KB40888 - Troubleshooting Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue with Windows Pulse Secure components

This article provides troubleshooting steps for blue screen of death (BSOD) issue with Windows Pulse Secure components.

A Blue Screen of Death, also called a STOP Error, will appear when Microsoft Windows encounters a critical error from which it can’t recover. This usually is a result of low-level software (or drivers) crashing or faulty hardware. Most BSODs show a STOP code that can be used to help determine the root cause.

The text displayed can either be text based (Figure 1) or graphical based (Figure 2) as shown below.



Whenever a critical error is detected in Windows, the machine will restart itself to prevent any further damage to the computer. This is a safety measure integrated into Windows.

For BSOD issues, perform the below steps:

• If the issue has started after installing/upgrading the Pulse Secure component, delete or uninstall the component and check the behavior again.
• In case of a Pulse Desktop client, check if any newer version is available. If yes, test the behavior with the latest version.
• If the latest version is used, perform a repair using the Pulse MSI installation package.

If this does not resolve the issue, perform the following steps:

Step 1: Review the Windows Event Viewer

1. Start Windows event viewer
2. From the right pane, under Windows Logs, click System
3. From the left pane, click Filter Current Log
4. For Event level, select Critical, Error and Warning
5. For Event Sources, click the drop-down menu and select BugCheck

From the filter results, each event should output similar information:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000024 
(0x00000000001904fb, 0xfffff880035c56e8, 0xfffff880035c4f40, 0xfffff80002e778d2). 
A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 073111-28329-01."

No MEMORY.DMP in C:\Windows\

For more information about the bug check error codes, refer to Microsoft's Bug Check Code Reference document. For other Microsoft recommendations for BSOD scenarios, refer to TroubleShooting Stop error problems for IT Pros.

Logs to collect for opening a support case:

• Output from Windows event viewer (from above)
• MSINFO32 logs

1. Navigate to Start > Run
2. Type msinfo32.exe
3. Select File > Save
4. Browse to an appropriate location to save the file
5. Type a file name into the appropriate field and ensure Save as type is set to System Information File (*.NFO)
6. Click Save

• If Pulse Secure Desktop client is used, provide a copy of the Pulse logs.  For instructions, refer to KB17327 - How to collect the log file from Pulse Secure Desktop client?
• Copy of mini dump provided at C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP (or the location stated in the error message)

In some cases, a full Memory Dump may be required. The following settings need to be done to collect the full Memory Dump. Configure Virtual memory to RAM SIZE + 100 MB, steps are given below:

1. Open Control Panel > System > System Protection
2. Click Advanced tab
3. Under Performance, click Settings
4. Click Advanced tab
5. Under Virtual Memory, click Change
6. Unselect Automatically manage paging file size for all drives
7. Select the radio button for custom size
8. Enter the initial size and maximum size of virtual memory equal to system RAM size + 100 MB
9. Click OK
10. Restart the machine
11. Right click My Computer > Properties
12. Click Advanced system settings
13. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings
14. Under System Failure, click the drop-down menu for Write debugging information
15. Select Complete memory dump
16. Restart the system again

Once done, reproduce the issue and take the dump file.