How to Fix Stop Code Internal Power Error windows 11?

Summary: So you’ve faced your ultimate opponent: the “internal power error” BSOD. BSOD stands for “Blue Screen Of Death”, and the blue screen error you have encountered is one variation of many. How to fix it? We answer, in this guide.

Table Of Content:

• What Could Cause Internal Power Error?
• Increase the Hiberfil.sys Size
• Check Your Cables To Fix Internal Power Error
• Fix Your Drivers
• Run a ChkDsk or SFC Utility
• Checking For A Restore Point

Against a blue background, you see a sad smiley and the words “INTERNAL POWER ERROR” and perhaps a stop code of 0x000000A0.

Worry not, for the fix is here — and you can do it yourself. Read on to find out exactly how.

The important thing is to not panic, which is easier said than done, but you do have to realize that you don’t need to go running to the technicians for a simple internal power error stop code.

A handy tidbit of information is that the words “INTERNAL POWER ERROR” are just the title of the problem, and the “stop code” (reason for stop) is actually “0x000000A0”.

In general, internal power error Blue screens of death are nothing to be extremely concerned about: they are simply the machine’s way of telling you (the user) that the operating system has run into a problem that may require a restart to fix itself.

Also Read: What is Blue Screen 1033 Error?

In 80% of cases, the internal power error BSOD will fix itself, but if you are in the 20% who get stuck in an endless cycle of 0x000000A0 stop code(s), then this article is for you.

What Could Cause Internal Power Error?

You’ll be happy to know that even tiny issues like driver incompatibility can cause the internal power error.

Listed below are the most common culprits behind your dreaded “internal power error” BSOD:

1. Outdated Drivers
2. Incompatible Driver Installations
3. An Actual Hardware Issue (Usually a loose wire)
4. Misbehaving Files (Most commonly Hibernation Files)

The fixes are listed below, in order:

1. Increase The Hiberfil.sys Size.
2. Check Your Cables.
3. Update Your Drivers.
4. Run a DiskChk or SFC (System File Checker).
5. Search For A System Restore Point.

Increase the Hiberfil.sys Size

As you have read above, a hibernation file is a system file that stores data about what your computer does when it is in sleep mode, logging most things such as network connection data, connected device activity, and the like.

When the file is not large enough (the user can define the size), and a computer is brought back to life from a sleep session, the Hiberfil.sys will not have enough space to properly pull programs, including the OS from cold memory, which can sometimes result in an internal power error BSOD.

By default, your hibernation file size is set to 40%, but the user can increase this to 100%, which should result in significantly reduced internal power error BSODs and 0x000000A0 stop codes.

To introduce this increment to your system, here is the super-simple, two-step process:

1. Hit the windows key + “R”, type in “PowerShell”, and in the panel on the right, select “Run As Administrator”.

After this, you will get a screen that looks like this:

2. Type in the command “powercfg /hibernate /size 100” without the apostrophes. That’s it: your Hibernation File size is now 100% of what your system thinks it can be.

Note: If ever needed, you can reverse the process by simply replacing “100” with “40” in the above command, and the file will go back to being the original default 40%.

Check Your Cables To Fix Internal Power Error

Yes, an internal power error can be caused by faulty external wiring. This is easy to loosen, whether by accident, movement, pets, or children, so it is worth looking into.

For this, we will need to perform a cold restart of the computer.

On PC’s:

1. Shut down the system, 
2. Remove the wall power adapters, and then disconnect the power cables from the computer,
3. Wait for a minimum of 30 seconds,
4. Plug everything back in and power on the computer.

On Laptops (Technically there is no way to cold boot a laptop, so this process is actually called “power cycling”):

1. Unplug all cables and devices from the laptop.
2. Press and hold your power button until the laptop powers off.
3. Keep holding the power button for another ten seconds to discharge any remaining power.
4. Wait a minimum of 120 seconds.
5. Replug the power adapter (only) and power the laptop back on.

Fix Your Drivers

This could mean one or more of the following things:

1. Updating/ downloading the driver for newly installed hardware to the computer.
2. Updating system drivers (eg. graphics and/ or GUI drivers).
3. Performing a driver rollback on newly installed drivers.

To do any of the above, carefully study the image below and then reference the steps that follow:

1. Select display adapters (these are what most commonly cause the internal power error BSOD). This is step 1 in the image.
2. Right click on your Graphics card(s), and then click “properties”.
3. Click “Driver” in the pop-up window — this is step 2 in the image above.
4. To update the driver, click “Update Driver” This is step 3 in the image.
5. To roll back a recently installed driver to its last working version, hit “Roll Back Driver”. This is number 4 in the image given above.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 for Monitors, Storage Controllers, and Processors.

Also Read: How to Evaluate Free Data Recovery Software for Windows 11?

Run a ChkDsk or SFC Utility

We now have to consider whether an OS drive sector error is causing your internal power error.

For this, we run a ChkDsk command, which is as simple as running a command line interface (the command prompt, terminal, or Powershell) in administrator mode, and typing in the “chkdsk” command.

You will be greeted by a similar screen:

If we find any bad sectors, we may need professional help to recover data from a hard disk.

Luckily in our day and age, such services are extremely easy to use and are quite affordable.

Also Read: Get Stellar Data Recovery Activation Key

Checking For A Restore Point

Odds are that your internal power error message stopped appearing a long while ago if you have made it to this point, but if not, you can always use the trusty hail mary: a system restore point.

1. You want to hit the windows key and type in “system restore”, and then click on “System Restore” in the dialog box.

2. Next, you want to hit next, and then select the restore point you want to go back to, and then click “restore”.

3. Now, all you have to do is wait for your computer to take a trip backwards in time, to a period when (hopefully) it had no internal power errors.

Closing Notes – Internal Power Error

Fun fact: a “hibernation file” is nothing more than a folder with details about what your computer does when it is in “sleep” or “hibernate” mode.

You can increase the hibernation file (usually named Hiberfil.sys) size, or can safely delete these files as often as you want, and this should solve your internal power error blue screen error.

Because Of where it is stored though, some versions of windows 11 may give you a “protected file” warning, but you can safely hit “allow” because it actually makes no difference to the operating system outside of hibernation data.

Nonetheless, we did list some other fixes that you can try for the “internal power error” if the hibernation file strategy doesn’t work, or if you are not that techy with the computer.

That said, we hope that the information in this article proved useful to you, and that you were able to solve your internal power error BSOD.