What to do if you get a blue screen. Solving the problem of blue screens in Windows

The Blue Screen of Death is familiar to every Windows 7 user, because it is a functionality built into the system. If you see a blue screen, then it is important to remember the error code, and after restoring the system, solve all the problems. In this article we will talk in more detail about what to do if a blue screen of death occurs.

What is the Blue Screen of Death in Windows 7

Blue Screen of Death - also known as BSoD, or Blue Screen of Death, is a system function that displays an error code. In practice, it looks like this - at any moment the system can switch from the current interface to the blue screen of death. Thanks to this, the user can find out the cause of the system failure. The reason is encrypted in the form of a code, in addition, additional system information is displayed on the screen.

Causes of Blue Screen of Death

There are many reasons for a blue screen of death, but they all boil down to one thing - something is wrong with your computer. This could be not only a system (software) error, but also hardware problems. There are 6 main reasons:

  • The driver has fallen off;
  • There is no free space on the system disk;
  • Registry problems;
  • System files are damaged;
  • Virus;
  • Problems with hardware;

The rest of the reasons why the blue screen of death crashes on Windows 7 fall into one of these categories.

What to do

If you see a blue screen of death, the first thing to do is write down the error code. Alternatively, take a photo of the screen using your phone. The standard “Printscreen” will not work in the event of a blue screen of death. In addition to the error code, the screen usually contains recommendations on what the user can do to fix the problem. There is no need to rush to take action; you need to give a little time for the system to try to find solutions on its own. If the blue screen of death does not disappear and the system does not automatically reboot, then action must be taken.

If the OS could not fix the problem on its own, then it needs help. Let's consider all typical cases.

  1. If the problem is with the drivers, then you need to boot into safe mode and reinstall the necessary drivers. If the blue screen of death does not indicate a problematic driver, then reinstall absolutely all drivers. They can be taken from the system disk that came with the computer, or you can use the program.
  2. Free space on drive C (or any other system drive) is vital for the correct operation of the OS. If the space runs out completely, a blue screen of death appears. There are two solutions - load the OS and, before the software leaves a trace on the disk and fills up all the memory, delete some large files. This will free up space. If you run out of space and there are no options to free it up, then only replacing the HDD will help.
  3. Problems with the registry can be easily resolved by rolling back the OS to a previous restore point. Or use specialized software, for example, to check and clean the registry.
  4. Problems with system files, i.e. files of the OS itself - this is one of the most common causes of a blue screen of death. Eliminating such problems, as a rule, is not difficult for the OS itself in automatic mode. If the system could not fix the problems itself, then there is only one solution - boot the OS in safe mode and restore to the last restore point. If this does not help and the system does not boot, then reinstalling the OS will help.
  5. Viruses themselves do not cause a blue screen, but their activity can violate the integrity of the OS and interfere with the operation of the system. In this case, you need to boot without supporting network connections and scan your computer or laptop for viruses. It is best to check with special anti-virus solutions other than the built-in ones. For example, you can use Kaspersky Anti-Virus.
  6. Hardware problems include all components of your device. The problems can be either global - the chip is burned out, the mother card is broken, etc., or small - the power cable has come loose. You will not be able to fix such problems automatically. However, in case of problems with hardware, the blue screen of death always tells you what the reason is. It is better to entrust the elimination of such a problem to professionals.

As you understand, the blue screen of death is your friend and good helper. The main purpose of such an error appearing is to protect your device. Moreover, the blue screen itself suggests solutions to the problem. For those who want to delve even deeper into this issue, we recommend watching a short video about the causes of the blue screen of death and how to fix the problems:

Almost every user has, if not encountered, then certainly heard about such a thing as the “Windows blue screen of death.” This topic is extensive, so read carefully! In the article we will discuss what a blue screen of death is, what to do in this situation, and of course, I will try to show everything clearly. The name for this phenomenon was invented just right - frightening and memorable. In today's article I will take a detailed look at the causes of the blue screen of death, as well as possible solutions to this problem.

Blue Screen of Death is a serious problem that baffles PC users. Before you start reading the article, I recommend that you put all your affairs aside and so that no one distracts you. If you understand the essence of the occurrence and solution to this problem, then in practice it will be much easier. I have been approached with this problem more than once, and there have even been situations when in their practice administrators did not know what to do when a blue screen occurred. In return, they told users that they needed to replace the system unit completely. WHAT? If you were told so, then take the noodles off your ears and read the article to the end.

What is this error

As a result of a problem, the operating system (OS), being unable to correct the error on its own, urgently shuts down. Naturally, no user data is saved (open documents, etc.). The only thing Windows manages to do is write information in the log and create a dump file, if the settings indicate the creation of this file when such errors occur.

To avoid unfair accusations against Windows, I’ll immediately make a disclaimer: the blue screen of death does not appear without serious reasons, and shutting down in such a situation is the only way out.

The blue screen of death looks like this:

From the screenshot, I think it’s clear where the word “blue” came from in the title. As for “death,” this means the death of the operating system, that is, its inevitable reboot, and in some cases, reinstallation. In practice, most causes of blue screens of death can be successfully eliminated without reinstalling the OS, provided, of course, that the response is timely and correct. The most important thing is to understand where the legs grow from. I mean that if you don’t know why the blue screen of death appears, then it’s difficult to solve the problem.

What does Windows tell us on the terrible blue screen of death?

To make it easier to understand, I will conditionally divide it into several blocks and describe each one separately (for those who know English, independent understanding of most of it will not be difficult).

1. Here Windows reports that a problem has been found, and to prevent damage to the computer, it was necessary to urgently shut down the system.

2. The type of error is indicated here. There are a limited number of them, and for each such error, information can be easily found on the Internet.

3. In this part, the OS reports possible causes of the problem, and also gives some recommendations for troubleshooting.

4. In the section called “Technical information” the error code is indicated, and it is also possible to indicate the name of the problematic driver (more details below).

After viewing the blue screen, you should understand what the error is or find out about the file that may be listed on the screen.

Causes of Blue Screen of Death

The Blue Screen of Death can appear for various reasons.

The most common reason is drivers. This includes drivers that are incompatible with each other or with the operating system, and other failures associated with them.

In this case, I have a short story, this information is not only for you to read and forget!!! With this story, you will learn how to solve the Blue Screen of Death problem.

I once worked as an administrative assistant and maintained a fleet of 80 computers. Almost 20 computers experienced a blue screen of death from time to time. When I asked the administrator about the reasons for this misfortune, he just shrugged his shoulders and said that he didn’t understand what was going on at all (I think he just didn’t want to figure it out). After his answer, I became interested in finding the essence of the problem myself.

First of all, I looked at what error appeared on the screen, then wrote down on a piece of paper the error code and the name of the file that the blue screen of death pointed to. After wandering around the Internet a little, I found out that this file is used for Wi-Fi adapters. After that, I did a short walk around the problem computers and made sure that they were all really working on the network via Wi-Fi adapters.

Next, I decided to find out what drivers the administrator installs when connecting these devices. His answer left me stumped. It turned out that he installed the drivers that came with the equipment. After that, I spent 2 hours, but still found a topic that interested me on the Internet. It turned out that these devices are buggy with standard drivers.

It’s strange, because D-link is considered one of the best, but in reality it turns out that it supplies drivers for adapters that do not work with them. At that time, a topic with a similar problem had already been created on the d-link manufacturer’s forum. And for about 2 years now, many users of these adapters have had this problem.

To get out of our situation, it was decided to use other drivers (from other developers). We installed them on the problem computer and asked the user to be sure to notify us if a blue screen of death appears. Of course, I didn’t know which drivers to install instead of the official ones. After reading completely all the topics on the forum, I found a dozen reviews that tried a different driver (I don’t remember which one now) and this problem was solved for them.

A few days later he still didn’t call or visit us, which means that no more problems arose! After making sure that everything was fine with his computer, we installed this driver on all computers and the users breathed a sigh of relief.

Problems with computer hardware.

Often problems with hardware are more of a consequence, but the cause may be overheating of components. This also includes self-inflicted problems with hardware, RAM or hard drive.

Problems with programs.

The screen of death can be caused by antivirus applications and various emulators. Also, sometimes the blue screen of death is caused by viruses; this doesn’t happen often, but it also happens.

What do we have to do

First, you need to prepare in advance for potential problems. Windows is configured by default so that the screen of death appears for just a couple of seconds, after which the computer automatically restarts.

However, this does not give us the opportunity to have time to record error data, which does not suit us at all.

Note: If it does not reboot automatically, then use the “Power” button.

It will be enough for us to configure Windows so that it does not automatically reboot. Thus, we can understand why the blue screen of death appears. Since in this error you can read the error code or file that is to blame for the blue screen of death. After this, the Internet will help us. To set this up you need to do the following:

On Windows XP: “Start” - “Settings” - “Control Panel” - “System” - “Advanced” - “Boot and Recovery” - “Settings” - “System Failure”. In the window that appears, you need to uncheck the “Perform automatic reboot” checkbox, and in the “Record debugging information” block, select “Small memory dump”, and click the “OK” button.

In Windows Vista/7: “Start” – “Control Panel” – “System and Security” – “System” – “Advanced system settings”. In the window that appears, select the “Advanced” tab, the “Boot and Recovery” subsection, and click the “Options” button. All that remains is to uncheck “Perform automatic reboot”, enable a small memory dump and click “OK”.

You can also get to this window by right-clicking on “Computer” - select “Properties” - on the left click “Advanced system settings” - go to the “Advanced” tab - for me this method seems easier.

Secondly, when the blue “enemy” first appears, you need to write down the data from the blue screen on paper. This data can help in finding the cause of the problem.

Well, thirdly, let’s show you how to remove the blue screen of death.

You need to understand that the death screen appears much more often after some user action than on its own. Therefore, the first thing to do is to try to return the computer to the state in which it worked stably.

If no special manipulations were carried out with the computer, that is, you were just working, and suddenly “He” appeared, you will have to look for answers on the Internet. Since the most common cause of BSOD is drivers, the first priority is to find the name of the faulty driver.

If the information was indicated on the death screen itself, then in this case we only need to find a description of the error or problem that the driver caused. To do this, simply enter the name of the known faulty file in any search engine. This way we find out what kind of file it is. For example, if this file is needed for the video card to work, then you need to remove the video card drivers and download a new one from the office. manufacturer's website.

Otherwise, the search must begin with the data that you have transcribed manually. Using this information, you can roughly navigate the possible causes. If we couldn’t find out anything useful, we move on to analyzing the memory dump.

Do not install various assemblies that were made by unknown authors. If your neighbor Uncle Vasya even advised you to install his assembly, then my advice to you is - DO NOT DO THAT! It is better to install a full-fledged original Windows distribution and you will be happy.

If problems with drivers have not been identified, you need to check the hardware components of the computer, which may be the cause of the blue screen of death. First of all, this is RAM, hard drive or overheating of any system components (video card or processor). You can use the AIDA program to check the temperature.

If you think that the problem is with the hardware, then borrow this part from your friend from his computer and install it on yours. Once you are sure that this particular part is working unstable on your computer, you can then buy it in the store.

To test RAM, I recommend the MemTest86 program, and to test the hard drive, the Victoria program (I will describe a detailed discussion of the operation of these programs in separate articles). In addition, it would not hurt to conduct a full virus scan by first updating the virus signature database.

Let me remind you that a dump is a file that is created at the moment a problem occurs and contains a detailed description of the state of the system at the time the error occurred, and, therefore, can tell about the reason for the failure.

Let's imagine a situation where your friend has a blue screen of death. He does not understand what it is and why the blue screen of death appeared. Naturally, he turns off the computer and tries to find out from his friends what it was. Of course, he didn’t write anything down on the piece of paper, that is, he doesn’t know what was written, but as you already know, in order to solve this problem you need to know why the error appeared.

There are special programs just for this, with which you can find out what the reason was. Now, even if you are in another city, you know how you can help your friend. You can use Debugging Tools for Windows or BlueScreenView to view the contents of the dump.

Let's use the BlueScreenView program as an example to figure out how to view dumps. You can download the utility from the link. If you need information from the official website, here is the link http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

Now run the file “BlueScreenView.exe”.

If there are no lines at the top, then there were no failures on your computer.

I didn't have the blue screen of death and so I had to borrow it ;). So now we have a dump that will help us understand how this program works.

To indicate the dump that I have, I need to make changes to the program. To do this, click “Settings” - “Advanced options” or “CRTL” + “O”.

Click “Browse” and indicate where our dump is located.

Note: If the program is on the problem computer, then nothing needs to be changed.

Now we see which files caused the error. Right-click on the line and select “Properties”.

How to install a driver and what is a driver."

I hope that now you will not have any difficulties in solving the blue screen of death problem.

See you soon!

A must-watch video, because there is something here that cannot be described in words:

It just so happens that the blue screen of death always scares PC users. You're playing CS:GO or Dota 2 when suddenly the Blue Screen crashes. Or they wrote the coursework for 2 hours - and again this mistake. And if autosave was also disabled, then that’s great.

10 main reasons

First, let's look at the main reasons why the blue screen of death appears:

  1. Failure of HDD, video card, RAM, etc.
  2. Device conflict (usually new RAM).
  3. Some device is incompatible with Windows.
  4. Overheating of devices (most often the video card or processor).
  5. Inappropriate driver (or incompatible with Windows).
  6. Driver conflict.
  7. Incorrect BIOS parameters.
  8. There is not enough free space on local drive C.
  9. Overclocking the processor or RAM.
  10. Virus infection.

In 70% of cases, a blue screen appears due to drivers. Therefore, install them only from the official website of the developer.

Blue Screen crashes: what to do?

First you need to configure it so that your computer or laptop does not reboot after this error. For what? To write down its code and use it to find a solution to the problem.

The instructions for Windows 7, 8 and XP are the same:

Ready. Now, when the blue screen of death appears again, you need to write down/remember the error code. Where is he? See the example screenshot below:

In this case it is 0x0000004e. You write it down and look up what it means. For example, you can search here http://bsodstop.ru/ - this site contains the most common error codes.

There is also information about 0x0000004e: the error appears due to incorrect driver operation. Which one exactly? This is not said, but there is one simple way to find out.

To do this, you will need the BlueScreenView utility (you can find it, the download link is almost at the very bottom of the page). It will automatically find the file causing the error and display it in the report. To do this, you just need to run the program.

For example, in the screenshot above you can see that the blue screen on the computer crashes due to the ati2dvag.dll file. It is associated with an AMD video card (you can guess it by the name ATI or search the Internet by its name), so most likely you need to install new drivers for it. Or vice versa – old ones (it’s best to use the disk that came with your PC).

The Blue Screen of Death is familiar to every user of Windows operating systems. Some users experience it so often that they begin to think it is normal. But that's not true. Let's figure out what the blue screen of death is. This is an error that appears during startup or after the computer suddenly shuts down. It indicates that there are problems with the operating system or internal hardware. Only by understanding the causes of its occurrence can it be eliminated as effectively as possible.

If a blue screen of death appears on a computer with Windows 7, then we bring to your attention this article, it will definitely help you find and fix this problem.

Blue screen of death, its causes

The causes of blue screens can be divided into two main groups:

  • System. Problems with the operating system: there are no necessary files required for Windows to work correctly, the OS is installed incorrectly, infection with malicious software or a file, and so on.
  • Hardware. Problems with computer hardware: malfunction of the hard drive or video card, overheating of the processor, and so on.

In order to accurately determine the cause of the error, you need to carefully study the contents of the blue screen. After all, it is where all the information the user needs is indicated, namely: the reason for the error and even recommendations for eliminating it.

If the information indicated on the screen is not enough, then the computer can be configured specifically to diagnose the blue screen of death.

File corruption win32k sys causes a blue screen. Therefore, it is definitely worth checking and scanning other directories.

Diagnostics

A Windows blue screen or memory dump is a reflection of the working (or not entirely) state of the operating system at a certain period of time. Since immediately after a critical error appears, which may be followed by a sudden shutdown of the device, Windows displays all the necessary information on the famous blue screen, then for further diagnostics you just need to remember it: rewrite it or take a photo.

The main trouble is that the blue screen is shown for a strictly limited time. After which the reboot mechanism starts. Therefore, it may be difficult for an unprepared user who does not know where to look to have time to rewrite the necessary information.

To disable auto-reboot of the device, that is, when the computer or laptop immediately starts to reboot, immediately after the blue screen of death appears, you need to activate the recording of small memory dumps, that is, part of its important contents. To do this you need to do the following:

Now the blue screen of death when loading Windows 7 will not immediately disappear, so you will have time to rewrite the necessary information.

Error interpretation

Since any problem can cause a blue screen of death, to correct the error it is necessary to identify it.

Once you have managed to photograph the blue screen when loading Windows or write down the information that appears on it, you can begin to decipher the error that caused it to occur:

  • The first line in English politely notifies the system that a critical shutdown of Windows has occurred.
  • The following explains what exactly caused the problem. This could be the name of the file or driver of the video card, audio card, TCPIP.SYS, SPCMDCON.SYS, DXGKRNLl.SYS, NTKRNLPA.EXE, NETIO.SYS and so on. If this line is missing, then the cause of the error should be sought in the computer hardware.
  • A user-friendly error name, such as DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, indicates that an error occurred while installing the driver.
  • This is followed by a large amount of text in which Windows suggests a possible solution to the problem. For example, check that drivers are installed correctly, run the disk check service, perform a system restore, and so on.
  • After the word STOP, the technical error code is indicated for more accurate identification and elimination. It can be something like 0x1000007e, 0x00000116, and the like.
  • Below, the system may re-indicate the names of files or drivers, such as TCPIP.SYS, SPCMDCON.SYS, NTKRNLPA.EXE, NTOSKRNL.SYS, NETIO.SYS and the like, which could cause the blue screen.
  • Additionally, depending on the type of problem, Windows can display the RAM address where a critical error occurred. By analogy with the STOP code, it will probably have a format like Address 0x00000116.

Knowing this information, it becomes clear how to remove the blue screen of death.

Problems with a blue screen in 90% of cases are of the most trivial nature and appear among users who are poorly versed in computers, so they often neglect installing system updates, drivers, the correct procedure for uninstalling programs, and so on.

Damage to the acpi sys file can cause a blue screen, so to resolve the error you need to replace it with a working version.

Even if the screen says that the error was caused by files like tcpip, ntoskrnl, fltmgr, netio, ntkrnlpa, the first thing to do is:

It would be a good idea to defragment, check and clean the registry. This is best done using special software. One such program is.

With its help, it is also possible to check the presence of all files and libraries necessary for stable operation of the operating system. If any of them are missing or damaged, the program will offer to download and replace them. If desired, you can make a copy of the original files and save them in any convenient location on your hard drive.

Screen of death when loading or installing Windows

If you don’t know how to remove the blue screen of death when installing Windows 7, then carefully read the following information. This error can only occur in three cases:

  • faulty x64 operating system image;
  • working image, but faulty hardware (error 0x00000116, IGDPMD64.SYS, fltmgr, ntoskrnl);
  • The BIOS was configured incorrectly.

If, when installing Windows XP, the blue screen repeats again and again, but you are sure that the computer hardware is in order, then the problem most likely lies in the faulty operating system image that you are using.

A blue screen when installing or restoring Windows may occur due to a faulty internal drive (HDD) or incorrect formatting. You should not neglect the standard procedure for checking the functionality of the OS image, disk or flash drive you are using. All this information can be found on the screen. You can fix other problems in the same way.

Missing or damaged system files

If you don’t know how to remove the blue screen of death that occurs due to missing or damaged system files or libraries such as TCPIP.SYS, SPCMDCON.SYS, IGDPMD64.SYS, fltmgr, DXGKRNLl.SYS, NTKRNLPA.EXE, NETIO.SYS or error 0x00000116 , then this method is for you. It is also suitable for errors caused by other files with the extension .SYS, .DLL, .EXE. To do this, you can use a special third-party shareware utility. One of the most popular is .

After installing the program, you need to launch it and start scanning using the Start button. Next, the utility will offer to check files like ntoskrnl, dxgkrnl, igdpmd64, fltmgr, tcpip, netio, ntkrnlpa. Additionally, the program will check other directories. If you are sure that it was the nvlddmkm sys file that caused the Windows 7 blue screen or any other file whose name you should know for sure, then you can check it.

Once the scan is complete, it will prompt you:

  • replace the file if it was indeed damaged;
  • proceed to check other system files if the specified file is not damaged;
  • only delete the faulty file if you want to replace it yourself;
  • do nothing, but at the same time open the folder with the damaged file to solve the problem yourself.

If you wish, you can install other applications to automatically search for damaged system files and replace them. Some of them identify and fix driver problems in a similar way.

Reset BIOS

If you recently made changes to the BIOS or tried to overclock the processor, then this may be causing the problem. Therefore, you should definitely try to return its settings to default. You can do this in several ways:

Conclusion

And this article discussed: what is the blue screen of death, its causes. The errors were deciphered, and various options for eliminating the breakdowns that had arisen were proposed. Now, if you get the Windows 7 screen of death again, then you already know what to do.

Video on the topic

Hello friends! If you know firsthand what a blue screen of death is, and what’s worse, you often encounter it, then this article should help you. Now I will try to write in detail about Why do blue screens often appear? death, and how to check RAM for errors standard Windows memory checker.

You may ask why am I writing about blue screens and RAM diagnostics in one article? Yes, because RAM, or rather problems with it, are very often accompanied by blue screens, with different errors, and at different times. This is, of course, my opinion, but in about 60% of blue screens, problems with RAM are to blame.

What to do if blue screens appear frequently?

As they say, true story :). My friend has an almost new computer, and it has already been taken out of nowhere. They appear at any time, that is, there is no certain pattern that something was done and there was an error. A blue screen may appear once a day, or immediately when you turn on the computer, or maybe after several hours of operation.

As he already noticed, these error screens appear most often 0x0000000A And 0x0000008e(there may be other error codes). Of course, only a reboot helps. But it doesn't save for long.

It’s almost impossible to work on such a computer; you don’t know when this error will pop up.

I advised you to scan your RAM for errors, at least using a standard Windows tool. After he launched the test, not even 15 minutes had passed (and RAM takes a long time to test) when a message appeared stating that problems with RAM were detected. In fact, if at least some memory errors are found, then there is no point in continuing scanning. Here is the reason for the errors, in the form of blue screens.

I’ll say right away, so as not to forget later, it will no longer be possible to fix the RAM. It can only be replaced. And utilities, both a standard memory diagnostic tool and a utility such as Memtest86+, which I will write about in a separate article, do only diagnostics, but not repairs.

Checking memory with a standard utility in Windows 7

Now I will write about how to check the RAM using a standard utility that is already included in the Windows operating system. I’ll show you using Windows 7 as an example. It’s called .

Open “Start” and type in the search bar:

Run mdsched.

Press “Reboot and check”.

The computer will reboot and the RAM check will automatically begin.

I warn you right away that the verification may take a long time. After the test, the computer will turn on itself and a report on the test result will appear. This window appeared after checking the RAM from a friend.

After such messages, you need to change the RAM. If you have two (or more) sticks of RAM, then you can leave, for example, only one and run the check again to find the problematic module.

You can also borrow a RAM from a friend and work with it for a while. See if blue screens appear. If yes, then look for other reasons, but if everything is fine, and most likely it will be, then buy new RAM.

That's all, I also want to wish you good luck, in this matter, it will come in handy :). And congratulate you on the upcoming New Year holidays!

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Do you often get blue screens? Checking RAM with Windows Memory Checker updated: December 30, 2012 by: admin