Windows crashing

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I will try to make this short.  The only thing I have done differently is to enable file history.  I am reading a website and I notice the fan running faster.  I open up task manager and check cpu activity.  It’s 3-5 percent then jumps up to 95-100 percent for a few seconds and then down to 30-40 percent.  Then I get a blue screen with a frowning emoticom. It says – your system encountered an problem and needs to restart.  Collecting error information and will restart for you.  It restarts and a black says – no bootable device installed.   It gives you a couple function keys to try for diagnostics. I run that and it says – no hard drive installed.  Yikes!  I held the power button down and it restarted normally.  I immediately used the included Windows 7 back up feature and it runs to completion.  I also run a utility for checking hard drive health called crystal disk info. It lists the internal ssd as 89%, which it classifies as good.  It’s crashed a couple more times without the increase in cpu usage going up.  I have the Media Creation Tool downloaded and I was going to create an. so file to use to do an over the top Windows reinstall ala Susan Bradley.  I don’t know how to find Windows error codes and doubt I would be able to understand them anyway.  Am I dealing with a software or hardware problem?  TIA

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Wheeler,

You’re gonna need a bigger “SSD”.

SSDs that are that full have problems with operating efficiently and may be causing your problem. The storage can’t be effectively “wear leveled” as it will be constantly be writing to the same area and may cause cells to fail causing problems.

If you have “Fast Start” enabled, Disable it immediately. Also disable Hibernation. Turn the machine off and back on. Now if it starts normally immediately BACK IT UP!

You don’t mention the type of machine [Desktop | Laptop] but IMHO both Fast Startup and Hibernation are problematic at best and catastrophic at their worst. Your SSD will start the machine fast enough w/o them so you can just shut down the computer when leaving it or use Win+L to lock it if you have it on a UPS.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

2 users thanked author for this post.

wavy, Bob99

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@RetiredGeek –

If time and/or money are considerations for Wheeler, then perhaps buying an external drive might be better overall than buying a new, larger SSD, and having to reinstall Windows from a backup?

With the external drive, Wheeler could transfer enough data/documents/photos/videos off the SSD to give it the working room it needs to work much better, and then use the TRIM function built into Windows to help get the SSD back into shape, right?

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Actually, money isn’t a consideration so if I need to get a new computer it wouldn’t be a hardship.  Windows reaches end of life next October anyway

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If by fast start up you mean putting the machine in sleep mode when I am done using it then yes

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Fast Start is found in Control Panel\Power Options\Choose what the Power Button does

At the top you will have to click on the link to access the options below.
Uncheck the box for Fast Startup and save the changes.
Restart the computer a couple of times.

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Shutting down my computer with or without fast start is not a good option for me. I am quadriplegic and Gmail requires you to use 2FA to log in.  It uses a cell phone as the second factor.  This would require me to give my unlock code to my nurses every day.  Obviously, doing this would allow them to easily memorize the code.  Something I don’t want to do.  If I just put my computer to sleep, I don’t get logged out of Gmail.

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I think 89% is life, not capacity.

Wheeler, how old is the SSD and how big is it?

cheers, Paul

1 user thanked author for this post.

satrow

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The ssd is about 3 years old and is a 512gb

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It should be fine size wise, but keep an eye on the life indicator – and make regular image backups.

cheers, Paul

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Paul T wrote:

I think 89% is life, not capacity.

My thoughts also.

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Security and Maintenance\Reliability Monitor

Does Reliability Monitor show anything ‘bad’ logged around the date/time of the crash, or the immediate day(s) before it?

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There are red circles, but it just says that Windows wasn’t shut down properly

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Paul T wrote:

I think 89% is life, not capacity.

The only item in Crystal Disk Info displays as a % is the Health Status.

And yes, it’s an “estimate” of the remaining life of that particular disk based on the reallocated, current pending and uncorrectable sector counts and 89% should mean the SSD’s OK.

Wheeler,

Open Disk Management (WinKey+R, enter diskmgmt.msc and press Enter) and check the % free left on your main OS disk (last column in the top-right section.)

If it’s less than 5%, that could be what’s causing the crashes and you’ll either need to clean up the drive to remove leftover temp files/folders, get a larger drive and move the existing contents over to it (backup image from old drive/restore image to new drive), or move some stuff to an external drive as suggested by @Bob99.

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It’s nowhere near 5 percent.  Swapping out drives would be ideal, but I am quadriplegic so not something I could talk a nurse through

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Wheeler wrote:

The only thing I have done differently is to enable file history.

Hi Wheeler:

Do you use BitLocker drive encryption, and does your system run normally if you turn OFF File History at Control Panel | System and Security | File History?
————
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.4412 * Firefox v126.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24050.7-1.1.24050.5 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.1.5.116-1.0.1252 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783

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I don’t use bit locker and I turned off file history.  So far it has not crashed, but I am not holding my breath

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Wheeler wrote:

There are red circles, but it just says that Windows wasn’t shut down properly

Following the link to Petri and drilling down as shown should give a little more detail than that.

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Here is what one of the red circles said

Faulting application name: ShellExperienceHost.exe, version: 10.0.19041.3758, time stamp: 0x507e5c93
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.4291, time stamp: 0xa956ff71
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000000397ce
Faulting process id: 0x22d8
Faulting application start time: 0x01dab5163e1fe05e
Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: e47e7990-8917-48fd-ad9d-66668897afba
Faulting package full name: Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.19041.4239_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
Faulting package-relative application ID: App

Not sure what to make of all that, but I think long story short, it crashed

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Wheeler wrote:

and Gmail requires you to use 2FA to log in.

You can remain logged in even after shutting down and restart.
I do so and never have to login to Google services.

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This is odd.  If I shut down and open up the Edge browser, I do not have to log in to Gmail again like you said, but if I shut down and open Firefox, I have to log in to Gmail again.

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I’m using Firefox and Gmail for all my AskWoody communications. I have Gmail set as one of my home tabs in FF settings. If I close FF without logging out of Gmail, I am still logged in when I open the browser the next day. That is, I never log out.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

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Wheeler wrote:

Windows reaches end of life next October anyway

You mean October 2025 for Windows 10 ? That’s another year and 4 months from mow.
You have 0Patch to keep you covered and 3 years of added support with Microsoft’s ESU.

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True dat.  I turned off file history and deleted a huge file of videos that I already had in Onedrive and my system has now stayed stable longer than it has in days.  I am going to take the opportunity to copy everything to an external ssd just in case.  Thanks everyone and wish me luck

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

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Darn!  Spoke too soon.  Crashed again.  I am able to make back ups  Which will make setting up a new system easier.  Thanks again everyone.

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Wheeler wrote:

Faulting application name: ShellExperienceHost.exe, version: 10.0.19041.3758, time stamp: 0x507e5c93 Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.19041.4291, time stamp: 0xa956ff71 Exception code: 0xc0000005 Fault offset: 0x00000000000397ce Faulting process id: 0x22d8 Faulting application start time: 0x01dab5163e1fe05e Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll Report Id: e47e7990-8917-48fd-ad9d-66668897afba Faulting package full name: Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.19041.4239_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy Faulting package-relative application ID: App Not sure what to make of all that, but I think long story short, it crashed

Based upon that info from your post number 2680130, it looks as if you may have some general disk-wide file system corruption going on due to your other issues with the drive. Or, there may be corruption in the files needed to run the process listed as being the faulting process.

For the first item (file system in general on the drive possibly corrupted) it would be a good idea to run the following command from an elevated (with Admin rights) command prompt:

chkdsk C: /F /V

That will run a check of the file system on your C: drive the next time it boots, and it will do so immediately after the system begins booting so it has exclusive access to the whole drive. After it’s done it will let you know if it found and fixed anything and then proceed with the booting up of the machine. The results of the chkdsk can be found in the Event Log (although I can’t remember exactly which process they’re listed under  ) and in a file in the System Volume Information folder on the C: drive. BUT, the folder is hidden and has special access controls on it, so you may not be able to see the log file there.

For the second item (corruption in the files needed to run the faulting process), you could try running the command “sfc /scannow” (without the quotes) from an elevated command prompt to see if there are any system files that are corrupted. This will only check the Windows system files but nothing more. If it finds corruption, it will try to repair what it finds. Unlike the chkdsk C: /F /V command, this process does not require the system to reboot before it does its thing.

1 user thanked author for this post.

satrow

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