Comprehensive Troubleshooting of Windows 11 24H2: Addressing Boot Failures and System Corruption
Introduction
Encountering a non-booting Windows 11 system can be a daunting experience, especially when accompanied by Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) errors like the 0x139 KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE. Such issues are often aggravated by underlying file system corruption, failed system repairs, and the absence of reliable system restore points. This article aims to provide a detailed overview of troubleshooting steps, diagnostic insights, and potential solutions for resolving severe boot failures on Windows 11, specifically focusing on cases where traditional repair tools such as DISM and SFC are unable to rectify the underlying problems.
System Overview and Context
The affected system is a Windows 11 device running build version 24H2, with image version 26100.3915.1. It features a dual-boot configuration with Linux on a separate drive, with the Windows partition formatted with NTFS — a filesystem known for complexity and potential fragility in recovery scenarios. The hardware includes an NVMe SSD as the primary storage, a dedicated NVIDIA GPU, and standard peripherals. Notably, the system booted successfully until the recent failure, which now manifests as recurrent BSODs with no accessible recovery options.
Symptoms and Error Signatures
The primary BSOD encountered is the KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE (0x139), often associated with security violations, driver issues, or hardware faults. Notable observations include:
- Absence of Windows-generated dump files: Minidump and MEMORY.DMP files are not being created, indicating possible issues with dump configuration or disk write failures.
- Persistent boot failure across all modes: Normal, Safe Mode, and test signing modes all fail to load into the desktop environment.
- Diagnostic logs pointing towards graphics driver callbacks, notably involving NVIDIA’s nvlddmkm.sys, suggesting potential GPU driver conflicts or corruption.
- Disk health remains good: No SMART failures, and chkdsk reports no errors despite multiple runs.
Attempts at Resolution
Disk and Filesystem Checks
Multiple iterations of chkdsk have been performed, both from WinRE and other environments, without detecting or fixing filesystem errors. The drive remains accessible, and files open normally, which reduces the likelihood of severe filesystem corruption but does not eliminate it.
System File Repairs with DISM and SFC
Extensive offline repair attempts include:
- DISM: Multiple sources have been used, including official Microsoft ISO images matching
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