Common Causes of Blue Screen of Death

The blue screen of death is perhaps the most feared computer problem there is. Given this, let's take a look at common causes of it.

Many people think that the blue screen of death is caused by a virus or hardware or because they were downloading something that was questionable. The fact of the matter is that the blue screen of death can happen for a thousand different reasons. Another important thing to know is that the blue screen does not necessarily mean that your computer is doomed. In many cases, a simple restart might be enough to fix the computer back to its old self.

Here are the most common causes of the blue screen of death. They can be identified by the error message that is displayed on the blue screen after Windows has crashed.

• Divide_By_Zero_Error - This error means that an application that you were using tried to divide by zero which caused the computer to crash. Try to remember if you used an application that was new. Often, shareware applications that are untested or incomplete will cause problems like this. You can try restarting your computer and also make it a point to avoid that particular application if you thought that it was the one that crashed your computer.

• IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL - This error means that a particular hardware device on your computer caused the crash. Try to uninstall the hardware and then reboot your computer to avoid the error again. Re install with an updated set of drivers that is certified by Windows.

• Registry_Error - This means that some software on your computer is malfunctioning. It could also mean that your Windows program is unable to read the registry from the hard disk. Reboot your computer and press the F8 key constantly during the time of reboot. You will be presented with an option called "Last Known Good Configuration". Use this option and restart Windows. Once that is done, use the system restore option to restore your Window's settings to an earlier date. You can access system restore by clicking on start, then on accessories, then on system tools and then finally on System Restore. When performing a system restore, choose a date that was in the past, when your computer had no problems.

Though these are the most common causes of the blue screen of death, you might also be presented with other error messages depending on the nature of your problem. Try to conduct additional research on the error by typing in the error message into a search engine. You will see many discussions about the causes of that particular error and the potential solutions it might have.