Blue Screen Says Critical Process Died

[Alaskan86]

3 Days ago, my PC beeped two long siren like beeps, blue screen came up with sad emotie saying "CRITICAL PROCESS DIED".  It failed to restart as it said it would and instead shut down entirely. It took 4 tries before it would come unstuck from the HP loading screen. Finally came to desktop but nothing worked. Net wouldn't open, etc. It would freeze and I would repeat the restart process. Eventually once the desktop came up, I ran scans on my C and D drive... nothing showed a problem. I did some research (as I am not all that intuned into the systems of PCs)  and restarted 3 times before the Diagnosics ran at the bottom of the screen. I got to the blue menu screen, backed up the HD as instructed, and then attemtped to run a trouble shoot on PC. It said "Repairing drive D:... It then went black and did nothing. Now, it takes several times of hard restarting and then waiting up to 20 minutes before the login/desktop comes up. I was told by someone I should try reinstalling windows 10. My PC came with Windows 8 and was then upgraded free by Microsoft to Windows 10. I havent tried this yet as I need to figure out where the key would be or the program would be to reinstall it as it was not a disk I used.  I am not sure what else to do at this point. Any ideas of what could be going on or what I can do to fix this?

[ieee488]

The Windows key is on a chip on the motherboard.

[mdklassen · Accepted solution]

> I need to figure out where the key would be ...

You don't need the key.  Because your computer was running Windows 10, you were granted a "digital entitlement" to reinstall Windows 10, at any time, at no cost, to the same computer.

See: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

to download Windows 10, and to create your own "installer" media (DVD-recordable or USB memory-stick).

> I am not sure what else to do at this point.

1. Remove the old disk-drive from the computer.  It contains your personal files, but it is an "out-of-warranty" device. Compare to an automobile tire with less than 50% of the original tread.  It will work, for a while, but should be proactively replaced.

2. Purchase a new disk-drive, with the same physical dimensions. It might be faster, and have a larger storage capacity.

3. Connect the new disk-drive.

4. Boot your computer from the "installer" that you created.

5. When Windows prompts you to enter the 25-character product-key, click "I do not have one".  The installation of Windows will complete.

6. When Windows connects to the Internet, your entitlement will be leveraged, and Windows will activate.

7. Temporarily reconnect the old disk-drive.  Copy all your Personal Files from "old" to "new" disk-drives.

8. Reinstall some programs (Adobe? MS Office? other?)

Done.

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[Alaskan86]

Thank you for your reply to my dilema. I figured out the Windows 10 reinstall and used a tool from Microsoft to copy what I had to a USB drive (understanding now the digital authorization).  Windows10  reinstall wanted to run, but computer still had issues booting. Freezing on a blue screen, then on a black screen.  I will be replacing the  current HD with temporary compatible one I have on hand, if it works then  "voila". If not, well.. I'll keep going. Thanks again! 🙂