Blue screen errors

What we fix

• Random blue screens with no obvious trigger
• Crashes that started after an update or new driver
• Blue screens only under load or when gaming
• Restart loops that never reach the desktop
• Memory, drive and driver faults identified
• Crash logs and minidumps read properly

What the screen is telling you

The stop code at the bottom of the screen is a category rather than an answer. Codes about memory management, unexpected store exceptions and page faults all describe what Windows was doing when it gave up, not what broke.

The useful part is the pattern. Crashes that happen at the same point every time, such as during a game, when a particular program opens, or while a file copies, point somewhere specific. Crashes scattered across ordinary use point somewhere else.

Write down the stop code and, if there is one, the file name shown underneath it. Photograph the screen if you can. That one detail often saves an hour of testing.

The usual causes

Faulty memory is one of the classics, and it tends to produce crashes with no consistent trigger. A module can work for years and then develop a fault, or work loose in a machine that has been moved around.

A failing drive is the other big one. When Windows cannot read something it needs, it stops, and the crash can look like almost anything. This is why we check drive health before chasing drivers.

Then drivers, particularly graphics drivers and anything installed alongside new hardware or security software. Overheating causes crashes too, usually under load rather than at rest. On desktops, a power supply that cannot hold up under demand produces the same picture.

What we check, in order

We read the crash dumps the machine saves each time, which usually name the driver or component that was involved, and we cross-check that against the Windows event log to see what was happening in the minutes before.

Then hardware. Memory gets tested over multiple passes, because a fault can take hours to show. Drive health is read, temperatures are watched under sustained load, and on a desktop the power supply is tested under demand rather than at idle.

If the crashes started after a specific change, we work backwards from it: an update, a driver, a new program, a new part. Recent changes are the single most useful thing you can tell us when you book.

What to do while you wait

Back up anything that matters, straight away, to an external drive or cloud storage. Blue screens caused by a failing drive tend to get more frequent, and the window for copying files off is not indefinite.

If the machine crashes before reaching the desktop, try safe mode, which loads Windows with the minimum needed and often gets you in long enough to save files. If it crashes even there, stop restarting it repeatedly and let us look at it.

If the crashes began right after an update or a driver install, and you can reach the desktop, rolling that change back is a reasonable thing to try yourself. If they began after new hardware went in, check it is seated properly.

Getting it fixed

Labour is a fixed $274, which includes the $88 diagnosis. Many blue screen jobs are driver or system faults and need no parts at all. Where memory or a drive has failed, the part is quoted and approved before we order it.

Most repairs are done within 72 hours, though intermittent crashes can take longer to confirm, because the machine has to be run hard for a while to prove the fault has gone. We would rather find it with us than have it come back to you.

If the machine still starts and connects, some of this work can be done over remote support at $179 per hour. Where the crashes are frequent, or the machine will not stay up long enough to work on, it is better in our hands, and collection and return is $50.

Typical jobs

A typical job: a PC blue screening every few days with no pattern anyone can pick. The crash dumps point at memory, a multi-pass test finds one failing module, and it is replaced and then retested under sustained load before the machine goes back to normal use.

A typical example: a laptop crashing during file copies and again at start-up. Drive health shows pending sectors climbing, so we copy the data off while the drive is still readable, replace it, restore the system and programs, and confirm the crashes have stopped.

Another typical job: a desktop that began crashing the week a graphics driver updated. We read the dumps, roll back to a stable driver version, check temperatures under load, and run a sustained test to be sure the fault has actually gone.

Questions