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Blue screen of death (BSoD) is a Microsoft Windows operating system error screen that is displayed to indicate system conflicts and the potential for a crash. This term gets its name because these critical messages were displayed on a blue screen.
BSoD errors relate to system hardware, temperature, timing, resources, corrupt registries or viruses. The BSoD error screen serves as an alert to avert further computer and system damage. A BSoD freezes Windows and requires that the system be rebooted in order to continue to operate.
The blue screen has become less common now that operating systems are able to deal with many errors without interruption.
The blue screen of death is also known as a stop error.
The four primary BSoD components are as follows:
BSoD error codes include associated driver data and troubleshooting tips in the form of text and hexadecimal values. It is recommended that users make note of this data before rebooting. Users should also verify proper hardware installation and undo recent hardware and software upgrades.
BSoD errors also include memory dumps. When a system crashes, system memory data is dumped and saved to a hard drive file for debugging. BSoD error details are displayed because Windows is unable to recover from kernel-level errors.
BSoD error codes are readable via the following steps:
BSoD error examples include:
BSoD file names (.SYS extensions) indicate the BSoD error source. If a BSoD error file name cannot be located, the driver update tool may be used to find, download and update device drivers. Because most BSoD errors are related to outdated device drivers, reinstalling and updating system device drivers ensures seamless function.
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