Blue Screen of Death

 Blue Screen of Death

Blue Screen of Death (or Blue Screen of Doom) BSOD - is a worst type of computer error, when Microsoft Windows encounters a critical system error that causes the system shut down, to prevent damage. 

What causes BSOD: Blue Screens are, generally, caused by poorly written device drivers or malfunctioning hardware, such as faulty memory, power supply issues, overheating of components, or hardware running beyond its specification limits. 

By default, Windows will create a memory dump file when a blue screen error occurs. Depending on the OS version, there may be several formats could be saved in a range of 64kB "minidump" to a "complete dump", which is a copy of entire contents of physical RAM. 

The memory dump file may be debugged later, using a kernel debugger. A debugger is necessary to obtain a stack trace, to determine the true cause of the problem. The information on-screen will be limited and thus it may hide the true sources of the error. 

Windows restarts when a BSOD occurs: Without apparent reasons, if a system restarts, itself, then you may observe it is blue screening problem. By default, Windows automatically restarts the system, whenever it encounters a Blue Screen of Death. Whenever a blue screen appears, a detailed error message will be displayed, and you can disable the automatic reboots of BSOD by the following steps.

Disabling Automatic Reboots of BSOD: Right click on Computer icon and choose Properties. 

System's info window will open. Now click on Advanced system settings. 

Now System Properties window will open; from this window choose Advanced tab then click the Settings button of Startup and Recovery portion. 

 

Now Startup and Recovery window will open. Tick mark of the box Automatically restart should be removed from the portion of System failure. Click OK.

Next time when you get a BSOD, the screen will be stopped and you may read then be able to write the error message. 

How to view BSOD information: NirSoft BlueScreenView is a free application, which helps to scanning the minidump files during BSOD and displaying the crash report.

        
BSOD's report will also be displayed in the Action Center of Windows 7 and the newer versions of Windows, as well. If anyone experienced a blue screen, then check the solutions by opening Action Center.

Windows will analyzing BSOD and other errors that system has experienced; but before showing reports, Windows, itself, has about to fix the problems.  

Tips to tackle BSOD: BSOD may occurred by several ways and following tips will helpful to tackle the problems when you experienced with blue screens. 

1. System Restore: If the system has experienced a blue screening, recently, then use System Restore option to roll-back system's software to a previous state. If this works, then you will recognize that it's software problem. 

2. Malware: Scan the system for malware, which digs deep and hooks the Windows kernel that cause system instability. 

3. Drivers: Improperly installed drivers could also be lead the system to crash. Download the latest drivers from the hardware manufacturer websites and install them. 

4. Safe Mode: If the system runs a blue screen, every time, when switched on then try to booting in safe mode. In safe mode, Windows loads only the essential drivers; and other installed driver, which causes Windows to blue screen, is doesn't work in safe mode. And you may, also, fix the problem from the safe mode. 

5. Hardware: Faulty hardware and errors on system memory or overheating of system may also lead the system to blue screen. 

6. Reinstall Windows: Reinstalling Windows is the right option, which will erase the existing system software and replace with a fresh one. After reinstallation, if the system continues, again, to blue screen  then assume it's a hardware problem.