Windows Blue Screen when Encoding Video (how to auto update lots of drivers)

Windows Blue Screen when Encoding Video (how to auto update lots of drivers)

This is a bit of a geeky Windows tip.

For the last few days, I’ve been unable to encode more than a couple of videos, in various different apps, without my PC crashing out with a BSD (Blue Screen of Death).

My computer has been running perfectly well other than this issue.

I’d tried updating windows, updating graphics cards, monitoring internal temperatures etc. etc. This morning, I was at the point of doing a clean install of Windows 10 on the system disk.

While making lists of settings that I’d want to have backed up and restored, I came across a tool, that I’ve had for a while on a USB drive, called DUMo. That app was actually too frustrating to use, but it lead me to an Open Source (free) alternative called Snappy Driver Installer.

Snappy Driver Installer found 51 out of date drivers! I was a bit suspicious of this, but reassured by reviews and it being Open Source. So, I tested it with one or two drivers.

Due to the way that it works, it has to download a lot of information to get the drivers, but they seemed to install fine.

As I was planning a reinstall anyway, I threw caution to the wind and installed all of the rest of the updates.

A reboot later, and numerous video encodes, and the problem is fixed! I have no idea which of the drivers was the problem, but nothing seems to be broken so I don’t have to worry about that.

Success! 🙂

Hope this is useful to someone else.

Cheers,
Damian

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