August | 2014 | Thomas' Work Space

Another possible cause for WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR: Overheating?

2014/08/15 plagwitz Leave a comment

Problem:
1. Win8.1. System experiences terrible slow downs.
2. Eventually even BSODs with whea_uncorrectable_errors crop up.
Root Cause:
1. Trying to do root cause analysis, I consider:
  1. Search for “Windows woes after 8.1 upgrade” (online searches lead to results, but seem not applicable here).
  2. Internet (speed test shows normal):
  3. Virus: I have Window Essentials, but also try Malwarebytes – prognosis negative.
  4. GPU (Bitcoin miner?), CPU. GPU-Z shows no problem there :
  5. CPUID HWMonitor to the rescue: GPU utilization looks good here also, but what is this with the CPU temperatures?!?!
2. On opening up the case and examining the CPU: poorly managed cable blocked the fan heat sink.
Solution: Cable ties! (This new video card install proved more expensive than it should).
Other thoughts:
1. Why did Windows Performance Metering show the apparently throttled CPU still as mostly idle (It still showed single digit percentages for CPU utilization even when computer was positively crawling)?

2014/08/05 plagwitz Leave a comment

Rather annoying, no getting out of this loop, endless window foreground switching, but also unclear about the screen resolution, it seems. Ha
Oh, wait, I changed the dpi scaling, but chose to not log off, has that got something to do with this? Well, I have seen this loop behavior before, and I also frequent get terrible slowdowns which I have not been able to do root cause analysis for (also video-related? or network? )
Either way, likely related frequent explorer crashes which downgrade from aero. Sometimes I lose Aero’s advanced task scheduler completely, here I have a screenshot of it just coming back:
Have not been able to find other similar problem / but reports – something wrong with my setup then? (never mind that my camera has its own infinite loop auto focus bug.