After upgrading to PreForm 3.8.0 I had two system crashes wile sending files to printer ( Event 41, Kernel-Power ). I’m on Windows 10.
Now after installing 3.8.1 I get computer crashes at different stages. It could be during the supports creation, calculating printing time or sending files to printer. It’s a nail-biter, waiting if blue screen again or not…
Anyone else experienced similar crashes…? I had zero problems of this magnitude before 3.8.0 came out. The only thing is that about 3 months ago I upgraded my system from Windows 7 to Windows 10 hoping for better performance. So it’s possibility there is something messy with my system too, except my other software like CAD or graphic are all running just fine.
Formlabs has their own driver for the printer. I would uninstall PreForm, then I would check Device Manager and uninstall any drivers associated with the printer, then I would reboot, and then I would reinstall PreForm. The fact that you were originally getting a Kernel exception when attempting to print, the driver is the most likely suspect.
There are a lot of different active versions and revisions of Windows 10. They all call themselves “Windows 10” generically, but there can be significant differences between versions. What particular flavor and revision of the Win10 OS are you using? You upgraded from Win7, so this is an older machine. When I upgraded to Win10 I did it on a new PC I built. My older Win7 system didn’t seem like a good bet for an upgrade.
Thanks Randy
I’m using Win. 10 Pro ( OS build 19041.508 ) and Widows Experience Pack 120.2212.31. I’m not sure if this is the latest except it had an automatic updated a few days ago.
My desktop is already 6 years old and it’s been rock steady under Win 7. Now not so much. In fact I had a system freeze and forced reboot yesterday while running two instances of Rhino 3D, Paint Shop Pro and movie playing in the background. My initial impression was that it might be Video Card related. Poor GT 640 is having problems keeping up with demand especially since I’m on 4K monitor.
I have to look into those drivers you suggested and start searches for inexpensive GTX 1650…
I’m on the same version of Win10 Pro, V2004 OS 19041.508 Experience Pack 120.2202.31.0. But I’m using a i9-9900K system with 64GB of DRAM and a GTX 2080 video card that I only just built earlier this year. PreForm has been rock solid for me…
Very nice rig. I had too many expenses recently so investing in the new desktop had to be postponed until sometime next year.
And in the meantime I went through another System Service Exception while transmitting files to printer. It says RTKVHD64.sys that failed. Will have to do some Google searches for possible solutions.
That’s a RealTek Audio Driver failure. Likely to need a manual update given you came to Win10 from an older Win7 install, Win10 might not have updated that automatically…
Ignoring Windows telling me I have a correct Audio driver I downloaded newer one from RealTek website but couldn’t even install it. Windows wouldn’t let me.
Than I run registry scans and fixes but there was nothing to fix. Neither Windows own registry scans or PC Repair couldn’t find anything wrong with it.
Than I looked at PreForm itself. It turns out I had bot 3.8.0 and 3.8.1 installed. I removed both, rebooted, installed 3.8.1 afresh and rebooted again. It’s been 3 days since and so far no more blue screen crashes… I hope it holds.
Well after several days of stability I had another blue screen while slicing 3d models in Preform. I’ve noticed, keeping Task Manager open, that PreForm takes 100% of my CPU while slicing and dicing. As soon as I click " Send to Printer " CPU goes from 25% to 65% to 85% and finally 100%. And if I have more apps running simultaneously there is a good chance windows would crash. It could be that my 6 years old i7 950 @ 3.07 GHz can’t handle the load.
Would you mind checking your CPU performance while sending files to printer. Just curious to see number comparison with your powerful system… Thanks
Ah, well then… do you have a program that monitors core temperatures and voltages? If not, get one and run it. The load on the CPU isn’t going to make anything crash, but heat and voltage fluctuations caused by the load might. And a 6 year old machine has a 6 year old CPU cooler and components like Electrolytic Capacitors that age fairly quickly. It’s entirely possible it’s not cooling as well as it should and/or that the power has become a but noisier. The problem could just be that the machine is a bit “rickety” under high loads.
On my i9-9900K I can’t say as I’ve noticed anything unusual with respect to system load and PreForm. I haven’t watched Task Manager or anything, but my system enclosure has a big glass side and the CPU cooler changes color as a function of core temps, and the DRAM changes color as a function of CPU load, and the GPU changes color as a function of GPU load, and the box itself has LEDs that change color for some reason I don’t remember. So the inside of the box goes from green to red when the load and temps are high. It doesn’t when I run PreForm. Just a little yellow, so maybe 50% range in CPU load. In fact, the only thing I’ve managed to run that gets the system working really hard is a 3D render (I use Lightwave3D animation software). Then, the inside of the box turns bright red and it looks like it’s on fire.
So far nothing unusual to report. Heaviest loads, while doing big renderings, all cores at 100% resulting in temperature going up to 85*C but no crashes.
I haven’t done any 3d printing recently but am about to so will see what happens when running PreForm.
Thank you for your advice. Most appreciated.