subject: Windows 7 Blue Screen Error Fix - How to Fix Blue Screen of Death Errors [print this page] Windows 7 Blue Screen Error Fix - How to Fix Blue Screen of Death Errors
It's already annoying getting minor errors, but it's scary when you get a windows 7 blue screen error, as it can potentially damage your whole system. Fortunately there is something you can do about these kinds of errors. Read on to find out more.
The blue screen error, or "blue screen of death" as it is more popularly called, is what is known as a fatal system error. There are quite a number of these screens signifying different errors that may have happened, but they have one thing in common, they cause your computer to crash, losing all the unsaved documents and other data you were working on before the error.
The blue screen of death has been a problem in the Windows operating systems for many years now, what makes it more difficult to remedy is the fact that most people do not even know what has caused these errors on their computer.
There are several reasons for these windows 7 blue screen errors.
#1 Program or file corruption. If a program corrupts or even some files inside a program corrupt they can cause this error. If this happens the computer will report a stop error with a blue screen.
How can you tell?
This is the problem is when your computer keeps crashing when you open a particular program or a game or programs always crashes to a blue screen at the same point. You may see a stop error like:
"DIVIDE_BY_ZERO_ERROR" or a stop error that references a particular file.
#2 Driver corruption. This is a common cause of windows 7 blue screen errors. Either through corrupt, damaged or incorrect drivers.
How can you tell?
a) The most common type of driver error is a display driver error and if you see your display break up or freeze momentarily before your computer crashes it is an indication that the error maybe driver related.
b) You may see the following stop errors:
"IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" or "KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED". This this is usually an indication of a driver problem.
#3 Registry errors can cause the above errors too and by themselves can cause a windows 7 blue screen error. The stop codes they produce can be obscure.
How can you tell?
In extreme cases you will see a stop error like this: "REGISTRY_ERROR". When this error occurs you will be very lucky if windows starts again.
Most of the time it is the visual errors you will see in windows that indicate to you that this error is due to registry corruption. Tell tale signs such as your computer slowing right down, taking a long time to start up and to shut down are just a few.
How can you fix these errors?
Follow these steps to eliminate all possibilities and to fix this problem.
#1 check all your programs are up to date and run windows update to ensure all windows 7 system files are up to date too.
#2 Check your drivers are the latest version. Even though this is time consuming it can not only fix windows 7 blue screen errors but improve computer performance as well. you can do this through the manufacturers site or use windows update. The second option is not very reliable as the driver database on windows update is not huge.
#3 Finally check for registry errors.
Since the registry is so complex trying to do this manually is inviting trouble, especially if you do not know what to look for but you can run the following steps first.
#1 Run chkdsk /r. Go to the windows start menu, then run and type in chkdsk/r and press enter. This will check the area of the hard drive where the registry is stored for errors.
# 2 Rollback windows to a day or two before it started crashing. Blue screen errors occur most frequently when your PC is started up. This is because the registry is written to or updated when it is shut down and rolling back windows to a day or two before it crashed can solve this issue. You can do this with the system restore utility.
#3 If you have tried the above and you are still getting blue screen errors run a system scan on the registry to resolve this issue and stop windows 7 blue screen errors. This is far better than having to reinstall windows from scratch.
