Perhaps the most common is a glitch that arises when the OS tries to access an incorrect memory address, perhaps as a result of a programming error.
Other errors drive the OS into an infinite loop, in which the computer executes the same instructions over and over without hope of escape. In these cases, the computer might seem to "lock up"--the system doesn't crash, but is not longer responsive to input and needs to be reset. Still other problems result when a bug allows information to be written into a memory buffer that is too small to accept it.
The additional data "overflows" out of the buffer and overwrites information in memory, corrupting the OS state. These same errors can occur in application programs. Newer OSs are robust against application crashes, but in older systems application bugs can affect the OS and cause a system-wide crash.
Modern operating systems are carefully tested, and tend to be relatively stable, but drivers that are added to the OS to allow the use of additional devices such as printers may not be, and are often the source of crashes. This is why most modern OSs allow for a special boot mode that disables loading drivers. The drivers can then be added one at a time to determine which one causes the error. The OS can also crash when it fails in its job of managing system resources correctly.
It is possible for the OS to reach a state of deadlock, in which multiple programs each have control of some resource another program needs, and each is waiting for the other to relinquish control of the resource. Alternatively, the system might be switching back and forth between a few programs, each of which needs a significant proportion of memory resources.
Because the switching takes time as memory information is stored to and read from the disk , it is possible for the machine to thrash, which means it spends so much time swapping programs back and forth that little or no productive processing occurs. A thrashing machine may be slow or unresponsive, but its disk is still operating and it will generally recover after being left to itself for a few minutes.
Thrashing can occur as a result of the OS failing to allocate and recover memory space properly. As the OS allows programs to run, it allocates memory to them. A memory leak occurs when the OS fails to recover the memory correctly when programs stop. Over time, the OS's internal accounting will show that there is little memory available.
Computers can crash as a result of different devices trying to use the same internal ID to operate. These types of crashes are more common after adding new, conflicting hardware to a system. Finally, an OS can crash if information it needs is corrupted on disk.
This often happens when a computer crashes, loses power, or is shut down without having the opportunity to write the contents of memory to the appropriate files.
By: Justin Stoltzfus Contributor, Reviewer. By: Satish Balakrishnan. Dictionary Dictionary Term of the Day. Natural Language Processing. Techopedia Terms. Connect with us. Sign up. Term of the Day. Best of Techopedia weekly. News and Special Offers occasional. Techopedia Explains Crash. This could mean that the device driver itself is buggy, or that the underlying hardware is failing.
Either way, it will give you a place to start searching. The Windows Reliability Monitor offers a quick, user-friendly interface that displays recent system and application crashes. It was added in Windows Vista, so it will be present on all modern versions of Windows. The Reliability Monitor window is arranged by dates with columns at the right representing the most recent days.
You can see a history of events for the last few weeks, or you can switch to a weekly view. The column for each day shows events recorded for that day. For example, the history will show when you installed software, so you might be able to see whether crashes started occuring after the installation of a particular app.
If you see an interesting event listed, double-click it to open a details window with more information. Here, we can see that Windows had trouble starting due to trouble with a hard disk. In a best case scenario, it might advise you to install updated hardware drivers. Really, the Reliability Monitor is more useful for giving you an idea of when crashes or other major events happened, seeing other events that surrounded those crashes, and getting a start on narrowing down possible causes.
When Windows encounters a blue screen error, it dumps the memory files to a local file that sometimes contains useful information for troubleshooting those errors.
This tool displays a list of saved dump files. You can click any dump file to see the information it contains. The list of drivers at the bottom of the window may also be helpful. For example, the blue-screens may consistently implicate a particular driver file, such as your graphics hardware driver. Or, that specific driver may be crashing because the underlying hardware itself is damaged. Either way, it can help point you in a more specific direction.
The above tools can help you get more of a handle on your problem. With a specific crash message from the blue screen in hand, you can at least perform a web search to discover what might be going on. Nothing is completely perfect—a bug in Windows or a hardware driver could have caused the crash, and you may never see it again. The Memory Diagnostics tool built into Windows can also help.
It tests your memory to ensure everything is working properly. If your memory is damaged, this can cause system instability and blue-screens. The tools can will help you narrow down your problem to a more specific error message or hardware driver, giving you a starting point for troubleshooting.
But not every problem can be fixed with some troubleshooting steps. Your computer may have a hardware problem and there may be nothing you can do about it beyond replacing or fixing the hardware itself. As Windows becomes more stable, regular system freezes and blue-screens often point to underlying hardware problems. Browse All iPhone Articles Browse All Mac Articles
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