After taking a break from my PC for about three months, I turned it back on and noticed it was sluggish. During a graphics driver update, it restarted unexpectedly. Initially, things seemed fine, but now, every time I leave my PC idle for over 15 minutes, it crashes with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), showing various error messages like 'critical process died' and 'kernel data inpage error.' After the BSOD, it goes into an unresponsive black screen, even though the RGB lights are still on. I can't interact with it until I restart, which briefly fixes the issue, but it goes back to crashing after inactivity. I've checked my power plan, updated drivers, and optimized my drives, but nothing seems to work. I really want to avoid a full reset if possible, especially since I don't have a backup or restore point. Can anyone help me troubleshoot this?
2 Answers
It sounds like you might need those dump files for a better analysis of the BSOD errors. If you can boot into Windows or Safe Mode, check the C:WindowsMinidump folder for any crash logs. You can zip them up and upload them to a file sharing site for someone to check out. If you haven't seen any dump files yet, keep an eye out for more in the future! There are steps you can take to ensure you're set up to save those mini dumps properly, which could help.
Definitely follow the advice about those dump files! They can really help pinpoint what’s causing the BSOD. In the meantime, have you tried booting in Safe Mode to see if that changes anything? It might help to diagnose if the issue is driver related or something else.
I looked in the Minidump folder and couldn't find any files right now. I'll keep checking to see if anything shows up later.