For the past month, I’ve been dealing with these frustrating ‘Kernel auto boost lock acquisition with raised IRQL’ BSOD crashes. They seem to happen randomly—sometimes while I’m gaming, other times when I’m just browsing or coding, and even when I’m not using the computer at all.
I took my PC to a local tech, who updated the BIOS and drivers but didn’t find anything obviously wrong. Still, the crashes keep happening. I’m not super tech-savvy, but I’ve been trying to troubleshoot based on what I’ve seen online.
No critical errors show up in the Event Manager.
I read that WiFi or Bluetooth could be a cause:
Disabled Bluetooth—still crashed later.
Switched to Ethernet (disabled WiFi)—still crashed.
Disabled Ethernet—still no luck.
Saw some folks saying MalwareBytes might cause it. Disabled that, but still crashed.
Ran the sfc/scannow and chkdsk commands—didn’t help.
I’m at a loss here and would appreciate any advice. Here are some links to the minidumps:
Getting dump files is essential for analyzing BSODs. These are logs from when crashes happen.
If you can boot into Windows or get into Safe Mode, look for dump files at C:\Windows\Minidump. If you have any, copy them to your desktop, zip the folder, and upload it. Right-click and select ‘Send to → Compressed (Zipped) folder’ if you don’t have zip software.
Upload to a simple file-sharing site. Some sites get blacklisted, but catbox.moe or mediafire.com should work.
We prefer having multiple dump files. If you only have one or none, upload what you have, then follow this guide to set up Small Memory Dump. The ‘Overwrite dump file’ option is grayed out because small dumps don’t overwrite.
I could write a really long explanation, but the short version is: unless the OS is corrupted, I don’t know why this is happening.
For the long version, Kernel Auto Boost manages how processes are prioritized by the CPU. Usually, it speeds up lower-priority tasks to free up resources, but if things don’t go right, you get errors. The crash you’re seeing is a catch-all for many different issues. If there’s a way to debug it further from the dump files, I’m not sure how.
Since the dumps point to different processes (one shows MongoDB and another Windows service), it’s tough to nail down. Reinstalling could help if it’s the same process, but it’s not consistent here.
@Noor
Thanks for explaining both the short and long version!
I did have MongoDB installed, even though I haven’t used it in ages. Just uninstalled it.
There was another crash error I got a while ago: KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE. It would switch between that and the raised IRQL one.
Also, sometimes when I’m gaming, the GPU spikes to 100%, and the game freezes and crashes. Event Viewer shows:
The description for Event ID 153 from source nvlddmkm can’t be found. This info was included with the event: \Device\Video3 Error occurred on GPUID: 200.
Not sure if these are connected, but I figured I’d mention it. Thanks again for the help!
@Fallon
My first reply seemed to disappear, so if it shows up twice, that’s why.
> There was another crash error… KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE.
This doesn’t directly tell us much without the dump, but it’s worth noting. The GPU issue could be the graphics card or its driver. If the OS is corrupted, maybe the driver is too. I can’t see how GPU hardware would connect to the BSODs, but multiple issues aren’t ideal.
You could run SFC to check for OS corruption. Use DISM commands first just to be safe. I don’t fully trust SFC to fix problems, but it’s a good start for spotting them.
If the OS is corrupt, you might want to look at the storage as a potential issue.