Blue Screen of Death Blog

What’s Scarier Than the Blue Screen of Death?

bluescreenofdeathblog — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:40:19 +0000

Halloween is coming up, and it’s the perfect time to spring the scariest trick imaginable on your friends and family–Of course, the Blue Screen of Death!

Fake Blue Screen of Death Prank

A classic prank is to use access to your victim’s computer to make them THINK the Blue Screen of Death has struck. It’s not hard to do, as long as you can get a few uninterrupted minutes alone with the computer.

How the Fake BSoD Works

One option is to simply find an image of the Blue Screen of Death online, select it, and set it as the desktop background. Of course, you’ll need a creative way to hide the desktop icons for this to work for more than second or two.

Another option is to find a BSoD screensaver online, download it, and set it as your friend or family member’s main screen saver. Once the computer is idle for awhile, BAM! Welcome to the Blue Screen of Death (cue evil laughter).

Fun is fun, but before you download anything onto someone else’s computer, make sure it’s virus free, and that the computer has solid anti virus protection just in case. Also, you should probably let your victim in on the joke before he or she starts throwing things—like the computer.

Troubleshooting Windows 8

bluescreenofdeathblog — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:27:48 +0000

Since Windows 8 isn’t out yet, I can’t give you specific ways to troubleshoot it, but if you do get the new, user-friendly Blue Screen of Death with Windows 8, we mentioned a few things last week that you could do about it.

Anti Virus Windows 8 Solutions

Once you’ve done everything you can, if the BSoD recurs, you don’t need to downgrade to Windows 7 or start using Linux. Go through whatever process worked before, but this time be sure to run quality anti virus software and a Registry Cleaner. This is critically important, as if you don’t get rid of whatever viruses are on your computer causing your Blue Screen of Death, they will keep coming back, just like a real virus.

Registry Cleaning for Computer Health

If the problem is in your registry, the Registry Cleaner should fix it. This is more common than you might think, as conflicts in the registry can easily result in a system crash, and hence, a Blue Screen of Death.

Remember, there’s no reason to think that Windows 8 will cause any more BSoDs than any other Windows OS, and hopefully, it will cause fewer. Regardless, you have some time to worry about it, as Windows 8 probably won’t be released until 2012.

Does New Mean More?

bluescreenofdeathblog — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:13:03 +0000

With all this talk about the new Blue Screen of Death, you may be concerned, does the revamp mean we can expect to see the BSoD more often? Clearly this is not a desirable outcome for PC users, but is it a concern?

Windows 8 and The Blue Screen of Death

There’s no particular reason to assume that Windows 8 will have more crashes than any other operating system. In fact, we always hope that a new operating system means fewer problems. That being said, bugs often need to be worked out, and there is always the possibility that this will happen with Windows 8, as it is a major revamp of the Microsoft operating system.

Resolving the BSoD in Windows 8

If you do experience a Blue Screen of Death with Windows 8, follow the same procedures as you would in any other circumstance. Uninstall recently installed programs or drivers and see if this resolves the problem. If it does, find a compatible version of the program or driver that will not cause the same difficulty. If this doesn’t help, check the Microsoft website for patches or updates that might resolve the problem. If you’re still seeing a problem, try a System Restore to get the computer back to a time where it was working properly. I’ll have more ideas on this next week.

Down on Blue

bluescreenofdeathblog — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:44:50 +0000

Well, the results are creeping in, and while most people seem to be fans of the new Blue Screen of Death upgrade for Windows 8, some people have some concerns. For example:

Not Informative Enough

A few more computer savvy users are complaining that the new BSoD simply isn’t informative. That the sad emoticon is superfluous and one line suggesting where you could go to research the problem isn’t sufficient. They say that stop error codes are quite helpful if you know how to use them.

Let’s face the facts. Most people DON’T know how to use them, and they usually really aren’t that much more informative than what the new error messages will probably be. In fact, it seems what the new Blue Screen of Death really does is translate those confusing hexadecimals into something a user can at least try to understand.

Leads to Hacking

Another concern some have is that an enterprising hacker might duplicate the screen and include their own command to transmit a password or other such malicious doings. This seems unlikely to me, and to combat it, just don’t give away any information because a blue screen tells you to. That’s obviously not what they’re for.

I say, embrace the change. Viva le New Blue!

The New Blue

bluescreenofdeathblog — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 23:37:20 +0000

Last time I introduced you to the new Blue Screen of Death, and I was wondering what readers who use PCs out there in cyberland thought about the change. For those of you who missed it (and for whom the scroll wheel in your mouse is broken), the new BSoD looks a little something like this:

You’ll notice some significant changes from the old version. It’s a cooler, lighter blue, and instead of a page of confusing, intimidating white text full of hexadecimal codes and other such gibberish, you get a few lines of simple text along with a sad emoticon. What do people think of the new change?

I love it. You’re still getting information about what may have caused the error (in that smaller print) and its actually information you can use, rather than a code you have to look up and still don’t quite get what it means. You also get a little time to read the message, and get to find out how long you have before the restart, as opposed to the flash of blue and white you got the old way.

On the whole, it’s obviously much more user-friendly, and I think that’s a great improvement. Now let’s hope I never have to see it again.

The New Face of Death

bluescreenofdeathblog — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:23:42 +0000

There’s something a little different you may notice about Windows 8. Hopefully, you’ll never have the opportunity to actually see it, so in the service of that dream, here it is, the new face of the Blue Screen of Death:

A sad face, to be exact. One of the “improvements” of Windows 8 is a more user friendly Blue Screen of Death. The folks over at Microsoft feel that this Blue Screen will be less intimidating and clearer than the old version. After all, a second of stop error codes flashed across a screen doesn’t mean much to the average computer user beyond “you’re screwed,” but everyone gets the sad face. However, there is still a little information along the bottom there to help you figure out just why you got the error you did.

What do you think? Is a BSoD by any other face still a BSoD, or is this new design a welcome change? Sure, you still don’t want to see a Blue Screen of Death under any circumstances, but will this make it a little easier to take? Or is it making light of a serious problem. I’d love to hear what the readers and PC users out there think of this exciting new development.

Staying one Step Ahead of the Blue Screen of Death

bluescreenofdeathblog — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:15:23 +0000

Getting a Blue Screen of Death is not inevitable. As computers become more sophisticated and computer users do as well, more and more people find that the BSoD is not the way of life that it once was. There are a few things you can do to stay a step ahead of the Blue Screen of Death

Take Care of Your Computer

Your computer, even a laptop, is a delicate instrument, and should be treated as such. Don’t subject it to harsh impacts, be sure to keep it in a temperature controlled environment, and keep it away from liquids and dust.

Stay on Top of the News

You can set some web browsers to alert you whenever new Blue Screen of Death news comes up, or you could periodically make it a point to check for such news yourself.

Keep Your Anti Virus Software Current

New viruses are always a danger when it comes to the Blue Screen of Death. Make sure you scan your computer regularly for viruses and that your anti virus software is up to date with all of the most important virus definitions in order to keep your computer as safe as possible.

Follow the above tips, and you just might be able to stay one step ahead of the BSoD.

Rise and Fall of the “Ping of Death”

bluescreenofdeathblog — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:13:12 +0000

Last week we talked about a new wave of Microsoft patches to fix 22 vulnerabilities in Windows. What we did not mention was that one of these vulnerabilities has been around for about 20 years. Like smallpox, the dreaded “Ping of Death” has finally been eradicated, at least, so we hope.

The Ping of Death

The current Ping of Death is actually a variant of the one that first appeared in the 1990s. Essentially, when a certain, specially designed ping request would be sent to a host, the bugged PC would receive a-you guessed it- Blue Screen of Death. Essentially, this meant that any time you logged onto the internet, you were in danger of having someone ping you into BSoD land. That original vulnerability was patched back then, but this new variant presented a similar threat right up until this patch was created.

Lessons Learned

There’s an important lesson here, which is that we must always be vigilant about possible causes of the Blue Screen of Death. This is why it is so important that our anti-virus software is comprehensive and up to date, because our computer may be in danger both from the most modern viruses and ones we might have thought are long gone.

Important Windows Updates

bluescreenofdeathblog — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:53:51 +0000

If you use Internet Explorer or Windows Office, you may want to head over to the Microsoft Website and make sure that you have all of the 13 security updates that Microsoft released just last month. These updates are designed to patch 22 vulnerabilities in the above programs and others that you may be using on your PC. Some of these updates and vulnerabilities have been marked critical, so you definitely want to make sure that you have them.

Crucial Update

The update you want to make especially sure that you have is MS11-057, which is a patch for seven flaws identified in Internet Explorer by Microsoft. If you only have time to verify that you have one update, this would be the one.

Updates and BSoD

Generally, needed updates are downloaded to your computer automatically whenever necessary. You can actually go into your control panel and schedule when you want automatic updates to occur. However, in some cases, users may not receive updates for a variety of reasons, so if you are experiencing a Blue Screen of Death and cannot identify any other cause, this may be the culprit. Alternatively, downloading a faulty update can cause a BSoD, so you also may want to check to see if your BSoD occurred right after you received an automatic update. If it did, you can use System Restore to resolve the issue.

Blue Screen of Death for Other Items

bluescreenofdeathblog — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:17:08 +0000

We’re always trying to avoid the Blue Screen of Death, but we also remember that it serves a useful purpose. The Blue Screen of Death alerts us to a conflict with our computer that needs to be resolved. Actually, it might be nice if other items featured a Blue Screen of Death.

Blue Screen of Death for the Microwave

How about a BSoD that pops up whenever the microwave isn’t functioning correctly? It could alert you to the fact that the microwave isn’t cooking at full power, or the clock is inaccurate, or even if the power socket is not properly grounded.

Blue Screen of Death for your TV

Almost everyone has had their television reception or cable go out at some point in their lives. Instead of static or a blank screen, it might be nice to have a Blue Screen of Death come on with information about what the problem might be and whether we need to get a new television or call our cable or satellite company.

The Real Blue Screen of Death

Of course, for now, all we have is our plain old computer Blue Screen of Death. Let’s take advantage of it by being sure to check our drivers and make sure our anti virus software is up to date whenever it happens.