# Windows 10 BSOD



## Greg77 (Aug 27, 2016)

Hi,
I have a Intel I7 2700k with 16 gigs memory, Nvidia GTX 770, Samsung 840 250gig SSD, I built it in 2014, put Windows 8.1 on it and did the upgrade to Win 10, this Spring. I was working on a paper with the system, turned off the monitor, and went to pick up my cat who was at the vet 10 minutes away. I get home from the vet, microwave and oven clocks are blinking, power out while I was out. Try to boot my system, get blue screen saying that Clicksp.sys is screwed up, hit an F key and get a choice of 9 different boot options (safemode, safe mode with networking etc.) So I try to solve the problem after all how hard can it be. Hitting any key just goes back to the blue screen telling me that clipsp.sys is not working.
I starting digging on the internet and see all kinds of fixes, but either none apply or they don't work. But then I see EasyRE for Windows 10, I order it, d/l it and put it on a USB, boot the system with it and apply the repair option, try to boot into Windows 10 but now get nothing but BSOD, no message about clipsp.sys, no other boot options nothing.
I pull the drive from the system plug it into my 2010 build thats running Windows 7 and everything is accessible even the Windows 10 files and the old Windows 8.1 files also. A friend has an unused Windows 10 64 DVD, I buy it from him for $65.00 and attempt to use it, but I'm given the message that it is unable to repair the system (actually it could do nothing) I'm finding hard to believe that a missing sys file could cause this much damage and then I thought about Restoring from an earlier version, but Windows 10 turns it off from the start, so no relief there. So what are my options, do I use an old SSD to just start from scratch or is there anyway to get back to where I was.
Thanks
Gregory


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Hi Gregory ... and welcome to the forums ...


Since you had a power outage (likely followed by a power surge when the power was restored), I'd recommend that make sure the hardware is still sound. No sense wasting time with throwing software repairs at hardware issues. Test the hard drive & system memory. If any BIOS/UEFI diagnostics came with your motherboard, run those as well.

If the main components pass diagnostics, I'd recommend backing up personal data and running a clean install. Otherwise you are going to have to figure out what got thrown around and how during the coming and going of your troubleshooting. If you clean install using the Media Creation tool, you'll get Windows 10 version 1607, and there shouldn't be much updating necessary afterwards. You'd just restore your personal data from backups, reinstall your favorite programs, and you'd be done. Things should fit on your SSD better, too - since the Windows Update folders will be smaller (less old updates laying around).

It was unnecessary to buy a Windows 10 DVD from your friend. Since you upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, your "digital entitlement" to Windows 10 on that hardware is stored on the Microsoft Activation servers. All you actually had to do was to download a Windows 10 iso file directly from Microsoft (which is actually what I'm recommending that you do now). 

Usually, you can fix a lot of problems if you have a Windows 10 DVD. Why the DVD from your friend didn't work depends on a lot of things. If it was a manufacturer-supplied disk (a "recovery disk") ... those only work on systems of the same make/model. Or, if the bit-depth didn't match, or the Home/Pro versions didn't match ... or if you simply had a hardware failure -- obviously it wouldn't work then, either.

Use a fresh download of the 1607 version iso, burn it as a system image onto a DVD, and clean install with that. You can probably use your Windows 8.1 Pro product key to make sure that the DVD installs the "Pro" version of 10. If you linked the previous installation to your Microsoft account, it should automatically register Windows 10 soon after your reinstall is finished.

You can get the Media Creation Tool from the "Download tool now" link in the following Microsoft webpage: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Let us know if you have more questions.


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## Greg77 (Aug 27, 2016)

Hi,
I did the steps listed in the post, the Windows 10 d/l booted and could not repair Windows 10, but it did give me the option of using the CMD mode which hasn't been available in the other formats I tried. Is there a way to manually replace boot files (clipsp.sys) and see if that works, which product key will be asked for if I do a clean install (just moved 2 months ago and things are still a mess). 
I can easily pull the screwed up drive and look thru it's contents with ease, can I access the product key there ? The reason I'm going through this is because trying to find all the passwords on installed products is going to be PIA.
Thanks 
Greg


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Hi again

Can I assume that you ran full diagnostics & everything tested out OK? (I'm just being thorough....)

Since you already had Windows 10 installed and activated, you shouldn't need a product key to reinstall (or "clean install"). [Your "digital entitlement" to Windows 10 is stored on the MS activation servers]. I believe this should be true even if you didn't link your Windows 8.1 installation to your Microsoft account. ... If you DID link your Windows 8.1 installation to your Microsoft account, then you have no worries about needing a product key (it's already linked to your hardware).

I've seen a few posts here and there that mention blue screens that list clipsp.sys ... but since that file is a part of Windows (seems to be either part of the Game DVR or the Snipping tool, if I had to guess)... I don't think that clipsp.sys was the only problem keeping your system from starting OK. I'd guess that there was some corruption of the file system. 

The trick now is that the EasyRE program may have complicated things . . . possibly adding to your troubleshooting. If the program altered your boot partitions - that adds a layer of complexity. 

A clean install removes all your troubleshooting: you just start over. 
________________

If, however, you want to try, you'd probably start by running chkdsk from the Windows PE or RE environment, to see if the file system is OK. It likely might need a bit of repairing.

Then you'd want to check your partitions, to make sure the EFI boot partition is still there, and listed as healthy. There are ways to try and restore a broken EFI partition ... if that seems likely to be your situation, here's a guide for that:
https://blog.d0zingcat.xyz/2015/09/28/Windows/How to repair the EFI Bootloader in Windows 10/

[If you've rebuilt things in the past the old fixboot and bcdboot will look familiar to you ... from previous versions of Windows]
_______________

If you have a large capacity external USB drive, copying the important stuff to that would probably be a good preparation beforehand.

Let us know if you run into any roadblocks along the way.


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## Greg77 (Aug 27, 2016)

Thank for the quick reply, I was just wondering does the clean install look at the previous install at all or is it start from zero for everything.
Greg


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## Greg77 (Aug 27, 2016)

So I'm prepared to do a clean install on a formatted SSD, should I attach my old C: drive as a slave to move the old folders after Windows 10 has been installed or wait till after all the installation is done.
Greg


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## oscer1 (Jan 27, 2010)

Hi when installing an OS only have the drive you are installing to hooked up.


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

Hi all --

I agree (with oscer1) that it is best to only have the system drive present for the clean install. You can attach externals and transfer saved data after all is configured - and up-to-date. [And - I usually completely erase the system drive before a clean install -- I keep a backup on a separate external ... you are correct that a clean install does not refer to any previous installation, other than for activation - and your activation information for that hardware is already stored on the Microsoft activation servers].

Note that a fairly large Cumulative Update was just released Tuesday (Aug 30), so that will likely arrive shortly after the clean install. Annoying, but not too surprising in the constantly evolving platform that is Windows 10. 

If your hardware is sound, things should go reasonably smoothly.


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## Greg77 (Aug 27, 2016)

Well I installed Windows 10 to a new 500g SSD, no problems with activation (as far as I know), installed Office 2010, works no hiccups. Put Steam on and d/l the games I play with them. I just have to find the Nuance Dragon DVD to reinstall Dragon Naturally Speaking. The reason I went with a new drive was 1. they were cheap, 2. I did not want to back up 160g of school data, this way with it as 2nd drive I just go to it and pick up what I need (if anything).
2017 is supposed to be my build a new system year (used to be a 2 year rotation, now its a 3-5 year). 
Greg


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

2017 might be a very nice year to build . . . you might take advantage of Intel's latest by then Intel Announces 7th Gen Kaby Lake: 14nm PLUS, Six Notebook SKUs, Desktop coming in January

Glad the current hardware is holding up so well - sounds like you are back in business.


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