 Hello everybody! In today's video, we'll be talking about the era critical process died which you may face when booting a Windows operating system, why it happens and how to fix it. In our channel and blog you will find solutions to any problem, from installing an operating system or configuring it to fixing possible bugs and errors or optimizing mobile gadgets. Our specialists will answer any questions you ask in your comments under the videos or articles. Working with a Windows operating system, all of us users have to face various errors from time to time. While we can bear with most software errors, though some of them can be really disappointing, but encountering system errors may have grave consequences. This particular system error that we are discussing today may strike your computer out of the blue and at the most in a proper moment. So in this video, we will try to examine possible causes of this error and find a cure for it in Windows 10, 7 and 8. When this error occurs, you will see a blue screen saying your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. All processes are closed and the computer starts. If this error is occurring, working with such a computer becomes almost impossible as it can restart on its own almost at any time. With things going from bad to worse, this error may prevent the computer from booting the operating system and after another restart, you will see the same blue screen again. For starters, let's have a look at when it may occur. Most of the time, it is caused by a driver failure. For example, when the operating system tries to use drivers from Windows Update, but hardware operates normally only with original drivers from the manufacturer. Another cause is drivers that start working in the wrong way because for some reason they were damaged or come into conflict with the current version of the operating system. In addition to driver issues, the error-critical process died may occur due to a virus attack after cleaning the computer and the system registry from junk files or when the system files were damaged. Now that we know the things behind this error, let's see how to fix it. First of all, let's examine an optimistic scenario of eliminating the problem when you were lucky enough and the operating system booted successfully after the restart. And if the operating system can't boot, try booting in safe mode. By the way, you can visit our channel to watch a special video tutorial about it by checking the link below. Let's fix the error when Windows boots successfully after the restart. The first thing I'd recommend is to view saved memory dumps that the operating system creates when faced with critical errors. Sometimes this option can be disabled, so go to control panel, system, click advanced system settings on the left, switch to the tab advanced and open startup and recovery settings. Here are the settings that enable memory dumps. In the suction system failure, the boxes should be checked for write an event to the system log and automatically restart. A little below, in the dump file part, the box for override an existing file should be checked too. Also, the system folder containing the dump file and the filename should be specified. If you are in for a more detailed analysis, there is a free utility called BlueScreenView and I will leave the corresponding link below this video. It's so simple that even device users can handle it properly. Run the utility and view recent errors to see the actual offenders. In the lower part of the programs window, the lines in red will tell you what drivers failed and triggered this nasty error. To learn more about the troubled files having the sys extension, use an internet search to find out what drivers are represented by specific sys files. An important note. Another tool you may find useful is WhoCrashed, a free utility capable of giving you the exact name of the driver that triggered the error. As soon as you find out what driver caused the problem, go to the official website of your hardware manufacturer to download the latest version of the software to replace the version currently used by your computer. If this error occurred after you updated a driver, you can always roll it back to the previous version. Open the Device Manager, right-click on a specific device, choose Properties, Driver, Rollback Driver. In Device Manager, you can also try to disable the troubled hardware, unless it's critical for your work. If you reinstall drivers, but the error critical process died and blue screens of death keep bothering you, follow these steps. Reinstall drivers for main hardware elements of your computer. If this problem occurs in a laptop, this step looks quite easy. Just download all the necessary drivers from the laptop manufacturer's website. However, when the critical process died error hits a desktop PC, you'll have to find drivers to your motherboard, graphics card, processor and so on, and this might involve visiting several websites. We strongly advise you against using special tools that claim to install all drivers in a minute. Please don't. If there are any restore points available, recover the computer's condition on a date when you did not see this error. Put our channel for a detailed video tutorial about it and you can find the link. Another thing to be done is to check integrity of the system files. Use the standard tools specially designed for this purpose. Launch the command prompt as administrator and run the command sfc scan now. Check your PC for viruses. I recommend watching a good video about it in our channel to get things done quickly and efficiently. Restoring the registry is also a good idea. And it becomes especially relevant if you made any changes there or tried to clean the registry with specialized junk cleaners. Once again, in our channel you can find a special video about it, just check the link in the description. If nothing helps, try resetting the operating system. You can do it from the recovery environment by choosing troubleshoot, reset your PC. To learn more, just click the link below. If none of the tricks work, try to remember what you did to the computer before the error critical process died occurred. For example, it can even be triggered by connecting some USB peripherals. If does the case, try unplugging the USB device and removing the drivers which the operating system has installed for it automatically. Now, let's find out what to do if you couldn't boot the operating system and all you can see is a notorious blue screen of death. If you can't boot the computer in safe mode and use special boot options, there is one more thing to try. You will need a bootable USB drive containing an operating system. If a series of failed boot-in attempts and in a recovery environment menu on your screen, there is no need to create a bootable USB drive or disk. You can use recovery tools from this menu including System Restore in the section Advanced Options. Check the link below to find out how to create a bootable USB drive for Windows. Here is an important piece of advice. The bitness of the operating system inside USB drive should be the same as the bitness of the operating system currently installed on your computer. When the boot menu appears, click Next in the first window of the installation wizard and repair your computer in the second window – in the lower left corner. You will see the short list of possible actions. First of all, try recovering the operating system with Restore Points. For this purpose, open Advanced Options and select the corresponding item. The second step could be using the Command Prompt to check file integrity with the Command SFC Scan Now. Another thing you can do with the help of the Command Prompt is to restore the registry. If nothing helps, then the only way out is to reinstall the operating system. And that is all for now. I hope this video was useful for you. Remember to click the Like button and subscribe to our channel. Hit the bell icon to receive notifications and never miss new videos. Leave comments to ask questions. Thank you for watching. Good luck.