The blue screen of death (BSoD) is the screen displayed by Microsoft's Microsoft Windowsoperating system when it cannot (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 being significantly more serious than the other.
The blue screen of death in one form or another has been present in all Windows operating systems since History of Microsoft Windows. It is related to the black screen of death in OS/2. It has been said that in Windows Longhorn it will be complemented with the red screen of death, which will be used for the more serious errors.
==Types of blue screens==
===Windows XP/2000/NT===
In Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP, a blue screen of death (known as a "Stop error" in the Windows NT/2000/XP documentation) occurs when the kernel (computers) encounters an error from which it cannot recover. This is usually caused by a driver that throws an unhandled exception handling or performs an illegal operation. The only action the user can take in this situation is to restart the computer, which results in possible data loss due to Windows not properly shutting down.
The "Stop" message contains the error code and its symbolic name (ex: 0x0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED) along with four error-dependent values in parentheses. It displays the address where the problem occurred, along with the driver in question. Under Windows NT and 2000, the second and third sections of the screen 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. (Microsoft et al, 1996)
Windows can be set up to send debugging information through a COM port to a separate kernel debugger. A debugger is necessary to perform a stack (computing) trace, as the information onscreen is limited and thus possibly misleading, as it may hide the true source of the error.
In 2003, the people at TweakXP.com [http://www.tweakxp.com] found a "feature" that can be used to manually cause a blue screen. 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. [http://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=2066]
===Windows Me/9x===
The blue screen of death also occurs in Microsoft's home desktop operating systems Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me. Here it is less serious, but more common. In these operating systems, the BSoD is the main way for VxDs 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 to either 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 BSoD'ing is problems with incompatible versions of dynamically linked librarys. 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 is 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 occurs when the system attempts to access the file "c:\con\con". This is often inserted on websites to crash user's machines. Microsoft has released a patch for this. [http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms00-017.mspx]
The BSOD can appear if a user ejects a removable medium while it is being read on 9x/ME.
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.
==Display==
By default, the display is white (Color_Graphics_Adapter color 0x0F; HTML color #FFFFFF) lettering on a blue (Enhanced Graphics Adapter color 0x01; HTML color #0000AA) background, with information about current memory values and register values. For visually impared 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 CGA colors.
Windows 95, 98 and Me use 80x25 text mode. The font is similar to Fixedsys. The Windows NT BSoD uses 80x50 text mode. The screen resolution is 720x400. The XP BSoD uses font Lucida Console.
===Windows XP===
The following is a re-creation of the Windows XP BSoD, although they vary somewhat:
A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage
to your computer.
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT
If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen,
restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow
these steps:
Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer
for any Windows updates you might need.
If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware
or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart
your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then
select Safe Mode.
Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x0000004e (0x00000099, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further
assistance.
===Windows NT4/2000===
The Windows NT4/2000 BSoD looks like this:
===Windows 95/98/Me===
The following is a re-creation of a Windows 95/98/Me BSoD:
Windows
A fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0157:BF7FF831. The
current application will be terminated.
* Press any key to terminate the current application.
* Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your computer. You will
lose any unsaved information in all applications.
Press any key to continue
==Blue screens in the IT industry==
System administrators often use "to bluescreen" or "to BSoD" (with each letter pronounced individually—that is, "bee-ess-oh-dee") as a verb, as in: "The server just BSoD'd", "Oh, great, it's going to BSoD", or "Windows 2000 doesn't bluescreen as much as NT 4 did." (This usage is unrelated to color key special effects in film, also called bluescreen.)
Embedded systems running Microsoft Windows have also been known to Bluescreen. Typical examples are Internet payphones, automatic teller machines and information displays.
Some BSoDs have been caused by WinNuke, which was a very popular way for script kiddies to attack other people and disconnect computers from their Internet connections and/or cause a BSoD. The vulnerability WinNuke exploits exists only in Windows 95, and Microsoft has released a patch preventing WinNuke attacks.
==Well-known references to the blue screen of death==
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 (virtual) in the Internet ExplorerWeb browser (versions 4 through 6). Typing "''about:mozilla''" in the address bar will result in a blank blue page being displayed. The command is the standard way to bring up The Book of Mozilla, another Easter egg on the Netscape/Mozilla family of browsers.
Several online vendors sell blue T-shirts that re-create the BSoD.
In the Xboxvideo gameHalo 2, the Microsoft owned Bungie Studios put in a reference to the BSoD. In the multiplayer map level known as List of Multiplayer Maps in Halo 2#Zanzibar, there is a console that can be used by players to open a near-by gate. Once the console is used, the screen immediately goes to a BSoD-like screen that pokes fun at the true computer error.
==Reference==
*Microsoft Corp. (1996). ''Microsoft Windows NT workstation resource kit''. 1st ed. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press.
==See also==
*Sad Mac — Pre-iMac (Old World ROM) Mac OS equivalent
*Spinning wait cursor — 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.
*Guru Meditation — Amiga OS equivalent
*Bomb (symbol) — Atari / Mac OS (old) equivalent
*Kernel panic — Unix variant equivalent
*Red screen of death — The red alternative, rumored to exist in Windows Longhorn
*Yellow screen of death — A screen shown when there is XML parsing error happens in Mozilla browsers.
==External links==
* [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=859637b4-85f1-4215-b7d0-25f32057921c&displaylang=en "Windows Server 2003 Troubleshooting Stop Errors" - microsoft.com]
* [http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm Troubleshooting Windows STOP Messages]
* [http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/bsod.php MVP Mark Salloway's Windows XP Resource Center - Introduction to Stop Errors]
* [http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=653343 How to change the color of the BSOD] on Everything2
* [http://zem.squidly.org/bsod/ BSoD popping up in odd places]
* [http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/99/Oct/bsod.html BSoD humor]
* [http://www.windowscrash.com Screenshots of BSoDs and similar windows problems]
* [http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=13280 Blue Screen of Death hits Prague Airport]
* [http://www.dognoodle99.cjb.net/bsod/ A lot of BSoDs in many different places]
* [http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9804/20/gates.comdex/ BSoD of Windows 98 presented by Bill Gates]
* [http://daimyo.org/bsod/ BSoD Gallery]
* [http://zdnet.com.com/1606-2-5517693.html Bloopers bedevil Gates at CES] - BSOD during Bill Gates' keynote address at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (ZDNet, January 7, 2005).
* [http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/bluescreensaver.shtml A BSoD screensaver for Windows]
*[http://www.errorwear.com/ Errorwear, a retailer of BSoD T-Shirts].
Microsoft WindowsComputing
Blue screen of death
== What qualifies as a Blue Screen of Death? ==
The consumer versions of Windows have their own blue screen, but I've never seen the true Blue Screen of Death -- at least to my usage of the term. You get messages like 'The system is waiting for a program to complete, esc to continue or ctrl-alt-delete to reboot'. Generally the three fingered salute is the only effective way out, but one can gamely try the alternatives. Windows 3.1, if I recall correctly, would even do this for things like a floppy disk being ejected while a file was being accessed from the floppy. --User:Belltower
Windows 98SE BSoD's on some occasions when reading off of removable media, ie cdrom and floppy, and the media is removed in the process, not very ammusing. --User:Creaktop
Nice way to confuse elementary school kids...believe me, I've had experience with friends :P User:Ilyanep 20:11, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC)
----
As a reluctant Windows user (used to be a Mac user), I have seen what I always thought was called the blue screen of death far too many times--it's a common feature of all Windows systems, I thought. I've changed the article to reflect this. What I didn't know is that there are some people who restrict the usage only to the screen that occurs on Windows NT. Here's an example where programmers' usage and common usage might diverge, and where the article might usefully contain information about that divergence. Of course, I could just be confused. --User:LMS
It is a silly distinction. Even the folks at Microsoft on the Windows 95 team called their version "blue screen of death", though they knew it was somewhat different from the NT version. The public certainly calls all of the Windows blue-screens that. --LDC (Who actually understands the number on the real NT BSoD)
== Screenshots? ==
Great job on recreating the BSODs! They looked like screenshots until I highlighted em :-)
--User:Cprompt
: They apparently do! How realistic --User:Menchi 02:02, 24 Nov 2003 (UTC)
::Really Nice!
: However the text in the article says that 9x/ME used fixedsys font, however the "screenshot" contradicts that. They look really good, I was wondering how there was a screenshot of a BSOD! User:Richard cocks 04:53, Mar 9, 2004 (UTC)
----
Here's the old "re-creation" of a 9x/Me BSoD that looks rather funky in Internet Explorer. I've swapped it out with a more compatible one. -- User:Minesweeper
Windows
:A fatal exception 0E has occurred at 0157:BF7FF831. The current application will be terminated.
: * Press any key to terminate the current application.
: * Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your computer. You will
: lose any unsaved information in all applications.
Press any key to continue
== Windows XP Bsod? ==
Uhh...hate to burst your bubble but the statement "The following is a re-creation of a Windows NT/2000/XP BSoD: " would be untrue because Windows XP does not have a BSOD, it is a more annoying dialog box which makes the problem even worse. User:Ilyanep 18:52, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC)
:Windows XP, and all versions of NT have a BSOD. It looks different than their 95/98 counterparts. It is officially called a STOP error. Windows XP is stable enough such that many people never even see one. You only get a BSOD in XP if something REALLY goes wrong such that the system cannot proceed. You won't see one just because an application crashed.
:--User:Cprompt 20:27, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC)
::I've used WinXP for 2 years now, and I've had some bad things happen to my PC, never seen a STOP error. Seen them pretty often in NT/2k & 98. User:Ilyanep 22:35, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC)
:::Trust me. It's there. Friends of mine congratulate each other for the most extreme cases that led to an XP STOP error. Blue screens are acknowledged by Microsoft on the following two pages. [http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/howto/gettingstarted/guide/troubleshoot.asp] [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b2adb86e-4ef3-4b6b-a255-a6941bb7296b&displaylang=en]
:::--User:Cprompt 18:59, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)
::: It's there, however by default, 2k/XP reboot instead of displaying a BSOD (sytem properties>advanced>startup and recovery>automatically reboot) User:Richard cocks 04:57, Mar 9, 2004 (UTC)
:::: Yes, I can attest to that fact. About two months ago I BSOD'ed on WinXP. I only saw the BSOD for a split second before my computer restarted. After not having seen one for going on 2 years, I was terrified. I seriously just stared at my screen motionless before I could accept the horror of what had just happened :) User:FilthMasterFlex 02:01, September 2, 2004 (UTC)
::You're confusing a STOP error with a General Protection Fault or other application error. A STOP error is a serious problem with the Windows kernel itself. User:Metasquares 19:01, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)
:::Oh...seems that right after you told me about the errors, I see them more. I've gotten at least 3 stop errors since January. User:IlyanepUser talk:Ilyanep 15:52, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Comment from BSoD article: ''The Blue Screen of Death is extinct in the new Windows XP Professional OS''
Why? What does it do instead? Never ''ever'' crash? Silently hang? Put up an advert for Windows XP: TNG?
-- User:The Anome
:A Google search for ''XP pro BSOD'' presents plenty of evidence that the BSoD is alive and well in XP Pro.
::Yet, nobody ever sees it. I've only seen the stupid annoying dialog boxes (see below) User:Ilyanep 20:13, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC)
:::Typical Microsoft doublespeak... In Windows 3.0 program crashes were accompanied by screens that called them UAEs (Unrecoverable Application Errors). They happened frequently and were widely condemned. Microsoft claimed that you would never see them in Windows 3.1. Well, you didn't—they changed the terminology to GPF (General Protection Fault). User:Dpbsmith 03:45, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)
== Describing 0xEF and FFFFFF ==
Any point in describing HTML and 0x... colors for white and blue? I'm sure people know what white and blue is. User:Ilyanep 22:36, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC)
:0xEF describes the exact hue. It's why the re-creation of the BSoD's has the same color as the real ones.
:--User:Cprompt 19:04, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)
----
== Gates' infamous BSoD ==
Remember the time that Bill Gates was demonstrating a new release of Windows for the press (I think it was 95) on an enormous projection screen, and got the BSoD? I think that this event should be referenced (and ideally supported with the photo I have seen) in this article. User:Matt gies 03:36, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)
:[http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9804/20/gates.comdex/ here's a link to the story] User:Matt gies 03:42, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)
== Miscellany ==
=== The message displayed on the blue screen was "Kernel Stack Error". ===
I am using DELL PE 1600 Series where i have some softwares installed on that, i am getting the above error when i First time this had occurred when we connected the DLT tape to the system. After the system gave the Blue screen we disconnected the DLT.
when i try to connect again it has given blue dump again. The message displayed on the blue screen was "Kernel Stack Error".
Regards,
Kiran Kumar
Email: server.support@mphasis.com
----
''Content from :Blue screen of death. I don't think it adds anything new, but feel free to integrate it with the main article:''
The 'Blue Screen of Death' (BSOD) is a text-only screen with white text displayed on a blue background: it is the response of the :Microsoft Windows operating system to a major internal operating system inconsistency, the equivalent of a 'kernel panic' in UNIX-compatible systems.
The BSOD has been used as a symbol of the perceived lower reliability of the Microsoft Windows operating environment compared to :UNIX-compatible systems such as :Linux.
----
I'm reverting user:The Anome's insertion of subtitles "Operating system crash" and "Application crash", because they are misleading: in Win9x/Me, BSoD's originate in the deepest parts of the operating system -- device drivers or the ring-0 part of the kernel. Terminating the current application is an (often vain) attempt to restore the system to a valid context, so that execution can continue. -- User:Tim Starling 13:41 May 1, 2003 (UTC)
==about:mozilla==
:''Microsoft has also included a reference to the BSoD as an easter egg in the Internet Explorer browser. Typing "about:mozilla" in the address bar will result in a blank blue page being displayed. The command is the standard way to bring up The Book of Mozilla, another easter egg on the Netscape family of browsers.''
Can someone confirm this easter egg? I tried it in Windows XP SP2 and I don't see the blank blue page. I'm assuming this might just relate to a specific version of IE, if so could someone add the specific version to the article. User:AlistairMcMillan 18:45, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)
* I can confirm the existence of this easter egg in IE version 6.0.2800.1106. User:62.255.32.9 22:32, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
* It does not happen on Internet Explorer for Macintosh - not surprisingly, since it was made by a different team. (tested version: 5.2.1)
I tried this, but it doesn't seem to work for me, im using IE version 6.0.2900.2180 on XP Home. I tried both about:mozilla and about: mozilla, just to see if it works. Can anyone confirm this? User:Firestorm 23:16, Mar 30, 2005 (UTC)
* I can confirm it in IE 6.0.2800.1106 SP1 on windows 2000 professional SP4. Perhaps it is left out after win2k?
* I have IE 6.0.2900.2180 on Windows XP Professional, and it doesn't work for me. It just says "Action canceled". - User:Evil saltine 10:31, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
* I tried it just now and it worked. --User:169.139.185.1 12:21, 11 May 2005 (UTC)