Recurring Crashes: Kernel Power 41 Error

Thanks for the update! I see you created the Minidump folder manually—just make sure the SYSTEM account has Full Control permissions for it.

• Right-click the Minidump folder, go to Properties, then the Security tab.
• Select SYSTEM and check if "Full Control" is enabled.
• If it’s not, click Edit and update the permissions.

Also, in the Startup and Recovery settings, make sure to enable the "Overwrite any existing file" option. This prevents older dump files from blocking new ones.

By the way, I noticed in your screenshot that the LiveKernelReports folder is present. This folder often holds logs from crashes that happen before a full Minidump can be created. To check:

• Go to C:\Windows\LiveKernelReports.
• Look for any .dmp or .etl files, like Watchdog.dmp.

If you find files there, they might give more insight into the crash.

I manually created the Minidump folder in the C:\Windows folder. Unfortunately, after a crash the folder remains empty.

To reproduce the crash, I ran a game with RTX enabled while streaming at 1440p 60fps. This eventually triggered the error.

There’s plenty of free space on the drive, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Here are some screenshots of the current settings and configuration for additional context:![](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/494db11e-f3ef-45b0-9de0-58c8075a174b?platform=QnA

I looked into your PC specs and couldn’t find any widespread reports of similar issues with those components. That doesn’t completely rule out a hardware problem, but it’s still a positive sign. If anything, the only issue was something related to bios, but I don't really think it's entirely related but you can always check: https://community.amd.com/t5/pc-graphics/amd-56...

Let’s focus on getting those dump files for now. Since the Minidump folder isn’t being created automatically, here’s what you can do:

1. Go to C:\Windows and manually create a folder named "Minidump."
2. Right-click the folder, go to Properties > Security, and ensure the "SYSTEM" user has "Full control" permissions.
3. Double-check the Startup and Recovery settings:

• Confirm "Write debugging information" is set to "Small memory dump (256 KB)."
• Verify the "Dump file" location points to %SystemRoot%\Minidump.

4. Enable "Overwrite any existing file" in the same settings menu. This can help if there’s an issue with overwriting previous dump files.

With these steps, your system should now save the dump files after a crash.

Once that’s set up, try to reproduce the crash. If it still doesn’t create any dump files, we might need to explore other areas like driver conflicts or BIOS settings.

Let me know how it goes!

Thanks for your reply and assistance.

I have changed the dump file setting from "Kernel memory dump" to "Small memory dump (256 KB)." The "Minidump" folder is still not present, but I assume it will be created automatically the next time the error occurs?

Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the issue to happen again and hoping a dump file will be saved this time. But as I mentioned earlier the crashes occur randomly, sometimes it happens three times in a single day, while at other times I can go a week without any issues. For example, just now when I tried to boot my PC, it crashed 3 times in a loop before Windows even started. It powers on, runs for about 3 seconds, then powers off, repeating this cycle two more times before it finally boots successfully.

When the crash occurs while I’m in Windows, the system tries to reboot but only shows a black screen, then I have to perform a forced shutdown by holding the power button to get the system to boot properly again.

I’ll update you as soon as the issue happens again so I can share the dump file with you.

Regarding your suggestion to test with another PSU, I agree that it could be the cause. Unfortunately, apart from some spare NVMe drives and memory, I don’t have any additional parts to test with. If I did I would have already tried swapping them out.

Sadly I’m unable to test with a different PSU or other components at this time.

I'm fairly certain that the PSU and most of the other components are still under warranty as I built the PC only about two years ago. If it helps to better identify the cause of the issue, here is a full list of the parts in my PC: PCPartPicker List.

Hello, thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community. I'm here to help with your questions or issues. Just note – this is a place where passionate Microsoft users help each other, we don't work directly for Microsoft.

Thanks for explaining what you've done so far, it really helps narrow down the possible causes. The Kernel Power 41 error just means the system shut down unexpectedly without doing a proper shutdown—it doesn’t give much insight into why it happened.

First, check and if possible enable the generation of minidump files, please follow these steps:

1. Search for "advanced settings" on the start menu.
2. Click Advanced system settings (or View advanced system settings)
3. Go to the Advanced tab and click Settings under "Startup and Recovery."
4. In the new window:
   • Set it to "Small memory dump (256 KB)."
   • Make sure the dump file location is %SystemRoot%\Minidump (usually C:\Windows\Minidump). Check that this folder exists and that the System account has write permissions.
   • Optionally, check "Overwrite any existing file."
5. Click OK to save everything.
6. If you want, you can restart your computer to ensure the settings take effect.

As for the hardware side of things, is there any chance you can test your system with a different PSU? Faulty PSUs are a pretty common cause for issues like this.