My laptop suddenly crashed with a blue screen error, saying it needs to restart after collecting some error information. The screen is stuck on “0% complete” for the past half hour. I’m unsure what to do - should I shut it down? If I do, will I lose my data?
Hey there Sorry to hear that your laptop is stuck on a blue screen of death (BSOD).
First, don’t shut it down just yet. Let it try to complete the error reporting process, even if it’s stuck at 0% for a while. This might take some time, but it’s worth waiting to see if it eventually finishes. If you shut it down, you might lose some data, and we don’t want that to happen.
If you’re not comfortable waiting, or if you’ve already waited for an hour or so, it’s safe to shut it down. Just press and hold the power button until your laptop turns off. Don’t worry too much about data loss at this point; we’ll get to that in a bit.
Once you’ve shut it down, here’s what you can do to troubleshoot the issue:
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Boot in Safe Mode: Press the power button to turn it back on, and immediately start tapping the F8 key. This should bring up the Advanced Boot Options menu. Select Safe Mode and see if your laptop boots up successfully. If it does, then the issue is likely related to a driver or software conflict.
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Run a System File Checker (SFC) scan: In Safe Mode, open Command Prompt as an administrator (right-click on the Start button and select Command Prompt (Admin)). Type
sfc /scannowand press Enter. This scan will check for and fix any corrupted system files. -
Check for driver updates: Outdated drivers can cause BSODs. Go to the Device Manager (Press the Windows key + X and select Device Manager), expand each section, and look for devices with a yellow exclamation mark or a red X. Right-click on these devices and select Update Driver.
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Run a disk check: Corrupted files on your hard drive can also cause BSODs. Open Command Prompt as an administrator again, and type
chkdsk C:(replace C with the drive letter of your system drive). Press Enter to run the disk check.
If none of these steps help, you might need to perform a System Restore or even a clean install of Windows 10. But let’s not jump to that just yet.
As for data loss, don’t worry too much about it. If you’ve been saving your work regularly, you should be okay. If you’re concerned about specific files, try to recall the last time you saved them. If you’re still worried, we can discuss ways to recover data, but that’s a whole different can of worms.
Let me know if you have any questions or if you’d like more guidance on these steps. I’m here to help