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8 Solutions to Fix Critical Process Died in Windows 10

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    What Is Critical Process Died


    Critical_Process_Died refers to a critical system process died with its bug check error code 0x000000EF or blue screen error. If a critical system process can’t run properly, the operating system will have some troubles, and it will crash and show you this error on your computer in Windows 10 like "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We’re just collecting some error info, and then we’ll restart for you. (n% complete)". Just like the following screenshot shows:

    critical process died windows 10

    You may ask why does this error occur and how to solve 0x000000ef error in Windows 10. Don’t worry. This article will introduce you the reasons and the solutions. Just read on.

    Why Does Critical_Process_Died in Windows 10 Happen


    question When experiencing error Critical_Process_Died error, you should know it is because when running operating system, the process which was needed to boot system ended accidentally for some reasons. Normally this error occurs after system upgrade or the new Windows installation in PCs. Nowadays Windows 10 is becoming a very popular operating system all over the world. Microsoft company allows you to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 for free until July 29, 2016. Due to Windows 10 advantages, most of you choose to upgrade to the new system. However, during the process of Windows upgrade or after successful upgrade, it is likely to experience Critical Process Died issue. Here are some reasons about this error:

    1. Compatibility issue: when upgrading a new system, the hardware or drivers are not upgraded, and the compatibility issue appears, so your computer is always needed to restart.
    2. Ram issue: when there is something wrong in the memory, the blue screen or 0x000000ef error will occur.
    3. Virus attack: the virus lives everywhere and it often attacks your computer which can makes this error existent.
    4. System files are corrupted or modified: if you need to restart your computer again and again, it may be because of the corrupted or modified files.
    5. Disk has bad sectors: after you use a hard drive for a long time, there may be some bad sectors in this disk. And it may cause this problem.

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    How to Fix Critical_Process_Died in Windows 10


    After knowing the reasons about Critical_Process_Died error, let’s look at two cases about this critical died error:

    "I recently upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7. So far, I am regretting it. My start up is woefully slow, (15 to 20 minutes). Every morning after sleep mode I get this "Critical process error 0x000000ef" and the entire start up process repeats itself. I have not found anything on line that refers to this problem in Windows 10. Can anyone help?"
    --- from answers.microsoft.com

    Hi, so my Windows 10 showed me a blue screen right before it force restarts as I was browsing the net using Microsoft Edge. It also asked me to Google Critical_Process_Died. I installed BlueScreenView to extract data from the dump file that was created after crash. I am uploading a zip file that contains the dump file and the text file that contains info about the crash. 
    --- from tomshardware


    In fact, this error is a common issue and you can find many forums and articles about it. And I find eight useful solutions as follows.

    solution 1 Solution 1: Restart Computer in Safe Mode


    In general, this error can make your desktop or laptop unable to be used and you have to restart your computer. During restarting the computer every time, you always get this issue. In this case, you can restart the computer in safe mode. This way is quite quick to open the computer Windows, which may make you avoid getting this error in the process of computer startup.

    1. Restart Windows 10.
    2. Press "Shift + F8" when booting computer in Windows 10.
    3. Then you need to go to "Advanced Boot Options" and set boot mode as "Safe Mode" to open your computer.

    windows10 safe mode

    In addition, you can also enter into Safe Mode by using another way. Please press "Shift key" before clicking "Restart" button. Then click "Troubleshoot" → "Advanced options" → "Startup Settings" → "Enable Safe Mode" → "Restart". Then you will get the following screenshot. Just select "Enable Safe Mode".

    enable safe mode

    solution 2 Solution 2: Upgrade All Drivers


    After you restart the computer in Safe Mode, you should check whether there are some errors in all your device drivers. Generally, many blue screen errors or 0x000000ef error are due to the hardware or drivers fault. Please do this work as the following guidance lists:

    1. You can enter into Device Manager by pressing "Win + X".
    2. Then please start to check all drivers. If you find a driver shows a yellow exclamatory mark, it means the driver is faulty.

    In this case, you need to uninstall and reinstall this driver. In addition, it is possible that the hardware drivers are not compatible with your Windows system after a upgrade. Therefore, it is necessary to upgrade all drivers by right clicking a driver and selecting "Upgrade Driver Software". This way is useful to fix Critical_Process_Died issue.

    solution 3 Solution 3: Use MiniTool Partition Wizard When There Are Bad Sectors


    Tips 1: Check Bad Errors in Hard Drive


    In addition, there is a common factor – disk bad blocks. If there are some bad sectors in your hard drive, Critical Process Died error may happen. In this case, you need to check whether there are bad sectors or not in your disk. How to perform this operation? MiniTool cooperation highly recommends you to use a professional partition and disk management software – MiniTool Partition Wizard to check disk errors with simple steps. This partition manager provides you "Surface Test" feature to scan all sectors in disk by reading all data from each sector in Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista.

    Before you do:
    At first, you need to download MiniTool Partition Wizard and install it on your computer, and then start to check disk errors.




    Step 1: Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard and enter into its main interface. Please select a target hard drive and right-click on this disk to select "Surface Test" function. Also you can click this feature from "Operations" pull-down menu.

    surface test

    Step 2: Then please click "Start Now" to do this work. You need to wait for a few minutes during the process of disk scanning. MiniTool Partition Wizard helps to mark disk block without reading error in green and mark disk block with errors in red. Next click "OK" to continue.

    check disk errors

    Step 3: At last, click "Apply" to perform all operations.

    In addition, you can also do partition surface test by checking each sectors on all partitions. After finishing disk errors check, you can ensure whether there are bad sectors or not in your hard drive. And then please take measures according to the actual situation.

    Tips 2: Repair Bad Sectors


    After finishing disk test, if there are some bad sectors, you need to use a professional bad sector repair software. When searching "disk bad sector repair" in Google, you will find some useful ways or videos.

    And here is a useful video for you:



    Attention: Unfortunately, MiniTool Partition Wizard only support disk check, but it doesn’t provide a solution about how to fix disk errors. Nevertheless, this software can help you to do other operations, such as copy disk, migrate operating system to SSD/HD and so on.


    Tips 3: Make a Backup for Important Data on Disk in Windows 10


    ① Clone the Entire Disk for All Data

    After finishing checking disk, you may find out there are bad errors in disk. In this case, in order to reduce the risk of data loss, you had better make a backup for all your important data on the hard drive.

    Step 1: Launch this application and right click the source hard drive and select "Copy". Also you can click "Copy Disk" in "Operations" pull-down menu.

    copy disk

    Step 2: The you need to choose a disk to copy the source content to. All data from the source disk will be copied there. During copy operation, target disk content will be deleted. Therefore, you had better make a backup for the data if there are important files saved on the source hard drive. Then click "Next".

    select target disk

    Step 3: Then you can review the changes. Moreover, there are three copy options you can choose:

    • Fit partitions to the entire disk.
    • Copy partitions without size.
    • Edit partitions on this disk.

    Recommend: If you copy the entire disk to SSD or an advanced format disk , it is suggested to choose "Force to align to 1MB" for a better performance. This means all partitions will be aligned, namely 4K alignment.


    copy options

    Step 4: Then MiniTool Partition Wizard will tell you that if you want to boot from the new disk, you should enter into BIOS to change boot order after finishing the copy. If you only make a backup for the entire disk, it is not necessary to do this set.

    boot destination disk

    Step 5: Finally, click "Apply" to execute all operations.

    It is very easy to clone all data in the hard drive to another disk in Windows 10. In addition, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard to copy partitions to keep data safe.

    Note:
    • Before doing disk copy, you’d better prepare a hard drive which is larger than the usage space of the source disk.
    • During the process of disk copy, MiniTool Partition Wizard provides sector-by-sector copy mode. But it is not supported in partition copy.

    ② Make a Backup for Windows 10 System

    If you have fixed the Critical_Process_Died 0x000000ef error successfully, it is suggested to do a system backup which can be used to restore system when there is something wrong in Windows 10. This partition manager is very powerful to help to do system migration. Just click this wizard from "Wizards" menu to start migrate OS to SSD/HD.

    migrate system

    To solve 0x000000ef error Windows 10 issue, in addition to the above five solutions, there are three other ways.

    solution 4 Solution 4: Use SFC /SCANNOW


    When critical error died occurs, it is possible to be due to the corrupted system files or missing system files. In this case, you can use SFC /Scannow command to check file system. If this System File Checker finds out the protected files are overwritten by incorrect files, it will extract the correct system file from the system file backup (namely dllcache) and replace the incorrect file. This command is useful to repair system files, and you can do the following steps:

    • Input "command prompt" in "Search" box. Then right-click "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator" to open command window.
    • Type "sfc /scannow" and press "Enter key". You need to wait for a few minutes until finishing system scan.

    sfc

    When Verification reaches 100%, if there are no corrupted system files, you can receive a note "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations". If there are some errors in system files, this tool can find out and repair errors, a message like "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. Note that logging is currently not supported in offline servicing scenarios" will be displayed. At last, you need to restart your computer if this command prompt has repaired any file.

    solution 5 Solution 5: Run DISM to Repair Corrupted System Image


    If sfc /scannow command is unable to repair the corrupted system files, you can run DISM to fix Windows system image. In Windows 10, there is a command-line utility known as Deployment Image Servicing and Management and it is also called DISM. You’d better run command prompt as administrator to repair system image. If you want to get more information, please click this article - how to repair Windows 10 image using DISM to get help.

    dism

    solution 6 Solution 6: Perform a Clean Boot


    If you get critical error died, you can select "Selective startup" and "Load system services" in System Configuration. At last, please hide all Microsoft services.

    solution 7 Solution 7: Restore to the Previous Point


    When the error appears recently, you can create a system restore point to restore to its previous status.

    solution 8 Solution 8: Uninstall the Latest Software


    In your computer, you may have installed some software with virus. And perhaps the virus attack cause this error, so please uninstall the latest software installation.

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    Summary


    In conclusion, the above content introduces you the solutions about "how to fix critical_process_died windows 10" problem. You can try those ways to solve your issue. Besides, if you encounter blue screen during Windows 10 upgrade, the article Introduction to Blue Screen Errors during Windows 10 Upgrade is useful for you. If you have any question or suggestion, welcome to leave a message below.