Causes of Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death
Blue Screen of Death (BSOD for short), also called Stop Error, emerges whenever Windows detects a serious error it cannot recover from, and it shuts down or restarts itself to avoid any damage.
Windows 10 blue screen often comes with error codes displayed in white text, for example:
But sometimes it is just a blank blue screen or with spinning dots:
You may encounter the BSOD when shutting down or restarting the computer. Sometimes, you will even get stuck in BSOD restart loop. Why does Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death emerge? How can we quickly fix this issue? These must be what you are eager to know, right? See this post to get what you want.
Hardware related causes:
- External or internal hardware devices are installed improperly.
- One or some of hardware devices are malfunctioning, such as RAM, CPU, and internal hard disk.
- New hardware device is incompatible with your BIOS.
Software related causes:
- Not enough free space on the partition where Windows is installed.
- Driver of your hardware is out of date, especially graphics driver.
- Install incompatible Windows update or program.
- Virus attack.
- System files, including boot files damaged or corrupted.
- Bug of Windows 10.
- BIOS is out of date.
- BIOS is misconfigured or overclocked.
After knowing causes for Windows 10 Stop Error, next let’s talk about how to fix the BSOD when shutting down Windows or restarting.
Before repairing Windows 10 BSOD, you’d better recover the data or back up all useful data saved in the system partition via MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate Edition and Pro Edition respectively, which could help you avoid data loss. In addition, it is also the first step if you have to reinstall Windows.
Then, let’s start fixing blue screen issue of Windows 10.
Quickly Fix: Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death after Upgrade
Many users reported that they were blocked by a blue screen during the process of upgrading Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 and their PC was set to the original state. Many factors could cause this issue, and next we picked out some typical cases.
Case 1: Windows 10 BSOD Without Error Code: C Drive Might Run in Low Disk Space
If drive C does not have enough free space for upgrade, you may receive blue screen. Therefore, it’s necessary to check free space of drive C in Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 Explorer. If it indeed does not have much free space left, enlarge it.
However, if your drive C has enough free space, take other factors, like virus into consideration.
Case 2: Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death Error Code: C1900101-20017
This is a quite common BSOD error when we are upgrading Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10.
From the error description we know the installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase, which shows the issue occurs largely because of faulty BIOS setting (always on UEFI + Legacy BIOS).
That means we can fix the error by changing some settings in BIOS. Just try doing the following operations in your current version of Windows to fix the error:
Step 1: Go to C:/Windows/Software Distribution/Download and delete all files and folders under Download folder. Then, go back to the root directory of C: drive and delete $Windows.~BT folder.
Step 2: Restart computer and enter BIOS by pressing F2, Delete, or Esc. Different computer requires different key, so you had better google “how to enter BIOS plus computer mode or motherboard type” at first. Then, enable “Load Optimized Defaults” to disable all overclocking options.
Step 3: Enable UEFI boot under Boot menu.
Step 4: Disable Secure Boot.
Step 5: Once all these changes are made, please press on F10 key to save changes and exit from BIOS. After that, you may upgrade Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 successfully.
Case 3:Windows Blue Screen of Death Error Code: 0XC1900101 – 0X40017
This is another common blue screen error when we are upgrading to Windows 10. From one of Microsoft support engineers we know this error occurs largely because there is an incompatible driver or hardware defect which is important for booting the intermediary environment that is necessary to perform the upgrade actions.
And he gives the following troubleshoot methods:
Step 1: When our computer is set back to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, disable or uninstall all antivirus software.
Step 2: Disconnect all unnecessary external devices or peripherals connected to the computer except the mouse and the keyboard, and then disable general USB devices, like smart card reader.
Step 3: If you are using a SCSI hard disk, make sure you have drivers available for this disk. During Windows 10 setup, click the Custom Advanced Option and use the Load Driver command to load the appropriate driver for the SCSI drive. If this does not work and setup still fails, try switching to IDE in BIOS.
Step 4: If you are updating through Windows Update, when the download reaches 100%, disconnect from the Internet LAN (Ethernet) or Wi-Fi, and proceed with the installation. After that, you can check if the BSOD when shutting down Windows disappears.
However, if all methods above fail to work, you may need to set your Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 computer to factory state, and then do the upgrade.
The post also mentions Windows 10 BOSD on Startup and when using computer. To learn about them, please read the following content.
Quickly Fix: Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death on Startup
Most Windows 10 Stop Errors emerge on boot, some of which could be fixed after a restart, but in most situations, you’ll be stuck in restart loop and have to manually shut computer down.
To fix this kind of Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death errors, please think about what actions you did right before the BSOD, and then undo the operation.
Situation 1: Get Windows 10 BSOD after Installing an Update, Program, or Driver
If Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death appears after you are installing a Windows update, driver, or application, please uninstall it to see whether Windows can start as before. View the following solutions and choose the most proper one.
Solution 1: Windows boots successfully after restart.
To uninstall Windows update:
Please click Start button, choose Settings, navigate to Update & security > Windows Update > Advanced options > View your update history > Uninstall updates. Then, you’ll see the following interface:
Here, please right click the update that may cause BSOD and Uninstall it. Of course, you can double click the update to uninstall it.
To uninstall hardware driver:
Please right click Start button windows and choose Device Manager to enter the following window:
Here, please find the device driver that needs installing, then right click it, choose Uninstall, and click OK to confirm uninstalling. Then, Windows will uninstall the device driver.
To uninstall a program:
Just go to Control Panel, and then Program > Uninstall a program.
Then, right click the program, choose Uninstall, and click Yes to confirm uninstalling.
After uninstalling the wrong Windows update, device driver, or program, the blue screen when shutting down Windows should be fixed.
However, if you forget the name of update, driver, or software, just try uninstalling the most recent one by viewing its installation date.
Solution 2: You are stuck in Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death restart loop.
Since Windows is unbootable under this situation, you need to uninstall Windows update, driver, or program in Safe Mode.
Safe Mode is a diagnostic mode for Windows that starts your computer in a limited state. Only the basic files and drivers necessary to run Windows are started. This helps us in identifying whether the issue is due to some third-party programs conflict.Microsoft
But it should be noted that pressing F8 or F8 + Shift might fail to start computer from Safe Mode, which is largely because Windows 10 is designed with a very fast boot procedure. But it’s not bad to try pressing F8 or Shift + F8 at first, and then use Windows 10 installation disc or recovery drive.
Step 1: Start computer from Windows 10 installation disc or recovery drive, and click Next > Repair your computer > Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart:
Step 2: Press on 4/F4 or 5/F5 to enter normal Safe Mode.
Step 3: Once in Safe Mode, you can uninstall Windows update, software, and device driver by above steps.
Situation 2: Get Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death Without Doing Any Change
Action 1: Check your hardware devices to see whether they are connectedly properly. If they are not fully pushed into their slots, BSOD is very likely to emerge.
Action 2: If this is not the cause, please check if your C drive is out of space using MiniTool Partition Wizard. If so, extend it using the Extend Partition feature of Partition Wizard. We suggest keeping at least 15% of drive C’s capacity free all the time.
Action 3: You can try clearing Virus when drive C has much free space. Some viruses attack your MBR (master boot record) or boot sector, which could cause BSOD.
It’s easy to scan our computer for virus when Windows is bootable: just launch the anti-virus software, scan, and remove. But if Windows is unbootable, you need to do this in Safe Mode, and we suggest choosing Enable Safe Mode with Networking.
Action 4: If virus is also not the case, try:
- Setting BIOS to its default state.
- Updating your BIOS to newest version.
- Updating Windows to the latest version.
- Fixing boot using bootrec /fixmbr, bootrec /fixboot, and bootrec /rebuildbcdcommands in Command Prompt of Windows installation disc or repair drive.
Maybe, one of these actions could fix the blue screen when shutting down Windows or restarting it.
Quickly Fix: Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death When Using Computer
If the Stop Error appears when you are using your computer, you can try doing these repair attempts:
- Remove newly added hardware devices, such as webcam, printer, and monitor, and then restart computer.
- Scan your computer for virus or malware. If Windows cannot start, do it in Safe Mode with Networking.
- Uninstall most recently installed programs and Windows updates.
- Install the latest Windows update.
Steps for all these methods have been shown in the section Quickly Fix: Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death on Startup. So here, we do not give details.
Nevertheless, when all solutions here are useless for your case, you may need to reinstall Windows.
If you have backed up data saved in C drive, now you can reinstall Windows without losing personal files.
Bottom Line
Some of our solutions have been proved to be useful for Windows 10 BSOD error, so it’s your turn to try them out. However, if you find other solutions, please share it with us in Comment part or contact us via [email protected].
Blue Screen Error During Windows 10 Upgrade FAQ
A BSOD does not necessarily mean that your computer is dead but it does mean the following cases.
For one, everything has to stop, including your operating system. Moreover, in almost all cases, the BSOD also indicates that a serious enough problem appears and it needs to be corrected. Once the problem has been repaired, you can use your computer normally.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Ariel has been working as a highly professional computer-relevant technology editor at MiniTool for many years. She has a strong passion for researching all knowledge related to the computer's disk, partition, and Windows OS. Up till now, she has finished thousands of articles covering a broad range of topics and helped lots of users fix various problems. She focuses on the fields of disk management, OS backup, and PDF editing and provides her readers with insightful and informative content.