Common Stop Codes (Blue Screen of Death, aka BSOD)

I’ve decided to list some of the more common stop codes. In the years I’ve fixed clients PCs I have definitely seen my fair share of Blue Screens.

Some of these can be challenging to troubleshoot and find the exact point of failure. I have also in the past year or so started to use debugging tools to help fix some of these Stop errors.

I would recommend picking up Windbg the windows debugger and playing around with it. It provided both a GUI and command line utility. If you have your computer set to save the Dump logs, you can find a load of helpful information in them.

If these occur write them down and Google them I’ve found specific information for the specific hardware I had installed and a work around to solve the problem, usually video card related. I also recommend checking the Event Viewer this can sometime provide the exact driver that caused the problem.


STOP 0x0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_EQUAL
Very common code caused by the kernel-mode process trying to access portions of memory at an IRQL that was too high or a driver attempted to access a memory location to which it did not have permission. I see this a lot with device drivers, most of them from virus scanners.

STOP 0x0000001E KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Caused when a kernel-mode process tries to execute an illegal or unknown processor instruction. If this error gives you the drivers name try uninstalling the or rolling it back. You might even need to uninstall the offending application or service using this driver.

Stop 0x00000024 NTFT_FILE_SYSEM
Caused by a problem that occurred in the read usual cause is disk corruption. Try using Check disk or some other hardware diagnostics tests.

Stop 0x0000002E DATA_BUS_ERROR
Caused by a parity error in the system memory, usually defective hardware. Typical problems revolve around the memory modules, video cards, or even hard disk corruption. Try replacing this hardware till you find the cause.

Stop 0x00000050 PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
Causes and exception error when using a reference to an invalid system memory address. Basically defective memory, L2 Ram or video RAM. Could be incompatible software.

Stop 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
Caused when Windows lost access to the system partition during the startup process

Stop 0x0000007F UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODEL_TRAP
Caused when the CPU generates and error that the kernel does not catch or a bound trap. This could happen when you over clock your CPU, have a defective motherboard, and also may have to do with recently added hardware or drivers.

Comprehensive site about stop codes