Driver Updater BSOD loop, possibly bricked

[Ghost283]

Hi All,

 

I've been using CCleaner for quite a few years now with no issues. I recently tried out the new driver updater, which I now seriously regret.

 

I was running the latest version of CCleaner, and ran my usual scan to delete junk files, then ran the driver updater. It updated a few drivers, then the computer crashed to BSOD. Upon reboot the system could not boot and again went to BSOD with the SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED stop code. It eventually boots into the recovery environment. The system repair is unable to fix whatever the problem is.

 

I next tried to boot into safe mode, no dice. All safe mode options go to BSOD. Even disabling driver signature enforcement does nothing.

 

I am able to access cmd from the recovery environment. I ran chkdsk, all clear. sfc /scannow throws an error and is unable to run. DISM repairs won't run without some workarounds, but didn't seem to fix any issues.

 

I attempted to restore from previous system image, as I have a few points prior to the BSOD loop. The system runs the restore, then throws an error code and says that it couldn't restore from the image.

 

Tried booting from windows installation media on a usb drive. I can access the installation environment and run the repair tools, but it does nothing.

 

I'm guessing that something with the CCleaner driver updater corrupted one of my device drivers, my guess is it's Nvidia as I'm pretty sure that was the one it was on when the crash happened.

 

I'm pretty much at the nuclear option of having to reinstall windows here. I'm not even sure if that will work. I'm pretty upset as CCleaner should have never pushed out this feature as I've seen quite a few threads with this same issue. If anyone has any advice I'd appreciate it.

[nukecad]

If you can't get into Windows at all to repair it, and you do seem to have tried most things you can, then it does look like clean reinstall time.
You might want to wait a bit though to see if anyone has other suggestions of what to try.
Hopefully you have your files etc. backed up.

My personal advice, although it's a bit late for you now - Don't trust any automatic driver updater.
They can only look if there is a later version of the drivers that you already have, they can't tell if any later version is compatible with your particular machine or not, all machines are different.
Many times it will be OK, nobody posts about that because they don't have a complaint, but too many times it can break things as you can see in this sub-forum.
(My personal view is that even if it's only 1 in a thousand that goes wrong that's still too many).

PS. It probably was an Nvidia driver update that caused the problem, all the recent Windows 10 versions have had constant problems with Nvidia drivers.
Google 'Windows 10 Nvidia problems' and you will see lots.

[p00]

currently have the same problem as you do and similarly tried those attempts and still unresolved. trusted ccleaner too much on this one.

couldn't even restore to an earlier point cus it says 'you must enable system protection'. followed steps to fix that instead through command prompt with this advice Solved: You Must Enable System Protection on This Drive (ubackup.com) but still doesn't work cus it gets interrupted. so disappointing and a major inconvenience at that. now i'm at the point of having to seek professional help for data recovery at the cost of a few hundred - thousand dollars and then reinstalling windows/ sending it for warranty repair. incredibly time consuming and frustrating. 

[RobRoyston]

I am in the same position as Ghost283, my pc is bricked.  I wonder if his/her problem was ever resolved? All I want now, if I ever get windows up and running again is to delete/uninstall CCleaner and get a refund from Piriform for the Pro version which I paid for.

[Guest Andrei CCleaner]

11 hours ago, RobRoyston said:

I am in the same position as Ghost283, my pc is bricked.  I wonder if his/her problem was ever resolved? All I want now, if I ever get windows up and running again is to delete/uninstall CCleaner and get a refund from Piriform for the Pro version which I paid for.

Hey @RobRoyston Please email our support team so they could help you out with this issue as soon as possible at support@ccleaner.com

[Andrej730]

Just got the same BSOD (SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED hswultpep.sys) after updating drivers with Ccleaner - spent an hour or more trying to just start my PC, I couldn't start it even in safe mode. I end up reinstalling Windows 11.

I think I will never use automatic driver update software again 

Edited November 4, 2022 by Andrej730

[ozharp66]

My laptop always bluescreens with the driver update so never again, my PC however updates fine. So it could be Nvidia driver that the laptop has but PC doesn't,  not sure. Going back to a restore point in Advanced Troubleshooting Options on the BSOD fixes it for me.

[Guest MeganCCleaner]

Hi @ozharp66 We're sorry to hear of how you see a Bluescreen whenever installing the driver updates.

Our support team would like to investigate further; to help with this, would you be willing to send the following files to them?

1. C:\Program Files\CCleaner\Data\DUState.dat
2. C:\Program Files\CCleaner\LOG\DriverUpdaterLib.log
3. C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log

Simply send these files to our support team using support@ccleaner.com.