Software Troubleshooting (Core 2)

The stop code (and any named file or driver) shown on the BSOD — it identifies the failure category and guides the rest of troubleshooting.

Boot into Safe Mode and roll back (or uninstall) the new video driver — the most recent change is the prime suspect.

Windows Memory Diagnostic (mdsched.exe) — random stop codes that change each crash point to failing memory.

Minidump files in %SystemRoot%\Minidump; a debugger such as WinDbg can analyze them to identify the faulting driver.

Task Manager — the Performance and Processes tabs show whether CPU, memory, disk, or network is saturated and which process is responsible.

Check drive health (SMART status, chkdsk) and look for heavy background tasks; if the drive is healthy but saturated, recommend upgrading the HDD to an SSD.