Parallax USB Driver Installer Locks Up My Computer
Jeff Martin
Posts: 758
This week, I ran the Parallax USB Driver Installer on my Windows 7 64-bit Pro host machine to update to v2.10.00 drivers
but the installer locked up my computer! It appeared to be stuck about halfway through the installation process and eventually I noticed system response to my inputs (mouse clicks, keyboard, etc.) was nearly nonexistent. I couldnt do anything.
Very frustrating, and scary; especially since Im the one that wrote that software and Ive never seen or known it to behave this way. I hope no customers experience this.
What Caused the Lockup?
The direct cause of the lockup was thousands (more than 3,500) instances of the same process (DPInst64.exe) that were spawned more and more as I sat there and watched. Each seemed to take 0% CPU, but the ever-increasing number of them brought my computer to its knees. As it turns out, DPInst64.exe and DPInst32.exe are programs written by Microsoft that install driver packages according to Microsofts rules and procedures. I used DPInst as a core part of the Parallax USB Driver Installer to ensure the job gets done properly but our software doesnt try to launch multiple copies of DPInst; something else was going on here.
The indirect cause seems to be related to a recent Windows Update.
Windows Update
On August 12th, 2014, there were some Windows Updates pushed out by Microsoft that now are known to cause strange problems on "some" systems. Microsoft has since pulled a number of these off their update servers and apparently have suggested users manually remove one or more of them (Im not sure of the details specifically). Internet chatter seems to indicate various problems caused by them, including BSOD (related to fonts, strangely enough) that may occur sometime later after one or two reboots.
The Windows Updates in question are:
http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/microsoft-yanks-botched-black-tuesday-patches-kb-2982791-kb-2970228-kb-2975719-and-kb-2975331-248582
There are more details you can read about... just search the net KB2982791 to see them- and be sure to check out the Microsoft KB articles too because there are notes there about the relationships/interactions between these patches.
What Was My Solution?
I waited long enough that the installer finally errored out and killed off the multitude of DPInst64.exe processes. My system became responsive again (after about 15 or 20 minutes) and I rebooted.
Though I found no write-ups indicating driver installation issues as a result of these updates, I suspected they were related to my problem, so after reboot, I ran Windows Update and checked the install history. My system had installed some or all of these suspect updates on Aug 13th. NOTE: I did not notice any problems at all until Monday Sept 8th when I tried to run the Parallax USB Driver Installer.
Although I could have chosen to manually uninstall one or more of those update patches, I instead decided a cleaner way was to run System Restore to bring my system back to the state it was in back on Aug 9th (one of my earlier-recorded restore points). When I tried it, System Restore would not run at all! I ended up having to reboot to Safe Mode and run System Restore from there which worked beautifully.
Restoring to Aug 9th (before the offending updates had been installed on my system) completely solved the problem... now the Parallax USB Driver Installer works just as it always has and I havent seen any other strange behavior.
By the way; I tried more experiments trying to narrow down the list of suspect updates, such as switching back to restore points after the suspect updates were installed. While doing that, I experienced many problems (including "my system won't boot" anymore because, as the error put it, a system patch was preventing proper boot up. I finally gave up after getting back to a stable system again.
Sorry I couldnt narrow it down more, but at least now you know what I know.
As always, please be careful and do the research before messing with your working system.
Very frustrating, and scary; especially since Im the one that wrote that software and Ive never seen or known it to behave this way. I hope no customers experience this.
What Caused the Lockup?
The direct cause of the lockup was thousands (more than 3,500) instances of the same process (DPInst64.exe) that were spawned more and more as I sat there and watched. Each seemed to take 0% CPU, but the ever-increasing number of them brought my computer to its knees. As it turns out, DPInst64.exe and DPInst32.exe are programs written by Microsoft that install driver packages according to Microsofts rules and procedures. I used DPInst as a core part of the Parallax USB Driver Installer to ensure the job gets done properly but our software doesnt try to launch multiple copies of DPInst; something else was going on here.
The indirect cause seems to be related to a recent Windows Update.
Windows Update
On August 12th, 2014, there were some Windows Updates pushed out by Microsoft that now are known to cause strange problems on "some" systems. Microsoft has since pulled a number of these off their update servers and apparently have suggested users manually remove one or more of them (Im not sure of the details specifically). Internet chatter seems to indicate various problems caused by them, including BSOD (related to fonts, strangely enough) that may occur sometime later after one or two reboots.
The Windows Updates in question are:
- KB2965768
- KB2970228
- KB2973201
- KB2975331
- KB2975719
- KB2982791
http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/microsoft-yanks-botched-black-tuesday-patches-kb-2982791-kb-2970228-kb-2975719-and-kb-2975331-248582
There are more details you can read about... just search the net KB2982791 to see them- and be sure to check out the Microsoft KB articles too because there are notes there about the relationships/interactions between these patches.
What Was My Solution?
I waited long enough that the installer finally errored out and killed off the multitude of DPInst64.exe processes. My system became responsive again (after about 15 or 20 minutes) and I rebooted.
Though I found no write-ups indicating driver installation issues as a result of these updates, I suspected they were related to my problem, so after reboot, I ran Windows Update and checked the install history. My system had installed some or all of these suspect updates on Aug 13th. NOTE: I did not notice any problems at all until Monday Sept 8th when I tried to run the Parallax USB Driver Installer.
Although I could have chosen to manually uninstall one or more of those update patches, I instead decided a cleaner way was to run System Restore to bring my system back to the state it was in back on Aug 9th (one of my earlier-recorded restore points). When I tried it, System Restore would not run at all! I ended up having to reboot to Safe Mode and run System Restore from there which worked beautifully.
Restoring to Aug 9th (before the offending updates had been installed on my system) completely solved the problem... now the Parallax USB Driver Installer works just as it always has and I havent seen any other strange behavior.
By the way; I tried more experiments trying to narrow down the list of suspect updates, such as switching back to restore points after the suspect updates were installed. While doing that, I experienced many problems (including "my system won't boot" anymore because, as the error put it, a system patch was preventing proper boot up. I finally gave up after getting back to a stable system again.
Sorry I couldnt narrow it down more, but at least now you know what I know.
As always, please be careful and do the research before messing with your working system.