I'm having a tough time with my PC crashing due to a recurring BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) with the error CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED. Despite doing 4–5 clean installs of Windows 11 without adding any extra software, the issue persists. The system was stable before, but now it becomes unresponsive right after login, usually crashing within a couple of minutes or even while idle. I've run MemTest and tested single RAM sticks, and the SSD health checks out fine. Based on my troubleshooting, I'm starting to suspect that this might not just be a software issue. I'm wondering if it could be a motherboard or CPU issue instead. Has anyone else faced a similar situation?
4 Answers
I'm inclined to think this could also be an issue with your motherboard, especially if everything else checks out. Look into the DIMM slots for any damage and ensure the RAM is seated correctly. Check if any BIOS settings related to power delivery or memory subsystems could be tweaked for stability.
Make sure to keep your BIOS updated. If you're on F22, update it to F23 and try again. A lot of BSOD issues can originate from older BIOS versions. Also, consider doing a clean install without being connected to the internet to avoid potentially problematic driver updates automatically getting installed.
I updated to F23, so I'll give it a shot offline next time.
It sounds like the firmware of your WD Blue SN580 SSD could be the culprit. There are known issues with that SSD model causing BSODs on Windows 11. Make sure you're running the latest firmware to see if that helps, as WD has released updates addressing these kinds of crashes. Just check on the official site for any newer versions if you haven't done that already.
Thanks for the tip! I'll check if there's a firmware update available for the SSD. That could really change things.
Have you tried running Memtest86+ for an extended period? A few minutes might not be enough to catch memory issues. Let it run for several hours or overnight to really stress test the memory. Sometimes errors only show up when the memory gets hot, so it's worth a shot if you haven't already done that.
I ran a full test cycle, but I didn't let it go for too long. I'll set it to run overnight to see if anything pops up.
I have reseated the RAM, but I haven't checked the DIMM slots thoroughly. I'll take a closer look at that.