Ionico 16

[Hewhoist]

Hi all,

Bought an ionico 16 in April and aside from an issue with sound its been a great machine. Tuesday I got a BSOD whilst gaming. Came back up and checked for overheating etc. Then noticed screen had darkened. Looked at device manager to find my RTX4070 card missing, it was found after looking in hidden items as it was giving a code 45 saying it wasn't connected anymore. I tinkered around for a while and rolled back a driver with multiple restarts. It was working again for several hours then again boom BSOD and exactly the same occured. Tried the previous fix to no luck. So I thought I'll blitz the machine wipe the drive incase of missing files or corrupted setup etc. No luck. Called PCS who couldn't help and setup a RMA for next week.

I thought since I've got the weekend (btw the machine is working with it's intel graphics) I'll open it up and actually look physically at the chips and surrounding area, I kind of wish I'd taken some pictures now but the sheer amount of paste on this heatsink was unbelievable. There was even paste spidering across the boards. There's some sort of insulating paste/sand texture around some of the cpu and gpu which I've not seen before but really messily applied it is everywhere there was even parts of it on the motherboard.

So I thought I'll clean all this up and repaste using some kryonaut as it's my paste of choice. Removed a little of the "sand/paste insulation" and made sure it still covered between the top of the points and the copper/vapor chamber surface.

Put the machine back on and it was working again. Then another BSOD and a restart but it was working again. Managed to put on all the drivers needed for the two gpus and the laptop itself and tested it running a stress test.

Now for the actual queries! has anyone suffered something similar? if the chip was faulty (dying) surely it wouldn't be working for long periods then randomly saying it's not connected anymore? I'll be sending it back with the RMA to get checked over regardless. Does anyone know the paste used? and why they applied it with a catapult. What is the insulation material?

 

[Hewhoist]

Since typing this it's BSOD twice and again does not detect the NVIDIA gpu as it's code 45 again not connected.

 

[Hewhoist]

powered up the laptop this morning the GPU is active but the temps are running in the high 90's which could explain the bsod. However after only opening it yesterday and repasting surely this isn't the issue. Looks like PCS will have to solve this one

 

[ubuysa]

It sounds like a hardware issue from what you're saying, but it's worth us having a look at the logs and dumps, so please do the following:

Upload Any Relevant Dumps
Navigate to C:\Windows\Minidumps and look at the date/time stamp to identify all minidumps that are relevant to your problem. Zip them all up and post that zip file here.
We'll still help of course even if you don't include the dump but if you can do so we'll be able to offer better help and much faster.

Upload Event Logs
In most cases it will be useful for us to be able to see your event logs as well and the best way to get those to us is to export them and upload them here. To do that do the following...
1. Enter the command eventvwr into the Run command box. The Event Viewer will open.
2. Locate the Windows Logs folder in the left hand pane and expand it by clicking on the arrow (>) to the left of it.
3. Right-click on the Application entry and select 'Save all events as...'. Choose a folder anywhere that suits you and a filename of 'Application' (an .evtx suffix will be added automatically).
4. Right-click on the System entry and select 'Save all events as...'. Choose a folder anywhere that suits you and a filename of 'System' (an .evtx suffix will be added automatically).
5. Zip the Application.evtx and System.evtx files together and upload the zip file here.

 

[Hewhoist]

It sounds like a hardware issue from what you're saying, but it's worth us having a look at the logs and dumps, so please do the following:

Upload Any Relevant Dumps
Navigate to C:\Windows\Minidumps and look at the date/time stamp to identify all minidumps that are relevant to your problem. Zip them all up and post that zip file here.
We'll still help of course even if you don't include the dump but if you can do so we'll be able to offer better help and much faster.

Upload Event Logs
In most cases it will be useful for us to be able to see your event logs as well and the best way to get those to us is to export them and upload them here. To do that do the following...
1. Enter the command eventvwr into the Run command box. The Event Viewer will open.
2. Locate the Windows Logs folder in the left hand pane and expand it by clicking on the arrow (>) to the left of it.
3. Right-click on the Application entry and select 'Save all events as...'. Choose a folder anywhere that suits you and a filename of 'Application' (an .evtx suffix will be added automatically).
4. Right-click on the System entry and select 'Save all events as...'. Choose a folder anywhere that suits you and a filename of 'System' (an .evtx suffix will be added automatically).
5. Zip the Application.evtx and System.evtx files together and upload the zip file here.

Won't allow the zipped file to be uploaded here.

 

[Martinr36]

Won't allow the zipped file to be uploaded here.

upload to somewhere like Google drive, make sure they are public and post the link here

 

[Hewhoist]

Logs.zip

drive.google.com

 

[ubuysa]

There are several worrying messages in your System log. Firstly there have been several BSODs; three 0x113 (VIDEO_DXGKRNL_FATAL_ERROR (a very rare bugcheck), and a 0x9F (DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE, indicating a device has hung). Yet you uploaded no mindumps, why is that?

There are serious error messages concerning an embedded controller failure, there are three of these in your log (which only covers the last two days)...

Log Name:      System
Source:        ACPI
Date:          23/06/2023 13:39:19
Event ID:      13
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      AP
Description:
: The embedded controller (EC) did not respond within the specified timeout period. This may indicate that there is an error in the EC hardware or firmware or that the BIOS is accessing the EC incorrectly. You should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. In some situations, this error may cause the computer to function incorrectly.

As suggested in the error messages I would contact PCS, offer to upload the System log and ask about a BIOS update.

You've also had issues with your AX211 WiFi adapter (though there's only one of these messages in the log)...

Log Name:      System
Source:        Netwtw12
Date:          23/06/2023 13:55:27
Event ID:      5005
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      AP
Description:
Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz : Has encountered an internal error and has failed.

If you have those four minidumps in the folder C:\Windows\Minidump then please zip them up and upload them.

 

[Hewhoist]

There are several worrying messages in your System log. Firstly there have been several BSODs; three 0x113 (VIDEO_DXGKRNL_FATAL_ERROR (a very rare bugcheck), and a 0x9F (DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE, indicating a device has hung). Yet you uploaded no mindumps, why is that?

There are serious error messages concerning an embedded controller failure, there are three of these in your log (which only covers the last two days)...

Log Name:      System
Source:        ACPI
Date:          23/06/2023 13:39:19
Event ID:      13
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      AP
Description:
: The embedded controller (EC) did not respond within the specified timeout period. This may indicate that there is an error in the EC hardware or firmware or that the BIOS is accessing the EC incorrectly. You should check with your computer manufacturer for an upgraded BIOS. In some situations, this error may cause the computer to function incorrectly.

As suggested in the error messages I would contact PCS, offer to upload the System log and ask about a BIOS update.

You've also had issues with your AX211 WiFi adapter (though there's only one of these messages in the log)...

Log Name:      System
Source:        Netwtw12
Date:          23/06/2023 13:55:27
Event ID:      5005
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      AP
Description:
Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz : Has encountered an internal error and has failed.

If you have those four minidumps in the folder C:\Windows\Minidump then please zip them up and upload them.

OS was reinstalled on Wednesday upon suggestion by PCS tech support. It's going back Tuesday. I've lost sound now as well and I'm really unsure whats wrong with it now.

link to minidumps https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tleCxjmUhmwjTc1rBNXAZBh32DJu7C2M/view?usp=sharing

 

[ubuysa]

These dumps are all 0x113 VIDEO_DXGKRNL_FATAL_ERROR, which means that the WIndows DirectX kernel encountered a fatal error. It's not dxgkrnl.sys that's at fault because that's a Windows driver, so that suggests a hardware error.

A hardware error is confirmed by the stack trace (every dump is the same)...

6: kd> !dpx
Start memory scan  : 0xfffff88f3e452168 ($csp)
End memory scan    : 0xfffff88f3e453000 (Kernel Stack Base)

0xfffff88f3e452218 : 0xfffff8014a58942c : dxgkrnl!DpiFdoHandleSurpriseRemoval+0x15c  <====== And here is the dxgkrnl.sys bugcheck
0xfffff88f3e452268 : 0xfffff8014a412ec5 : dxgkrnl!DpiFdoDispatchPnp+0xd5
0xfffff88f3e452290 : 0xfffff80144a1d7d0 : nt!DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_HasProblem        <====== This is what caused the bugcheck
0xfffff88f3e4522d8 : 0xfffff8014a5892d0 : dxgkrnl!DpiFdoHandleSurpriseRemoval
0xfffff88f3e4522e0 : 0xfffff8014a5892d0 : dxgkrnl!DpiFdoHandleSurpriseRemoval
0xfffff88f3e4522e8 : 0xfffff80144daeb8b : nt!HalpHvCounterQueryCounter+0x1b
0xfffff88f3e452308 : 0xfffff8014a38fbca : dxgkrnl!DpiDispatchPnp+0xea
0xfffff88f3e4524b8 : 0xfffff8014565bce0 : nt!PiPnpRtlActiveOperationsLock+0x60
0xfffff88f3e452528 : 0xfffff80144c924e5 : nt!IofCallDriver+0x55
0xfffff88f3e452568 : 0xfffff801451220a4 : nt!IopSynchronousCall+0xf8
0xfffff88f3e452598 : 0xfffff801451710ae : nt!PiPnpRtlBeginOperation+0x32
0xfffff88f3e4525d8 : 0xfffff8014522878c : nt!IopRemoveDevice+0x108
0xfffff88f3e452688 : 0xfffff8014522647c : nt!PnpSurpriseRemoveLockedDeviceNode+0xc4
0xfffff88f3e4526e8 : 0xfffff80145228394 : nt!PnpDeleteLockedDeviceNode+0x88
0xfffff88f3e452708 : 0xfffff801452282d7 : nt!IopEnumerateRelations+0x63
0xfffff88f3e452728 : 0xfffff80145228027 : nt!PnpDeleteLockedDeviceNodes+0xd7
0xfffff88f3e4527a8 : 0xfffff80145229276 : nt!PnpProcessQueryRemoveAndEject+0x1da
0xfffff88f3e452848 : 0xfffff80145162780 : nt!PnpDeviceEventWorker
0xfffff88f3e452888 : 0xfffff80145150769 : nt!PnpProcessTargetDeviceEvent+0x109
0xfffff88f3e4528b8 : 0xfffff80145162a40 : nt!PnpDeviceEventWorker+0x2c0
0xfffff88f3e4528e8 : 0xfffff8014563ea60 : nt!PopFxSystemWorkPool+0x40
0xfffff88f3e452928 : 0xfffff80145749ac0 : nt!ExNode0
0xfffff88f3e452938 : 0xfffff80144cb0c65 : nt!ExpWorkerThread+0x155
0xfffff88f3e452988 : 0xfffff80145749ac0 : nt!ExNode0
0xfffff88f3e452990 : 0xfffff80145749ac0 : nt!ExNode0
0xfffff88f3e452af8 : 0xfffff80144dc6a72 : nt!EtwTraceContextSwap+0xb2
0xfffff88f3e452b28 : 0xfffff80144cd8dc7 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x57
0xfffff88f3e452b48 : 0xfffff80144cb0b10 : nt!ExpWorkerThread
0xfffff88f3e452b78 : 0xfffff80144e311e4 : nt!KiStartSystemThread+0x34
0xfffff88f3e452b90 : 0xfffff80144cd8d70 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup

The nt!DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_HasProblem function call is the result of a hardware problem and since the dxgkrnl.sys driver is involved this must be the graphics card that's at fault.

I didn't see the 0x9F dump in the upload, but in that dump I'd bet that the blocking device is pretty much sure to be the graphics card.

 

[Hewhoist]

OS was reinstalled upon suggestion by PCS tech support. It's going back Tuesday. I've lost sound now as well and I'm really unsure whats wrong with it now.

I think I'm following you. Hardware failure not driver. Wonder why the sound is now gone? This is a real shame been enjoying this machine. Hopefully it's a quick fix.

Thanks for the insights hopefully be helpful with the repair.