Hey everyone, I'm dealing with a pretty frustrating issue with my PC. I'm running Windows 11 on an AMD 9700x with a 5070ti graphics card. I tried updating my drivers through GeForce Experience, but things went downhill fast. My PC froze during the update, and in a moment of poor judgment, I restarted it. It booted fine initially, but then I ran into issues when trying to finish the installation; it kept saying an update was already in progress.
After another restart, I found myself stuck in a loading loop and couldn't even reach the Lock Screen. A brief moment in safe mode allowed me to try updating the GPU driver from Device Manager, but that caused another freeze. Now, I'm facing critical system BSODs, some of which say 'critical system failed' and 'apc index mismatch'. I've tried rolling back drivers, system restore (which failed), and even a startup repair without success. I've checked with pnputil -e, and it seems like there are no drivers detected anymore. Now I can't boot into anything but advanced startup options and BIOS. Is there any way to fix this, or have I essentially bricked my PC?
4 Answers
Have you tried unplugging any extra devices, like USB peripherals? Sometimes they can cause conflicts during boot. You could also remove the GPU and try using the integrated graphics to see if that works. Additionally, clearing or resetting the BIOS might be worth a shot. Lastly, creating a Windows install USB for repairs can help out a lot more than typical restore options.
It sounds like you're in a tough spot! If you're okay with it, you might need to resort to a complete format and fresh install of Windows. But before doing that, make sure to back up any important data. You can create a bootable USB and use something like Hiren's BootCD to access your drives and copy files over before you wipe everything. Once that's done, create a new Windows installation USB, get rid of all partitions, and start fresh. Your Windows license should reactivate automatically if it was tied to your motherboard.
When you do get into Safe Mode, consider using Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to completely remove the NVIDIA drivers. Sometimes remnants of old drivers can cause issues. After that, try rebooting and see if anything changes. Fingers crossed!
You should really try getting the dump files from your BSODs if you can. They contain crash logs that can be super helpful for diagnosing the issue. If you can get into Safe Mode, check the C:WindowsMinidump folder for any files. Zip them up and upload them to a file sharing service, then link it here. Having more than one can give us a better picture of the problem!
Is it really that serious? I was hoping there was another way! I still have the USB from when I first installed Windows a month or two ago. Shouldn't that help?