How to fix Blue Screen of Death in Windows 10?
Works on Other Laptops Too
This method is applicable to any laptop that’s facing a blue-screen error at any point of windows startup.
What is it?
As you probably know that blue screen error happens for various reasons and many of them are unknown to normal users who don’t get too deep in this computer thing.
If you just open your computer and work for few hours (minutes) regarding typing, managing data sheets, content management or even just enjoy your time on the web, there is no way you’d come across the reasons behind a blue-screen error.
The screen would just turn blue, show you that ‘the system has experienced some problems and needs to shut down’ and would dump some garbage data, which would just pass over your head leaving you utterly annoyed and confused as to what just happened.
Hard Disk May Also Cause Blue-Screen Error
Right now, I’ll be talking about blue-screen error that is caused by a new hard-disk in new laptops and for this article; I’ll be specific with Dell Inspiron 15r N5010 because I have recently fixed blue-screen error that was being caused by Western Digital hard disk in this laptop.
How to know the Reason?
The best way to find out the reason is to turn the system on in ‘safe mode’. Safe mode will only load necessary drivers for your system to work.
While running your system in Safe Mode you’ll lose Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G (if supported) and any rich graphics. You can work on the internet, if you choose Safe Mode with Networking.
To start your Inspiron 15r (and other) in safe mode, press F8 (it’s kind of universal, but don’t bet on it) at boot screen.
If for some reason you fail to invoke the advanced start-up options screen (by F8), quickly restart your system via turning the power off by power button.
Diagnosis Check will tell you Hard Disk Failure, if any!
Press F12 (for Inspiron 15r, ESC in many others) to enable boot options. You’ll see several boot options like CD/DVD, Hard Disk, LAN, USB Drive (if connected) and Diagnosis (there might be more depending on model and bios).
This diagnosis check will tell you if your hard disk is accessible or not. It will check your processors and RAM as well, so, you might want to let it run till it is complete. It takes 35 minutes if you include RAM check, otherwise, only 5 minutes.
Fixing the Error
How to Fix Blue-Screen Error?
If you can work in safe mode then there is nothing wrong with your Hard Disk and you just have to uninstall your graphics driver (most of the time, it is the main cause) and reinstall it.
However, if you can’t even get to that phase and are cut when waiting for the drivers to load, then your hard disk has failed to start the OS and you need to ‘Format’ your disk and reinstall your OS.
There is one more problem in blue-screen error, sometimes a faulty HDD will not let you install a new OS even if you boot from a DVD or USB drive or LAN for that matter. The system will show a blue-screen, dumb some garbage data collected while the OS was installing and shut down.
In this case, your best bet is to connect your entire hard disk to another computer as a USB storage device.
You are quite aware of the fact that current hard disks are plug and play ready and there is no format required when you connect it to your ‘other system’. That’s why; you don’t have to worry about losing your data. In fact, this method will enable you to backup your important data.
Finally Format your Root Drive
That’s right; you don’t have to format all drives. Once you connect your laptop’s hard disk to your other system, all the drives will pop-up one by one, just have a little patience.
You can format your faulty root drive from Windows context menu or from Command Prompt, you can perform a quick format with context menu (as well as complete) and a full (not quick) format by Command Prompt.
Don’t get confused when several drives popup in your My Computer window, naming your drives accordingly is a good idea to avoid any confusing situations.
Once you are done formatting and backing up your data, you can reinstall your hard disk in your laptop and reinstall an operating system with DVD, USB drive or LAN, as you wish.
Remember, you don’t have to do this every time you see a blue-screen error. Sometimes blue-screen error occurs for some very stupid reasons (even a simple restart can fix it) and it’s a nice practice to have an earlier image of your clean OS somewhere (on a DVD), so that, if the problem is only related to some software or driver, you can easily fix it without going through all the trouble of opening your laptop and messing up with the warranty.
Even then, the method said above is super easy and fixes the problem without the help of a technician and saves you heck lot of time.
© 2011 Krishnakant Sonakiya