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Frequent desktop crash/freeze - solution
After my X51 worked flawlessly for several years, it suddenly started crashing every couple of days. First the disk would thrash then everything got slower and slower and after several minutes the screen would freeze then go blank. Only a hard reset would fix it.
In the event viewer, there would always be several instances of
"NTFS Event ID 55 - the file system on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run chkdsk"
and several thousand of
"Disk event ID 51 - an error was detected on during a paging operation".
Running chkdsk failed to report any errors and I ran other disk scans and memory scans all without finding any problems.
I checked online and the consensus seemed to be that these events preceded a disk failure so I quickly bought a replacement drive, cloned the original to it then swapped the drives over. Unfortunately that did not fix the problem although I now had a 2Tb disk instead of 1Tb so not all bad.
After several weeks of this problem, I finally found the cause when I managed to have task manager running at the point the machine crashed. The culprit was NVStreamSVC.exe - "NVIDEA Streamer Service". I believe this service is used to stream images to NVIDIA Shield devices so there was no particular reason why this service was running since I don't have a Shield device. I disabled the service in the Services tool and I have not had a single disk error for three weeks now.
Just sharing this in case anyone else has the same symptoms and doesn't want to replace a perfectly good disk drive.
Alienware - Rodrigo
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
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4.4K Posts
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February 17th, 2016 13:00
Hi,
Thank you for sharing this with the Alienware community.
hindesite
276 Posts
1
February 17th, 2016 14:00
Thanks for sharing,
I don't see any drive errors but still suffer random crashes on my 17r3, even after the most recent update of the Intel HD 530 and the Nvidia GTX970m drivers.
I see that Nvidia installs a whole lot of services that run, but you probably don't need - IIRC the Nvidia Streamer Service is just one of four that many users can either disable, or uninstall.
See http://www.tweakguides.com/NVFORCE_9.html and similar articles. From the Tweakguides article, for example:
Services
Nvidia Display Driver Service: This service is installed with the core Graphics Driver component. It must be set to Automatic or Manual for the Nvidia Control Panel to open. If you don't need to use the Nvidia Control Panel (e.g. you use Nvidia Inspector instead) it can be set to Disabled with no other negative impact; any customized settings in the NVCP will continue to be applied as normal.
Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service: This service is installed with the 3D Vision Driver component. Unless you use 3D Vision functionality - i.e. you have a 3D Vision-capable monitor and 3D glasses - then you can set this service to Disabled. It is recommended that instead of altering the service, you uninstall the 3D Vision-related driver components. Open the Windows Control Panel, launch Programs and Features, and find and uninstall the Nvidia 3D Vision Driver and Nvidia 3D Vision Controller Driver components.
Nvidia GeForce Experience Service: This service is installed with the GeForce Experience component. Whether the service is set to Automatic, Manual or Disabled, GeForce Experience will still launch. If you actually use GeForce Experience for anything other than ShadowPlay, set this service to Automatic or Manual, otherwise it can be Disabled.
Nvidia Network Service: This service is installed with the GeForce Experience component. Whether the service is set to Automatic, Manual or Disabled, GeForce Experience will still launch. However, if it is set to Disabled, launching GeForce Experience will result in an 'Unable to connect to Nvidia; try again later' error dialog box, followed by a slight delay before GeForce Experience finally opens. Disabling this service also prevents the updating features in GeForce Experience from working correctly, including driver update notifications and optimal game setting updates. If you actually use GeForce Experience for anything other than ShadowPlay, set this service to Automatic or Manual, otherwise it can be Disabled.
Nvidia Streamer Service: This service is installed with the GeForce Experience component. Whether the service is set to Automatic, Manual or Disabled, GeForce Experience will still launch. If it is set to Disabled, you will not be able to stream from your PC to a Shield portable device. If you don't have a Shield device, this service can be Disabled.
To view or alter any service in Windows, use the Windows Services utility by going to Start, typing Services.msc and pressing Enter. Double-click on the relevant service name, select the startup type from the drop-down box, and click Apply.