Is it FlexRAID? Is it the Catalyst drivers? Where are the official Windows Server 2012 video card drivers from AMD? Wait is Splashtop causing the crash? What is this RemoteFX licensing issue?
What is going on here?
Let’s start with the most recent issue.
Splashtop BSOD?
I finally came around to enabling and configuring SplashTop for remote desktop use via my iPad. It’s not an essential capability but one that I wish to leverage when things go awry.
I configured the streamer and launched the iPad app. I was greeted with a blank screen. No matter what I did, the screen remained blank. I sent a few Ctrl+Alt+Del commands but nothing happened. Then I lost connection to the server.
I thought it was the app but after the second connection mishap, I logged onto the server via Remote Desktop Connection application on my MacBook Air and discovered that the server had restarted. Twice.
I didn’t have any issues with it when I installed it on my old server, so this was perplexing. I reviewed the memory dumps and realized it could be video card related. The “acpiex.sys” driver was the culprit that died but I didn’t think it was the mastermind behind it all. I uninstalled the AMD drivers and used the basic Microsoft Display Driver for awhile and then SplashTop played nice. I was able to disconnect and log onto the server without any black screens.
Unfortunately that’s not a suitable option because I wanted to use RemoteFX and it needed to recognize that I had a Radeon HD 5770 installed. So I looked for an alternative and found Team Viewer which lacked the pizzaz of Splashtop but featured additional functionality like the ability to restart a server with one click.
RemoteFX
I finally gave Steam Trading Cards a serious look and found myself wanting to run games for card drops. I could use my laptop and workstation to accomplish this task but that would be far too easy and wasteful considering I have a home server that could pull off RemoteFX.
I don’t actually have to play these games. All I need to do is run the games and minimize them. This is perfect for RemoteFX and a Windows 8 VM.
I wanted to pull this off but I ran into a warning proclaiming that “Remote Desktop Licensing mode was not configured”. I looked this up and it turns out that Remote Desktop services will expire in 119 days and I prematurely abandoned my RemoteFX plans.
Then after another round of Google searches, it turns out that RemoteFX may continue to operate without a valid license.
FlexRAID?
I uninstalled it after the last series of crashes but I’m keeping an open mind. Maybe after a week or so of rock solid stability, I’ll give it another go.
Ruling out the obvious
I ran Windows Memory and Memtest86 diagnostic tests and they came back with nothing. I ran sfc /scannow and that yielding nothing as well. From what I can tell, there’s nothing wrong with the memory or the operating system on a file level.
I’ll run a quick run of Prime95 just to ensure the CPU is okay. I don’t believe there’s anything to worry about on that front but you never know.
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