Windows 10: Troubleshooting GPU issue, now experiencing BSOD during every boot.

Hello,

First of all - I am currently unable (as far as my IT knowledge allows me) to provide you with a dump file because I am stuck in a boot loop. An overview of the current situation:

• A BSOD (Critical_Process_Died) happens during every boot.
• It happens a few seconds into the Windows logo screen with the circling dots.
• The PC restarts, and then it attempts automatic recovery but fails.
• The same thing happens if I try to boot in safe mode from the recovery window.

I have been troubleshooting for most of the last 8 hours. I am slightly out of my depth, so have been researching and learning a lot, but I think I am getting to the point where I could really use some specific guidance rather than diving deeper into the the annals of internet tech support history. It seems like this forum is the right place to come!

I don't clearly remember everything that has happened exactly step by step given how long this happened over. I have looked through my Chrome internet history via my phone and am piecing things together that way. Here is what has happened today that has led up to the current situation:

• Prior to today, I have had no issues other than one or two BSODs while playing a game over the last 3 weeks. I took no real notice of it.
• I tried to load up the game this morning. I looked away for a moment, then looked back and saw a BSOD had occurred.
• I restarted and tried again. The game began loading. Whilst loading, the screen slightly glitched out for a moment, then BSOD occurred again.
• I restarted the computer, attempted to login, the screen froze and glitched out, then BSOD occurred. I didn't get the reason code at this point.
• I suspected my GPU had failed. It is a GTX 480 i.e. about 10 years old, so it seemed plausible.
• I disconnected the GPU and plugged the monitor into the on-board display output. The computer booted fine and was usable. To be sure that the GPU had failed, I figured I'd reinstall its drivers and try loading the game again.
• I don't quite remember the exact order of what happened from here. I think I first uninstalled the driver from the Control Panel\Programmes and Features window.
• I then downloaded the latest driver for my card, attempted to install it, but it failed because it couldn't detect compatible hardware. I stupidly had not plugged the GPU back in.
• I plugged it in and tried again, but got the same issue. I found some guidance online suggesting modifying one of the files in the C:\NVIDIA folder to look a different hardware ID to detect the card. I followed it, but now the installer just started failing immediately.
• I figured I had screwed something up, so attempted to delete the C:\NVIDIA folder (I hadn't made a back up of the file I changed...). This required changing some changes to permissions and booting in safe mode. Once I did this, it deleted.
• During my googling of the "couldn't detect compatible hardware" issue, I had found Display Driver Uninstaller (a tool recommended in this article). Just to be totally sure I had removed all trace of files/changes that the installer had tried to make, I decided to use the tool. The tool recommended creating a restore point and using it in safe mode. I created a restore point, loaded up safe mode, ran the tool, and then booted back up normally.
• The driver installer still couldn't find compatible hardware. I looked in my PC and noticed I hadn't plugged in the power cables to the GPU... As you can tell, this is an unfolding comedy of stupid errors on my part. I plugged them in, tried again and was then able to do a clean install without issue. The installer prompted me to do a restart to finish the process, so I did.
• I'm still fuzzy on the on the order of things after this point. I think I managed to login after restart, but quickly had a BSOD (Page Fault in Nonpaged Area) before being able to do almost anything on my PC. I realised I hadn't changed the default display output to the GPU, so I changed this in the BIOS while the PC rebooted. I saved and exited the BIOS. While the PC rebooted again, I noticed the BIOS splash screen this time was looking a bit glitchy in areas. I then had a BSOD (Video_TDR_failure) during boot up on the windows logo screen. I shutdown, unplugged the GPU, tried to boot again, and arrived at the current situation where every initial boot attempt results in BSOD ("Critical Process Died"). Automatic Repair runs on subsequent boots, but does not fix anything, so I get brought to WinPE. I tried to load the restore point that I had created earlier in the process, but for some reason it contained nothing for my boot drive (and for some reason the restore point is no longer being detected by the tool at all), so I remain in WinPE. I tried to boot in safe mode from WinPE, but the same BSOD happens.

So, I suppose there is some driver error that is causing this to happen as my quite likely fault GPU is now removed from the equation. From the WinPE cmd window, I have tried the following based on my googling of the Critical Process Died BSOD:

• sfc /scannow. It reaches 100% verification complete and then reports "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation".
• chkdsk. Stage 2 states "Error detected in index %I30 for the file 3CE7.
• chkdsk /r /x. At stage 1, 0 bad file records processed. At stage 5, it corrected errors in the Volume Bitmap. The other stages just reported how many items had been processed. At the end, it stated "Windows has made corrections to the file system" and "Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50".
• chkdsk again. It reports the same as the first time I ran it, so not sure what the previous step actually fixed.
• DISM /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. I get error 50, "DISM does not support servicing Windows PE with the /Online option".

I still get the same BSOD, despite whatever chkdsk did.
I don't know my way around the command line or registry well enough to know what I should do (if anything) to progress things, but I am more than willing to learn/be instructed on what to do. I would really really prefer to do anything that can avoid losing personal files as there are definitely precious files on there that are not backed up.

Google tells me I can get the Windows Version number from using regedit in command line. Going to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion, I can confirm the Windows 10 ReleaseID is 1903 and the build number is 18362.
The above is a bit of an essay. Hopefully it is useful and I hope I haven't missed anything obvious. Please let me know what I can do to assist troubleshooting this. Thank you in advance for any help you can give!

:)

 

BSOD DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE randomly after cold boot/sleep

For the past month I have been getting random BSOD's all with driver power state failure. They happen randomly, usually within the first 5-10 minutes of cold booting or waking my computer. Steps I have taken to attempt to fix the problem:

1. Reinstalled GPU drivers/ tried old drivers
2. Fresh installed Windows 1803, still happened, then fresh installed 1709
3. Disabled Fast Boot

None of these things fixed the issue, any help would be much appreciated at pinpointing the issue. Thanks

 

Recent BSoD Issues.

Hi,

There are several reasons why you are experiencing a BSOD issue with your computer. These may include an outdated device driver or corruption within your system files. Answering the following questions may help us in uncovering the underlying cause of the
issue:

• Were there any changes made on your computer prior to the issue?
• Were you able to install all pending updates on your computer?
• What troubleshooting steps have you already performed?

Moreover, we recommend following the steps provided from this article in order to troubleshoot the issue.

Let us know if you need further help.

 

BSOD issues

Hi Kyle,

It is possible that your experiencing BSOD due to device hardware issue or hardware driver software. To assist you better, we'd like to know the build and version of Windows you're using.

In the meantime, we suggest that you follow the steps in this article about troubleshooting blue screen
errors. You can choose which situation you're experiencing the error and perform the instructions.

Let us know if you need further assistance.