Encountering A SIHOST Crash In Windows 11
I recently encountered an abrupt sihost.exe crash in Windows 11 Pro on a Surface Laptop 5 for Business which required a hard reboot to get Windows back up and running.
After an initial visual check, everything seemed okay, however, I needed to perform some troubleshooting and diagnostics to be certain.
First, I launched the Command Prompt (Run as administrator) and ran the System File Checker (SFC) tool (sfc /scannow) to check the system files and make repairs accordingly.
After the SFC tool completed, it detected some errors which could not be repaired.
As such, it was necessary to run the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool to make further repairs (requires an active internet connection to download files via Windows Update). The DISM tool took some time to run and make repairs.
After the DISM tool completed, it reported that Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to make repairs (it couldn’t find the necessary files to make the repairs).
As such, it became necessary to perform a Windows 11 “in-place” re-installation (re-install Windows 11 while retaining existing settings, data, and files – no data loss).
Important Note: Even though an “in-place” re-installation or upgrade should result in no data loss, it’s best to back up the contents of the computer just in case there is a serious issue (ex: SSD or flash storage corruption) that could result in significant data loss during the process.
Once the laptop was backed up, I downloaded a current, clean version of the Windows 11 .iso file (Download Windows 11) and began the “in-place” re-installation which took quite some time.
After the re-installation completed, I re-ran the System File Check (SFC) tool to make sure there was no further corruption and fortunately, the “in-place” re-installation resolved the issues.
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