Every computer user has encountered the dreaded blue screen of death more than once.It’s absolutely frustrating, especially because whatever comes on the screen is in some alien language with very little meaning to normal people.If one is extremely lucky, work has been saved and nothing has been lost, but for most of us, the blue screen adds additional frustration because we must take the time to re-do what we’ve already done.

The blue screen could be caused by many different issues.It may be hard to tell exactly what happened, but here are a few steps that you can take to alleviate or stop the death screen all together:

• The very first time it happens, simply reboot.As strange as this may sound, the reboot may very well fix the problem.Shutting down and restarting the computer actually resets many attributes that seem to get out of line.
• Unfortunately, for most people, the rebooting process may help get one functional again, but will not completely stop the blue screen from appearing. So – keep a pen and paper handy for when this nasty crash occurs.Write down what shows up on the screen.It may appear like an alien language with no possible rational meaning, but each error is actually coded to give us poor users a hint as to what just happened.
• If the blue screen pops up and then shuts down too quickly for one to capture the error message, don’t worry – it will happen again!But – one must be prepared.By changing one setting, the blue screen will stay on the screen until one is ready to shut down and restart.
• Click on the Start Button
• Select Help and Support
• Search for “Advanced Startup” options
• From the search results, look for the item that allows you to “Disable automatic restart on system failure”
• Follow the help screens to disable the automatic restart on system failure.
• Once the information is copied down on paper, do some web searches to find out what the issue is.If the message is related to a software error and you’ve recently installed new software, try uninstalling the new software to see if that fixes the problem.If you absolutely need the software on your computer, try doing some cleanup on your computer before reinstalling.
• One other option is to use the last known good configuration option.Using the steps listed above, conduct a new search to find out how to reboot and revert to the last known computer configuration on your specific computer.This can undo any hardware or software driver changes that might have caused a glitch in the computer settings.
• A final option is to assume the computer has some type of driver issue.Do another computer search for “repair driver.” Follow the instructions on how to update and repair the drivers located on your computer.

These are some very basic fixes that most computer users can accomplish.Since most death screens are related to drivers, new software or a temporary issue, the above steps should fix the problem.

Unfortunately, if you go through the steps, yet you continue to crash, the last option for most computer users is to head on down to the computer shop.The repair shop might have to completely reinstall the operating system, which means you WILL want a backup of your files.

When you see that dreaded blue screen, it’s easy to want to sit down and weep, but with a few hints, you may have the power to fix the problem that caused a crash.It could make you feel like a super-hero!