Dealing with Windows Blue Screen of Death
March 11, 2009 Computer Tips And Tricks
The most notorious error message in Windows is the Blue Screen of Death. This occurrence is also known by its 
acronym, BSOD.
The circumstances that cause a blue screen have changed since the days of Windows 95/98. If you get blue-screened, any unsaved work will be lost, as either Windows (in NT/2000/XP) or your application (in 95/98) has been shut down.
Windows may deliver a message such as the following:
“0×0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED.”
None of this will mean much to most of us, but a support rep or developer can often learn a great deal from such cryptic messages.
Fortunately, blue screens are rare in recent versions of Windows and may disappear after a reboot. Here are some steps to follow if you encounter a BSOD-
While your system is booting, press F8 and select “ Boot Safe Mode”, which loads a subset of Windows with minimal drivers. If things run smoothly in “Safe Mode”, you most likely have a software problem with a recently installed application. If you cannot decipher the error message and trace it to a specific program, uninstall your most recently installed application.
If you still see blue screen errors in Safe Mode, restart again and use F8 to get to the advanced options. Choose “Restore Last Known Good Configuration”, which is a snapshot of your system as it existed before you last installed any drivers or other software. You’ll lose any system changes you’ve made since that point, but your documents will normally remain untouched by this process. If you’re still having problems, you are likely suffering from a hardware problem or a corruption of vital system files. Any hints that you can glean from the error message could help you (or a tech support rep) trace the source of the problem. Remove any recently installed hardware and try booting again.
The best cure is to save often and create frequent backups.
