Unusual BSOD and a Fix - Windows 10 and some Gigabyte Motherboards

[BC_Programmer]

I've found over the past few weeks that I would receive a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA BSOD when restarting or shutting down my Desktop PC. It didn't affect anything- it booted up just fine afterwards. Nonetheless, I was concerned. I was able to determine the cause and I think it may be useful if others are encountering this issue.

After some investigation and analyzing the crash dumps with Windebug, I stumbled upon stack trace references to "USBCHARGER.SYS", which I found in my Windows Driver folders. However, I also found this was not a Microsoft file, but seems to have been installed as part of my Motherboard chipset driver packages. it seems to be related to a feature of the motherboard to allow charging while the system is in sleep mode... or related to Apple devices in some way. I'm not entire sure.

I found within the installation folder for said product a .reg files which uninstalled it. I also renamed the file. (These were found at "C:\Program Files\GIGABYTE\ONOFFCharge\uninstall.reg)


I've rebooted twice since them and haven't received a BSOD so I suspect this was the cause. I thought this could be useful if anybody else may be encountering similar behaviour.

[Mark.]

Good find and thanks for sharing.
While I predominently only use Gigabyte mobo’s, I never install the USB Charging ON/OFF software so luckily have dodged this particlular bullt thankfully.

[DaveLembke]

I have 2 systems with this motherboard ( GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 ) https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128565

One system running Win 7 64-bit home and other system on Windows 10 64bit Home. One of them is Phenom II x4 3.0Ghz and other is AMD FX-8350 x8 core 4Ghz. No problems so far.

No problems yet and I installed the drivers off the disc that came with it.

Maybe its a software/driver/hardware difference between our builds.

The only Gigabyte board that isn't trusted and acts up is my Socket AM1 Kabini Build. It has this GIGABYTE GA-AM1M-S2H  motherboard: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128696 with the Quadcore 1.3Ghz Sempron 3850 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113366

It has a strangeness in that it will lock up tight or will severely lag with constant HDD LED lit as well as occasional BSOD in the middle of doing just about anything without warning. Windows event log complains about a power failure from improper shutdown. HDD LED will also remain on solid when no HDD activity.

Swapped out the power supply, checked all connections, reseated RAM ( single stick because memory controller only supports single channel ), even tried disconnecting the soft power button in case caused by a flakey power button. After troubleshooting and it not being reliable, because I have other computers that are reliable, I use them instead. I have since pulled this motherboard from the case and installed another electron sipper low power board which has no problems and running strong since last August. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138448
Moved the RAM stick, Hard Drive, and Power Supply to this board and no problems. So the only thing I can think of is that the AM1 boards are built so cost cutting cheap that the motherboard itself has an issue. I didn't bother sending it back under warranty because the Gigabyte motherboard was only $35 new and I got almost 2 years out of it before it got ill. Additionally the Sempron 3850 1.3Ghz quadcore was too limited by the 1.3Ghz clock. The A8-5545m quadcore which runs between 1.7 and 2.7Ghz, most of the time running in the 2.4Ghz range is snappy and quick and so I have been very happy with its performance to handle most of my games, and no crashes yet with it. Only thing in back of my mind with the A8-5545m Biostar motherboard is that the APU fan is not a standard cooling fan replacement, so at some point when that fan fails I am going to have to dig around for a replacement fan to mount to the heatsink. Its not as easy as buying a new heatsink with fan attached for a specific socket because the A8-5545m is a mobile processor intended for laptops and not a desktop motherboard so I would probably have to order a fan and splice it into the connector for CPU fan for +, -, and Tach.

[BC_Programmer]

Probably should have mentioned the motherboard model itself for posterity: Z87X-UD3H-CF.

I've only had it occur on that one. I also have a Gigabyte EP43-UD3L in my older build as well as a GA-AM1M-S2P. However I think this is the only one that had the ON/OFF charging feature installed- it's not a feature I would use so if I was paying attention I would have unchecked it. Maybe I was feeling generous when I was installing or updating the drivers at some point.

I also found a number of hits online where others were affected by the same BSOD due to Gigabyte's "USBCHARGER.SYS".

However- It actually gets a little more interesting and I might not be able to entirely blame Gigabyte's Driver software, A while ago when booting the system I would get a bunch of (say 20 or so) USB connect and disconnect sounds. I thought nothing of it since I couldn't really figure out what it was, and everything I had connected via USB still worked.  owever, when I discovered that my BSOD was USB-related, I popped into device manager and took a look and noticed that I had a "Generic SuperSpeed USB Hub" with the ol' exclamation mark listed as being unable to start because "The USB hub failed to reset". I enabled it, got about 20 USB connect/disconnect sounds, then it went back to an exclamation mark. I assumed this was the card reader/USB 3.0 combo front panel I had added some time ago having failed as it had been somewhat finicky, so disabled it and rebooted. When that didn't fix it I proceeded onwards.

However, in writing this post I wanted to verify "And yet all my USB Ports seem to work anyway" which I had written, so I started plugging a Flash Drive into each of my unoccupied Motherboard USB Ports- to double-check what I thought I already knew:



I made my way over to the ports beneath the Ethernet jack. The bottom one was first. I plugged it in- and nothing! I had seemingly discovered at least the ports that had been disabled, which  resolved that mystery. For completions sake I plugged it into the other port. And my computer shut off altogether!  , seems like I've got a hardware problem as well! It may be some combination of these various factors involving incompatibility issues with Gigabyte's motherboard software and what seems to be a failure on the motherboard itself related to USB ports.

It seems to only affect two USB ports which I wasn't using anyway, and I have a 10-port USB 3 Hub for if I need more than the 4 USB Ports I have on the front of my case plugged in at once, so I'm not too bothered.

Also here's a bonus story: I got a Digital Audio cable which I intended to plug into my audio card's digital input in order to route audio from some HDMI devices (mostly, my Super NT) to my PC Speakers rather than my monitor speakers. I spent nearly an hour trying to plug it into my Sound card and it would just fall out and it felt like I was about to break something I was pushing it in so hard. I was googling for whether there were different versions or something.

Until I went to "wipe" off what I thought was the connector and a little plastic dome slipped off.

I had been trying to plug in a connector while it had a protective cover on it. For an hour.