Since the installation of the Windows 8.1 update to Windows Server 2012 Essentials the BSOD has rendered the computer useless. This appears to be with the disk adapter drivers and has occurred on at least 2 different HBAs. The errors are always of ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NOEXECUTE_MEMORY.
I am running a HP xw8200 workstation with a simple network configuration. It had 2 HBA cards when the BSOD started:
LSI SAS3041E-R – which had the boot disk
ADDONICS ADS3GX4R5-E – 2 cards installed to support external disk docking stations
The first BSOD were not traceable to the disk driver but happened in the NTkernel. I suspected that the HBA driver embedded into the OS was the source but could not identify it from the memory dump file. It is important to note that the latest drivers for the LSI HBA are for Windows Vista dated June 13, 2011. When I try to update the drivers on-line the response is always – the drivers are current. LSI support stated that there are no drivers for Windows 2012. This is considered a legacy card but it was one that HP used in the workstation when the product was shipping.
Thinking a hardware issue I replaced a card with a new one and no change.
I purchased an LSI SAS 9211-4i SGL with the expectation that this card would address the driver issue – it has support for Windows 8.1 and recent driver updates. However, the PCIe bus interface between the card and the workstation were not compatible, in spite of the specs implying they should work. The card failed to initialize on boot. LSI support stated this was likely a bus issue. Attempts to get the card to initialize failed thus the boot was never reached.
I then changed approach and shifted the boot drives to the ADDONICS ADS3GX4R5-E. The computer would boot and this also meant one less HBA in the chassis. Note that there are 2 Addonics HBA in the chassis. The BSOD persisted but now the module name is:
MODULE_NAME: Si3124r5
IMAGE_NAME: Si3124r5.sys
This corresponds to the Silicon Image chip Si 3124 R5 – PCI/PCI-x to 4 Port SATA300 on the Addonics. The latest 64 bit driver is 4/23/2010 for Windows 7. Checking driver status from Windows Server 2012 indicates this is the latest driver. When I tried to update the drivers using the Silicon Image drivers they also said the latest are installed.
In addition to these efforts I have made sure the display card drivers are current, only the most essential software is running on the server and all the other drivers are current. In spite of these efforts, everything points to the HBA drivers and that they are incompatible with Windows 8.1 update.
The workstation running Windows Server 2012 Essentials does a BSOD every 5 – 20 minutes making it effectively inoperative.
Currently, the only solution is to replace the workstation with a server which directly supports Windows Server 2012 Essentials and migrate from the current workstation to the replacement server. Not a pleasant prospect.