Wake On LAN causes spontaneous reboot/crash
I have a fresh install of W7 Pro x64 on an Asus NCCH-DL motherboard. I was using the built-in Intel Gigabit network chipset (82547GI) which was detected and configured properly. I use this as my "server" but have it sleep after 10 minutes since access is few and far between unless I'm sitting at it. I enabled WOL without using Magic Packets since that was how I used XP but the system went to sleep and immediately woke up so I switched to Magic Packets. It was a pain getting the right software/procedure to send the proper packet but it now works. Waking the computer works fine and I can verify that only Magic Packets wake the system. So far, so good. It became apparent that every time I wake the machine via WOL the system would crash/reboot or completely shut down at some point after such action. All I have to do is wake the machine and wait for some period of time. I've observed various ways of crashing - some are out and out spontaneous reboots and some are where the machine seems to "bind up" - that is, it is obviously trying to do something, with significant disk access, and then, after 10 minutes +/-, it will just shut down, powered off completely. The Event Viewer shows little pertinent information other than to note that there was an unexpected shutdown. I'll get an event 41, kernel-power: The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly. Yup, it's broke. I downloaded the debugging tools and, using either the minimdump or the full dump, find that the Ethernet driver is always to blame: 0: kd> !analyze -v ******************************************************************************* * * * Bugcheck Analysis * * * ******************************************************************************* DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (9f) A driver is causing an inconsistent power state. Arguments: Arg1: 0000000000000003, A device object has been blocking an Irp for too long a time Arg2: fffffa8003181060, Physical Device Object of the stack Arg3: fffff80004706518, Functional Device Object of the stack Arg4: fffffa8004eb5d30, The blocked IRP Debugging Details: ------------------ DRVPOWERSTATE_SUBCODE: 3 IRP_ADDRESS: fffffa8004eb5d30 DEVICE_OBJECT: fffffa8003ca1050 DRIVER_OBJECT: fffffa8003c9d830 IMAGE_NAME: E1G6032E.sys DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 483de76b MODULE_NAME: E1G6032E FAULTING_MODULE: fffff880051d9000 E1G6032E CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1 DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: VISTA_DRIVER_FAULT BUGCHECK_STR: 0x9F PROCESS_NAME: System CURRENT_IRQL: 2 LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from fffff800030f7e23 to fffff80003088f00 STACK_TEXT: fffff800`047064c8 fffff800`030f7e23 : 00000000`0000009f 00000000`00000003 fffffa80`03181060 fffff800`04706518 : nt!KeBugCheckEx fffff800`047064d0 fffff800`03094fa6 : fffff800`04706618 fffff800`04706618 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000000 : nt! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'+0x29330 fffff800`04706570 fffff800`03094326 : fffffa80`061827b0 fffffa80`061827b0 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiProcessTimerDpcTable+0x66 fffff800`047065e0 fffff800`03094e7e : 0000000d`a3742df8 fffff800`04706c58 00000000`0005b86c fffff800`03205008 : nt!KiProcessExpiredTimerList+0xc6 fffff800`04706c30 fffff800`03094697 : 00000003`bae7c1c4 00000003`0005b86c 00000003`bae7c1b3 00000000`0000006c : nt!KiTimerExpiration+0x1be fffff800`04706cd0 fffff800`030916fa : fffff800`03201e80 fffff800`0320fc40 00000000`00000000 fffff880`014dec50 : nt!KiRetireDpcList+0x277 fffff800`04706d80 00000000`00000000 : fffff800`04707000 fffff800`04701000 fffff800`04706d40 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiIdleLoop+0x5a STACK_COMMAND: kb FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: X64_0x9F_IMAGE_E1G6032E.sys BUCKET_ID: X64_0x9F_IMAGE_E1G6032E.sys ___________________________________________ E1G6032E.sys is the Intel NIC driver. So, I installed another NIC, a Linksys EG1032 (BTW, on the compatibility list with no (!) drivers - had to use Realtek drivers as found via Internet searches), disabled the built-in Intel chip, and tried access. WOL worked fine but this morning the machine was powered off. Checking the minidump, the exact same thing only the faulty module was the new Realtek driver, Rt64win7.sys. So, somehow WOL is causing a crash and it's very consistent. The machine runs fine as long as there's no WOL attempts. I could really use some help running this down...
February 6th, 2010 6:36pm

Hi, The stop errors are usually caused by kernel portion components, such as incompatible hardware driver. Here are some suggestions you can try: 1. Upgrade the Motherboard driver and BIOS version. 2. Reinstall the NIC driver in Compatibility Mode. 3. Perform a Clean Boot to check the result. Thanks, Novak
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
February 8th, 2010 9:39am

Just for the record, I have the latest BIOS version installed (it was a Vista compatibility update of a couple years ago). There are no motherboard drivers available for anything later than XP/Server 2003. The NIC drivers were all W7 compatible (the Intel one is only available from the W7 installation media and the Realtek drivers tried were from the install media as well as the latest W7 drivers from the support website - still no understanding why a compatibility listed device has no drivers). I only just saw this response (my alert for replies magically disappeared) so I didn't try the compatibility mode install (not sure why I'd do that with W7-certified drivers from MS). I believe I have the answer, however, since it hasn't bombed on me in two days, one day with the Linksys NIC and the past day with the built-in Intel chipset. I disabled the hybrid sleep option while trying to use hibernation instead of sleep to see if that would help and that seems to have cured the problem. That raises a whole 'nuther set of questions as to why hybrid sleep would cause a problem with WOL but I'm ignoring it for the time being. I'll monitor this to see if it's really a fix or if it's just the phase of the moon...
February 9th, 2010 4:08pm

Well, it did a spontaneous shutdown this morning after after ~3 daays of proper sleeps and awakenings. Since I have no way to install the Intel driver using a compatibility mode (there's no executable for me to run - it's the built-in driver), I'm going to try a clean boot.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
February 10th, 2010 6:45pm

I decided to remove the ZoneAlarm firewall first since I noticed that it wasn't completely disabled with the clean boot. Since there's various complaints about ZA interfering with things, I'll try this first. So, I'm now using the W7 firewall without clean booting.
February 10th, 2010 8:49pm

Hi Jguerdat,I will keep monitoring this case. If there is any update, please let me know.Thanks,Novak
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
February 11th, 2010 6:04am

Ok, I'm gonna write this one off as a weirdness with ZoneAlarm. Have had no problems so far with the built-in firewall. If I get into trouble again, I'll repost.
February 15th, 2010 3:54pm

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics