On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 11:40:53 -0700, Mike Easter wrote:

What exactly does that mean 'won't boot' (after BSOD)?

How exactly does the boot fail?:
- the machine POSTs properly
- the Win boot mgr finishes
- some kind of Win screen appears, but never completes
- or what?

Hi Mike,
It's confusing.
o And, whatever I say, may be wrong just 'cuz it's random'ish.

Also, there is a CRITICAL untested factor I forgot to mention:
o I haven't re-used the Nvidia graphics card yet (nor tested)

Outside of that, what "seems" to happen now after a BSOD is very different
than what used to consistently happen after a BSOD, which is important,
because, I think, it wasn't so much the BSOD that ate up the bootable
portion of the HDD but what happened AFTER the BSOD.

So we need a then and now, where I'll explain what has been happening in
the past ten BSODs (a couple of weeks) but bear in mind I've had zero BSODs
since I added the minidump crash debuggers suggested in
o Windows BSOD analysis - A thorough usage guide
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-bsod.html

First, some hints for others to disable stuff that hurts rebooting:
o To disable autostart after updates:
Win+R %windir%\system32\taskschd.msc /s {ctrl+shft+enter}
Win+R cmd {ctrl+shift+enter} %windir%\system32\taskschd.msc /s
Task Scheduler Library Microsoft Windows UpdateOrchestrator
Right click on the task named "Reboot_AC" & click "Disable" to disable.

o To disable autostart after crashes:
Win+R control.exe {ctrl+shift+enter}
View by: Category
System and Security System Advanced System Settings
Bring up Startup & Recovery settings:
Startup and Recovery Settings
Uncheck the system failure automatically-restart option:
System failure
[x]Write an event to the system log
[_]Automatically restart
OK OK

o To turn off faststartup (i.e., fastboot) & hibernate
powercfg /h /type reduced
powercfg /h /type full
Win+R powercfg.cpl Choose what the power buttons do
Change settings that are currently unavailable
Shutdown settings
DEFAULT:
[x]Turn on fast startup (recommended)
[x]Sleep
[_]Hibernate
[x]Lock
Change to:
[_]Turn on fast startup (recommended)
[x]Sleep
[_]Hibernate
[x]Lock
Note you can have "hibernate" (reduced) without "faststartup";
but you can't have fast startup without hibernate (full or reduced).

o Disable sleep
Note there are two types of sleep: Hybrid Sleep mode.
Win+R powercfg.cpl
Change when the computer sleeps
DEFAULT:
Turn off the display 10 minutes
Put the computer to sleep 30 minutes
Change to:
Turn off the display Never
Put the computer to sleep Never
Sleep allow hybrid sleep = Off
Change advanced power settings (note 0 means never).
Note: Sleep stores in RAM what Hibernate stores in "Hiberfile.sys".

Lately:
1. I'm happily humming away for days on the PC in Windows 10 Pro latest.
2. BSOD! (the first one is usually a "kernel" error, as I recall)
https://i.postimg.cc/9Q4m7tfM/bsod01.jpg
3. The machine is set to not hibernate, not fastboot, not sleep.
4. The machine is set to not reboot automatically.
5. So the machine just sits there staring dumbly aloof
6. I kill power to the machine in two stages (machine then power strip)
7. I wait until the green LED goes off on the motherboard (1 minute)
8. I cross my fingers, and boot cold.

Almost all the time now, the machine boots to the login screen.
o If necessary, I restore to the previous restore point.

Befo
1. I'm happily humming away for days on the PC in Windows 10 Pro latest.
2. BSOD!
https://i.postimg.cc/9Q4m7tfM/bsod01.jpg [UNEXPECTED KERNEL MODE TRAP]
3. The thing reboots, and a _different_ BSOD shows up, maybe:
https://i.postimg.cc/DyNFnJcK/bsod02.jpg [KERNEL SECURITY CHECK FAILURE]
4. Each time could be yet another BSOD shows up, maybe:
https://i.postimg.cc/XYnhMnR0/bsod10.jpg [MEMORY MANAGEMENT]
5. At some point, the machine reverts to trying to fix itself:
https://i.postimg.cc/zGRNBzdH/bsod03.jpg [Preparing Automatic Repair]
https://i.postimg.cc/9McHJGcy/bsod04.jpg [Diagnosing your PC]
https://i.postimg.cc/qq5fJSyG/bsod05.jpg [Automatic Repair?]
https://i.postimg.cc/JnFKGLYt/bsod06.jpg [Automatic Repair failed]
https://i.postimg.cc/gk3FFSr3/bsod07.jpg [Reset your PC]
https://i.postimg.cc/Pq30z0Fn/bsod08.jpg [Booting, ferris dots]
https://i.postimg.cc/JnSgSZLT/bsod09.jpg [Lock screen success
6. That success is when I'm lucky; if I'm not lucky, POST fails:
https://i.postimg.cc/zGpQ89NH/bsod11.jpg [POST STOPS BEFORE FINISHING]

But that hasn't happened since I disabled the things that seem to chew up
the operating system when the OS is suddenly shut down from a BSOD.
--
Usenet is a wonderfully shared public way to identify technical solutions.