Recurring BSODs With Critical Process Died and Other Stop Codes
Asked by
MellowCedar42
My PC has been crashing with blue screens since early June. It can happen during startup, after restarting for Windows updates or software installations, and occasionally while gaming. The most common error is "Critical Process Died" (0xEF), but I've also seen "Unexpected Store Exception" and "Kernel Mode Exception Not Handled" (0x1E).
I took the computer to a repair store, where I was initially told the RAM was faulty. Replacing the RAM didn't help. They later wiped and reinstalled Windows, but the crashes continued. I also tested different keyboards, mice, and headsets after peripherals were suggested as the cause. The motherboard and CPU were eventually replaced because the issue persisted.
After getting the PC back, I immediately removed a game anti-cheat program, but the computer blue-screened again during the restart. At this point, I'm unsure what hardware or software component is actually responsible. What should I test next, and what information would be most useful for diagnosing these crashes?
Answers
The first thing to check is the system drive. “Unexpected Store Exception” and similar storage-related crashes can be caused by a failing SSD or problems reading the Windows page file. “Critical Process Died” has several possible causes, but a defective drive is a common one. Run CrystalDiskInfo and check the drive’s health, though keep in mind some SSDs don’t report every failure clearly. Also make sure anything important is backed up.
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Don’t rely only on the stop-code names. The most useful next step is collecting the crash dump files. If Windows starts, look in C:WindowsMinidump and copy any files there before compressing and uploading them for analysis. If no dumps are being created, configure Windows to generate small memory dumps. Several dumps are better than just one because they can show whether the same driver or storage component is involved in every crash.
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QuietMarble18: I’ll check the drive as soon as I can get back into Windows. The PC has only been built since June, but it has already spent roughly seven weeks at the repair shop while they replaced parts and reinstalled Windows.