HP Spectre x360 Vega suddenly went black, Boot Device not found.

[Gretal]

Hello!

My Spectre x360 just started glitching out insanely bad, windows would close, the screen would go black. Then I got a BSOD: "Critical" something... couldn't read the rest of it before even that went black.

The laptop then proceeded to boot into HP Recovery. I did a Memory Test, passed. Hard Drive not found however, I'm getting a "3f0" code. Can't check the hard drive either. 

What's weird about this is that the SSD showed absolutely no signs of failing before this. This just happened out of the blue. Is the SSD dead? Or are these symptoms showing that the SSD has gotten loose? How would I go about buying a replacement SSD, compatible with this notebook?

Thanks.

[Gretal]

Update:

Turned my laptop back on and it...... works? Huh?

I did sfc /scannow and chkdsk, both of them return absolutely no errors.

I'm just floored at this point. I have no idea what went wrong to the point where my laptop couldn't talk to the SSD. But now it suddenly can?

New question: Are there any more checks I can make to my system or the SSD to find out what went wrong? Because I'm just confused at this point.

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Gretal Here's all you need to know about the error - "3F0", though it is working now, I fear there could be a hardware malfunction, which is why I recommend you run an h/w test to be on a safer side and here are the steps:

• Hold the power button for at least five seconds to turn off the computer.
• Turn on the computer and immediately press Esc repeatedly, about once every second. When the menu appears, press the F2 key.
• On the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) main menu, click System Tests.
• Click Extensive Test.
• Click Run once, or Loop until error.
• While the test is running, the time remaining and test result for each component display on the screen.
• If a component fails a test, write down the failure ID (24-digit code) for when you respond back to us.

P.S: Welcome to HP Forums! 😉

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[Gretal]

Hello! Thank you for responding.

I have run the hard drive test, and my SSD has passed. I also tried doing the extensive hardware check you mentioned, and every component passed as well. 

My laptop crashed recently in a similar fashion, but this time it was a lot quicker and it happened while I was launching a program. The BSOD just happened, no error message, and the laptop crashed in the BSOD. My laptop restarted just fine this time though, no 3F0 error.

[Riddle_Decipher]

 @Gretal Since you haven’t captured the error code or message,

I would request you to follow the below steps to capture and reply back with the error message/code to identify the issue and find a permanent fix:

• In Windows, search for and open View advanced system settings.
• In the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
• Under System Failure, remove the check mark next to automatically restart, and then click OK.
• Restart the computer to apply the change.
• The computer no longer restarts automatically when a blue screen error occurs.

For more details: click here

​​Please reply back with the error code as the issue is code specific and it would be rather easier to provide an accurate solution using the same. 

[Gretal]

Hello!

My laptop did a BSOD again and this time displayed the error message. It's "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED".

It refused to collect any kind of diagnostic data, though, and was stuck at 0%.

I've done everything I can think of:

- Running a full virus scan

- sfc /scannow

- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

- chkdsk

I hope the code can be useful.

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Gretal I appreciate the details, the error you've mentioned is related to the operating system and a possible corrupt system file, that said, since the SFC scan and the DISM didn't fix that issue, the best thing forward is to create a backup of all your personal data into an external storage device and perform a system reset: Click here for steps.

[Gretal]

Hello! I haven't tried reinstalling Windows yet, but I have some new information.

My laptop did another BSOD and this time gave me the error "UNEXPECTED_STORE_EXCEPTION".

Could these two BSOD errors narrow down the problem?

[Riddle_Decipher]

@Gretal I wish there's more to it, however, this BSOD error also represents a windows OS failure and I suggest you back up the data before we reset the windows to resolve the issue,

Since you've asked, I've looked around for other solutions and here's a list of things you can try, most of which have already been done: Click here to verify - 

(The above link is 3rd party and is not owned by HP, I've posted this only so that I may help you resolve this issue by going beyond my support boundaries, please ignore the ads and take only the free suggestions)

If the above information helped, please mark this post as "Accepted as solution" and have a good day, ahead.