Blue Screen Error

What Is a Blue Screen Error?

When Windows encounters certain situations, it halts and the resulting diagnostic information is displayed in white text on a blue screen. The appearance of these errors is where the term “Blue Screen” or "Blue Screen of Death" has come from.
Blue Screen errors occur when:

• Windows detects an error it cannot recover from without losing data
• Windows detects that critical OS data has become corrupted
• Windows detects that hardware has failed in a non-recoverable fashion
• The exact text displayed has changed over the years from a dense wall of information in Windows NT 4.0 to the comparatively sparse message employed by modern versions of Windows. (Figure 1)

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage
to your computer.
UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
If this is the first time you've seen this error screen,
restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow
these steps:
Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a driver is
identified in the Stop message, disable the driver or check
with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video
adapters.
Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disable
BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart
your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then
select Safe Mode.

Technical Information:
*** STOP: 0x000000ED(0x80F128D0, 0xC000009C, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

 

Figure 1: Sample Blue Screen Error

Troubleshooting Common Blue Screen Error Messages

Error 1

Stop 0x000000ED (UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME)
Stop 0x0000007B (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE)

These two errors have similar causes and the same troubleshooting steps apply to both of them. These stop codes always occur during the start-up process. When you encounter one of these stop codes, the following has happened:

1   The system has completed the Power-On Self-Test (POST).

2         The system has loaded NTLDR and transferred control of the start-up process to NTOSKRNL (the kernel).

3    NTOSKRNL is confused. Either it cannot find the rest of itself, or it cannot read the file system at the location it believes it is stored.
When troubleshooting this error, your task is to find out why the Windows kernel is confused and fix the cause of the confusion.

Things to check:

• The SATA controller configuration in the system BIOS If the SATA controller gets toggled from ATA to AHCI mode (or vice versa), then Windows will not be able to talk to the SATA controller because the different modes require different drivers. Try toggling the SATA controller mode in the BIOS.
• RAID settings You may receive this error if you've been experimenting with the RAID controller settings. Try changing the RAID settings back to Autodetect (usually accurate).
• Improperly or poorly seated cabling Try resetting the data cables that connect the drive and its controller at both ends.
• Hard drive failure Run the built-in diagnostics on the hard drive. Remember: Code 7 signifies correctable data corruption, not disk failure.
• File system corruption Launch the recovery console from the Windows installation disc and run chkdsk /f /r.
• Improperly configured BOOT.INI (Windows XP). If you have inadvertently erased or tinkered with the boot.ini file, you may receive stop code 0x7B during the start-up process. Launch the recovery console from the Windows installation disc and run BOOTCFG /REBUILD

Error 2

STOP 0x00000024 (NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM)

This stop code indicates the NTFS file system driver encountered a situation it could not
handle, and is almost always caused by 3 things:

• Data corruption on the disk
• Data corruption in memory
• The system completely running out of memory (this typically only happens on
  heavily-loaded servers)

Things to check:

1    Reset the memory and all drive data cables to eliminate data corruption  issues stemming from poorly or improperly seated hardware.

2    Run a complete memory and hard drive diagnostic. The quick test will not be thorough enough here. You need to run the full system diagnostic.

3    If those diagnostics pass, run a full file system check from the Recovery Console
(chkdsk /f /r) to detect and (potentially) fix any corrupted data.

4    If none of the above solves the issue, re-install Windows.

5    If that does not fix the issue, replace the hard drive.

Error 3

STOP 0x0000007E (SYSTEM_THREAD_EXEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)
STOP 0x0000008E (KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)

These two errors indicate that a program running in the kernel encountered an unexpected condition it could not recover from. They have identical troubleshooting and resolution steps, and you will probably need to use the Windows Debugger to find out what caused the error.

Things to check:

• If the Blue Screen message mentions a driver or library file, figure out what driver or application that file is part of and update or disable it.
• Update the system BIOS to the latest available revision.
• Uninstall any recently installed programs, and roll-back any recently installed drivers.
• Run diagnostics on the computer's memory.

Error 4

STOP 0x00000050 (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA)

This stop code means the system tried to access a nonexistent piece of memory, almost always due to:

• A driver trying to access a page of memory that is not present
• A system service (ex. virus scanner) failing in an exceptional way
• Faulty or incorrectly seated memory
• Corrupted data on the hard drive

Use the Windows Debugger to pinpoint the exact cause of these errors.

Things to check:

1    If the Blue Screen error mentions a driver or library file, figure out what driver or program the file is a part of and either upgrade to the latest version or uninstall the driver or program.

2         If the error happens during the start-up process, try booting to the Last Known Good Configuration.

3         If the error started appearing after a program or driver was installed, uninstall that program or driver.

4    Try running a full hard drive and memory diagnostic after resetting the memory and hard drive data cables.