A blue screen error occurs on a Windows system after a system crash. The blue screen appears unexpectedly and forces you to restart your system in the middle of your work. The error is an unintended sign and is quite frustrating when you find it difficult to debug the problem. Fortunately, there are many useful tools such as Windows Debugger Tool ( Windbg ) that allows you to read the error report for troubleshooting and resolving the BSOD error.
Causes of BSOD error
A BSOD error occurs when your operating system reaches a threshold limit, at which point it is vulnerable and can no longer function safely. BSODs typically occur for a variety of reasons, including faulty drivers, corrupted Windows registry, overheating, misconfigured device drivers, corrupted files, outdated drivers, overclocking, faulty software, and other system hardware issues.
BSOD Error Fix
Blue screen error is also called Stop Error as it causes your Windows system to stop completely and you may have to restart the system to continue working.
However, before restarting, users are advised to take note of the error code displayed on the blue screen. That said, the BSOD error primarily appears when your system cannot recover from the kernel-level error. The error message typically displays a wealth of information about crashes, driver data associated with the error, and other information about possible fixes.
When the system crashes, Windows creates minidump files, and all memory data with error details is downloaded to a hard drive for future debugging. Many useful tools, such as Bluescreen View and Windbg, allow you to read minidump files for troubleshooting. You can use Bluescreen View to quickly and easily analyze the error. For more advanced investigation, you can use Windbg to resolve the BSOD.
What is the Windows Debugging Tool (Windbg)
?
WinDbg, also known as the Windows Debugging Tool, is a multipurpose debugger that automatically scans all minidump files created after a BSOD. The tool is used for more advanced analysis of complex errors and is available for free download as part of the Windows 10 Software Development Kit. For each crash, the debugging tool provides details about the driver that was loaded during the crash and other advanced crash information to diagnose the root cause of the blue screen error and ultimately help decipher problematic drivers. In this article, we explain how to use the Windows Debugging Tool (WinDbg) to read the crash report.
How to use Windbg
Installing Windbg
Download the Windows 10 Standalone SDK here .
Run the installer and choose the default installation path.
Accept the license and select the feature debugging tools for Windows to install the debugger.
Click the button Install .
Using Windbg to debug a blue screen error
Go to Start and type WinDbg (x86).
Right click on the WinDbg tool and select Execute as an administrator.
Go to Archive and click Open Crash Dump from the menu.
Navigate to the route C: \ Windows \ Minidump and click on the folder Minidump .
In the Minidump folder, click the file dmp that you want to open.
WinDbg will now parse the file and wait until Debuggee not connected disappear at the bottom of the window.
Click on ! analyze -v at the command line and wait until the scan is complete.
For more information about drivers, locate the MODULE_NAME in the scan results and click the driver link.
Once you identify the problematic driver, you can choose to update or reinstall the problematic driver from the manufacturer's website to resolve the issue.
I hope this helps!
PS John Carrona Sr. adds: You'll get symbol errors if you don't set a valid symbol path. The easiest way is to click File...Symbol File Path and enter:
srv*c:\symbols*https://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
This must be done every time you open WinDbg, unless you save the workspace for later use.
The example of errors that occur when symbols are not used is here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30019889/how-to-set-up-symbols-in-windbg .
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