Veeam Agent Backup Fails and computer freezes

Have you checked the log file for the Agent backup?  Located here - C:\ProgramData\Veeam\EndPoint

Veeam should not freeze the PC as I have it installed on my laptop running daily without issue.

Would also recommend testing to ensure the network connectivity is working.  An alternative test would be to connect a USB drive and direct your backups there for a few days to test and see if the freeze happens.  Eliminate the network share.

I have a few log files, any thoughts on which it might be?

Is it: Job.VeeamEndpointBackup or Svc.VeeamEndpointBackup 

I also have some logs in a folder with the same name as the backup job name. In there there’s a log called Job.’backup job name’.Backup

I’m guessing it would be under this last one? May have to set it up to an external drive temporarily as you mentioned and try that out. I really don’t think it’s the network share since it runs fine other times but that would be a way to rule that option out.

Yeah the last one with the job name itself would be the one to check.  The others might help but if the job is running then freezing hopefully the last will help the most.

Yeah the USB drive is just a test and not permanent to see if the problem happens there too.  Then you can look in to the Agent software or possibly a windows update maybe causing the issue?

Will test these and then follow up. Thank you

Not a problem at all.  Just let us know how it goes and where you get to.  If you need more help post back or create a support case.

So I’ve tested it with a fresh 2TB, USB connected external drive formatted to NTFS (as required by Veeam) and still getting the same problem. Back up will fail and computer will not “wake” up and require a hard power button reset.

What specifically should I be searching for in the log file to understand what could be causing this?

Understood, thank you very much.

I am having the EXACT same issue on my clone PC.  Chop88, were you able to ever find a solution?  Here’s my configuration: 

Asus ROG STRIX Z790-A Gaming WiFi II" Motherboard (Not overclocking)
Intel i9-14900K CPU
64GB DDR5 Memory
2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe m.2 SSD (Boot Drive) 
WD 4TB 3.5” 7200RPM SATA hard drive (Data Drive)
Windows 11 Pro  (24H2)
Veeam Agent 6.3 (All 6.x versions seem to have the problem)
Backing up to:  WD Passport 5TB External USB drive
-  (Problem occurs using USB-A or USB-C cables for the external HD)
 

The PC displays a blue screen error (BSOD) and gets stuck on the BIOS screen while powering back on.  I have to hold the power button to shut the PC down and then I have to press the power button again for it to power backup on and boot into Windows.  Exactly as the original poster described. 

Any new ideas on this one?? 

Thanks -- Jason 

​@JBCS I think you’re having a slightly different issue. I wasn’t getting any BSOD. My screen would just go black as if in sleep mode (PC was still running) and not come back on unless I held down the power button for a manual shutdown/restart.

I’m not sure what I ended up doing but I haven’t had the issue in a while. I went about a month with no backups as I turned veeam off and then noticed some issues on my shared box with access rights. Fixed that, came back into veeam and set it back up. Only had 1 issue since then and it was again when my shared box was having issues. So for me I think it was an issue between veeam and running backups to shared drives. Although it doesn’t explain why I still got the same issue on a directly connected USB drive when I tested it 6 months ago. 

Either way, *fingers crossed* it’s been working fine for a while now.

​@JBCS thinking on your issue though, if you’re getting a BSOD it’s usually a software/driver issue more times than not. I’d do the following:

-Check for windows & driver updates and veeam updates. Maybe even firmware updates for your drives (internal & external) I know the Samsung SSDs sometimes have firmware updates via Samsung Magician.

-Check your backup settings on veeam. Are you backing up whole computer or just selected drives/folders? Maybe test running backup of just a few folder/files instead of a whole PC or drive backup? I know that might defeat the purpose but this would be to narrow down the issue.

Also, what’s the BSOD error you get? Have you done any searching on the specific error code?

We have exactly the same problem. Whilst we have a full license for VB&R, running 20 instances, I’m actually having this problem in a non-production home lab scenario, which means I don’t get support.

VB&R is running in a ESXi Vm with 16GB RAM. The backup runs happily for months, then all of a sudden, it will freze the computer. ESXi shows a massive CPU resource spike, from 5% to over 200%, and VM is hard-lock frozen.

Yeah I toyed around between the login credentials on the veeam agent and the connection/permissions between my windows machine and the linux box the shares are located at where my backup was running to. The problem stopped for a while then it returned again. Went back to my linux box to try and figure out if any permissions had been changed in the meantime and in doing that accidentally screwed up the linux install. Had to start with a fresh linux install and decided to go with a different distro. Haven’t had any problems since, but it’s only been about a month soo… we shall see.

I ended up performing a “clean install” of Windows 11 on the problematic PC and the issue no longer occurs.  It must have been a problematic driver from the past that was no longer suitable after the PC was imaged to another set of hardware then upgraded from Windows 10 to 11.  I have performed two full backups so far without any issues.  -- Jason  :)

I think I’ve made some progress on this. The total lockup happens as soon as the backup starts, and I think it’s when VBR scans the backup repository. I can’t be sure though, as the computer freezes! I can restart the computer, start a new backup, and have exactly the same happen. But, if I delete all backups from disk after the restart, the backup will then work happily for days or weeks.

Yep! That’s pretty much what was happening to me. It would lock up right at the beginning around the time it was making the connection to the shared drive and looking up the current repository. This is why I thought it had something to do with permissions to the drive or files.