A blue screen of death as seen in Windows XP and Vista.

A Blue Screen of Death (also known as a stop error, BSoD or bluescreen) is an error screen displayed by certain operating systems, most notably Microsoft Windows, after encountering a critical system error which can cause the system to shut down to prevent damage. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft.

Bluescreens on NT-based Windows systems can be caused by poorly written device drivers or malfunctioning hardware. In computing a device driver or software driver is a Computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a Hardware device In the Win9x era, incompatible DLLs or bugs in the kernel of the operating system can also cause bluescreens. Dynamic-link library (also written without the hyphen or DLL, is Microsoft 's implementation of the Shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows In Computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer Operating systems (OS Sometimes, when the CPU is hit in any way, the computer may restart and show the BSoD.

Bluescreens can also be caused by physical faults such as faulty memory, mains power supply voltage variance or spikes in conjunction with or magnified by power supply unit voltage rating not matching the mains supply (such as a 220V PSU attached to a 240V mains outlet), the power requirements of the computer exceeding the capacity of the PSU, overheating of components, intermittent power to hard disk drives or other parts, faulty hardware, or hardware running beyond its specification limits. Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to Computer components devices and recording media that retain digital The volt (symbol V) is the SI derived unit of electric Potential difference or Electromotive force. A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device Bluescreens have been present in all Windows-based operating systems since Windows 3.1; earlier, OS/2 and MS-DOS suffered the Black Screen of Death, and early builds of Windows Vista displayed the Red Screen of Death after a boot loader error. In 1983 Microsoft announced the development of Windows, a Graphical user interface (GUI for its own Operating system ( MS-DOS) that had shipped OS/2 is a computer Operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. The black screen of death (BlSoD, is one of three things a failure mode of Microsoft Windows 3 Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops The Red Screen of Death (abbreviated RSoD, sometimes called "Red Screen of Doom" is a nickname for the Error message which existed in some beta versions In Computing, booting ( booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts Operating systems when the user turns on a Computer system

The term "Blue Screen of Death" originated during OS/2 pre-release development activities at Lattice Inc, the makers of an early Windows and OS/2 C compiler. OS/2 is a computer Operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively Lattice C (according to its author Lattice Incorporated) was the first C Compiler for MS-DOS on the IBM PC, in 1982 A compiler is a Computer program (or set of programs that translates text written in a computer language (the source language) into another During porting of Lattice's other tools, developers encountered the stop screen when NULL pointers were dereferenced either in application code or when unexpectedly passed into system API calls. During reviews of progress and feedback to IBM Austin, the developers described the stop screen as the Blue Screen of Death to denote the screen and the finality of the experience. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology

Types of BSoDs

Windows NT

A blue screen of death as seen on an Advertising screen in the Chadstone Shopping Centre

In Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista, the blue screen of death occurs when the kernel or a driver running in kernel mode encounters an error from which it cannot recover. Chadstone Shopping Centre (also known as Chaddy to local residents is a super-regional Shopping centre located in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne Windows NT is a family of Operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993 Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K) is a preemptive, interruptible graphical and business-oriented Operating system designed to work with Windows XP is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit Operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and Windows Server 2003 (also referred to as Win2K3 is a server Operating system produced by Microsoft. Windows Vista (ˈvɪstə is a line of Operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on Personal computers including home and business desktops In Computer science, the kernel is the central component of most computer Operating systems (OS This is usually caused by an illegal operation being performed. The only safe action the operating system can take in this situation is to restart the computer. As a result, data may be lost, as users are not given an opportunity to save data that has not yet been saved to the hard drive.

Blue screens are known as "Stop errors" in the Windows Resource Kit documentation. A Resource Kit is a term used by Microsoft for a set of software resources and documentation released for their software products but which is not part of that product They are referred to as "bug checks" in the Windows Software development kit and Driver development kit documentation. A bug check (also known as a system crash, stop error, or kernel error) is when the Windows operating system halts the moment it reaches a condition A software development kit ( SDK or " devkit " is typically a set of development tools that allows a Software engineer to create applications A software development kit ( SDK or " devkit " is typically a set of development tools that allows a Software engineer to create applications

The text on the error screen contains the code of the error and its symbolic name (e. g. "0x0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED") along with four error-dependent values in parentheses that are there to help software engineers fix the problem that occurred. Depending on the error code, it may display the address where the problem occurred, along with the driver which is loaded at that address. Under Windows NT and 2000, the second and third sections of the screen may contain information on all loaded drivers and a stack dump, respectively. The driver information is in three columns; the first lists the base address of the driver, the second lists the driver's creation date (as a Unix timestamp), and the third lists the name of the driver. Unix time, or POSIX time, is a system for describing points in Time, defined as the number of seconds elapsed since Midnight Coordinated Universal ^[1]

By default, Windows will create a memory dump file when a blue screen error occurs. A core dump is the recorded state of the working memory of a Computer program at a specific time generally when the program has terminated abnormally ( crashed Depending on the OS version, there may be several formats this can be saved in, ranging from a 64 KB "mini dump" to a "complete dump" which is effectively a copy of the entire contents of physical RAM. The resulting memory dump file may be debugged later, using a kernel debugger. A debugger is a Computer program that is used to test and Debug other programs A debugger is necessary to obtain a stack trace, and may be required to ascertain the true cause of the problem; as the information onscreen is limited and thus possibly misleading, it may hide the true source of the error. In Computer science, a call stack is a dynamic stack data structure which stores information about the active Subroutines of a Computer program

Microsoft Windows can also be configured to send live debugging information to a kernel debugger running on a separate computer. A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. (Windows XP also allows for kernel debugging from the machine that is running the OS. ) If a blue screen error is encountered while a live kernel debugger is attached to the system, Windows will halt execution and cause the debugger to "break in", rather than displaying the BSoD. The debugger can then be used to examine the contents of memory and determine the source of the problem.

The Windows debugger is available as a free download from Microsoft. ^[2]

Windows includes a feature that can be used to cause a blue screen manually. To enable it, the user must add a value to the Windows registry. The Windows registry is a directory which stores settings and options for the Operating system for Microsoft Windows 32-bit versions 64-bit versions and After that, a BSoD will appear when the user presses the SCROLL LOCK key twice while holding the right CTRL key. ^[3] This feature is primarily useful for obtaining a memory dump of the computer while it is in a given state. As such, it is generally used to aid in troubleshooting system hangs.

A Bluescreen can also be caused by terminating either csrss. exe or winlogon. exe. This cannot be done with Windows Task Manager, but can be done with a third-party software. One of these programs may also terminate if it fails.

By default, Windows XP is configured to save only a 64K minidump when it encounters a blue screen, and to then automatically reboot the computer. Because this process happens very quickly, the blue screen may be seen only for an instant or not at all. Users have sometimes noted this as a random reboot rather than a traditional stop error, and are only aware of an issue after Windows reboots and displays a notification that it has recovered from a serious error. In Computing, booting ( booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts Operating systems when the user turns on a Computer system This happens only when the computer has a function called "Auto Restart" enabled, which can be disabled in the Control Panel which in turn, shows the BSoDs.

A BSoD can also be caused by a critical boot loader error, where the operating system is unable to access the boot partition due to incorrect storage drivers or similar problems. The error code in this situation is STOP 0x0000007B (INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE). In such cases, there is no memory dump saved. Since the system is unable to boot from the hard drive in this situation, correction of the problem often requires booting from the Microsoft Windows CD. After booting to the CD, it may be possible to correct the problem by performing a repair install or by using the Recovery Console (with CHKDSK). The Recovery Console is a feature of the Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems CHKDSK (short for Checkdisk) is a command on computers running DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows operating systems that displays the

The color blue was chosen because a version of Windows NT for the DEC Alpha platform's console colors could not be changed easily. Alpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, was a 64-bit Reduced instruction set computer (RISC Instruction set architecture (ISA developed For consistency reasons, blue became the color for Stop errors on all platforms (alpha/i386/mips/ppc).

ReactOS

ReactOS

ReactOS, an attempt at creating a free software/open source implementation of a Windows NT-compatible operating system, also features its own BSoD similar to the Windows NT/XP one. ReactOS is a computer Operating system intended to be binary-compatible with Application software and Device drivers made for Microsoft ReactOS is a computer Operating system intended to be binary-compatible with Application software and Device drivers made for Microsoft Free software or software libre is Software that can be used studied and modified without restriction and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination

Windows 9x

Windows 9x/Me

The blue screen of death frequently occurs in Microsoft's home desktop operating systems Windows 95, 98, and Me. Windows 9x is the family of Microsoft Windows Operating systems that comprises the hybrid 16/32-bit Windows versions Windows 95, Windows 98 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented Graphical user interface -based Operating system. Windows 98 ( codenamed Memphis) is a graphical Operating system released on 25 June 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95 Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (IPA pronunciation, iː is a hybrid 16-bit / 32-bit graphical Operating system released on 14 September Here it is usually less serious, but much more common. In these operating systems, the BSoD is the main way for virtual device drivers to report errors to the user. VxD is the Device driver model used in Microsoft Windows/386, the 386 enhanced mode of Windows 3 It is internally referred to by the name of "_VWIN32_FaultPopup". A Windows 9x/Me BSoD gives the user the option either to restart or continue. However, VxDs do not display BSoDs frivolously — they usually indicate a problem that cannot be fixed without restarting the computer, and hence after a BSoD is displayed the system is usually unstable or unresponsive.

Two of the most common reasons for BSoDs are:

• Problems that occur with incompatible versions of DLLs. Dynamic-link library (also written without the hyphen or DLL, is Microsoft 's implementation of the Shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows Windows loads these DLLs into memory when they are needed by application programs; if versions are changed, the next time an application loads the DLL it may be different from what the application expects. These incompatibilities increase over time as more new software is installed, and is one of the main reasons why a freshly-installed copy of Windows is more stable than an "old" one.
• Faulty or poorly written device drivers, hardware incompatibilities, or damaged hardware may also cause a BSoD.

In Windows 95 and 98, a BSoD occurs when the system attempts to access the file "c:\con\con" on the hard drive. This was often inserted on websites to crash users' machines. Microsoft has released a patch for this. ^[4]

The BSoD can appear if a user ejects removable media while it is being read on 9x/ME. In Computer storage, removable media refers to storage media which can be removed from its reader device conferring portability on the data it carries This is particularly common while using Microsoft Office: if a user simply wants to view a document, he might eject a floppy disk before exiting the program. Microsoft Office is a set of interrelated desktop applications servers and services collectively referred to as an Office suite, for the Microsoft Windows and Since Microsoft Office always creates a temporary file in the same directory, it will trigger a BSoD upon exiting because it will attempt to delete the file on the disk that is no longer in the drive.

This type of blue screen is no longer seen in Windows NT, 2000, and XP. In the case of these less serious software errors, the program may still crash, but it will not take down the entire operating system with it due to better memory management and decreased legacy support. Memory management is the act of managing Computer memory. In its simpler forms this involves providing ways to allocate portions of memory to programs at their request A legacy system is an old Computer system or Application program that continues to be used because the user (typically an organization does not want to replace or In these systems, the "true" BSoD is seen only in cases where the entire operating system crashes.

Perhaps the most famous instance of a Windows 9x BSoD occurred during a presentation of a Windows 98 beta by Bill Gates at COMDEX on April 20, 1998. If you would like to experiment with Wikipedia please copy COMDEX ( Computer Dealer's Exhibition) was a Computer expo held in Las Vegas Nevada, each November from 1979 to 2003 Events 1303 - The University of Rome La Sapienza is instituted by Pope Boniface VIII. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) The demo PC crashed with a BSoD when his assistant (Chris Capossela, who is still working for Microsoft as Corporate VP in the Information Working business unit) connected a scanner to the PC, trying to demonstrate Windows 98's support for Plug and Play devices. Plug-and-play is a computer feature that allows the addition of a new device normally a Peripheral, without requiring reconfiguration or manual installation of Device This event brought thunderous applause from the crowd and Gates replied after a nervous pause: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet. "^[5]

Windows CE 5. Windows CE (also known officially as Windows Embedded Compact post version 6 0

Windows CE

The simplest version of the blue screen occurs in Windows CE except the versions for Pocket PC. Windows CE (also known officially as Windows Embedded Compact post version 6 A Pocket PC, abbreviated P/PC or PPC, is a hardware Specification for a Handheld -sized Computer ( Personal digital assistant The blue screen in Windows CE 3. 0 is similar to the one in Windows 95 and 98.

Windows for Workgroups 3. Windows 31x was a major release of Microsoft Windows. Several editions were released between 1992 and 1994 succeeding Windows 3 11

Windows 3. 1

Windows 3.1 was the first version of Windows to use the Blue Screen of Death. Windows 31x was a major release of Microsoft Windows. Several editions were released between 1992 and 1994 succeeding Windows 3 In Windows 3. 1's 386 enhanced mode, the Blue Screen is also displayed when Control-Alt-Delete is pressed. Control-Alt-Delete (often abbreviated to Ctrl-Alt-Del, also known as the "three-finger salute" is a computer keyboard command on PC compatible systems

Xbox

Although the Microsoft Xbox usually shows a Green Screen of Death when a critical error occurs, this model was seen showing a BSoD during the presentation of Forza Motorsport at the CeBIT computer fair in Hannover in March 2005. The Xbox is a sixth-generation Video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. In many Computer Operating systems a special type of error message will display onscreen when the system has experienced a Fatal error. Forza Motorsport is a racing simulator Video game developed by Turn 10 for the Xbox gaming system CeBIT ( Ce ntrum der B üro- und I nformations' t' echnik; German for "Centre of Office and Information technology" is the Hanover (i ( haˈnoːfɐ on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony ( Niedersachsen Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Additionally the recalled Game Kakuto Chojin displays a BSoD as an error message when the disc is dirty.

An early development version of the Microsoft XBox showing a Blue Screen of Death during a presentation of a racing game at the CeBIT in March 2005. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer The Xbox is a sixth-generation Video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. CeBIT ( Ce ntrum der B üro- und I nformations' t' echnik; German for "Centre of Office and Information technology" is the

Mac OS X 10. 5 Leopard

Some users, upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and having installed Application Enhancer, experienced a similar experience to a blue screen of death: on booting, the screen remained blue for an indefinite period of time because Application Enhancer's framework was not compatible with the new handlers that Leopard included. Mac OS X version 104 “Tiger” was the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server Operating system for Macintosh Mac OS X version 105 “Leopard” is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server Operating system for Macintosh Application Enhancer ( APE) is a Software program released by Unsanity for Apple's Mac OS X Operating system. However, Apple became aware of the problem and posted a solution^[6]. Nevertheless, Leopard's blue screen was not meant to inform and/or describe an error as the blue screen is just a consequence of the regular boot process.

In the new Finder siderbar, all Windows PCs connected to the same local network of a Mac running Leopard are shown with an icon representing a CRT monitor displaying the blue screen of death. ^[7]

PlayStation Portable

The PlayStation Portable shows a Blue Screen of Death when the internal settings in flash1:\ become corrupted or are missing. The PlayStation Portable (officially abbreviated PSP) is a Handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The BSoD instructs that the Playstation Portable will attempt to recreate the registry setting files. The PlayStation Portable (officially abbreviated PSP) is a Handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The BSoD is encountered often when downgrading a Playstation Portable because of non-backward-compatible registry files. The PlayStation Portable (officially abbreviated PSP) is a Handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. Under very rare conditions (usually as a result of firmware modifications), the system may be thrown into a loop in which the PSP will continue to restart and display the BsoD screen.

The PlaySation Portable also has a red screen of death which can appear when portions of the internal flash0:\ are corrupted or missing. This is usually more fatal than the blue screen of death as there is no option to repair the problem since the missing operating system, unlike the user settings, cannot be restored

Gameboy Advance

If the game card is removed from the console as it is still running, the screen will display a textless BSoD, or more commonly will just continue displaying a frozen image of the game as it was before it froze and make a screeching noise.

Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS Blue Screen

The Nintendo DS will give a textless single-color on both screens when the user removes a DS card or GBA card while on the Pictochat room selection menu. The is a dual-screen Handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. The color of the screens is based on the DS firmware version -- version 6 firmware, found on most DS machines is blue, while the version 5 firmware, found on DS Lite consoles, is Magenta. The IQue DS released in China is green.

Display

By default, the display is white (CGA color 0x0F; HTML color #FFFFFF) lettering on a blue (CGA color 0x01; HTML color #0000AA) background, with information about current memory values and register values. The Color Graphics Adapter ( CGA) originally also called the Color/Graphics Adapter or IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure For visually impaired users, Microsoft has added a utility that allows the user to change a setting in SYSTEM.INI that controls the colors that the BSoD code uses to any of the 16 CGA colors. SYSTEMINI was a basic INI file used in early versions of Microsoft Windows to load Device drivers and the default Windows shell ( Program Doing so requires the edit or addition of the "MessageBackColor=X" and "MessageTextColor=X" lines to the [386enh] section of the SYSTEM. INI, where X is a hexadecimal number from 0 to F corresponding with a color in the CGA 16-color palette.

Windows 95, 98 and Me use 80x25 text mode. The Windows NT BSoD uses 80x50 text mode. The screen resolution is 720x400. The XP BSoD uses the Lucida Console font while the Vista BSoD uses the Consolas font. For the genus of grass skipper butterfly see Lucida (butterfly Lucida ( is an extended family of related Typefaces designed by Charles Bigelow Consolas is a Monospaced (non-proportional Typeface, designed by Lucas de Groot.

When getting the BSoD, the screen will go black for about a second and any playing audio will start to skip, and then a dark blue screen will come up with white writing. On Windows XP and Vista, it reads as follows:

It then tells you the technical contact information.

Details

Each BSoD usually displays a message such as FILE_SYSTEM, and a number like 0x00000022. The usual parameters displayed for the BSoD are these:

number of error (parameter, parameter, parameter, parameter) name of error

All of the above information is important in understanding and determining the cause of the BSOD. ^[8]

Depending on the value "number of error", all, some or even none of the parameters contain data pertaining to what went wrong, and/or where it happened.

"Famous" BSoDs, easter eggs, and others in popular media

There have been occurrences of BSoD screens in public view that have garnered attention and become a sort of cultural phenomenon. Some of the more famous unintentional BSoDs include:

• The Paris Hotel marquee on the Las Vegas Strip ^[9]
• During the Windows 98 preview at the 1998 COMDEX, Microsoft presenters were faced with the BSoD ^[10]
• In Toronto, the "Bay" department store displayed four massive BSoD images for multiple days ^[11]

Also, the BSoD began to be intentionally shown in other media as designer/creators hide them as a sort of "easter egg"

• In reference to Windows, several computer monitors in the game series Halo for the Xbox display custom variants of the Blue Screen of Death. The Las Vegas Strip (also known as The Strip) is an approximately 4 mile (6 Windows 98 ( codenamed Memphis) is a graphical Operating system released on 25 June 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95 COMDEX ( Computer Dealer's Exhibition) was a Computer expo held in Las Vegas Nevada, each November from 1979 to 2003 Halo is a Science fiction Video game franchise created by Bungie and owned and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Xbox is a sixth-generation Video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. Most prominent is the display at the gate on the Zanzibar map in Halo 2. Halo 2 is a Science fiction First-person shooter Video game developed by Bungie Studios.
• Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 also had a BSoD easter egg ^[12]
• In Apple's Mac OS X Leopard, the Finder displays a beige CRT monitor with a Windows 9x BSoD on it as an icon to represent an SMB share on a network. Halo 3 is a First-person shooter Video game developed by Bungie exclusively for the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. Mac OS X version 105 “Leopard” is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server Operating system for Macintosh ^{[13] [14] [15]}
• There was a BSoD easter egg as part of the "insanity system" in the GameCube game Eternal Darkness. The, often abbreviated as GCN, is Nintendo 's fourth home Video game console and is part of the sixth generation console era. Eternal Darkness Sanity's Requiem is a Psychological horror Video game originally planned for the Nintendo 64 but later released exclusively
• Team Fortress 2 also has a BSoD on one of the multiple in-game monitors.

See also

• Sad Mac—An Apple equivalent to the BSoD, found in both early Macs and iPods. Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc iPod is a popular brand of Portable media players designed and marketed by Apple Inc
• Spinning wait cursor—A cursor in Mac OS X that commonly means a program is busy. The spinning wait cursor is a cursor in Apple 's Mac OS X that indicates an application is not responding to system events Often referred to as the spinning beach ball of death, pinwheel of death, spinning wheel of doom, spinny color wheel of death, or rainbow wheel of death, it is a reference to the blue screen of death.
• Kernel panic—A critical failure under Unix and Unix-like operating systems. A kernel panic is an action taken by an Operating system upon detecting an internal Fatal error from which it cannot safely recover the term is largely specific Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer A Unix-like (sometimes shortened to *nix) Operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system while not necessarily conforming
• Linux kernel oops
• Guru Meditation—A type of error messages for Amiga operating systems. An oops is a deviation from correct behavior of the Linux kernel which produces a certain error log Guru Meditation is the name of the error that occurred on early versions of the Commodore Amiga computer when they crashed. The Amiga is a family of Personal computers originally developed by Amiga Corporation.
• Red Ring of Death—A red warning light/symbol on the Xbox 360 that means an inoperative unit. The Xbox 360 Video game console is subject to a number of technical problems that can render it unusable

References

External links

• Bug Check Codes (Microsoft Developer Network)
• BSOD Discussion forum.
• Official Microsoft BlueScreen Screen Saver v3.2
• I love Blue screen of death
• Bill Gates gets the BSOD at the unveiling of Windows 98
• MVP Mark Salloway's Windows XP Resource Center - Introduction to Stop Errors
• Original report of RSoD from a Microsoft employee
• BSOD upgrades to RSOD in Longhorn from Joi Ito
• A BSOD emulator for UNIX (Posix) platforms
• "Haiku Error Messages", from 1998 Salon.com article
• "PC Stats Beginners Guide: Troubleshoot BSOD
• Blue Screen of Death...the VERY unofficial website