Folding Forum

Hi all,

I'm fairly certain there is no link between my issues and F@H, but I wanted to check here, just to rule it out.

I have been getting BSOD on my Windows 10 laptop that I use for folding. It hasn't really started as soon as I started folding, but I'm checking all possibilities of recent changes in software etc.

The stop code I get is 0xa0000006, which according to Google, possibly indicates a virus infection. Yet my antivirus software comes up with nothing.

Has anyone been having these same troubles while using F@H? As I said, I find it very unlikely, but I am looking for the source of the problem by elimination...

Thanks!

When I encountered a BSOD on my laptop, it was due to a failing GPU. Normally, it would work fine but since F@H can push the GPU to its limits, it can expose any flaws.

Just to double check, can you please post your log file. Ensure that you have copied the System configuration which is present at the start of the log file (viewtopic.php?f=61&t=26036).

PantherX wrote:When I encountered a BSOD on my laptop, it was due to a failing GPU. Normally, it would work fine but since F@H can push the GPU to its limits, it can expose any flaws.

I've made that same experience over the years, it was normally bad drivers or a failing GPU / memory.
You could also try to run a stress test program like furmark, to a) see if that also causes bluescreens and/or b) if there are visible artifacts in 3d models rendered by your card, which can also point to issues with the card itself.

Okay thanks for your replies.

Funny enough, I just had it again (for the first time in over a day, it's very irregular) and I was only folding on CPU at that time.
Because it's a unexpected shutdown, I can't access the log files? (Unless I'm not looking in the right place?)

I will look into the Furmark thing.

the client maintains a history of logs. By default, it stores the last 16 logs. Here's the default location on my system, to help you locate the folder:
C:\Users\PantherX-H\AppData\Roaming\FAHClient\logs

the path
%AppData%\FAHClient\logs

is the default path -- you should be able to copy/paste that into the Start -> Run box and it will open right into the logs directory

I have no opinion regarding a possible virus, but that would not be my first guess. Be aware that FAH is designed to use ALL of the unused computer resoruces that you're willing to donat. This tends to create more heat than the computer would if it was just waiting for you to type something or to move the mouse.

You mentioned a laptop and traditionally, the performance of a laptop is limited by the amount of heat that the tiny little fan can dissipate. Be sure to plot the dust out of the passages where the air moves the heat. Also, consider reducing FAH's setting enough that the temperature is lowered by enough to rule out heat as opposed to other causes of BSODs.

If you need help with the FAH settings, just ask.

Theres a program called whocrashed which analyses the BSOD crash dumps and tells you what was the trigger for the BSOD.

I used it before to find which driver was causing me issues. GPU in my case.

It can be found here https://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

bruce wrote:I have no opinion regarding a possible virus, but that would not be my first guess. Be aware that FAH is designed to use ALL of the unused computer resoruces that you're willing to donat. This tends to create more heat than the computer would if it was just waiting for you to type something or to move the mouse.

You mentioned a laptop and traditionally, the performance of a laptop is limited by the amount of heat that the tiny little fan can dissipate. Be sure to plot the dust out of the passages where the air moves the heat. Also, consider reducing FAH's setting enough that the temperature is lowered by enough to rule out heat as opposed to other causes of BSODs.

If you need help with the FAH settings, just ask.

I had not seen a BSOD since Windows 98 or so haha
It's a brand new laptop, so dust shouldn't be much of a problem. It has however shut down due to overheating before, but that was without BSOD.

Thanks for the help, I have been reading into settings as well, but I tend to pause the whole thing for 15 minutes if it gets hot. Luckily, as I have a gaming laptop, it has pretty decent fans.

confused.brit wrote:Theres a program called whocrashed which analyses the BSOD crash dumps and tells you what was the trigger for the BSOD.

I used it before to find which driver was causing me issues. GPU in my case.

It can be found here https://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

Oh coll, I will definitely use this. I've already deleted all the dump files, but I'm guessing it will happen again pretty soon.


The suggestion that it has to do with the GPU has allowed me to conduct more detailed searches and I've found similar stories for my exact type of laptop on the manufacturer's user forum. It seems to involve a problem with GPU drivers. A sort of mismatch between AMD and MSI, apparently. The people there solved it by upgrading the BIOS, so I guess I'll start reading into how I do that... =)

Thanks again to everyone that answered here. I've hung out on forums of all sorts in the past ten-ish years and most of them have died out or turned into sarcastic hellholes for newbies. It's amazing to see how everyone just wants to help here!

Got a brand new laptop here too, can't use it to fold with CPU and GPU at the same time, the constant GPU load simply generates too much heat. In GPU-Z, I could see "Thrm" as PerfCap reason... shape.

Someone recently linked a little device that would plug into a USB port and actively help suck heat/air through the ventilation slots of the laptop, if I can find the thread again or if the person who posted it remembers, that might be an option.

Just a small update here.

I downloaded the Whocrashed tool and it gave me some useful information. Issue was indeed GPU related. FAH was not to blame, however, as suggested, higher workload probably did make the crashes occur more often.

I finally managed to update the drivers for the GPU, with a new release from 2 days ago and it has been stable since then. To be fair, I haven't been getting many GPU WUs, but so far, so good.