How to Solve DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE, Blue Screen of Death

As Windows user, we might have experienced Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) at least once. It is perhaps one of the most annoying thing ever happened in the history of Windows. It would often come uninvited whenever we do something important like doing assignment and playing games with friends.

Usually, when the problem occurs, the solution is as simple as restarting the computer, which is done automatically by the system. However, depending on the error, we might face the problem continuously.

As in my case, my laptop failed from booting the operating system and looped endlessly. This article is not meant to be a tutorial but a description of my personal experience and options in solving the problem. If you have minimum knowledge in Windows, I think you aren't going to face any problem under minimal guidance.

The error I got from my BSOD was DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE, upon searching on the internet I was told that the problem could occur due to how we set our battery mode, but it wasn't the problem I was facing since I couldn't get to login at all. Then it had to be the driver that was causing the problem.

I believe you could get enough tutorial from the internet on how to get into 'safe mode'. If you experience the same problem as I did, what you need to do first is to get into 'safe mode', if you are able to log into 'safe mode', it has to be the driver that's causing the problem, probably the graphic driver. 

There are 3 things that you could do as you get into 'safe mode', uninstalling broken driver, using system restore to get your computer to an earlier state when everything is working well, or lastly, the most extreme option of all is; refreshing or resetting your Windows. 

To uninstall problematic drivers, we need to access Device Manager. The easiest way to access Device Manager is by opening devmgmt.msc through search or run application. 

Open the run application on windows, or you could press the windows key simultaneously with R key. Type in devmgmt.msc and click ok.

Find drivers with problem, right click and uninstall. If you could remember the last thing you did to your computer before the problem occur, you could try uninstalling the driver which has anything to do with it. If the problem occur after you install a sound driver, uninstall the driver. Or if you don't remember anything at all and you have no clues which driver cause the problem, you could try uninstalling all drivers with the yellow exclamation mark. 

Restart, if the problem is solved, don't forget to update your driver through windows update. If not, you could try another solution.

If you have used Windows long enough you must know about system restore. If we are lucky, we are going to be able to find a restore point to revert our computer back to how it was when the restore point was created. If we have no ideas about what causes the problem, system restore is really helpful. 

We don't have to worry about losing our personal files, the only things that are going to be affected by system restore are softwares, settings and updates. To make sure that you are going to be able to use system restore, make sure to update your restore point from time to time.

Not the best option and I personally think of this as the last resort. If there is no other solution, and you don't care about losing all your softwares, you could try refreshing or resetting your Windows. This solution is only applicable starting from Windows 8 to 10.

There are differences between refreshing and resetting. Refreshing will keep your personal files and setting while resetting will remove everything, and it works like factory reset. If you are using Windows 10, there is no option to refresh your Windows, but don't worry because when you try to reset your Windows you are going to be asked if you want to keep your files (the same as refresh in Windows 8, 8.1) or remove everything (the same as reset in Windows 8, 8.1).

I hope this article is able to give you a little hint on how to solve the DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE problem. My problem happened when I tried to install the latest graphic driver by Nvidia through Geforce Experience, the problem was solved after I removed the driver together with the software. To tell the truth, it happened to me twice, but I just started to realise the problem the second time it happened. The first time it happened, I refreshed my Windows, I hope you guys have better luck finding the solution.