Solved :( message when restarting

When I go to restart, I get a message with sad-face, , and some text that flashes on the screen very quickly but then goes away. Windows reports that it will try and repair, it cycles, then does the same thing over and over.
If I shut down with the power-switch, then power back on, all is OK.
a) Any thoughts on what might be going on? This is a home-build, clean-build, new mobo, cpu, memory, cpu.
b) Is there a way to slow down the message that flashes on the screen so I can see if there is an error code?
c) Is there a chance an error-log is created somewhere that might reveal more clues?
Thank you

Update, 9/22/14, 12:07PM: Just saw the instructions for BSOD. Will run those tools later when I get home, then post results.....

Most likely the sad face message is a BSOD, so we'll need the reports once you get home.
I'll be notified by email when you reply.
FWIW - I usually reply in the early morning (USA/Eastern Time - GMT - 5 hours)

Thank you.
Well, I tried the diagnostic tool, did the "Grab All", all seemed to be going fine. Asked me lots of questions, answered, kept clicking, and finally it stated "success". Except, no SF_DD_MM_YYYY.zip file written to desktop.
I subsequently have been simply trying to read the dump files to extract what error code occured at last BSOD. I have been following along from here:
Debugging Tools for Windows (WinDbg, KD, CDB, NTSD) (Windows Debuggers)

As to the BSOD problem, it only appears when doing a restart. Normal start works fine.
Thank you

If the diagnostic tool doesn't work for you, then try these 3 things. They'll provide the reports that I need to get started.

Working with the Debugging Tools for Windows can get a bit confusing. Here's a link where I try to explain a bit more: WinDbg Analysis Report

1) Upload Dump Files:
NOTE: If using a disk cleaning utility, please stop using it while we are troubleshooting your issues.
Please go to C:\Windows\Minidump and zip up the contents of the folder. Then upload/attach the .zip file with your next post.
Left click on the first minidump file.
Hold down the "Shift" key and left click on the last minidump file.
Right click on the blue highlighted area and select "Send to"
Select "Compressed (zipped) folder" and note where the folder is saved.
Upload that .zip file with your next post.

If you have issues with "Access Denied" errors, try copying the files to your desktop and zipping them up from there. If it still won't let you zip them up, post back for further advice.

If you don't have anything in that folder, please check in C:\Windows for a file named MEMORY.DMP. If you find it, zip it up and upload it to a free file hosting service. Then post the link to it in your topic so that we can download it.

Also, search your entire hard drive for files ending in .dmp, .mdmp, and .hdmp. Zip up any that you find and upload them with your next post.

Then, follow the directions here to set your system for Minidumps (much smaller than the MEMORY.DMP file): Set MiniDumpMore info on dump file options here: Overview of memory dump file options for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2

2) MSINFO32:
Please go to Start and type in "msinfo32.exe" (without the quotes) and press Enter
Save the report as an .nfo file, then zip up the .nfo file and upload/attach the .zip file with your next post.
Also, save a copy as a .txt file and include it also (it's much more difficult to read, but we have greater success in getting the info from it).

If you're having difficulties with the format, please open an elevated (Run as administrator) Command Prompt and type (or copy/paste) "msinfo32 /nfo %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\TEST.NFO" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Then navigate to Desktop to retrieve the TEST.NFO file. If you have difficulties with making this work, please post back. Then zip up the .nfo file and upload/attach the .zip file with your next post.

3) systeminfo:
Please open an elevated (Run as administrator) Command Prompt and type (or copy/paste) "systeminfo.exe >%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\systeminfo.txt" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Then navigate to Desktop to retrieve the syteminfo.txt file. If you have difficulties with making this work, please post back. Then zip up the .txt file and upload/attach the .zip file with your next post.

Click to expand...

Interesting, when I fired up the computer this AM, under the drive where I save my files (not my C, or system drive, where I thought my Desktop was housed ---hmm, I'll have to think obout this later ---) I found the results of the diagnostic tool from yesterday moring. So, instead of doing 1 or 2 or 3 above, I have included it here. Thanks for taking a look.

You have a NETGEAR WG111v2 54Mbps Wireless USB 2.0 Adapter:

I do not recommend using wireless USB network devices. Especially in Win8/8.1 systems.
These wireless USB devices have many issues with Win7 and later - using Vista drivers with them is almost sure to cause a BSOD.
Should you want to keep using these devices, be sure to have Win8/8.1 drivers - DO NOT use Vista drivers!!!
An installable wireless PCI/PCIe card that's plugged into your motherboard is much more robust, reliable, and powerful.

Click to expand...

The WER section of MSINFO32 shows a STOP 0xEF with an IOERR message - it blames your disk hardware.
As such, please run the appropriate disk diagnostic from here (run it on ALL disks): Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure

The dump file looks like it's a hardware error. If the disk diagnostics don't show anything, then start with these: Hardware Diagnostics


Analysis:
The following is for informational purposes only.

3rd Party Drivers:
The following is for information purposes only.
Any drivers in red should be updated or removed from your system. And should have been discussed in the body of my post.
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=Rt630x64.sys
http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=dump_storahci.sys

Good morning,
I have performed the hardware checks, all good. Disks/Memory.
The system is stable for everything I use it for, except for "restart". For now, not a big deal to do "shut down" then "push-button-start" to do a restart if the need arises.
The history of this machine is as follows:
a) Initial-build: 500GB HD, DVD-drive, TP-link Wireless-N PCI-express card. Got it running fine, then wanted to add another 500GB HDD that I have. Opened up, looked for another SATA port, then realized only have 2 on the mobo. (This mobo/CPU was a sale special: $60 for both. Did not look too hard at what was available. >> You get what you pay for). So, I started pursuing options to get the other hard-drive in there.
b) Tried adding a 2-port SATA card. I bought a mini-PCIe, SATA-controller card. This MSI mobo I have has a little mini-PCIe expansion slot on it. When the SATA-controller card arrived, it would not fit. (I had no experience with mini-PCIe hardware: did not realize there are full-size and half-size mini-PCIe cards). So, I found a ribbon-cable extension device. I was able to connect the 1/2-size end to the mobo, and remotely mounted the full-size mini-PCIe sata card, with 2-ports, double-sidded taped to the case inside. Would not work. I guessed that the tape solution was not supplying ground the the remote mini-card. Added a little ground-wire. The card worked! So, then on to getting it to run. The driveres supplied with the card did not include Win 8 (I think, too many combinations to remeber exactly). Anyway, eventually found a ASMediaASM1061, 2.0 SATA 6Gbps Controller, driver (may have been Vista >> acknowledge your post warning, now, for using non-Win-8 drivers). Back to the story. Eventually got the 2-port card to work, it would show up as funtional in device manager, with no SATA-drives plugged into it. When I would plug the HDD, the drive would not show up. I fiddled around with this for many days. Eventually, moved on, when I noticed in my old-parts-computer-box, the little NETGEAR USB-wifi-dongle I had from many years ago. That brought me to today's config.
c) Today: 2 500 GB HDDs, 1 DVD RW drive, USB-wifi. Aside from the restart deal, it all works.

I think I am going to move on from this now. I have learned lots.
i) $60 mobo+cpu, $25 wifi PCI-express card (now sitting in the 'old-computer-parts-box'), $15 for the mini-PCIe-2-port SATA card (now sitting in the 'old-computer-parts-box'), $15 for the mini-PCIe ribbon-cable-extender (now sitting in the 'old-computer-parts-box'). $115, hmm, could buy a pretty nice mobo for that >> big lesson!
ii) I think the mini-PCIe slot on my mobo could be used for a wifi card. If one of my laptops dies, I might harvest that card and use it there in the future. Not sure if the SATA-controller card would ever work there.
iii) This forum, and your support is fantastic. I have learned much more about diagnostics, and will be much better poised for future trouble-shooting if the need arises.

Usasma, I thank you very much. Although I may not have found the EXACT cause of the BSODs during restart, I think it is likely correlated to the wifi-dongle with the non-Windows-8 driver. I greatly appreciate your dilligence, don't know how you do it with so many BSOD issues on the Forum.

Now on to my next project. I have just learned about RoboCopy. I have been looking for a method to write scipts to do backups. Turns out, the feature is basically built in to Windows. Just need to learn how to use it. (if I struggle, is there a place in Eight-Forums to dialog those issues?)

Thanks again, KETBD (Knows Enough To Be Dangerous), aka, Mike

I'm glad that you were able to learn from this. It's rare to know the exact cause of a BSOD, and many people never figure that out.

One reason that I provide so many suggestions in the first post is so that the owner can get the system fixed and running as fast as possible. Often this is at the expense of diagnosing the exact cause.

I'd post over in the General Support forums for further help with Robocopy: General Support - Windows 8 Forums

Good luck!

It's Back! BSOD on restarts

Performed a clean install on a different HDD. Perhaps just a coincidence, but just after installing a GUI tool for RoboCopy (WinRoboCopy by UpWay2Late), I did a restart and the BSOD cycle started all over again.
So, if you could please, take a look at the attached.
I am no longer using the Netgear Wifi dongle, just staight ethernet wired. Memroy check shows good, disk drive health shows good. I unplugged and replugged PSU, memory, etc befroe installing the HDD. Basically started from zero.
Thank you!

In general, if you perform a clean install and still get BSOD's, then it's most likely to be:
- bad installation media
- hardware - this includes the following:

- borked (broken) hardware (several different procedures used to isolate the problem device)
- BIOS issues (check for updates at the motherboard manufacturer's website)
- overclocking/overheating - You'll know if you're overclocking or not. If uncertain we can suggest things to check.
- missing Windows Updates
- compatibility issues (3rd party hardware/drivers), older systems, or even pirated systems
- low-level driver problems
- or even malware (scanned for when we ask for hardware diagnostics from Initial Hardware Diagnostics or Hardware Diagnostics ).

Click to expand...

There's no memory dump in the uploaded reports and no BlueScreen entries in the WER section of MSINFO32
Again, in general, if it's a hardware problem it may crash before a memory dump or a WER record can be created.

You may want to do this (we may be able to imply a BSOD crash by finding the Event ID 41 errors and having nothing else that suggests it) This is basically an extension of the "lack of a pattern" that hardware issues usually have.:
Please do the following:
- open Event Viewer (run eventvwr.msc from the "Run" dialog))
- expand the Custom Views category (left click on the > next to the words "Custom Views")
- right click on Administrative Events
- select "Save all Events in Custom View as..."
- save the file as Admin.evtx
- zip up the file (right click on it, select "Send to", select "Compressed (zipped) folder")
- upload it with your next post (if it's too big, then upload it to a free file-hosting service and post a link here).

FYI - If we're looking for Event ID 41 errors (unexplained shutdowns), there's more info on that here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028504



Other than that, there's nothing unusual to note in the reports that I usually look at.

Thank you,
I am going a different direction (again). I looked very carefully through the event log. I see periodic errors trying to load a driver associated with the 2x SATA PCI-express card I installed. My investigation is leading to the following:
a) No problem when no expansion card present.
b) No problem when the 2 HDDs that I am trying to use are occupying the 2 native SATA ports on the MoBo.
c) When I try 2 different HDDs, separately, for the system-files (C), and the 2x expansion card is present, the problem exists.

So, I went and bought a 1TB HDD. I will forgo the 2x expansion card, use one native SATA port for the HDD and the other native SATA port for the DVD drive. This will give me the disk space I need, allow for a DVD-drive, and leave open the PCI-express slot for a later install of a wi-fi card that I have (no more wifi usb dongle).

That said, a new problem has arisen with Auto Updates. (I am thinking of opening a new thread)
With the clean install of Windows 8.1 (full retail version, the one that comes with 2 disks, a 32bit and 64bit version), it immediately searches and finds 47 updates. Those all load fine. Restart, all good. Then it finds 2 stand alone updates, one of them is big (KB2919355 - 800MB or so). That update fails (now 3 times) with Error 800736CC each time. Search of that, shows me some sort of disk error. Now, this is a brand new disk, so highly unlikely something is wrong with it. Should I open a new thread?

Yes, but do it in the Windows Updates & Activation forum located here: Windows Updates & Activation - Windows 8 Forums
The folks who work there are really expert a fixing update problems

Even with new drives, advisable to run chkdsk /f from elevated command prompt. Let it reboot and run, will take awhile with a big drive and may even appear to be stalled, just let it run.

Update: More detail as to the KB2919355 update failure. On a new install, the "sleep" timer is defaulted to 30 minutes. 2 nights ago, as I was getting this new config running, I left the computer on all night (our practice is the shut all computers down at night) thinking the large update would do its thing while I was sleeping. Well, when I got up, and turned on the monitor, the computer was sleeping. It then proceeded with the update processing, but started over ?! Considering the error code that continued with each failed update (4 iterations) was the same 800736CC (disk fault) I think this was a clue. I also notice by looking at task manager, and hearing it, that the disk drive was doing some work with windows defender and another windows service. I figured to hold off another try of the update until the disk settled down. I reset the sleep timer to "never" and went to work. When I returned 8 hrs later, the disk had just stopped doing what it was doing. Checking the windows update history, it tried to update KB2919355 again (this now the 5th time) and failed. Many of the posts I had been reading stated that after 6 or 7 (even 10) trials at the update, it would finally go through. I was losing patients, and was preparing to do another clean install, but thought, give it one more try. There were no services active, and the disk was not whirring. I tried it. It went through successfully!!
So, that's it for me in this case. Many of the posts I have read show that this update is particularly finicky towards initial conditions (if it starts and does not complete, the remnants of the first trial cause confusion) and stalls mid update could create this condition.
Thank you

Hi KetBD ^_^,

Glad to hear that the issue has been resolved ^_^.

In case of any further problem, please do not hesitate to post back.