Blue Screen Error when Starting Laptop. Went away for 2 weeks after reinstalling windows

[positiverep]

Every time I turned on my laptop I got a blue screen saying "your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart, we'll restart for you". Please see a screen shot here https://screenshot.net/lyew4a0 . I reset everything, reinstalled windows and started from scratch and everything was ok for about 2-3 weeks. Now, this morning I got the same error twice. First my computer showed this bluescreen, then I restarted and it worked ok for a minute or two and then the same blue screen occurred again. I then restarted again and it has been working ok with the last 30 minutes or so. Can someone please advise me on what it might be and how to fix it. Thanks in advance. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

See if watching this video is of help to you...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wor7mASx3ws

Here are the commands he used...Your PC's drive letter may be C:\, in which case you will not have to change the letter.

If your notebook's drive letter is C:\ at the command prompt, just type the command at the C:\ prompt  C:\windows\system32\config and hit Enter. 

1. Type cd d:\windows\system32\config and hit Enter. (change drive letter to your drive letter)
2. Type MD backup and hit Enter.
3. Type copy *.* backup and hit Enter. (Allow file copy to complete task)
4. Type CD regback and hit Enter. (You should see registry hive files listed Default, SECURITY, Software, SYSTEM.
5. Type copy *.* .. and hit Enter.
6. To confirm copy process, type A and hit Enter.
7. Now Reboot your PC.

[positiverep]

Thank you very much for your reply, but unfortunately it didn't work for me. 

Firstly, when I get the blue screen error and it says "windows will try to fix it for you" it just stays on "0% complete" and doesn't change.

Secondly and luckily, the problem isn't as bad as the first time and the laptop sometimes starts and can be used but then crashes while using it (last time I could not use it at all). So, I just opened the command prompt window when the laptop was started (not sure if this makes a difference to the recovery screen the guy in the youtube video used), but when I entered the first command: cd c:\windows\system32\config. I got a message saying "Access is denied". Please see the screenshot here:https://screenshot.net/w3ex9h1

Do you know what might be the problem?

Thanks again for taking the time to help me, I really appreciate it. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You are probably getting that message because you aren't running the command as administrator, and I don't know how you can do that since normally you run an elevated (run as administrator) command prompt from inside Windows.

I just wonder if your notebook has a bad memory module that is escaping detection as faulty, and an intemittently faulty memory module can really cause havoc with the operation of a PC.  Random shut downs, blue screens...

The only way to test for that if your notebook has two memory modules, would be to remove one and just run it off the other one.  If there are still problems, then you remove that memory module and insert the first one you removed and try again.  If the problem no longer occurs, then you have found the bad memory module and can replace it.   if the problem persists, then it isn't the memory, but either another hardware or software issue.

The other thing is...did you try doing the steps exactly as the guy showed in the video...change the drive to D?

Maybe there is a reason for that which I don't understand.

[positiverep]

Thanks again for your reply. 

Sorry, I'm not sure how to remove memory modules. Can you please explain what needs to be done. 

I think I might have an update on this problem. 

Long story short, I realized I was getting the error described in this video with windows defender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UcaeknCHw0 

I followed the steps in this video to resolve this issue and restarted my computer. 

Then the blue screen problem happened and this time it was a lot worse, crashing each time I started it (usually it would happen only once or twice and then I could use my computer again).

This time when I got the blue screen, I followed the steps in the video you sent me and tried with both C and D, but both times it didn't work. I didn't note down the error but it was something like path not recognised. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Sorry that I wasn't able to help you with this frustrating issue you're having.

When you say you reinstalled Windows, did you reinstall it using the media creation tool (a complete clean install), or did you use the HP recovery media or factory reset option?

If you didn't use the media creation tool to reinstall windows, you may want to give that a try.

Unfortunately, according to the manual, it is not possible to remove or replace the memory in your notebook.

The memory is non-removable and is part of the motherboard.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05356832

If clean installing windows didn't solve the issue, then I am leaning more towards it being some kind of hardware problem.

And since all the parts are part of the motherboard, replacing a faulty memory module would also require replacing the motherboard.

If your notebook is still under warranty, you may want to contact HP technical support for further assistance under the warranty.

[positiverep]

No problem, thank you for your continued support.

Sorry about the delay replying, I though the issue was resolved and was just waiting to make sure. 

As I mentioned, I installed avast so as to disable Windows defender which I thought was the root of the problem. This appeared to work and my computer went about 1.5 days without crashing. Then I installed wechat messenger and about an hour later Zoom (for meetings and conferences). All still worked ok and then while running zoom, I changed the setting to share my computer's audio and it crashed within a few second and continued to do so repeatedly. I removed zoom and wechat and it worked a little better, but still crashed. I don't know if these things are coincidental, or they are part of the issue. 

For reinstalling windows I used the factory reset option. I noticed after resetting that the D drive was still untouched and the files remained, so must not have been a full reset. How do in reinstall using media creation tool?

Maybe it is a hardware issue, but I am thinking if it was, it probably wouldn't have started working as normal for a couple of weeks after being reset, maybe it would though, I am no expert.  

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

The D:\ drive is the recovery partition.  That is where the factory reset option goes to reinstall Windows.

Note:  if you use the Media creation tool to reinstall Windows, you won't be able to use the factory reset option like you recently did, because the recovery manager program that is used to access the recovery partition cannot be recreated.

However...here is how you would clean install W10 by using the Media creation tool, should you get the blue screen error again, and you want to try a different approach.

You can reinstall W10 for free by using the media creation tool at the link below.

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

You will be given the option to create a USB installation flash drive ( you will need an 8 GB flash drive for this).

The software will work with the W10 product key in your notebook's BIOS and automatically activate once you are connected to the internet.

Then you can install the drivers and available software from your notebook's support page.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-ENVY-13-ab000-Notebook-PC/12499190

[positiverep]

Thanks very much for your suggestion. 

I tried using the media creation tool and it downloaded windows but when it began checking that the download was ok, I got the error below. I also tried to reset the computer again and ended up getting the blue screen error while resetting. Besides throwing the thing out the window lol, I think my only option is bringing it to a HP service center at this stage. 

Thanks very much for all your help