Solved Crashing right after bootup!

zbook · Feb 26, 2026

Tweakit said:
Thank you for your continued interest in my issue. I had thought that a “hardware-level fault” included driver related problems, driver conflicts etc. as well as tangible hardware (connections, circuit boards, chips, circuit components, excessive temperatures, etc.). Do you have reason to believe that this problem is not related to driver issues but necessarily a tangible hardware issue? If so, may I ask for some explanation on this?

The data from steps 2 - 7 were designed many years ago in Ten Forums to create efficiency.

There is rarely any reason to not optimize the default Windows settings when the computer has instability.

Each of these steps can be performed manually or you can have the script run all of the commands to generate the results.

Code:

sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
sfc /scannow
chkdsk /scan

wmic recoveros get autoreboot
wmic recoveros set autoreboot = false
wmic recoveros get autoreboot

wmic recoveros get DebugInfoType
wmic recoveros set DebugInfoType = 7
wmic recoveros get DebugInfoType

wmic pagefile list /format:list

wmic Computersystem where name="%computername%" get AutomaticManagedPagefile
wmic Computersystem where name="%computername%" set AutomaticManagedPagefile=True
wmic Computersystem where name="%computername%" get AutomaticManagedPagefile

bcdedit /enum {badmemory}

The data from the computer files indicate that the most likely cause of the four computer freezes was hardware.

Hardware
a) incompatible
b) misconfigured
c) malfunctioning

Tweakit said:
I am a little hesitant about steps #3,4 because there is mention of changing settings. I have limited to no knowledge on this and don't know what it takes to get back to original settings or the impact of not doing so.

The steps 5 and 6 are designed to protect the computer user / owner.

If you want to modify the settings for crashes you can use this link:

Change BSOD Crash Memory Dump File Type in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change which BSOD memory dump file type will be generated in Windows 11. A BSOD (blue screen of death) error (also called a stop error) can occur if a problem causes your PC to shut down or restart unexpectedly (aka: crash). When you experience this type of...

www.elevenforum.com

If you want to protect the computer from malware, ransomware, registry or operating system corruption, failure to boot, etc. you then have the option to make and restore backup images.

(Acronis, Aoemi, EaseUS, Hasleo, Macrium, Paragon, etc.)

Macrium is widely used in Ten Forums.

Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything

Backup and Recovery Software for Critical Systems | Macrium

Fast, reliable backup and recovery software for Windows, OT, OEM and enterprise environments. Minimize downtime with proven system imaging, rapid restore and simple deployment.

www.macrium.com

Download Macrium Reflect FREE Edition 8.0.7783 - MajorGeeks

With Macrium Reflect Free Edition you'll be able to easily make an accurate and reliable image of your HDD or individual partitions. Using this image you can restore the entire disk, partition or...

www.majorgeeks.com

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

How to Create and Restore a System Image Backup with Macrium Reflect

www.tenforums.com

Tweakit said:
I was able to login for three of the four freezes. No user input was accepted after login. For the Jan 16 freeze, the freeze occurred at the login screen before logging in. At the login screen, I was able to move the mouse cursor about a half inch when the system froze up.

I ran MemTest86 overnight. It passed. See below.

How come the links in step #8 were not used?

8) Run Memtest86+ for 8 or more passes > take pictures > post images or share links

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

Just 1 error is a test fail and testing can be aborted.

The more the passes the better the testing conditions.

It sometimes takes passes into the 20's to detect malfunctioning RAM.

The RAM can be tested all at one time or one at a time in the same DIMM.

Memtest86+ | The Open-Source Memory Testing Tool

MemTest86+ - Test RAM

Tweakit · Feb 26, 2026

zbook said:
.....The data from the computer files indicate that the most likely cause of the four computer freezes was hardware.

Hardware
a) incompatible
b) misconfigured
c) malfunctioning
....

Does this mean that the problem can include Secure Boot certificates as was suggested in post #4 or do you think Secure Boot can be ruled out as a possible cause at this time?

zbook said:
How come the links in step #8 were not used?

Didn’t see the link for Memtest86+. I’ll run that tonight. There are a few links there, but it looks like they all point to one memory tester which I’ll download and run. Let me know if I’m wrong on that.

zbook said:
If you want to modify the settings for crashes you can use this link:

Change BSOD Crash Memory Dump File Type in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change which BSOD memory dump file type will be generated in Windows 11. A BSOD (blue screen of death) error (also called a stop error) can occur if a problem causes your PC to shut down or restart unexpectedly (aka: crash). When you experience this type of...

www.elevenforum.com

After this problem is resolved, I may wish to go back to the windows default settings before changes were made for debug. I hope that won’t be difficult to do. Comment?

zbook · Feb 26, 2026

Tweakit said:
Does this mean that the problem can include Secure Boot certificates as was suggested in post #4 or do you think Secure Boot can be ruled out as a possible cause at this time?

Anything can happen.

The logs already reported problems.

Please update the progress with post #2 steps #3 - #7.

Tweakit said:
After this problem is resolved, I may wish to go back to the windows default settings before changes were made for debug. I hope that won’t be difficult to do. Comment?

That can be done.

For computers that have instability problems the optimal settings are in the script as they will:

a) If and when there are BSODs Windows can automatically restart (computer user typically misses the BSOD).

The modified setting turns off automatically restart so that if available BSOD error messages can be seen.

b) The default settings make it extremely unlikely that Windows can create memory dump files

The modified setting allows Windows to create memory dump files.

If problems with hardware are found there can be swap testing or replacement.

It takes monitoring time for each.

The script settings are again optimal for infinite monitoring.

zbook · Feb 26, 2026

Memtest86+ allows unlimited passes.

Memtest86 years ago changed from free to free and pay versions.

The free version only ran 4 passes and fewer tests than the pay version.

Running Memtest86+ will run indefinitely.

Make sure that it runs for at least 8 passes.

The more the passes the better the testing.

Please make sure that you complete the steps in sequence in post #2.

(Post share links into the newest post)

Tweakit · Feb 27, 2026

Thanks.
Ran MemTest86+ overnight. 14-passes. Results below and will add to link seen in post 7. May need to put other debug steps off till things settle out on my side. Will pick it up though.

Bastet · Feb 28, 2026

Has it frozen/crashed since disabling secure boot?

Tweakit · Feb 28, 2026

Bastet said:
Has it frozen/crashed since disabling secure boot?

No, it hasn't. In your case, did the freeze occur right after booting up (as mine)?? Also, did it happen on every boot or how often did it happen?

zbook · Feb 28, 2026

1) Please take pictures of the installed F4-3200C16-8GVKB RAM modules in their DIMMs > post images or share links

2) Post a share link for step #4 (additional dump files)

3) Post a share link for step #3 (tuneup plus)

Bastet · Feb 28, 2026

Tweakit said:
No, it hasn't. In your case, did the freeze occur right after booting up (as mine)?? Also, did it happen on every boot or how often did it happen?

It froze within a few seconds of reaching the desktop - a few icons loaded in the notification area & taskbar but always froze - every boot & every time, I uninstalled several programs which I thought may be the case as all was ok in safe mode but even restoring a disk image from July 25 didn’t fix the problem. I had to reset the secure boot certificates back to default which fixed the problem.

Tweakit · Feb 28, 2026

Bastet said:
It froze within a few seconds of reaching the desktop - a few icons loaded in the notification area & taskbar but always froze - every boot & every time, ...

It does sound similar to my case except that mine does not happen every boot. Only four freezes since December 19.

Bastet · Mar 1, 2026

Tweakit said:
It does sound similar to my case except that mine does not happen every boot. Only four freezes since December 19.

It’s still a possible cause. Is your rig Windows 11 compatable? Mine isn’t so may have had a worse effect.

Tweakit · Mar 1, 2026

Bastet said:
It’s still a possible cause. Is your rig Windows 11 compatable? Mine isn’t so may have had a worse effect.

Yes, fully compatible. I've got an eye on it. With secure boot disabled, I'm hoping it doesn't return. That would involve a simple solution.

Bastet · Mar 1, 2026

Tweakit said:
Yes, fully compatible. I've got an eye on it. With secure boot disabled, I'm hoping it doesn't return. That would involve a simple solution.

I wonder if that’s why it isn’t crashing all the time.

ubuysa · Mar 2, 2026

Tweakit said:
Yes, fully compatible. I've got an eye on it. With secure boot disabled, I'm hoping it doesn't return. That would involve a simple solution.

In all honesty that is a workaround, not a solution. If you're having boot issues that disappear with SecureBoot disabled then you should think about the following...

You may have bootloader malware on there. This is the kind of thing that SecureBoot prevents. It's not impossible that you're crashing on boot because the malware may be flaky.
SecureBoot is almost entirely reliant on the digital signatures of the bootloader executables and of the critical Windows kernel files. You may have a corruption in any other these that causes the signature checks to fail. It's also possible that the public keys you have on the PC are corrupted somehow.

It's your PC of course, but I wouldn't be happy if it only booted properly with SecureBoot disabled, especially on a fully Win11 compatible UEFI system.

Tweakit · Mar 2, 2026

ubuysa said:
In all honesty that is a workaround, not a solution.

Thanks for this information. To clarify I disabled Secure Boot not as a fix, but to help identify the problem area. If the problem goes away with disabling SB, then I’ll need to fix SB so that it works properly.

ubuysa said:
If you're having boot issues that disappear with SecureBoot disabled then you should think about the following...

You may have bootloader malware on there. This is the kind of thing that SecureBoot prevents. It's not impossible that you're crashing on boot because the malware may be flaky.

To test for any bootloader malware (is this a rootkit?) will a scan using Malewarebytes in safe mode be sufficient? I have Malwarebytes free. I’ll need to run that overnight, since scanning for rootkits takes hours. I have scanned all drives using Defender. Some things were detected and deleted. Those were not on the system drive, and were associated with older legacy programs. They were not rootkits. A Defender scan of all drives is now clean.

ubuysa said:
SecureBoot is almost entirely reliant on the digital signatures of the bootloader executables and of the critical Windows kernel files. You may have a corruption in any other these that causes the signature checks to fail. It's also possible that the public keys you have on the PC are corrupted somehow.

It's your PC of course, but I wouldn't be happy if it only booted properly with SecureBoot disabled, especially on a fully Win11 compatible UEFI system.

With the benefit of this information, I'm not going to be happy either, should the system continue to work with SB disabled. If that happens, I'll need to continue with added measures to verify system integrity and proper public keys. I'll proceed with the rootkit scan tonight, however.

Tweakit · Mar 2, 2026

I grabbed a few minutes and did the virus scans which ran faster than I expected. I ran two scans. I ran the Microsoft Defender Antivirus (offline scan) and in Safe Mode I scanned the C:\ drive using Malwarebytes with all Scan Options including rootkits selected. Neither scan detected any threats. I hope this means I’m safe. Results are found at the link seen at the bottom of the opening post in the folder “Virus Scans.”

ubuysa · Mar 3, 2026

Tweakit said:
To test for any bootloader malware (is this a rootkit?) will a scan using Malewarebytes in safe mode be sufficient? I have Malwarebytes free. I’ll need to run that overnight, since scanning for rootkits takes hours. I have scanned all drives using Defender.

Malwarebytes have a separate (and free) rootkit scanner: Rootkit Scanner

Tweakit said:
Some things were detected and deleted. Those were not on the system drive, and were associated with older legacy programs. They were not rootkits. A Defender scan of all drives is now clean.

What was deleted? Are you 100% certain that they were not required? When you delete stuff and then SecureBoot doesn't work, you have to ask those questions.

Tweakit said:
With the benefit of this information, I'm not going to be happy either, should the system continue to work with SB disabled. If that happens, I'll need to continue with added measures to verify system integrity and proper public keys. I'll proceed with the rootkit scan tonight, however.

You can manually update the SecureBoot keys, indeed you must because the existing keys expire in June of this year. Windows Update will normally take care of that for you, but you can do it manually: Updating Microsoft Secure Boot keys | Windows IT Pro blog

Tweakit · Mar 3, 2026

ubuysa said:
Malwarebytes have a separate (and free) rootkit scanner: Rootkit Scanner

I went to that link and downloaded the MBSetup.exe. It is the same installer file as for Malwarbytes Free which is what I used. The default setting had rootkit scan turned off so I turned it on.

ubuysa said:
What was deleted? Are you 100% certain that they were not required? When you delete stuff and then SecureBoot doesn't work, you have to ask those questions.

Yes. As I mentioned, they were not on the C: drive. In all cases they were found on files that could be used to install older legacy utility programs but never were used to install. They were just sitting there waiting to be clicked on. Defender deleted them and I deleted any files associated with the programs that Defender found to be safe and did not delete. Also, these were discovered by Defender after the Freeze problem began so the removal is not associated with the freeze problem. Follow up scans showed no threats found.

ubuysa said:
You can manually update the SecureBoot keys, indeed you must because the existing keys expire in June of this year. Windows Update will normally take care of that for you, but you can do it manually: Updating Microsoft Secure Boot keys | Windows IT Pro blog

Thank you! I figure I'll give it some time for the problem to occur with SB disabled. Either way, I know I'll need to update the keys.

Tweakit · 2026-06-05T10:08:12-0400

Just thought I would provide some closure on this issue. It has now been two months since the last freeze event. There were a total of 7 Freeze events starting on December 19, 2025. The space between the Freeze ups ranged from a few days to a maximum of one month. Since it has now been two months since the last Freeze, I think the chances are good that the problem is fixed. I'm assuming that some driver or windows update that affects the way drivers are loaded, was responsible for the freezes and was corrected through a subsequent update process. Other than waiting, none of the actions that I took had any effect.

Solved Crashing right after bootup!

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