The recent Microsoft outage, a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) incident caused by an update from CrowdStrike’s antivirus software, has left many users searching for solutions. Here’s what happened and how you can fix it if your system is affected.
Understanding the “Page Fault in Non-Paged Area” BSOD
A “Page Fault in Non-Paged Area” error typically occurs when Windows tries accessing a page of memory that doesn’t exist. The system checks for a page of memory to store data but cannot find it, which may result in a system crash, known as a BSOD. This error can arise due to issues with faulty system services, driver conflicts, or even corrupted NTFS volumes. In recent events, it was triggered by specific antivirus software updates which interfered with system operations.
If you scan the QR code it will redirect you to the Resolving Blue Screen errors in Windows official page, which unfortunately won’t help you in this case.
The Trigger: CrowdStrike’s Update
Specifically, CrowdStrike’s recent updates to its antivirus software introduced a problematic file causing systems to crash and display a BSOD. This file, identified by the pattern ‘C-00000291*.sys’, was located in the system’s drivers folder and led to repeated crashes. Deleting or renaming this file in Safe Mode has been identified as an effective workaround to resolve the issue and allow Windows to load properly.
Steps to Resolve the BSOD Crowd Strike Issue that caused the Microsoft Outage
If you’re experiencing this issue, start by booting your computer into Safe Mode. Once in Safe Mode, you can either delete the problematic file directly or rename the CrowdStrike folder to prevent it from interfering with your system startup. To further ensure the system doesn’t attempt to reload the problematic service, editing the Windows Registry to disable the CSAgent service may be necessary. This prevents the service from starting automatically at boot, thus bypassing the BSOD issue.
We did not test the solution above, but we faced the issue and we have an alternative CrowdStrike Outage Solution described step by step here which we tested on a couple of laptops and it worked just fine for us.
Proactive Measures and Tools
To prevent future occurrences and to maintain system health, regularly updating drivers and running diagnostics can be crucial. Tools like Memtest86+ can help check for memory issues, which are common culprits behind many BSOD errors. Additionally, keeping a backup of important files and creating restore points before installing new software can save you a lot of hassle if things go awry.
For more in-depth troubleshooting steps and the latest updates on this issue, visiting the official Microsoft forums and help articles is recommended.