How to Fix ‘Critical Process Died’ Error in Windows

The BSoD error includes the Windows stop code critical process died error. When this happens, the screen shows a big blue screen like the one below, and the system restarts itself over and over again. This error is bad for your system because it can mess up your files and cause you to lose all your important files.

Critical Process Died is one of the most common blue screen of death errors. It happens when critical Windows background processes like services.exe, winlogon.exe, or csrss.exe become corrupted in a way that was not expected. Since these processes are important to the overall health of the device, Windows shows this error to protect the operating system.

The error number is 0x000000EF, and it belongs to a group of errors called “stop errors,” which tell Windows to end a broken critical process. It is thought that there are more than 500 BSoD stop code errors, and when any of them happen, you only see a blue screen with the stop code value. The “critical process died” error could be caused by a bug in the software, a bad driver, a problem with the memory, bad sectors or files on the hard drive, the computer getting too hot, or something else.

Ways to Fix ‘Critical Process Died’ Error in Windows

Restart Computer in Safe Mode

Generally, this error can make your desktop or laptop unusable and you need to restart your computer. You will always get this problem when you restart the computer. In this case, you can restart the computer in safe mode. This is a pretty quick way for turning on the computer Windows system that can prevent you from getting this error in the process of computer startup.

1. Restart Windows 10.
2. Press the Shift + F8 key combination before Windows 10 starts to load so that it starts the recovery mode from where you can boot into safe mode.
3. Then you need to go to Advanced Startup Options and set the startup mode as Safe Mode to open your computer.

Run a Clean Boot

1. Press the key combination “Windows + R” to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type “msconfig” and press Enter.
3. In the “System Configburation” window, select the “Services” tab.
4. Check the “Hide all Microsoft services” checkbox, click “Disable ball” and then click “Apply”
5. Select the “Startup” tab and choose “Open Tabsk Mabnager”.
6. In Task Manager, select each startup item and click “Disable”.
7. Close the Task Manager and click “OK” in the “System Configuration” window.
8. Restart your computer and check if the “Critical process terminated” error still occurs.

Check for Hardware Issues

1. Press the key combination “Windows + R” to open the Run dialog box.
2. Type “msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic” and press Enter.
3. Select “Next” to start the process.
4. Check the diagnostic results for any problems.

Update Your Drivers

1. Press the key combination “Windows + X” to open the power user menu.
2. Select “Device Manager” from the menu.
3. Look for devices that have a yellow exclamation mark next to them. This indicates that the device has a problem.
4. Right-click on the device and select “Update Driver Software“.
5. Follow the prompts to update the driver.

Perform a System Restore

1. Click the search icon on the taskbar and then type “Create restore point”.
2. Select the first option that appears.
3. Click on the “System Restore” button under the “System Protection” tab.
4. On this screen, you can either select a restore point yourself or use the recommended restore point.
5. Follow the prompts to select a restore point. Be sure to select a point before the error occurred.

Run the System File Checker

Next, run the tool called System File Checker. It’s a well-known tool that can fix a wide range of Windows problems by fixing system files that have been corrupted or changed in the wrong way. In reality, it’s not always helpful; people run it more out of habit than because they need to. But in the case of the 0x000000EF error code, it’s an important step in fixing the problem. To run the checker, you have to open Command Prompt as an administrator. Do a search for “cmd,” right-click on the result, and choose “Run as administrator.”

What causes Critical process died

Final Words

So here we conclude our article on How to Fix ‘Critical Process Died’ Error in Windows. Critical Process Died is one of the few Blue Screens of Death (BSODs) that anyone can make happen on their own. If you end the svchost.exe process in Windows 10 (right-click on it in Task Manager and choose “End process tree” from the menu that appears), the machine will immediately crash with this error code. That means, among other things, that Windows won’t run unless the generic system process that links Windows services to dynamic link libraries (DLLs) is running. This is a core part of how the Windows OS works, so the OS won’t run unless one or more instances of this service are running (at least one for each DLL in use, in fact). you can visit Microsoft support center for further help.