Switch Alpha 12: Windows crashes badly after 2 min of playing the movie.

Hello,

I own this tablet (Switch Alpha 12, SA5-271) since August 2016. I use it lightly and generally I am satisfied with its performance and functioning. However, the regular Windows 10’ serious failures make me thinking that there is something wrong.

I’ve encountered this problem almost immediately after purchase but it took a time to figure out the scenario.

The problem is that Windows 10 in this tablet crashes badly after watching a movie (e.g. MKV or AVI file) for about first 2 minutes. Sometimes it happens when I watch Youtube. The blue screen appears and the message is displayed: “Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart.” (see the photo below). There is also strong noise coming from the speakers. Then, the tablet reboots on its own. After that, if I run the same movie again, it plays well without any interruptions.

I noticed that this failure happens only if I powered up the tablet from the power off state. If it was sleeping, or after reboot, the Windows' 10 crash does not happen.

I have a desktop PC (Dell) running Windows 10 and there are no issues like this one. So, it seems to be a hardware problem. As per blue screen’ message, it seems there is a power management problem in this tablet.

Is there any way to fix this problem by e.g. updating the BIOS or the firmware (so far I have not updated anything)? Otherwise, I will be forced to return it back. Man Sad

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billsey

I'm guessing it's going to be related to the codec instead of the hardware, but we should be able to pin it down farther. Nirsoft makes a nice minidump viewing tool called BlueScreenView that should allow us to see the module that actually crashed. Download it and open the latest dump to see where the culprit is.

c_config

Thank you, billsey, for your reply.

Here are 2 dump files I obtained with that tool:

==================================================
Dump File         : 012917-7093-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 1/29/2017 11:27:40 PM
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code    : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2       : ffffdc09`563ab080
Parameter 3       : ffff9a80`c81ab8e0
Parameter 4       : ffffdc09`5b791b80
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+14a6f0
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company           : Microsoft Corporation
File Version      : 10.0.14393.693 (rs1_release.161220-1747)
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+14a6f0
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\012917-7093-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 14393
Dump File Size    : 841,052
Dump File Time    : 1/29/2017 11:28:19 PM
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File         : 020517-7046-01.dmp
Crash Time        : 2/5/2017 10:51:45 PM
Bug Check String : DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Bug Check Code    : 0x0000009f
Parameter 1       : 00000000`00000003
Parameter 2       : ffffa40a`a99b1080
Parameter 3       : ffffcf00`3b9ab8e0
Parameter 4       : ffffa40a`b1fdfb80
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+14a6f0
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company           : Microsoft Corporation
File Version      : 10.0.14393.693 (rs1_release.161220-1747)
Processor         : x64
Crash Address     : ntoskrnl.exe+14a6f0
Stack Address 1   :
Stack Address 2   :
Stack Address 3   :
Computer Name     :
Full Path         : C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\020517-7046-01.dmp
Processors Count : 4
Major Version     : 15
Minor Version     : 14393
Dump File Size    : 929,852
Dump File Time    : 2/5/2017 10:52:37 PM
==================================================

billsey

Well they were likely caused by the same driver, note that the offset in the kernel is the same on both. Unfortunately there's not a lot more information to get out of the dumps, since they both point to the kernel instead of the faulting driver. Have you tried a 'sfc /scannow' yet? Try that from an Administrator command prompt to see if they can find and fix any corrupted system files. If the OS comes through good from the sfc, I'd try a remove/reinstall of the video drivers, since they are going to be the most suspect with the video playback symptoms.

c_config

Yes, all those crashes are pointing to the same kernel file.

I have run sfc command and it returned:"Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

Let me check all the latest software and driver updates and install them. Let's see if it will help. I will report then.

c_config

I've updated the drivers and re-installed the video card' driver as well.

It did not help, unfortunatelly. :-(

My Windows 10 continues crashing.

Any other ideas?

billsey

OK, let's look at software. which app are you using to view the video? Do you have more codecs installed (K-Lite, etc.)? Have you tried booting clean and then trying to watch?

c_config

To watch movies, I use the default player of Windows 10 (Movies +TV).

I have not installed any additional video codecs.

There are 2 considarations:

1. After the crash happens, my tablet reboots. After booting up, I start the same movie again and it plays seemlessly to the end. No issues. I think, if it would be a codec ussue, the player could reject playing right away (like Windows Media Player does) and it also should be noticeable in a playback.

2. I admit that the issue in Movies +TV player may cause this app to freeze or even to crash. However, the problem with an app must not cause the OS' to crash! Would you agree?

billsey

c_config wrote:
To watch movies, I use the default player of Windows 10 (Movies +TV).
I have not installed any additional video codecs.
There are 2 considarations:
1. After the crash happens, my tablet reboots. After booting up, I start the same movie again and it plays seemlessly to the end. No issues. I think, if it would be a codec ussue, the player could reject playing right away (like Windows Media Player does) and it also should be noticeable in a playback.

2. I admit that the issue in Movies +TV player may cause this app to freeze or even to crash. However, the problem with an app must not cause the OS' to crash! Would you agree?

Ok, no additional codecs means we're less likely to be able to blame them. Smiley Happy Do all movies play seamlessly from a fresh boot? How about later on (say, several hours) but still the first time you launch Movies+TV? Does itways happen on a second movie, or just on some of them? If it always happens on the second movie but not the first then is the app still running in the background betwee plays? That would be easiest checked with Task Manager. If the app does hang around between usues, what happens when you kill the app (with Task Manager again) and then restart it for a second movie?

Apps and drivers can cause OS restarts. They shouldn't, but only in a best world will they be fully prevented. Well written programs will always fail with a helpful error message when something goes wrong, but most often the choice is made to not spend the extra costs associated with that kind of in depth error handling.

c_config

After struggling with this issue for several months without any progress, I decided to ship it back to Acer and I did it last weekend. It is still under warranty. So, let Acer figure out what’s wrong with it. Honestly, I am doubting very much that they will find the cause and fix it. Instead, most likely, they will just re-install Windows 10 on it. But you never know…

When this tablet will be returned to me, I report of its working conditions.

c_config

Indeed, Acer re-installed Windows 10 on this tablet. Maybe, they did something else.

The bottom line is that the tablet works well after this repair.

padgett

Bit late but found this which may be a clue "driver power state failure is caused because a device driver was told to go to a low power state, (sleep) then It was told to wake up and it did not respond". That sounds like a power management issue.

alxz89

Hi guys, i have the same problema too, it started after upgrade to Windows 10 fall creators update, first it just happens only when i play movies on netflix app using speakers, and after 5 minutes, BSOD, I contact to support and the response was that with the complete restore the problema will solved, i did it , but the problema it getting worse, now the BSOD appears anytime :(, according to acer Switch Alpha 12 was tested to update Windows 10 FCU, so i dont know where is the problema :(.

Note: With Windows 10 Creators Update the laptop worked with no problema, according to c_config, i think its the display driver.

Please help me, I really love my laptop, but it's annoying to live with this problem

alxz89

> @padgett said:
> Bit late but found this which may be a clue "driver power state failure is caused because a device driver was told to go to a low power state, (sleep) then It was told to wake up and it did not respond". That sounds like a power management issue.

Hi padget!, This power management issue is fixable? I need to know in order to wait to install all my programs that I had? Or I have to wait until a driver or bios update?

fjrufcnddjfjfrjvhga

I'm getting the same problem after recently updating to the fall creators update when viewing videos on third party apps. It sometimes happens after 2, 5, 30 minutes or sometimes 3 hours. I tried setting all the power options for video, pci, and network to maximum for both plugged in and battery modes but that did not seem to change the results.

billsey

You may have to go to the device itself in Device Manager and turn off power saving modes there. You have access to much more granularity there than in Power Options.

fjrufcnddjfjfrjvhga

I ran the dump file through Windows Debugger Tool and it points the error to the igdkmd64.sys driver for Intel HD 520 graphics. The only driver available from Acer is the original old x.4454 version from 2016. Intel has a newer x.48xx version from Nov 2017, but it cannot be installed. An error message says the devices uses a custom driver and must be installed from the manufacturer.

You can check which driver is causing the Driver Power State Failure error with the Windows Debugger Tool.
Download here:
(cannot link, you can download from the Microsoft Store)
Then in the settings, set symbol path:
(cannot link, search google for SRV symbol path)
Then File > Open Dump File. Select your dump file.
After loading, you can click "Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information."

I looked at the Intel HD 520 graphics settings in Device Manager but there is no power settings available there.

billsey

Mine is running .4691 and when I let Windows search for newer drivers it says mine is the latest. I don't remember jumping through hoops to install this one (dated 6/2017) so I assume the update was pushed by Microsoft as part of Windows update.

BTW, I'm please to say my SA12 survived a head on crash where the other driver was pushing 100MPH and I was doing 55MPH. The tablet had been sitting on my front passenger seat and got dinged up somewhat, plus is sprung in a couple of places where the bends are more visible, but I'm sitting in my rehab facility and typing on it as we 'speak'.

kim008

I resolved the issue by following this instructions.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005629/graphics-drivers.html

c_config

As I reported earlier, I shipped my Switch Alpha 12 to Acer on summer time. They re-installed Windows 10 and this fixed the issue with blue screen when playing the movies.

However, probably after Fall Creators Update, the same issue returned even in more severe way: Windows 10 crashes in 5-10 min to blue screen when playing anything from Internet, e.g. playing clips from Youtube.

I’ve downloaded the new video driver (Dec. 2017) from Intel website (as per link from another post above here). However, Windows 10 rejected accepting that new driver and loaded the really old one instead (it loaded driver 20.19.15.4454 from May 4, 2016). Obviously, Acer customizes their drivers and generic driver from Intel does not work here.

Eventually, I’ve followed to another suggestion I found on Internet – I’ve changed the power settings for video card. Here are the steps:

In Windows 10, navigate to Settings.
In Settings, click on Display in the left pane and then select Display Adapter Property in the right pane.
When Intel HD Graphics 520 Property window pops-up, navigate to HD Graphics Control Panel tab and click Graphics Properties button.
In Intel HD Graphics Control Panel, select Power.
On the Power control, select “Plugged In” on the left and set Graphics Power Plan to “Maximum Performance”.
Then, select “On Battery” on the left and also set Graphics Power Plan to “Maximum Performance”.