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Applications / Antiviruses Constantly Crashing for Some Reason (Windows 10)

ElectroTheDevolian
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ElectroTheDevolian

ElectroTheDevolian

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Ok, so to keep a long story short: I had a sudden issue with my PC where it would suddenly black-screen and have the GPU fans go crazy. This was fixed I think, due to the issue no longer happening (I put the GPU in a different PCiE slot, and that fixed the issue, but now it's back in the original and works fine...?).

Pretty much immediately after though, I started noticing a lot of crashes on everything. Discord would randomly close most of the time during streams or changing channels, Steam sometimes crashes while downloading things on rare occasion, and in general Malwarebytes and Windows Defender (Full Scan) just straight up don't function.

I'm sorry in advance for what you're about to read sounds so ridiculous, but you need to understand that I have been dealing with this since the start of November. It's now about to be February. I have been pulling my hair out at this for so long because I have so much I both need and want to do when it comes to PC work, games, all that jazz that require higher specs, and I don't just magically have the money to just get a replacement. Especially since I got this PC back in June / July 2023.

To go through the process of this absolute absurdity I've been dealing with for like the past 3 months, I have:

  • Reseated GPU, RAM, And SATAs. Noticed there was a pin just straight up missing from the GPU for some reason, but again changing the slot just...fixed that for some reason later on.
  • Tried SFC, DISM, DSKCHK (which broke my registry, oops.)
  • Backed up what was important onto an external and wiped everything for a clean install
  • Brought back old files from external, only to immediately have things go worse. .ogg files would just refuse to run for some reason, freezing explorer and struggled to be deleted. Also the problem with things crashing was back. So now I thought it was a file infection. Deleted all downloads, executables, etc. and only kept the bare personal essentials.
  • Turned off Hardware Acceleration on Discord for giggles, only for it to crash literally any time I hovered over the app. So now we're back to thinking it may be GPU for some reason.
  • Second Clean install, NO external just yet. Got Firefox, and Malwarebytes. Nothing else. Scanned with both Malwarebytes and Windows Defender, but every time I scanned with Malwarebytes it'd "Crash due to an unexpected error." Windows Defender, especially on Full Scans would just straight up close the scan and turn off Defender. Friend says it may be some biOS level rootkit infection, but I think it's a possible network infection.
  • Decide to give it to a co-worker who knows IT regarding both Computer Hardware and Software knowledge extremely well, to see what he can do about it.
  • Decide to self-sacrifice my laptop running Windows 11 with Malwarebytes to see if the same issue would happen. Transferred all files from the external into the PC, and did two full scans on both Malwarebytes and Windows Defender with no issue and I am now going insane because now it can't possibly be either.
  • Co-worker goes above and beyond to disassemble / reassemble everything. Put the GPU back in the same PCiE slot, re-applied thermal paste to the CPU, cleaned the AiO system, and checked everything top to bottom. Outside of that GPU pin, no issue. Software-wise he flashed and updated biOS, clean installed better than I ever could, and re-instated the PC back to its factory software and defaults, before fine-tuning everything again. He had absolutely zero issues at his place regarding the PC, as he ran several benchmarks and "found zero issues." He told me it may be my PSU when it came to blackouts (that no longer happen now) due to PSU / bad cable, which I changed cable.
  • Get it back all excited and oh hey guess what IT'S DOING THE THING AGAIN ON THE THIRD AND BEST INSTALL--
  • Uninstall Malwarebytes just to double check it's not Malwarebytes. It's not Malwarebytes. Windows Defender is still doing it.
  • Check the performance like a hawk only to realize Windows Defender crashes on a CPU spike, so now we think it's the CPU.
  • Benchmark test and stress test the CPU. It can run at 100% just fine with no crashes on applications...so what gives?
  • SFC DISM oh now there's corrupt files for some reason but that still didn't fix the issue after a restart.
  • Friend thinks it's a Disk issue so CHKDSK there's nothing wrong with the disk--
  • Scour the internet far and wide to find anything on it, but it has so many weird, inconsistent answers.
  • Just go rogue for a little while and goof around with things, only to hit the event viewer.
  • "Microsoft Windows Security Auditing Failure: Audit Error Event 6281"
  • "Code Integrity determined that the page hashes of an image file are not valid. The file could be improperly signed without page hashes or corrupt due to unauthorized modification. The invalid hashes could indicate a potential disk device error."
  • "File Name:    \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\aepic.dll"-- YOU.
  • HOW DOES THE SAME ISSUE HAPPEN THREE TIMES IN A ROW ON THREE CLEAN INSTALLS FROM THREE DIFFERENT SOURCES?!
  • Look it up online What do you MEAN SFC /SCANNOW OR CLEAN INSTALL?!  MY CODE IN CMD YOU ARE THE CLEAN INSTALL--
  • Co-worker tells me to try to get a warranty exchange from the manufacturer even though I'm pretty sure I can't due to all the stuff we've done with it. Unless I find a way to fix this, this is literally my last option.

And now we're here.

So yeah, uh, TL;DR: I have absolutely no idea what could possibly be wrong with this thing anymore outside of the fact that "Event ID 6281" for System integrity shows up a lot in the security auditing, and I'm pretty sure this aepic.dll file is potentially the thing that's causing my problem, and I'm at a loss of ideas of how to fix this PC.

Yes, I have tried SFC, DISM, and DSKCHK. Yes, I have done clean installs. No, I cannot run Malwarebytes or Windows Defender Full scan as it crashes not to long after starting due to a weird CPU spike. Yes, I have checked if it's a hardware malfunction (and I still may be wrong). The only thing I have not tried is upgrading to Windows 11, because I know it has a mass amount of issues regarding some of the stuff I do like VR. I just want this fixed, man.

Please, if you have any ideas, or need me to do anything, by all means, I am all ears.

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AdvancedSetup

AdvancedSetup

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Do a CLEAN install of Windows and DO NOT restore any files from anywhere until you are 100% certain the computer is safe and fully up to date.

Basically remove ALL partitions from the disk. Then allow Windows to create the partition and install Windows.

VERIFY the Windows 10 or Windows 11 HASH before using it for installation media.

Personally I do not agree with signing up and using a Microsoft Account. I use and recommend a LOCAL ACCOUNT only.

 

Clean Install Windows 10 & 11 (2023)
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/clean-install-windows-10-11-2023/1c426bdf-79b1-4d42-be93-17378d93e587

Also, please review the following topic

Bypass Microsoft Online Account Creation during installation of Windows 11
https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/296613-bypass-microsoft-online-account-creation-during-installation-of-windows-11/

 

 

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ElectroTheDevolian

ElectroTheDevolian

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The three clean installs that I did with the PC went as followed:

  1. Windows 10 (64bit) ISO from Microsoft's official site. Personal Files Restored from external drive. App / Antivirus crashes occurred.
  2. Windows 10 (64bit) ISO from Microsoft's official site. NOTHING restored. App / Antivirus crashes occurred.
  3. Windows 10 (64bit) ISO from Microsoft's official site + Everything that was said in the guide above + Local Administrator. NOTHING restored. App / Antivirus crashes occured.

 

I cannot stress enough that the exact steps you said right here is what the current clean install is like. No files have been restored onto this version yet, I'm not even using the same browser this time just to be extra sure (Opera GX instead of Firefox) along with installing nothing else except troubleshooting tools (WinDirStat), and this only has the Local Administrative account.

We are already well past this point regarding the ISO, hash included.

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AdvancedSetup

AdvancedSetup

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10 minutes ago, ElectroTheDevolian said:

The three clean installs that I did with the PC went as followed:

  1. Windows 10 (64bit) ISO from Microsoft's official site. Personal Files Restored from external drive. App / Antivirus crashes occurred.

       Did you remove ALL partitions?
       Did you verify the ISO hash?
       FAIL - as soon as you restore ANYTHING before validating the computer is safe you've undone all of  your work.

 

 

 

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AdvancedSetup

AdvancedSetup

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The logs indicate this version of Windows was installed a long time ago. 2023-04-04

The computer is using a hack it looks like trying to license it.

 

Do a CLEAN install. Don't use any hacks, cracks, Etc. and don't install ANY 3rd party software or restore any software and I'm very certain your installation will work quite well just like a billion other computers out there do.

 

 

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ElectroTheDevolian

ElectroTheDevolian

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Yeah after reading the logs it didn't click in my head that they were dated so far back. Thanks, coworker.

 

Alright, I'll make sure to do it exactly 1:1 to the guide as best as I can. I already have the ISO on a flash drive already, but just to make sure I'll redo it. Maybe something went wrong in the process. I'll probably get it done on Friday. For now, PC goes back to black until then.

 

Wish me luck. Sorry for being a little snippy.

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AdvancedSetup

AdvancedSetup

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The following download links should work for the next 24 hours

x64 64-bit ( Win10_22H2_English_x64v1.iso )
https://software.download.prss.microsoft.com/dbazure/Win10_22H2_English_x64v1.iso?t=e420eb99-0f71-4f16-93c3-9f03de2b7b92&e=1706848190&h=ea20d45d135fbdba6e396e7eee390e100e141190bb04615044b9e815913df4d0

Hash English 64-bit    A6F470CA6D331EB353B815C043E327A347F594F37FF525F17764738FE812852E

x86 32-bit
https://software.download.prss.microsoft.com/dbazure/Win10_22H2_English_x32v1.iso?t=e420eb99-0f71-4f16-93c3-9f03de2b7b92&e=1706848190&h=5e42c6ffcd0a0a446763d540894d411dcf76f94461d2ca3e9a920c5e49b2cf2e

Hash English 32-bit    AC0B7045B6C3A72A4D46DAAB0944E109A55D9EDE3A11B775FDB57C2DD3FCA2EF

    Download the desired product ISO file and follow the installation guidelines.
    Launch Windows PowerShell. If you need help finding the location of PowerShell for your operating system, get help here.
    In PowerShell, compute the hash value for the ISO file you downloaded using the Get-FileHash cmdlet. For example:

    Get-FileHash C:\Users\user1\Downloads\Contoso8_1_ENT.iso

    If the SHA256 output matches the value in the below table, for the product that you downloaded, this confirms that the file has not been corrupted, tampered with or altered from the original.

 

image.png

 

Edited by AdvancedSetup
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ElectroTheDevolian

ElectroTheDevolian

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Hey, back again. Currently going through the clean install process, but for some reason when trying to use the ISO drive from boot it just...refuses to work? Genuinely unsure as to why. Every time I force boot, it just freezes, flashes the screen and does nothing

Force boot doesn't work, going through via boot menu doesn't work. Even tried troubleshooting settings tied to BIOS, also didn't work.

Any ideas? Motherboard is ASUS Z790-P WIFI.

 

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ElectroTheDevolian

ElectroTheDevolian

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Welp. Got it to work, but only via the creation tool on a different flash drive. Completely bare-bones: Minimal drivers, no internet, no updates.

Problem still occurs with Windows Defender, only this time it's saying "General Access Denied Error." CPU still spikes, and Defender still crashes.

At that point, it's safe to say that it definitively IS a hardware issue. Best I can do now is attempt to get a warranty exchange. If not that, I'm biting the bullet and just making my own PC from now on. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can still get the the old PC to run in the meantime.

RIP.

Edited by ElectroTheDevolian
typo again
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