have helped several of my customers set up their new ultrabooks: but only a few of them are running Windows 10. There are a few, though, on Windows 10, and they are performing well (one is a Lenovo Yoga2 Pro, and one is a brand-new HP Spectre x360). Both are 13.3" screens, like yours. The Spectre x360 is likely a model not so different from yours - but theirs came with Windows 10 pre-loaded. From what I've read, the sleep/hibernation issues seem more common on the HP systems that are upgraded to Windows 10 from an earlier version of Windows. You are one of the unlucky customers in that regard.

*Faulty HPs* .... I've just recently (within the last month) had a customer who bought a brand-new HP All-in-One (23" screen) and it had quite a few of the same symptoms as yours. We tinkered with it a bit, just enough to convince us that the problem was in the hardware, and returned it for a new unit (of the exact-same specs - same model & features). The new one has worked flawlessly since then (almost for a month now). So ... if you could just find a less expensive way to exchange it under your current warranty, we've been suggesting that for some time now. You are at a great disadvantage because your warranty doesn't really help much from where you are at the moment. I'm a little surprised, really, since HP is a global company nowadays.


----------



## 104011

Hey there,

I caught my computer crash RIGHT after it happened. I've attached a screenshot of what the desktop looks like + the event logs RIGHT before it happened. I'm hoping that helps you figure out the root of the problem.

Re: Cortana, I have turned it on. I will see if that does anything.

Re: Avast, I had the problems with this computer pre-Avast, so I doubt that's the issue. You guys asked me way back when to uninstall McAfee and replace it with Avast, which I did. I can certainly try uninstalling Avast, but I suspect the problem is elsewhere...

I am re-installing the graphics driver and intel wireless drivers... again... from the HP website. We'll see...

Lastly, my computer IS the HP Spectre x360 - 13-4000ne. So not sure why I'm having so many issues. It's so frustrating.

Let me know if these Events Logs tell you anything more specific about what causes the loss of background. Note from the screenshot that I still have some graphics, but they lose their quality. There is no taskbar or systray. The apps all still work, and I can Alt+Tab between them... but nothing in the background works. Is that a graphics or a system issue?


----------



## VividProfessional

this could be Avast causing the issue - Windows 10 has its own firewall/antivirus built in


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## 104011

Will try uninstall. Doesn't hurt!


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again


Let's see how your system does without Avast installed. As I mentioned, it has worked very well for me for many years, and I've recommended it for quite a long time -- but some recent model laptops running Windows 10 seem to have a conflict with it somewhere (both Microsoft & Avast are working on it). I expect that eventually the conflict will be fixed.

If things continue to "go south" ... the last time you reinstalled Windows you used the "Reset" method. It might be worth a try to try a different method - which uses a Windows DVD to reinstall (and that Windows DVD is made using the latest build of Windows 10 from the Microsoft website). It's possible that the local "image" of Windows stored on your computer has problems: so downloading a fresh, healthy image from Microsoft might help. 

We'll see how things go without Avast, and with the HP version of the graphics drivers back in.

Cheers

[late edit: P.S. ... your newest Event Viewer Logs don't show anything related to the graphics driver. Most of the messages concern your Bluetooth and Wireless network-- neither of which seem to be installed/configured happily enough for those two to not complain. You could try downloading the latest drivers for both & save those safely - then completely uninstall the older drivers. Restart your computer, and install the newest drivers that you downloaded.

The Event Viewer mentions a few instances of your computer successfully entering and later waking from a sleep state.... So - it sounds like sleep is still enabled to some extent.... ]


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## 104011

Thanks, Gary. Yes, I enabled sleep maybe two days ago. I did that just recently in hopes that the computer going to sleep would prevent the crash (it makes it better but doesn't fix it fully). I'm testing everything!

I reinstalled the graphics and Wireless drivers today. I'll try Bluetooth tomorrow. 

If I have to reinstall Windows again, I'll probably just sell this laptop and start over. I spent something like 12 hours reinstalling everything last time. It would be even longer if we do it from scratch. Let's hope our recent efforts fix it... otherwise, it will be computer #3 in less than a year. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.


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## OldGrayGary

Saturday afternoon note


I thought that I'd add another option you can try, should Windows 10 continue to run into trouble on your HP. This option would be something you could do at no cost to your budget (though it would take a little time ... but probably less time than reinstalling Windows 10 from scratch & all the updates...). The option is ....

*Linux Mint 17.3*
Linux Mint has a "look and feel" very similar to Windows XP. There is a Start Menu, a TaskBar, a little notification area in the lower right hand corner of the screen with the time/day/date, sound icon, network icon, battery life icon ... all of this very like the "system tray" in all versions of windows since Windows 95 (with the exception of Windows 8!).... 

You could create a Live Linux Mint 17.3 DVD to test how Linux behaves on your HP. You start your computer using the DVD while testing. It should find most of your hardware, and find your network as well, automatically (of course, you'll have to select your network & enter its password - but that's it). Things start up quite a bit slower when using a "Live DVD", but run just fine once the program is started.

Then, if you find that you have no sleep/hibernation/sudden-restart issues in Linux, you can choose to install it (where it will run quite a lot faster from the hard drive rather than from the DVD). You can install it alongside Windows 10 (if there's enough room), or have it replace Windows 10. If you choose to replace Windows 10, you'll need to backup files that you wish to save, so that you can add them to your new Linux system once it's completely installed.

Microsoft Office has free online versions of its main Office programs nowadays. You can run these in Linux simply by visiting Office online using a browser. You can use whatever online storage you want to store the files: OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, etc. By default, Office online saves to OneDrive. (you have at least 5 GB of free storage in your OneDrive as a Windows 10 user). Most documents take up very little space, so 5 GB of document storage can represent several years of documents. For music, pictures, and video collections, you could store those locally (on an inexpensive USB hard drive) or perhaps on a different online service, like Google Drive, iClould, DropBox, or such. 

The catch is that, as its name implies, Office Online only works when you are online. To create or edit documents offine, you could use the built-in Linux version of Libre Office to create or edit documents, and save them in a Microsoft format. When online, you could upload (or automatically sync) the documents to OneDrive, Google Drive, or whatever online storage you are using. You could fix any formatting glitches from Libre Office by opening the documents in Word Online, and that should get the documents just the way you want them.
_______________

Testing things in Linux will also allow you to know - with a healthy amount of certainty - if the issues with your laptop are hardware or software based. If the restarts continue in Linux -- something is wrong inside the case.
_______________

Just figured that I'd throw this idea into the ring. I've used Linux for years and years (I remember when Linux first was created! ... I was at a medical lab running Unix on mainframes) ... it's a good operating system. I use it for most of my remote sessions with clients of mine (though I also use Windows 10 for that, too).

Hope you are enjoying a nice weekend
Cheers


----------



## 104011

Updating LAN and graphics drivers didn't work. Now trying Bluetooth...

Is there a way I can send you info on all of my drivers, i.e., basically a version of my Device Manager? The reason I ask is because it turns out the original problem was the graphics driver... and had I known that it never actually updated when we thought it did, we may have found the problem much sooner! I'm just wondering if something similar is happening where there is an easy solution that you just can't "see" without looking at my computer...


----------



## 104011

In an effort to try a few new things, I updated the graphics driver through the Device Manager. It redownloaded/installed the Jan2016 graphics driver, and within an hour, my computer was restarting itself. That suggests to me that we fixed that first problem of restarts with the graphics driver... now the question is what is the smoking gun for my background crashing...

Anyway, just thought you'd find that interesting...


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again

Well, at least we know that the January 2016 driver doesn't work well. The question is: which ones do work well. We could try older (the 2015 drivers from HP, or the latest from Intel ...["Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 10 and Windows 7/8.1
Version: 15.40.25.4463 (Latest) Date: 6/17/2016"] ... You can get that latest Intel driver directly from Intel's download site (make sure to download the 64-bit version) ... https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...ows-10-and-Windows-7-8-1-15-40-?product=86210

That latest driver does resolve some wake from hibernation issues (but those were mostly due to conflicts with "WiDi" (Intel Wireless Display, which enables wireless streaming the laptop's display to a compatible external screen). There are quite a few issues addressed by this latest release - which you can read about in the "Release Notes" which are available from the same page as the driver download.

The odd thing about your "desktop crashes" is that I didn't see errors that point directly to the culprit in your last Event Viewer logs. That's a little worrisome, since it starts to suggest hardware trouble (we've checked the temps many times, you can have a look at them again ... overheating can cause a system to "lock up" - the processor will shut down to save itself from overheating failure [which if allowed to continue overheating, might destroy it]). 

I'm mentioning the hardware issue, because it could be complicating things. Whether you have a hardware issue or not, you also likely have driver issues (that seems fairly certain). It's good to rule out hardware complications, so check the temps from time to time, just to make sure.

At certain times, you've had a mix of drivers that allow you to operate for several days with no obvious issues. Then updates happen, things deteriorate, and it is hard to pinpoint exactly which driver - or drivers - is causing the trouble. The main error producing drivers have been the Intel graphics, Intel wireless, and Intel Bluetooth.

You asked about an easy way to know which drivers/versions are installed on a system. Two ways that are both fairly quick and fairly simple. One is to use the command driverquery from a Administrative command prompt. The other is to use the app DriverView. 
How to get a list of all Device Drivers using Command Prompt
DriverView: Display list of all device drivers in Windows

You mention that you return to your computer in the morning and it is at the unresponsive black screen. What happens if you do a normal shutdown after you finish with it in the evening?

Never a dull moment


(... and, I'm curious to hear if you like the idea of testing Linux on your HP ... running the live DVD won't make any changes to the computer at all, since it runs from the DVD and your system memory ... might help us know if a hardware issue is complicating things ... the same behavior in two different operating systems might point to hardware)


----------



## 104011

I just typed a long message and lost it! Here it goes again...

Hey there!

Linux makes me nervous. Trying to learn a new OS and having to use all new software programs.... I can try it though if our current solutions don't work. I would have to buy an external DVD player as well since my laptop doesn't have one.

I don't always have the issue in the morning. That tends to be the longest time I leave the computer (overnight), but if I leave for a few hours in the afternoon, it will happen then too. It never happens when I'm working on the computer - only when I walk away. It does not appear related to sleep (happened with sleep settings on and off). Shut down and forced sleep appear to bypass the problem. 

I can download a temperature taking software. Do you have a favorite one? I installed one a few months ago but can't remember the name of it. I didn't write it down after I reinstalled Windows. If you don't have a favorite, I'll look it up in the logs of this conversation.

Attaching driver info in case it is of interest...

I reinstalled the JUN2016 graphics driver and the Bluetooth. I also uninstalled Avast. This was all in the last two days, and I haven't had the issue since. I'm (falsely?) hoping everything is good. Maybe it was Avast after all?? Let's see...


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## 104011

Hey Gary! Are you able to tell me what exactly what my problem is in computer-esque language? I'm thinking of searching the forums or starting a new thread to ask about it. What do you think? Is it that explorer.exe is crashing? Or something else? 

What exactly is happening when the background just disappears into black but the apps are still running perfectly?


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## OldGrayGary

Hi again


Had a late night office repair, so I'm checking in even later than usual ... 

I've been suspecting that your problem with the desktop disappearing might be related to your Intel graphics issues. There are other causes for the background to disappear ... usually they involve the picture used changing its location, or the loss of a system setting that controls what displays. 

I think you said that the icons look different when the background disappears, too. That makes me wonder if settings such as the screen resolution are involved. When settings change without your meaning them to, that could point to file corruption - which I usually expect to be caused by hardware issues more often than software issues. I'd also thought that the entire system would crash soon after the desktop disappeared, which makes it sound like more than just a background picture file getting relocated.

To be honest, I haven't been as concerned about the desktop issue as with the restarts connected to sleep/hibernation. But for a quick-fix try: just in case it's a file or setting mix-up - try switching to a different background for a bit, then try to re-select your original background. See if it sticks around a bit better.

For the temperature applet idea: most any would do. I prefer the kind which just runs once, and lets me know how hot/cold things are. I'm not crazy about the ones that run all the time - Windows 10 already has enough nonsense that runs all the time. I'm falling asleep at my keyboard here tonight, but I can revisit the temperature app availability in the morning.... 

If your computer is now running well, and both entering & waking from sleep/hibernation without crashing, that's a good sign. For the desktop disappearance - try the idea about changing the background & such. 

Looks like this old man is nodding off for a bit ... 
Good Night / Good Morning from Southern California!


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## 104011

That's a great idea. I installed a new background recently, so perhaps it's as easy as fixing that. 

Sometimes the background disappears and the icons change to that blurry-ness I sent you in a pic before, and other times they disappear altogether, i.e., literally it is nothing but blackness behind my open apps. My open apps "work" but not fully, and I have no access to the start menu or anything else. Once I minimize an app, I can't get it back because I can't see the taskbar and Alt+Tab doesn't work. Long story short: when this happens, I have to restart the computer. So it's not just an issue of losing my background... it's losing all the background functions of the computer. It's really strange. Perhaps it is a corrupt background picture. I will try with just a solid color and see if that does it.

Thanks as always. Get some rest!


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## OldGrayGary

Thanks for the details on your coming and going screen. 

The fact that your Start menu and the Windows 10 "Universal" apps misbehave at about the same time suggests that you might be experiencing an all-too-common problem that affects the Windows 10 Start Menu and the Universal apps misbehavior.

*StartMenu/Apps Reinstall*
There is a PowerShell command that you can try to refresh your Apps (oddly enough, this often helps the Start Menu as well). I've seen two variations of the command, where the parameter "-DisableDevelopmentMode" is either at the end of the command, or in the middle. I'd try the cnet version (in the middle) first. In both cases, it likely should take a few minutes, and you are likely to see some errors in the PowerShell window. It seems to help to restart the computer when the commands have finished, and you've exited the PowerShell window. 
How to reinstall default apps in Windows 10 - CNET
[Guide] How to Reinstall All Default Built-in Apps in Windows 10 - AskVG

*"Windows 10 Anniversary Update" ... on or about August 2, 2016*
You can expect a rather large Windows Update on August 2 or shortly thereafter. It should be interesting to see what effect it has on your system. Might help things, might not ... might make things worse. It will probably replace a fair amount of system files with newer versions.

Let's hope for the "better" outcome!


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## 104011

Ok, great. Will try that. Today, I had the same problem... but instead of a fully black screen, I had the strange icons again (they were 4x their normal size but blurry). Also, the Windows start menu worked, but the taskbar and systray were all black/gone. So it was half-crashed! Let's hope the August updates are a solution... also trying to download a new graphics card direct from Intel. Last time I did that, it told me I had to download from HP. So we'll see. I'll try the Powershell thing first... and if that doesn't work, a new graphics card... and if that doesn't work... the 2 August updates.


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## 104011

Well, I have some new information! When my screen crashed today, I was able to access the Task Manager through Ctrl+Alt+Delete. I had a feeling the problem was my explorer.exe crashing since all the apps work but the taskbar, systray, and desktop icons are missing. So, I went to Task Manager, then Windows Explorer, and clicked Restart. Voila! Everything came back.

So the problem is: Windows Explorer is crashing... 

I've diagnosed the problem but haven't got a solution yet!


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## OldGrayGary

Hi again

I haven't seen a Windows 10 computer yet with the disappearing background / crashing explorer.exe that you are experiencing: so I took a look around on the usual tech sites. So far, some experience the crash when trying to open File Explorer, some when they try to right-click a file or folder .... some seem to have a problematic "OverlayIcon64.dll" (which might be either corrupt, incorrect version, or malware .... some have dodged that bullet by renaming the file & letting System File Checker restore things).... some find that an update to a program they use called PDF Architect 4 has a problematic file "support.dll" (uninstalling the program fixes that .... I imagine that a newer version of that program might have been released by now that fixes the crashing module).... Another module that can crash explorer.exe is a sound driver used in Windows 8.1 for an IDT sound device (uninstalling the driver and switching to a newer version solves that) ... since your system might have originally had Windows 8.1 on it - that's a possibilty .. .... in short: LOTS of Possibilities. 

The best clues will be those in your latest Event Viewer error logs. Usually a desktop/explorer.exe crash will generate an error message, so we should have a decent chance of seeing what module Windows thinks is creating the havok. So -- why not send along another Event Viewer log.

In the meantime, to help with any file corruption that might be going on (I was concerned about your System Restore points showing corruption earlier ... in fact I'm still rather concerned about that) see if you can run Windows 10's System File Checker tool, and follow up with another tool to cleanup the Windows system image on your system. Here are the instructions for those two:
_______________

*System File Checker in Windows 10*

1) *Right-click* the* Windows 10 Start Menu* 
2) Select *Command Prompt (Admin)*
3) To the question "*Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your computer?*", select *Yes*
4) At the command prompt, type *sfc /scannow*

The scan will take a little while, but shouldn't take more than ten or twenty minutes. It will display a message as to how well it did ("finished successfully", "found and fixed corruptions", or "found but could not fix corruptions.
_______________

Restore the health of the Windows system image using the DISM tool

*Running DISM online*

It's best to have a good and fast Internet connection for this method, and to make sure there is no malware presence on the computer beforehand.

1) *Right-click* the *Windows Start Menu icon*
2) From the menu, select *Command Prompt (Admin)*
3) To the question "*Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your computer?*", select *Yes*
7) At the command prompt, type *Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth*

This can take quite a while - it varies a lot from machine to machine, and the speed of the Internet connection can add extra time when slow. Even if the "Percentage Complete" stops for a long time at a certian percentage, wait it out: it's fairly normal for the percentage displayed to not get refreshed for quite a long time. This will usually take a longer time than the System File Checker scan. DISM will report success or failure ... let us know what outcome you get.
_______________

If your PC happens to crash when you right-click the Start Menu icon, try booting into Safe Mode - and running the same procedures from there. For DISM online, boot into "Safe Mode with Networking". Note: I haven't personally run either of these tools in Windows 10 Safe Mode, but I haven't come across any information (yet!) that they don't work in Safe Mode.

So many versions of Windows, so little time! ........


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## 104011

Great, thanks. The SFC did not find any "integrity violations."

Running DISM next...


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## jenae

Hi, very good work from Gary, and dedication too. You may have an errant dll, press the win + r key together, in the run dialogue box (in red) copy paste:-

regsvr32 shell32.dll (press OK) you should receive a success message.


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## 104011

DISM completed successfully (no error messages or anything). I also did the DLL thing...

So we'll see...

Luckily, the workaround (restarting Explorer) works so that I don't lose my work. It's not ideal, but it's way better than restarting the computer!


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## traincompbox

I've read with interest this entire thread in one sitting. Just a clarifying question for you daisi:
1. Did I understand you to say that if *you* initiate Sleep, the system behaves correctly, but if the *system* initiates Sleep, the problem occurs?

2. Suggestion-unplug power from the laptop & operate on battery. Allow the system to initiate Sleep. This could alleviate issues attributable to the bouncing of your wall power. Most HP laptops are capable of maintaining Sleep mode on battery for about 2 days. 

3. For the participants of this thread-it's been about 2 months since the re-installation of OS, with several 'hokey-pokey' driver & program events. I would suggest a new reinstall w/current Windows & HP drivers only (the system seemed to be stable for a period after the last reload until an HP driver session). Follow this with a one-at-a-time approach to install apps & utility programs (restore points prior to each step) watching for the break point. whaddya think?


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## 104011

Thanks for your interest! 

The sleep problem was related to the graphics card driver problem but does not appear to be related to my explorer.exe crashing problem. I will test it out though today to see (1) if turning sleep off makes any difference vis a vis explorer crashing and (2) if so, whether using manual vs. automatic sleep makes any difference.

My first issue - the restarting issue - was resolved quite easily by updating the graphics card driver. It's my fault that wasn't sorted out earlier. The guys asked me to update my drivers, and I did. However, for the graphics driver, it told me I was installed an old one over a new one, so I kept saying "no." Eventually, I just overrode that error, and ta-da, it worked! I have never again had that issue.

Reinstalling Windows had no effect on that particular problem. Was just a long complicated road to a bad driver.

The current problem (explorer.exe crashing) has only occurred for the last few weeks. I'm not sure if it was happening before because it's possible the graphics-driver-related restarts were masking the explorer crashing problem. 

In any case, a reinstall of Windows might be a possible answer... although I'd need to wait until I have time for it. It took me about 10-15 hours last time... it's a hassle to say the least to reinstall Microsoft and all sorts of software. I have many paid-for software programs, so I have to track down keys, etc. I'd prefer not to have to do that if there's another solution!

Any other ideas on how to fix explorer.exe crashing without a total reinstall? The DLL and DISM efforts did not fix it.

Will update on how sleep it related (if at all) to the problem.

Thank you all for your patience and help. Super appreciate it.


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## 104011

I will post an Event Log next time the crash happens as well...


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again


Nice to see that we are seeing lots of help for your system! (Thanks, all)

I'm hoping the latest Event Viewer logs will have some indication of what is causing the explorer crashes. Seems like that's the kind of thing that would generate a helpful log entry. Seems like it could be anything from a bad dll to trouble with permissions. The more I look into it, the more causes seem to get mentioned. 

When the Start Menu is involved, the trouble can be little changes made by third-party programs ... especially changes to "Option Menus" (the options you see when you right-click a file (these are also called "shell extensions" and such)... I haven't yet found an exact-match cause-and-effect reason for your Desktop to crash (but it wouldn't surprise me if some sort of shell extension tangle might be the trouble with the desktop as well.....) ....

"A Long and Winding Road...." (to slightly misquote the old Beatle's song)

Cheers


----------



## 104011

Yes, I suspect just like last time, it's something small and dumb!

Is it strange that - although Windows Explorer has clearly crashed (no desktop, taskbar, etc) - that it still says running in the Task Manager when I pull it up? I just click Restart, and within 3 seconds, everything pops back up like normal. 

The reason I ask is that I fear if it doesn't ACTUALLY crash, i.e., the computer doesn't know it crashed... that there won't be an event log...


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## 104011

I will also add a bit of context: I have two screens... one is my laptop screen and the other is a Samsung 226BW (ooooold screen). I have the Samsung hooked up through a DVI cable (I think? It's the white one connected to the VGA and then plugged into the laptop... or maybe it's mini-HDMI...?)

Sometimes when I come back to my computer - when Explorer HASN'T crashed - my windows are on different screens, i.e., they will all default back to the Samsung screen, and I have to move a few of them back over to the HP screen. Also, my icons on my desktop sometimes change sizes - as if the computer is having a hard time registering the two different resolutions. It sometimes puts the HP resolution on the Samsung monitor, it seems. 

This is not particularly annoying... just the computer trying to figure out what should be where. But I thought I'd mention it in case it is a symptom that helps figure out the explorer.exe disease!


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## 104011

It's official. Sleep settings have nothing to do with it! I turned them off yesterday, and the crash has happened twice since. 

This morning, I started using the computer around 920/930 AM. Sometime between then and last night around midnight, the crash happened.

Event log attached. Anything I can do to fix the 5010 error, by the way? There's a lot of it!


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## jenae

Hi Daisi, thanks for the event log, ID 5010 is information only and is not responsible for the restart, probably caused by the error 10016, which could cause a crash. Are you logged in as an administrator account?

If so go to search and type:- cmd right click on the returned command prompt and select "run as administrator" at the command prompt follow the instructions in red:-

Type:-
net localgroup Administrators /add networkservice
press enter then type:
net localgroup Administrators /add localservice
press enter then type:
exit
press enter and restart your computer


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## 104011

I did this. Will see if there is any issue tomorrow morning when I wake up. So far today, all has been fine...


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## omendata

Hmm someone stole my avatar - naughty!

Network card driver issue!
Or IRQ conflict!


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## 104011

It did not crash overnight... crossing my fingers it wasn't just a fluke...!!


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## 104011

No crashes so far... Jenae, what did your solution do exactly? It seems to have worked...


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## jenae

Hi Daisi, lets hope you are right, the answer is complicated, however I will try to explain in laymen's terms.

An app ID with a clsid as detailed in your event logs attempted to access a service, your user profile was deemed not to have correct permissions for this, you could open administrative tools, component services and load the snap in, navigate to My computer open the dcom config, locate the clsid mentioned in event viewer select properties, then the security tab and give your user account permission. 

Now this is convention and often works. The problem is the error can occur with another app so on goes the problem. Back in the early days of Vista beta we encounted this problem, the command I had you run gives system wide permission for your user account (admin) to the two errant services (almost always localservice and networkservice).

There is a lot more happening then just this, however you should get a basic understanding from this.


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## 104011

Well, it worked! I'm going to wait a week or so to ensure I don't have any further issues before I close this ticket, but it seems to be A-OK.

OldManGary, you have been SO awesome and patient. Your solving the graphics issue was a lifesaver. Why do I need a warranty when I have you guys??



My best to you all. Really. I sincerely appreciate it.


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## 104011

Do you all have any tools you recommend for general cleanup / maintenance? Things that speed up your computer and get rid of the flotsam??  I think after messing with my laptop so much, I might have a ton of extra baggage with it. I've heard of CCleaner... and others. What do you recommend as tools to keep on hand?


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## OldGrayGary

Hi all


jenae .... Thanks for both the working solution and for the explanation. I made a little copy of both! The permissions issues seem to be an all-too-prevalent problem in recent editions of Windows (I hadn't noticed it in Vista, but then most of my customers avoided Vista). What amazes me is that even clean installs will often have permissions issues. Glad I have such an experienced person as yourself to keep learning from - I always have room to learn 

daisy .... If you've got plenty of free space on your hard drive, you probably won't need to fuss much with cleaners - especially since you've just been through so much hard work to get your system stable. (It would be a shame to accidentally delete something that would send your computer into another tizzy). 

That said, some gentle cleaning might be OK. CCleaner is fine for most routine temp file cleaning, though you would to remove checkmarks from the option boxes in front of Memory Dumps (or System Dumps), and from MS Search. Those option boxes are for the "Cleaning" function of CCleaner. I'd stay away from cleaning the Registry for a while .... if you can't resist cleaning the Registry, by all means let CCleaner make a backup of the changes (it will offer to do this automatically, but you have to say yes). That way you can put things back if things go haywire. 
_______________

Very glad that you finally, finally, finally get to enjoy your ultrabook at last!

Cheers


----------



## 104011

Hello! Well, well... it happened again 

It was a bit different this time. The whole computer seemed frozen. It may just be a fluke. The taskbar was missing though, and I had to restart Windows Explorer. When I pressed the power button to do a hard restart, the frozen screen unfroze. So who knows what happened...!

I'm attaching Event Files in case they are of any interest.

OldManGary, I agree on not messing with it once it's fixed. It's just that I still feel like something is wrong. It's always slow, the fan runs loudly sometimes, etc. I just feel like something is not right about this machine. They are all minor things that I just can't quite put my finger on. It could be nothing as I always have a million tabs open, so that's probably why it's slow...

In any case, let me know what you all think of these Event Files.


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## jenae

Hi Daisi, in the history of this computer have you ever had any Anti Virus programs installed, even those that were free trials? The error 10016 is occurring again. Without going back through this thread, have you deleted a user account at any time and created a new one?


----------



## jenae

Hi, it appears the problem is Runtime Broker.exe a windows service, it relates to this problem. Now the default permissions are for trusted installer, in component services you get no option to change the permissions of this service, it is grayed out... please answer my previous post and be patient this one's interesting. What have you got UAC settings at?


----------



## 104011

Hey there,

I had McAfee at first, but I was told I should switch that with Avast. So I did that. Then I was asked to uninstall that in case it was a problem. So now I'm on Windows Defender.

My User Account settings are the second tier (Notify me only when applications try to make changes to my computer (default)). The bullet says "Don't notify me when I make changes to Windows settings."

Thanks again for your help.


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again all

I'm on a Linux machine at the moment, too far away from my Windows computers to get a look at your latest Event Viewer logs .... but I'll have a look when I get back to my home office later on. 

I've seen the permissions issue with Runtime Broker even on clean installs - sometimes it doesn't seem to have any effect at all (two of my early Windows 10 testers had the Runtime Broker permissions issues ... and strangely enough, didn't behave badly at all). I'm hoping jenae will be able to help us figure that part out! ... I have seen mention around the tech sites - where some users have used the Component Services tool (in Administrative Tools) to adjust the permissions [seems like there was a method that forces the changes to be allowed - rather than grayed out - but I don't have that info with me] ... the problem some face: even after all that work, the permissions revert back to their error-producing state. [My guess is that a Windows Update might be a likely cause for the reversion]. 
_______________

Just a little side note: earlier today, I delivered a high-end laptop back to its owner. A top-of-the-line HP (though not in the Spectre x360 series - it was an i7 powered 17" workstation) ... it came into my office running slower than an underpowered netbook (remember those?). Crazy slow. So I decided to save all the customer's files & do a clean install using the latest Windows 10 build, available directly from Microsoft (I burned it on to a DVD, so the customer could have it around to use as a "repair disk", should anything go wrong in the future). It was amazing, the transformation of that laptop. From snail to supersonic jet! 

Funny thing is: of the 2 errors still occuring --even though it was a clean install! -- at system shutdown = one instance of the Runtime Broker error shows up. No untoward slowness or odd behavior: just a nonsensical error in the EventViewer logs. Makes me a bit crazy! Maybe a lot crazy...

But the system had been through a lot (the customer tried to fix it themselves ... ) and with so much coming & going, little "Windows Alzheimer's tangles" had probably built up.... .... so the fresh install seems to have given it a nice new start. 
_______________

Oh, and my daughters tend to have as many as fifty or so tabs open on their laptops (I still can't figure out why) .... and of course it does effect system performance. You could dial back the tabs for a bit, just to see 

... now I've got to find my last cup of coffee for the day ...


----------



## OldGrayGary

P.S. .... OK, so I found the widely-shared article that contains the Runtime Broker permissions adjustment - it includes the step that enables you to have the options available in Component Services (the step involves taking ownership) ... Here's the link:
https://shauncassells.wordpress.com...d-d63b10c5-bb46-4990-a94f-e40b9d520160-and-a/

A fair number of users have seen the error messages disappear after trying these steps. It is also true that a fair number of users see the error return again quite some time later (sometimes many months later). "Your mileage may vary" ....


----------



## jenae

Hi, thanks Gary for that link, and you do need to follow it exactly ( a little trick so you use the right user account name, logged into your account open an elevated cmd prompt and type:- whoami >0 & notepad 0 (press enter) copy the name in the notepad entry, then paste it into the object names box) Also make sure "trustedInstaller" is listed and that it also has full control.

Now why is this happening? Did you use the Avast uninstall util to remove it? Did you use the McAfee uninstall util to remove it? Either way I would run both utils again.


----------



## jenae

Hi, it would help if we had additional information (I am concerned a corrupt app is the cause here), please open a cmd as admin and copy paste the following in red:-


echo [php] > 0 & ipconfig/all >> 0 & tasklist /svc /fi "imagename eq svchost.exe" >> 0 & tasklist /v >>0 & Tasklist /m >> 0 & net start >> 0 & systeminfo >> 0 & echo [/php] >> 0 & notepad 0


Press enter, attach the notepad outcome in your reply please.

Hi, sorry a late edit please open a cmd as admin and copy paste this :-

sc sdshow TimeBroker > 0 & notepad 0 (press enter) this will show the security descriptors for the service (RuntimeBroker), please copy paste them here.


----------



## 104011

Hello there,

I uninstalled Avast and McAfee with the product removal tools in Safe Mode. 

Then I tried Gary's link, and I ran into two errors. One forced me to choose yes or no (I said yes), and one let me cancel (I cancelled). 

Let me walk you through what happened:

On the registry edits (for the AppID and CLSID ones), everything went fine. The only piece I wasn't sure about is the last instruction about child objects. I have attached a screenshot of what the final screen looked like. Do I need to click something for inheriting?

On the DCOM permissions, I got two errors. I got the first one when I clicked on the DCOM Config folder (instruction #2). I clicked yes (see attached). Then I got the second error when I clicked on the Runtime Broker Security tab. I cancelled and did not proceed.

Please let me know how to proceed.

Finally, I've attached the two docs jenae requested.


----------



## 104011

The problem is definitely better. It barely ever crashes (once in the last few days), so that's a plus...


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again

If you have a Restore Point from before you started your edits, you shouldn't have to worry too much - you'll be able to revert back to before you started.

I believe you were correct to select Remove for the stray entry. In that second screen, as part of the change-of-ownership, the author of the article mentions "*Ensure you apply permissions to all child objects*" [this is in Step 6]. Seems like that indicates letting the settings inherit down to the child objects.

Very interesting that your last screen-shot shows a mention of a module related to the Intel Graphics! Hmmm .... Seems like that might have fixed a setting that was missing. That would be nice.

I'm going to test this method on a Windows 10 laptop that has had this same Runtime Broker error (since its clean install, no less!) ... I'll check back later when I give it a go & report on what I see.


----------



## jenae

Hi, the dcom warning about the intel app will occur on all intel machines when you first open component services, dcom launch, it is an known issue you say yes and proceed since it is safe.

Now there appears to be multiple issues with time broker (even on a clean install) in your case you have one process that is a known problem open services and disable the Bonjour service it is called MdnsResponder.. you don't need it.

Your security descriptors for the service are as they should be, so that's good.


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi all


I went ahead and adjusted the permissions as mentioned in the article, and the Runtime Broker "error" did indeed disappear. It's pretty funny, though, if it is related to Bonjour - which originated for Apple products, I believe (a network component?). I've always wondered just a bit if Apple doesn't worry about sloppy errors for its software on Windows systems [making your PC misbehave might be a sneaky way to push folks to use the Apple Macs? ... and, after all, Microsoft might have done a little of the same long ago, when they were rumored to have caused Lotus 1-2-3 to perform badly in early versions of Windows ... in an effort to boost their competing product]

On my Windows 10 tester (that I adjusted the permissons for Runtime Broker on), the errors hadn't produced any noticeable effects. It's nice that the EventViewer logs are even smaller than ever now, but all three of my tester systems have been running Windows 10 quite well since their installs. 

Never a dull moment. And thanks, jenae - for your details & experience (too bad you can't put all you know on a little memory chip & download it into my aging brain!)


----------



## 104011

You guys are starting to lose me! I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now. 

With the registry edit inherit/child permissions, did I need to click the Enable Inheritance button, and if so, do I do that for just the Administrators line? Or, ideally, am I good with what I did there? The instructions said make sure stuff is inherited, and I didn't know how to "make sure" - it wasn't a very specific instruction! Let me know if I need to do something differently or if I'm done.

Should I finish the DCOM process as detailed here? But just click Remove?

I have gone into Services and disabled Bonjour, but I didn't see anything called MdnsResponder. Just Bonjour. Should I uninstall Bonjour?

What exactly should I be doing?


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi Daisy (& jenae)


Actually, I think you should be OK for now. You don't have to do anything more for Bonjour: you already took care of it. ["mdnsresponder.exe" is just another name for Bonjour - Bonjour is the "friendly name" and mdnsresponder.exe is the name of the executable file]. They are two names for the same thing.

If your system is working fine now, hold off on tweaking the permissions for a bit. The Anniversary update for Windows 10 will be rolling out next week, and I imagine it will change enough things all by itself! 

Enjoy the weekend ahead!


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## jenae

Hi, agree with Gary the new build is likely to resolve many issues.


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## 104011

Great! It's been working fine for a few days now, so let's hope the update helps rather than hurts!


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## 104011

Hi all. Remember me?? Sigh, I wish I didn't have to post anymore! 

I updated with the new Windows. Everything works fine most of the time... but Windows Explorer still crashes sometimes. It just did it on me now while I was working on the computer. It's like a slow fade out where some, but not all, of the systray disappears... then the search bar... then another piece... and eventually it all goes black behind the programs that remain open. 

I go to Task Manager and restart Windows Explorer, and it all comes back. 

I've attached Event logs from about 20 mins before the fade-to-black effect started! Looks like a Cortana error (is that related?) but I have Cortana turned off.


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## jenae

Hi Daisi, sorry to hear that this problem continues. You say you have cortana disabled, how did you do this? Could you right click in the taskbar and select "Task manager" under processes does cortana show?


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## OldGrayGary

Hi all

I don't have a Windows 10 computer with me at the moment, so I won't be able to look at your Event Viewer Logs until I'm back at home with my Windows 10 computers tomorrow [the laptop I'm on this evening runs Linux Mint 17.3]....

Like jenae, I'm also interested to hear how you disabled Cortana in the Anniverary Update edition of Windows 10 (.... it changed a bit from earlier "builds" of Windows 10, --- Cortana is now pretty much assuming the role of Windows Search as well as it's speech-recognition tasks). Can I guess that you disabled (or "turned off") Cortana before you had the Anniversary Update arrive? If so, it's possible that to some extent Cortana isn't quite as "off" as before.

I'm hoping to find some clues tomorrow for your Windows Explorer issues. Not much fun when the "Windows" part of Windows disappears [you've a "disappearing Windows" story!]

We'll keep at it ...


----------



## 104011

Hello! I meant that I disabled it by clicking on the search bar at the bottom left, then going to settings, and marking it "off." Perhaps that only turns on some part of Cortana. 

In any case, yes, it was running in my Task Manager even with that setting "off."


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## jenae

Hi, yes it is difficult to kill MS want you to use it, I don't and I have it disabled through gpedit, unfortunately gpedit is not available on your version of windows. Now even after doing that the process was still running under task manager, as you have discovered.

To stop this right click on the process (cortana) and select "open file location" right click on the file and select rename, add .old to the end, now it won't let you do this as the process is still open, leave the rename dialogue box open on the desktop (it will have a try again option, we are going to use this).

Open task manager , move the rename box so both are visible, right click on cortana and select "end task" now as quick as you can hit the "try again" option on the rename box, you must be quick as cortana will reappear as a running process almost immediately... this works and even after updating to Anniversary version I have no cortana.


EDIT:- I forgot to mention I also have the 10016 error in event viewer, task category is "none" and as a result it is benign, causes me no problem.


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## OldGrayGary

Hi again all


Finally had a chance to look at your latest Event Viewer errors, but sorry to say that nothing in there gives a clue to your disappearing desktop. 

The fact that your taskbar and Start Menu disappear makes me wonder if somehow your Sceptre is entering Tablet Mode when you don't want it to. Tablet mode can display the taskbar and Start Menu - or not - depending on its settings. 

I think your Sceptre might have a sensor that attempts to automatically detect when your screen is in certain positions, and when moved past a particular angle, it might try to switch you to Tablet Mode automatically.

You can have a look in your HP User Guide (it might indicate where the sensors are, and how they work). You can also refresh your memory about Tablet Mode with a few articles on it (granted, they were written before the Anniversary Update .. but I'd expect the basics to still apply) ---
How to Enable or Disable Tablet Mode in Windows 10
Tablet Mode - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

I'm curious to hear what you find. I'm guessing that your desktop isn't actually crashing, it is just "transitioning". Had it crashed, I would expect an error showing the crash to show up in your Event Viewer logs.

Quite an adventure, yes?


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## 104011

Hi gentlemen,

Turning off Cortana the way you suggested worked... but then my search function went away (which I use all the time). I can certainly try that for a day or two and see if it prevents the problem. Did you get a sense that the Cortana errors might be the reason for the disappearing desktop? (i.e., is it worth trying to turn off Cortana even though I apparently use it?) 

[Before now, I thought Cortana was just the voice activation person... but I guess it's Windows search in general].

Also, I checked my tablet settings, and they are set to ask my permission before switching into Tablet mode. Even if the laptop was glitchy and trying to switch to tablet mode when it's idle, it should still ask permission. In any case, I turned tablet mode off completely, and we'll see if that does anything.

Of note, my computer completely crashed this morning. The systray and desktop were missing as usual, but all the apps had crashed as well. There were bits and pieces of screens still open, but barely. I hit Ctrl Alt Del, and I tried to restart Windows Explorer as usual, but no luck. It just froze up completely. The error in the Log said it was low on virtual memory. I always have a lot of Chrome windows open. Could I be overworking it, and it's crashing as a result?


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again


Well, goodness! Sorry to hear that the system crashed again. Anything interesting happen just before or after? Going back to a few months ago, it used to crash going into sleep. Can I guess that this wasn't the case this time? Tell you what - send along the latest Event Viewer log ... seems like there ought to be an error of some sort recorded. [The last "Blue Screen" errors you had appeared to be related to your Intel graphics drivers ... but with the new build of Windows 10 - could be something else now, since so much changed].

You didn't have much trouble with overheating before ... does it still seem to be running cool enough now, too?

As far as Search/Cortana are concerned - since the Anniversary update, they are now inseparably linked. I just did a "clean install" of build 1607 (the Anniversary update version of Windows 10), and you can still set Cortana to "off" (just like you did earlier) ... but you'll still see Cortana running in Task Manager. No worries! It now does the job of Windows Search, too. But you have quite a few options you can turn off if you don't want them (they are all available from the Settings menus in the Cortana box). On my clean install, I turned off every optional setting in Cortana - which limits its intrusiveness, but I am still able to use Search (although now this is using the search function of Cortana) in a manner similar to before.

Here's an article about how Search is now integrated into Cortana:
Microsoft makes Cortana unkillable in Windows 10 Anniversary Update -- but you can disable her

If you have a smallish SSD for your hard drive, and if you are running into space issues at all, I must say that a clean install of the latest build can save a fair amount of space. On a clean install of build 1607, with all my repair business documents synced back locally via OneDrive: the entire new up-to-date installation of Windows only took up 16 GB of space. In just one year, the earlier installation easily had well over that in just the WinSxs folder alone (it's a subfolder inside the Windows folder). 

I'm curious to hear how your disk space is holding up, since the Anniversary update arrives as a new version of Windows: your old installation is stored in a "Windows.old" folder (just as it would from a Windows 10 upgrade from Windows 7 or 8.1). That can cause a pretty good space crunch on an SSD (usually the Windows.old folder is going to be about 20 GB or so). 

If you decide against the clean install idea, once you get Windows Anniversary edition to behave, you'll want to run Disk Cleanup, using the Clean System Files option, and placing a checkmark in the option box "Previous Versions of Windows" (or some similar wording) ... this will allow Disk Cleanup to delete the "Windows.old" folder as part of its cleanup.

On the fresh-install build 1607 Win10 laptop tester, I'm giving it a try using just Edge (with the AdBlock extension added) [I've left Chrome uninstalled for now] and Windows Defender [I've left Avast uninstalled for now]. I prefer Chrome & Avast, but I'm testing things with those two out of the picture for now. If you give the clean install a try, you might try things (at first, at least) with just the built-in browser & security.
______________

Your computer has reasonably higher than average specifications: it should be able to handle as much browsing as necessary - with one exception = having over a certain number of tabs & webpages open at the same time. Once past forty or fifty tabs or so, your system is likely going to slow down: your page file will start to get used a lot, because your 4 GB of physical system memory is probably going to be mostly in use by then. Upping your system memory to 8 GB might help ... but you can just check to see if you need it or not by looking in on Task Manager (the Performance tab) - when you have the heavy use happening. If you're over 80 or 90 per cent usage for system memory: things are likely to be slow. 
_______________

You mentioned an out of virtual memory error? I'm hoping to see that one in your Event Viewer log. Strange error, since you used to have a large set Virtual memory range [it used to be 4096-8192]. Did that change?
_______________

Sorry this is so long - I'm rushing around a bit this evening (and my typing tends to speed up and up and up ... ! )

Hang in there.


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## 104011

Great. I turned off all the Cortana "extras."

My space is ok. I have 25 GB of 100 GB free. You're right that 24 GB is the old Windows folder, but I'll wait to delete that for now. 

My virtual memory has not changed to my knowledge. 

We never did resolve the heat issues. I just never checked that fully except one time a long time ago, and the guy did say it was a bit hot. I have to propped up now. It currently reads - according to RealTemp app - around 56 degrees C.

Will post Event Files next.


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## 104011

Here are Event Files. The crash happened sometime before about 10 or 11 AM on 22 August, but could have been hours before or even the day before. I wasn't on my computer at all the afternoon or evening of 21 August.


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## OldGrayGary

Hi again


Hmm... something might have gone wrong with your latest Event Viewer log. It seems to be empty. No huge problem - it's likely due to something simple, like using a cleaning program to save space on your hard drive.

Why don't we keep an eye out for restarts/freezes, and grab an Event Viewer log if one happens. 

Any thoughts about the clean install? I imagine it might be difficult if your schedule is busy, but it might clear away any old manufacturer-supplied utilities that tend not to migrate well from older operating systems to newer (and usually the utilities are redundant/unnecessary).

You've shown a lot of patience with your laptop ... let's see if we can get it to where it doesn't cause you grief.


----------



## OldGrayGary

P.S. .... temps over 60 C to 70 C would be more worrisome ...


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## 104011

Hey there! Ok, I will wait for the next time to happen. Luckily it's not very often.

My issue with the clean install is that we already tried a re-install once! I did that maybe two months ago. We used it to try to fix the graphics issue. We managed to fix the graphics issue in a way that was entirely unrelated to the install, so that install was a waste of time! Then this issue popped up. I don't know if this issue existed all along and was being buried underneath/as part of the restart issue I was having before... or if it's a new problem. I suspect it's been here all along. In sum, the install either didn't fix the problem or created it - neither of which makes me confident in doing another.

Of course, it wasn't an entirely clean install - it was the "keep files" one. There is an off-chance that this problem appeared with the new install, and thus doing another install would make it disappear. I'm just not confident enough to warrant the 20-some hours it too me to do the reinstall. (I know you guys do them much more quickly, but it's a nightmare for a layman to do it - iTunes and Picasa are the worst + I have to research how to do it + my computer came with Win 8 so I'd have to install and update + reinstalling apps and extensions +... I cringe at the thought!) 

I can live with the problem if I have to! You might be able to twist my arm to do a clean install at some point, but let's see what the next set of event files says. It might be a few days. It doesn't happen often... which is good.


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## OldGrayGary

Hi there


Hey, I think we are awake at the same time (for a minute or two, anyway)!

If you are curious about the different "clean installs" ... the difference in the clean install I tend to prefer is that we use a brand-new version of the system files downloaded directly from Microsoft. The other methods simply reinstall older versions that are stored on your hard drive.

I like the "brand new" system files ... one extra benefit is that you don't have to update things as much (if at all) afterwards.

Hope things are going well for you.


----------



## 104011

Hello! Ok, it happened again this morning. It happens about every 2-3 days. This time, my computer was completely dark - one would think it had crashed. No systray, no desktop, no apps seemingly open... nothing. Blackness!

However, when I hit Ctrl + Alt + Del and restarted Windows Explorer, I had to wait a full minute, and then it all popped up. I have open Word docs, and they are open and fine (i.e., not "recovered" - just as if nothing every happened). 

This is definitely a UI crashing issue rather than an operational issue, if that makes sense. On occasion, the crash is bad enough that it really does require a restart... but that is very rare.

I was last on my computer at 3/330 AM. At 1120 AM, I was resetting the explorer.exe. So between then, the problem occurred. I am attaching System Event Files (which had nothing interesting that I could tell) and Application Event Files (which does have some interesting stuff). I realized I've been posting only System files and maybe it's not a system problem.

Let me know if I can provide any other investigative information!


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## OldGrayGary

Hi again


Nothing much in your Event Viewer System & Application logs. You could try the Administrative Events instead (that will list all critical errors and other errors ... from all the other logs as well). The only actual error recorded in your last two logs was a Cortana permissions error.

Oddly enough, it sounds to me like your computer is going in to hibernation. The fact that all your programs were still at the point you left them tells me that the "system state" had been saved, and it was re-loaded when you used the CTRL-ALT-DEL interrupt to restart things.

Since the Anniversary Update may have changed many of your power settings, see what things look like in "Power Options" in the Control Panel, and in the Settings-System-Power options from the Start menu.

Let us know if the laptop screen starts spinning around and chanting demonic mantras ... then we'll know it's time for an Exorcist 

(terrible sense of humor that I have ...)


----------



## 104011

Hey there!

Nothing different in the Admin logs. 

I checked the Power Settings, and they are the same. Hibernation is off. The screen saver works fine when this happens, so it's not a crash of the system - just of the UI. I should also note that Ctrl + Alt + Delete alone does not help. It doesn't bring it out of this state. I have to click Task Manager, which appears on an otherwise black screen, then I restart "Windows Explorer" from the Task Manager screen... and a few seconds later, the screen repopulates with info. 

Everything functions. It's just that all the imagery disappears into an abyss. Perhaps that's why we're not getting any errors - it's a UI issue, not a systems issue.

Does that help at all...??


----------



## OldGrayGary

The worst part of this is that you aren't seeing any errors when the interface crashes (or "blacks out" ... [we would usually expect to see an "explorer.exe" mentioned in an error message]. 

So - either explorer.exe is crashing without any error, or your system is entering a sleep state (or power-saving state) & refusing to "wake up" (which has been an issue on several HP models since Windows 10 came out ... they have troubleshooters on their website, if you want to try those again ... you'd visit the support webpages for your exact model). 

Try checking your power settings one more time as aggressively as you can, and see if anything turns up there.

If nothing looks wrong in the Control Panel/Settings/BIOS-UEFI ... since your system's behavior is rather extraordinary, I tend to lean in favor of a clean install using the latest build downloaded from Microsoft. You'd set the BIOS/UEFI settings to default & start over...

Since this is your production machine, though, I can understand that you might not have time for the clean install. You probably can slog through the current misbehavior as well as possible, and try a clean install when time permits (if another solution doesn't present itself in the meantime).

If we're really lucky, maybe some fussing with power settings will help.


----------



## 104011

Thanks, Gary! I'm pretty certain it's not a sleep issue since the apps are all open and functioning most of the time. The only thing missing is explorer.exe functions (taskbars, desktop, systray, etc). Every now and then, the whole world goes black, but usually it's just whatever is BEHIND my applications. The applications are still open and functioning and fully visible. That suggests to me it's a crashing explorer.exe and not a sleep mode. 

In any case, I'll dig around on the net a little to see if anyone else has a crashing explorer.exe issue without a notfication and how they resolve it. Otherwise, I'll just deal with it. It happens once every 4 days or so, and it might actually crash the computer once a month or less. After all the trouble I've had with this damn laptop and the one before it, that's manageable. 

I love the ultralights, but I have to tell you: I've had a lot of laptops and never had any real trouble... but as soon as I started buying ultralights, I've gotten 2 lemons. They were expensive on their own, and the amount of time/money I've spent on repairs is really extraordinary. I'm half tempted to sell this one and buy new... but then I may as well do the clean install. Sigh. No good answer!


----------



## OldGrayGary

Just to humor an old man ... see what happens if you enable "Wake by USB device" and possibly "Wake by keyboard" in your BIOS/UEFI settings .... (the wording will likely be slightly different)

Then, the next time explorer.exe is vacationing with Mr. SandMan, press the space-bar on the keyboard or wiggle a USB attached mouse. 

This won't have any effect, of course, if sleep isn't involved somehow.

But it will cross another what-if off my list


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## 104011

Ok great! I will try that in 5 days when I'm back from my vacation (Italy!!) SO I'll be in touch within a week or so!


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## OldGrayGary

Vacationing in Italy sounds like a very nice getaway!

Hope you are enjoying every moment.


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## 104011

Hi Gary,

I haven't tried what you asked yet (getting to it!) but I did want you to know that I haven't had the issue lately. I purchased a laptop cooler, and I'm wondering if that's the reason. I have been using my laptop on my lap lately (without the cooler), and it got up to 80 degrees Celsius today. That seems high to me, no? Could that be the reason the graphics go haywire?


----------



## OldGrayGary

Hi again

I think using the laptop cooler is a good idea for your model. If I'm remembering right, there are intake vents on the bottom placed in just about the exact spots where your lap will likely block them. The laptop cooler prevents that from happening, and even adds extra cool air (ultrabooks are so thin, they can overheat more than the bigger, heavier models - because there's so little extra room for air circulation). 

For temperatures, I like the main temperatures to be under 70 degrees Celsius. 80 degrees isn't too horrible if it's only a few brief moments, but not very healthy for any extended period. 

High temperatures can cause all sorts of misbehavior ... graphics issues can happen from overheating, many things can happen. If I remember right, you have integrated Intel graphics, so if your cpu gets hot, you graphics can be afffected since the graphics are integrated in the main chip. It's also possible that the driver situation wasn't very wonderful early on (but I think we fixed that .... no more Blue Screens pointing to the Intel drivers).

Really nice that you have been enjoying things error-free for a while. Let's hope it keeps up!

arrivederci / ciao / buon giorno


----------



## 104011

You are right about the vents. I'll keep using the cooler for a while and keep you posted... if it happens again, I'll try the steps you suggested previously (BIOS, etc) to try to further diagnose... 

Let's hope it's just a heating issue! And yes, it got up to 80 only briefly. It was about 70 on its own and went down to 50 or 60 with the cooler.


----------



## 104011

Hello! In a sign of good news, my computer has not crashed once since I got the cooler. There's always a chance it will crash right after I send this message under Murphy's Law, but up until now, I've had no problems...

Fingers crossed...


----------



## OldGrayGary

Thanks for keeping us updated! 


After the hot summer we had here in Southern California, I'm ready for a portable cooler for Old Gray! (or maybe a BIG fan to push the cool ocean air into the San Fernando Valley from the coast!)


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## 104011

I totally get it about summer! I'm in Beirut now and lived in Abu Dhabi before. In Abu Dhabi, it would be 120 every day for months. Beirut is cooler - around 95 or 100, but there isn't air conditioning everywhere. In fact, the electric grid in the country can't support it, so I can only cool one room at a time even in my nice apartment. If I turn on two AC units at once, it trips the breaker. So let's just say... it has been a particularly warm summer, and I'm basically held hostage in my small office. I don't dare go to the living room, and or I start sweating. Heh.

I'm coming to Cali in December. Thinking of moving there... 

Let's hope this laptop stays nice and cool... unlike us, it sounds like!


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## Panther063

Anyone else find "igfxSDK.exe" odd?
I wouldn't have expected a Software Development Kit for Integrated Graphics.
Maybe #jenae knows something about it's inclusion.


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## jenae

Hi, it is supposed to be part of intel's graphics, I have it on my ten machine, it is reported that a virus could attack it, it should reside in C:\windows\system32, if it is elswhere it could be a problem. Open a cmd as admin and copy paste the two following cmd's (in red to make it easier to see)

wmic PROCESS WHERE "NOT ExecutablePath LIKE '%Windows%'" GET ExecutablePath /Format:List >0 & notepad 0 press enter, please post the notepad outcome here (this is a good way to spot odd executables)

next:-
wmic STARTUP GET Caption, Command, User / Format:list >0 & notepad 0 press enter, please post the notepad oucome here (this shows startups you probably were not aware of)


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## 104011

Hello all! I have the restarting issue again! It must be the Windows update from 11/11 that did it. I have tried to roll it back but it froze, so I cancelled the roll back. Then I reinstalled the graphics driver that we know worked before (as a reminder, after many messages back and forth, the restart issue was related to my graphics card, and once we found a driver that worked, it no longer happened). No luck this time, and I'm getting a different error for the restart. It is a 1001 error that says:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000007e (0xffffffffc0000005, 0xfffff80ff4135dad, 0xffff8b0096c0a738, 0xffff8b0096c09f60). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 2df3e624-a169-4d8e-b125-88816af2ea18.

I'm also getting a bunch of bluetooth notifications in the Event Viewer and a few things about Drive E, although I don't have a drive E. 

Event logs attached.

Help?

Best,
Elana


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## OldGrayGary

Hi again


... sorry for my delay: I've been a little "under the weather".... I'll take a look at things in a couple of days.


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## 104011

No problem. I hope you feel better!

In the meantime, the computer is acting the same way as before with the graphics issues + restarts. Earlier today, I got a BSOD with a Critical Structure Corruption error - don't think that has happened before.

I ran the Memory test, and there were no errors up to about 95%. I looked away for a moment, and the test finished, and my computer restarted. It had said the results would pop up when I logged in, but they did not. I assume it was fine though. I will run it again.

I downloaded the Intel Processor Diagnostic tool and ran it. It passed.

I went into the settings to turn off the automatic updates on drivers, and then I reinstalled the graphics driver again. We'll see if that holds. It means none of my other drivers will auto-update.

I cannot turn off Windows updates apparently.

I'll give it a day or two and let you know if I've fixed it. This computer is a lot of trouble! I know one solution is to do a full reinstall. I'm still avoiding that option 

Thanks again, and take as much time as you need to feel better!


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## jenae

Hi, actually reinstalling is a good move, it will definitely show if the problem occurs afterwards, that the hardware is an issue (most likely an errant video card). And most of us do a fresh install every now and again it improves performance and gives us a clean slate (you should always do a clean install).


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## 104011

Thanks. If you have any other ideas, let me know. 

Reinstalling is not really an option for me right now. I live in Lebanon, and my internet is not only really crappy/slow, but it cuts off several times a day with the rolling power outages. Downloading large files often takes me days with special download software that keeps the file even if the internet cuts out. It's painful. 

On this laptop, I'd have to reinstall Win 8, then download Win 10, then download all my Program Files. It would take days and likely weeks since I'm not an expert. I'd need to borrow/buy a new laptop to keep up on my job in the interim. All this for a mere chance that this will fix the problem that started when I originally upgraded to Win 10. I'm not confident enough to take the risks that I will screw up the reinstall. Wish I were an expert like you all!

If you have any other ideas as to what is happening from the Event Logs, that would be great. If not, I'll continue to manage with my workarounds until I can take the time to reinstall or buy a new laptop. This one has been nothing but trouble.


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## 104011

Hi Gary,

I'm still trying to work out this restarting/graphics crashing issue. I think I've diagnosed that the graphics driver is definitely the issue. Here's why:

(1) When I install the latest graphics driver, I have the restart issue I had originally (which started this post). In fact, this morning, my computer restarted twice already.

(2) Under scenario #1 with the latest graphics driver, I get this error right before it restarts itself: The driver \Driver\WudfRd failed to load for the device HID\VID_048D&PID_8350&Col02\6&2d0402d&0&0001. This suggests the graphics card/driver might be the issue. 

Note: All Event Files for two recent back-to-back crashes attached - they happened with the latest graphics driver.

(3) When I install the exact (old) graphics driver that we used before to fix the restarting problem, it fixes the restart issue... BUT it creates an actual graphics issue where the icons in my systray often turn black/invisible and sometimes the desktop goes black or the edges of my Chrome browser go invisible/black. Basically, it slowly crashes the graphics on my screen. If I restart Windows Explorer through the Task Manager or restart Chrome, it fixes it for a while until it happens again. 

So, in sum, on one driver, I have a restart issue, and on another, I have a graphics issue. 

Any thoughts? Do you guys still think a full reset of Windows would fix the issue if the issue is with one driver? Any other possible solutions?


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## 104011

Hi Jenae and Gary,

I finally took your advice to reset my computer! I carved out a day of time to do it. I spent 4 days downloading the EXE files I would need to reinstall (because Lebanese internet is about 40 kb/sec), etc. I was ready! 

And then, the reinstall failed. I swear... this computer is the worst!

Here's the thread on what happened: http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f338/cannot-reset-pc-error-message-1189665.html#post7417665

Would appreciate any assistance in resetting the PC as you all advised. It's my only computer, so I'm just terrified I'm going to screw something up.

Thank you again for all of your help so far. You two are really awesome.


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