BSOD posts

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft

Showstopper chkdsk bug set to derail Windows 7 launch? Hardly.

by Lee Mathews Aug 5th 2009

Earlier today, reports were flying all around the blogosphere about a critical, holy-crap-its-the-apocalypse bug that had been uncovered in the Windows 7 RTM.

The bug happens when running chkdsk - which becomes RAM-hungry under certain specific circumstances, gets all crazy-like, then causes a BSOD (which I argue is more like a feature of Windows than a bug). Chris123NT posted the news yesterday on his blog, but it took a few hours for the sensationalism to begin. A post at InfoWorld said the bug "risks derailing the Windows 7 product launch."

Oh, crap! We're all in trouble! Or are we?

As it turns out, the only way this really qualifies as a "showstopper" is by virtue of the fact that Ed Bott had to stop what he was doing to show people why it's not. Here's a brief summary:

The bug only occurs when running chkdsk /R on a non-system drive. The /R? That's to recover data from damaged sectors and relocate it.
That being the case, single-drive, single partition systems (like 90% of those I repair on a daily basis) are immune to the bug.
To pull off the chkdsk /r you first have to run an elevated command prompt (which most users won't know how to do), then ignore the warning about the drive being locked, then allow the entire check to complete.
The InfoWorld post admits that the author "did not succeed in causing the systems to "blue screen" as others have reported." System did slow to a crawl due to lack of available RAM, but there was no Earth-shattering kaboom.
Reports of this happening when a removable drive is inserted have been greatly exaggerated. When Windows asks if you want to scan and fix? Nothing bad happens.

Tags: blue-screen-of-death, bsod, bug, bugs, chkdsk, errors, windows-7-rtm

Filed under: Fun, Games, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Office, Adobe, Microsoft, Freeware, Time-Wasters

Cubicle Freakout - Time Waster

by Jason Clarke Nov 5th 2007

In terms of online flash games, Cubicle Freakout's gameplay isn't particularly compelling. But gameplay isn't really Cubicle Freakout's claim to fame. This game is really about wreaking as much havoc in your cubicle as you can as quickly as possible. The fun of it comes more from the way it's easy to sympathize with the freaky little dude in the game. The sound and visuals are also quite good when compared to other typical flash games.

You're not going to spend more than about 3 minutes with this one, but as time wasters go, sometimes a short-term commitment is all you really want anyway.

Tags: BSOD, Cubicle-Freakout, stress, Time-Waster

Filed under: Developer, Fun, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Apple, Microsoft

Various Screens of Death on Wikipedia

by Jason Clarke Jun 14th 2007

There's a lot to love about Wikipedia, and for geeks this page describing the various types of "screens of death" might just push that love into overdrive.

While most people are familiar with the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) in Windows, there are a number of other colors that are also associated with severe unrecoverable errors in various operating systems. The colors run the gamut, and include blue, black, green, yellow and white, plus various other screens of death that are not color themed.

In a strange way browsing through these unfortunate screenshots is like a walk down memory lane, albeit one that brings back somewhat unpleasant memories.

Tags: blue screen of death, BlueScreenOfDeath, BSOD, screen of death, ScreenOfDeath, Wikipedia

Filed under: Developer, Fun, Windows, Microsoft, Freeware

BSOD ScreenSaver from Microsoft (SysInternals)

by Jason Clarke Nov 11th 2006

This, to me, is a breath of fresh air. Microsoft has a freely available screensaver that mimics the much maligned Blue Screen of Death error screen that Windows gives when it crashes in a big bad way. While other prank screensavers have been made that are similar, this one is unique in that all of the identifiable text on the screen is pulled from the system's actual values - so the BSOD looks as legitimate as it possibly can. It even gives the option in the screensaver's configuration to fake disk activity, so that it appears as if a real dump is happening.

It's no surprise to learn that this download originated with SysInternals, a company that made quite the name for itself developing tools to get to the bottom of what is actually going on inside Windows. Microsoft recognized their value, and snatched them up - so the brand is now known as Windows SysInternals.

Obviously, we can't condone this, but for all sorts of fun you could install this screensaver on a friend's machine, then watch when they become ever more frustrated that their machine keeps "crashing". Am I mean for thinking that's funny? I guess I am.

Tags: blue screen of death, BlueScreenOfDeath, bsod, bsod prank, bsod screensaver, BsodPrank, BsodScreensaver, free screensaver, FreeScreensaver, microsoft screensaver, MicrosoftScreensaver, screensaver

Filed under: Macintosh

Blue Screen of Death... for Mac?

by Amber Rhea Sep 15th 2006

I don't know why you'd want to do this, but... Amit Singh explains how to bring the infamous Blue Screen of Death to Mac OS X. The default Mac OS X kernel panic screen isn't nearly as jarring as the Blue Screen of Death; by comparison, it's downright soothing. My iBook and I have survived three kernel panics together over the past two and a half years, none of which raised my blood pressure too terribly.

But, if you really want to go tinkering in your Mac's source tree, have at it. Perhaps this is suitable as an April Fool's Day experiment, or a one-time office prank. Amit explains how to simulate a kernel panic and bring up the dread blue screen. Hopefully you're not experiencing kernel panics all the time, anyway.

If reason prevails and you actually don't want to bring the Blue Screen of Death to your Mac, the article is also just an interesting read about the history of kernel panics. (I think I just upped my nerd quotient by using the word "interesting" in the same sentence as "kernel panic.")

Tags: blue screen of death, BlueScreenOfDeath, BSoD, kernel panic, KernelPanic, Mac OS X, MacOsX, unix

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