Cannot get past Windows install

[mistxoli]

As of a few days ago, I started having issues with blue screening. Each time it would be a different stop code, and it would almost always happen whenever I would tab in or out of a game, today I decided I would install a fresh Windows install to see if it would make them go away. I installed Windows 10 to a USB using the Media Creation Tool and then booted from it, deleted all partitions and then continued with the install. I got to the Installing Windows screen where it copies all of the files etc but then I got the pop up; "Windows installation encountered an unexpected error. Verify that the installation sources are accessible, and restart the the installation.". This caused the setup to cancel and start again, and on the second attempt, the same thing happened.

 

After this I decided to start doing hardware troubleshooting to see if there was an issue with something such as my ram. To start, I took out 1 ram stick, and then tried the installation again, but I still got the error. I thought maybe somehow the windows installer got corrupted, so I decided to reinstall Windows from a different PC, and then try the installation again. This time, I was able to get past the copying files screen, but after when the setup restarts the PC for the first time, I immediately got the blue screen "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED". I decided to try again as maybe something went wrong in the install, but the next 2 attempts, the exact same blue screen would occur at the exact same point in install.

 

I thought maybe the singular ram stick in the PC was faulty so I decided to try the install using the other one. I was able to get past the copying file screen again to the first restart, but this time I got a different blue screen "Recovery - Your PC needs to be repaired." The first time I got this error, it said it was because a require file is missing or contains errors (I think the file was called boot something but I regrettably I didn't take any pictures). I tried the install again, the next time I got the same screen but it said it was caused because a critical system driver is missing or contains errors.

 

 

I decided at this point in time that maybe my SSD is the component to blame since it hasn't worked using either ram sticks, so I decided to try replace the SSD with one from another machine that already has Windows installed. I launched the PC with the different SSD, I got to the Windows loading screen and it displayed text that said "Getting ready..." and then the PC just restarted as was stuck in a restart loop so I decided to do a fresh install of Windows on this SSD. I was able to get through copying files like normal but when it restarted, I got the error "Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware.". I tried again and even reset my BIOS but sadly got the same error no matter what.

 

I've owned this PC since mid 2023 and I was on the same initial Windows install for over a year w/o any issues, all parts were bought brand new and before this week, I hadn't really had any issues at all (other than a hardware cooling issue when I first built which was resolved). If anyone has any idea which component could be at fault or how to fix this please let me know because as of right now, my main PC where I do pretty much all of my work is paperweight.

 

Specs:

 

i9-13900KF

ASUS TUF 4090

ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E

Samsung 990 Pro 1TB

Corsair 2x32GB 6400MHz CL32 (XMP 1)

Corsair RM1000x (1000W 80+ Gold)

OS - Windows 10 

 

[leclod]

First I thought USB stick (did you try another USB socket ?)

Then I thought SSD, did you check it's health ?

Why not W11 ? it's at least worth a try

By the way, here's a list I have (it might not be relevant in your case) :

Here is the whole procedure for install of windows on nvme drive.

1 - Make sure you unplug all SATA and USB drives, the M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.
2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.
3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, Not windows UEFI.
4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.
5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable ISO of Windows 10 on it.
6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.
7 - Windows will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.
8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that Windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.
9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to Windows UEFI mode.
10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys
11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install.

Edited February 2, 2025 by leclod

[mistxoli]

11 hours ago, leclod said:

First I thought USB stick (did you try another USB socket ?)

Then I thought SSD, did you check it's health ?

Why not W11 ? it's at least worth a try

By the way, here's a list I have (it might not be relevant in your case) :

Here is the whole procedure for install of windows on nvme drive.

1 - Make sure you unplug all SATA and USB drives, the M.2 drive has to be the only drive installed.
2 - Go into the bios, under the boot tab there is an option for CSM, make sure it is disabled.
3 - Click on secure boot option below and make sure it is set to other OS, Not windows UEFI.
4 - Click on key management and clear secure boot keys.
5 - Insert a USB memory stick with a UEFI bootable ISO of Windows 10 on it.
6 - Press F10 to save, exit and reboot.
7 - Windows will now start installing to your NVME drive as it has its own NVME driver built in.
8 - When the PC reboots hit F2 to go back into the BIOS, you will see under boot priority that Windows boot manager now lists your NVME drive.
9 - Click on secure boot again but now set it to Windows UEFI mode.
10 - Click on key management and install default secure boot keys
11 - Press F10 to save and exit and windows will finish the install.

I first tried to reinstall Windows using a different port like you suggested, using 1 stick of ram & the 970 Evo (not the original SSD), I was able to then reinstall Windows and get to the desktop with no signs of instability. I then decided to try plug in my other ram stick to see if that was the culprit, but what I noticed when I first went to BIOS was that it was constantly freezing around every 5 seconds for 1 second. 

 

I hit the clear cmos button on the back of my motherboard, which seemed to fix the freezing in BIOS, and then I was able to launch into Windows fine. I then tested with my 990 Pro, same freezing in BIOS (clearing cmos fixed it), and then I got the same driver bluescreen launching Windows (I hadn't reset it since the previous failed install). I then tried to do a fresh install on the 990, but I got the "Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware." error once again once I got past the copying files. Strangely, this time it also reset all of my bios settings during Windows setup just before the error message (which were only fan control settings) which is a bit weird.

 

I then decided to put the 990 in another PC and see if I could install Windows & everything worked flawlessly. I checked the health for the SSD on CrystalDiskInfo and it's @ 97%.

 

I originally thought obviously the 990 was the component to blame since I could install Windows & boot on the 970 fine but that wouldn't explain why even when I was using the 970, I was getting those weird BIOS freezes, why the BIOS settings completely reset and why I could install Windows fine on a different machine using the same SSD. Could I have a faulty motherboard?

[Bjoolz]

2 hours ago, mistxoli said:

I checked the health for the SSD on CrystalDiskInfo and it's @ 97%.

SMART, the self diagnostic CDI checks, is completely useless with NVMe SSDs. The general health (Good/Warning/Bad) hasn't been reliable in a really long time even with SATA drives because it's up to the manufacturer how much the drive has to fail before the status changes and most of them are scumbags. The percentage isn't related to the current health of the drive, it's how much of the warrantied writes you have used and some other wear statistics. You've had to know how to read the SMART parameters to reliably spot faulty drives (Which isn't 100% reliable either). With NVMe however, they removed almost all of the useful parameters. The only useful one left is Critical Warning and in the hundreds of faulty NVMe drives I've seen this parameters has shown an error less than five times. 

 

If you are wondering if there are any other useful tools for checking NVMe SSDs, not that I'm aware of.'

 

From your symptoms, the OS drive being faulty would be my main suspect. Critical_Process_Died means that there was a memory error with a critical Windows process. It's often seen with corrupted OS files. Because it's memory it's not directly storage related, but getting that crash every time makes storage the main suspect. 

[mistxoli]

5 hours ago, Bjoolz said:

SMART, the self diagnostic CDI checks, is completely useless with NVMe SSDs. The general health (Good/Warning/Bad) hasn't been reliable in a really long time even with SATA drives because it's up to the manufacturer how much the drive has to fail before the status changes and most of them are scumbags. The percentage isn't related to the current health of the drive, it's how much of the warrantied writes you have used and some other wear statistics. You've had to know how to read the SMART parameters to reliably spot faulty drives (Which isn't 100% reliable either). With NVMe however, they removed almost all of the useful parameters. The only useful one left is Critical Warning and in the hundreds of faulty NVMe drives I've seen this parameters has shown an error less than five times. 

 

If you are wondering if there are any other useful tools for checking NVMe SSDs, not that I'm aware of.'

 

From your symptoms, the OS drive being faulty would be my main suspect. Critical_Process_Died means that there was a memory error with a critical Windows process. It's often seen with corrupted OS files. Because it's memory it's not directly storage related, but getting that crash every time makes storage the main suspect. 

I'm now using the PC with the the different SSD, and after being logged into Windows I'm still getting weird instability errors. For example, Chrome tabs keep crashing with the error "STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION", applications keep randomly crashing, some games literally refuse to open (the game/launcher crashes on launch) etc. I reckon because it's still very unstable, it wasn't an issue with the old SSD alone so I've ordered a bunch of parts to play around with (new mobo, CPU, ram, SSD) and once I can figure out which part is faulty, I'll just return the rest.

[leclod]

If you've got a new motherboard, I'd try it.

It is next on my list

[Bjoolz]

11 hours ago, mistxoli said:

I'm now using the PC with the the different SSD, and after being logged into Windows I'm still getting weird instability errors. For example, Chrome tabs keep crashing with the error "STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION", applications keep randomly crashing, some games literally refuse to open (the game/launcher crashes on launch) etc. I reckon because it's still very unstable, it wasn't an issue with the old SSD alone so I've ordered a bunch of parts to play around with (new mobo, CPU, ram, SSD) and once I can figure out which part is faulty, I'll just return the rest.

Have you had any BSODs on this install so we can look at the dump files? Status_Access_Violation in Chrome usually means a memory issue. 

 

Go to C:\Windows\Minidump and check if you have any minidump files. If you do, go back to the Windows folder and copy the Minidump folder itself to the Downloads folder (You can use the desktop if you don't have OneDrive syncing files). Zip the copied folder and attach it to a post. Please follow the instructions to the letter as Windows doesn't like you messing with files in this location.

[mistxoli]

16 hours ago, Bjoolz said:

Have you had any BSODs on this install so we can look at the dump files? Status_Access_Violation in Chrome usually means a memory issue. 

 

Go to C:\Windows\Minidump and check if you have any minidump files. If you do, go back to the Windows folder and copy the Minidump folder itself to the Downloads folder (You can use the desktop if you don't have OneDrive syncing files). Zip the copied folder and attach it to a post. Please follow the instructions to the letter as Windows doesn't like you messing with files in this location.

I haven't had any BSODs yet but I've also now undervolted & underclocked my CPU as a friend suggested that my CPU might've deteriorated (as its 13th gen). I've had no instability issues yet and the applications (video games & cinebench) that were immediately crashing before 100% of the time now don't. I'll try to update the BIOS & replace the CPU first and see if that fixes it.

[Bjoolz]

8 hours ago, mistxoli said:

I haven't had any BSODs yet but I've also now undervolted & underclocked my CPU as a friend suggested that my CPU might've deteriorated (as its 13th gen). I've had no instability issues yet and the applications (video games & cinebench) that were immediately crashing before 100% of the time now don't. I'll try to update the BIOS & replace the CPU first and see if that fixes it.

The 13th/14th gen Intel issue looks like memory when it BSODs so that is very possible. 

[mistxoli]

On 2/4/2025 at 6:39 PM, Bjoolz said:

The 13th/14th gen Intel issue looks like memory when it BSODs so that is very possible. 

After using the new CPU for a few days, I think I can confidently say the issue was my old CPU had degraded too much it had become severely unstable.