Blue Screen of Death Survival Guide: Every Error Explained

Blue Screen of Death Survival Guide: Every Error Explained

 

If you're returning here by way of bookmark, first off, please accept our condolences. There's only reason you spend time reading a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) article, and that's to try and solve a problem you're having with your own system.


 If we could give out a teddy bear stuffed with cash to each person that visited this article, we'd do it. Sadly, we don't have teddy bears, and what little cash we have is usually spent at the pub.
Secondly, you must we wondering, "Oh snap! I see change, and I hate change! Where's the old BSoD article I bookmarked?!" Not to fear, we realize you hate change, which is why come hell or high water, you're sticking it out with Windows XP even after Microsoft stopped supporting it on April 8, 2014. We have your back, and the original article is still here. All of it. So what are we doing here?
The first is we're updating verbiage where necessary. If there was something that seemed difficult to understand before, it should now be easier to decipher. The second thing we've done is added some new information. You see, BSoDs are far less common in the Windows 8/8.1 era, and that was true in the Windows 7 days as well. We've updated this article to explain what happened and what's changed.
Finally, we've added a picture gallery. No, it's not filled with cute fuzzy kittens and lolcats, though we're not opposed to either one. It is, however, populated with some of the most embarrassing and comical BSoDs to have ever occurred. Hopefully you'll get a chuckle out of it, or at the very least come to realize that the BSoD you're dealing with isn't as bad as could be.

Sound like a plan? Great! Let's get started!
Picture this: It’s late at night, you’re sitting at your computer playing a game or working on a project when, suddenly, Windows freezes completely. All your work is gone, and you find a blue screen full of gibberish staring back at you. Windows is dead, Jim, at least until you reboot it. You have no choice but to sigh loudly, shake your fist at Bill Gates and angrily push the reset button. You’ve just been visited by the ghost of windows crashed: The blue screen of death.
Also known as the BSoD, the Blue Screen of Death appears when Windows crashes or locks up. It’s actually a Windows “stop” screen, and is designed to do two things: tell you the reason for the error, and to calm your nerves, hence the use of the color blue (studies show it has a relaxing effect on people). Though Blue Screens are difficult to decipher, all the information you need to figure out what caused it is right there in front of you in blue and white—and that’s where we come in. We’re going to show you how to dissect the blue screen error details, so you can fix the problem that’s causing them.

Every BSoD is accompanied by a memory dump. What this means is when Windows crashes, it dumps whatever it is holding in system memory to a file, and saves the file on your hard drive for debugging purposes. If you contact Microsoft for technical assistance, they’ll want to know the contents of this file.
Stop Code

The “technical information” section portion contains the actual Windows stop code, in oh-so-easy-to-read hexadecimal form. Despite appearing unintelligible at first glance, this combination of numbers and letters is instrumental in determining the cause of the crash. Pay particular attention to the first set of numbers and letters. It precedes the other four, which are enclosed in parenthesis. If a specific driver is associated with the crash, it will be listed on the very next line.

Error Name

There are many parts to a BSoD, but the most important is right at the top. The actual name of the error is presented in all caps with an underscore between each word. In some cases this will be all that’s needed to get to the root of the problem (thanks to the handy guide you are about to read). Most of the time, however, more information will be required.
Troubleshooting Advice

Nearly every BSoD includes a portion of text with some basic troubleshooting advice, the first of which recommends restarting your computer. Gee, thanks for the tip Microsoft. Before you restart, copy the exact all-caps error code and hexadecimal values shown above and below this portion of generic text. The next paragraph provides sound advice, alerting the user to check to make sure their hardware is installed properly, or to undo any recent software or hardware upgrades.
Memory Dump



Source : maximumpc.com