Many conditions can cause Windows to crash. If there is a system crash, Windows stops and displays the blue screen.
The Blue Screen
The blue screen (The Blue Screen of Death) will appear in Windows when it has encountered a critical system failure. The system then goes down to prevent the occurrence of serious faults that could damage the system.
According to Microsoft, the reason Windows shows the blue screen is poorly programmed drivers or hardware that is not working properly. The blue screen can also be a result of memory error, power failure, overheated components or hardware used in an improper way.
Often, the blue screen appears when you install new software or new hardware. For example, if you have installed a new driver and tried to reboot, you can get the blue screen. You will then have the opportunity to undo the installation and get back the old configuration.
A question is why errors cause Windows to crash. Why does the system not ignore the error and just continue? The reason is that the error that causes windows to crash is often part of a larger problem. To let Windows continue will lead to more and more serious errors. The blue screen has been in all versions of Windows since Windows 3.11 (1993).
Reasons that Windows Can Crash Windows may crash for various reasons. A detailed description of all circumstances that may cause Windows to crash will be very extensive. In the following, we shall therefore only look at a few reasons :
Storage failure
The most common reason that Windows crashes is storage failure (Pool Corruption). Pool corruption can occur when a driver runs into problems because a buffer cannot accommodate all the data it receives. Pool corruption can also occur if a driver writes to a storage place that it had before, but has given up.
Page Fault in memory
An error on a page in memory (Page Fault) can lead to system crash.
Poor or no power supply
A driver or a function associated with the operating system will not work without power. Poor power or a lack of power can thus cause Windows to crash.
Access Violation
An access violation occurs if there is an attempt to write to a page into a memory that is only allowed to read, or if the system tries to read an address that does not exist.
Error in memory
If the Memory Manager detects that a data structure in a memory is corrupt, this can cause a system crash.
Hardware
Errors in hardware can cause system crashes. This includes errors on a disk when the memory manager attempts to read data.
USB pen
If an error occurs while performing an operation on a USB pen, this can lead to a system crash.
Error in the file system
A fatal error in the file system can lead to system crash.
