Way to Fix Green Screen of Death on Windows 10/11

Read time: 7 minutes

On Windows 10/11, you come across a green window with a sad emoticon accompanied with a message “Your Windows Insider Build ran into a problem and need to restart. We are just collecting some error info, and then we’ll restart for you. xyz% is complete.”

This is called Green screen of death and latter is yet another error similar to blue screen of death where-in occurs critical failure of Insider build or Creator editions of Windows Operating system. This makes your computer inaccessible. In this blog we are going to learn how to fix this issue.

Windows Insider Program: An overview

As stated above, GSOD occurs due to failure of Insider build of MS OS. To understand Insider build you should have an idea of Windows Insider Program. Microsoft launched a program named Windows Insider Program on 30-09-2014. It was purposed to connect intellects outside the Microsoft with it with an aim to study and make better its Operating system viz. Windows 10.

Under this program Microsoft allowed millions of its fans to join and preview builds of its Operating system Windows 10 and give their feedback and engage with their software engineers. It was to be done through a valid license. Later on this was extended to Windows 11 and Windows Server as well and the strength of its members rose to 10 million.

This program was envisaged to explore, identify and improve builds of its software release. As stated above Windows Insider Versions came in Windows 10 when it was launched and then in Windows 11 in its initial years of release. In these versions members can run Windows Insider Preview Builds on their computers. They can preview Windows through Channels built by Windows and Insider Preview Builds are released to the members through these channels viz. Dev Channel, Beta Channel and Release Preview Channel.

1. Peripheral devices connected to your PC.
2. Malfunctioning of hardware.
3. Corruption of system files.
4. Incompatible/outdated drivers.
5. Excessive usage of memory space.
6. Third party programs.

1. Turns screen of your computer green with display of an error message.
2. You cannot access your system.
3. System repeatedly restarts.
4. Loss of unsaved data may occur without prior warning or information.

In order to fix this issue first check whether there is any peripheral device attached to your computer as this issue can be due to any problematic peripheral device may it be mouse, keyboard, USB flash drive, Hard disk drive, a projector, USB, bar code reader, microphone etc. So if your computer has any of the peripheral devices then remove it or and if there are multiple devices then you may remove one by one as this may tell you which device is creating this problem to check if it is due to peripheral device. Once you have removed all peripheral devices, restart your computer and check if the problem is fixed.

It is always recommended that you should regularly update operating system and drivers on your computer as need of update may lead to many errors due to no support or incompatibility.

Follow the steps given below to update Windows OS

1. Go to start
2. Type settings in search box and click Open
3. Select Update and Security
4. Select Windows Update
5. Click Check for updates
6. Download and install updates if available

First start your PC in safe mode in Windows.

[Note: Running of Windows in safe mode means use of limited set of files and drivers. And when you run Windows in safe mode and no error occurs, it indicates that the error is not happening due to default setting and basic device drivers.]

1. 1. Go to Start and type Device manager and open.
   2. Right-click the driver you wish to update.
   3. Select Update Driver
   4. Follow instructions to complete the process.

Once all the drivers are updated, boot your computer in normal mode and check if the issue still exists.

This is built-in utility of Windows which helps you to scan file systems drives for bad sector(s) and errors and then repairs them automatically. To run this command, follow the steps given below:

1. Go to start and type cmd in search box.
2. Select Run as administrator under Command Prompt
3. Type chkdsk C:/f/r/x
4. Press Enter
5. Wait till the process is over.
6. Restart your computer and check if the issue is resolved.

This built-in utility of Windows scans system files for corruption or damage and once it finds, it repairs the same of its own. Follow the steps given under to run this command:

1. 1. Follow steps 1-2 of method 3.
   2. Type sfc /scannow and press enter.
   3. Once the process is over restart your computer.
   4. If the issue is still not resolved then run the following DISM commands:

Once the process is over, see if issue is resolved.

Antivirus tools may also cause GSOD as they may cause burden on processor of computer. Follow the steps given below to uninstall third party anti-virus tool:

1. 1. Go to Start
   2. Type settings and open
   3. Select Apps and then Apps and features
   4. Click the third party antivirus tool from the list of apps
   5. Select uninstall
   6. Similarly uninstall apps and components related to the uninstalled anti-virus tool.

Note: Since all anti-virus software tools install their supporting apps, you need to uninstall them too. They can be identified by the name of the concerned anti-virus tool.

Repairing of Windows OS may help you as it is purposed to fix errors, malfunctioning etc. in the OS. In case Windows is having severe problem or is corrupt then you need to reinstall Windows. Latter may cause loss of data wherein you will need to recover data using any Windows Data Recovery tool. To repair Windows follow the steps given under:

1. Go to Start and type settings and open
2. Select Update and Security
3. Select Recovery
4. Select Get started
5. Press Reset this PC
6. Restart your computer

Conclusion

In this blog we discussed GSOD, reasons of its occurring, various methods to fix it besides understanding Windows Insider Program. We have always endeavored to help you not only with fixing various errors thrown by your PC and system but also to recover your lost data in almost every kind of scenario. We hope you find this writing helpful.