[SOLVED] 0xA IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL; Suspect: NIS?

jcgriff2 said:
Did perfmon /report show dirty bit?
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No dirty bit set.


jcgriff2 said:
Good luck, my friend.
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Thanks. I may need it. ;)


usasma said:
Bad HDD can cause the exact symptoms that you describe. It's the OS looking on the hard drive for stuff - and having to re-check repeatedly in order to verify that the data is good. In Task Manager monitor I/O Reads and I/O Other (to enable, select View...Select Columns...and then select both I/O Reads and I/O Other) - you may note excessively high numbers that don't correspond to just one image name.

I didn't see, but did you use the Norton Removal Tool? Older versions of Norton would tend to leave bits and pieces laying around that could cause problems.

Also, when contacting Sony - ask for a set of recovery disks (in order to test to see if the recovery partition was affected by those bad sectors). I've seen Sony send out recovery disks for free in similar circumstances.
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  1. Thanks for the great info!

  2. I/O values seem normal based on what I am seeing between my slower system and my working system.

  3. I did use the Norton Removal Tool. No bits and pieces laying around that would cause problems.

  4. Hadn't thought of the recovery discs possibly being faulty, but I've also had issues with a clean install off an installation disc that I know is fine, so I don't think the recovery discs are causing re-occurring issues. They were created when I first took the system out of the box before performance degraded, so they should be clean.

    I will make sure if I have the system serviced that I ask for a fresh set of recovery discs to be safe.


As promised, the HD Health check through HDTune also shows the 52 bad sectors:

click for full-size image
 
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We've also seen a lot of problems with Sony's, Win7 SP0, and the Advanced Format drives (the one's w/4kb sectors) at work.
I'd say most of them are due to the AF drives - but there's some that I can't blame on anything but the recovery DVD's.

Keep an eye on the reallocated sectors - if it stays steady I'd suspect it was how the hard drive came from the factory (some bad sectors are inevitable). But if the count keeps going up - then you've got a problem on your hands.

As for the I/O Reads -
- if it's a consistent problem it'll be obvious in the Task Manager
- if it's an intermittent problem it'll only be obvious when the system slows down on you
But intermittent hardware problems aren't as likely as software problems.
You may be able to force it by running multiple instances of something that does a lot of reads (maybe the BSOD app using local symbols?)
The HDTune app doesn't see any problems with Reads, so I'd suspect that it was OK because of that.

I think you can use the Resource Monitor also, but don't have much experience with it.

I've also seen issues like this solved by disabling 3rd party shell extensions in explorer.exe. Have you tried that? You can use this free tool: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html (if it happens again).

Good luck!
 
Confirmed: Bad Hard Drive was at fault.

I replaced my 500 GB with a 250 GB. The 250 GB is also Advanced Format, and it runs flawlessly. I will be contacting Sony later today to see if they are willing to exchange just the drive for me and not have me send in the whole system.

Both drives are 7200 RPM, btw.
 
Alright, I am now 100% sure the problem is solved. I wanted to run a bit more with the spare hard drive to make absolutely sure it was not just a fluke the first couple boots. All looks great!

I've been running two days with mthe 250 GB drive. I miss the 500 GB space for dual booting, but I'm making do. The system is running better than it has in months with the spare drive. I'm looking forward to my service call to get the drive swapped with more space. I'll be doing a low level format on the original drive tonight and a factory recovery tomorrow night so they can swap out the drive with all as it was out of the box.


Thanks to both Johns for the help tracking down the problem with the drive. Thanks to Stephen for help with the Norton issue and the link to that thread.

Strange that the drive passed all diagnostics, but it is good to have a few more diagnostic tools to use for future reference.
 
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Sadly, the problems are back... Attached are the reports.

The new hard drive helped for about five days, and then the system reverted back to hanging when clicking on icons, links, files, folders, etc. as of yesterday. I did a factory recovery today using the new discs provided by Sony last Tuesday. Problems still remain intermittently. IE9 is back to being sluggish and annoyingly hangs when scrolling down a page half the time.

Let me know if you find anything telling within the reports (besides Norton ;) ). If there are other reports that may be helpful, I'd be glad to add them.
 

Attachments

Are you sure that you have all Windows Updates? Systeminfo shows 105 updates - most systems have 130 to 140.

I see multiple c0000005 errors in the Applications logfile - and they may correlate with the unexpected stopping of multiple services in the System logfile (but I didn't go back and forth to confirm this). And this is only 1 day's worth of errors!

On a fresh install of Windows this number of access errors shouldn't be happening.
It's either (IMO):
- a rogue program that's changed the permissions on your registry/file system
- a bad install of Windows
- a hardware problem.

Have you run a memory test? If not, here's a link: http://www.carrona.org/memdiag.html
 
usasma said:
Are you sure that you have all Windows Updates? Systeminfo shows 105 updates - most systems have 130 to 140.
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All updates are installed. I know it's a low number, but Windows Updates does say no updates are available when I check for updates. I also have a very minimal install on the system.


usasma said:
I see multiple c0000005 errors in the Applications logfile - and they may correlate with the unexpected stopping of multiple services in the System logfile (but I didn't go back and forth to confirm this). And this is only 1 day's worth of errors!

On a fresh install of Windows this number of access errors shouldn't be happening.
Click to expand...

I had noticed the 0xc0000005 errors, but I hadn't had a chance to look into it further. I have a backup copy of my system before the re-install. I am going to check the backup for those errors to see if they existed prior to the re-install to see if the installation is bad.

Some of the same 0xc0000005 errors occurred in the backup logs, but nothing since Sep. 30th with the following being most common:

Code: 
C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\VAIO Control Center\VESMgrSub.exe
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\DllHost.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\LMS\LMS.exe

Those are really the only ones I'm seeing in both instances. Odd that they only occurred on my system two weeks ago initially.


usasma said:
It's either (IMO):
- a rogue program that's changed the permissions on your registry/file system
- a bad install of Windows
- a hardware problem.
Click to expand...

I'm leaning toward your third opinion given that this was a fresh install; I believe it is either the motherboard or cpu. I've tried three different sets of installation media with the same results. The drive has been wiped and the drive has been replaced, so that should nearly rule out the possibility of a virus.

Also, sfc /scannow comes up clean. That doesn't verify the registry, but it means a bad install is a little less likely.


usasma said:
Have you run a memory test? If not, here's a link: http://www.carrona.org/memdiag.html
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I've run 8 passes with Memtest86+ on this set of RAM. I also swapped this RAM with the original, factory shipped RAM to test. Same problems persist. I am still going to go ahead and run Memtest86+ overnight to make absolutely sure.



Any diagnostics you would recommend in addition to Memtest86+?
 
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Additional diag's here: http://www.carrona.org/addldiag.html

Let's run Prime95 for 24 hours - it'll stress RAM, CPU cache and the memory controller
It'll make the system slow way, way down - but it should still be useable.
If you have the time, run all 3 standard tests (Blend, Large FFT's and Small FFT's) - Run the Blend test first

Run the CPU stress tests also (links in the above diag's)

Can't hurt to run the video diag's either. They'll test the video memory - which may be another possible source of the access errors.
 
Prime95 Results:

  1. Blend (tests some of everything, lots of RAM tested):

    Torture Test completed 325 tests in 8 hours, 44 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.​

  2. In-place large FFTs (maximum heat, power consumption, some RAM tested):

    Torture Test completed 313 tests in 8 hours, 2 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.​

  3. Small FFTs (maximum FPU stress, data fits in L2 cache, RAM not tested much)

    Torture Test completed 315 tests in 8 hours, 30 minutes - 0 errors, 0 warnings.​


I am going to do a full format and clean install of Windows with my retail disc to take Norton and Sony software out of the picture. Then I'll do the other hardware diagnostics if the problem still remains.
 
So it's not RAM, CPU cache or the memory controller
Keep an eye out for access errors (c0000005) in the fresh install

Remember that you'll need some Sony software in order to keep Device Manager from showing errors.
I'm particularly concerned about the Sony Firmware Extension Parser (SFEP.sys) dating from 2007 - it used to be a huge BSOD cause.
 
No worries, John. I know I'll have to install Sony drivers. I just want to avoid the software as much as possible.

As to the SFEP.sys issue: I solved a problem with it on my previous Sony VAIO VPCCW17FX - BSOD on my Sony VAIO.


I miss that computer. :( Once I took care of the SFEP.sys issue, I never had any problems with it beyond a broken touchpad key and some dust buildup that once cleaned out allowed the system to perform better than this one ever has.
 
I am providing the latest files for debugging purproses. This is after the full format and clean install. A few things to note:

  1. There are errors in the Event Viewer logs pertaining to Microsoft Security Essentials being unable to obtain updates. This was due to the network drivers not being installed and not anything malicious blocking MSE from getting the updates.

  2. Errors with Event ID 10 and 4107 are pretty common, and they have a Fix It. 4107 seems to be gone. I hopefully fixed Event ID 10 shortly before this post.

  3. The re-occurring 0x80070643 error showed up in Windows Update as a 643 error when a security update for Visual C++ Redistributable SP1 could not be installed. I resolved this with Error codes “0x80070643” or “0x643” occur when you install the .NET Framework updates. Only Method 1 applies to both .NET Framework and Visual C++ to Fix MSI software update registration corruption issues.

    I do think this is related to the problems I am experiencing. I seem to be running into a lot of corruption and memory access issues.​

  4. 0xc0000005 is back, and mostly seems to be due to VAIO Control Center for allowing me to use Sony's power schemes. Unfortunately, VAIO Control Center is necessary for my system since it has some specially designed hardware for the VAIO that needs to be managed through the Control Center, i.e. backlit keyboard, dynamic CPU management, and screen brightness management. There is also a ISB Utility for the battery management for my Sony.

    I had a couple 0xc0000005 related to the Intel Storage Management services and DllHost.exe, which are worrisome. The 0xc0000005 error with TeamViewer is the first I've seen of its kind with that program, as well. This is looking really bad to me.

sfc /scannow comes back with no integrity violations. Memory checks out. I'll continue hardware diagnostics and test RAM in each slot individually to see if I notice any performance increase. I'm starting with HDTune now. The health check comes back 100% clean with no re-allocated sectors. Running Error Check now. Pretty sure the drive is clean this time, but one never knows...
 

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