(Solved) BSOD when trying to boot into safe mode from Windows AIO repair

[whiggs]

Hello All,
I'm not sure why, but ever since the recent update from 3.6.1 to 3.6.2, more often than not, whenever I attempt to boot into safe mode using the button in Windows AIO repair, either during the restart or during the boot, I get BSOD, "page_fault_in_non_paged_area".  No matter what I do, from startup repair to system restore corrects the issue and I am force to reinstall my operating system.  It only happens when using Windows AIO repair.  For example, if I use Ultimate Virus Killer (UVK) to reboot into safe mode, not issue.  Is anybody else having this issue?  My system has Windows 10 pro x64 using GPT partition format.  HELP

[whiggs]

Just tried accessing safe mode from Advanced startup options, and I got another bluescreen, but the returned error this time was "Bad_Pool_Header"

[whiggs]

New update.  I have been able to at least get back into my operating system by running a bunch of bootrec commands from the command prompt in the recovery tools, but still back to square one on why booting into safe mode does this...

[Boggin]

That is quite a serious error and you may have to use the Recovery options to reset.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-10/windows-10-recovery-options

Have you installed any recent Windows Updates or anything else ?

If you have any restore points prior to the BSOD then they can resolve.

As it only occurs when trying to access Safe Mode then you can rule out the usual drivers such as video and audio.

Not sure if Event Viewer would have anything better than the useless Event ID 41 which just reports the unexpected shutdown, but if you have the system set to minidumps then you can use BlueScreenView to see what is causing the BSOD.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

WhoCrashed is another 3rd party program that will do the same.

http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

[whiggs]

So just to make sure everyone understands what is going on, the computer works fine.  Attempting to boot into safe mode in any way, shape or form is what causes the blue screens to occur, which can then be resolved by using bootrec /fixmbr  and bootrec /fixboot.  Something is very wrong with my safe mode.  I'm thinking it might be the how I set up my computer.  I used a winpe image and script (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825089.aspx) to create the disk partitions, copy the winre.wim file (windows recovery tools) to the first "windows recovery tool partition", and used the "reagentc" command (also detailed in above link) to set the recovery image stored on first gpt disk partition as the official place to retrieve the tools from.  I just don't know....

[Boggin]

I'll ask Shane to have a look at this for you but he has a full day with his day job customers.

[whiggs]

Thank you sir.  Just one more update.  It wasn't the bootrec commands that actually got the computer working again.  I had to re-copy the boot files to the operating system (bcdboot C:\Windows).  This is what allowed me to boot into windows.  Thanks

[Boggin]

Thanks for the additional details and email sent.

Tom.

[whiggs]

Ok, after some more troubleshooting, I am 95% sure the error is being caused by some software I am installing: I can boot into safe mode from a clean install, but once I start hardcore installing software, I encounter error.  In my research concerning this issue, since the error i am mostly getting is "page_Fault_in_nonpaged_area", I started there, to which I found a posting stating that the error can be caused by software "which stores data in nonpaged area."  Can somebody explain to me what kind of software would behave this way as well as some more information as to exactly what a "page" is?  Any tips you might have to quickly and efficiently find problem software would be appreciated to.  I'm almost 100% sure it is not hardware because computer is less than 6 months old and i performed extensive RAM and HD tests in UEFI pre-boot environment.  Any advice is appreciated.

[Boggin]

You'll know which software it is if you check Safe Mode after installing each bit of software.

This could also have been the cause of the Bad_Pool_Header error.

[whiggs]

Not quite the answer I was looking for.  I was hoping there was some kind of shortcut I wasn't aware of.  All of the software I use or have even been remotely interested in I obtain the installation medium and store it on a file server.  While I don't use nearly all of it (not even half), that network share has 170 GB of data.  Would much rather not have to reboot to safe mode after every install.  Alas, it seems I don't have a choice.  But thats the nature of the beast with Windows I suppose. 

[Boggin]

I was under the impression you had recently done a clean install and were just in the process of installing programs.

It's a puzzler why any installed programs should cause a BSOD when attempting to boot into Safe Mode, as none of them would be loaded even if they were in the Startup menu or Services of msconfig.

I suppose you could check to see if the BSOD still occurs in a clean boot with the programs you do have installed.

https://windowsinstructed.com/clean-boot-windows-windows/

[Shane]

My program simply calls the bcdedit comma to tell windows do boot into safe mode, same way msconfig.exe does it. it doesnt do anything else or change anything.

So if it is crashing in safe mode then that means something that is needed to run properly isnt allowed to run in safe mode OR something not meant to run in safe mode is. Such as I have a user whos antivirus driver tries to load in safe mode and it causes the blue screen. This is a bug with the Av.

But since some things are restrict from running in safe mode, if a driver tried to access something it couldnt then you get the crash.

Have you tried the whocrashed program to see if it can tell you which file is causing it? That would let you know which program is at fault.

Shane

[whiggs]

Solved.  Was running SecureAplus antivirus.  Awesome antivirus since it is the only one I can find that will actually ASK the user if it is ok to delete something before doing so, but it is not compatible with windows 10 yet.

[Boggin]

Good to see you have found the program responsible.

Was that through the laborious install check method ?

[whiggs]

Good to see you have found the program responsible.

Was that through the laborious install check method ?

Actually no.  The program is a cloud-based antivirus solution and compares the files it scans on your computer to the hashes stored in virustotal.com's database.  Not only that, it doesn't just delete any old file it marks as a virus, but actually ASKS the user and does not prevent access to the file after it has been whitelisted.  According to the information on the programs site, the security software can be installed in 2 different ways: one without offline Antivirus or with offline antivirus.  Since the offline version is coupled with Clam win as its offline virus protection (an AV I'm not fond of by any stretch of the imagination), I installed the version without offline antivirus.  The documentation on secureAplus further states that when installed without offline AV, that it can be used alongside almost any other antivirus solution as a "second line of defense".  So I installed avast.  When I did, I noticed that windows explorer started crashing on me.  Suspicious at this point, I uninstalled secureAplus, and Eureka.  No more crashes or blue screens.  Also, they advertise on their webpage that they are currently gathering testers for the beta of the Windows 10 compatible version.  But am I glad I finally found the cause!  I like windows 10, but it seems to be one-sided, because it has smacked me around quite a bit.

[Boggin]

Shane doesn't like Avast because he has experienced problems with that, but it remains a popular free AV program supported with Windows Firewall.

Win 10 is still a work in progress and 3rd party vendors are still playing catch up, although Symantec were pretty quick in updating Norton 360 which I use, to be compatible with Win 10.

I've heard that the Threshold2 update has been causing problems for Chrome users, so that will be a headache for some.