Acer Predator laptop-[BSOD 0xc000021a] Crashing During All Games – Tried Every Fix I Could Find

Hi everyone,

I'm running into an issue where my Acer Predator laptop crashes during any gameplay session with a BSOD (0xc000021a) error — usually a few minutes after launching the game.

The crash happens consistently across all games, including:

Roblox (lightweight)
NBA 2K25 (more demanding)
And several others

So it's definitely not game-specific.

Here’s a full list of what I’ve already tried:

Ran sfc /scannow – no integrity violations
Checked drive health with CrystalDiskInfo – all good
Undervolted CPU & GPU – temps stay within safe range
Verified game files
Reset Windows 11
Updated to the latest BIOS
Installed latest drivers for all components
Rolled back to older GPU drivers (clean install)
Cleared temp/cache files
Reapplied thermal paste to CPU
Plenty of free storage space
Changed power plans (balanced, high performance, etc.)

Despite everything, the system keeps crashing with the same BSOD after just a few minutes in-game. It runs fine outside of gaming — no crashes during browsing, video playback, or even stress testing.

Occasionally, after certain Windows updates, the issue goes away temporarily — I can game without crashes for a while. But eventually, the BSOD comes back with the same error code (0xc000021a).