How To Force Blue Screen Windows 10

How to Fix a Windows Blueish Screen of Death (BSOD)

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Few things are more frustrating. You're in the middle of working on a project, reaching a major milestone in a game or maybe just booting up your Windows ten estimator and, but like that, the entire OS crashes and presents you with a Blueish Screen of Death, ordinarily for no immediately credible reason.

In Windows-speak, the term "Blue Screen of Decease" is usually abbreviated as BSOD. It describes an error of some kind that hits the operating organization hard enough that information technology'due south forced to quit. Microsoft itself labels such errors with "stopcodes." Thus these errors may too exist generically named "end errors." Here's an case that shows what a BSOD sometimes looks like:

Understanding the BSOD Screen

The screen starts with an old-fashioned unhappy face emoticon " :( " (a colon, followed past an open parenthesis). Side by side, you run across a cursory explanation that "Your PC ran into a trouble and needs to restart." Windows writes one or more log files when a cease mistake occurs, then y'all see language well-nigh "collecting some error info" and a counter that keeps track while it's writing that data (shows as "25% complete) above.

Microsoft provides a scannable QR code in mod BSODs (lower left) that you lot can browse with a smartphone and look upward that way. The message also provides a lookup URL for stopcodes, where yous tin can enter a numeric stopcode (and where you'll see most common stopcodes, including the one shown above). The most common stop codes include:

CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED
SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
VIDEO_TDR_TIMEOUT_DETECTED
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION

You can also download the Microsoft Fault Lookup Tool (electric current version: Err_6.four.five.exe) to wait upwardly numeric error codes at a control prompt or in PowerShell, if yous prefer.

In Windows 10, BSODs Aren't E'er Blueish

Before Windows eight came forth in October 2012, BSODs e'er appeared on dark blue screens. These were chock-full of text and instructions (meet below). With Windows 8, Microsoft switched to a kinder, gentler format shown in the preceding screencap. They also whittled downwardly the data that appears on screen. In fact, the background colour in Windows x is sometimes green, which is why y'all may see some of them called GSODs ("Green Screens of Death"). Here's an example of an old-fashioned, pre-Windows-8 BSOD to put this data into historical context:

Making Sense of BSOD Information

Though nobody wants to encounter a BSOD on a Windows PC, they do occur from time to time. In the vast bulk of cases, the PC will restart itself automatically after an error log, called a crash dump or a dump file (extension .dmp) is created. By default, Windows x stores dump files in one of ii locations.

You tin can manage crash dumps through Avant-garde System Settings in Windows 10 (type "Advanced System Settings" into the search box, so click "Settings" in the Startup and Recovery pane). You can also choose to toggle "Automated restart" to off here, if y'all would prefer that any hereafter BSODs stay on the screen until y'all get a chance to see them and write down (or take film of) whatever relevant information.

If you select "Modest memory dump" as the option for saving crash dumps, such files show upwards as Minidump.dmp files. For all other selections, the crash dump is named Retention.dmp. Crash dumps become written to the %SystemRoot% folder, which usually expands to C:\Windows. By blueprint, modest retentiveness dump files are express to 256KB in size. Other memory dumps volition vary in size up to the size of memory on the PC where the dump is collected. Thus, on a PC with 16 GB of RAM, a Complete memory dump file will always be sixteen GB in size (and other dump files, except for the pocket-sized memory dumps, tin exist as large every bit xvi GB, but will oftentimes be smaller).

Examining a crash dump file can exist helpful when troubleshooting related causes. For more than details, see our story on how to utilize a minidump file to set up your Windows BSOD. That said, many users but search on the stopcode and/or the numeric error lawmaking when seeking remediation advice. (Note that Microsoft calls that numeric code a "bug check code" or "bug cheque string."

What To Practise When Troubleshooting a BSOD

The immediate trend following a BSOD is to get right into gear up-it mode, start looking things up, and attempting repairs. Non so fast! Microsoft explains the entire troubleshooting procedure in its "Troubleshoot bluish screen errors" tutorial. While you tin can – and probably should – read the Microsoft advice in its entirety, here's a summary of cardinal recommendations:

Shut down the Windows PC that experienced the BSOD
Disconnect all USB-attached devices except for mouse and keyboard (or wireless dongles).
Reboot your system into safe manner from the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)
If yous recently installed new software, uninstall that software.
If you recently installed a new device driver (or your BSOD info points to a driver or device), uninstall or scroll back that driver (if you lot don't actually demand the device you tin disable it temporarily instead)
Restart the PC, and run across if the BSOD recurs. If not, yous've probably isolated the cause and can start researching some kind of fix.

If the BSOD recurs despite the items taken out of the motion picture past removing, disabling or uninstalling them, whatever's notwithstanding left in the flick remains problematic. At this betoken you want to reboot into safe mode once again, and open up an administrative command prompt or PowerShell session. From the command line, enter these commands, one at a time:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
SFC /scannow

The first of these two commands finds and replaces whatsoever damaged operating system components in the side-by-side filestore (aka WinSxS). The second of these commands runs the Arrangement File Checker (SFC) and will repair any damaged files it finds.

Annotation that if SFC finds and fixes anything, you should run the command until it comes back with a clean bill of health (in some cases, I've had to run it 2 or three times before it came back clean). Annotation further that running either or both of these commands can take some time to complete, peculiarly if i or both discover items in demand of fixing. Here'due south what you desire to run across afterwards your final SFC run:

There's a complete BSOD treatment infrastructure available from Microsoft, congenital effectually a tool called the Windows Debugger (aka WinDBG). You can download it every bit part of Microsoft's free Windows Programmer Kit if you really want to dig into the gory details. There are a lot of details to acquire near, and minutiae to address, if you desire to put this tool to work on crash dumps. For not-IT professionals or non-developers, I recommend Nir Sofer'due south excellent BlueScreenView utility instead. Information technology'due south set up to automatically load the symbol tables it needs to resolve error codes, and it knows where to notice crash dumps in need of analysis. It also presents crash dump information in a highly-readable grade.

As an illustration, I forced one of my test laptops (a Lenovo ThinkPad X390 Yoga) to blue screen at an administrative command line. There, I entered the cord taskkill /im svchost.exe /f. Warning: typing this cord into an administrative control prompt or PowerShell session will crash the PC immediately. That'southward because it kills a cardinal program named svchost.exe (Service Host) that supports DLLs in the Windows runtime environment. Because most (if non all) Windows programs use 1 or more than DLLs this basically makes Windows inoperable. Thus, it causes an immediate BSOD with the CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED stopcode (shown in the lead-in graphic for this very story).

When I fired up BlueScreenView on that PC, it constitute the Memory.dmp file that this BSOD created during its post-crash cleanup phase. Hither's what the application looks like:

The top pane of the window shows all the crash dumps information technology finds on the target PC. Because there's just 1 in this case, I shrunk it down to bear witness as many details from the lesser pane as possible. Even so, the data in the top pane is important, with data in certain columns of special involvement. Column 1 shows the name of the dump file. Column 3 shows the stopcode, which it labels "Bug Check Cord." Cavalcade 3 shows the associated hexadecimal fault code, 0x000000ef, which it labels "Issues Check Code."

For most genuine BSODs (remember, I forced this one to happen) the stopcode and the mistake lawmaking will frequently aid affected users zero in on causes and potential cures for their woes. In my experience, at least xc% of BSODs become fixable merely based on this information. That'due south because it will often exist solved by disconnecting, disabling, or uninstalling related devices, drivers, applications, or updates – just as Microsoft recommends, and I summarized in the previous section.

What About that Other Problematic ten% of BSODs?

Some BSODs won't be acquiescent to quick and piece of cake fixes. When they come up, as they sometimes will, it'due south time to enquire for help in getting things figured out. I can recommend two terrific sources of troubleshooting assistance bachelor online, each with its ain defended user forum specifically focused on solving BSOD issues. Likewise, each ane stipulates certain requirements on users seeking BSOD aid.

Source number one comes from TenForums.com (key disclosures: I am a VIP member of this customs; I contribute input and suggestions to its members daily). The TenForums venue is in its BSOD Crashes and Debugging forum. Posting instructions are explicitly provided, forth with a drove of BSOD tutorials, including those on WinDBG Basics,and how to Install and Configure WinDBG for BSOD Assay, Run BSOD Fault Troubleshooter in Windows 10, and Enable or Disable BSOD Automatic Restart in Windows 10.

Source number 2 comes from British PC security and troubleshooting site BleepingComputer.com. They operate a user forum named Windows Crashes and Bluish Screen of Death (BSOD) Help and Back up. There, yous'll notice pinned threads for the post-obit topics (all of which are worth reading through):

Sysnative Blue Screen of Expiry (BSOD) Academy: A serial of detailed questions readers should answer to ask the experts at Sysnative for aid with BSOD issues.
BSOD Posting instructions: what information users should assemble (based on downloading and running a Sysnative app) to obtain necessary dump files and content.
BSODs merely no Dump Files: instructions on how to configure a Windows PC to produce dump files whenever a BSOD occurs. Essential to know because diagnosis without dumps is nearly impossible.

Thus, you'll have to read up a bit, download some tools, run some scripts and/or collect some logs that you'll submit to make a semi-formal request for BSOD help. This volition have ane or more hours and force you to do some homework before such help becomes bachelor. Information technology may also involve numerous back-and-forth communications, where you're asked to run additional diagnostic tools and collect additional logs and information to shed more light on your state of affairs. Trust me: these guys know what they're doing. I've seen only a handful of issues where users did everything asked of them where the BSOD experts couldn't help them become things fixed.

Ultimately, where at that place'due south enough will to get a Windows BSOD stock-still, there's a way to brand that happen. Keep at it, and y'all'll learn this for yourself.

Ed Tittel is a long-time It writer, researcher and consultant, and occasional contributor to Tom's Hardware. A Windows Insider MVP since 2018, he likes to cover Os-related driver, troubleshooting, and security topics.

Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/fix-windows-bsod

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