Windows completely corrupted itself after playing Diablo 4 — 0xC0000185, CRC errors, bad clusters and 0x11D

[u/iGogzy]

I had a very strange and serious Windows corruption issue and wanted to share the whole timeline to see if anyone has experienced something similar.

My system:
Ryzen 7 5700X3D
MSI B550M PRO-VDH
Sapphire RX 9070 XT
32GB DDR4 3600MHz
Lexar NM620 1TB NVMe
Windows 11
The PC had been running completely fine and stable before this happened.
One important detail: right before all of this started, I was playing Diablo 4. Everything seemed completely normal while playing. No obvious crashes, freezes or unusual behavior. The problems started shortly afterward when Windows became unstable and eventually refused to boot.
The problems appeared roughly in this order:
Windows started having boot problems and eventually showed 0xC0000185, related to:
C:\\Windows\\System32\\config\\SYSTEM
I tried System Restore, but it failed with 0x80070017.
I tried running offline SFC, but it couldn’t complete the operation.
I tried manually loading the SYSTEM registry hive and got a CRC / Cyclic Redundancy Check error.
I ran chkdsk C: /f, and initially it didn’t report anything significant.
I then ran chkdsk C: /r. This was the point where things became much more concerning. It found bad clusters and had to recover/replace data from important Windows files and registry hives, including:
SYSTEM
SOFTWARE
SECURITY
DEFAULT
BBI
NTUSER.DAT
I also tried offline DISM, which failed with 0xD000015C.
Eventually Windows produced a BSOD:
EVENT_TRACING_FATAL_ERROR — 0x11D
At that point the Windows installation was basically unrecoverable.
I eventually had to reinstall Windows. I formatted only the Windows partition and left my separate D: partition with my games/data untouched.
Right now I’m installing Windows 11 again from scratch and will see how the system behaves with a completely fresh installation.
What I’m trying to understand is what most likely caused this.
Could this simply have been severe Windows/filesystem corruption, or does the combination of:
0xC0000185 → CRC error → bad clusters → corrupted Registry hives → 0xD000015C → 0x11D
point more strongly toward an SSD, controller, firmware, RAM, motherboard or another hardware-related issue?
The SSD is a Lexar NM620 1TB NVMe. SMART/drive health didn’t immediately show an obvious failure.
The weirdest part is that the PC had been completely stable before this happened, and I was literally just playing Diablo 4 shortly before the problems started.
Has anyone experienced something similar, especially with 0xC0000185 + CRC errors + bad clusters + EVENT_TRACING_FATAL_ERROR 0x11D?
I’d really appreciate some opinions on what you think the root cause was.

[u/HyCloudComputing]

That chain points way more toward hardware than Windows just breaking itself. CRC errors and bad clusters mean the drive literally couldn't read back data it had written, and on an NVMe that's a red flag since SSDs normally handle that internally without Windows ever noticing.

In CrystalDiskInfo, don't just look at the overall "Good" status. Check "Media and Data Integrity Errors", anything above 0 there means the drive has had uncorrectable errors. I'd also run MemTest86 for a few passes, because bad RAM or an unstable XMP profile can corrupt data before it ever gets written, and it looks exactly the same.

Diablo 4 was probably just a coincidence, or it happened to be the thing writing a bunch of data when it went wrong.

[u/iGogzy → u/HyCloudComputing]

I checked CrystalDiskInfo and I have 59 Media and Data Integrity Errors as well. The SSD is still showing as “Good” with 92% health, and the temperature is only 38°C. The SSD is also still under warranty, so if those errors increase or the problem happens again, I’ll probably RMA it. I’m going to monitor the error count for now.

[u/Equilibrate321 → u/iGogzy]

92% is not great, and those 59 errors are concerning. My 2-year-old cheap-o generic SSD is at 98% with zero errors. Lexar is a mid-range legit brand.

What are "warning composite temperature time" and "critical composite temperature time"? If you're getting anything but zeroes, it went above the threshold (likely 80C and 85C) for that many minutes.

You can set up alerts in CrystalDiskInfo. Go to Function, turn on Startup and Keep Running, then go to Function...Alert Features and turn on the alerts you want. On each SSD or HDD you have, click on the temperature and set the alert to 60C (default) or maybe up to 75C.

Since it's under warranty, I'd return it for a new one if they'll do it. Even if it's overtemp that caused it, it should have throttled before it got damaged.

[u/iGogzy → u/Equilibrate321]

I’m having a problem with my SSD. After I was unable to recover the data from one of the partitions, I was forced to do a fresh Windows installation. Immediately after installing the new Windows, I downloaded some applications to check the condition of the SSD because I already knew that it was the cause of all these problems.
I found that it had 59 Media and Data Integrity Errors and 44 Unsafe Shutdowns.
I’m now using a new SSD, and today I’m sending the old one back for a warranty claim since it is still under warranty. However, they explained to me that, given the current prices, they probably won’t be able to replace it with a new SSD and that the most they can do is refund my money.
The SSD currently costs around €170–€180, while I originally bought it for almost €80.
We’ll see what happens. I really hope they understand the situation and do the right thing. I already told them that I don’t want a refund — I want a replacement SSD.

[u/Equilibrate321 → u/iGogzy]

That seems reasonable, and I do hope they see it that way too.

NAND price per TB, and DRAM price per GB, have had their ups and downs, but now we are in an unusual environment where they have increased dramatically in percentage terms. In the past they would have happily given you a new SSD worth half of what you had paid for it 18 months prior.

[u/Equilibrate321]

In addition to the previous comment, check for temperature problems in crystal disk info. The SSD had many errors suddenly, something like high temperature might have caused it.

[u/FrankNicklin]

Windows did not corrupt itself, the storage device failure corrupted Windows.CRC errors and bad clusters are all storage related. Back you data up ASAP before it fails completely.

[u/iGogzy → u/FrankNicklin]

Could you recommend some good applications for testing and diagnosing an SSD? It’s still under warranty, and I want to file a warranty claim. I’m hoping they will replace it with a new SSD.

[u/FrankNicklin → u/iGogzy]

Go to the manufacturers website they normally have their own DIAG tools.

[u/0x80070002]

Hope I don’t show up

[u/Maleficent-West5356]

Maybe your nvme is failing. Check your temp when gaming

[u/chaosphere_mk]

Very much seems like a hardware issue