System Crashes

Ryan · Jan 20, 2005

I have an XPE image that boots fine, but when I use some applications
the system freezes. Particularly when I use My Computer to try and
access files the system crashes. The program starts up fine but then
when I double click on the C: drive it will crash. This also happens
with internet explorer. The first page will come up but then whenever
I click anything it crashes.
Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ryan

KM · Jan 20, 2005

Ryan,

That is not enough information you provided to give you any good advice.

What is your image based on (logon, shell, etc.)?
If it is Explorer shell based (which is most likely since you mentioned the "My Computer" folder), did you resolve all the Shell
dependencies?
What crash (exception) info you saw?
Any chance for you to attach with kernel debugger to see where the crash is happening?
Or you can try running Filemon and Regmon tools (www.sysinternals.com) to see what's missing when the crash is happening (although
you may not be able to alunch the tools).

KM

Ryan · Jan 21, 2005

KM,

The system is an Athena from diamond systems. I am using an Explorer
shell. I have autoresolve enable which I assume will take care of the
shell dependencies. After working with it using filemon, I have found
that the system actually does work it just takes a long time (about 10
min) before it starts working. In the beginning the files printui.dll
and fxsst.dll cannot be found. After about 10 minutes everything works
fine. But this takes place on every reboot. Can you make any
suggestions as to what I may need to look for? From looking in the
component database it doesn't seem that the two dll's make a difference
and this is not the point at which the system times out. Let me know
if you have any advice.

Thanks,

Ryan

KM · Jan 21, 2005

Ryan,

I don't think either the Print UI and Fax components would be the cause for the hang. Although it you don't have a concern about the
image footprint, you may add those.

Anyway, what was not clear to me from your message is if you now see the crash? Or does the image just do some hanging for a while
and then works fine?
If it does, then please check your network settings. If DHCP used, make sure your DHCP server is available and working fine.
Or, better for testing purposes, switch to static IP.

Also, please make sure that Processor component in your Configuration is the closest one to your target hardware.

Ryan · Jan 21, 2005

KM,

The system does work after about 10 min, and everything works great. I
have the DHCP client server component in my build. I switched to a
static IP and this seemed to make things faster but there was still
quite a bit of hanging about 5 min. I added the pentium III processor
component which was not part of the build before, but no changes. The
sychost.exe, explorer.exe, and WMIADAP.exe are the main programs
dislplayed in the Filemon and are the ones that are hanging. Before
things start working correctly there are about 8000 file interactions.
Is this normal? Let me know if you have any more insight.
Thanks,

Ryan

KM · Jan 21, 2005

Ryan,

The system does work after about 10 min, and everything works great. I
have the DHCP client server component in my build. I switched to a
static IP and this seemed to make things faster but there was still
quite a bit of hanging about 5 min.

Very long.
Btw, how long is the boot time?

I added the pentium III processor
component which was not part of the build before, but no changes. The
sychost.exe, explorer.exe, and WMIADAP.exe are the main programs
dislplayed in the Filemon and are the ones that are hanging. Before
things start working correctly there are about 8000 file interactions.
Is this normal?

I guess not. Too much activity on when just opening My Computer.

Could you show a part of the Filemon log here so that we could understand what activity we is happening there?
Or, better, if you have a public web share access, put the entire Filemon log there so that we could donwload it.
The same for Regmon log.

I assume you don't see such hanging behavior when you are running XP Pro on the target device?

Ryan · Jan 21, 2005

KM,

The boot time is quite fast. About 20 seconds. The hanging only
occurs after startup and then everything works perfectly.

Here is a section of the filemon that shows some significant time lags.
During this time period the systems was hung. Then the data came out
to the filemon very fast. I'll look into the regmon to see what is
coming up there. Thanks for your help.

Ryan

3942 11:02:45 PM Explorer.EXE:980 QUERY
INFORMATION C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe SUCCESS Attributes: A
3943 11:02:45
PM Explorer.EXE:980 CLOSE C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe SUCCESS
3944 11:02:46
PM Explorer.EXE:980 OPEN C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe SUCCESS Options:
Open Access: All
3945 11:02:46 PM Explorer.EXE:980 QUERY
INFORMATION C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe SUCCESS Attributes: A
3946 11:02:46
PM Explorer.EXE:980 CLOSE C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe SUCCESS
3947 11:02:58
PM svchost.exe:620 OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS Options:
Open Access: All
3948 11:02:58 PM svchost.exe:620 QUERY
INFORMATION C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS Attributes: A
3949 11:02:58
PM svchost.exe:620 CLOSE C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS
3950 11:02:58
PM svchost.exe:620 OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS Options:
Open Access: Execute
3951 11:02:58 PM svchost.exe:620 QUERY
INFORMATION C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS Length: 260608
3952 11:02:58
PM svchost.exe:620 CLOSE C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS
3953 11:03:28
PM svchost.exe:620 OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS Options:
Open Access: All
3954 11:03:28 PM svchost.exe:620 QUERY
INFORMATION C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS Attributes: A
3955 11:03:28
PM svchost.exe:620 CLOSE C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS
3956 11:03:28
PM svchost.exe:620 OPEN C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS Options:
Open Access: Execute
3957 11:03:28 PM svchost.exe:620 QUERY
INFORMATION C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS Length: 260608
3958 11:03:28
PM svchost.exe:620 CLOSE C:\WINDOWS\system32\rpcss.dll SUCCESS
3959 11:03:42 PM Explorer.EXE:980 OPEN C:\ SUCCESS Options: Open
Directory Access: All
3960 11:03:42 PM Explorer.EXE:980 QUERY
INFORMATION C:\ SUCCESS FileFsFullSizeInformation
3961 11:03:42 PM Explorer.EXE:980 CLOSE C:\ SUCCESS
3962 11:04:42 PM Explorer.EXE:980 OPEN C:\ SUCCESS Options: Open
Directory Access: All
3963 11:04:42 PM Explorer.EXE:980 QUERY
INFORMATION C:\ SUCCESS FileFsFullSizeInformation
3964 11:04:42 PM Explorer.EXE:980 CLOSE C:\ SUCCESS
3965 11:05:42 PM Explorer.EXE:980 OPEN C:\ SUCCESS Options: Open
Directory Access: All
3966 11:05:42 PM Explorer.EXE:980 QUERY
INFORMATION C:\ SUCCESS FileFsFullSizeInformation
3967 11:05:42 PM Explorer.EXE:980 CLOSE C:\ SUCCESS
3968 11:05:52
PM csrss.exe:372 OPEN C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\Policies\x86_Policy.6.0.Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_en-US_580a28ff\ FILE
NOT FOUND Options: Open Directory Access: All
3969 11:05:52
PM csrss.exe:372 OPEN C:\WINDOWS\Assembly\GAC\Policy.6.0.Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls\ PATH
NOT FOUND Options: Open Directory Access: All
3970 11:05:52 PM csrss.exe:372 OPEN C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\en-US FILE NOT
FOUND Options: Open Access: All
3971 11:05:52 PM csrss.exe:372 OPEN C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\en FILE NOT
FOUND Options: Open Access: All

Ryan · Jan 21, 2005

When Looking at the regmon I get a constant "FixScreenResolution" open
and close key.

Any reason for this?

KM · Jan 22, 2005

Ryan,

Did you get a video driver installed properly on run time?
If not, please fix it and see if it helps you with the issue.

KM

Ryan · Jan 23, 2005

KM,

I had removed the video driver previously because I thought it might be
causing a problem. I readded the video driver component and the
registry problem went away. Must be something else. Any thoughts on
the filemon log?

Thanks,

Ryan

KM · Jan 23, 2005

Ryan,

No, I didn't see anything obvious in the log. I mean I saw the hanging on some CLOSE requests but it does not tell me anything.

Let's gather more info from the device:
- XP Pro - how this OS works on the device?
- Does Event Viewer log show anything helpful especially after the hang?
- Device Manager - any exclamation signs there?
- FBALog.txt and SetupAPI.log - any errors there?
- How XPProEmulation (www.xpefiles.com) works on the device? Maybe it is not a missing dependency issue.
- On your image, go to Device Manager and start disabling drivers (including hidden ones) and see if it makes the system
performance better.

This is all pretty general debug routine but I have nothing to add to it until we know more about the device and image you created.

KM

Ryan · Jan 24, 2005

KM,

Did you happen to get my last message. I see that it wasn't posted?
Ryan

KM · Jan 24, 2005

Ryan,

Nope.