pcdrsysinfocommunication.p5x crashes

[Mike Rubin]

I don't actually own PC Dr., but, instead, have the Dell Support Assistant installed on a Dell Windows 10 desktop system.  I had a number critical restart issues despite my system passing the full diagnostics regimen, memtest, and sfc, so I ended up reinstalling Windows 10 from a USB stick. I also reinstalled many of my applications, including the Dell Support Assistant.

Almost immediately, I began having daily random crashes and restarts again. I can't really understand everything the Support Assistant says about the critical issue, but there's always a reference to pcdrsysinfocommunication.p5x, which is *not* a file that I can find anywhere on my computer. Googling that file name mostly brings up pages advertising "free" fixes that cost money, but there are some otherwise uniformative references at Dell's site, mostly just saying that the file a part of Support Assistant. I therefore found my way here and hope you are willing to offer some guidance to me.

Considering that I don't even appear to have this file on my computer, why do you think it could be causing critical faults and restarts, if that actually is what is causing the error?  Any thoughts about what might be going on in this case?  Thanks for any help you can offer. My computer is just a few months past its Dell warranty and service agreement, so I can't really get much help from Dell itself.

[PCD_Channing]

Hi Mike,

The pcdrsysinfocommunication.p5x is a part of Dell SupportAssist. When you are experiencing the crash, are you running a particular test or hardware scan on your machine? Can you provide the version number of the software as well as the model of system you are running the software on?

Thanks,
Channing

[Mike Rubin]

Thank you so much for looking into this. The system is a Dell XPS8700 with an Intel i7 and 12gb RAM.  The version of Support Assist is 1.2.6745.47.

The crashes always happen while the system is idle or just background things are running.  In fact, none of the previous or current crashes seems to occur when I actually am doing anything useful at the computer.

Scans all have completed successfully without any indication of hardware failure. (I do get wireless connectivity issues noted, but, since this machine is ethernet-connected, I don't really care about those.)  I also ran Memtest off a USB stick for about a day or so; no RAM errors. Finally, I tried using the sfc /scannow file to check for corrupted system files and no issue there, either.  So, if i were a betting person, I'd say I have a software issue somewhere.

Please let me know what other information you need.

[PCD_Channing]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the additional information. I'd like to see if we can obtain some logs from your machine to see if they can provide us some further information on the failure. Please navigate to the C:\ProgramFiles\Dell\SupportAssist\ directory and run the 'LogGrabber.exe' . This will gather all of the logs we need and place a .zip file on your desktop. Please attach this .zip file to your reply.

Thanks,
Channing

[Mike Rubin]

I don't seem to have the loggrabber.exe file in the directory. I searched for it on my computer and also came up short.

I should add that I uninstalled all my Dell software last night and then reinstalled it.  It might be that I don't have the loggrabber.exe for that reason. 

I apologize for complicating things.

[PCD_Channing]

Hi Mike,

Are there any files within the 'C:\ProgramData\PCDr\6745\logs' directory? If so, can you please zip these up and attach that file to your reply?

Thanks,
Channing

[Mike Rubin]

Yes, there were files and I zipped them.  Here they are.  Thanks again. 

[PCD_Channing]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the logs. Upon looking through them the error appears to be occurring when attempting to gather the system information. The process seems to be timing out. Out of curiosity, did you complete any type of hardware replacement or driver updates recently? Have you been able to use SupportAssist without issue in the past? Please let me know.

Thanks,
Channing

[Mike Rubin]

The only hardware change is that, before I reinstalled Windows from the recovery media, I changed my DAC, so I replaced the default sound drivers and the ASIO drivers at that time and reinstalled them after reinstalling Windows.  Before that, I was able to use SupportAssist without issue and I seemingly still can.  My crashes usually occur when the system is idle and unattended.  Before reinstalling Windows, the error reports pointed to different issues every time, so it looked more random, leading me to give up and reinstall from scratch.  Since ryen, however, the crashes have pointed to the pcdrsysinfocommu file.

[PCD_Channing]

Hi Mike,

I'd like to try and remove the application and some of the files that are left behind manually. Please note this process will remove any results of previous hardware scans and information within SupportAssist. First, remove Dell SupportAssist through 'Programs and Features' as you have in the past. Once this has been completed please navigate to and remove the following directories if they exist:

C:\Program Files\Dell\SupportAssist
C:\ProgramData\PCDr
C:\ProgramData\PC-Doctor for Windows

Next navigate to All Apps>Windows Administrative Tools>Task Scheduler and if any of the following scheduled tasks exists, please remove them.

PCDDataUploadTask
PCDEventLauncherTask
PCDoctorBackgroundMonitorTask

Once this process has been completed please reboot and reinstall the program. If this process doesn't appear to work please let me know.

Thanks,
Channing

[Mike Rubin]

I didn't have one of the directories or any of the scheduler events, but I deleted the other folders. I will let you know if I have a recurrence of critical system events.  Thanks for your help with this.

[Mike Rubin]

I suffered another critical incident restart, this time while backing up my NAS to an attached USB drive. The Dell Support Assist suggests this is not the same issue as the one that led me to you.  If you can offer any insight, however, I would be grateful. Thank you.

[PCD_Channing]

Hi Mike,

Could you provide some further information on this failure? Was Support Assist running at the time? What information did you obtain that lead you to believe this failure differs from the previous one you were seeing?

Thanks,
Channing

[Mike Rubin]

No, Support Assist was not running.  The only activity at the time was a backup from a Buffalo NAS to a brand new WD MyBook Duo connected as drive O to the computer, using FreeFileSync as the backup application. 

I think it's a different problem than the one that led to my initial inquiry to you because there is no reference to the pcdrsysinfocommu file in the crash report when I opened Support Assist for information about the crash.  Instead, there seemed to be a reference to Skype, which installs with Windows but that I never have used. I don't really understand the rest of the crash report in Support Assist, but I sent the log with my last post.

Since that crash, I have been running the same backup task, using the same backup application.  It's been running about eight hours without incident this time. If it crashes before completion again, I will let you know.

[PCD_Channing]

Hi Mike,

Please continue to monitor it. Unfortunately if the crash is independent of PC-Doctor software, there isn't much we can do in means of resolving the issue. This would have to be done through other means, such as Skype support, since they are the developers of the software causing the issue.

Thanks,
Channing