Blue Screen of Death
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- "BSoD" redirects here. For other uses, see BSoD (disambiguation).
The Blue Screen of Death (sometimes called "bluescreen", "stop error" or just abbreviated as "BSoD") is a popular name for the screen displayed by Microsoft's Windows operating system when it cannot recover from, or is in danger of being unable to recover from, a system error. There are two Windows error screens that are both referred to as the blue screen of death, with one (Windows NT 4/2000/XP) being significantly more serious than the other (Windows 9x). There are several causes of the blue screen popping up. It can be a poorly-written device driver, bad memory, damaged registry or usage of incompatible versions of DLLs (see more on the "Types of blue screens" section).
The blue screen of death in one form or another has been present in all Windows operating systems since Windows version 3.1. It is the successor of the less well-known black screen of death that occurs in OS/2 as well as MS-DOS<ref>BSOD Blue Screen Of Death -- Please use Linux, because crashing computers are no fun!!!:. Triteno (2001). Retrieved on 2006-05-07.</ref>. In early builds of Windows Vista it was complemented with a red screen of death, used for boot loader errors.
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[edit] Types of BSoDs
[edit] Windows NT
In Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista, a blue screen of death occurs when the kernel or a driver running in kernel mode encounters an error from which it cannot recover. This is usually caused by an illegal operation being performed. The only safe action the operating system can take in this situation is to restart the computer. As a result, data may be lost, as users are not given an opportunity to save data that has not yet been saved to the hard drive.
Blue screens are known as "Stop errors" in the Windows Resource Kit documentation. They are referred to as "bug checks" in the Windows Software development kit and Driver development kit documentation.
The text on the error screen contains the code of the error as well as its symbolic name (e.g. 0x0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED) along with four error-dependent values in parentheses that are there to help software engineers with fixing the problem that occurred. Depending on the error code, it may display the address where the problem occurred, along with the driver which is loaded at that address. Under Windows NT and 2000, the second and third sections of the screen may contain information on all loaded drivers and a stack dump, respectively. The driver information is in three columns; the first lists the base address of the driver, the second lists the driver's creation date (as a Unix timestamp), and the third lists the name of the driver <ref>Microsoft Corporation (1996-10-29). Microsoft Windows NT Workstation Resource Kit, 1st edition, Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. ISBN 1-57231-343-9.</ref>.
By default, Windows will create a memory dump file when a blue screen error occurs. Depending on the OS version, there may be several formats this can be saved in, ranging from a 64 KB "minidump" to a "complete dump" which is effectively a copy of the entire contents of physical RAM. The resulting memory dump file may be debugged later, using a kernel debugger. A debugger is necessary to obtain a stack trace, and may be required to ascertain the true cause of the problem; as the information onscreen is limited and thus possibly misleading, it may hide the true source of the error.
Microsoft Windows can also be configured to send live debugging information to a kernel debugger running on a separate computer. (Windows XP also allows for kernel debugging from the machine that is running the OS.) If a blue screen error is encountered while a live kernel debugger is attached to the system, Windows will halt execution and cause the debugger to "break in", rather than displaying the BSoD. The debugger can then be used to examine the contents of memory and determine the source of the problem.
The Windows debugger is available as a free download from Microsoft.<ref>Microsoft Corporation. Debugging Tools for Windows - Overview. Retrieved on 2006-03-04.</ref>
Windows includes a feature that can be used to cause a blue screen manually. To enable it, the user must add a value to the Windows registry. After that, a BSoD will appear when the user presses the SCROLL LOCK key twice while holding the right CTRL key.<ref>Microsoft Corporation. Windows feature allows a Memory.dmp file to be generated with the keyboard. Retrieved on 2006-03-04.</ref> This feature is primarily useful for obtaining a memory dump of the computer while it is in a given state. As such, it is generally used to aid in troubleshooting system hangs.
A BSoD can also be caused by a critical boot loader error, where the operating system is unable to access the boot partition due to incorrect storage drivers or similar problems. The error code in this situation is STOP 0x0000007B (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE). In such cases, there is no memory dump saved. Since the system is unable to boot from the hard drive in this situation, correction of the problem often requires booting from the Microsoft Windows CD. After booting to the CD, it may be possible to correct the problem by performing a repair install or by using the Recovery Console (with CHKDSK).
The color blue was chosen because there was a version of Windows NT for the DEC Alpha platform and there the console colors could not be changed in an easy way. For consistency reasons blue became the color for Stop errors on a platform (alpha/i386/mips/ppc).
[edit] ReactOS
ReactOS, an attempt at creating a free software/open source implementation of a Windows NT-compatible operating system, also features its own BSoD similar to the Windows NT one.
[edit] Windows 9x/Me
The blue screen of death also occurs in Microsoft's home desktop operating systems Windows 95, 98, and Me. Here it is less serious, but more common. In these operating systems, the BSoD is the main way for virtual device drivers to report errors to the user. It is internally referred to by the name of "_VWIN32_FaultPopup". A Windows 9x/Me BSoD gives the user the option either to restart or continue. However, VxDs do not display BSoDs frivolously — they usually indicate a problem which cannot be fixed without restarting the computer, and hence after a BSoD is displayed the system is usually unstable or unresponsive.
The most common reason for BSoDs is that problems occur with incompatible versions of DLLs. This cause is sometimes referred to as DLL hell. Windows loads these DLLs into memory when they are needed by application programs; if versions are changed, the next time an application loads the DLL it may be different from what the application expects. These incompatibilities increase over time as more new software are installed, and is one of the main reasons why a freshly-installed copy of Windows is more stable than an "old" one.
In Windows 95 and 98, a BSoD occurred when the system attempted to access the file "c:\con\con" on the hard drive. This was often inserted on websites to crash users' machines. Microsoft has released a patch for this.<ref>Microsoft Corporation (2000). Patch Available for "DOS Device in Path Name" Vulnerability. Microsoft TechNet. Retrieved on 2006-03-04.</ref>
The BSoD can appear if a user ejects a removable medium while it is being read on 9x/ME. This is particularly common while using Microsoft Office: if a user simply wants to view a document, he might eject a floppy disk before exiting the program. Since Microsoft Office always creates a temporary file in the same directory, it will trigger a BSoD upon exiting because it will attempt to delete the file on the disk that is no longer in the drive.
This type of blue screen is no longer seen in Windows NT, 2000, and XP. In the case of these less serious software errors, the program may still crash, but it will not take down the entire operating system with it due to better memory management and decreased legacy support. In these systems, the "true" BSoD is seen only in cases where the entire operating system crashes.
[edit] Windows CE
The simplest version of the blue screen occurs in Windows CE except the versions for Pocket PC. The blue screen in Windows CE 3.0 is similar to the one in Windows 95 and 98.
[edit] Xbox
Although the Microsoft Xbox usually shows a Green Screen of Death when a critical error occurs, this model was seen showing a BSoD during the presentation of Forza Motorsport.
[edit] Display
By default, the display is white (EGA color 0x0F; HTML color #FFFFFF) lettering on a blue (EGA color 0x01; HTML color #0000AA) background, with information about current memory values and register values. For visually impaired users, Microsoft has added a utility that allows the user to change a setting in system.ini that controls the colors that the BSoD code uses to any of the 16 EGA colors.
Windows 95, 98 and Me use 80x25 text mode. The font is identical to Fixedsys. The Windows NT BSoD uses 80x50 text mode. The screen resolution is 720x400. The XP BSoD uses font Lucida Console.
[edit] Red screen of death
The Red Screen of Death (abbreviated RSoD, sometimes called "Red Screen of Doom") is a nickname for the error message which exists in some beta versions of Microsoft's upcoming operating system, Windows Vista. It was dropped in Build 5112 of Windows Vista. It can also be found (but rarely) in versions of Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system.
The red screen of death appeared when boot loader errors occurred. Windows Vista continues to have blue screens for other types of errors.
The red screen of death also sometimes refers to fatal errors in recent versions of Lotus Notes. These errors are not full-screen like the Microsoft red or blue screens of death, but rather are bright red boxes with black borders.
The RSoD uses 80×25 text mode.
[edit] Blue screens in the IT industry
System administrators often use "to bluescreen" or "to BSoD" as a verb, as in: "The server just bluescreened", "Oh, great, it's going to BSoD", or "Windows 2000 doesn't bluescreen as much as NT 4 did."
Embedded systems running Microsoft Windows NT Embedded and Windows XP Embedded have also been known to Bluescreen.<ref>Microsoft Mirth. Retrieved on 2006-03-04.</ref> Typical examples are Internet payphones, automatic teller machines and information displays.
On an unpatched Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 systems, it is possible for a BSoD to occur as a result of WinNuke, a type of internet attack.
[edit] Understanding the Blue Screen of Death
Each BSoD usually displays a message such as FILE_SYSTEM as well as a number like 0x00000022. The usual parameters displayed for the BSoD are the following:
number of error (parameter, parameter, parameter, parameter) name of error
Knowing all of the above information is important in understanding and determining the cause of the BSoD.<ref>http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/w2kmsgs/1117.asp</ref>
[edit] References to the Blue Screen of Death
Perhaps the most famous BSoD event occurred when Bill Gates was himself unveiling the then-new Windows 98 at COMDEX on April 20 1998. The demo PC crashed with a BSoD when his assistant connected a scanner to the PC. (Video can be viewed here.) This event brought thunderous applause from the crowd and considerable embarrassment to Microsoft. Gates only limited himself to say, "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet."
The online webcomic BSOD takes its name from the phenomenon.
The BSoD was immortalized in verse by Peter Rothman in his well-known entry for the Salon.com haiku error message challenge: Windows NT crashed. / I am the Blue Screen of Death. / No one hears your screams.
As the BSoD is often subject to jokes and gags, it was also "introduced" to other system platforms as part of screensavers.
Microsoft has also included a reference to the BSoD as an Easter egg in the Internet Explorer browser (versions 4 through 7). Typing "about:mozilla" in the address bar will result in a blank blue page being displayed. However, this has been removed with Service Pack 2 but it can still be shown by typing "res://mshtml.dll/about.moz" instead. The command is the standard way to bring up The Book of Mozilla, another Easter egg on the Netscape/Mozilla family of browsers.Image:PSPBSoD.pngImage:RSODPSP.jpg
Several online vendors sell blue T-shirts that re-create the BSoD, and BSoDs commonly appear in video games and webcomics.
On the PlayStation Portable, when the "flash1:\" directory becomes corrupted, it displays the "BSoD", prompting you to reset its system to the default factory settings. There is also a "RSoD", very rare, when the flash0:/ directory is corrupted. An error resulting in an RSoD is sometimes unfixable.
In Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Black Hole CO Jugger speaks in very technical diction; "blue screen of death" is one of the sayings he might use when initiating a Tag Attack/Dual Strike or CO Power.
One of the sanity effects of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem involves abruptly displaying a BSoD during a battle or tense scene. It appears for only a few seconds, before the screen flashes white, returning to the actual game.
In the Halo 2 multiplayer map Zanzibar, opening the gate from the control panel causes the panel to display a spoof blue screen. This can also be found in the levels Delta Halo and High Charity.
In Irregular Webcomic the crew of the sci fi ship have a computer that steals unused runtime from past computers using time travel. When asked "Is it safe?" Spanners can barely finish his reply before the Blue Screen of Death comes up.
In the game Startopia, workstations in the lab can sometimes be seen experiencing BSoD. (Causing the Turraken staff to bash the machines)
In the The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius episode called Sleepless in Retroville, Jimmy says "I can't delete the pizza, the screen's frozen!" and it shows the blue screen of death.
In the game Far Cry, a Windows 9x-style BSoD can be seen on various computer monitors.
In American McGee Presents Scrapland, a human software salesman appears midway through the game, and tells you that "If I install our software on your machine, it will destroy your software." This is necessary to complete the game, and after he does, all indoor screens which used to display news now show a BSOD.
In SWAT 4 and SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate almost every PC screen in the game shows a blue screen of death.
In the computer game Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, in one of the "Nosferatu Warrens" levels, there is a computer you must activate to open a hatchway to the lowest Warrens levels. The screen of that computer shows a satirical variant of the blue screen of death.
In the comic Bob And George, on August 5, 2004, Bob tries to make a machine create "the most powerful robot master in existence," resulting in the machine bluescreening.
In the Web cartoon Weebl and Bob, in episode "Upgrade 2", the computer in the background of the computer store displays the blue screen of death. It is best seen when zoomed in.
In the Web cartoon "Homestar Runner," during Strong Bad Emails, Strong Bad's computer often crashes, showing a blue screen reading "FLAGRANT SYSTEM ERROR".<ref>Strong Bad Email #50 (SWF). Retrieved on 2006-10-03.</ref> A later email features the "Teal Screen of Near Death (TSoND)".<ref>Strong Bad Email #159 (SWF). Retrieved on 2006-10-03.</ref>
In the movie Digimon: The Movie, Tai hits his dad's computer, resulting in a BSoD.
In the video game Prey, in an early level, repeatedly triggering a forcefield control panel will result in the panel bluescreening, except the text is written in the Sphere's alien language. Reportedly, cheating so that the player gains the ability to translate alien text that early in the game reveals that the panel was running on "SphereOS", with the rest of the message being a standard blue screen, with the ever-present phrase "Bless the Mother" added to the end.
In the comic FoxTrot Jason Fox dresses as a Blue Screen of Death for Halloween and contemplates of sending Microsoft some of his candy.
In a clip of a pseudo tribute to Bill Gates and Microsoft featured on the Late Show with David Letterman, a brief clip with a serious tone is interrupted by an error dialog box followed by a blue screen of death. <ref>David Letterman pseudo tribute to Microsoft clip. (SWF). Retrieved on 2006-10-12.</ref>
In the series My Parents are Aliens Sophie and Brian check the Galactic Guidebook about 'friendship' where towards the end of the file the computer says "File not found...Oh no...Blue Screen of Death". Later on the file is fixed and the BSoD disappears.
On Adult Swim, one of the cards said that Adult Swim changed operating systems to avoid crashing on Windows (showing the BSoD). After announcing it was the "uncrashable Mac OS", the spinning wheel (see below) appeared on screen and froze the music, after which they said "**** this, we're going open source" before going out.
In the online game Adventure Quest, the 'blue scroll of death' is displayed when an internet connection is broken.
In Guilty Gear X2, Robo-Ky experiences the Blue Screen of Death after his battle with Baiken.
In the seventh episode of LittleKuriboh's Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series, Seto Kaiba is stopped from hacking Pegasus's computer by the blue screen of death. <ref>the Abridged Series Episode Seven (SWF). Retrieved on 2006-10-30.</ref>
In the video game Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2, one of the summon beasts, the robot, EX-e-LD, screams "Blue Screen of Death".
download the bluescreen screensaver at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen.mspx
An ironic Mac OS X-compatible Blue Screen of Death screensaver can be found at http://www.paramac.com/?id=bsod.
When Intel unveiled that their processors would be available on Apple computers in 2005, a fake commercial, created from their actual television spot, was circulated around the Internet; it was the identical to the real commercial except it ended abruptly with a Blue Screen of Death.
[edit] Windows 1.0
While this is mostly a coincidence, a blue screen can occur if the very first version of Windows fails during startup:
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[edit] References
[edit] See also
- Spinning wait cursor, Spinning Beach Ball of Death or Spinning Pizza of Death — similarly-named icon in Mac OS X, that commonly means an application is busy, but can mean a serious error requiring restarting the application or the computer
- Screen of Death — Similar critial errors pages on other version of Windows and other operating systems
Purple Screen of Death : Vmware ESX server psod. http://static.flickr.com/62/168381518_8531f9788d_m.jpg
- White Screen of Impatience - When a Windows application stops responding, it will stop redrawing itself and the contents of its window will remain white until either the program resumes communication with the operating system ( usually after a long blocking operation on the main thread ) or the user forcibly terminates the application, eg through Task Manager. This is much less serious than a Blue Screen, although has a similar unpleasant effect on the user.
[edit] External links
- Official Microsoft BlueScreen Screen Saver v3.2
- Common Windows XP Error Messages and Fix
- A Webcomic named after the Blue Screen of Death
- A Simulation of the Blue Screen of Death
- Andy Mallett's legendary Gallery of Blue Screens and Open Source Tips
- Bill Gates gets the BSoD at the unveiling of Windows 98
- "Windows Server 2003 Troubleshooting Stop Errors" - microsoft.com
- Troubleshooting Windows STOP Messages
- MVP Mark Salloway's Windows XP Resource Center - Introduction to Stop Errors
- Bloopers bedevil Gates at CES - BSoD during Bill Gates' keynote address at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (ZDNet, January 7 2005)
- Original report of RSoD from a Microsoft employee
- BSoD upgrades to RSoD in Longhorn from Joi Ito
- The XScreenSaver collection (Linux / X Window, free) includes a "BSOD Screensaver" that simulates BSOD's from many historical computing platforms
- Bluescreen, enterpreneurship, sufism
- BSoD Gallery, including ATMs, Billboards, Slot machines and more
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