Windows 9x/Me

Less serious but more common stop error messages are also seen in Microsoft's home desktop operating systems Windows 95, 98, and Me. Blue Screen Errors are the main way for virtual device drivers to report errors to the user in such cases.

Stop errors in Windows 9x/Me display the options of restarting the PC or to continue. But, in case of VxDs, Blue screen errors do not occur at this rate. One has to restart the computer to fix the glitch as the system will not respond or remain unstable after an error is displayed.

The most frequent Blue Screen Errors are the 25x80 screens on the GUI-based members of the MS-DOS-Win95 stream of operating systems and also on OS/2. Through these screens, operating system reports an interrupt due to a processor exception. These errors take more serious form of the Illegal Operation GPF/IPF error boxes visible in a couple of forms on these operating systems. The memory address and a hexadecimal value from 00 to 11 (0 to 17 decimal) is displayed. This could range from 0E (Page Fault) 0D (General Protection Fault), invalid opcode (06), division by zero (00), and stack fault (0C) to less common along with Overflow (04) and the Double Fault (08) forming a third tier of more rare processor exception errors.

Poorly written or erring device drivers, malfunctioning hardware, or hardware incompatibilities can also lead to Blue Screen Errors.
As for incompatible versions of DLLs, Windows load these into memory when they are needed by application programs. When the application loads the DLL next time, it may be not meet the application’s expectations. As more softwares are installed, the incompatibilities increase every time.

When the system tries to access the file "c:\con\con" on the hard drive which is inserted on websites to harm PCs, it may also cause stop errors in Windows 95 and 98. A patch has been released by Microsoft to address this.

Stop error can also occur when a user ejects removable media, particularly while using Microsoft Office when it is being read on 9x/ME. A temporary file is created in the same directory and it will display stop error as it attempts to delete the file that is no longer there on the drive.

Windows NT

In Windows NT environment, your PC displays BSOD if there is an error in kernel or a driver running in kernel mode from which it cannot recover. Illegal operations are largely the culprit in such cases. The operating system has the only option of restarting the computer manually and it may cost you your data as you are not given an opportunity to save it if it’s not been saved to the hard drive. 

Blue screens are also referred to as "Stop errors" or "bug checks". The error screen displays the error code and its symbolic name (e.g. "0x0000001E, MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED") along with four error-dependent values in parentheses that help software engineers to fix the problem. The error code gives an idea about the address where the problem took place and the driver which is loaded at that address.

In Case of Windows NT and 2000, the second and third sections of the screen display the information about all loaded drivers and a stack dump.

The first column of the driver information displays the address of the driver, the second lists the date of its creation and third one displays the name of it.

A critical boot loader error can also cause the blue screen behavior. This occurs when the operating system fails to access the boot partition on account of incorrect storage drivers or a damaged file system. This will display the error - STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE).

As a blue screen error occurs, Windows creates a memory dump file, which can be saved in different formats in accordance with the OS version. Later, with the help of a kernel debugger, these memory dump files may be debugged.

In such cases, there is no memory dump saved. Since the system is unable to boot from the hard drive in this situation, correction of the problem often requires booting from the Microsoft Windows CD. After booting to the CD, it may be possible to correct the problem by performing a repair install or by using the Recovery Console.  

Windows CE

A BSOD similar to that of Windows 95 and 98 occurs in Windows CE and they are the most simple version of the stop errors. It does not take place in the versions for Pocket PC.

ReactOS

Stop error messages similar to that of Windows NT/XP operating system occurs in ReactOS as well when there is an attempt to create a free software/open source implementation of a Windows NT-compatible operating system.

Wii

A Green Screen of Death may be displayed in some instances after running buggy homebrew or other problematic unofficial software.

Windows 3.1

This was the first version of Windows that encountered Blue Screen Problems. The error is also displayed when Control-Alt-Delete is pressed, in Windows 3.1's 386 enhanced mode while in a beta version of Windows 3.1, the screen displayed the same error but with a black background.

Xbox

A Green Screen of Death occurs in The Microsoft Xbox whereas a blue error is displayed if the disc is dirty in case of recalled Game Kakuto Chojin.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Users who upgraded from Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and had installed Application Enhancer, were hit by the stop error of a different kind as the BSOD was part of a regular boot process. As it was just a part of the regular boot process, this Blue Screen behavior was not meant to apprise the user of the error.


PlayStation Portable

Blue Screen Problems are encountered in PlayStation Portable when the internal settings in flash 1:\ become corrupted or starts malfunctioning. The error requires the PlayStation Portable attempts to recreate the registry setting files. The Blue Screen Error occurs while downgrading a PlayStation Portable because of non-backward-compatible registry files. In rare conditions, the system may be thrown into loop in which the PlayStation Portable will continue to restart with the Blue Screen behavior.

If the portions of the internal flash0:\ are corrupted or missing, the PlayStation Portable may also display a red screen of death, which is more serious a problem as there is no option to fix it as the missing operating system, unlike the user settings, cannot be restored.

Game Boy Advance 

The screen may go blue without any text or get stuck to a frozen image of the game if a cartridge is removed from the console as it is still running. It will display the same frozen image as it was at the exact moment before it froze. Replacement of cartridge may not help and to recover from it you need to power off, replace the cartridge and turn it back on. Similar problems are encountered while playing a GBA game on the Nintendo DS. Most of the games will start off at the last save point.

Nintendo DS

If a DS card or GBA card is removed while on the Pictochat room selection menu, the Nintendo DS will display single-color on the screen without any text. Depending upon the DS firmware version, the screen of the color will vary. Version 6 firmware on most DS machines is blue, whereas the version 5 firmware of DS Lite consoles, is magenta. A few DS machines display green screen of death when a DS card or GBA cards are removed while on the Pictochat room selection menu. If you are playing Animal Crossing or Wild World during wireless communication, a Blue Screen can be displayed, resulting from disrupted wireless connection. Corrupted data on other games like Pokémon Diamond and Pearl will also cause a blue screen error. In such cases, the screen states the game has been discontinued and that all unsaved progress of the game will be lost.