BSOD after long idle (e.g. when returning from Windows+L lock.)

hemy · 08 Oct 2015

Hey guys,

My Vostro is already in a bad condition but not physically. Some drivers do not work (e.g. webcam driver) properly. This Win10 is the fourth clean install on the PC (After 8 and 8.1), Windows Updates are enabled and installed automatically (for drivers as well). When I leave the computer alone for a long time, I have BSOD and (in the good case) an automatic restart.

Dell support is not available for Windows (drivers), because they sold this computer with Ubuntu

If you have any idea, I would be thankful.

Thanks in advance!

axe0 · 08 Oct 2015

Hi hemy,

Welcome to the 10forums.

As I understand, the 0xEF(CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED) is usually caused by either malware or hard drive problems.
For now we can rule out hard drive problems as I don't see it back in the dumps

Please download and install Malwarebytes free (Uncheck trial version in the installation process)
Please run a threat scan with Malwarebytes, a full scan with your AV, scan your system with Adwcleaner and Kaspersky TTDSKiller.

hemy · 09 Oct 2015

Hi axe0,

Thanks for the fast response! I will do as you advised, and return here.

hemy · 07 Nov 2015

Hi again,

I have ran the necessary malware scanners. They have found some bugs, but none of them caused the BSOD.

Some update on the symptoms: Sometimes the CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED is UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION.
If I leave a movie playing when I leave the computer, there is no BSOD. It looks like the BSOD happens only, when the computer stops the activity with the HDD for a while. Maybe there is a background process (defrag?) which activates automatically on idle, and gets crazy on a bad sector? I did not find the option to turn these off (only Windows Search service is turned off).

My deepest dark fear is that I have to replace the HDD soon.

axe0 · 07 Nov 2015

Diagnostics Test

Clean boot

Please try the following:

Open taskmanager
- Go to the tab startup
- disable everything
Search msconfig and open it
- Go to the tab services
- Check 'hide microsoft services'
- Uncheck all other services
- Click apply and click ok
Reboot if asked

See if the problem persist, if the problem does not persist enable in the startup tab in taskmanager 1 item and in the services tab in msconfig also 1 service, reboot and see if the problem persist. Keep doing this until you find the culprit or there is nothing left.
If the problem still persist, try booting in safe mode and see if the problem still persist