Ah, the Blue Screen of Death: It’s been a staple of Microsoft Windows going back decades — way back to 1993’s Windows NT 3.1. Usually a last-ditch response, the BSOD indicates that your Windows PC has crashed — and nothing’s coming back until you restart.
What’s so frustrating about the dreaded blue screen is that it seemingly comes out of nowhere. No warning, and no recourse whatsoever. Once it hits, your computer’s unresponsive until you restart, and whatever you were working on might be lost for good.
The Real Cost of the Blue Screen of Death
Sure, BSODs are annoying, but the real cost is more than your sanity (and that of your employees or team members). Whenever a PC goes down, your work stops — maybe just for a minute or two, maybe for five.
But we all know that a five-minute interruption is more than a five-minute impact. Your entire train of thought gets derailed, and any state of flow or high performance is disrupted.
Plus there’s the not-so-tiny issue of what happens to whatever you were working on. These days, many Windows applications are a lot better about autosaving your progress, so there’s a better chance that not all is lost. But some degree of work may indeed be lost, and it takes some time to determine what if anything got dumped when your PC hit the (blue) wall.
So to sum up: the real costs are higher than just a few minutes of lost productivity.
How Often Are Computers hitting the BSOD?
Another question worth asking: how often does the Blue Screen of Death actually show up?
While they aren’t as painful as they used to be, BSODs are unfortunately pretty common, with some research suggesting you’ve got a 1 in 200 chance of encountering one. And certain types of events (like the recent CrowdStrike attack) can spike that number through the roof — more like 1 in 10.
What does this mean for you? Hopefully it gives you some perspective in knowing how to respond. If you see the dreaded BSOD once every few months (or even less frequently), there’s nothing to worry about, and probably nothing you can do to eliminate them completely.
But if you’re seeing them multiple times a week or even more frequently than that, something’s definitely out of the ordinary.
Good News: Some Blue Screens of Death Are Avoidable
Some level of BSOD-ing is normal. But if yours are happening frequently, it’s worth taking a look at some of the reasons why. Many Blue Screens of Death are avoidable, tied to specific settings or issues that you may be able to fix.
Here are a few examples:
- Out-of-date hardware: Old or badly performing hardware may become unstable over time and need to be replaced.
- Failing to update Windows: Not keeping your version of Windows up to date can decrease stability. It’s also possible (though rare) for an update to fail to install properly, though usually if this happens the BSOD isn’t your biggest concern.
- Misconfigured drivers: Some types of hardware (like graphics cards, audio systems, and networking hardware) rely on drivers to interface with Windows. If these are configured wrong or you’re running an older unsupported driver, Windows may crash more frequently. Look for drivers especially if your BSODs tend to be tied to specific functions, like graphics-intensive work or audio playback.
Of course, it’s one thing to know some reasons why you’re being plagued by BSODs. It’s another to address the root causes. Properly upgrading and maintaining hardware, operating systems, and software is a resource commitment all its own, and driver configuration sometimes requires some technical know-how. And doing all of this consistently, at scale across your entire workforce? That takes time, effort, and technical skill.
Our team is ready to help you troubleshoot your PCs and get (and keep) them up and running. Reach out today to discuss your needs.