How to Fix Driver Power State failure on Windows 10 [Error 0x0000009F]?

Driver power state failure error 0x0000009F will occur as a result of incompatible driver installation. This error will show off a blue screen death error. In most of the cases, the error occurs due to placing your operating system to sleep mode. You can fix the error by making changes in power settings or making changes to the incompatible issues with the system. 

How to diagnose “Driver Power State Failure” error?

There are chances to encounter this message on your computer screen when you are facing Driver Power State Failure error:

‘Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We’re just collecting some error info, and then we’ll restart for you. If you’d like to know more, you can search online later for this error: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE’

What does Driver Power State Failure error mean?

Driver Power State Failure (Error 0x0000009F) is a common error encountered by users. This error commonly occurs when the computer is put in sleep mode and afterward woken up. There can be various reasons for this issue. Usually, the computer screen turns Blue in this error that’s why it is also called as Blue Screen of Death error. This error occurs as a result of an incompatible driver installed on your system. You can avoid this fear by installing the best software to solve these BSoD errors.

Issues created due to 0x0000009F Error

The issue Driver Power State Failure can create many problems on your computer. Here I have listed some common problems created by this issue based on the users’ comments:

Driver Power State Failure on startup, boot – While you are booting your computer then you may encounter this issue. If this issue occurs during the boot process then you won’t be able to use your computer.
Driver Power State Failure Nvidia – Usually this issue pertains to your Nvidia graphics. If you’re using the Nvidia graphics card on your computer then try some of our solutions to fix.
Driver Power State Failure USB – While using a USB device then sometimes this error can occur. You have to disconnect all USB devices to find out the problematic device and fix the issue.
Driver Power State Failure SSD, hard drive – Sometimes a newly installed hard drive or SSD may cause this error. If you are facing the same issue, you need to update your drivers and check for the error.
Driver Power State Failure blue screen – Driver related issue also causes the error 0x0000009f on your computer screen on startup. To fix this issue download Microsoft update file KB 2983336.
Driver Power State Failure Photoshop – Sometimes this error can affect various applications on your computer such as Photoshop.
Driver Power State Failure Antivirus – Sometimes Third-party applications are also responsible for this issue. Your antivirus also can cause this issue to appear. many users reported that they faced this issue while using Kaspersky or McAfee.
Driver Power State Failure ntoskrnl.exe – Sometimes the name of the problematic file causing the issue may be shown in this error. Many users reported that ntoskrnl.exe is the most common cause of this issue.

Why this error Driver Power State Failure (0x0000009F) occurs?

The possible reasons for this error are as under:

Sleep Mode: This error is encountered when your computer is put in sleep mode or taken out from the sleep mode. Even if any device driver enters into sleep mode then also this error can occur. In such a situation it won’t be able to respond to Windows and the error Driver Power State Failure will be seen.

Upgrading Windows or Incompatible Driver: When you upgrade your Windows from Windows 7/8/8.1 to Windows 10 then there are chances to encounter this error because the existing drivers are not compatible with Windows 10.

An Outdated Driver: If your device drivers are not updated then also you may encounter this Driver Power State Failure error on your Windows computer.

Fix Driver Power State Failure (0x0000009F) on Windows 10

The blue screen of death error 0x0000009F can occur due to various reasons. However, you can fix this error by executing these steps. I’ve included some solutions below that you can try to fix the error. You need not try them all, just work your way down the list until you find the one that works for you.

Scan for Malware

Use any of the antivirus software to scan for malware and remove it in safe mode. Most of the malware’s are unable to remove in normal mode because it will be running in the background. If you don’t have any antivirus installed in your system, get one from the website and install it. The Windows Defender must switch off while scanning from the third party software.

To know how to turn off Windows 10 Defender look into this article. For some of the reasons, the malware also plays a key role in getting the driver power state failure error. Hence, performing a malware scan may fix the error without causing any changes to your system.

Enter Safe Mode & Uninstall the Problematic Driver

First of all boot your computer in Safe Mode if it won’t boot normally. We have a detailed guide on how to boot your system in Safe Mode. Follow these steps:

• Enter the BIOS and make sure that the first boot device is set to your CD/DVD drive.

• Insert the Microsoft Windows boot DVD into the CD/DVD drive.

• Reboot your system, Windows 10 operating system.

• Press any key to boot from CD or DVD.

• In the first window, you need to left click or tap on the Next button.
• Left-click or tap on the Repair your computer option.

• Select the Troubleshoot option.

• Select Advanced options.

• Select the Command Prompt option and type the command C: (without the quotes) and press Enter.

• Type the command in the Command Prompt: BCDEDIT /SET {DEFAULT} BOOTMENUPOLICY LEGACY. Press the Enter button.

• Type EXIT. Press the Enter key.

• Remove the Windows disc and restart your PC.

Once you enter the Safe Mode, Uninstall the problematic Driver:

• Right–click on the computer icon present on your desktop. If not found you can search in start option.
• On right-clicking on the computer, you will get a set of options. Select properties.

• The window will get popped up and click on the Device Manager on the left panel of the window.

• On the window, you will get all the drivers. Expand each and every category to find the attention symbol on the driver. If you find any attention symbol & if that driver is not useful, you can uninstall the driver.

• See whether the problem is fixed

Note: If you have the uninstalled driver download, you can reinstall it.

Uninstall Recently Installed Software

Firstly, you have to uninstall the recently installed software (such as the driver or a program that includes a driver). You may be facing the error due to those recently installed software, uninstall it to fix the error. You can uninstall the software by following these steps Windows button or start button > settings > system > apps & feature > select recently installed software > click on uninstall.

Using Crash Occurrence

If your system is working fine in safe mode and you are finding an error in normal mode. Here, the problem is with the software of the system causes to crash.

If you find the system crash during safe mode too, this is often due to the hardware problem of your computer. Some of the reasons for not occurring error in safe mode is due to the absence of the particular software or driver operations.

For example, Your graphics card is causing an error to your system, which is faulty and causing crashes under load. You will not get crashes in Safe Mode due to a graphics card because your computer is not performing demanding operations with it.

Update Drivers

Driver updates are the mostly automatic process, which is done through Windows update. You can check the drivers and problems with the driver following the below process.

• Press the Windows button or press the Start button and type Device Manager in the search bar and click the first result present on the screen.

• Expand the categories like monitors, network adaptors, or any of the categories found on the window. If you found the driver is not up to date, just right click and from the list select update driver option.

You can manually update drivers and application of your system by following below steps

• Go to the Start button and search for Control Panel.

• Select System and Security.

• Click Update Windows.

• Tap on Windows Update and click on check for updates.

• Finally, update drivers.

Note: You can find the driver update software in the online market. With ease, you can update the drivers of the system using driver update software.

** Upgrading BIOS will fix the power driver failure error. You can find the BIOS information on your device and search for BIOS updates on the manufacturer’s website.

Revert Graphics Drivers to older Version

Sometimes the graphics driver is the reason for driver power state failure error 0x0000009F. To resolve this issue graphics drive should roll back to the older version. The following are the steps to follow to fix driver state failure error.

• Go to the Start menu which is present with the symbol of Windows and type Device Manager in the search bar, you will get a list. Click on the first option in the list.

• Click on Display Adapters.

• Under the list, select Graphics driver. Right-click on it and select Properties option.

• Go to the Driver tab. Now click on rollback driver option.

• Wait till the process finish and finally, click on the OK button to roll back your graphics driver.

Now, restart your computer to apply the necessary changes to your system.

NOTE: If you don’t find the rollback option available, you have to uninstall the driver completely to fix the issue.

You have to go to the graphics card manufacturer’s website to download an older version of the graphics driver. After installing check whether the problem is resolved or not.

** Mostly, the problem is with Nvidia graphics cards, but try this solution for other graphics cards too.

SFC Scan

If you are facing driver power state failure error, you can solve it by performing an SFC scan. This error may be due to the file corruption and to fix this issue 0x0000009F, just perform an SFC scan.

• Click the Windows+X key on the keyboard. Select command prompt (Admin) from the list. If you don’t have the command prompt (admin), you can select PowerShell (Admin).

• When the command prompt opens, type sfc/scannow and press Enter to run it.

• The scanning process will start now and runs for about 10 minutes. Don’t interrupt the scanning process.

If you get any error while performing an SFC scan, just you can perform scan following the below commands.

• Same as in the above steps open command prompt (Administration).
• Enter the following commands and press Enter after each command.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /scanhealth

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

• After running the commands try to run the SFC scan using command sfc / scannow and press enter. Mostly, the sfc scan will run now without any problem.

*** After successful completion of running both commands, check whether the problem is resolved. Once both the scans are completed successfully, the problem would be resolved and will stop appearing the error message.

NOTE: Uninstalling the recently installed driver will fix the error 0x0000009F. After uninstalling restart your system and see whether your system error fixed or not.

Change NVIDIA Graphics Card Power Options

Driver power state failure error 0x0000009F occurs due to the power settings in the Nvidia graphics driver. Many devices will turn off the power option to save power. Hence, sometimes the power saver option in the NVidia graphics driver will cause power state failure error 0x0000009F.

• Go to the Start button and search for device manager and click on it.

• Expand network adapters.

• Click on NVidia Nforce networking controller. And then right-click on NVidia Nforce networking controller option. Click on properties.

• You will get a pop – up window, click on the power management tab on the menu bar and then uncheck “allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”.
• After completion of uncheck boxes, click OK button to apply the changes.

Finally, restart your computer to apply the changes to the system.

NOTE: After making changes to Nvidia graphics card power options, the problem should be completely resolved.

** The system will contain many drivers that can control the power options. So, if the Nvidia graphics option did not resolve your problem. Try to apply the same changes to other drivers to fix the driver state failure error 0x0000009F.

System Restore Point

At some point, you are unable to understand which drivers are important or not.  While thinking which software is recently installed in your system, you will confuse. The best solution is to restore your system, at any of the restore point lists available in your system restore.

• Click on the Start button.

• Type control panel on the search bar. Click on the topmost option available from the list.

• Type recovery to search for it and click on the recovery option.

• Click on the “open system restore” option.

• Here, you have to select the most recent app, driver, or update on the list of results in the window. Next, select scan for the affected program to know about restoring the system to that point. Which are the programs that are going to affect or change?

• On selecting the restoring point then you are OK with the deletions or changes to the programs. Now select one from the list where you have to restore your system. Click on the next button present on the window.

• Finally, click on the finish button.

Restart your computer to see either your system error is fixed or not.

NOTE: If you are not finding any restore point in your system. The problem is you might have turned off your system protection.

For time being your system restore solution may not work as you don’t have any restore points.

• Select recovery > configure restore > configure.

• Make sure that system protection is turned on.

Adjust Power Settings

Sometimes, power settings are also one of the reasons to get driver power state failure error. For some of the users, the error 0x0000009F can be fixed by changing certain power settings.

• Press Windows+X keys, this command will open the window of startup options. Now, type Control Panel from the search bar. Select the option control panel which is present at the top of all lists.

• Select power options.

• Click on “Choose what the power button does.”

• On the window, you can see “change settings that are currently unavailable.” Click on it.

• Uncheck the boxes of “turn on fast startup”, sleep and hibernate options. Now, click on the save changes button.

** If there is any change in power settings, the issue may be with them and your issue will be solved. If not continue to the below solutions to fix driver state failure windows 10 error.

Change Power Plan settings

Some of the power plan settings are also a reason for getting driver power error. So, change your power plan settings to fix the error 0x0000009F.

• Initially from the start button or click Windows symbol, go to settings. 

• Select the system option.

• Click on the power & sleep option. And then you will get “Additional power settings”, click on it.

• On the window, you can find a change plan settings option which is parallel to your power plan settings option as shown in the below figure. Tap on it.

• Click on the change advanced power settings.

• Go to sleep > sleep after > never.

• Go to power buttons and lid > power button action > nothing.

• Click on Apply and OK to make necessary changes.

• The changes to graphics settings are optional. Set graphics settings or PCI express and Link state power management to maximum performance. You can perform the maximum performance for wireless adapters settings too.

** If you are using a laptop, the users are recommended to remove the battery. Now, directly connect your system to the power outlet. You have successfully made changes. However, the features of sleep and hibernate are completely disabled. Finally, the necessary changes will resolve the issue. If these are frequently used options and solutions still facing the error then try a different solution.

Reset Windows 10

If you are facing the error 0x0000009F after trying all the above solutions then here is the final solution for software error. Reset or repairing your windows 10 operating system may help you out of this problem. Before resetting the operating system, you have to make a backup to your files to not lose any of it. You will have two options that remove only apps & settings, and the other option is to remove everything. You have to go with the first option of keeping my files to reset the software version of your PC.

NOTE: As you are facing a problem for many hours after trying all the solutions. It’s not good to waste much more time to fix it. The better solution is to fix it with resetting windows 10 OS. This helps you to have a fresh system and helps to fix the error if the problem is the software side.

** If the error is due to the hardware problem, resetting the operating system will also not work out. Finally, we can decide that the problem is with the hardware and the computer technicians can sort out your problem.

Uninstall Antivirus Software Temporarily

Antivirus software is important for your system but sometimes it may cause driver power state failure error. To fix this issue, you have to disable your windows antivirus software and check whether the issue is fixed. If you still find the issue then you have to uninstall the antivirus software completely.

You can uninstall antivirus software by just using software removal tools available in the market. If you want to remove antivirus by yourself without any download and installation of software, just follow the below steps.

• Click the start button. Go to settings options.

• Select the system option.

• Select apps & features option. And then choose the antivirus software if you find there and finally click on the uninstall button.

• If it will confirm in a popup window for the un-installation process, just click on the uninstall button.

Now, you have to restart your computer for making the necessary changes to apply.

** Therefore, the uninstalling process of antivirus software may fix the driver state failure error.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you find the article helpful to fix the Driver Power State Failure error 0x0000009F on Windows 10. Let us know in the comment section which method worked for you? Wanna some more Device Tricks? Stay tuned to this space to get the latest updates on errors related to Windows, macOS, and Android.

If you feel this article helpful please like, share, and follow our Facebook page.