You’re working on an important project or playing a critical level on a game, when suddenly everything stops. The whirring of the hard drive halts, and the music and the sounds give way to the deafening airs of silence. The screen turns into a sad and depressing shade of blue, with text you probably can’t understand. Yes, after years of service and excellent support, your computer just displayed the Blue Screen of Death.

What is the Blue Screen of Death?

The Blue Screen of Death (or BSoD) is the popular term for the error screen or stop screen of Microsoft Windows. The BSoD appears when the computer encounters a system error that it cannot repair by itself. The BSoD denotes critical system problems, and is a safety and security protocol that prevents physical or data damage to the computer. While the BSoD can mean that you have a very serious problem, it may be a one-time occurrence from glitches or program errors.

Causes

• Device driver problems
• Programming errors
• Page faults
• Inaccessible system components like boot disks and drives
• Kernel errors

Restart

In most instances of BSoD, you only need to restart your computer. Unlike a system crash or error messages that still appear on the graphical user interface of Windows, stop errors usually get rid of the interface and leave you with a very basic stop screen. You can recover from this error by simply restarting your computer through the restart button or the on/off switch. Stop errors and hard system restarts may cause the following to take place:

• Temporary or permanent data loss (especially for unsaved files or workspaces)
• Minimal to mild damage to your computer’s moving parts (like hard drives and optical drives; don’t worry, the damage will be nothing serious)

Optimize

Blue screens of death are often found in new computers because of device driver problems, especially for legacy drivers. Yet BSoD happens more often in older computers that have compatibility problems with newer devices and programs available on the market. One way that you can minimize the instances of BSoD is to upgrade and optimize your computer to accept the latest drivers and accommodate the latest programs, while at the same time having the backwards-compatibility needed for legacy drivers and programs. Optimizing your computer will cost you a bit, but it does spare you instances of BSoD.

Scan

Some viruses, malware, and other malicious programs may also cause BSoD. Many of these programs affect or target core processes in your computer system, which may cause the stop error. If you download many files through FTP, peer-to-peer, or download attachments through email, you need to scan your computer from possible security threats with an anti-virus program.

Uninstall

Some older programs may be rendered incompatible by your system configuration or specifications. In some cases, programs may be known to have some conflicts or bugs that may cause a stop screen to appear and halt the system. When this happens, follow these steps:

1. Diagnose the cause of the stop error. The BSoD may appear if you’ve inserted a new device or storage medium, or if you run a specific program.
2. Once the BSoD appears, restart the computer. Take note of the program that has initiated the BSoD.
3. From the Start Menu, access the Control Panel and click “Add/Remove Programs.”
4. Run the uninstall process. Chances are you won’t need the program causing the BSoD, but if you need to reinstall it you can. Just make sure that you update it with necessary patches and updates from the software provider’s website.

Consult a Technician

In some cases a BSoD cannot be resolved, especially if it appears during shutdown or startup. When this happens, you need to consult a computer technician or contact the support number of your computer manufacturer for them to check what’s wrong with your computer, and if there’s anything they can do to resolve the problem. Usually the repair would involve resetting the machine to factory settings, or reconfiguring some aspects of the computer to accommodate a given set of programs, drivers, or utilities.

Blue may be a serene color for some people, but when it happens to your computer, you can run into a state of total panic. Once you get your computer back in working order, the Blue Screen of Death will pester you less and less, or if all goes well, it will never bother you again. For more information on this article, read how to fix the blue screen of death.

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