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 Outdated, incorrect or corrupt drivers can cause the system to encounter a STOP error, resulting in the BSOD.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.
Will Windows ever be without blue screen errors? Even in Windows 7 the blue screen can still occur…
My 5-years old VAIO was shutting down with the following BSOD message.
Stop 0×0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
It might have been caused by updating XP from SP1 to SP2.
I managed to solve it by updating the driver for the VAIO wireless receiver.
lesson learned – if you haven’t updated any hardware, check whether you have updated Windows. Also check your computer manufacturer any update drivers.
I hope this help. Good luck.
@Debdeep Mukherjee – Not completely sure about which Creative audio cards it is compatible with, I just know it solved problems for people with very similar problems as you on Dell computers. Worth a try I’d say!?
Ohh is it?? So IDT has been the culprit for long!! I dint know the other SIGMATEL driver’s name before u told me….thank you once again…..one thing I just want to clarify, will that SIGMATEL be able to drive that XI-FI Sound Blaster from CREATIVE?
If not, then it’ll be of no use for me….If yes, then nothing will be better than this!!
@Debdeep Mukherjee – THe IDT driver has been the cause of many problems with Vista (and even XP) users. Some people have been able to fix the problem by using the Sigmatel Audio driver from the Dell site. Is that the driver you tried already?
And make sure you turn on System Restore, so you can just fall back to the previous configuration if things go wrong again…
Hi Anthony,
I got the backup disc anyways. Regarding the driver issue, the dell support guys suggested me to format the computer again as they are suspecting that the drivers have not been installed in a proper sequence as it should be !! Later on they told me not to install that IDT Driver which was the culprit. The normal soundof the computer is now working fine with the default High Definition Audio Driver that comes with Vista. But I have a Hi-Fi Sound Blaster of Creative. I can’t install that application right now as it says “No Audio Driver has been found in your computer, so the setup can’t continue, Install the audio driver and try installing this again” or something like that!! So that concludes that IDT will have to be installed. No Escape!!
I am still in a dilemma whether I will install that IDT again, as I have already reinstalled the OS twice in 3 days, which is definitely not desirable!!
Please suggest If you can find any other options, but that is the defailt driver that came with the laptop, so it’s that right driver. Dun know why that exclamatory sign came!!
I even tried installing the latest version of that driver from their page but no use!!
Anthony – thank you for your reply. I had a compter savy friend look at the machine and he quickly concluded the problem to be the motherboard – three blown capacitors. So…we are going to buy a new motherboard – it’s old anyway – bout time I got something newer. And I figured that I might as well buy a better processor as the one I currently have is…old. Hmmm, might as well replace the power supply too. Bout th only thing worth keeping is the vid card. I will do the clean format. Anyways – thank-you for your time. Cheers.
@pakzad – Try running a complete system scan with your (updated) antivirus software, it sounds like you might have a virus. Deleting the software would not fix that. What was the software you installed and where did you get it from?
hi dear.
i’ve got a mess. after installing a software, suddenly it happened. system turned off and restarted again with blue screen,without any text. and the problem repeats again and again. i accesed safe mode and delated installed file,but the problem is still there.please help me.
thanks
@Debdeep Mukherjee – Not sure about the audio driver issue, if it is the right driver it should not show an exclamation mark after rebooting.
Regarding the recovery partition, you might be able to recreate it, but you will need the recovery disks that came with the computer. You can request those from Dell if you did not get them.
@paul – The win32/cryptor virus is a trojan that would not harm you computer in a physical way, so I am suspecting that something really broke down. It could be the power supply or the motherboard. Unless you are quite a techie, it would be best to take it to a computer shop. They should change the power supply and see if that fixes it. Once you get it running again I really recommend that you do a clean format to get rid of any viruses (after you back up your personal data of course).
Hello. I have been receiving this blue screen several times now. I was able to reboot and go ahead problem free until a couple days ago. The computer went heywire – alerts coming up telling me to run virus scan. I discovered two virus – win32/cryptor in two locations:
c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer/IExplore.EXE{168}
C:\WINXP\EXPLORER.EXE{140}
before the virus scan was complete, I heard what sounded like a circut breaker going and the blue screen appeared. this was included:
stop: 0x0000005 0x804D92c2 0xF7E875C4 0x00000000
also, the power supply seemed to be very warm to the touch. it is a 400watt. I am unsure of any other info I can or should include here, but any help would be appreciated. Oh, I can not get past the blue screen which now comes up right away upon attempting to reboot. I’m using a secondary computer.
Hi Anthony,
Now that I have formatted my PC and re-installed all my drivers again, the Blue-Screen problem is gone. But my “IDT High Definition Audio CODEC” Driver is getting corrupted everytime I’m restarting the Windows. Suppose now I’ve installed, the sound is working properly, but when I’ll restart again, it will be gone, in Device Manager, an Exclamatory Mark will reside just before that Driver Name. I don’t have any clue as to how to fix it but that is the recommended driver for me according to DELL Configuration. I even tried installing the latest version of that driver from the DELL Website but no luck.
Another thing, for formatting the laptop, the Recovery Drive(D:)[generally] is gone. Is there any means to get it back again by creating it somehow manually??
@Debdeep Mukherjee – You can indeed recover Windows from the factory image, but that is still like a fresh install.
I have tried everything, as it was not shutting down properly initially so the system restore wasn’t completing properly. Now with the shut down is ok as I have disabled the drivers, to my horror, all my restore points are gone. I am even trying hitting F8 for a “restore factory settings” while booting but I don’t know , it is not routing me to that “Advanced Boot Options”.
Please tell me if there is any way to restore factory settings for DELL Laptops from inside, i mean while working inside the windows other than before the booting starts?
@Debdeep Mukherjee – Seems your system got corrupted by something in the last days. If possible, try doing a system restore to a date before that.
If you did not already, also run a virus check to rule out a virus as the cause.
Another option is to simply reinstall Windows completely, but that will obviously take more time :(
I even tried to install that but in vain. Whenever I’m going to install the driver from the CD it is crashing instantly. Now even by BlueTooth driver has gone corrupted. I disabled all the 3 drivers for the time being and the system is shutting down properly. It was getitng crashed at the tail end of “SHUT DOWN”, initially.
Now, even if I click the wi-fi bluetooth button in the keyboard and it gets activated within minutes it is crashing. Any suggestions? The full-screen mode was working was working fine for last 2 months since I bought but from yesterday. I just can’t fathom as what has gone wrong !!
@Debdeep Mukherjee – Based on your scenario I would suggest you reinstall the video and audio drivers, as those are the only devices really used in the movie playback. The other error symptoms you mention are most likely the result of the initial error, so I do not really think the network device is a problem.
But reinstalling the drivers and loading the default bios settings are the best first steps in fixing BSDO errors like 0x0000007E.
If both don’t help, try running a memory test, the video card might allocate more memory in full screen video playback mode, which means it could be a RAM issue.
Hi Anthony,
My problem is same as Vibhuti’s. Today morning when I started watching a movie in full-screen mode my DELL STUDIO15 laptop with Vista 64bits, p8600, 4GB Ram suddenly showed the STOP ERROR, 0*0000007E. After that now I can do all the work in my alptop, but the movie can’t be watched in full-screen mode. Although I don’t know whether the problem is anything of that sort, i mean whether that is the root cause.
Because from that time onwards I can’t shut down my computer properly. It is always shutting down with that BSOD same error even if I am shutting it down with the conventional procedure. I can’t open the dump file, I checked the event logs and gathered the following information(I have written the source at first) but can’t decipher. Please help me out:
WINLOGON- The winlogon notification subscriber was unavailable to handle a notification event.
Event System- The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal processing.
HRESULT was 8007043c from line 45 of d:\vistasp1_gdr\com\complus\src\events\tier1\eventsystemobj.cpp.
Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services to report this error.
plugplay manager – The service ‘TabletInputService’ may not have unregistered for device event notifications before it was stopped.
bugcheck – The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck.
The bugcheck was: 0x0000007e (0xffffffffc0000005, 0xfffff800022893aa, 0xfffffa60015e07d8, 0xfffffa60015e01b0).
A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP.
Event Log – The previous system shutdown at 05:37:09 on 29-08-2009 was unexpected.
Warning-Time-Service-
NtpClient was unable to set a manual peer to use as a time source because of DNS resolution error on ‘time.windows.com,0x9’. NtpClient will try again in 15 minutes and double the reattempt interval thereafter. The error was: No such host is known.
(0x80072AF9)
@Vibhuti – Apart from the dump, please check the Device Manager and see if there is any unknown device or device in error. The most common cause of stop error 0x000007e is a device driver problem.
Also have look at the event log to see if that contains useful information on the error situation.
Hi Anthony
I bought an HP Paviliion dv3t series laptop a month back. Today I started my laptop and found the blue screen with bccode 000007e. bcp: c0000005, bcp2: 800020903aa, bcp3: a60021b27d8, bcp4: a60021b21b0
There is a temporary dump file that has been created but i cant open it because i dont have the software which supports it. I cant even download it because I cant access the internet on safe mode (even with networking).
I am not sure whats wrong with my computer. Can you help me out?
Thanks in advance
V
@Muntaha Masood – If the initial problem was caused by software, and you uninstalled it, I would suggest you run an antivirus and malware check. Also try running a registry cleaner to make sure nothing of the program is remaining.
Other than that it could still be a RAM problem, so the memory test still make sense in case you did not try that.
hi Anthony,
here i am again. well its kin ov strange. As after reporting my error to u last time i just remembered i installed something odd thrugh an advertisement..so i uninstall it nd the Blue screen error neva appeared after tht..till last night, i mean igt went well for 4 to 5 days….i was relaxed before but now i had it again last night with a different message which said IQRL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. so i m confused now wht xactly to do..lemme remind u in my last mail to u the error was page_fault_in_non_page area.
thnx alot u r doing a gr8 job there,,,hope to hear from u soon.
@SID – The combination of stop error stop: 0x000000f4 together with 0×00000003 as the value for the first parameter in most cases means a disk problem. Could be cable, master/slave settings, hard disk itself or the combination of IDE or ATA devices in the system.
On cause is explained in more detail by Microsoft.
This makes me a little doubtful on whether your plan to remove software will solve the issue. Any reason you believe that to be the cause?
k ill try what u recommended me
thanks i’ll try that in a bit
the stop error i received was
stop: ox000000f4 (0x00000003, 0x91ff2330, 0x91ff247c, 0x82852400)
any known causes?