How to Find BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) Error Messages

Discussion in 'Windows OS's' started by Jan Benedict, Dec 18, 2012.

  1. Jan Benedict

    Jan Benedict Geek

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    This thread will help you find, locate and analyze BSOD error messages. By default there are 4 places where the error messages can be located. If in the event you disabled Windows Event Viewer or Error Reporting Services then you are LOST.. :p

    The BSOD, commonly known as Blue Screen of Death is a screen that Windows shows you when it shuts down your computer in order to prevent damage to it. It's also known as a STOP error or as a BugCheck Code. It is a hardware error by definition - but this doesn't mean that it's caused by faulty hardware. Viruses, corrupt drivers, and even poorly written programs can cause it.

    Here's an example of the screen with some notations on what to look for:
    [​IMG]

    Finally, a note on shorthand. A STOP 0x0000007a error is referred to (in shorthand) as a STOP 0x7a error. It's just a way of not having to write all them zero's out each time that you refer to it.

    Cases:
    1. The first place to get the information is from the Blue Screen itself. Write down all of the long numbers, the description that's in all Caps with underscores ( _ ) between the words, and any file names that may be mentioned (be sure to note if there wasn't a filename in your post). Check out How To Use Event Viewer.

    In the event that the BSOD flashes by too fast to read, check out How to Disable Automatic Restarts.

    2.The next place to find the information is in the Event Viewer. Use the mini-guide in the second reference to see how to do this

    3.The last place to find the information is on your hard drive. Search your hard drive for files ending in .dmp and .mdmp. You're looking for the most recent file (or the one closest to the last BSOD that you experienced). Once you find it, (How To Debug A BSOD Error Message) to perform an analysis of the memory dump. Be sure to use the !analyze -v command in the bottom of the Debugger's window before closing out your session. Then copy and paste the results into your next post. Someone will have a look at it to see if we can figure out what's gone wrong.

    4.Sometimes, when Error Reporting is enabled, the dump files will be stored temporarily on your system and are erased once the report is sent. To save this info, you'll have to copy the dump file before sending the report. To do this, just click on the "Details" link in the error report and you'll see some file locations listed. Choose the one that ends in .dmp or .mdmp, locate it in Windows Explorer, and copy it to your Desktop (you'll have to enable viewing of hidden files to do this). Here's an example of the Details:
     

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