Critical Registry Error

[Nick-131]

I am getting a "Critical Registry Error". The laptop has gone "black screen" several times and then entered the BIOS recovery. It isn't really slow; just wondering what to do about this error and is this going to cause bigger issues?

[BeemerBiker]

Do not attempt any BIOS recovery procedure. 

How did this happen?

• Power surge?
• Add memory or install new device?
• Update BIOS?
• Windows update?

Check to see if there is a hardware problem.

Tap the ESC key after powering on. Tap it once a second after you see the LEDs on the keyboard flash. When you see the startup menu, press F2 to run diagnostics.

If a component fails during the UEFI test then Click here to check warranty

See if you can restore your PC to a time before the registry problem

This video shows how to do a restore.

If you cannot or do not want to do that restore then check to see if windows file system is corrupted

How to use SFC or DISM to repair Windows

Try SFC first.  if it finds a problem but cannot fix it then do the DISM

[Nick-131]

@BeemerBiker: Thank you for your response. Unsure how this happened: 

• No power surge
• No new memory / or device (installed)
• Did not update the BIOS
• IT has been trying to do a "windows update" (unsuccessful)

The only other thing, I purchased a subscription to McAfee (for virus protection); I will say that I have tried to run a full scan and it is taking forever, and seems as though it doesn't finish.

[BeemerBiker]

Look in the event viewer for timeouts.

I canceled McAfee when I found it was timing out trying to contact non-existent name servers.  That was a number of years ago and they might have fixed their problem since then.  I do not like software that phones home and takes 30 seconds before giving up.   It adds 30 seconds to the boot time.