THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH! What Does It Mean?

[Wiley50]

I had heard others mention it before
but had never had it happen

I was replying to a thread
when it happend

EveryThing Went BLUE!

No Control
ctl+alt+del didn't work

The only thing that kept working
was the realplayer stream to Nova M

I hit POWER
heard it shut down

When I restarted (manually)
I got a prompt for:
Resume or Start new Session

Everything came back

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
(other than I ought ta have an apple )

WHAT HAPPENED?

[mike_c]

1. this....

see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death

[demdiva]

2. ummm i hate to tell you that

when my old computer kept doing that regularly it eventually went kaput .... i also remember the Dell people asking a lot of quetions about viruses. However since you're back in business you are probably ok.

[orleans]

14. (remember a couple weeks ago, bush gave a speech and he said

about iraq, something to the effect that when you watch the carnage on your "dell televisions" AND HE DID A SOUND BITE FOR DELL!

dell is republican. DELL SUCKS because the shrub promotes dell in his speeches about THE WAR! WHAT AN ASSHOLE!

(i mention this, just as a little aside)

[laconicsax]

3. While trying to avoid a PC vs. Mac debate

Macs have their own problems. I have yet to use a Mac that didn't freeze or crash on me.

[Kelly Rupert]

6. Why are you bringing up Macs?

OP: "Hey, what's this BSOD business?"
You: "I'm not trying to start a flamewar, but Macs really suck."

Besides, I have no idea what you're doing to those poor computers to make them crash. I've used nothing but Macs for a decade. I haven't had a crash in five years. I converted my girlfriend to the Cult of Mac two years ago. She hasn't had a single crash since. My mother uses a Mac. So does my father. Neither have had one crash. The only thing remotely close was when my mother didn't realize that simply closing windows didn't actually close programs, and so complained that her computer was so slow it was barely running...because she had every program on her computer running at once.

[Swamp Rat]

7. Must be using an old Performa with OS 7

:D

UNIX rules! :bounce:

[Kelly Rupert]

8. OS 7 kicked ass.

Last year my old IIVX finally kicked out after 12 years of faithful, stable service. I almost cried. Now, OS 9 and I...we didn't get along well. Not poorly, mind you. Just not well. I think it knew that deep down, I really wanted it to be OS 7.1.

[Swamp Rat]

12. No protected memory

Back then OS 7 was great, but now that we have protected memory... :loveya:

By the way, a DUer called me a liar a few weeks ago when I stated that I never EVER had a hardware failure since I bought my old Apple IIe 25 yrs ago (spilling grape juice into a keyboard does not count :D). Oh well. He's the one who has to live with the Windoze headaches - not me. :)

[Elwood P Dowd]

17. I sure as hell don't want to go back to OS 7

on my old Performa. You can have it.

[Nicole]

9. Probably because the OP mentioned them first?

"WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
(other than I ought ta have an apple )"


I've never had a crash problem on my Macs.

[Kelly Rupert]

11. OP mentioned Apple in passing.

Saying "I'm not trying to start a Mac/PC flamewar but EVERY MAC I'VE EVER LOOKED AT EXPLODED" when Apple was barely mentioned really looks like, well, trying to start a Mac/PC flamewar.

[Maven]

10. Same.

I have never had a single crash on a Mac. Not one. And I do a lot of processor and memory-intensive stuff.

Funny how the Windows fans always chime in with "but Macs have problems too!" and can never really name any.

[buzzard]

16. I have always had a mac and have never had a crash or a virus that I know of.n/t

[DaveJ]

23. Same here

I have had good luck with Windows I guess because mine never locks up. Of course I do not use laptops. I think they are more prone to overheating, maybe? When I had a job using Macs a few years ago they froze all the time.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

4. Computer haiku explains all

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Seeing my great fault
Through darkening blue windows
I begin again

The code was willing,
It considered your request,
But the chips were weak.

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have.
You ask way too much.

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
so beautifully.

A crash reduces
your expensive computer
to a simple stone.

There is a chasm
of carbon and silicon
the software can't bridge

(Authors unknown)

[flying_monkeys]

5. I think it means Black Friday

you may want to be looking for a new computer..... Just sayin'....

[kenny blankenship]

13. Not sure that was a true Blue Screen

It was probably a lesser type problem, like the video player clobbered the video card driver/hw somehow. Media players usually involve some special hw access to the video card--if something goes wrong, the CPU and OS may still be running but the video hardware may not in a recoverable state and requires resetting. The system is still up but since you can't see anything on screen it appears dead. You mentioned that you could still hear your realplayer stream; in any BSOD I've ever seen the processor is locked up completely, the screen is blue AND there is a blurb of white block text about a memory pagefault, or some other unhelpful last gasp from the operating system. A playing audio stream means networking stack is still alive and that whatever the realplayer uses to decode that stream into audio is still running, as is the operating system's ability to control the sound hardware.

[symbolman]

15. Here's what I would do and I've had it happen to me BIGTIME

Once got sent to a website by a 'friendly' email, and when I got there my laptop started showing big happy faces bouncing around like when you finish and win at the end of a solitaire game with the cards all making tracers, etc. Meanwhile a sound file sang, "YOU'RE A LOSER!" etc.

THEN it went Dead, and I mean DEAD as HELL. I couldn't revive it no matter what I did, complete BSOD.

I was able to get online and actually go back and forth with a Fujitsu guy who sent me a BOOT file so I could get it restarted, THEN I had to use my SYSTEM RESTORE Disks and basically set the computer back to Factory Specs, same as when I bought it. I lost TONS of info, flash political attack ads the world would never get to see (which is WHY someone gobsmacked my computer, using a WEBSITE, which I didn't know could be done)..

Then I was forced to reinstall ALL of my programs, which took a few days.

WHILE YOU CAN, I would suggest that you backup every file you can to another hard drive (Think REAL HARD before you grab the one that MAY have sent a virus along with it, could be something older that kicked in when you opened a certain program, etc - and DON'T pass those along to the hard drive or CDs or DVDs you may burn with all the backup)..

Then if you have RESTORE Disks for that computer, stick them in and RESTORE it to it's original pristine self, AND THEN reinstall the software that you had before. It's a real job, but it's the only way that you may save yourself a whole heap of info that WILL at some point go up in a cloud of pixals...

If nothing else, you don't have the time, then just BACKUP ALL important files NOW, and go on using the computer. THEN if the sucker gives you ANOTHER BSOD why THEN you might want to use the RESTORE option.

In my years of PC experience a BSOD means that either a part is going or you have a virus, but in either case you are one click away from losing a WHOLE bunch of info. Believe it, that's how PCs are. Don't know how old your PC is, maybe it's under warranty and you'll be able to get some help..

but FIRST Backup all important files.

You know I wouldn't BS you, anyone else got input? This is VERY Frightening if it happens to you..

Hope this helps, sometimes drastic measures are the best medicine, sorry to hear it happened.

ON EDIT: Poster 13 could be correct as well, but I would STILL backup all I've got that's important to me. As a matter of fact make Backing Up files a regular routine, doesn't hurt.

[Wiley50]

22. THanks! ButTis isa NEW Laptop

New in May
ACER 4072WLMi
Gig RAM
100G D
Pent M

Been having trouble all along
hangs up on shut down
haveto wait while Forms Parking shuts down
Then It hangs on Saving Settings
until I have to pull the plug Literally
and take out the battery

I don't know
Can't connect with a live body at ACER support
and already have so much stuff on it
I don't want to send it back

I did have 16 tabs open one one window of Firefox when this happend
DUH!

[northofdenali]

18. I know the TRUE meaning of the Blue Screen.

It means you're not having enough sex. If you were, the screen would be hazy.............


:P

[walldude]

19. Like Symbolman said, If you use a PC running Windows

keep your important stuff on a secondary drive or back it up to DVD or CD's often. I use an external USB hard drive to keep my files on. As far as the BSOD, unless it's happening a lot then I wouldn't worry too much about it. Windows is an unstable platform and sometimes it crashes, it's a fact of life. If it's happening often then I would back-up my important data and do a fresh install of Windows. I actually recommend doing this every six months or so. Windows is constantly getting filled up with junk files, drivers and such. You'll probably notice a big performance increase with a clean install. ;)

[symbolman]

25. Take a little time

to install service packs, update drivers, and DEFRAG your hard drives - that alone can make a world of difference.. a hard drive hopping all over the place looking for little bits of info to string together takes forever..

good advice here..

[aquart]

20. Oh, please. It means your pc is messin' wit ya.

You have NOT committed a fatal error. I get it all the time. My ancient PIII freezes when I've been online a long time at heavily graphic sites. Then it goes blue screen of death.

Reboot. It wants you to reboot. It's begging you to reboot.

[BattyDem]

21. There was a conflict somewhere

I've had Real Player crash my computer once or twice in recent years. It doesn't happen often, but it can happen. Are you running a new version of Real Player or did Real Player download any updates recently? If so, update your audio and video drivers. You should be OK. :-) You should backup your files, just in case it's the beginning of a larger problem, but a BSOD usually means a General Protection Fault occurred. It's Windows ... it happens.

[Wiley50]

24. Thanks To Everyone

I'll pour over it all andtry to do what you say

[Puzzler]

31. Yep...

... I had the same thing happen to me with Real Player a few weeks ago. I had to reboot to get everything back to normal. This never seemed to happen with the older versions of Real Player :(


-P

[pnorman]

26. I had heard that term so often,

but I never bothered to look it up on the web. Thanks.

pnorman

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

27. Time to buy a Mac.

Or switch to Linux (although, I still prefer OSX personally).

Seriously, I have no clue why someone would use Windows, unless it was a rare case of actually needing it.

[Hubert H. Hubert]

28. What version of Windows?

NT-based BSODs (NT 4.0, 2000, XP) are different from other versions. The biggest difference is that when NT goes blue, that's it. You're computer is done. The power and reset switches are your only friends. Older versions may give you the option to continue (which may not be a good idea, since whatever caused the BSOD may make things worse if you try to ignore it).

Every BSOD I've ever had was due to either bad hardware (especially memory) or poorly-written drivers.

[Gwerlain]

29. Speaking as an old timer,

I've crashed Macs, DOS, Windows, Solaris, HP/UX, VMS, Linux, AIX, MVS, CICS, and several proprietary systems on both processor and embedded controller systems. Nothing, but nothing, is crash-proof. Ain't none.

That said, I like the Windows UI a little better than Mac, though not much, none of the UNIX/Linux UIs, (sorry, KDE sucks, so does FVWM, and the CDE is from hell). Truth be told, other than Mac and Windows, most UIs suck. I use a lot of xterms. With black backgrounds. And green characters. It works for me. If I'd used Macs a lot, I'd probably like the Mac UI better. If I used FVWM more, I might like it better, too- but I'm never gonna like KDE. Sorry, it's too damn cute for me.

Meanwhile, if you're getting blue screens, it means the graphics card has lost its way. That can be virus, or hardware; outside chance you've been ignoring downloading the Windows Update patches. I'd start there. If you've been good about updates, then I'd look to your anti-virus software (and if you don't have any, I'd get that taken care of PDFQ). Make sure your virus definitions are up-to-date. Scan. Download a few spyware checkers- I favor SpyBot Search and Destroy, AdAware, and SpywareBlaster (the last is prophylactic rather than curative, but you know what they say about an ounce of prevention...) If that's all OK, then I'd start looking at hardware. Back up your shit before you send the computer in for service.

Good luck.

[Sherman A1]

30. At the very least this means

Back Up ALL your DATA - Quickly!