[Warning] Bootcamp 5 may cause system slowdown and crash !!

[IA64]

I found out that my maxed iMac 2013 is running OK but experiencing hiccups or slowdowns sometimes. I could monitor the latency, DPC count and ISR and tried to clean boot, uninstall everything from scratch but nop, nothing helped.

Outlook 2013 was taking 5 seconds to load, other applications were OK.

I then had one BSOD with crash minidump. After analyzing the output, it turned out to be a driver causing excessive memory paging. The only solution was to test the system with Driver Verifier. It turned out to be KeyAgent.sys from Apple. I renamed this file and my system is blazing fast again. Outlook takes less than a second to load. No more hiccups. Worth mentioning that the volumeUp/Down shortcuts are not working and Bootcamp manager is not working anymore but that's fine.

Now my latency is way below 400us :

PER CPU MEASURINGS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Highest latency on CPU 0: 34.60314 µs
Highest latency on CPU 1: 60.11563 µs
Highest latency on CPU 2: 31.67067 µs
Highest latency on CPU 3: 35.77613 µs
Highest latency on CPU 4: 31.96392 µs
Highest latency on CPU 5: 32.25717 µs
Highest latency on CPU 6: 42.66604 µs
Highest latency on CPU 7: 57.76965 µs


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name: IMAC-IA64
OS version: Windows 8 , 6.2, build: 9200Highest latency on CPU 7: 57.76965 µs
Hardware: iMac14,2, Apple Inc., Mac-27ADBB7B4CExxxx1
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4771 CPU @ 3.90GHz
Logical processors: 8
Processor groups: 1
RAM: 32708 MB total


=================================


You can test it yourself :

How to enable Driver Verifier:

Start > type "verifier" without the quotes > Select the following options -

1. Select - "Create custom settings (for code developers)"
2. Select - "Select individual settings from a full list"
3. Check the following boxes -
- Special Pool
- Pool Tracking
- Force IRQL Checking
- Deadlock Detection
- Security Checks (Windows 7 & 8)
- DDI compliance checking (Windows 8)
- Miscellaneous Checks
4. Select - "Select driver names from a list"
5. Click on the "Provider" tab. This will sort all of the drivers by the provider.
6. Check EVERY box that is NOT provided by Microsoft / Microsoft Corporation.
7. Click on Finish.
8. Restart.

Important information regarding Driver Verifier:

- If Driver Verifier finds a violation, the system will BSOD.

- After enabling Driver Verifier and restarting the system, depending on the culprit, if for example the driver is on start-up, you may not be able to get back into normal Windows because Driver Verifier will flag it, and as stated above, that will cause / force a BSOD.

If this happens, do not panic, do the following:

- Boot into Safe Mode by repeatedly tapping the F8 key during boot-up.

- Once in Safe Mode - Start > type "system restore" without the quotes.

- Choose the restore point you created earlier.
If you did not set up a restore point, do not worry, you can still disable Driver Verifier to get back into normal Windows:

- Start > Search > type "cmd" without the quotes.

- To turn off Driver Verifier, type in cmd "verifier /reset" without the quotes.
・ Restart and boot into normal Windows.


Cheers...

 

[ayeying]

No problems here. Running 8.1 with Bootcamp 5

 

[jenzjen]

Where did you get your boot camp driver package from? Apple support site and/or did you update any manually?

 

[Gav Mack]

I'd send that bug report to Apple!

On a side note I have started comparisons on the New Mac Pro bootcamp drivers today version 5.0.5510 with the standard 5.0.5033 versions with the aim of getting Windows 7 x64 working with EFI installation instead of Windows 8 as Apple have inexplicably dropped support for Windows 7 - the most popular workstation OS by far.

Drivers signed on 16th November and KeyAgent.sys is unchanged at 4.0.2.0 unlike quite a few others.

 

[IA64]

Where did you get your boot camp driver package from? Apple support site and/or did you update any manually?

I tried both. One downloaded from Apple website 5033 and another one 52xx using BCA. I am very positive about this bug and I simulated it on another bootcamp machine with Windows 8.1

You need to run Driver Verifier from Microsoft to confirm it.

 

[Gav Mack]

I tried both. One downloaded from Apple website 5033 and another one 52xx using BCA. I am very positive about this bug and I simulated it on another bootcamp machine with Windows 8.1

You need to run Driver Verifier from Microsoft to confirm it.

If there's any other files other than KeyAgent.sys possibly involved send me a PM and I can see if you can try some out of this newer build I have for the nMP. There are a few changed in the bootcamp.msi also but I still have quite a way to go to unpack all the drivers and examine each inf.

 

[IA64]

If there's any other files other than KeyAgent.sys possibly involved send me a PM and I can see if you can try some out of this newer build I have for the nMP. There are a few changed in the bootcamp.msi also but I still have quite a way to go to unpack all the drivers and examine each inf.

I also removed the AppleHFS and AppleMNT drivers installed with bootcamp.

They cause some lockups infrequently and too much ISR, and I mean too much.

I removed both files and services ( sc del applemnt | sc del applehfs ) and my interrupt latency is down to 20-50 microsecond now.

I installed MacDrive and it's handline HFS+ much better. Tags and thumbnails are generated on an external drive now and all is good.

*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for AppleMNT.sys
Probably caused by : AppleMNT.sys ( AppleMNT+5dc )
BUGCHECK_STR: 0x8E


*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for AppleMNT.sys
Probably caused by : AppleMNT.sys ( AppleMNT+5dc )
BUGCHECK_STR: 0x8E
PROCESS_NAME: notepad.exe
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x8E_AppleMNT+5dc
Bugcheck code 1000008E



Warning : ParagonHFS will reinstall those two drivers so don't install it. Even the version 10 caused me too much headache. I'll probably purchase the MacDrive 9xx. Version 8 of MacDrive did corrupt my external drive partition but this one seems to be stable.




So far that's how my latency looks like with 10.9 GB in use ( 40 opened tabs in Chrome, playing Flac audio, office and Lync 2013 in background and 109 processes started )

Current measured interrupt was always above 300 and the highest Interrupt/ ISR and DPC were always above 600.

OS is much smoother. No hiccups whatsoever.

 

[Gav Mack]

These are the file version differences in the nMP 5510 Win 8 build from 5033.

Apple Control Panel.exe 5.0.2.0 > 5.0.3.0
AppleHFS.sys 4.1.0.0 > 5.0.0.1
AppleMNT.sys 4.0.1.0 > 5.0.0.0
Bootcamp.exe 5.0.1.0 > 5.0.3.0

 

[IA64]

These are the file version differences in the nMP 5510 Win 8 build from 5033.

Apple Control Panel.exe 5.0.2.0 > 5.0.3.0
AppleHFS.sys 4.1.0.0 > 5.0.0.1
AppleMNT.sys 4.0.1.0 > 5.0.0.0
Bootcamp.exe 5.0.1.0 > 5.0.3.0

I have AppleMNT 5.0 but AppleHFS is still 4.1

Bootcamp 5 built 5270. I can't find version 5510 anywhere and BCP won't download version above 5270

 

[Gav Mack]

I have AppleMNT 5.0 but AppleHFS is still 4.1

Bootcamp 5 built 5270. I can't find version 5510 anywhere and BCP won't download version above 5270

5510 is only downloadable off the new Mac Pro via boot camp assistant!

 

[IA64]

5510 is only downloadable off the new Mac Pro via boot camp assistant!

Ok nice but what to do ? I'm stuck with this old version ?



Edit :

Would you also please check the Thunderbolt driver version ? mine gives me a lot of headache

 

[wedda]

My NVIDIA drivers in windows 8.1 will give me about 600.. what are you using?