All About the Blue Screen of Death

Blue Screen of Death (commonly abbreviated as BSOD and sometimes called the Blue Screen of Doom) needs no introduction. It’s an integral part of each and every Windows Operating System. It’s the one thing that a user never wants to see but BSOD in the life of an Windows user is inevitable.

Although Microsoft is responsible for entering BSOD in the pop-culture, according to Wikipedia it isn’t an Microsoft innovation. Reportedly developers at Lattice Inc, the makers of an early Windows and OS/2 C compiler, were the first to use the term Blue Screen of Death.

The Blue Screen of Death has been an integral part of Windows since v1.1. However, in the first release it was displayed only when the system crashed during the boot process. It was not until Windows 3.1 that the BSOD was used to denote a Stop error. In later editions of Windows like Win 2K BSOD is used to display Hardware errors along with Stop errors. While Stop errors are displayed when a serious irrecoverable software error occurs, Hardware errors are displayed when error is due to hardware problem.

BSOD in Win 3.1

BSOD in Win 9x

BSOD in Win NT

Wired Magazine has a nice slideshow called BSOD Through the Ages. Don’t forget to check it out.

While Decoding the Blue Screen is not possible for a layman, having a general idea certainly helps. Microsoft has a nice article called Demystifying the ‘Blue Screen of Death’ that deals with Windows NT BSOD. Understanding the Windows 2000 Blue Screen of Death, part 1 and part 2 by Brien M. Posey offers a rough overview of Windows 2000 BSOD.

In general every BSOD displays an unique bug code (also called stop code and error code) along with a error title. The bug code is the set of values displayed immediately after “STOP:”.
Example
STOP : 0xC000021A (0×00000002, 0×00000001, 0×00000002, 0×00000000
STOP : c000021a (Fatal System Error)
In both the cases the highlighted set of values represent the bug code.

Note down this code and look it up in Microsoft Knowledgebase in order to get a hint regarding what went wrong. You can also reference the Complete List of System Error Codes (not just BSOD Error codes) found here. SUN Microsystem also provides a BSOD Primer which can be downloaded from here. If you wish to get more information about a BSOD screen give the Offline Crash Diagnostic tool a try.

The error message (e.g. “IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL” or “UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP”) can also be useful in giving a general idea about the nature of the error. However since XP the Operating System reboots by default upon encountering a critical error. To change it Right Click on My Computer Icon and select Properties (of Press Win+Pause). Go to Advanced–>Startup and Recovery > Settings. Uncheck the Automatically Restart Option under System Failure settings. It is highly recommended that you change this setting so that you can get a look at the error message displayed.

BSOD in Public Places : BSOD has a knack of showing up at public places. Here are some of the more memorable BSODs.

The Beijing Olympics (The Bird’s Nest)

Last Vegas

Time Square (New York)

Large outdoor screen in Australia

CNN

In a Departmental Store

Airports Around the world

Guangzhou

Frankfurt

Heathrow

Queen Alia

And of course the Windows 98 Beta Demo at Comdex

Sources for this section : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

BSOD On Demand : Windows includes a feature that allows you to generate a Stop error (BSOD) whenever you wish. By default, this feature is disabled. In order to enable it you need to tweak the registry as indicated below :

For PS/2 Keyboards
1. Start Registry Editor.
2. Locate the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesi8042prtParameters
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry entry:
Name: CrashOnCtrlScroll
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
4. Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.

For USB Keyboards (works only with Windows Server 2003-based systems)
1. Start Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Run command box.
2. Locate the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServiceskbdhidParameters
3. Make sure that the following registry entry is enabled:
Name: CrashOnCtrlScroll
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 1
4. Exit Registry Editor and restart the computer.

Now in order to make Windows crash simply hold down the Right Control Key and Press Scroll Lock twice. For more information refer to the Microsoft Knowledgebase

BSOD Screen Saver : The guys at Sysinternals have created a screensaver that generates an eerily accurate BSOD. The screensaver even shows your machine getting rebooted and can fake disk activity! Ironically since Microsoft purchased Sysinternals few years ago now Microsoft is the actual distributor of this screensaver. You can download it from here.

There is another BSOD screensaver called “The other BSOD screensaver” which pretends to cause a Windows crash, “re-boots” and installs Linux in disgust! Dont forget to notice the the username used for logging into Linux. This screensaver can be downloaded from here

Do not fret if you are using Mac. Thanks to this screensaver you can get the blue screen of death even on your mac.
Another option is XScreenSaver. It supports Mac and is bundled with most Linux and Unix systems running the X11 Window Systems. One of the several screensavers included in this package is a BSOD screensaver.

Get Rid of the Blue : It’s actually possible to change the colour of the blue screen of death. In fact you can change the background colour to any of the 16 supported colours. If you are adventurous and would like to do it manually check out Petri IT Knowledgebase. Alternatively, you can use this free software.

Nine Inch Nails Concert : Nine Inch Nails regularly uses an image of the infamous BSOD in the visuals of their live performance The Great Destroyer.

BSOD Tattoo : I really want to know who is this crazy geek who got the BSOD tattooed all over himself.

Source

BSOD in Halo : The Halo Series of games have several terminals displaying BSOD hidden in them. The most prominent one is in the multiplayer map Zanzibar in Halo 2.

BSOD T-Shirts : A quick Google search revealed that BSOD T-shirts are apparently quite popular. You can grab one from ErrorWear.