I'm finally convinced...

Started by Jarhead0331, March 10, 2018, 08:56:52 PM

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Jarhead0331

I've made "some" progress. As it turns out, I was successful in bringing the WRkrn.sys file over to the system through Ubuntu. I had renamed the file as some places on the web had suggested. However, by restoring it to its original name, I am now able to get past the blue screen. I can load the Bios menu, but it still doesn't want to boot normally and its obvious that something is still severely nerfed. I think at this point I'm really going to make an effort to let it rest until a professional can look at it. I'm at least a little more confident that some of the data can be saved by someone who knows what they are doing.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Jarhead0331

#31
I brought both of my ailing rigs into a local professional. My main gaming rig was unsalvageable. Had to wipe the C: drive and reload windows. It's up and running now. I'm hesitant to declare it totally cured since it's performance is still a little suspect, but it could be loading drivers and stuff still. I will say that steam is an extraordinary piece of software. I had steam installed on the C: with my library installed on my E: drive. Was certain I'd have to reinstall everything. Well, reinstalled steam on the C: drive, directed it to my library and it detected everything. I hope I don't need to install all of my non steam stuff though...we'll see.

I left the other rig with the guy overnight. We'll see what he can accomplish.

Although I was able to recover the main system, I'm left feeling uncomfortable over not knowing what caused the corruption. I hope it doesn't happen again.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Jarhead0331

The main rig is still running, but I'm still having some issues with it. Some routine activities take much longer than they should and the SSD just seems to be working overtime. I also have periodic lock-ups that cause a hard reboot. I'm thinking I'm just going to swap the drive, even though I've already gone through the hassle of reinstalling much of what I lost from the drive wipe.

The back-up rig is also up and running, but the issue on that system was definitely a failure of the SATA drive. I had to replace it with a new one and I added an SSD for the boot drive. I haven't picked it up yet, but the tech says its running very fast.

So, I've been through a lot with these rigs over the last few weeks but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm glad I have this local tech on speed dial now. Now when i have a catastrophic failure, I will call him before buying a new system.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Huw the Poo


Greybriar

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on March 15, 2018, 08:38:16 AM
The main rig is still running, but I'm still having some issues with it. Some routine activities take much longer than they should and the SSD just seems to be working overtime. I also have periodic lock-ups that cause a hard reboot. I'm thinking I'm just going to swap the drive, even though I've already gone through the hassle of reinstalling much of what I lost from the drive wipe....

I have a couple of thoughts. First of all, if your C: drive on your main rig wasn't reformatted before the operating system was reinstalled, there might have been something nasty left on it. Also if the drive wasn't reformatted, I am wondering if the DRM from one or more of the games you installed might be the culprit(s); either alone or in conjunction with your Anti-virus software. Some DRM isn't removed even if the game that required it has been uninstalled. :-\

Regardless of how good a PC game may be it will always have its detractors and no matter how bad a PC game may be it will always have its fans.

Jarhead0331

Interesting....I would think it was reformatted because it wiped everything on the C:, not just the windows install. I'll ask the tech.

In searching google, it's not an unheard of issue with windows.

Also, steam is sometimes working peculiarly...downloads such as game updates will cause significant activity and large quantities of data appear to be downloading without there being any indication that it is related to a game.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


Jarhead0331

#36
FINALLY have my main machine repaired. Although we initially did a wipe of the C: and reinstalled windows, it was clear early on that this did not solve the problem. In looking deeper, there were many bad blocks on the drive, so it was obvious that the SSD was simply dying. I had to replace it. Now, the machine is running like new. I'm very happy, but its going to take awhile to get everything loaded and installed the way I like. Although the data drive I use is still good, most of the registries were on the c: so much of what I had installed no longer functions.

With respect to the other machine that had crashed, that one is now up and running like new too. I picked up a KVM switch so I can run it and the replacement rig I had purchased together off of the same monitor, keyboard and mouse. Its a pretty sick set up now. I've got three pretty powerful rigs up and running. 
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


bbmike

How old was the SSD? I know that they are limited by the number of read/write cycles. I really do need to make backups of all my drives.
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Jarhead0331

Quote from: bbmike on March 19, 2018, 11:11:13 AM
How old was the SSD? I know that they are limited by the number of read/write cycles. I really do need to make backups of all my drives.

it wasn't that old. I'm a little surprised it died so quickly. Perhaps 2-1/2 to 3 years old, at most. The annoying thing is that SSD scanning tools indicated it was a healthy drive. Clearly, it was not.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


JasonPratt

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on March 16, 2018, 06:18:23 AM
Also, steam is sometimes working peculiarly...downloads such as game updates will cause significant activity and large quantities of data appear to be downloading without there being any indication that it is related to a game.

I've seen that recently myself on my rig, although mousing over the Steam icon on the system tray reveals that it's updating, say, ARK for example. But it doesn't list on the download screen per se -- it shows activity across the top tracker, but not why the activity.

This suggests something has gone wrong in the Steam coding. I don't recall seeing an update for the Steam program itself recently before this started happening, tho.
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Huw the Poo

Sometimes disk activity continues for a while after Steam finished downloading something.  I believe it's normal - probably unpacking files or something.  It happens on Linux too.

JasonPratt

Quote from: Jarhead0331 on March 19, 2018, 11:21:56 AM
Quote from: bbmike on March 19, 2018, 11:11:13 AM
How old was the SSD? I know that they are limited by the number of read/write cycles. I really do need to make backups of all my drives.

it wasn't that old. I'm a little surprised it died so quickly. Perhaps 2-1/2 to 3 years old, at most. The annoying thing is that SSD scanning tools indicated it was a healthy drive. Clearly, it was not.


Has your system (Win10) been auto-defragging the SSD? Or have you been doing that manually on a regular basis?

That will quickly generate bad sectors on an SSD. I defrag mine once a year on general principle (since things do get scattered around on it naturally, and I can't bring myself to trust that the system architecture will safely access the data at the same efficiency when it's so scattered), but I'm leery about doing even that.

This is also why for my main game/data storage I use a proper disc HD: I can dang well defrag it every month or so and not worry. On a very high octane game or two I'll install it on my SSD with the expectation I'll delete it relatively soon -- I've got KC:Deliverance on it now, and I think something else.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#42
Quote from: Huw the Poo on March 19, 2018, 11:34:40 AM
Sometimes disk activity continues for a while after Steam finished downloading something.  I believe it's normal - probably unpacking files or something.  It happens on Linux too.

True, but when it's unpacking or pre-allocating, the Steam dl list says what it's doing, and (to some extent) what it has done (i.e. it lists that it's unpacking "X" which implies it has finished downloading "X").

This new activity I'm talking about doesn't show up as listed on the Steam dl window at all. The activity tracker across the top will show it, but it won't list what it's doing. I only know it's downloading an update for a game because of the mouseover on the systemtray icon. (...or, heck, that's what it says it's doing, which might be a lie. So I don't know for sure.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Jarhead0331

Quote from: JasonPratt on March 19, 2018, 11:36:14 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on March 19, 2018, 11:21:56 AM
Quote from: bbmike on March 19, 2018, 11:11:13 AM
How old was the SSD? I know that they are limited by the number of read/write cycles. I really do need to make backups of all my drives.

it wasn't that old. I'm a little surprised it died so quickly. Perhaps 2-1/2 to 3 years old, at most. The annoying thing is that SSD scanning tools indicated it was a healthy drive. Clearly, it was not.


Has your system (Win10) been auto-defragging the SSD? Or have you been doing that manually on a regular basis?

That will quickly generate bad sectors on an SSD. I defrag mine once a year on general principle (since things do get scattered around on it naturally, and I can't bring myself to trust that the system architecture will safely access the data at the same efficiency when it's so scattered), but I'm leery about doing even that.

This is also why for my main game/data storage I use a proper disc HD: I can dang well defrag it every month or so and not worry. On a very high octane game or two I'll install it on my SSD with the expectation I'll delete it relatively soon -- I've got KC:Deliverance on it now, and I think something else.

Interesting post. I'm glad you mentioned something because I believe my system is set to auto defrag and it does do it fairly regularly. I will remedy this immediately.
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


mirth

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