Blue screen Of death

the Guru

My brother has got this Blue screen of death on his PC
he is running Windows 2000 and it happens when it starts, it has standard programmes office etc nothing fancy

1 how does this happen
2 how do I fix it



Thanks Declan

Chalk

bsod is a system crash
any number of a million things can cause it

at least find out which version of windows it is.....

ressem

Blue screens can be caused by

faulty or overheated hardware, like overstressed power supplies, or machines with the air vents covered up.
faulty, incorrect or just old software drivers
faulty low level software
corrupted installation of windows

So you've to narrow it down a lot.

What version of windows are you using, XP home, 98, ME, 2000?
Is the PC new?
Make/model of PC and, if possible, of graphics card, sound card, motherboard.

Has this problem only recently appeared?

Was anything changed or installed on the PC within a week prior to the start of this behaviour?

Does this happen when you're in particular software, or playing 3d games. playing audio? When the computer starts up, every time?

What is the error displayed when the blue screen occurs? Please write it down, including any codes and filenames displayed.

jessy

ressem wrote:

Blue screens can be caused by

faulty or overheated hardware, like overstressed power supplies, or machines with the air vents covered up.
faulty, incorrect or just old software drivers
faulty low level software
corrupted installation of windows

So you've to narrow it down a lot.

What version of windows are you using, XP home, 98, ME, 2000?
Is the PC new?
Make/model of PC and, if possible, of graphics card, sound card, motherboard.

Has this problem only recently appeared?

Was anything changed or installed on the PC within a week prior to the start of this behaviour?

Does this happen when you're in particular software, or playing 3d games. playing audio? When the computer starts up, every time?

What is the error displayed when the blue screen occurs? Please write it down, including any codes and filenames displayed.

You forgot to mention software conflicts. And the fact that this has been a tradition and a primary feature is all versions of windows released to date (Not so much in XP until you install the very crap SP2).

Capt'n Midnight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_screen_of_death

Why does it happen and why didn't novell NLM's fall down all over the place ?
Differing attitudes to writing and testing software.

the Guru

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_screen_of_death

Why does it happen and why didn't novell NLM's fall down all over the place ?
Differing attitudes to writing and testing software.

Hi Capt'n he doesnt even get the writing on the screen its just Blue and blank

see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_screen_of_death#Windows_XP.2F2000.2FNT

zekiel

As said above loads of things can cause it.. the simplest solution to fixing it would be to reinstall windows. if you have the w2k CD you can try a repair from that which may solve your issue, also press F8 while booting and try last known good configuration.
If neither of these resolve the issue then use the w2k CD to reinstall, this doesnt require you to format the drive just install w2k back over its previous install and you should be back up and running again although you will have to install the applications again.

Warning on the reinstall though: Any files stored in your profiles IE.. your my documents will be lost as the new install will overwrite them. try and access the drive first if you need to back these up, this also includes such things as .pst files (outlook emails stored locally) and your favourites folder which would piss me off if I lost.

LoLth

had the same issue on a server before. No event log entries, no writing on screen. Turned out to be an issue with the scsi controller.

A similar issue on 2 different PCs, 1 was faulty ram the other was the cpu fan not coming on and causing an overheat.

Capt'n Midnight

zekiel wrote:

As said above loads of things can cause it.. the simplest solution to fixing it would be to reinstall windows.

If the problem is caused by a corrupt windows file that does not contain settings then the reinstall should work. If the problem is cause by an inheritable setting then reinstalling windows will NOT solve the problem. If this problem is very recent then you could do a system restore, might work, might not.
The windows registry can be thought of a copy protection tool. Subtle changes in it can stop your computer dead. And unlike the text files used by other OS's does not lend itself to being repaired.

Blue screen without any writing - unless someone has tweaked the BSOD's colours, in which case you claim they broke the registry :d - if the mouse cursor still visible, becuse the real BSOD is a text screen.

Next time it happens - check Ctrl Alt Del, the NumLock light and power button to see what control you have over the system if any - won't tell you much though.

Get a HW diags disk and leave it running multiple tests - computers overheat only when they are working hard.

zekiel

Another common hardware related issue which will cause your pc to crash out would be memory, as this can degrade over time and one day you just turn it on to find your machine crashing out. So just to confirm its not that swap out the memory with another stick and just see will it boot normally.