Blue Screen of Death on Windows PC due to Crowdstrike? Here are working fixes

Windows users from all over the world have been reporting that their PCs have started displaying blue screen of death (BSOD). The blue screen of death issue isn’t something new. However, this time it seems to be a worldwide issue where millions of PCs across offices, universities, and businesses are running into BSOD with a message that reads: “It looks like Windows didn’t load up correctly if you’d like to restart and try again choose Restart My PC below.”

However, selecting the available option boots PC back to the same blue screen. Users are left with PCs rebooting into the blue screen continuously. So, who is responsible for this issue? Security company Crowdstrike has publicly revealed that the system crashes are caused by a new sensor update.

Crowdstrike, for those who do not know, provides endpoint security for a lot of Microsoft products, including its Windows operating system.

So, who has been affected? According to reports, these blue screens have been reported from Asia, Australia, North America, and many other regions. Additionally, lots of airline services have been impacted due to Microsoft’s Azure also falling prey to an outage.

https://twitter.com/sxchopea/status/1814183041708990884

So, what do soul users do in this type of situation? Well, there are a few fixes that you can try to get your way around this bsod outage and boot loop issue.

Fixes for Windows Blue Screen of Death and Boot Loop

Thankfully, there are a few fixes that users can try to get their Windows PCs out of the boot loop and blue screen of death issue.

Windows blue screen of death at Airport
Windows BSOD at Airport

Fix 1: Boot Into Safe Mode And Delete A File

With how users are locked out of their systems because of the Crowdstrike Windows BSOD boot loop, the only logical way to get around this is to boot your PC into Safe Mode.

For those who do not know, Safe Mode simply boots your PC into Windows with basic functions and drivers. In Safe Mode, you will not find any of your apps or programs that you have installed on your PC.

Boot Into Safe Mode

  1. If you are on the Recovery screen on your PC, click on See Advanced Repair options.
  2. Now, choose Troubleshoot followed by Advanced Options.
  3. Select Startup Settings and then select Restart.
  4. When your PC is restarting, press the key that corresponds to restarting your PC in Safe Mode. This will be displayed on your screen.
  5. Your PC will now boot into Safe Mode.

Deleting The Affected File

Now that your PC is booted into Safe Mode, you need to follow the steps carefully to delete the affected folder.

  1. Click on the Start menu and search for Command Prompt.
  2. Make sure to select Run it as Administrator.
  3. Now, navigate to the Crowdstrike folder by pasting the following
    • d C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike
  4. To search for the file, paste this into the command line and hit the enter key.
    • dir C-00000291*.sys
  5. When the file has been found, simply type the following line
    • del C-00000291.sys

Do note that the file names might not be the same for your PC, but the naming style should be the same. So if your file has a different number at the end but follows the naming pattern, you can safely delete it.

Fix 2: Renaming The Affected Folder

The second way to overcome or solve this issue is by renaming the affected CrowdStrike folder. For this fix, you will have to boot your system into safe mode. To boot into safe mode, you can follow the steps that have been mentioned above.

Once you have booted your PC into Safe Mode, follow these steps to rename the particular folder.

  1. Launch Command Prompt from the Start menu.
  2. Make sure that you run it as an Administrator.
  3. Navigate to the following directory in Command Prompt
    • cd \windows\system32\drivers
  4. With the directory selected, you now need to enter this code
    • ren CrowdStrike CrowdStrike_old

Fix 3: Block The CSA Agent via Registry Editor

Just like the above fixes, users will have to boot their systems into safe Mode. The steps for booting into Safe Mode have been mentioned above. So once you have booted into Safe Mode, you can follow the steps listed below.

  1. Now that you are in Safe Mode, press the Windows and R keys on your keyboard. 
  2. Type in regedit in the text box and hit the enter key.
  3. Now, the Registry Editor will be displayed on your screen.
  4. Navigate to the following path in the Registry Editor
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSAgent
  5. Select the CSAgent key and look for the Start entry. You will see the entry at the right pane.
  6. Double-click on the Start entry to change the value.
  7. By default, the value data will be set to 1. Change the value to 4.
  8. Make sure to save the changes and finally restart your Windows PC.

This includes the fixes that you can select and follow to solve the blue screen of death and boot loop issues that have been caused by Crowdstrike’s sensor update. As you will see, a lot of services have been disrupted because of the crowdstrike windows outage, as well as many PCs just sitting stuck on the blue screen. 

What can you do to avoid such things from happening? First off, it is best to always wait before installing a new update. Secondly, see if any reports about the update are causing issues or not. If you feel like the steps are complicated or run over your head, please ask anyone who has an idea of what has to be done to solve this issue on your PC.

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AUTHOR.

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Joshua D'souza

Enjoy games, 90's hip-hop, and tech. Loves exploring the infinite world of laptops and food. Every ready to provide assistance in anything that rocks his boat. Will gladly enjoy capturing memories through various lenses. Worked previously at PiunikaWeb as an author and researcher.

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