windows 7 - what is the solution for blue screen error (BSOD)?

08
2014-07
  • Radi

    on my desktop, I have BSODs frequently on Windows Vista and 7, with new error code every time I need to know what cause it and how to solve this error.

    • Answers
  • William Hilsum

    Without more information, it is hard to help you.

    The first thing I would do is run a full Memory Test.

    If it finds anything, you need to look at replacing the faulty memory modules, if it does not - start by updating all your drivers.

    If that fixes things, count yourself lucky! If it doesn't, start removing all hardware then plugging them back in one by one until you recreate the problem - then you should know what caused it.

    Also - you may like a program called BlueScreenView, using this, you can see all previous blue screens your computer has had. If it is down to one driver (with different codes) it can help you speed up detection of what the problem is. If however it really is different every time, it may identify a memory problem.

    Hope this helps


    • Related Question

    Why does Windows still have the BSOD on Ctrl+Scroll+Scroll "feature"?
  • Lucas McCoy

    While Windows XP came out I heard about a testing feature that existed to manually cause a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). I also heard this was supposed to be removed in XP Service Pack 2. It didn't get removed, it's also in Vista and Windows 7. To Enable this navigate to this location in the registry:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters

    and add CrashOnCtrlScroll as a REG_DWORD with the value of 1.

    Now reboot and Press Ctrl+Scroll Lock+Scroll Lock, and you get a BSOD.

    Why is this feature still here? When (if ever) will they remove it?


    • Related Answers
  • Ari Pernick

    It's there to allow a break into the Kernel Debugger or generate a kernel-mode dump file. Typically an expert would want to do this when the OS looks locked up and won't even respond to CTRL+ALT+DELETE in order to get the dump file and investigate it for which driver is having trouble.

    It's logically equivelent to calling the kernel API KeBugCheck with bugcheck 0xE2 (MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH). Also note that the reg values can be set in different reg keys for the USB (kbdhid) keyboard driver versus the ps2 (i8042prt) driver. There is more information on that and customizing which keystoke is used in KB Article 244139.

    Since this is implemented in the actual keyboard drivers, I don't expect this would work from and RDP session even if it was enabled.

  • Marc Gravell

    If we're generous, could it perhaps be used as an over-enthusiastic way of forcing a crash dump for manually investigating the system state? (primarily for debugging)

    OK - a pretty weird way to do it, but...

  • DLH

    Let's call it an easter egg.

    Congratulations.....you found it!

  • Jeffrey

    It sounds like something that wasn't worth the time and effort to remove from the codebase.

  • spoulson

    This sounds like a fun practical joke, really.

  • kpierce8

    You should watch Mark Russinovich's videos where he shows how to diagnose system hangs with this "feature". I think it was just set to off in SP2, not removed.

  • Vdex

    I'd imagine Microsoft performs unit testing on their OS before releasing updates etc. Presumably one of the tests would be to see if BSOD still behaves as it should. It also makes sense to run unit tests on the real active code-version for a more reliable test.