What is a BSOD?
A blue screen of death is what is technically called a stop error or fatal system error and it happens when the operating system crashes because it can no longer operate safely. The blue screen of death has seen many iterations over the years, with Windows 10 even having a frowny face just in case you weren't sad enough about it already. Fortunately, this screen will also provide you with information about what caused the problem, and then it will restart. Take a photo of it with your phone if you have one nearby, because you can't copy and paste once you're in BSOD mode and it can reboot pretty quickly, so move quickly. If you're using Windows 10, you'll also see a QR code that will take you directly to Microsoft's blue screen troubleshooting page on your phone, but you might not need to dig deeper just yet.
Reboot
Causes can range from a random one-off problem to a driver issue, operating system errors, and failing hardware. So there's a lot to eliminate when troubleshooting, but this error code will give you a good place to start digging. Because a random problem is the least tricky problem, reboot and hope that it works perfectly upon reboot.
System Restauration
If you continue to experience BSODs after this, ask yourself what you were doing on the PC right before everything turned blue. Have you just installed a new program, updated a driver, started using new hardware, installed a Windows update? If so, try undoing this change. You can do this manually or use Windows System Restore tool to revert to a previous restore point. If you're using Windows 10, open Control Panel and type recovery in the search bar, then click Open System Restore and follow the on-screen prompts.
Drivers
Although sometimes a driver or Windows update can cause a blue screen error, other times, driver or Windows updates may be just the solution you need. We know this can be confusing, but if the fix is as simple as checking for pending updates and applying them, try this.
Malware and viruses
Sometimes it could be malware or virus that is causing your PC to misbehave by modifying the system files of the DL. Use your security check of choice in Windows Defender or a third party like Malwarebytes to find and remove problematic software. Once done, reboot and see if your blue screen issues are gone for good. Another potential solution, if you suspect a damaged Windows system file might be to blame, is to run an SFC scan. This is a command line tool built into Windows that will check system files and attempt to repair them. Simply search for “command prompt” in your search bar, right-click to open as administrator then type sfc /scannow. Give it some time, see if anything pops up.
Safe mode
While you can try everything we've discussed so far in Windows so far, if your computer doesn't allow you to access far enough to do so, you can try starting Windows in Safe Mode to run diagnostics and quickly back up important files. Safe Mode lets you load a basic Windows setup with only the essentials. If you can work in Safe Mode without a blue screen, then something installed – an app or service – could be the cause.
Hardware issues
If you still haven't found the culprit, it may not be a software failure, but a hardware failure that is to blame. It could be a faulty RAM stick, faulty hard drive, or worse. The good news is that a new SSD or memory module is easy to replace and certainly simpler than replacing your entire PC. By searching the web for the exact error message you hopefully took a picture of with your phone when you got that blue screen of death, as this can help point you in the right direction. Windows has monitoring tools to help you with system diagnostics and a dedicated Memory Diagnostic tool that you can run from the Control Panel. If nothing happens here, there are third-party options like MemTest86, a free tool that is more powerful than the built-in Windows Memory Diagnostic tool and that specifically tests RAM. CrystalDiskInfo is also free and will specifically test hard drives.
Reinstall Windows
If you still haven't found the solution, you can try a fresh installation of Windows. Back up everything first. There are a few different ways you can do this, some require more patience than others, but all of them should give your PC a fresh start.
We hope one of these fixes did the trick, so let us know your most recent BSOD experience in the comments.
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Host: @TrishaHershberger
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