I've been getting blue screens for several days now, only new thing I did was install a hard drive.
I'll be doing anything, browsing the web, etc. and I get a blue screen, that says CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED on Windows 8 Pro. I checked the argument flags, its all 0's, which according to Microsoft says its a service that died, not a process.
At that point, it reboots, and I get another blue screen, that reads:
A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed. 0xc000000e During that time, my USB keyboard doesn't work, I had to hook up a PS2 keyboard to push the enter key to try again, or F8 for startup options. F8 does nothing. Enter throws yet another error:
The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors. The file in question is \Windows\system32\winload.exe At this point, if I cold-boot, by a hard power-off and then power back on, the system comes up, until it blue screens again. Which can be anywhere from 5 minutes, to 2 hours.
So, I did all the standard debugging steps:
- I turned on memory dumps, and unfortunately, I get none, they don't work; the system apparently is dyeing before it does a dump.
- I checked event logs, the ONLY logs I'm getting from 5 minutes before I crash, to 5 minutes after are normal security logs, with the exception of after the reboot, where it throws the second two errors. At that reboot, I get a bunch of network connectivity issues, it cannot connect to anything.
- So I did a Windows 8 Pro "refresh", and same error occurred.
- So I decided I was done with that, I pulled out the new hard drive, did a CLEAN ALL on the original hard drive; ran a detailed SMART test, hard drive checked out ok, ran a detailed memory scan, it came out ok, ran memory and video stress tests, they came out ok, ran a CPU stress test and monitored CPU temps, never above 27 degrees. At this point, I thought, man, I got this; reinstalled Windows 8 pro, on the hard drive I had did a CLEAN ALL on, with a fresh Microsoft account; should have been starting brand spanking new at that point...everything went fine for about 2 or 3 hours, system ran like a dream; I started letting Windows Update run, installed office, and visual studio, ran great for another 2 or 3 hours, and then boom, crash again.
So my only hypothesis at this point, is one of the drivers installed by Windows Update, must be causing the issue.
Does anyone have any other suggestions of ways to get information out of the process, or at least help me figure out why memory dumps are not working? If I could get memory dumps to work, I know enough to be able to analyze the dumps, and go from there, but none of the dumps are working. I tried doing minimal, automatic, and complete dumps. I tried increasing swap file size, and changing the dump location, all to no effect, still don't have a single .DMP file on the PC.
System specs:
Operating System Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64-bit CPU AMD FX-8150 13 °C Zambezi 32nm Technology RAM 16.0 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28) Motherboard ASRock 990FX Professional (CPUSocket) 32 °C Graphics LCDTV16 (1920x1080@60Hz) AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series (ATI AIB) 41 °C Hard Drives 119GB M4-CT128M4SSD2 ATA Device (SSD) 2329GB Western Digital WDC WD25 EZRX-00MMMB0 SATA Disk Device (SATA) 24 °C 233GB Western Digital WDC WD25 00JS-60NCB1 SATA Disk Device (SATA) 33 °C Optical Drives HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH12LS39 ATA Device Audio Creative X-Fi Audio Processor (WDM) Services:
Running AMD External Events Utility Running AMD FUEL Service Running Application Experience Running Application Information Running Background Intelligent Transfer Service Running Background Tasks Infrastructure Service Running Base Filtering Engine Running Certificate Propagation Running CNG Key Isolation Running COM+ Event System Running Computer Browser Running Creative Audio Service Running Cryptographic Services Running DCOM Server Process Launcher Running Device Association Service Running DHCP Client Running Diagnostic Policy Service Running Diagnostic Service Host Running Diagnostic System Host Running Distributed Link Tracking Client Running DNS Client Running Function Discovery Provider Host Running Function Discovery Resource Publication Running HomeGroup Listener Running HomeGroup Provider Running Human Interface Device Access Running IP Helper Running Local Session Manager Running Microsoft Account Sign-in Assistant Running Network Connected Devices Auto-Setup Running Network List Service Running Network Location Awareness Running Network Store Interface Service Running Office 64 Source Engine Running Peer Name Resolution Protocol Running Peer Networking Grouping Running Peer Networking Identity Manager Running Plug and Play Running Power Running Print Spooler Running Program Compatibility Assistant Service Running Remote Desktop Configuration Running Remote Desktop Services Running Remote Desktop Services UserMode Port Redirector Running Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Running RPC Endpoint Mapper Running Security Accounts Manager Running Security Center Running Server Running Shell Hardware Detection Running SSDP Discovery Running Steam Client Service Running Superfetch Running System Event Notification Service Running System Events Broker Running Task Scheduler Running TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Running Themes Running Time Broker Running UPnP Device Host Running User Profile Service Running Windows Audio Running Windows Audio Endpoint Builder Running Windows Connection Manager Running Windows Defender Service Running Windows Event Log Running Windows Firewall Running Windows Font Cache Service Running Windows Management Instrumentation Running Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service Running Windows Search Running Windows Update Running WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service Running Workstation Stopped ActiveX Installer (AxInstSV) Stopped Application Identity Stopped Application Layer Gateway Service Stopped Application Management Stopped BitLocker Drive Encryption Service Stopped Block Level Backup Engine Service Stopped Bluetooth Support Service Stopped BranchCache Stopped COM+ System Application Stopped Creative Audio Engine Licensing Service Stopped Credential Manager Stopped Device Install Service Stopped Device Setup Manager Stopped Distributed Transaction Coordinator Stopped Encrypting File System (EFS) Stopped Extensible Authentication Protocol Stopped Family Safety Stopped Fax Stopped File History Service Stopped Group Policy Client Stopped Health Key and Certificate Management Stopped Hyper-V Data Exchange Service Stopped Hyper-V Guest Shutdown Service Stopped Hyper-V Heartbeat Service Stopped Hyper-V Remote Desktop Virtualization Service Stopped Hyper-V Time Synchronization Service Stopped Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor Stopped IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules Stopped Interactive Services Detection Stopped Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) Stopped IPsec Policy Agent Stopped KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator Stopped Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper Stopped Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service Stopped Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider Stopped Multimedia Class Scheduler Stopped Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service Stopped Netlogon Stopped Network Access Protection Agent Stopped Network Connections Stopped Network Connectivity Assistant Stopped Offline Files Stopped Optimize drives Stopped Performance Counter DLL Host Stopped Performance Logs & Alerts Stopped PNRP Machine Name Publication Service Stopped Portable Device Enumerator Service Stopped Printer Extensions and Notifications Stopped Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support Stopped Quality Windows Audio Video Experience Stopped Remote Access Auto Connection Manager Stopped Remote Access Connection Manager Stopped Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator Stopped Remote Registry Stopped Routing and Remote Access Stopped Secondary Logon Stopped Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Service Stopped Sensor Monitoring Service Stopped Smart Card Stopped Smart Card Removal Policy Stopped SNMP Trap Stopped Software Protection Stopped Spot Verifier Stopped Still Image Acquisition Events Stopped Storage Service Stopped Telephony Stopped Thread Ordering Server Stopped Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service Stopped Virtual Disk Stopped Volume Shadow Copy Stopped WebClient Stopped Windows All-User Install Agent Stopped Windows Backup Stopped Windows Biometric Service Stopped Windows Color System Stopped Windows Connect Now - Config Registrar Stopped Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework Stopped Windows Error Reporting Service Stopped Windows Event Collector Stopped Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) Stopped Windows Installer Stopped Windows Modules Installer Stopped Windows Remote Management (WS-Management) Stopped Windows Store Service (WSService) Stopped Windows Time Stopped Wired AutoConfig Stopped WLAN AutoConfig Stopped WMI Performance Adapter Stopped WWAN AutoConfig 2 Answers
Ended up finding links like the following:
- Windows 8 Bsod's EVERY hour :( Seriously, every hour!! Help
- Windows 8 Crashes only when resuming from sleep
Apparently, the Crucial M4 series of SSDs have an odd bug, even if they're not set to the boot drive, that they need to have their firmware updated or after approximately 5000 hours the drive will go into a healing/repair mode and shut down every hour, when it does, Windows 8 throws a CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED blue screen.
Crucial has a firmware update that fixes it.
2What happens when you disconnect the new hard disk? If your computer still crashes and is unable to boot, it might be because the disk your operating system is on, is failing. It seems it stops responding when in use and only 'resets' when it has been completely shut down (cold boot).
To verify, you could boot any live CD or USB and access that disk. Just keep it busy until it stops working. If it doesn't stop working, it might be something else.
If the computer works fine without the other drive connected, check your BIOS for boot settings, be sure the right drive is selected. Also verify if the file windows is trying to load, is not corrupted. Open cmd.exe with elevated rights and go to system32. Then run sfc /scannow. This should scan all system-files for errors.
Also: Make backups of your data! (and don't connect or disconnect drives while the computer is powered on)
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