DirectIO - Bluescreen issue on Lenovo

[aquartar]

I am looking to test a new device my company just received, and I had originally had a copy of V11.0 Build 1003 on my flash drive. However, as it was going through pulling up the system temps and specs, it actually bluescreend the device, specifically talking about DirectIO. I tried again, and then went out to the site and noticed the V11.0 Build 1004 which specifically has fixes for it, so I figured I was all set. After getting the Build 1003 uninstalled, (which took a bit of effort - clearing out the ProgramData and Program Files folder, rebooting and then installing 1004, it bluescreened again at the same spot.

I wondered if something in the registry was still there, and since I had barely done anything else outside of update Windows and drivers, I reset Windows 11 to factory, and tried it again - and it still happened. Has there been any other reports of the new version still crashing? This is a brand new Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen 11 we got as a seed device from Lenovo, so is it possible something with the Intel 13th Gen processors not playing nice, even after the DirectIO specific fixes?

Update: BSOD Stop code was SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION on the DirectIo64.sys device driver

[David (PassMark)]

It isn't a known problem.

Can you collect and EMail us (or post here) the debug log files
https://www.passmark.com/support/per.../debug-log.php

Can you also check if it only happens when running from a flash drive (if you do a normal install does it still happen)?

Also, you don't need to manually clean out the old software release before installing the new one. The new one should overwrite the old one.

[aquartar]

David,

So this was during a normal install, and I have never run it off of a flash drive. I also rebuilt the device with our Windows 10 image, and it did the same thing. I was getting a start up error after the reboot (I believe with Error code 9 - forgot to screenshot it). but I was having trouble initially with going to build 1004 after the crash. I'll update this with the debug when I have some time later today.

[aquartar]

David - please see attached

[keith]

David - please see attached

Thanks for the logs.

Can you give this build a try:
https://www.passmark.com/temp/petst-11.4.1000-DIO.1.exe

[aquartar]

Thanks for the logs.

Can you give this build a try:
https://www.passmark.com/temp/petst-11.4.1000-DIO.1.exe

Keith - Just saw this - I'll give it a try and report back.

[aquartar]

Thanks for the logs.

Can you give this build a try:
https://www.passmark.com/temp/petst-11.4.1000-DIO.1.exe

Keith - I was able to successfully launch and run the full suite of tests. I did the first as normal, and then ran it again with the debug mode enabled. It looks like it generated a bunch of other logs from the individual tests, but I put the two that David originally asked of me here from this second run.

[aquartar]

Keith - so those above success were with the stock Windows 11 build on the device. I just tried that build and it crashed on our Windows 10 build in the same way as before. Here are the debug logs from that.

[David (PassMark)]

Also might be linked to this issue.
https://forums.passmark.com/performa...reen-at-launch

Findings in that other post were that "Enhanced Windows biometric security" (this BIOS setting goes by slightly different names from each manufacturer), was causing a conflict.

As some technical background:
This is all related to scanning and accessing the PCIe configuration space. We need PCIe access to find the SMBus controller (often in the PCH). And we need the SMBus controller to talk to the RAM sticks to collect the SPD data. There is a legacy method of reading and writing the PCI registers, Direct IO on ports CF8 / CFC. But it seems this recent "biometric security" change blocks access to the ports CF8 / CFC. Rather than documenting this and then doing a graceful failure, Microsoft decided a blue screen would be a better way to indicate the access was blocked. There is a new method to access the PCIe configuration data, which is via memory mapped IO. But reading the PCIe configuration data via memory mapped IO can also cause a BSOD with "biometric security". It seems the biometric security features works differently in Win10 and Win11 however. With Win10 being more locked down.

Also of note, Microsoft claim that this only happens with a combination of settings active. Which are,
Enhanced Windows biometric security +
Secure Devices (SDEV) ACPI table +
Virtualization-based Security (VBS)

As far as we are aware it is only a few Lenovo laptops that ship with this setup. Seems Lenovo were aware of this for years
https://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/solutions/ht511000
And previously fixed it in 2020.

[aquartar]

Also might be linked to this issue.
https://forums.passmark.com/performa...reen-at-launch

Findings in that other post were that "Enhanced Windows biometric security" (this BIOS setting goes by slightly different names from each manufacturer), was causing a conflict.

I have a BSOD memory dump, if that'll help. I changed the setting so it's the larger dumb than the stock dump.

[keith]

Keith - so those above success were with the stock Windows 11 build on the device. I just tried that build and it crashed on our Windows 10 build in the same way as before. Here are the debug logs from that.

Thanks for the logs. Win10 seems to have a different kernel security mechanism (possibly stricter) than Win11.
Here is a debug build with a possible workaround:

https://www.passmark.com/temp/petst-11.4.1000-DIO.2.exe

[aquartar]

Thanks for the logs. Win10 seems to have a different kernel security mechanism (possibly stricter) than Win11.
Here is a debug build with a possible workaround:

https://www.passmark.com/temp/petst-11.4.1000-DIO.2.exe

Keith - same thing - attached logs.

[David (PassMark)]

We did a new public release yesterday evening, V11.0 build 1005, that should fix the problem on Win11 (but maybe not on Win10, as noted above)

Version history:
https://www.passmark.com/products/pe...st/history.php

We will continue to look for a Win10 solution. But as a work-around changing the BIOS setting for Enhanced Windows biometric security should also fix it.

[keith]

Keith - same thing - attached logs.

Thanks for the logs.

We made a slight fix. Can you give this build a try:
https://www.passmark.com/temp/petst-11.4.1000-DIO.3.exe

[aquartar]

Thanks for the logs.

We made a slight fix. Can you give this build a try:
https://www.passmark.com/temp/petst-11.4.1000-DIO.3.exe

Hi Keith - I hadn't checked here for a few days - I'll let you know.