Diagnosing Blue Screens

"BSOD" is the acronym used for the infamous Windows "Blue Screen of Death." If this occurs in Windows XP, then Windows has encountered a serious error has shutdown. Often times the BSOD will flash quickly then shutdown - making it unreadable. Other times, it will display a cryptic message. How is it possible to diagnose the issue?



The secret is in knowing that Windows XP creates log files at the time of BSOD in a folder called "c:\windows\minidump". The files are logs that were saved at the time of failure and have a filename extension of "dmp".

The contents of the file is not text - so you need to download a Debugging Tool] from Microsoft. Install the tool, then run it and drag and drop the latest dmp file into the program. Scroll to the bottom of the data on the screen, and you will find a line that will read something like "Probably caused by..." and then Windows will guess what caused the problem.



Sometimes the message is easier to read, like "Probably caused by USB...", which would cause you to suspect one of the USB ports or devices.