Troubleshooting BSOD when connecting Kindle Oasis to old computer

[Quoth]

OK, look at what programs and extra drivers are loaded, if any, in Startup.
Also look and see are there any services that shouldn't be running.
The registry has several startup sections.

I used to use this to find stuff that was breaking windows, not just malware. I only got one false positive, which turned out to be a Dell Keyboard driver that could be replaced.

https://www.silentrunners.org/

You may need to download renaming it as text and then rename back to vbs to run. Better than most AV.


Good news it's not a HW fault, so totally solvable.

[uhi711]

Originally Posted by Quoth

OK, look at what programs and extra drivers are loaded, if any, in Startup.
Also look and see are there any services that shouldn't be running.
The registry has several startup sections.

I used to use this to find stuff that was breaking windows, not just malware. I only got one false positive, which turned out to be a Dell Keyboard driver that could be replaced.

https://www.silentrunners.org/

You may need to download renaming it as text and then rename back to vbs to run. Better than most AV.


Good news it's not a HW fault, so totally solvable.

Thank you! I used in the past Sysinternals' Autoruns. Do you think the VB Script is better or it could show more info than Autoruns?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by uhi711

Thank you! I used in the past Sysinternals' Autoruns. Do you think the VB Script is better or it could show more info than Autoruns?

No idea about "Sysinternals' Autoruns", but Silent Runners helped me find and delete both real malware and "stupid programs" without having to re-install. It finds subtle things.

Fortunately I no longer do IT support. I might even lie and tell people I know nothing about Linux / Unix / Windows.

[uhi711]

Originally Posted by Quoth

No idea about "Sysinternals' Autoruns", but Silent Runners helped me find and delete both real malware and "stupid programs" without having to re-install. It finds subtle things.

Fortunately I no longer do IT support. I might even lie and tell people I know nothing about Linux / Unix / Windows.

OK, thanks. Sysinternals utilities are a set of very useful free programs written for or by Microsoft programmers and backed by Microsoft. You can find, if interested, everything about them here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/.
I'll give a try to Silent Runners to see if their script could give me some more info.

[Quoth]

I'm sure I used Sysinternals utilities long ago. Gave up Windows in Jan 2017.

Good Luck.

[haertig]

I would download and burn a Linux Live-CD (or thumbdrive) and boot from that rather than Windows on your SSD. Try your Kindle when booted into Linux this way (there is no installation, so nothing is changed on your HDD/SSD). If your computer is new enough to be able to boot from a USB3 thumbdrive, that will be much faster than booting from a CD (actually a DVD these days).

Even before booting into Linux, you can run "memtest86" from the boot menu to test your RAM (many different options for memtest are available, and testing can run from a few minutes to many hours depending on how thoroughly you chose to test).

Here's a good Linux distro to do your testing with, should you decide to pursue this path (it's also a good distro to explore Linux with):

https://mxlinux.org/

At the very least, you should be able to determine if you're dealing with a software or a hardware issue. Basic answer is, "If both Linux and Windows don't work with your Kindle, it's likely your issue is hardware (or your Kindle itself, or the cable you're using to connect your Kindle). If Linux works but Windows doesn't, it's most likely a software problem in Windows (typically a driver, or the Windows OS itself)."

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by haertig

I would download and burn a Linux Live-CD (or thumbdrive) and boot from that rather than Windows on your SSD.

snip …

At the very least, you should be able to determine if you're dealing with a software or a hardware issue.

Alternate boot was suggested already. It's always a good idea.

I've used MX on an old laptop, but I think Mint + Mate is more likely to run.
I do keep both on USB sticks and even USB 2.0 boot is faster than win10 boot!


Anyway, apparently it's a "Win10 slightly borked" issue and not the HW, according to an earlier post.

[uhi711]

I just finished testing the Kindle with a Linux Live-USB drive and there was no problem, as expected after the successful connection of my Kindle on Windows Safe Boot.
I tried using the Silent Runners script, but it didn't find anything suspect. I'll keep trying to look for the bad driver or software using Sysinternals' Autoruns which has a lot of facilities to deal with the registry. Thank you all for your help.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by uhi711

I just finished testing the Kindle with a Linux Live-USB drive and there was no problem, as expected after the successful connection of my Kindle on Windows Safe Boot.
I tried using the Silent Runners script, but it didn't find anything suspect. I'll keep trying to look for the bad driver or software using Sysinternals' Autoruns which has a lot of facilities to deal with the registry. Thank you all for your help.

So it's likely a legitimate MS Windows file that's slightly damaged

Maybe install a spare disk with same version windows?

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by uhi711

OK, thanks. Sysinternals utilities are a set of very useful free programs written for or by Microsoft programmers and backed by Microsoft.

To be more specific sysinternals was written by Mark Russinovitch et al, and the tools were so good that Microsoft hired its authors to keep working on them (a decade or more after the tools were first written). They were very much not "written by Microsoft", though a lot of MS employees always used them! It's probably reasonable to say they are *maintained* by Microsoft.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by NullNix

...Microsoft hired its authors to keep working on them (a decade or more after the tools were first written). They were very much not "written by Microsoft", though a lot of MS employees always used them! It's probably reasonable to say they are *maintained* by Microsoft.

Kind of like VISIO.

If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by uhi711

I just finished testing the Kindle with a Linux Live-USB drive and there was no problem, as expected after the successful connection of my Kindle on Windows Safe Boot.
I tried using the Silent Runners script, but it didn't find anything suspect. I'll keep trying to look for the bad driver or software using Sysinternals' Autoruns which has a lot of facilities to deal with the registry. Thank you all for your help.

Turn off every program you run when you boot the computer normally. Then after you reboot and if your Kindle works, turn them back on one-by-one and until your Kindle fails. Then you'll know what the problem is.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by haertig

Kind of like VISIO.

If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em!

And Sybase SQL. -> MS SQL 6 and later.

But let's forget about PowerPoint.

I used Visio before MS bought it. They never did much with it.

[uhi711]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Turn off every program you run when you boot the computer normally. Then after you reboot and if your Kindle works, turn them back on one-by-one and until your Kindle fails. Then you'll know what the problem is.

I turned off every program in the Auto run list in System Configuration and it didn't help, I still got the same bsod.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by uhi711

I turned off every program in the Auto run list in System Configuration and it didn't help, I still got the same bsod.

Did you also turn off everything in the run section of the registry?

Another possible solution is to delete the USB driver and then plug in the Kindle and let the computer reinstall the driver.