BSOD in pcw.sys - stop error 7e

Hi All,

I recently had the use of a new i7 Computer for one week and was helping a friend to set it up.
Naturally, I had to give it back to him :-(

I get no errors in the build logs. All the Win7PE_SE DVD's and bootable USB's boot and run perfectly on my own Core2 Duo, Core2 Quad and two other laptops, just not on his i7. I have also tested the same Win7PE_SE builds on other friends i7 laptops and they all work perfectly there.

I tried many Win7PE_SE builds and all ended at a BSOD with stop error 7e in pcw.sys. This BSOD occurred at the very end of the boot process. The desktop was fully drawn up, PeNetwork run and fully loaded, all hardware seemed to have been detected, Hard Drive activity dropped to almost zero.

Then the BSOD happened.
I have run memory testing diagnostics in Windows 7.
Has anyone seen or experienced this sort of problem before..?

Details of system below.
Gigabyte Z77X-D3H rev 1.0 - BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. F15 Aug/22/2012

16 GB Installed Memory

OCZ-AGILITY4 [SSD Hard drive] (128.04 GB)
WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 [WD Green Hard drive] (2000.40 GB)


Controllers
-------------
Intel® 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller

Bus Adapters
-----------------
Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller
Intel® 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 1E26
Intel® 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 1E2D
Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller
Intel® USB 3.0 Root Hub
VIA USB 2 Hub
VIA USB eXtensible Host Controller

Display
---------
AMD Radeon HD7700 Series [Display adapter]

Multimedia
--------------
AMD High Definition Audio Device
VIA High Definition Audio

I am using Windows 7 Ult SP1 as source and x86 build with WinBuilder 082 and using the latest config scripts.

Any ideas as to what to look for in future would be appreciated. Unfortunately, due the the remote area my friend lives in, I do not have regular access to his computer for further experiments. And he is very loath to loan it to me, particularly as it has been working so well for the last month.

He is running Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 and it runs very well.

TIA,
Regards,
BobxT

Just to update with current info regarding the BSOD 7e on the Gigabyte Z77 chipset i7 board..
The owner of the system brought it back because he stuffed something up and wanted me to fix it for him (and I did).

I have never been able to determine what the cause of the issue was - but it is now fixed.

I have made so many changes, updated scripts from the server, added new DriverPacks tweaked, pushed, prodded, prayed to the gods of the holy electron. But something I did has made a huge positive change and the Win7PE_SE now boots and works well.

I just wish I knew what was the actual cause of the original problem and why Win7PE_SE produced a stop error on only that particular system and no other, if only so it might have helped someone else in future.

Regards,
BobxT

pcw.sys is apparently the Performance Counters for Windows driver. 0x0000007E is a system thread exception. Maybe you were building your PEs with a virus.

Hi Sha0,

I have checked and both the build Win7 x86 system and the DVD do not have a virus.
And in any case, as I stated in the first post, the ONLY computer I could find where it ended in a BSOD at the end of the boot was that one and only that one computer.

All disks work on 12 other computers by me and 6 friends have tried also, but not on the z77 gigabyte board. Only the most recent build works on everything including the z77 board.

Regards,
BobxT
8 October 2012 21:01

The stock 'Driver Integration' script in Win7pe_SE conflicts with the Intel® 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller. You probably installed an alternate driver set, which resolved the issue.

I had an HP 8300 Elite USDT with the same problem (and the same Intel® 7 Series/C216 chipset). Just after the the PE network finished initializing, I got a 'pcw.sys' bsod. After I saw this thread, I tried updating the AHCI driver and disabling the Windows performance counter service (PCW). No luck.

Then I read the post again and noticed that the USB controller is part of the same chipset. Removing the stock 'Driver Integration' script and adding a driver pack specific to the 8300 Elite resolves the issue.

The stock 'Driver Integration' script in Win7pe_SE conflicts with the Intel® 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller. You probably installed an alternate driver set, which resolved the issue.

I had an HP 8300 Elite USDT with the same problem (and the same Intel® 7 Series/C216 chipset). Just after the the PE network finished initializing, I got a 'pcw.sys' bsod. After I saw this thread, I tried updating the AHCI driver and disabling the Windows performance counter service (PCW). No luck.

Then I read the post again and noticed that the USB controller is part of the same chipset. Removing the stock 'Driver Integration' script and adding a driver pack specific to the 8300 Elite resolves the issue.

My problem was with a build I named Win7PE_SE#6. My builds #7 and later #8 did not produce the stop error and BSOD.
The major differences I made of any note between #6 and #7 was that in #7, I disabled the Native USB boot (flat file boot) in "RemovableDeviceUSB3.script". The drivers were unchanged between #6 and #7.

In #7 I also updated some config scripts that downloaded from the server and updated various Antivirus programs within the Win7PE_SE build. I did not add any new antivirus programs.

In #8 I updated to the latest DriverPacks, ie. MassStorage, Lan etc.

Regards,
BobxT

Edited by BobxT, 10 October 2012 - 11:17 PM.

The stock 'Driver Integration' script in Win7pe_SE conflicts with the Intel® 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller. You probably installed an alternate driver set, which resolved the issue.

I had an HP 8300 Elite USDT with the same problem (and the same Intel® 7 Series/C216 chipset). Just after the the PE network finished initializing, I got a 'pcw.sys' bsod. After I saw this thread, I tried updating the AHCI driver and disabling the Windows performance counter service (PCW). No luck.

Then I read the post again and noticed that the USB controller is part of the same chipset. Removing the stock 'Driver Integration' script and adding a driver pack specific to the 8300 Elite resolves the issue.

dadokai,

I'm expierencing a similar issue that once I reach the desktop (win7pro) and plug in a hub, I immediately get the bsod with the pcw.sys error. I read your posting with interest but unclear where you obtained this "driver pack" from and is this "driver integration" option that you speak strictly related to winpe-builder? Thanks for the clarification, looking forward to getting this resolved.

I have the similar problem about BSOD in pcw.sys . this pe build boot on many mainboard（915\G31\G41\P43） but can not boot on the ASRock Z77 Pro4-M I had checked everything found that if I checked 'Driver Integration' and add a DriverPacks ,the BSOD in pcw.sys must be come out after the PENetwork finished initializing

I also got bluescreen while booting from Win7PE SE stick on mainboard with intel q77 chipset.

 

After disabling the option "Drivers / USB 3.0 Support" and rebuilding my boot stick it works!

 

Are any solutions known to get it working with included USB 3.0 support?

I had the same BSOD on pcw.sys with a WIn 7 PE I'm building for use on Panasonic Toughbooks

 

I solved it by disabling the pcw.sys service in the build script.   Since it's performance counters and I don't really care about that for my application I feel this solution will work for me.

 

Here's the code...

 

[PerformanceCountersDisable]
RegHiveLoad,Tmp_System,%RegSystem%
// Disable Performance Counters service
RegWrite,HKLM,0x4,Tmp_System\ControlSet001\services\pcw,Start,4
RegHiveUnLoad,Tmp_System

I had the same BSOD on pcw.sys with a WIn 7 PE I'm building for use on Panasonic Toughbooks

 

I solved it by disabling the pcw.sys service in the build script.   Since it's performance counters and I don't really care about that for my application I feel this solution will work for me.

 

Here's the code...

 

[PerformanceCountersDisable]
RegHiveLoad,Tmp_System,%RegSystem%
// Disable Performance Counters service
RegWrite,HKLM,0x4,Tmp_System\ControlSet001\services\pcw,Start,4
RegHiveUnLoad,Tmp_System

Hello 

I have the same problem

could you be more specific on how you exactly added this script to win builder.

I'm not very good with working g with win builder

I am using the version 082

thanks