Dealing with the Blue Screen of Death

The “Blue Screen of Death.” *shudders* It’s a rather humorous name for a really, REALLY lousy event– it means your computer has crashed. Sometimes it may just mean that your computer is having a really bad day (it happened to me when I was trying to uninstall an old anti-virus program and reinstall another– duh!!). Other times it could means your computer is having severe software problems, or hardware problems. It could really mean anything– either your CPU fan is not working and the CPU is overheating, or it could mean that your hard drive is about to die, taking all your important family records and photos with it.

You do not necessarily have to throw out your computer and spend the big bucks getting a new one. Sometimes it’s an easy fix, or maybe just a replacement piece is needed (like a new stick of RAM). Here are a few simple diagnostic tests that you can run if you get the BSOD consistently:

The BSOD, when it shows, will list what file was causing the problem (if indeed it was a file, and not a hardware problem). There will also be error codes that may help you detect what is wrong. Write these down. Try to get to a working computer and do a search for these words. I can’t guarantee you will find anything relevant, as there seem to be billions of error codes in the universe! But you may find that someone, somewhere, before you has encountered the same issue. The goal here is to first find out if it is a software problem (such as, a new program you recently installed) or a hardware problem (a failing hard drive or fan).

If you can boot into Safe Mode and the computer does not crash, your problem is most likely a software problem. If the BSOD appears while you are in Safe Mode, it’s most likely a hardware problem. Just figuring this out is a huge step in the right direction. To get into Safe Mode on your computer:

1. Restart your computer.
2. As the computer is JUST staring to boot up, on your keyboard press F8 repeatedly.
3. A black screen will appear, giving you many choices. Choose “Safe Mode.”
4. You can read more about Safe Mode and the other choices at the Microsoft website.

There are instructions on how to do this at the Microsoft website. Basically, you download the software, and install it on your computer (I just installed it onto my Desktop, for easy access). The install file is an ISO file– an image file that you can easily burn onto a disc, and that will start up when you boot up your computer. You must use a CD-burning software program to burn the ISO image onto a CD. (I use Ashampoo Burning Studio. It’s free and it’s the easiest CD burning program I’ve ever used. I reviewed the product here.). Once you have the ISO image burned onto a CD, you pop it into your computer’s CD drive, and reboot the computer. Most computers are set to boot up by an inserted disc, which is necessary to run the Windows Diagnostics Tool. If your computer is not, you must go into the BIOS settings to make your computer bootable. There are some good instructions here.

Vista comes with this program already installed in the operating system. There’s a good tutorial about it here. My XP computers didn’t have it, and I had to download the program.

This checks the health and condition of your hard drive. It isn’t a foolproof way of telling if your hard drive is damaged, but it is a good early diagnostics tool. You can find Error CheckDisk:
1. Go to and open My Computer (XP) or Computer (Vista).
2. Look for your hard drive, usually C disk. Right-click. In the menu that appears, choose “Properties.”
3. Click the “Tools” Tab.
4. See the button that says “Error Checking”? Click that.
6. You can choose to have the program correct errors automatically and repair bad files/sectors.
7. Your computer will need to restart. When it reboots, the program will run immediately. It may take an hour or more.
8. The results will show up after the test. The computer will reboot itself when it’s done, restarting the computer normally. If you missed seeing the test results when the test finished, don’t worry– it will show up again at start-up.

If you are completely baffled and need to get some tech help, you can gather some information for this:
1. Go to Control Panel
2. Go to “Administrative Tools.”
3. Click on “Event Viewer.”

Here is a record of all the events and system errors of your computer. Most of the information is in technical gobbledegook, but your technician (hopefully) can read it. You may also find something useful in here for you to search.

Other warning signs of a dying computer may be sounds of grinding or clicking (a failing hard drive); no fan sounds or air coming through the vents (your CPU fan died, causing your CPU to overheat. This can cause critical damage to the CPU).

Finally, remember that the Blue Screen of Death can strike anywhere, at anytime….. to ANYONE!!