Out of all Windows warning prompts, one azure harbinger of destruction stands out as the most notorious indicator that there’s a problem with your computer, the blue screen of death (BSOD). It can mean many things, from viruses to hardware failure, but it’s generally tied to a negative connotation.
While Microsoft has taken great strides in order to make the blue screen of death a lot less intimidating starting from Windows 8 onwards, it’s still something you need to take seriously. This is your computer crying out for help or warning you that something is wrong.
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What Exactly is the BSOD?
We need to understand first the nature of the blue screen of death in order to discuss how to fix it or what might be causing it.
Simply put, a BSOD is a “stop error” as it’s officially called by Microsoft. It serves as an interruption to computer operations for a number of reasons but the main goal is to warn you of a critical issue that Windows is facing and why it needs to reboot or restart.
It’s a whole system crash, and there’s no way to avoid it or reverse it while it’s undergoing its process. The operating system, Windows, doesn’t know how to fix this error and that further operation might cause harm to the computer, hence the need for a restart.
It’s worth noting that even other operating systems or computer architectures– even the ones from Apple, have their own version of the “stop error” or panic screen. It’s just that Windows is so commonly used that it has become notorious.
Before Windows reboots the whole computer, it will also create a “minidump” error log file possibly indicating the causes of the BSOD and you can start there. You can usually find this dump file located in C:\Windows\minidump though sometimes locations might change depending on your configurations.
You can still manually troubleshoot without reading the dump file since the dump file is not always an accurate assessment of the error.
The Main Causes of a BSOD
As we stated earlier, there are a lot of culprits for a BSOD here. And finding a solution can be tricky but no one knows your computer best but you, so the solution starts with you narrowing down the stuff you did recently with your computer prior to the sudden appearance of a BSOD.
Sometimes, the causes are accidental, while other times, it’s a blatant user error.
So to help you narrow down some of the causes of a BSOD, here are the potential culprits.
Malware and Viruses
Sometimes a BSOD, it’s not hardware-related, and you can be thankful for that since that’s easy to fix with a reformat. Malware and other types of computer viruses can often attack Windows files and its inner workings, causing some missing instruction sets that Windows cannot recover from.
Other times, malware can attack security features and delete some files from your Windows installation, resulting in a critical error, especially when you’re trying to remove the virus with your own security software.
The good news is that a quick and painless reformat for Windows can fix this though you might have to cut your losses and let go of some files. You can save them somewhere like an external drive or the Cloud, but you’d also be risking taking the malware with you again (though it might be unlikely).
Oftentimes, it’s not really worth the headache to try and wrestle control of your PC from a virus– it will just force Windows to cause more BSODs to hinder your progress; so a reformat is the more reliable method here.
Hardware Failure or Error
This is the worst-case scenario that could cause a BSOD. Hardware failure can be anything in your computer from failing RAM modules to a dying CPU or motherboard or even a faulty storage device. But more often than not, it’s the RAM.
Sometimes, it could be the GPU, but a dying GPU has its own more specific indications, such as screen artifacts.
In any case, troubleshooting for this kind of BSOD cause is always time-consuming. You’ll want to start with the RAM first– by taking it out and trying a new module to see if the error goes away.
Other times, a BSOD can be just due to a poorly-seated RAM and you just need to tighten the module in the RAM slot. Either way, if your computer has trouble turning on or keeping itself on after a BSOD, you might want to prepare yourself for the worst.
Overheating
This is somewhat of a hardware issue but it’s less severe since Windows will practically be treating the BSOD as some kind of emergency switch to keep your computer from frying itself.
You might frequently encounter BSODs when you’re trying out some overclock configurations, causing some buggy software or hardware performance and of course, overheating.
Thankfully, there’s no cause for concern if you’re the one causing the overheating through overclocking. You just need to turn down the numbers a bit or run the computer hardware on the stock configuration to avoid any more complaints from Windows.
In other cases, however, overheating might be caused by something else such as dust buildup or faulty drivers– or even poor ventilation. You’ll have to determine which is which so you can be more precise with your solutions and that means constant temperature monitoring to narrow down the culprit.
Drivers & Software Error
Apparently, the most common cause of BSODs is still software-related, specifically from drivers. Drivers make up the big bulk of your instructional programs in Windows since they’re required in order for the hardware to perform optimally or as programmed.
A lot of computer hardware is from third-party sources and thus, their drivers are also third-party. It’s not unusual for some programmers and developers of drivers or software to make some oversights with buggy code that can cause blue screens of death.
In such cases, you might have to roll back or uninstall the specific driver or software causing the BSOD, which is easy enough to determine; just recall which ones you’ve installed recently that might be causing the blue screen. Otherwise, you might have to wait for the third-party company to come up with a hotfix for the faulty driver.
Not All BSODs Are Harmful
So, in conclusion, there’s usually no need to panic that much after encountering a blue screen of death assuming you’re a responsible computer owner.
Around 70 percent of BSOD appearances are due to drivers or software. The important thing to do is to keep a level head in order to narrow down the causes. Thankfully, Windows 10 and Windows 11 BSOD screens are a lot less intimidating so you don’t need to feel too threatened.
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