Choose between MB and GPU for your setup.
Choose between MB and GPU for your setup.
While working on a game development project, my computer crashed during a render. I attempted to restart and encountered a BSOD—Critical Process Died. In short, I entered safe mode but didn’t gain much insight. After a system restore, I’ve been stuck in safe mode without progress. I can’t boot into BIOS; the interface shows exactly what you see in the photo. Even with a recovery USB, I’m unable to reinstall Windows. A new graphics card was purchased, but it doesn’t appear to work. I changed RAM modules and tried single-boot, but it failed. The BIOS display remains puzzling. Anyone recognize the photo? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
It seems you're facing a tough situation. The best approach might be to reorganize the drive and reinstall your operating system. That’s likely what I’d do next. It’s definitely not easy, but it could work. Stay safe and good luck!
It seems your system might not be booting properly. The BIOS could have failed, possibly due to a hardware issue like a dead GPU PCIe slot or a faulty CPU. Check the bottom PCIe slot for the graphics card. If that doesn't work, try connecting the video cable directly to the motherboard to test connectivity.
Recent notes: After formatting and rebuilding the UEFI partition, I’m starting from the boot manager but encountering the same issue shown in the photo. I managed to boot into the installation USB by disconnecting my SSD and reconnecting it, yet there’s still a driver error when trying the install again. (Second photo) It looks like bcdedit can’t locate the configuration data store. I can edit BCD directly with /store, but bootrec/rebuildbcd reports “The requested system device cannot be found.” Running bootrec/fixboot gives me “Access is denied.” Also, I keep getting the same access denial message.
At this stage just reinstall Windows, back up any information from that disk. Then install again—likely will be much easier than now.
I'm a touch delayed with this answer, but the situation is now clear. My SSD was stored in MBR format, which means everything I tried only worked with GPT drives. At first, I doubted the GPT indicator in "diskpart" because it was a newer unit, but it wasn't. I should always format new drives as GPT before putting Windows on them, even if they come directly from the store. Once I discovered it was MBR, I chose to back up my data and reinstall Windows, since switching to GPT would have been ideal. As noted in an earlier post, this wasn't possible at first because it wouldn't have worked, and I wanted to ensure a proper fix. After realizing it was MBR, I decided to go with a GPT format instead.
For others dealing with similar problems... The screen glitch surprised me, but it was caused by the GPU. Despite successfully booting into Windows Recovery, the faulty GPU didn't initialize quickly enough. It produced a black-and-red display and a blue-pink BIOS screen (different from previous screenshots). My main issue was a corrupted boot record. While fixing MBR drives is possible, it's more complex, so I preferred to switch to GPT.
If you encounter this, here are two helpful videos that address boot record issues for both MBR and GPT formats. The MBR video also clarified why "bootrec /fixboot" often fails with an access denied error—no other guides seem to cover it well. Just remember, MBR recovery tools aren't supported anymore due to its age.
First, check if your drive is MBR or GPT. Then follow the corresponding video for your format.
In my case, my motherboard was very old, so the new GPU only showed a black screen initially, but the monitor lit up as if a signal was present. Thankfully, the old GPU functioned enough to let me install BIOS and chipset updates later.
This experience might be frustrating for others, but hopefully it helps someone else facing the same challenge.