I bought my Predator Helios 18 in March. In July I updated my intel and nvidia drivers and also dropped my laptop right around the same time. After this, I started getting BSODs with different errors but the same cycle of them (UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP, CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT, and a few others all very similar and gave similar reasons as to why when googling).
The internet said it could be any number of things from software to hardware & I tried the solutions to no avail. My PC still worked fine even after getting a BSOD so until now I just dealt with it. (I live on tiny island in alaska, no computer shops here or pc repair sadly.) No virus that I could locate and all drives scanned as healthy as well.
Well yesterday I went to play World of Warcraft and the game was so laggy it was unplayable. Usually its a game issue, and it may have been, but it lead me to uninstall my game launcher and reinstall it, which lead me discovering my File Explorer was broken and wouldn't open.
Ok… so how to fix File Explorer… well, easy… go to Task Manager and restart it. This shows me that that's what is already happening every time I try to open it or any file, so I can't get any window of File Explorer to open because its constantly restarting.
Endless googling lead me to deciding to just clean install Windows 11 and see if that also helps the BSODs, that way I will know if my original error was software or hardware related.
Today, I use the Windows Media Creation Tool to put a fresh Windows 11 on my 128G USB stick, all goes well there. I boot up my PC and get to the part of installation where you select the disk for new install. I have only 2 options, the USB and my PC. Both say "Windows cannot be installed to this disk" and the explanation says "
The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EF systems, the operating system can only be installed to GPT disks. Setup does not support configuration of or installation to disks connected through a USB or IEEE 1394 port."
Alright, so google tells me its a partition style mismatch (MBR vs. GPT) with your system's boot mode (Legacy vs. UEFI) and to fix this, I can change my BIOS settings to UEFI or convert the disk to the GPT partition style using Command Prompt's diskpart tool while in the installer.
Fix 1: UEFI is already on, or appears to be, in my Predator BIOS. I don't even see a legacy option.
Fix 2: I cannot convert the disk to GPT when I'm logged in to my PC and open command prompt/diskpart as you cannot clean the disk you are operating from. The fix to this says I need to access diskpart from the Windows 11 install screen, but when I do that, the only disk that appears in the diskpart list is the USB drive.
How do I get around this to get a clean install of Windows 11? My repair option is greyed out and says not available both from WinRe and in Advanced Options. I can't access anywhere in my BIOS to change or update any SATA mode (I also don't know what that is but google said its a solution, just seems locked behind the Predator BIOS).
Even if my initial BSOD issue is RAM or hard drive related, I still need a clean install of Windows with how broken it is due to the amount of repairs/install attempts/BSODs.
I am so stuck. Plz help. I also really don't want to send it in as gaming is my life lmao. TYSMIA
