What Is The Blue Screen of Death? What Causes It?
A Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), aka a STOP Error, appears when an issue is so serious that Windows must stop loading. It’s usually hardware or driver related; most will show a STOP code to help you figure out the root cause. If the blue screen flashes and your computer reboots automatically you’ll need to disable the ‘automatic restart on system failure’ setting. Below are general Blue Screen of Death troubleshooting steps. Please see our List of Blue Screen Error Codes for individual STOP code troubleshooting steps. Come back here if we don’t have a troubleshooting guide for your specific STOP code or if you have no idea what your STOP code is.
How to Fix a Blue Screen of Death
Software Is Likely the Cause of the BSOD
If your troubleshooting has led you to believe that a particular software program is probably causing the BSOD, walk through this troubleshooting to get it taken care of: Did you just install a new program or a piece of hardware, update a driver, install a Windows update, etc.? If so, there’s a very good chance that the change you made caused the BSOD. Undo the change you made and test again for the STOP Error. Depending on what it was that changed, some solutions might include:
Starting up using Last Known Good Configuration to undo recent registry and driver changes. Using Windows System Restore to undo recent system changes. Rolling back the device driver to a version prior to your driver update.
Microsoft recommends that you maintain at least 100 MB of free space but you’ll regularly see problems with free space that low. It’s usually advised that Windows users keep at least 10% of a drive’s capacity free at all times. If you can’t get far enough to run a virus scan from within Windows, there are some great free bootable anti-virus tools out there. Event Viewer can be opened through Administrative Tools. Unless you have a specific reason to do so, the system resources that an individual piece of hardware is configured to use in Device Manager should be set to default. Non-default hardware settings have been known to cause a Blue Screen of Death.
Reseat all internal data and power cables Reseat the memory modules Reseat any expansion cards
It’s highly likely that the root cause of any given Blue Screen of Death is a failing piece of hardware. If a test fails, replace the RAM in your computer or replace the hard drive as soon as possible. A useful troubleshooting step in many situations, including BSOD issues, is to start your computer with the minimum hardware necessary to run the operating system. If your computer starts successfully it proves that one of the removed hardware devices was the cause of the STOP message.
Hardware Is Likely the Cause of the BSOD
If you believe at this point that a piece of hardware is causing the Blue Screen of Death, here are your options: If you can’t, or you think it’s not working, you can try one of these free dedicated software updater programs instead. While it’s probably unlikely, it’s possible that the hardware simply isn’t compatible with your version of Windows. Just like you might update software to fix a problem it’s having with Windows, updating the hardware’s software, called firmware, if there’s any available, is a smart idea.
