If your Windows computer's screen suddenly fills with a blue background and obscure, white letters and numbers, you have encountered the "Blue Screen of Death." The BSOD is a Windows feature that indicates that the system has encountered a fatal error. Your computer is inoperable while this screen is on the display. Unfortunately, since there are many causes for the BSOD, there is no single solution. However, determining the type of a BSOD error can help you fix the problem.
Bad Pool Header
When the Blue Screen of Death indicates a "bad pool header," this means that a hardware device or its associated software has become corrupted. Try updating and reinstalling device drivers to fix this Blue Screen of Death. You can use the "!analyze" extension in the Driver Debugger to determine which driver is faulty.
Kernel Data Inpage Error
The "kernel data inpage error" occurs when Windows is unable to read data into the computer's memory. This Blue Screen of Death can be caused by faulty hardware, a virus or even a failing RAM chip. If the paging file which carries the data is on a disc, check that disc. Check your computer for viruses. Restart your computer with Autochk running. If Autochk does not run automatically, start the disc scanner manually. If failing RAM is causing this Blue Screen of Death, run the manufacturer's hardware diagnostics program.
NMI Hardware Failure
When the BSOD appears due to "NMI hardware failure," the computer is protecting itself from losing data. So many causes for this Blue Screen of Death exist that it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause. If you recently installed any hardware or drivers on your computer, uninstall them. Make sure that your system's memory modules are all the same type.
NTFS File System
The NTFS File System Blue Screen of Death occurs when the NTFS driver file is unable to interpret data on the hard drive. A corruption in the file system or on the hard disk itself may cause this error. Run Autochk to help determine the cause. Disable any programs that monitor your computer. Run a disk scan after you restart your computer.