BSOD after successful windows login after running Windows Driver Verifier. Restored to Restore Point, unsure how to proceed

I was following a guide from another post after suspecting a driver issue (my computer crashed while I was in bed, my relaxing rain white noise turning into a horrible electronic screeching sound). I ran Windows Driver Verifier with the settings listed here: Enable and Disable Driver Verifier in Windows 10

(In short, I tested all non-windows drivers)

After selecting all non-windows drivers I rebooted per the instructions and the computer rebooted fine. I arrived at the login screen I logged into windows and arrived at my normal desktop. After about 5 seconds the computer BSOD. The computer restarted and the exact same events repeated every time, BSOD after about 5 seconds after login. I eventually had to use windows restore to restore my computer to the restore point I had created just prior to running WDV.

So clearly I have a driver problem, but I don't know what to do from here. I don't seem to be able to find instructions on how to check WDV logs that might tell me which driver it is or anything like that. I'm lost, help!

Windows version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.3296)

Hello, @Foogoo, and welcome to the Eleven Forum (11F).

A couple of things to note, from that Microsoft Docs page linked in the 10F link:

Driver Verifier can subject Windows drivers to a variety of stresses and tests to find improper behavior. You can configure which tests to run, which allows you to put a driver through heavy stress loads or through more streamlined testing. You can also run Driver Verifier on multiple drivers simultaneously, or on one driver at a time.

Click to expand...

If you ran this as a verification against *all* drivers in one fell swoop, you could try doing it one by one, to see if there is a particular driver that may be problematic.

Also, immediately under that are the warnings:

Caution

• Running Driver Verifier could cause the computer to crash.
• You should only run Driver Verifier on computers that you are using for testing and debugging.
• You must be in the Administrators group on the computer to use Driver Verifier.

Click to expand...

The second one is most likely applicable in this case - what are you testing / debugging on your machine that led you to enabling and running the DV utility in the first place?

According to this section further below:

Run Driver Verifier throughout development and testing of your driver. More specifically, use Driver Verifier for the following purposes:

• To find problems early in the development cycle, when they are easier and less costly to correct.
• For troubleshooting and debugging test failures and computer crashes.
• To monitor behavior when you deploy a driver for testing using the WDK, Visual Studio, and the tests from the Windows Hardware Lab Kit (Windows HLK) or Windows Hardware Certification Kit (for Windows 8.1). For more information about testing drivers, see Testing a Driver.

Click to expand...

The key part there is for testing your driver - as in a driver that you are developing for use on a Windows (10+) OS. Hence the previous mention of using only a machine that you use for testing / debugging.

johnlgalt said:

Hello, @Foogoo, and welcome to the Eleven Forum (11F).

A couple of things to note, from that Microsoft Docs page linked in the 10F link:

Driver Verifier - Windows drivers

Driver Verifier monitors Windows kernel-mode drivers and graphics drivers to detect illegal function calls or actions that might corrupt the system.

learn.microsoft.com

If you ran this as a verification against *all* drivers in one fell swoop, you could try doing it one by one, to see if there is a particular driver that may be problematic.

Also, immediately under that are the warnings:



The second one is most likely applicable in this case - what are you testing / debugging on your machine that led you to enabling and running the DV utility in the first place?

According to this section further below:

Driver Verifier - Windows drivers

Driver Verifier monitors Windows kernel-mode drivers and graphics drivers to detect illegal function calls or actions that might corrupt the system.

learn.microsoft.com

The key part there is for testing your driver - as in a driver that you are developing for use on a Windows (10+) OS. Hence the previous mention of using only a machine that you use for testing / debugging.

Click to expand...

After the initial crash, I checked the event log and I saw "Error" with event ID 161 shortly followed by "Critical" with event ID 41. ID 41 said it indicated "reboot without cleanly shutting down" so I figured ID 161 is what caused the crash. After some googling that led me to this post Event ID 161 Volmgr issue - Windows 10 Help Forums

I was just trying to follow along with that. I don't really know what I'm doing. Perhaps it's better that we start from the top? What should I do to identify the cause of the initial crash?

Well, to start from the top:

Are you developing a driver for use that you need tested by this utility? If you're only testing drivers from other sources (for whatever reason) are you able to debug the drivers themselves?

From the limited reading I've done on this, it doesn't seem like this is a tool for someone who is not able to do at least direct driver debugging, and is mostly aimed at driver developers.

To be clear, I'm asking for clarification. There are many people who will use utilities without understanding either their scope or intended audience, and you're brand new here, so I have 0 knowledge of what you are doing and why you're doing it - so I am asking rather than assuming anything

johnlgalt said:

Well, to start from the top:

Are you developing a driver for use that you need tested by this utility? If you're only testing drivers from other sources (for whatever reason) are you able to debug the drivers themselves?

From the limited reading I've done on this, it doesn't seem like this is a tool for someone who is not able to do at least direct driver debugging, and is mostly aimed at driver developers.

To be clear, I'm asking for clarification. There are many people who will use utilities without understanding either their scope or intended audience, and you're brand new here, so I have 0 knowledge of what you are doing and why you're doing it - so I am asking rather than assuming anything

Click to expand...

Yeah I have no idea what I'm doing! I'm just a simple googler trying to find out why my computer crashed. I'm not developing a driver or anything like that

All right. That's good to know.

So, the best way to go about this is to post in our BSOD section where our trusted folks will walk you through the necessary steps of what you need to do, including utilities to run, reports to generate and share, etc.

Head over there and start a post detailing the initial crash, and they'll take it from there.

Will do, thank you