How to Fix Blue Screen Errors
Blue screen errors, or blue screen of death (BSOD) errors, are the most severe errors Windows can encounter. Since Windows can not recover from this kernel level error, a blue screen is displayed with the error details. The error details contain a STOP error code, which indicates the type of error.
There are a lot of possible causes for blue screen errors, but most of them relate to the computer hardware. The cause of a BSOD error can be a temperature problem, a timing error, a resource conflict, hardware failure, a corrupt registry, a virus or simply a device incompatibility or driver error.
How to analyze blue screen errors
The first thing to do to analyze a blue screen error is to check the meaning of the STOP error code. You need to stop Windows from rebooting when a STOP error is encountered. Once the blue screen of death is shown, you can check the meaning of the STOP error code. Together with the filename of the driver or module, this will give an indication of the error cause.
Another option to analyze the cause of the blue screen error is to look at the Windows system event log or to debug the memory dump (minidump) that Windows created when the error occurred. The event log can be viewed using the event viewer. Right-click Computer in the Start menu, and then select Manage. In the Computer Management window select Event Viewer. The information in the event log can be of great help to isolate the cause of the blue screen error.
Within the Event Viewer, use the right-hand pane to create a custom view and select a date range or specific event category to nowwor down the events relating to the blue screen error.
Windows can also be configured to create a minidump of the current state when a critical error happens. Reading the minidump requires a bit more technical knowledge, but Microsoft has tools to read the minidump. Read more about how to analyze Windows minidump files if you want to use the crash dump file to find the cause of a Windows stop error.
The most common cause of blue screen errors
In reality, the most common cause of blue screen errors is a device driver problem. Outdated, incorrect or corrupt drivers can cause the system to encounter a STOP error, resulting in the BSOD.
So the easiest way to try and fix a blue screen error is to reinstall and update your system’s device drivers. This will ensure that all driver bugs are fixed and that all hardware has the correct driver.
If you know which device caused the error, you can update or reinstall that driver first. The file name in the blue screen of death can help identify the driver. Look for a file with the .SYS extension and search for that file name.
If you do not have the drivers for all devices, or are not comfortable updating your PC’s drivers manually, you can use a driver update tool to find, download and update all device drivers for you. Such tools will accurately identify your computer hardware, including any device causing an error, and automatically install the latest drivers for it.
In most cases updating or reinstalling drivers will solve your blue screen errors.
Other causes of blue screen errors
However, if updating device drivers does not fix the blue screen error, there are a number of additional things to try:
- Load the default BIOS values – resource conflicts and timing issues can be caused by incorrect BIOS settings.
- Update the BIOS – especially after adding new hardware or installing a Windows service pack this can help fix issues.
- Update Windows – missing updates, including service packs can be a source of stop errors.
- Check your system – run a virus scan after updating your definition files.
- Run a memory test to check your computer’s RAM. Memory faults can easily cause blue screen errors, so see if your RAM is error free. Vista and later Windows versions have a built-in option to test the memory, for XP you can use a program called memtest86.
- Driver rollback – if you have recently updated a driver, you can use the driver rollback to revert back to the previous driver version.
List of STOP Errors Causing BSOD:
- Stop 0x00000003 UNSYNCHRONIZED_ACCESS
- Stop 0x0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
- Stop 0x0000001E KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
- Stop 0x00000023 FAT_FILE_SYSTEM
- Stop 0x00000024 NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM
- Stop 0x0000002E DATA_BUS_ERROR
- Stop 0x0000003F NO_MORE_SYSTEM_PTES
- Stop 0x00000044 MULTIPLE_IRP_COMPLETE_REQUESTS
- Stop 0x00000050 PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
- Stop 0x0000006B PROCESS1_INITIALIZATION_FAILED
- Stop 0x00000073 CONFIG_LIST_FAILED
- Stop 0x00000074 BAD_SYSTEM_CONFIG_INFO
- Stop 0x00000076 PROCESS_HAS_LOCKED_PAGES
- Stop 0x00000077 KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR
- Stop 0x00000079 MISMATCHED_HAL
- Stop 0x0000007A KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
- Stop 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
- Stop 0x0000007E SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
- Stop 0x0000007F UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP
- Stop 0x0000008E KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
- Stop 0x0000009C MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION
- Stop 0x0000009F DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
- Stop 0x000000BE ATTEMPTED_WRITE_TO_READONLY_MEMORY
- Stop 0x000000C2 BAD_POOL_CALLER
- Stop 0x000000C4 DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION
- Stop 0x000000CA PNP_DETECTED_FATAL_ERROR
- Stop 0x000000CB DRIVER_LEFT_LOCKED_PAGES_IN_PROCESS
- Stop 0x000000CE DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELLING_PENDING_OPERATIONS
- Stop 0x000000D1 DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
- Stop 0x000000D5 DRIVER_PAGE_FAULT_IN_FREED_SPECIAL_POOL
- Stop 0x000000D8 DRIVER_USED_EXCESSIVE_PTES
- Stop 0x000000DA SYSTEM_PTE_MISUSE
- Stop 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER
- Stop 0x000000ED UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
- Stop 0x000000F2 HARDWARE_INTERRUPT_STORM
- Stop 0x000000F4 CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION
- Stop 0x000000FC ATTEMPTED_EXECUTE_OF_NOEXECUTE_MEMORY
- Stop 0x000000FE BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER
- Stop 0xC0000218 UNKNOWN_HARD_ERROR
- Stop 0xC000021A STATUS_SYSTEM_PROCESS_TERMINATED
- Stop 0xC0000221 STATUS_IMAGE_CHECKSUM_MISMATCH
- Stop 0xC0000244 STATUS_AUDIT_FAILED
A complete list of error codes can be found on the Microsoft MSDN website.
Please share your own experiences with blue screen of death errors, including possible solutions. New insights can help others, or maybe we can help you with specific STOP errors.
Thanks Anthony. I read my minidumps and they all point to the same Intel NIC driver ele5132.sys as the cause of the issues.
@Ali Muhammad – Glad you figured it out. Unfortunately random blue screen errors like that can be due to motherboard, memory or power issues. Replacing components is often to only way to pinpoint it. Like I mentioned, I have not seen blue screen errors due to lower temperatures before, but great you worked it out!
Dear Anthony,
I finally figured out what my problem was due to. It was the PSU.
I got my processor back to stock frequencies/voltage and i hate to say but. I’m gonna miss my BSOD.
I still thank you for your help. I wont have solved it without this information you’ve written here.
Cheers
Ali
Dear Anthony, I got BSOD this morning again. My games crash with a CRITICAL ERROR message and when i try to run them again, i get a BSOD.
But Just like old times. I swapped the module into another slot. and its like perfect again.
But i cant keep changing its slot every second day..One thing is certain now, it really is something with swapping the ram.
More info: i had 4G of ram (2sticksx2gb) on a 32-bit OS xp. I gave one away to a friend of mine. as 32-bit means not full usage of one of the ram, could that be the problem? maybe i have the HALF used ram left with me and i gave the full used to my friend?
Please help me with this. I’m really about to cry at this moment…
ADDED: Voltage in bios – vcore – 1.45
and the Voltage in cpuZ – vcore – 1.344~1.360
So does that mean my PSU is weak?
Sir Anthony, I think it really might be the power-supply. I’m getting alot of VDROOP on vCore.
I just want to confirm one thing. If the power supply can fail to provide better voltages at low temperatures. It was fine until winters started. I get 6/7 degree celc on c2d 3.6gig.
Specs:
450 watts Asus A-GA45
gtx260
c2d
2gbram
500gb sata WD HD
stikerextreme M/B 680i
I’m not running any other peripheral.
hey anthony if i could use my keyboard and mouse to do anything i probably would should i take the harddrive out and put it in another cpu to do that????
@Ali Muhammad – Temperature variation can certainly affect the operation of electronic equipment, including PC hardware. Normally overheating is more of an issue than low temperatures though, unless we are talking very cold.
In your case it seems a hardware sensitivity as well. The only thing I can recommend is to unplug the hardware cards and memory, make sure the slots are clean and replug them (ISA/PCI/AGP cards assuming this is a desktop).
Power supply could be an issue, what is the wattage?
@Ingrid – Did you try going back to the previous configuration with one monitor? Since that is the only change, try updating or reinstalling the video driver. A dual monitor display does affect the way the video card is operating and interacting with Windows, so the video driver is important.
@Jacket – Okay, good. Well that leave me only my earlier suggestions about the video card and motherboard :(
I have actually already. No errors on any of my disks.
Anthony,
I am getting the BSOD quite frequently since I reformatted my hard drive (downgrade from Vista to Windows XP Service Pack 3). It worked fine for about four months then I started getting the BSOD. The only thing I recently changed is my monitor, I am now using dual monitors. I don’t know what is the problem. The error code is:
STOP:0x40000080 (0x8664D130, 0x8623A698, 0xF7A63E60, 0x000000002)
Hope you can help. Thank you!
I keep getting the following stop messages:
0x00000124
0x000001A
0x000008E
Please help I have tried a number of suggetions above without any success and its very frustrating
Thanks
Sir, I’m on 6-6-6-18-1T on 2.1volts ddr2 800 mhz, Single 2gb corsair stick.
Factory is 5-5-5-18-2T on 1.8volts 800 mhz.
Motherboard: 680i chipset
Processor: e6850 3.0 @ 3.6 GHz
memtest proves its stable. I ran it once again today for 4 hours.
I just want to add that i was having BSOD even on stock timings/voltage and even on a little higher voltage on a factory timing.
One thing is certain. I get BSOD in the morning when the pc is COLD.
+ i get the computer FREEZES after running the pc for some time.
The BSOD doesn’t appear much after the PC warms up but most of the times when the pc gets cold over night.
I remember the first time i experienced crashes was when i took my PC to my friends place in SUMMERS, when i used to have very high temperatures at my place but at his place he had his AC on 18 CÂș full time. and I belive it was the low temperatures that caused the crashes.
Im just saying that COLD temperature seems to be involved. More as if its not getting much power because of the low temperature? possible?
I really appreciate your help.
Ali
@Jacket – Did you already run a chckdks /f on your system disk? If not, try that, could be some bad sectors on the disk.
@Ali Muhammad – If one of the memory modules has an error, you could reduce the frequency of BSOD errors by swapping them, but depending on the amount of memory in use, the error could still happen. At least try running a full memory test with memtest86, so you know if the RAM modules have any errors.
@nicola – Rootkit viruses are not easy to remove, so doing a full format and reinstall is a good idea.
Regarding the automatic reboot, that is the default behavior in Windows. You can change it, but you need to be able to access the Control Panel for that.
Can you boot from the Windows setup CD? If not, you might need to change the sequence of the boot devices in the Bios, and make sure the CD-drive is the first option. If you cannot get into the bios the only option would be to do a motherboard CMOS reset…
The disk in any case should be fine after you reformat it.
ok, so i was trying to get free antivirus and it had a ton of viruses along with it after it started geeking up i managed to get norton full trial in there to stablize it so i could clean most of the viruses out myself and did so till it expired but my avast pro 4.8 antivirus the full version kept saying i had a virus some rootkit virus and this other one windows system/32/atapi crap well i tried cleaning those ones out couldnt figure out how to get rid of it because the antivirus wouldnt dlete it or clean it so after finding the rootkit one and klicking on it i got the blue screen of death and i keep getting a blue error screen that goes so fast i can’t see what it is or anything and it just keeps rebooting i was going to install my windows xp disk over it but while it s rebooting my keyboard or mouse wont work so i can do anything if i could get some help on how to try and save my hard drive from buying a new one since i got the 160 gig wd drive a years back for around 150 and don’t wan to buy a new because im not rich if i can get any help it would be much appreciated
Dear Anthony,
You are EPIC ^^
I have been posting on other tons of websites and i don’t seem to get a single reply, Even when im trying to give 99% information they just wont give me the 1%. No reply on ACTIVE forums.
Anyways.
I’ll make it simple. I had random BSOD like a month ago. and i followed a thread where the guy says he SWAPPED the ram into another SLOT.
Which in fact DID help stopping the BSOD! But there is another problem which doesn’t seem to have fixed itself with the RAM swap. the PC FREEZES. it would freeze IN GAME/ or just on DESKTOP. If in game/video it repeats that sound where its hung and i have to press the RESET button. Fact is, i got 2 or maybe 3 more random BSOD since i swapped but its NOT like it was before the swap. I mean the swapping DID help. But i just want to know WHY it fixes it temporarily and how do i fix it once and for alllllllll..aarrgg!
Cant wait to hear from you.
I’m still grateful for the whole thread you’ve replied to. Great information.
Ali
got another bluescreen. I wasn’t able to take out the graphics card yet mostly cuz I need it for my 3d software.
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT (0x0000004E)
@Darren – Mostly likely cause is a memory error as commented to earlier stop error 0x0000008E errors with the same first parameter. Try running memtest86 to check your RAM.
Im running windows xp on an AMD Dual core system and its started to randomly restart and blue screen, the error codes are 0x0000008e (0xC0000005,0x8054b10d,0xb53f39co,0x00000000)
any ideads????
@Jacket – The only think I can think of is to take out the video card and enable the onboard video card if your motherboard has one. If not, you could first try inserting a cheap, simple video card to test if the issue is fixed before getting the video card you really need. If the issue remains with the video card change , it must be the motherboard…
@Niwa – I am not familiar with that error at all. Is it a blue screen error?
@Calahan – Very likely it is a memory (RAM) error. If you can, try and download a bootable ISO image from memtest86 and run that to test the memory.
Okay so I keep vetting error code 0x00000050. But when I try to run in safe mode I can’t even get to my desktop. I have reset all of my bios settings. After i see the windows loading screen the bsod pops up. I have no idea what to do since I can not get to my desktop please help me
I got 0x805D3131 what is it?
Yes, I set the bios to default already and turned off any extra acceleration options for the video drivers. I was considering it to either be the graphics card or the mother board since I’m not sure what else it could be, but I just was hoping that I could figure out what part exactly it is seeing as both parts are relatively expensive. (replacing with the brands I need for my computer’s function) Do you know any way to pinpoint which is at fault? I’m assuming no but i figured it was worth an ask.
@Jacket – Yes you are right, I forgot about your first comment. Considering that you have reinstalled all these versions of Windows, and had the error with all, it really must be something with the hardware.
If you have tried the memory test, checked and reinstalled the drivers, checked the hard disk, I fear it comes down to replacing hardware. I can not say what component though as the error is random. You did try loading the default bios settings and turning off the hardware acceleration on the video driver?
as i said in my original post I have tested the ram with memtest86 several times with no issue. I have all my drivers updated and to make sure that the drivers are correct I ran a drive sweeper program and made sure it was all set and clean then reinstalled the latest updates.
The computer has been doing it since I bought it less than a few months ago through 3 OSes. XP, Vista and Windows 7
@Beth – Try going into the Bios and load the default settings, that might help.
If not, the next most likely cause is a memory error. You could try swapping the memory modules if you have more than one, but be very careful because they are rather sensitive to static electricity. Other than that it could be the motherboard, is it an old system?
@Jacket – Try running a memory test with memtest86 to make sure the RAM is okay first. The irql_not_less_or_equal is often a driver error though. Did you update or install something recently?