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BSOD while playing games: fatal system error 0xc000021a + Event ID 86
Hey all, long-time lurker here. I wanted to start off by saying thank you, as I've found the info posted here (regarding other misc. problems I've had) to be very helpful :)
I'll start off with my specs:
Laptop: MSI GX640
CPU: Intel Core i5-430M
Memory: DDR3 2 GBx2
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5850 w/ 1 GB DDR5 VRAM
I don't know if any other information is necessary for this particular problem, but if there's any relevant info that I missed please do let me know.
Anyway, right now I have a problem with the above mentioned error. It first started while playing XCOM, and it pretty much happened every XCOM session thereafter, so I tried looking for some ways to DIY troubleshoot it. To that end, I've tried sfc, disk check, virus and malware scans, and also updating my drivers. All the scans didn't find anything unusual, and currently I'm pretty sure my drivers are up-to-date.
I want to add a couple of things here, just in the interest of providing as much info as possible, though I'm not sure if it will be pertinent. Anyway, for updating my drivers I used a third-party program called SlimDrivers, and I think it worked properly. I realize driver update software can be sketchy, but it had good reviews on cnet, which I suppose was as reputable a review source as I could find. But moving on, I goofed when updating my video card drivers, as I downloaded a version that, it turned out, was incompatible for my laptop. This became apparent when the top of my screen started flickering every so often (and whenever I opened anything or scrolled), so I remedied this by having Windows do my driver updating for me, and that fixed the problem.
To summarize: I used a third-party program to update all of my drivers except for the video card driver, which I updated on my own (erroneously at first, but correctly later on by having Device Manager search for the right driver).
Moving on, some time after I ran all the scans and updated the drivers, I played D3 for a couple of hours without any problems. Before that I'd also watched some videos and surfed random sites without issues. But this morning after logging in about a half-hour session of D3, I BSOD'd again with the same error. I checked Event Viewer to try to find the cause of my problem, and I think I found something relevant: right around the time of the BSOD, "Event ID 86, Error: The system was shut down due to a critical thermal event" shows up.
So my shrewd deductive skills have me thinking overheating is the problem here, but I wanted to make sure if this could even happen. Looking over 0xc000021a online I never found anybody asserting that it could occur due to overheating, but the appearances of the event coincide with the crashes pretty neatly; its first appearance on the event viewer, 10/22, is the same day I first encountered a BSOD with this error.
If overheating does turn out to be the problem, then I'll probably just take my laptop somewhere to get it repaired. I'd be somewhat comfortable attempting a DIY fix if it was a software issue, but if it's a hardware issue I'm not going to risk it.
Anyway, that's my take, but I'd really appreciate more info on the matter, if any. I'm also attaching the files grabbed by the SF diagnostic tool just in case there's some other problem here that I missed. Unfortunately the dump files are kernel-only, which may not be enough in this case, because as I understand it this error is caused by user-mode processes. But I digress.
TL;DR version: Can fatal system error 0xc000021a occur due to overheating? If not, then what is the suggested course of action? And If so, what options are available outside of tinkering with the hardware in some way?
Sorry for the lengthy post, everyone, and thanks a bunch!