Everything You Should Know About the “Blue Screen of Death”

The infamous “Blue Screen of Death” – you’ve had it happen to you, and you know it’s a bad thing, but you don’t necessarily know what causes it, what it means, and what you can do to prevent it. To put it simply, the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) is an unwelcome occurrence that happens when a Windows system encounters a critical system error it can’t recover from. In most cases, it’s caused by faulty hardware or a crashed driver.

The Dangers of the Blue Screen of Death

If your computer’s operating system crashes and the BSOD displays on your screen, there’s a good chance any open programs won’t shut down or save properly, and you could be at risk of data loss. At the same time, when the BSOD does happen, Windows will automatically create a file that possesses information about the crash – you can go into this file, determine the cause of the BSOD, and prevent it from occurring again in the future.

Blue Screen of Death Prevention Tips

Is your PC displaying the BSOD on a regular basis? Try out these tips for keeping your computer systems running without a problem:

• Watch out for malware. When viruses get deep into a Windows system and create instability, this can result in regular BSODs. Invest in a quality anti-virus software for your business to prevent infections.
• Make sure the drivers on all your computers are up to date. If a driver is buggy or incorrectly installed, this can cause computer crashes.
• In the event of a BSOD, try out System Restore. This will restore your computer’s software back to its prior state. If you stop getting blue screens, you’ll know the problem was related to software.
• One of the most common causes of a BSOD is faulty hardware. If you’re having a problem with your computer’s hardware, we recommend investigating with the help of our professionals.

Tired of seeing Blue Screens of Death popping up on the computers throughout your office? Call us at SouthEast IT to check up on your company’s PCs and make sure everything’s in good working order.