Blue screen error and random crashes

Your screen has gone blue with a message you never asked for, or the computer keeps restarting and freezing on you for no reason you can see. A blue screen is the machine telling you that something went wrong, not telling you what, and it is very often something ordinary and fixable rather than the end of the machine. One thing before you restart it: photograph the screen. The line in capitals is the machine naming the fault, and it is the most useful thing you can hand anyone. Tell us what it says and when the crashes started, and we will test for the real cause, say plainly whether it is worth putting money into, and give you one fixed quote before any work. If we cannot fix it, you pay nothing for the repair.

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No fix, no fee on the repairIf we cannot fix it, you do not pay for the repair. In writing, on every job.
Free advice by messageDescribe the fault and we will tell you what it sounds like and whether it is worth doing, before anyone travels.
We come to youAcross Leeds, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire, or we collect and return.
A real person repliesNot a call centre, not a ticket queue: we read every enquiry, day and night, Sunday to Friday. The fixed quote you agree is the price you pay.

The short version

A blue screen is a symptom. The stop code names the cause.
Photograph the code before it restarts. It narrows the fault fast.
Failing memory and a failing drive are the two commonest causes.
Reinstalling Windows will not fix failing memory or a dying drive.
Still crashing in safe mode points at hardware, not software.

Try this first

Four things to check before you call anyone

None of these need tools, and between them they narrow the fault more than an hour of guessing would. The first one is the most useful thing you can do. One carve-out: if the drive is making clicking or grinding noises, stop. Do not keep rebooting or stress-testing a drive that sounds mechanical, copy nothing, and treat it as file recovery first.

Photograph the blue screen with your phone before the machine restarts. The line in capitals and underscores, something like MEMORY_MANAGEMENT, is the machine naming the fault. It is the single most useful thing you can tell us, and it is gone the moment the computer reboots.
Hold Shift as you click Restart, then choose Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Startup Settings, Restart, and press 4 for safe mode. Safe mode loads only the basic drivers. If the machine behaves itself in safe mode for as long as it would normally have crashed, the fault is very likely a driver or software. If it blue screens even there, that points at the hardware instead. This is the cheapest test on the page.
Write down what changed in the days before the first crash. A Windows update, a new program, a printer or graphics driver, a stick of memory someone fitted. Crashes that begin within a day or two of one of those usually belong to it, and that is the first thing to undo.
Notice whether it crashes at rest or only when the machine is working hard. Going only during games, video exports or long renders, with the fans loud, makes heat a strong candidate. Crashing at idle as well makes heat much less likely and pushes memory or the drive up the list.

What it usually means

Why a computer blue screens and restarts itself

Failing memory, one of the commonest causes of a repeated blue screen, and one we can test properly rather than guess at
A drive that is beginning to fail, which shows up as crashes, freezes and files that will not open
If it is the drive, that is the one to act on quickly, because your files are at risk while the machine keeps running
A driver or software conflict, very often turning up right after a Windows update or a new program went on
Overheating, where a machine choked with dust drops out or shuts itself down once it is worked hard
A stick of memory or a card that has worked loose or is failing, which shows itself under load rather than at rest
Less often, unwanted software or malware destabilising the system, which we test for rather than assume

Not sure which is yours? Describe it in a message and we will tell you, free. Tell us what it is doing and we will work it out.

At a glance

What the common stop codes usually mean

Windows names the fault in capitals near the bottom of the blue screen. It is not a diagnosis on its own, but it narrows the field a long way before anyone opens the machine. Find yours below.

Stop code on the screen	Usually points at	What that means for you
MEMORY_MANAGEMENT	Failing memory, sometimes a driver	Memory is the first thing to test, and it is quick to confirm or rule out.
KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR	The drive, or the cable running to it	Get a copy of your files made before anything else. This is the code that means your data is at risk.
CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED	Damaged system files, often on a drive that is failing underneath	Worth checking the drive's health before anyone reinstalls Windows over the top of it.
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE	The drive or its driver, very often straight after an update	Frequently sorted without losing anything, if it is handled before the machine gets wiped.
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL	A driver, sometimes memory	Think about what was installed or updated just before the crashes started.
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA	Memory or a driver	The same two suspects, and a proper memory test is what separates them.
VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE	The graphics driver, or the graphics card itself	More often the driver than the card, so it is worth proving which before buying anything.
WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR	Hardware reporting its own fault: processor, memory or heat	Often overheating rather than a dead part.
DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION	A driver, commonly the storage one	Usually software rather than a failed part, which makes it one of the more hopeful codes.

A stop code is a strong hint, not a verdict. The same code can have more than one cause, which is why we test rather than swap parts and hope. If yours is not on this list, tell us what it says and we will tell you where it points.

What we do

How we find the cause behind the stop code

You tell us what the blue screen says, code and all, and when the crashes started, so we arrive knowing where to look
We come to you across Leeds, at home or at work, or we can collect the machine and bring it back if that is easier
We read the crash records the machine has already written, the logs and the stop codes, rather than wiping Windows and hoping
We test the memory properly, because it is both the most frequent cause and the quickest to confirm or rule out
We check the drive's health early, since a failing drive both causes the crashes and puts your files in danger
We look at what changed just before it started: a recent update, a new driver, a newly installed program
We check whether it overheats under load, because a machine choked with dust will crash whenever it is worked hard
You get a fixed quote before any work begins, and if it cannot be fixed, or it is not worth the money, we say so and you pay nothing beyond any call-out you agreed

Is it worth fixing?

Is a computer that keeps blue screening worth fixing?

Usually well worth a look before you write the machine off. The causes we find most, a stick of failing memory, a driver conflict or a system that has been left to clutter up, cost little to put right next to a new computer, and a blue screen is far more often one of those than a machine that is genuinely finished. The exception worth naming is a failing drive in an older computer, where the drive itself can be replaced but the machine underneath may not be worth the spend, and there a replacement can be the wiser choice. If that is where yours has landed we will tell you plainly, and we can still get your files off the old drive so nothing is lost in the move.

This is a pc and desktop repair job. Advice by message is free, then you get one fixed quote before any work starts. If we cannot fix it, there is nothing to pay for the repair.

Send an enquiry and describe the fault

Where we work

We come to you across Leeds, West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire

Home or work, day or night, Sunday to Friday. There is no walk-in shop, so we come to the machine, or collect it and bring it back. Start at computer repair in Leeds, or pick your area.

Questions

Blue screen and crash questions we get asked

Why does my computer keep crashing?

There are only a handful of usual reasons, and we work through them rather than guess. The commonest are failing memory and a drive that is starting to fail, then a driver or software conflict, very often one that arrived with a recent update or a new program, then overheating on a machine that is choked with dust. A blue screen is a symptom with a cause behind it, not a verdict on the whole computer, and finding the actual cause is what stops you paying to replace the wrong part.

It restarts too fast for me to read the code. Where else can I find it?

Windows keeps a record of every crash, so the code is not lost just because the screen was. Open the Start menu, type Reliability Monitor, and you will get a timeline with a red cross on each crash; clicking one shows the technical detail behind it. One heads-up: Reliability Monitor reports the code as a number such as 0x0000001A rather than the name the blue screen shows, so bring us the number and we will translate it - the table above uses the names. If you would rather have longer to read the blue screen next time, you can turn off the automatic restart: type View advanced system settings into Start, then under Startup and Recovery click Settings and untick Automatically restart. The machine will then sit on the blue screen until you restart it yourself.

It still crashes in safe mode. What does that tell you?

It is a genuinely useful answer, even though it is the less cheerful one. Safe mode loads only the basic drivers Windows needs to run, so almost everything that a software fault could hide in is switched off. If the machine still blue screens in that state, the problem is very likely hardware, which usually means memory, the drive or heat. The flip side is just as useful: if safe mode is rock solid for as long as it would normally have crashed by, a driver or a program is the likely culprit and a reinstall may genuinely be part of the answer. Either way you have halved the search before anyone charges you anything.

Is a blue screen caused by a virus?

It can be, but far more often it is not, so we test rather than assume either way. Malware and unwanted software can destabilise a system enough to crash it, and a machine that started blue-screening after something you did not install turned up is worth checking for exactly that. That said, the more usual causes are hardware or a driver, failing memory, a tired drive or a conflict after an update. Part of the free advice by message is telling you which of those you are actually dealing with, so you are not paying for a clean-up when the fault is a stick of memory, or the other way round.

Should I just reinstall Windows to fix it?

It is the first thing a lot of people reach for, and it is worth understanding before you do. Reinstalling Windows wipes the machine and can genuinely clear a software or driver fault, but if the real cause is failing memory or a drive on its way out, the blue screen comes straight back after all that effort, and you will have lost your files for nothing. That is why we read the crash records and test the hardware first, and why the safe mode test above is worth ten minutes of your time. If it truly is software, a clean reinstall may be part of the fix, but we prove the hardware is sound before we ever wipe anything.

Will I lose my work when it crashes like this?

Anything you had open and unsaved at the exact moment of a crash is usually gone, which is why frequent crashing is worth dealing with rather than living around. Your saved files, though, sit on the drive and are almost always still there. The one situation where your files are genuinely at risk is when the drive itself is the thing failing, and that is precisely why we check the drive's health early, so we can get your data safe before it gets worse rather than after.

Can you fix it today?

Sometimes, and we will be straight with you rather than promise a slot we cannot keep. Reading the crash logs, testing the memory and clearing a driver or software conflict can often be done on the visit. Anything that needs a part, a stick of memory or a new drive for your exact machine, depends on how quickly that part reaches us, which can take a few days, and moving your data across to a new drive takes as long as it takes to copy. Tell us what the screen says and when it started when you get in touch, and we will give you a realistic answer, not an optimistic one.

Is it worth fixing or should I buy a new computer?

It depends on what the free advice by message finds and on the age of the machine. If it is memory, a driver conflict or a system that needs sorting out, repair is almost always the cheaper and quicker route by a wide margin. If it turns out to be a failing drive in an old computer, replacing the drive is straightforward but the rest of the machine may not justify the spend, and that is the point where a new one can make more sense. We will tell you honestly which side of that line yours falls, and you decide with the real fault and a fixed quote in front of you.

Sound more like one of these?

Tell us what is wrong.

Send an enquiry and describe the fault. We will find the fault properly, give you a fixed quote before any work, and if we cannot fix it there is nothing to pay for the repair. A real person who does the work, not a call centre.