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Our school’s simulation recording computer keeps crashing. Crashes are abrupt and without a BSOD, so I suspect hardware failure. The crashes happen approximately daily when the recording system is idle, and much more frequently while recording.

The computer runs a set of services that integrate IP cameras, an audio module, and information from the simulator devices into a web-based recording and debriefing system. Before we enter into a new service contract with the vendor, I want to see if there’s a way to remediate this device.

Motherboard: Intel NUC7i5DNB s/n BTDN846006F4 version J57626-509
OS: Windows 10 (Build 10240) Enterprise 2015 LTSB

Here are some details:

  • sfc /scannow fails at 55%
  • Memory Diagnostic found no errors
  • Dism error 0x800f081f - The source files could not be found. Use the “Source” option to specify the location of the files required to restore the feature.
  • Event Viewer: "The speed of processor 1 in group 0 is being limited by system firmware. The processor has been in this reduced performance state for 71 seconds since the last report.”
  • Firmware does not have apparent options for CPU tuning
  • CPU is maxing out during recording
  • Device does not feel hot, and Open Hardware Monitor does not report overheating
  • Firmware does not appear to have a current update available
  • Dump file is not present, despite being configured

Any thoughts are appereciated, thanks!

3 Spice ups
2

You could try replacing the HD. If it’s still failing, it’s time to replace the whole device. That motherboard model is from 2017.

2 Spice ups
3

Yeah…HD fail is most likely as it is failing SFC.
The dism error is probably just because someone made space by trashing the install files.

You could probably put M.2 (sata) SSD in it. As a bonus it would be a touch faster.
(I can’t find exact spec on this one, the letters at the end are important, those were board options, some of them mean you can do SSD, others mean you can’t-sorry)

Yeah, the CPU in these things are clock limited so it can run without a heatsink+fan in a tiny box, that’s all yer gonna get.

Edit: found it, ya, only 22x80 M2 SATA SSD support.
I5 cpu, it does have a fan, so check that for dust clogging before you spend time doing anything else…

5 Spice ups
4

Thanks, that sounds like it might be a good way forward. Would you be able to recommend a method of cloning the drive so it runs all the same software?

1 Spice up
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That will be the tricky part. First, you don’t know if the entire drive is in fact readable to clone. Second you only have one disk interface. Maybe image it to a USB drive and back.

Also depends if you have windows install media , and how much of a PITA it would be to install the apps on the machine, and if you need to save any data from it.

retail SSD’s usually come with one of the various cloneing apps, but, you would need a machine with 2 free SATA ports..

3 Spice ups
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I agree with the others. This is most likely a failing SSD.

I’m not sure how long the device runs, but I’d try these options.

If you can get it starting and running now, I’d try an xcopy/robocopy via the network.
This is free option (Something I know the tight budgets of schools may support)

Following that I’d try removing the drive and using a cloning docking station.

If that fails I’d try some data recovery software. I would put this into a docking station on a good computer and run the software on the good computer. Using only the drive from the old computer to restore the data. Be careful if your drive is encrypted via bitlocker. You need a key if that is the case.

I’ve had luck with ease us. If the drive is simply dealing with poor magnetic retention from prolonged reads (SSD performance degrades over time typically) it may be beneficial to try SpinRite at grc.com with a level 3 pass. Though, if the device is truly failing this could make it harder to get the remaining data off the drive.

Depending on how critical the data is, you may want to consider professional data recovery services.

1 Spice up
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SFC and DISM are being very helpful here. OS is corrupted and unrepairable.

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Clonezilla. It’s free and can even do a dirty clone if the drive is damaged to get as much off as possible.,

3 Spice ups
9

Maybe use CloneZilla to clone the drive to a new SSD, then try running SFC /scannow on the new drive assuming it boots.

1 Spice up
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This is the way, in my opinion. You may not end up with a bootable image (some data loss) but it beats losing everything.

2 Spice ups
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Maybe try SpinRite or something similar to repair / recover the Hard Drive. it has been a while, but SpinRite saved my bacon a time or two.

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I’d also try swapping in a new PSU. And clean out any dust bunnies, although you’d think you’d be seeing temperatures going up if that were the cause. Check to see if there are device driver conflicts. And if you clone the hard drive, try an external clone unit in case there’s something funky going on with the system’s drive controller/chips Last thing, I’ve seen a virus that blocked/encrypted a hard drive (“one half”) before, so see how the reported space looks and do malware repair if indicated. It might have taken out space occupied by critical files (it increases the disk it “eats” at intervals until half appears gone).

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I regularly use EaseUs Partition Master with an M.2 to USB adapter. Works very well for cloning disks to M.2. Not very expensive either.

1 Spice up
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Be careful with that, WD drives will go into a self-repair spare track copy death loop if you try to fix them sometimes…

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I have seen this type of thing happen from the external power supply being the wrong voltage and/or wattage.

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What do you mean by the above ? Does the machine just blacks out or reboots ?

From what I see from the errors, likely is some overheating issues or mobo faulty or PSU issues ? Where is your “Open Hardware Monitor” and does it have physical sensors ? Is this a branded PC ?

17

There is a lot of good advice here already.

Personally, I would consider trying a different approach, I would create a bootable Linux USB stick and boot to that. If the PC still crashes while running that, it’s not a drive issue, it’s something else, PSU, RAM, Motherboard.

If you suspect the drive, I would check and see what brand the drive is, if it’s an SSD, most manufacturers have free software to test the drive and tell more information about what’s happening. SSDs do have a percentage of read/write cycles and can fail once that percentage has been reached. The testing software should be able to report that percentage. I would also try running Nirsoft’s bluescreen viewer to see if there are BSOD errors that simply did not have time to show due to how quickly the computer crashed. You may be able to get some error codes that you could not see before that will help you identify the root of this issue.

Blue screen of death (STOP error) information in dump files..

1 Spice up
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Get a cloning dock and an SSD and see if you can successfully clone to the new drive. install it and run the pc.
Also look in event viewer for the errors to cross reference with MS or manufacturer support.