U225X PUBLIC-SAFE CONVERSATION NOTE

RECORD: CHAT-0352
TOPIC: SolidWorks System Crashes
IMPORTED: 2026.04.30

This note was generated from a matching conversation in the supplied ChatGPT export.
EXTRACTED REQUEST: I am having 2 issues with my system since I have worked here. I am dealing with them fine but it is a pain. First issue, Solid Works will randomly crash my whole system like hard restart. I notice it happen more during orbitting parts and Messing with dimensions, the 2nd one is Explorer will randomly crash

RECOVERED CONVERSATION EXCERPTS
USER MESSAGES:
1. I am having 2 issues with my system since I have worked here. I am dealing with them fine but it is a pain. First issue, Solid Works will randomly crash my whole system like hard restart. I notice it happen more during orbitting parts and Messing with dimensions, the 2nd one is Explorer will randomly crash
2. almost all red exclamation errors i see are this
3. I have the preview pane off already

ASSISTANT RESPONSES:
1. Yeah—those two issues together (hard system restart + Explorer crashing) almost always point to something deeper than just “SolidWorks being SolidWorks.” You’re likely dealing with either a GPU/driver problem, system instability, or Windows corruption. Let’s break this down in a way that actually gets you to a fix, not just guesses.. 🔴 Issue 1: SolidWorks causing FULL system restart A hard restart (no warning, just boom) is *not normal* for [embedded media omitted]. That means something at the system level is failing. Most likely causes (in your case): Based on what you said (orbiting + dimensioning): - GPU driver instability (VERY likely) - GPU hardware acceleration conflict - Power spike / PSU issue (less l…
2. Good news first — what you’re looking at here is NOT your main problem.. 🟡 Those DistributedCOM (Event ID 10000) errors What you highlighted: > `Unable to start a DCOM Server... sldShellExtServer.exe` This is tied to: - SolidWorks Explorer / preview handler - Windows trying to load a COM component and failing 👉 These look scary but are usually harmless noise. 🔎 What this actually means - Windows tried to launch a SolidWorks shell extension - It failed (permissions / timing / service not ready) - It logs an error That’s it. 💡 This does NOT cause: - hard system restarts - GPU crashes - full OS instability. ⚠️ But there *is* something important here This line matters: [code excerpt omitted] That’s a SolidWork…
3. This is actually very clean data—and it confirms the direction pretty strongly.. 🔴 What your logs are telling us From your screenshots: You have: - ✅ Kernel-Power 41 (Critical) → hard reset - ✅ volmgr 162 → crash dump failed to write - ❌ No BugCheck - ❌ No WHEA errors - ❌ No display driver logs (nvlddmkm, etc.). 🧠 What that combination means This is the important part: 👉 Your system is crashing so fast / so low-level that Windows never gets a chance to log the real cause. That rules out: - typical app crashes - normal driver timeouts - standard blue screens. 🎯 This narrows it to 3 real possibilities 🥇 1. GPU driver crash → HARD reset (MOST LIKELY) Especially because: - Happens during orbiting (GPU spike)…

EXTRACTED KNOWLEDGE / HOW-TO
- --
- GPU driver instability (VERY likely)
- GPU hardware acceleration conflict
- Power spike / PSU issue (less likely but possible)
- RAM instability
- Windows kernel crash (driver-related)
- Go to: [embedded media omitted]
- Choose:
CONVERSATION SHAPE: 3 user turns / 6 assistant turns
ATTACHMENTS DETECTED: 26

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