Blue Screen
Blue Screen of Death (BSoD), officially known as a Stop error, Blue screen error, fatal error, bug check, Stop error screen, Stop message, or Blue Screen, is a critical error screen displayed by the Microsoft Windows or OS operating systems in the event of a fatal system error.
It indicates a system crash, in which the operating system has reached a critical condition where it can no longer operate safely. Possible issues include hardware failure, an issue with or without a device driver, or unexpected termination of a crucial process or thread.
What causes stop errors?
A stop error is displayed as a blue screen that contains the name of the faulty driver, such as any of the following example drivers:
- atikmpag.sys
- igdkmd64.sys
- nvlddmkm.sys
There's no simple explanation for the cause of stop errors (also known as blue screen errors or bug check errors). Many different factors can be involved. However, various studies indicate that stop errors usually aren't caused by Microsoft ®Windows components. Instead, these errors are related to malfunctioning hardware drivers or drivers that are installed by third-party software. These drivers include video cards, wireless network cards, security programs, and so on.
Microsofts® analysis of the root causes of crashes indicates that:
- 70% are caused by third-party driver code.
- 10% are caused by hardware issues.
- 5% are caused by Microsoft code.
- 15% have unknown causes, because the memory is too corrupted to analyze.