The WIN10 BSOD loop continued to deteriorate increasingly.
The WIN10 BSOD loop continued to deteriorate increasingly.
Find someone to install a Linux distro (like Linux Mint) on a USB drive. These can start up directly without any installation. Insert the USB into your laptop and check if you can boot the Linux system. If it doesn't work, it might indicate a hardware issue.
Thanks for the follow-up. Positive with external USB boot. Tested it out. Installed the newest Linux Mint version v22.2, made a bootable USB using Rufus.
Tried several times and experienced a few restarts due to frequent freezes and various error messages.
(Not comfortable with Linux errors or their meanings)
Also ran Memtest86 multiple times. Each run revealed thousands of errors. Successfully booted into any system was impossible.
Faced several screens:
"EFI stub: Loaded initrd from LINUX_EFI_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID device path"
Restarted then ran Memtest86 with a single RAM module. No issues. One Kernel Panic message and the same EFI stub message repeatedly appeared.
Memtest results showed CLK/Temp between 67-85C.
Any suggestions for troubleshooting?
It seems I should investigate ways to extract data from the HDD (some images) and see if a licensed repair shop could assist further.
If you made the Linux USB drive with your PC, the tests won't be reliable. You can't be sure if the Linux system on it has been damaged by any problem. That's why I recommended asking a friend or using another PC/laptop for the USB drive.
Assuming you didn't create that Linux USB drive on your own, and you've experienced issues with Linux on a USB drive, it strongly points to a hardware problem. Even one error detected by Memtest86 is serious, and thousands of errors clearly indicate faulty RAM.
Having Linux errors on a single RAM stick still hints at hardware faults. Looking at your specifications, it seems you're mixing different types of RAM—this is not acceptable. If you removed the Kingston stick, you should stick to the original integrated RAM until the issue is resolved.
You mentioned the RAM runs at 1600MHz? That's unusual for DDR3 RAM. Is there an overclock enabled through XMP in the BIOS? If so, please disable the overclock and let the RAM operate at its standard speed.
Registry corruption detected. Likely causes include a damaged HKLM_SYSTEM file or insufficient space on the OS drive. If system restore is active, use the Windows install media to perform a restore to a previous state. Verify there is enough free space on the OS drive. If system restore is off or no restore points exist, reinstall Windows.