I've been dealing with persistent Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors since last night while playing Valorant. After noticing some packet loss, I restarted my PC and was greeted with a BSOD that I can't seem to get rid of. I've tried various troubleshooting steps: using the Windows 11 repair tool, reseating RAM and GPU, clearing the CMOS, and running several system checks without success. System restore seemed to work at first, but after re-enabling Vanguard on startup, I ended up right back at BSOD. I'm constantly getting 'Critical process fail' errors and can't boot into Safe Mode or effectively use the troubleshooting options. I've even considered a complete Windows reinstall, but I'm worried about losing important files on my drive. Does anyone have any suggestions before I take that drastic step?
3 Answers
You can try using Hiren's Boot CD to see if you can boot your system at all. This can help you confirm if it's a hardware fault since some issues can prevent you from running a live OS. Once booted, you might find some useful testing tools to help troubleshoot the problem.
It might be worth mentioning your system specs to help others give better advice. Just to help you out, what are you running?
It sounds like you're going through a lot with that BSOD! Have you checked for dump files in your C:WindowsMinidump directory? Those crash logs can provide insights on what's going wrong. If you can access them, zip up any dump files you find and use a file-sharing service to upload them. Having those files could help in diagnosing the issue.
I’ve got my Windows 11 installation USB ready, and I also downloaded Puppy Linux just in case! I'll see if it helps me access my files on the C: drive before I do a clean install.