Built-in Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168 causing Bluescreens on my Ryzen desktop? Netwtw04.sys

[KHake]

I am having bluescreens several times per day recently, and after looking at the crash dumps they are always pointing to Netwtw04.sys (the driver for the dual band Wireless-AC 3168 built-in to my ASRock AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac motherboard)

Is there any setting that I can use to mitigate the issue? Any info I can provide to help debug the driver?

At this point I am considering buying an addon wifi card and leaving the Intel part disabled.

More history:

When I first built this amd desktop, I had many bluescreens, but after a major windows update they almost disappeared (still once per month or two), and I never investigated further (sorry, no dumps).

I had an A12-9800 APU installed. Last week I upgraded my bios and swapped in a Ryzen 3 2200G. I immediately started seeing multiple bluescreens per day again, sometimes just minutes after booting into Windows, sometimes at the login screen. My intuition said I messed up the installation, or that the new bios/drivers were responsible, but the crash dumps are always pointing to Netwtw04.sys. Considering I've been getting bluescreens for some time, maybe there's some underlying issue here that is exacerbated with the hardware change.

With the wireless disabled, the system is very stable. I took a day to run Prime95 (with no internet connection), and it performed flawlessly. I ran the full Windows Memory Diagnostic overnight, and the results were normal, no errors. The system is running cool, the mobo and wifi antenna connector look totally normal.

I found the latest generic drivers from Intel, installed them, and the problem got worse (so I reverted).

This is pretty inconvenient for me, but perhaps it is a nice crash dump generator for you guys at Intel. I've collected a handful of full dumps for the last day or so, some using different driver versions than others. I've attached the mini dumps.

[idata]

Hello KevinHake,

Thanks for being part in our communities.We understand that you're experiencing blue screen crashes on your system.Out of the five dump files provided, four of them point driver "atikmdag.sys" as the crash cause. This seems to be an AMD* associated driver. We recommend to update or reinstall your AMD* drivers.As for the wireless adapter, since you've already test with the latest Intel generic driver, we would like you to perform a driver only installation. Here's how to it:1. Download and extract our latest IT Admin driver package for your adapter: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27485 WiFi_20.30.1_Driver64_Win10.zip.2. Under Programs and Features in the Control Panel, or Apps & Features in Windows* Settings, uninstall any instance of the "Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software." When prompted, choose to "discard settings."3. Go to the Device Manager > Network Adapters > Right click on your Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC-3168 and uninstall it. Make sure to mark the option to "Delete the driver software for this device."4. Clear out your temporary files: Press the Windows* Key + R to open the run box. Type Cleanmgr.exe and press OK. Here you will need to make sure Temporary Files are checked, you may uncheck everything else, then press OK.5. Reboot your computer.6. Go to the Device Manager > Network Adapters > Right click on your Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168 again, this time choose to "Update driver software..." > Select the option to "Locate and install driver software manually." Here you will need to direct the wizard to the location where you extracted the IT Admin package back in step one.Please let us know the results.Best regards,Eugenio F.

[KHake]

Thanks so much for your help Eugenio! I'm not sure how I missed the connection with atikmdag.sys - I've since updated my chipset and video drivers, hopefully those go away now.

I have updated to the IT Admin package as per your instructions, and I'm up and running. If I don't have any more issues, I'll let you know in a few days, otherwise I'll send a new crash dump when it happens. Fingers crossed.

I should note: In Device Manager, when I uninstalled the Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC-3168 driver, there was no option to "Delete the driver software for this device." After installing the new driver, the option became available. For good measure, I repeated the uninstall/reinstall process using the "delete" checkbox (tho maybe that wasn't necessary).

One thing I want to verify:

After the install, my Driver Version says 19.51.11.2 (not 20.30.1). Looking in the WiFi_20.30.1_Driver64_Win10.zip package, I see that the version does match the Netwtw04 driver inside, and comparing INF files (with Netwtw02 and 06) it does seem like this is the one I should be using for the AC-3168. It just seemed a little odd/confusing that this driver version isn't in line with the version on the package. It also makes me wonder what bug fixes for the Netwtw06 builds haven't made it into the 02 and 04 branches , but I don't really know how your versioning scheme works. Is this the expected version for me?

[idata]

Hello KevinHake,

Thanks for your reply.

The latest driver wireless package version is 20.30.1. However, the driver package doesn't match the latest driver version for all the adapter models. The latest driver For AC-3168 on Windows 10* is 19.51.11.2.

You can find a table showing the latest package version versus the latest driver for each adapter:

- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005559/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html Latest Driver for Your Intel® Wireless Adapter

Please let us know if there's anything else we can do for you.

Best regards,

Eugenio F.

[KHake]

Thanks Eugenio! I haven't seen another bluescreen since the update, so I think it's safe to close. I'll post again if something changes, but it's been stable for a few days.

[idata]

Hello KevinHake,

Thanks for the follow-up.It is good to know the blue screen crashes have stopped. Let us know if there's anything else we can do for you.Best regards,Eugenio F.

[KHake]

Hi Eugenio -

I was doing some stress testing of the wireless and I got another bluescreen.

Attached is the minidump. I do have the much larger kernel dump, if you are interested and there is an easy way to send it to you, let me know. Even compressed it's about 3.5 GB.

I also attached a lot of error event logs from the driver that I saw recently, maybe they mean something to you. Keep in mind the error logs are from a day after the crash. I did not find Netwtw04 logs from before the crash dump.

[KHake]

A couple more minidumps (these I don't have kernel dumps for). One says Netwtw04.sys, the other ntkrnlmp.exe but I suspect it's the Intel driver both times. If I have a torrent going in the background it seems to die after only an hour or two.

[idata]

Hello KevinHake,

Thanks for your reply.The vent viewer shows errors with Event ID 5010 and Event ID 5007. All of them are showing at the same time (around 6:14 PM - 6:29 PM on 3/7/18). Did you notice any problems with the wireless connection at that time? Please test a clean https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022173/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html wireless driver installation using the https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/Fatal1ty%20AB350%20Gaming-ITXac/index.asp# Download driver provided by your motherboard OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer).NOTE: Links to third party sites are being offered for your convenience and should not be viewed as an endorsement by Intel of the content, products, or services offered there.However, please notice the minidumps indicate the BSOD are caused by "ntoskrnl.exe" (a kernel component of Windows*) and "atikmdag.sys" (an AMD* related driver). You may want to consider backing up your files and reinstall the operating system.Best regards,Eugenio F.

[KHake]

Looking closer I see that March 7 at 6:15PM is the time of the bluescreen of dump 030718-124546-01.dmp, which is right after many of the errors 5010 and 5007 were logged. I am still periodically getting hundreds or thousands of these errors from time to time, but they are not always followed by bluescreens.

I disagree about the source of the bluescreen in these latest dumps. Since updating the ATI drivers in February I have not seen atikmdag.sys as a culprit in the dumps.

All are DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATIONs:

FileCrash DateWinDbg Analysis 2018-03-06_driverCrashmini.dmpMar 6, 8:38PM

Traced to 0x133_ISR_Netwtw04!unknown_function

I have a kernel dump of this.

030718-124546-01.dmpMar 7, 6:15PMTraced to 0x133_ISR_Netwtw04!unknown_function030718-116437-01.dmpMar 7, 10:02PMSeems to me the dump did not capture enough, the backtrace doesn't escape Nt functions. Given that the conditions and type of error were the same as for the others, it seems likely that this was also due to Netwtw04. Maybe this dump isn't useful though

In February, I first noticed these bluescreen errors using the drivers you referenced from the ASRock website. I suspect trying them again will give a "yes, it is still broken" result, tho I don't have time right now to try.

With source/symbols, Windbg will be able to see what function this is failing in and perhaps the exact location in the driver code. I (expectedly) don't have them for Netwtw04, but perhaps you or another Intel engineer has access to those resources. I accept that there may not be a solution to this right now, but I am willing to help provide more info if it helps track down the cause.

[KHake]

ASRock released a new beta bios (v.4.51A) today with a description: "Enhance compatibility for Raven CPU with Intel WiFi."

I will update to the new bios and see if the issues are resolved.

[idata]

Hello KevinHake,

Thanks for your reply. Please let us know the results after the driver update.Best regards,Eugenio F.

[KHake]

I have not seen any more blue screens since I flashed to the new beta bios (L4.51A). Thanks Eugenio!

[idata]

Hello KevinHake,

Thank you for letting us know about the BIOS update release and for confirming that it works.Let us know if there's anything else we can do for you.Best regards,Eugenio F.