[REQUEST] BSOD 0xc000000f After Mobo/CPU Upgrade

[Pork Chop]

Customer brought me their custom PC they put together because it would not boot up at all.

They upgraded their motherboard, CPU, and probably RAM - so it is basically a new computer.

They had our biggest local tech company take a look some things that they suspected might be the issues.

Lifted up their CPU, which was not being held in place by the socket lever and discovered bent and missing pins. Later found a pin lodged inside the socket and was able to remove it.

Replaced their Ryzen 3 1200 with a Ryzen 5 1600.

Boots up and goes to a BSOD 0xc000000f.

Note: the new motherboard (AM4) is UEFI - old one may have been BIOS.

Did the following:

• MemTest, HDD surface scan, PSU test - all good
• Check disk, system file checker - no issues
• All the BCD repairs
  • Fixboot gives the errors "Access denied" - can't find any helpful info
  • There's no EFI partition which makes sense if the old mobo was just BIOS
    • Tried to make one, but can't because the HDD is not GPT
  • C:\boot did not exist - fixed with making the Windows partition active and using bcdboot C:\windows, which created boot files
  • bootrec /rebuildbcd was successful
  • bcdedit all looks well - points to winload.exe instead of winload.efi - which makes sense if the old mobo was just BIOS

File System Oddity

• I think it was /fixboot that told me "the volume does not contain a recognized file system"
• Diskpart says the Windows partition is NTFS and healthy
• Check disk says it is NTFS
• bootsect /nt60 C: /force said "successfully updated FAT32 file system bootcode"

WTF ???

Specs

• Windows 10 Home 64-Bit
• Ryzen 5 1600 w/ wraith spiral cooler
• G.SKILL 8GB DDR4
• ASRock AB350 Pro4
• EVGA 1050 SC
• 1TB HDD

I'm ready to nuke this sucker unless you guys think there's something else I could try.

 

[GTP]

If there's nothing mission critical and you have an image I would just blow it away and put a fresh copy of Windoze on it.
Saves all the second guessing and diagnosis time.

 

[Pork Chop]

If there's nothing mission critical and you have an image I would just blow it away and put a fresh copy of Windoze on it.
Saves all the second guessing and diagnosis time.

That is the easy way (big fan of easy) but I would feel real good if I were able to fix this challenging issue

No image, but the HDD is fine so I can backup the data.

 

[GTP]

I would image it or back it up pronto!
Yeah, I don't like to be beaten at these "guessing games " but sometimes it's better to just give it best move on!

If I have the time I will try to nut it out but when clients expect it back quickly I just image, backup, N & P.

 

[GTP]

Have you tried resetting Bios back to defaults?
You could also pull the power cord, main Mobo supply, remove the BIOS battery for an hour and try again.

 

[Pork Chop]

Have you tried resetting Bios back to defaults?
You could also pull the power cord, main Mobo supply, remove the BIOS battery for an hour and try again.

The mobo is brand new. They never got it to run because of the broke CPU.

 

[Pork Chop]

I would image it or back it up pronto!
Yeah, I don't like to be beaten at these "guessing games " but sometimes it's better to just give it best move on!

If I have the time I will try to nut it out but when clients expect it back quickly I just image, backup, N & P.

"Nut it out" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[mikeroq]

No mention of what Windows they have?

What I would do:

Make an image of the c:\ partition - imagex/dism in my case
Pick UEFI or Legacy

Use diskpart
Legacy

select disk 0
clean
create partition primary size=300
format quick fs=ntfs label="System"
assign letter=S
active
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="OS"
assign letter=W
list volume

UEFI

select disk 0
clean
convert gpt
create partition primary size=300
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows RE tools"
assign letter=T
create partition efi size=100
rem == Note: for Advanced Format Generation One drives, change to size=260.
format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
assign letter=S
create partition msr size=128
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
assign letter=W

Apply my c:\ image to the W:\ partition
Make bootable

bcdboot w:\windows

If you are doing this on another machine

bcdboot w:\windows /s s:

 

[Pork Chop]

I decided to N&P. Backed up the data, got the Windows 10 digital product key using ProduKey (hope it works), and used diskpart's clean and convert gpt commands.

 

[backwoodsman]

Since it was put together with the kind of careful attention to detail that results in bent and broken CPU pins, I'd be suspecting ESD damage.

 

[Pork Chop]

Since it was put together with the kind of careful attention to detail that results in bent and broken CPU pins, I'd be suspecting ESD damage.

Lol, right! Hardware-wise it seems to be performing just fine with no issues other than the software one. Will know more once the new OS is put on.

The inside has an abundance of pet hair and dust. Lots of fingerprints on the components. I wear nitrile gloves when I assemble computers to keep the parts free of contamination by my hands.

 

[Markverhyden]

If it did not boot how did they load Windoze? From what I remember if you load a M$ OS on a platform it's tied to the underlying hardware during the install process. I'd think if the processor was changed that is a significant change which will BSOD. Unless you use one of those move to a different hardware layer tools.

 

[Pork Chop]

If it did not boot how did they load Windoze? From what I remember if you load a M$ OS on a platform it's tied to the underlying hardware during the install process. I'd think if the processor was changed that is a significant change which will BSOD. Unless you use one of those move to a different hardware layer tools.

It did boot up after replacing the broken CPU. Booted right up to a nasty BSOD.

I remember from my A+ book that when you install Windows it creates the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) around the CPU.

This is a brand new, current gen CPU that is of a different architecture and socket than the old one.

Plus, all (or nearly all) of the drivers are going to be different because the motherboard is different.

It is a huge system change. It's basically a new computer.

 

[Kitten Kong]

if that's the case chances are that it won' activate using the produkey coa.

Windows will say it' a new machine. hence no new coa

 

[Pork Chop]

if that's the case chances are that it won' activate using the produkey coa.

Windows will say it' a new machine. hence no new coa

The product key I recovered was the default key for Windows 10 and is therefore useless.

The Windows 10 digital entitlement key is tied to the hardware and the Microsoft account that was signed in.

When upgrading the hardware like I did, you can log in with your Microsoft account and it might activate. There's a built in troubleshooter that helps you with the process.

In my case, the troubleshooter had me sign into the Microsoft account but still failed to activate because, according to it, there were no Windows 10 devices associated with it.

Contacted Microsoft via chat, they remoted in, took about 25 minutes and it was activated.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

[Markverhyden]

HAL, thats the term I was thinking of. If I remember correctly it also includes the motherboard chipset as well.

 

[LostBit]

I would just blow it away and put a fresh copy of Windoze on it.

I do this whenever I encounter same issues.

 

[NviGate Systems]

HAL also used to have a "vote" system and your onboard LAN card was worth 3 votes, which explains why a main board change prompted activation since your LAN card was different. Of course those were XP days, but I bet the underlying system hasn't changed much.

 

[johnrobert]

This would have been a no-brainer for me, just do a N&P how could you make money otherwise could spend days.
if you change all hardware it's obvious whats going to happen

 

[Pork Chop]

Nuke and pave was done and the customer is pleased with the final results.