Using Driver Verifier to fix Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors

Driver verifier is a Windows tool that is specially designed to catch the device driver bugs. It is specially used to find the drivers which caused the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error. Using the Driver verifier is the best approach to narrow down the causes of the BSOD crash.

Using Driver Verifier to fix Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors

Using Driver Verifier to fix Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors

Driver verifier is only useful if you can log into your Windows normally not in the safe mode because in safe mode most of the default drivers are not loaded. Next, make sure to create a System Restore point.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you turn off driver verifier from safe mode once you have finished using it. From safe mode, open cmd with administrative rights and type the command “verifier /reset” (without quotes) then hit enter to stop driver verifier.

Before moving forward make sure that Minidumps are enabled. Well, Minidump is a file which stores critical information about Windows crash. In another word whenever your system crashes the events leading to that crash is stored in the minidump (DMP) file. This file is critical in diagnosing
your system and can be enabled as:

a. Press Windows Key + R then type sysdm.cpl and hit enter.

system properties sysdm

b. Select the Advanced tab and click on Settings under Startup and Recovery.

c. Make sure that Automatically restart is unchecked.

d. Now select Small memory dump (256 KB) under Write debugging information header.

startup and recovery settings small memory dump and uncheck automatically restart

e. If you are using Windows 10 then use Automatic memory dump.

f. Finally, make sure that the Small dump directory is listed as %systemroot%\Minidump

g. Restart your PC.

Using Driver Verifier to fix Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors:

1.Log into your Windows and type cmd in the search bar.

2.Then right-click on it and select “Run as Administrator.

3.Now type the following command in the cmd and hit enter:

verifier

4.Check the box Create custom settings(for code developers) and then click Next.

run driver verifier manager

5.Select everything except Randomized low resources simulation and DDI compliance checking.

driver verifier settings

6.Next, select “Select driver names from a list” checkbox and click Next.

select driver names from a list driver verifier

7.Select all the drivers except which are provided by Microsoft.

8.Finally, click Finish to run the driver verifier.

9.Make sure driver verifier is running by typing the following command in admin cmd:

verifier /querysettings

10.If the verifier is running it would return a list of drivers.

11.If the driver verifier is not running again run it by following the above steps.

12.Reboot your PC and continue to use your system normally until it crashes. If the crash is triggered by something specific make sure to do that repeatedly.

Note: Main Objective of the above step is that we want our system to crash as driver verifier is stressing the drivers and will provide a full report of the crash. If your system doesn’t crash let driver verifier run for 36 hours before stopping it.

13.Finally, when you are finished using driver verifier boot into safe mode. (Enable advanced legacy boot menu from here).

14.Open cmd with admin right and type verifier /reset and hit enter.

15.The whole motive of the above steps is that we want to know which driver is creating the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death).

16.Once you have successfully logged the error in memory dump file (it’s done automatically when your PC crashes), just download and install the program called BlueScreenView.

17.Load your Minidump or Memory dump files from C:\Windows\Minidump or C:\Windows (they go by the .dmp extension) into BlueScreenView.

18.Next, you will get the information about which driver is causing the issue, just install the driver and your problem would be fixed.

bluescreenview to read minidump file

19.If you don’t know about the specific driver do a google search to know more about it.

20.Restart your PC to save all your changes.

Errors which can be fixed by Driver Verifier:

DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION (Driver Verifier Detected Violation)

KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE (Kernel Security Check Failure)

DRIVER_VERIFIER_IOMANAGER_VIOLATION (Driver Verifier Iomanager Violation)

DRIVER_CORRUPTED_EXPOOL (Driver Corrupted Expool)

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE (Driver Power State Failure)

KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (KMODE Exception not handled Error)

NTOSKRNL.exe Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) Error

Well, this is the end of  “Using Driver Verifier to fix Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors” guide but if you still have any question regarding this issue feel free to ask them in the comments section.

4 thoughts on “Using Driver Verifier to fix Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors”

  1. Hello,

    I used the driver verifier but now my computer is unable to boot. Even when I desactivate it it still doesn’t work.

    Can you help me ?
    Thanks

  2. For anyone who is unable to boot after doing this, Boot to ‘safe mode with networking’ and disable drive verifier from here. Then the next time you reboot it should get you to windows.

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