Hughesnet Community

Windows 10 "Bugcheck" restarts related to latest version of Usage Meter software?

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
steveandkris
Sophomore

Windows 10 "Bugcheck" restarts related to latest version of Usage Meter software?

I upgraded to Gen 5 several weeks ago and installed the latest version of Usage Meter at the same time.  The next day I noticed my Win 10 PC had restarted on its own unrelated to the installation of an update.  My PC is pretty stable so this was very unusual.  I checked the system Event Viewer and got the typical useless error info indicating it was a "bugcheck" restart caused by a driver or app attempting to write to a privileged memory area.  Hmm.

 

I wouldn't normally worry about a one-off event like this but a couple of days later my PC was restarting once, sometimes twice a day for no apparent reason.  I used the excellent "whocrashed" app with the hope of pinpointing the driver or drivers that might be causing the problem. Unfortunately, it couldn't identify a specific driver or app, but it did list a history of the dates of the crashes which reminded me that only change I had made to my system before or since the problem started was the installation of the new Usage Meter.

 

With that information, I decided to uninstall the Usage Meter as a first step toward identifying the problem.  That was seven days ago and I am happy to report the random restarts stopped immediately and have not returned.  

 

Obviously, each PC is going to be different based the specific hardware and software drivers installed, so this issue could be unique to my system.  That said, I am wondering if anyone else has noticed any unscheduled restarts or crashes in their systems that might be related to the installation of the latest versionof the Usage Meter?  I have been thinking about reinstalling the Usage Meter to confirm it as the cause of the problem but I don't like the idea of destabilizing my PC; and I have been happy using the iOS Usage Meter app on my phone.

 

Thanks!

7 REPLIES 7
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor

steveandkris,

Do you happen to remember the version you had installed?  For the most part, the Usage meter is using HTML/CSS and displaying that, so it causing a crash would be unlikely, but still possible.  Do you still have the minidump files that would typically be created during a bugcheck?

Unfortunately I don't remember the specific Usage Meter version (whatever was current mid-May), but I do still have the last couple of minidump files. Happy to share them if you think they would be useful.

You bet.  I sent you the links by PM.

 

Thanks!

Special Pool Detected Memory Corruption: 0x0c1, 648d4fe0, 648d4379, 00390020, 00000032

This is caused by a system level driver typically, or memory corruption, as far as I know, the Usage Meter doesn't install any form of a driver onto a machine.


System Service Exception: 0x03b, c0000005, c76373fb, 89d0cdf0, 0~

This is typically caused again, by a driver messing up, or memory corruption.

The key however, from what I see, is that the failing file is ntoskrnl.exe, which in most cases points to either bad RAM, or a corrupted HDD...  I suggest running a memory test on your machine, and probably a disc check to make sure your pagefile isn't residing where a bad sector might be.  You might want to also ensure that ALL your system drivers are fully up to date, as is your operating system.

Thanks for taking a look at the files - by the way, what did you use to open the files?  I tried WinDbg but kept getting an access denied error.

 

For what it's worth, "WhoCrashed" software suggested similar remedies.  Windows tools (memory diagnostic tool; chkdsk; and the error checking tool in the drive properties dialogue box) didn't find any errors.  As for drivers, whew, I always try to keep them up to date but that's a never-ending challenge.  The OS is always up to date; interestingly, windows installed a cumulative update (KB4016871) on June 9 which is the same day I uninstalled the Usage Meter so who knows...

 

At any rate, the problem seems to have been resolved, at least for now, so I will keep my fingers crossed.

 

Thanks a ton for your help!

 

I use a mix of things, BlueScreenViewer, and then I also use WinDBG from the WSDK (Windows Software Dev Kit) instead of the WinDBG that comes with a computer.