How to Fix the 'Blue Screen' on Windows XP

Has your computer ever gotten the "Blue Screen of Death"? OK, that name might be a bit over dramatic, but it has become very famous through the years of the Windows operating system. One day everything is going fine, and you're your pounding away on the keyboard when it happens. Your screen disappears and a blue one pops up in its place with a cryptic message saying windows has encounter an error and must shut down. Then it gives a lot of numbers in the form of 'OOxOOOOOO (OOxOOOOOO) etc...).

For a lot of people, this means that the computer is either going to be replaced, or taken into a shop to be repaired. Well, I'm writing this to give you another option! Fix-it-yourself to save money and a lot of time. Most computer repair places are so packed with computers to fix, that they will take about a week to get to yours. Then they will charge close to $100 to fix it!

For starters, I'll explain why your computer has gotten the Blue Screen. There are several reasons it could have shown itself, the most common is the installation of a driver or other program onto the computer. Several times when Windows updates itself automatically it will download certain drivers, and that could be the culprit (I never did like windows). Or say you just installed a camera or printer, the drivers on the disc that came with it might have done it. So if you have downloaded some piece of information that you know of, then either uninstall it, or do a system restore (I'll explain system restore in a later article). After that, if you still receive the Blue Screen, then the drivers might have corrupted the operating system itself. That means one of two things. We either have to 'repair' windows, or completely reinstall it. No matter which one, you should back up your information at this time. Put any pictures or programs or any other information you want to keep onto a disc, or flash drive, or some other storage device.

To repair windows, grab your Operating System disc that came with your computer (if you don't have one, you can borrow someone else's, or might have to purchase one, and otherwise you cannot proceed and have to take it to a shop). Make sure the disc is the same type of Operating System (OS) as the one on your computer. So if you are running XP Home, then use an XP Home disc, and if you're using XP Pro, use an XP Pro disc. You can find out which OS you have by the sticker on your computer tower (the thing you put your disc into). It will tell you which OS and have a 'product key' on there. If you don't have that product key, you'll have to find it (might be on the booklet that came with your computer). If you can't find it anywhere, you might have to get a new OS, or just not proceed any further with this repair. The product key has to be unique, it cannot be the same key as a friend is using, or duplicated anywhere else.

Once you have all the materials, you are ready to repair your windows. Pop the disc in, and restart the computer. When it asks you to press any key to boot from CD, then push any key. If that message never shows up it means your computer is not set to boot from CD first. To correct this you have to go into your computer's Bios and make a few changes. I won't cover the Bios in this article though because if anything is changed to the wrong thing, or any information goes missing, you could 'brick' your machine. Brick of course means that your computer becomes a paper weight. If it will not boot from the disc then you might want to have someone else correct the Bios to allow you to continue.
If you have made it into the disc part then so far things are going great. First you'll see a blue screen with words traveling pretty fast at the bottom. After a minute or less it should ask you if you want to Repair, Continue, or Quit. Hit Enter to Continue and it will go to the agreement document (you see them everywhere and probably never read it, I know I don't). Hit F8 on your keyboard to pass it when ready. This next page will ask you if you want to Install, Repair, Delete Partition, or Quit. Inside the box there should be one or more partitions. Most likely the partition we want is the largest one, but if you have several, you might not want to continue without getting a consult from the person who created more than one partition. Partition is just a section of the computer's memory that the Windows sits on. If you have two, and one says less than 10 KB or Bytes, then you can ignore that one. Your OS will be on the largest one and you can use the keys on your keyboard to move to that one, and push R for repair.

If you have the partition their but the option for Repair never shows up, then you've either got the wrong disc in (put in correct disc and restart computer), or the version of Windows your using can not be repaired, due to either an illegal copy, or it just does not offer the option. You cannot continue from here, and might have to reinstall the Operating System, which I will not discuss in this article.
If you were able to repair then the disc starts loading information onto your computer to replace several different files with fresh new copies. It looks like it's going through the process of reinstalling the OS, but don't worry, it's not. After several minutes, the computer will shut itself down, then restart and use those new files it has put on your computer. After several more minutes, it will ask you for the Windows Product Key. That sticker on your computer tower or on your packet comes into play. Type that key in, and answer a few questions, like your area code. Then it will work with a few more files then start up Windows like normal again. It will go through the entire start up process as if you were installing a fresh copy of Windows, meaning it will ask you to type in a user name and ask for you to register with Microsoft. Choose what you want your user name to be, and skip the registration, and it will take you back to your old familiar wallpaper with all of you buttons and icons.

Now that the repair is finished, it is time to see if it worked. Keep working on your computer like normal, and see if the Blue Screen pops up again. If it did, then either the repair didn't work, or there is something physically wrong with your computer. Usually when you're Ram goes out it will cause the Blue Screen due to the fact that Windows will try to write information to that part of the computer but doesn't stick. So when Windows wants to grab that information back, it's not there, and the OS is not very smart, so it Blue Screens.

If you still get the BS (Blue Screen), then you have two choices. One is to reinstall the entire OS, Second is to take your machine in to have the hardware tested. If you reinstall the OS you'll lose all the information on there, such as pictures, programs, videos, etc... And if you still have the blue screen, then you know beyond a doubt that the problem is hardware related. If you reinstall the OS and it works then great! You've fixed your machine! If you choose the second option first and have it tested at a shop, or a personal PC Tech, and he finds nothing wrong, you'll have to reinstall the OS to correct the issue losing all of your information. If you choose to have a tech look at your machine and he repairs the hardware problem, then you haven't lost any information, and only an hour of two of your time, but your computer is working again. The decision is up to you.

A few notes from me: I'm a computer tech in a store called 'AmeriClass' located in Louisiana. I've been working with computers for some time now, and it is very rare that a Windows Repair does not get rid of the Blue Screen. There is no real way to prevent your computer of getting the Blue Screen, so worrying about it is a large waste of time. If you are running Win XP Home, then make sure you update to Service Pack 2 (SP2) over the internet, because Service Pack 1 (SP1) is highly unstable, and very unsafe. To prevent other errors on your machine, always have a 'Firewall' running. Windows comes built in with its own firewall, and can be used temporarily, but more times than not, lets its owners down and doesn't fulfill its duties.