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Windows 10 hangs/freezes on Bay Trail Celeron N2930

CHarr
Novice
7,324 Views

CPU: Intel Celeron N2930 (BayTrail)

OS: Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016 (version 1607)

NIC: 2 x Intel i210 onboard

We have encountered a serious intermittent problem with the above configuration. When the PC is left running with a low CPU load for many hours, it will sometimes hang: all activity on the Windows desktop stops/"freezes", the Windows clock in the lower right corner stops, and the PC no longer responds to keyboard or mouse input. The PC is permanently hung - it will not recover.

After turning power off & on, the PC will typically boot Windows 10 successfully, and resume normal operation.

Note that the problem never occurs when the PC is in regular use, with moderate to heavy CPU utilization. Nor does the hang occur if the CPU is idle in Windows with no user applications running. The hang only occurs with light/low CPU loading.

The problem also occurs in these versions of Windows on the same hardware: Windows 8.1 Pro, Windows 10 Pro version 1706. In all cases, we have applied all available Windows Updates.

We are able to reproduce the problem on all such units in our lab - sometimes it takes a few hours, sometimes a few days before the hang occurs. It is not a single unit failure, or a bad production run.

We are using the latest available Intel device drivers for this hardware:

Intel Graphics Driver v. 10.18.10.4885 - 12/11/2017

Intel Network Driver v. 12.15.184.0 - 10/10/2017

Intel Sideband Fabric Device (MBI = Mailbox Interface) Driver v. 604.10146.2655.573 - 5/26/2015

On the Embedded Communities, there are at least 2 topics describing a similar problem:

In both cases, the users were asked to attempt to reproduce the problem in operating systems other than Windows 10. There is no further reply on either thread.

As described above, we have also reproduced the issue in Windows 8.1 Pro.

8 Replies
Adolfo_S_Intel
Moderator
3,762 Views

Hello, h241x,

Do you observe any message on the Windows Event Viewer when the issue occurs?

Does the issue occurs if you are using the Windows Native Graphic Driver?

Does the issue occurs on a fresh installation of the system?

Does enabling/disabling c-states have any effect on the issue?

Best regards,

Adolfo Sanchez

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CHarr
Novice
3,762 Views

Do you observe any message on the Windows Event Viewer when the issue occurs?

No

Does the issue occurs if you are using the Windows Native Graphic Driver?

No, I don't think so. A few weeks ago we tried this test (uninstalled Intel Graphics driver, so it uses Windows Basic Graphics) and ran for a couple days without a hang, but need to do a longer term test. I can start a new test of this tomorrow.

Does the issue occurs on a fresh installation of the system?

Yes - we can install Windows (8.1 or 10), and just the Intel drivers I listed, and one Windows setting (power plan = High Performance), and one application: TightVNC client, and no other software or configuration. We make a VNC connection (using one i210 NIC) to a host PC with a slowly changing test video pattern on the host, and leave the system alone for hours/days. And the hang occurs as described.

Does enabling/disabling c-states have any effect on the issue?

Yes - the hangs seem to go away with C-states disabled. However, we do not feel this addresses the root cause, and the customer will not accept this is as a solution.

- I will also add: setting Windows "disabledynamictick" via BCDEDIT also seems to stop the hangs - but as above, this is at best a workaround, not a solution to the root cause. (As you may know, there are many web hits on using disabledynamictick to "fix" all sorts of Win8 and Win10 hangs.)

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CHarr
Novice
3,762 Views

Update: I have been testing 2 systems (Win8.1 and Win10), both with Microsoft Basic Display driver, neither has hung yet. Due to the intermittent nature of the problem, I want to continue testing for multiple days for more confidence in this result.

So if the problem goes away without the Intel graphics driver (v. 10.18.10.4885 – 12/27/2017), that tends to indicate a driver bug, correct?

By the way, we also can reproduce the hang with a previous version of the Intel graphics driver: v. 10.18.10.4425 – 5/12/2016.

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CarlosAM_INTEL
Moderator
3,762 Views

Hello, h241x :

Thanks for your update.

It seems to be that it is related to a driver issue that should be addressed to the https://communities.intel.com/community/tech/graphics Intel Graphics Community.

We hope that this information may help you.

Best regards,

Carlos_A.

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PPoon
Beginner
3,762 Views

I am also facing the same issue, freezing is also there with linux distros

Cpu: N3540

Os: Win 10 pro

laptop: Asus x553MA

iGPU drivers: 10.18.10.4885

As mentioned earlier, disabling c-states fixes the freezes but its a workaround and NOT a solution, as it increases the the cpu temp and battery consumption. Please take a serious look into this and troubleshoot this issue. This occurs more frequently (daily) for me with the latest bios (v214) so i had to rool back to the previous bios (v210) on which it is less frequent (once a week).

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PPoon
Beginner
3,762 Views

Stop linking websites, the problem is with your cpu and it's drivers, and if you are so keen to push your shortcomings to Asus, then stop trademarking your flawed CPUs and their drivers as "Intel®", let there be dell/Asus/Lenovo instead. This c-state bug is an notorious baytrail CPUs bug and yet you have the guts to point finger at others. I mean what will those links you posted do to help me??? Will Asus change a soldered cpu??? Will I get anything different???? It will be the same baytrail cpu with the same bug. It's better not to reply then to waste time by playing useless blame game.

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CarlosAM_INTEL
Moderator
3,762 Views

Hello, DhakadChora :

Thanks for your reply.

Please let me explain you, we would like to help you but the manufacturer has customized their products, so they have a clear idea of what is supported and validated. Due to these facts, they have the proper information to answer any question related to their products.

On the other hand, the https://ark.intel.com/products/82105/Intel-Pentium-Processor-N3540-2M-Cache-up-to-2_66-GHz Intel(R) Pentium(R) Processor N3540 is a non-embedded processor that should be supported through the https://communities.intel.com/community/tech/processors Intel Processors Forum.

We hope that this information may help you.

Best regards,

Carlos_A.

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