Occasional BSOD while shut down (Windows 10)

[itsakjt]

Hi everyone,

I am having a little but concerning problem. Occasionally while shutting down the system after some time of use, I get a BSOD. The error is REFERENCE_BY_POINTER. The BSOD happens after I press shut down from the start menu and it goes to the "Shutting down" screen with the revolving dots. Nothing has been overclocked. The problem has happened 4 times in the last 15 days. Most of the time, shut down happens normally. The system is otherwise stable in everything (5 hrs gaming, running continuously for days, work, movies, music etc).
The only issue that happened related to the BSOD is that last month, the screen froze for a few seconds while I was browsing the web, monitor went to standby and then came back with the message "Display driver stopped responding and successfully recovered". This happened twice on September and both the times it happened, the BSOD was thrown while system was shutting down on that session in which the display driver issue happened. I am not sure about the other two times.
I have always disabled fast startup. System is physically clean, temperatures are all normal and so are the voltages. System specs as on profile.
Any help is appreciated.

 

[Kursah]

What have you done to diagnose the system?

I would start with confirming system integrity and testing system RAM.

Check my OS Repair thread (link in sig) for instructions on how to check OS integrity using SFC and DISM commands to ensure the system image is not corrupted, which can happen from a variety of reasons.

I would probably test RAM first, because if you have a stick of RAM going south or an MCH causing issues, then that could very well lead to data corruption on the storage device. I also have some information on this in the same OS Repair thread under the System Stability spoiler in the OP.

Start with those and report back.

Also you might use a utility like Bluescreenview to review the actual BSOD errors, codes, etc. Might have a little more information to share here along with scouring the web with that information for improved help.

 

[jboydgolfer]

I've had several shut down errors and if I recall correctly they were almost always tied to the taskbar option (either having it locked or unlocked). I remember when I was having the issue disabling "locked taskbar" would actually cause the screen to flash, and then there would be no more crashes it was really odd, but I thought they patched that issue

But you'll need to read the dump file to figure out the cause for certain.

 

[itsakjt]

What have you done to diagnose the system?

I would start with confirming system integrity and testing system RAM.

Check my OS Repair thread (link in sig) for instructions on how to check OS integrity using SFC and DISM commands to ensure the system image is not corrupted, which can happen from a variety of reasons.

I would probably test RAM first, because if you have a stick of RAM going south or an MCH causing issues, then that could very well lead to data corruption on the storage device. I also have some information on this in the same OS Repair thread under the System Stability spoiler in the OP.

Start with those and report back.

Also you might use a utility like Bluescreenview to review the actual BSOD errors, codes, etc. Might have a little more information to share here along with scouring the web with that information for improved help.

Hi Kursah, thanks for the response. So far, I have checked RAM using Memtest, IntelBurnTest (8 loops using 16 GB memory) and AIDA 64 memory test under stabilty test.
I have run disk checking on all the SSDs and the hard drives and have run SFC with no errors found on either of them. My suspicion is on the GPU since that is the primary thing related to the display driver stopped responding thing. Or AMD driver issue?

 

[Kursah]

Could be, have you performed a clean driver installation?

Does the GPU crash under gaming or stress testing?

Have you ever re-seated the cooler with fresh TIM?

I prefer to use a game like Ashes of the Singularity as that pushes my GPU harder than damn near anything else on the market that I play. I also like to use OCCT, it's CPU tests, GPU tests and PSU test (combines CPU and GPU tests). 3DMark would be a good option, or even Unigine testing.

Please do list everything you've already done in the OP if you would, we can skip ahead to other things you haven't tried in that case, or ask for results if there's any suspicions or other things to check.

 

[OneMoar]

sounds like some app or device not unloading cleanly
@Kursah he said DURNING SHUT DOWN AND ONLY DURING SHUTDOWN
none of your suggestions are relevant if thats true

open blue screen view and look at the top 5 or 10 entries that should give you a idea on what device is mis-behaving

 

[itsakjt]

sounds like some app or device not unloading cleanly
@Kursah he said DURNING SHUT DOWN AND ONLY DURING SHUTDOWN
none of your suggestions are relevant if thats true

open blue screen view and look at the top 5 or 10 entries that should give you a idea on what device is mis-behaving

Absolutely correct. The system is otherwise rock stable in everything. Gaming, benchmarks, stress tests etc. It is only during shut down that it occasionally happens.
@OneMoar - I will check blue screen view today after coming from work and report back.

 

[itsakjt]

Hi everyone, sorry for being late. Was busy with too much work. So I analyzed the error logs but could not find anything. On an other note, there's a new issue. The screen would freeze for sometime and then monitor would go to sleep. After a few seconds, it would come back with the notification "Default Radeon WattMan settings have been restored" Note that the GPU is not overclocked. This also happened a few times during shut down where it would stay at the "Shutting down" screen and then freeze there and stay like that until I press the reset button. After that, it boots fine and I get the "Default Radeon WattMan settings have been restored" message once I get to the desktop.
I believe it all points out to the GPU. Any suggestions from you all?

 

[eidairaman1]

Use this to make windows produce the 0x code (if still applies)

https://winaero.com/blog/show-bsod-details-instead-of-the-sad-smiley-in-windows-10/

use this to stop automatic restarts

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/69012-enable-disable-bsod-automatic-restart-windows-10-a.html

get the codes