BlueStacks 4 is causing repeated Memory Management BSODs. At my wits' end.

[Vishera]

So, being that I don't really like playing games on a small smartphone screen, I've taken to emulating my favorite Android exclusives with BlueStacks. Up until 2 days ago give or take, this went fine. Open the program, run my games flawlessly, close it when done, no issues. But then BlueStacks 3N started causing MEMORY_MANAGEMENT BSODs whenever I closed it. It would also freeze randomly, locking up the whole system. Odd. Per their support page's recommendation, I tried switching to BlueStacks 4. Newer, better, right? I thought so, because the crashing went away, but now it's back with a vengeance. I've had other issues, such as with it not being able to sync Google account data properly, but what I'm mostly focused on right now is the constant crashing. Some factors to note:

Yes, I have determined this ONLY happens when attempting to close BlueStacks.

I have never encountered this issue before. My RAM sticks have never given me any trouble outside of this incident.

So, any ideas? Starting points? I'm confused as to how this program could break so spectacularly in the span of less than 48 hours. Backed a few Kickstarter games that were released on mobile before PC, so it's kind of frustrating not to be able to play them comfortably.

 

[EarthDog]

Does the application do this on ther pcs?
Did any updates install?
What do your logs show?

 

[Kenrou]

Make sure you have Hardware Virtualization/Virtualization technology turned on in BIOS and try installing/uninstalling Hyper-V (turn Windows features on/off). Read that Windows Defender was also causing problems for some, but i use Nox and never had issues like these, so can't comment

View attachment 202533

https://www.bignox.com/

 

[Vishera]

Does the application do this on ther pcs?
Did any updates install?
What do your logs show?

Unfortunately, I don't have any other computers to test this on. The latest update installed would've been the October-turned-November update. Also, I turned IOMMU and SVM on in my BIOS (AMD system) but Hyper-V doesn't show up in the "Turn Windows Features On Or Off" menu. Which is weird, because before the update a few weeks ago I distinctly remember toying with it because I was using VirtualBox...apparently it's only available in Windows 10 Pro?? I'm so confused right now.

 

[Vishera]

So I've been doing a little digging and I downloaded BlueScreen Viewer and it appears the driver causing the issue is ntoskrnl.exe...which id obviously the main driver for the OS as a whole. I'm not sure what to make of this information. I've tried rolling back my overclocks on CPU, GPU, and RAM, I've run the Memory Diagnostic tool. I'm at a loss here. Maybe if I try reinstalling Windows I'll get somewhere? This just randomly started happening out of the blue screen, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that Windows **** the bed I suppose.

 

[Kenrou]

Windows 10 ?

 

[Vishera]

Windows 10 ?

Yep, Windows 10 Home.

 

[Kenrou]

Yep, Windows 10 Home.

Can you get your hand on a Windows 7/8.1 and see if it happens there as well ? Win10 right now is kind of the butt of a running joke...

EDIT: I thought the Home version of any Windows had Virtualization disabled ?

 

[Vishera]

Can you get your hand on a Windows 7/8.1 and see if it happens there as well ? Win10 right now is kind of the butt of a running joke...

I tried getting Windows 7 to run on this system months ago and every time Windows Update ran to install the backlog of updates, the install would break. It'd get stuck on the "installing updates" screen after telling it to shut down. I don't have a legitimate 8.1 CD, although I do have my sources for that.

I just don't understand why BlueStacks specifically causes this issue. No other programs cause it, I can leave my computer running for days on end and never have a single issue. But the second I try to run BlueStacks, it'll freeze when I go to load any apps, and then when I go to close it, the Blue Screen happens.

 

[Kenrou]

Well then is BlueStacks issue i would assume, try another like nox or amiduos to see if it causes the same issue and/or wait for an update. BTW not sure if this is pertinent but :

View attachment 202698

 

[Vishera]

Aaaand DuOS is giving the same issue. Something's wrong with my computer, and I don't know what it is...I'm gonna try reinstalling Windows. If that doesn't fix it, I'll try 8.1 instead. If that doesn't work...I don't know. I'm out of ideas at this point. RMA my RAM I guess?

 

[Kenrou]

I run Win8.1 PRO with zero issues and i tried the whole list of emulators before settling on Nox (faster/root), all seemed to work fine as long as i had Virtualization turned on in BIOS.

 

[Vishera]

I think I know the issue.

Reinstalling Windows will work, but only temporarily. My SSD is failing, I'm pretty sure. Gave me all sorts of trouble during the reinstallation, the install would fail, I couldn't create partitions sometimes. So I guess the main kernel driver got corrupted at some point. That would explain why it was only these emulators giving me issues; the kernel directly deals with hardware virtualization. I guess I should get the RMA process started. Thanks for the little bit of help you could offer, Ken.

 

[Kenrou]

Sorry i couldn't help more

 

[Vishera]

Sorry i couldn't help more

Not your fault! I didn't even think to consider that my SSD was failing, the only reason I put two and two together was because of the headache it was giving me during the installation.

 

[trents]

Wow! SSD's usually just fail suddenly rather than start acting up. What's the make and model of the drive?

 

[Vishera]

Wow! SSD's usually just fail suddenly rather than start acting up. What's the make and model of the drive?

It's a SanDisk SSDPlus 240GB drive. The G26 variant, not the G25.

 

[Vishera]

Okay, so I think I was wrong. I'm pretty sure the SSD is bad, mostly for the reasons stated above, but I don't think that's the cause of my issue. Reason being, I reinstalled Windows on a different drive and the Blue Screens are still happening. So...I'm gonna replace the SSD since it's still being weird anyways. I'm gonna try replacing my RAM (I bought two of the sticks used, so not outside the realm of possibility they're bad), and I'm gonna try buying a new USB stick to install from, in case something's going wrong with the installation at that level. It's only like, $5-$10 for a USB drive anyways so it's not really a big deal.

At this point I don't know if I've exposed a massive problem with my hardware or if BlueStacks is just malfunctioning of its own accord. Given DuOS caused a Blue Screen too, I'm inclined to say no. But I honestly don't know anymore. Wish me luck.

 

[Kenrou]

Install a Pro or better edition of Windows if you can ?

 

[Vishera]

I thought of that, I even fiddled with Hyper V this time. No dice. I guess the good thing is it doesn't happen unless I'm using virtualization so...I can keep using my computer until I get my new RAM and such.

Oy vey. I need some Advil and coffee.