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Why the blue screen of death no longer plagues Windows users

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Microsoft actually published the causes of Blue screens.

They basically said that 60% of all of them were due to the graphics drivers. In Vista they changed the driver model so that more of the driver ran as a program in user space, removing it from the kernel and hence dropped the failure rate more than half on its own.

The rest were largely sound card related, so Microsoft made most of the sound API software removing the benefits of having hardware processed sound cards beyond the quality of the DACs.

The remainder were bad chipset and other drivers and Microsoft extended its WHQL program to verify the drivers and basically put themselves as testers so it was extremely hard to roll out a driver to the customers without Microsoft's approval.

The 1% of errors that were genuinely Windows and not hardware overclocking or anything else seemed to fall into unclear APIs where various applications were using undocumented features on the edge cases. Microsoft went through a big process of putting tests around those key APIs, clearing up the edge cases and informing the companies about their odd usage of the Windows API to get it fixed. There were quite a few applications and drivers that stopped working on Vista release but over the course of a few years gradually got fixed by the companies such that by the time Windows 7 came out based on all the previous goodies that removed blue screens Microsoft now had a much more stable OS with the the updated security model we use today.
 
BrightCandle said:
Microsoft actually published the causes of Blue screens.

They basically said that 60% of all of them were due to the graphics drivers. In Vista they changed the driver model so that more of the driver ran as a program in user space, removing it from the kernel and hence dropped the failure rate more than half on its own.
Click to expand...

Nvidia*graphics drivers. ATI/AMDs were spot on for Vista at launch.
 
I saw a blue screen just a month ago for Win7. You combine 3+ hours of a Skype call with another resource intense program (WoW) and that's a recipe for OS meltdown.
 
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You all forget that you buy every other Windows release. After 3.1, they came out with the NEW 95 and didn't get it right till 98 which was solid, Then came ME which sucked till XP came alone (still my favorite). Then Vista wallowed around until they fixed it with 7. Now their out with the new 8 which won't be fixed till 9 comes out.
 
sequoia464 said:
Interesting post - thank you.

Any idea what the main cause of conflicts might be with W8? - I would speculate graphics drivers??
Click to expand...

The crashes I received were due to the graphics drivers (Nvidia) and some problems in Windows Explorer (could be graphics, could be Windows or anything else). I suspect that was(still is?) the likely cause like. So far as I know Microsoft has not published data about Windows 8 blue screens however so its a guess not based on MS published data.
 
QuietDad said:
You all forget that you buy every other Windows release. After 3.1, they came out with the NEW 95 and didn't get it right till 98 which was solid, Then came ME which sucked till XP came alone (still my favorite). Then Vista wallowed around until they fixed it with 7. Now their out with the new 8 which won't be fixed till 9 comes out.
Click to expand...

Everyone keeps spouting this "every other OS" bit but it's nonsense.

95 was a huge improvement over 3.1 in pretty much every way. The difference between 95 OSR2 and 98 is basically just cosmetic (and is the opposite of what Win 8 does with the window borders).

Also, in order to stick with this "every other OS" theory, there are OS versions always skipped. NT3.5, NT4.0, 2K, 2K3, etc. I guess you could say you are just sticking with "Home" OSes instead of "Server" OSes, but 95 was awesome for its time and super solid compared to 3.11, so that doesn't really work. Also if 8/8.1 are counted as different OSes that is two abominations in a row.
 
glugglug said:
Having tried both and given up after 3 weeks, yes, absolutely. In fact, I ran Vista x64 for about 6 months with the Beta and it was far more production ready.
Click to expand...


My opinion is the opposite both Win8 and Win8.1 are very polished in my books forget about UI or changes since that's really a personal preference thing,end of the day both Win8 and Win8.1 are very stable,so all this talk on Win8 being beta is pure FUD IMHO,sure you can hate an OS but don't tell me it's not stable or its beta because 12 months of usage on 8 and few weeks on 8.1 tells me the opposite,fact is only time I had stability issues was with my faulty corsair ram a few weeks ago but hey its fine to blame OS even for WW3 right?

Getting back on topic BSOD are normally caused by faulty hardware or drivers in my experience and this goes back to pre Win95 days to present so virtually over two decade.

I think WinXP has my record for the amount of BSOD but then it has had three service packs and long life plus lots of driver issues in the early days,Vista,Win7,8 have been much better in BSOD department in my experience.
 
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Mem said:
My opinion is the opposite both Win8 and Win8.1 are very polished in my books forget about UI or changes since that's really a personal preference thing,end of the day both Win8 and Win8.1 are very stable,so all this talk on Win8 being beta is pure FUD IMHO,sure you can hate an OS but don't tell me it's not stable or its beta because 12 months of usage on 8 and few weeks on 8.1 tells me the opposite,fact is only time I had stability issues was with my faulty corsair ram a few weeks ago but hey its fine to blame OS even for WW3 right?
Click to expand...

Problems found during my 3 weeks of lost sleep attempting to get 8 or 8.1 to work:

  • The MS standard USB drivers do not work properly with Intel series 8 chipsets (even for USB2.0!). This is seriously why every new Z87 board has a PS/2 port -- otherwise you wouldn't be able to type the product key during Win8 install. It won't let you install the Intel supplied drivers which are available for Win7 because as Intel's FAQ states "Windows 8 already includes support for USB3".
  • Compatibility with all media center extenders other than the XBOX 360 is completely gone. Compatibility with the XBOX 360 is iffy at best. Half the time it will fail to connect out of the box.
  • The RDP server was updated in Windows 8 to support RemoteFX. There were also a lot of RDP features added in Windows 7, but somehow with 7, they managed to maintain backwards compatibility. With 8, not even close. And with 8.1, they broke it again. The standard Microsoft Remote Desktop client for OS X will not connect to 8 Pro or 8.1 Pro. Most Linux clients won't either. There are a few that have been updated to connect to Windows 8, but not a single Mac or Linux client in existence can connect to Windows 8.1.
  • This one should set off some huge red flags: In my attempts to connect to 8.1 using Mac RDP clients that were updated for Windows 8, I caused it to blue-screen. This somehow permanently hosed the RDP stack so that the XBOX 360 media center extender could no longer connect! (the main interface for extenders actually runs on RDP, but connecting to port 3390 instead of 3389).
  • The \\tsclient shares for file sharing through the new RemoteFX enhanced RDP only manage 250Mbps transfers on a gigabit network.
  • Even though absolutely no features have been added to Media Center from 7 to 8.1, almost every single 3rd party add-on was broken by Windows 8, and even the Windows 8 versions are broken again by 8.1. You can count the number of add-ins that still work properly on one hand. In fact installing some makes Media Center crash now, even though the add-in model has them all run out of process.
  • The above even applies to the built-in addins shipped by MS. The digital cable advisor no longer works in Windows 8.1, which means you are required to hack it in order to activate CableCARD support.
  • Lightscribe labeler installers won't run on 8.1
  • g-mail doesn't work in IE11
  • partner.microsoft.com won't let you log in from IE11, ROFL
  • robocopy /Z option makes it run 50x slower on 8 & 8.1
  • Guide indexing will never finish in 8 or 8.1 if you don't leave the media center window open (works fine in 7).
  • The BOOT.EFI installed by Windows 8.1 is not properly signed. So just reformatting the Win8 partition to install Win7 over it won't work - you have to wipe Win8/8.1's bootloader off the drive as well.
  • Windows 8 is not stable and will bluescreen at least every couple days if the Asus AiSuite is installed. Works fine in 7 though, like everything else. Keep in mind my motherboard is almost a year newer than Windows 8.

Maybe you're right. It's not beta. Its pre-alpha.
 
glugglug said:
Problems found during my 3 weeks of lost sleep attempting to get 8 or 8.1 to work:

  • The MS standard USB drivers do not work properly with Intel series 8 chipsets (even for USB2.0!). This is seriously why every new Z87 board has a PS/2 port -- otherwise you wouldn't be able to type the product key during Win8 install. It won't let you install the Intel supplied drivers which are available for Win7 because as Intel's FAQ states "Windows 8 already includes support for USB3".
  • Compatibility with all media center extenders other than the XBOX 360 is completely gone. Compatibility with the XBOX 360 is iffy at best. Half the time it will fail to connect out of the box.
  • The RDP server was updated in Windows 8 to support RemoteFX. There were also a lot of RDP features added in Windows 7, but somehow with 7, they managed to maintain backwards compatibility. With 8, not even close. And with 8.1, they broke it again. The standard Microsoft Remote Desktop client for OS X will not connect to 8 Pro or 8.1 Pro. Most Linux clients won't either. There are a few that have been updated to connect to Windows 8, but not a single Mac or Linux client in existence can connect to Windows 8.1.
  • This one should set off some huge red flags: In my attempts to connect to 8.1 using Mac RDP clients that were updated for Windows 8, I caused it to blue-screen. This somehow permanently hosed the RDP stack so that the XBOX 360 media center extender could no longer connect! (the main interface for extenders actually runs on RDP, but connecting to port 3390 instead of 3389).
  • The \\tsclient shares for file sharing through the new RemoteFX enhanced RDP only manage 250Mbps transfers on a gigabit network.
  • Even though absolutely no features have been added to Media Center from 7 to 8.1, almost every single 3rd party add-on was broken by Windows 8, and even the Windows 8 versions are broken again by 8.1. You can count the number of add-ins that still work properly on one hand. In fact installing some makes Media Center crash now, even though the add-in model has them all run out of process.
  • The above even applies to the built-in addins shipped by MS. The digital cable advisor no longer works in Windows 8.1, which means you are required to hack it in order to activate CableCARD support.
  • Lightscribe labeler installers won't run on 8.1
  • g-mail doesn't work in IE11
  • partner.microsoft.com won't let you log in from IE11, ROFL
  • robocopy /Z option makes it run 50x slower on 8 & 8.1
  • Guide indexing will never finish in 8 or 8.1 if you don't leave the media center window open (works fine in 7).
  • The BOOT.EFI installed by Windows 8.1 is not properly signed. So just reformatting the Win8 partition to install Win7 over it won't work - you have to wipe Win8/8.1's bootloader off the drive as well.
  • Windows 8 is not stable and will bluescreen at least every couple days if the Asus AiSuite is installed. Works fine in 7 though, like everything else. Keep in mind my motherboard is almost a year newer than Windows 8.

Maybe you're right. It's not beta. Its pre-alpha.
Click to expand...

Here is my list of devices all working fine,

8X USB memory sticks tested so far from 256mb to 32GB(different brands).
Thrustmaster USB joypad Firestorm,
Leadtek USB DTV fine on WMC.
USB mouse and keyboard
Canon USB printers (ip4500 and MG6250)
Wireless mode fine on my MG6250 printer.
Lite-ON USB external DVD writer,
Bluetooth LG TV and Sony Android smartphone all connect fine to my Win8.1 via bluetooth.
Asus xonar DX sound card again no issues.
USB 3 working fine( Asmedia ports on Z68 board)
ColorVison Spyder USB hardware monitor calibrator working fine with manufacturers software.
External USB bluetooth also tested with no issues.
External USB 3.0 two ports(on my Lancool case) working fine.

My Android tablet working fine to my 8.1 PC for downloads etc..


45 games tested so far including Steam and Origin games (on Win8.1) from XCOM-Apocalypse(1997 game) to new ones with no issues.

My SSD drive as cache drive in RST mode again working fine.

I'm surprised people use Asus Asuite ,never have done and never will.


End of the day drivers and software are not down to the OS but manufacturer in question,give it time since 8.1 is not offically out yet ,as to Win7 well it's 4 years old so should have good support by now.
Gmail fine on my firefox but hey never use IE crap 😉 .
What can I say all working great.

Btw my Win8.1 installed in under 15 mins and I thought something was wrong but no it installed fine and virtually all drivers.
Also both my cpu and video card are overclocked too.


glugglug I'm sure a BIOS update or two ,newer drivers and Windows updates will solve most of your problems,unfortunately you can't fix lazy software companies getting their act together,OS can only do so much, rest is up to them.
 
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Thank you for posting even though it is a bit off topic.

Did you report these issues to microsoft? I agree that some of these are pretty crazy that they are not working! not sure why RDP is so different now...


glugglug said:
Problems found during my 3 weeks of lost sleep attempting to get 8 or 8.1 to work:

  • The MS standard USB drivers do not work properly with Intel series 8 chipsets (even for USB2.0!). This is seriously why every new Z87 board has a PS/2 port -- otherwise you wouldn't be able to type the product key during Win8 install. It won't let you install the Intel supplied drivers which are available for Win7 because as Intel's FAQ states "Windows 8 already includes support for USB3".
  • Compatibility with all media center extenders other than the XBOX 360 is completely gone. Compatibility with the XBOX 360 is iffy at best. Half the time it will fail to connect out of the box.
  • The RDP server was updated in Windows 8 to support RemoteFX. There were also a lot of RDP features added in Windows 7, but somehow with 7, they managed to maintain backwards compatibility. With 8, not even close. And with 8.1, they broke it again. The standard Microsoft Remote Desktop client for OS X will not connect to 8 Pro or 8.1 Pro. Most Linux clients won't either. There are a few that have been updated to connect to Windows 8, but not a single Mac or Linux client in existence can connect to Windows 8.1.
  • This one should set off some huge red flags: In my attempts to connect to 8.1 using Mac RDP clients that were updated for Windows 8, I caused it to blue-screen. This somehow permanently hosed the RDP stack so that the XBOX 360 media center extender could no longer connect! (the main interface for extenders actually runs on RDP, but connecting to port 3390 instead of 3389).
  • The \\tsclient shares for file sharing through the new RemoteFX enhanced RDP only manage 250Mbps transfers on a gigabit network.
  • Even though absolutely no features have been added to Media Center from 7 to 8.1, almost every single 3rd party add-on was broken by Windows 8, and even the Windows 8 versions are broken again by 8.1. You can count the number of add-ins that still work properly on one hand. In fact installing some makes Media Center crash now, even though the add-in model has them all run out of process.
  • The above even applies to the built-in addins shipped by MS. The digital cable advisor no longer works in Windows 8.1, which means you are required to hack it in order to activate CableCARD support.
  • Lightscribe labeler installers won't run on 8.1
  • g-mail doesn't work in IE11
  • partner.microsoft.com won't let you log in from IE11, ROFL
  • robocopy /Z option makes it run 50x slower on 8 & 8.1
  • Guide indexing will never finish in 8 or 8.1 if you don't leave the media center window open (works fine in 7).
  • The BOOT.EFI installed by Windows 8.1 is not properly signed. So just reformatting the Win8 partition to install Win7 over it won't work - you have to wipe Win8/8.1's bootloader off the drive as well.
  • Windows 8 is not stable and will bluescreen at least every couple days if the Asus AiSuite is installed. Works fine in 7 though, like everything else. Keep in mind my motherboard is almost a year newer than Windows 8.

Maybe you're right. It's not beta. Its pre-alpha.
Click to expand...
 
Mem said:
My opinion is the opposite both Win8 and Win8.1 are very polished in my books
Click to expand...

I have had this experience with W8 as well - on a tablet and a laptop. No problems with either - really like W8 on the touchscreens.

Evaluating W8 by my desktop however is a different story. Very frustrating - as I stated earlier W7 runs great on this machine, not W8 though.

Using;
Asus Sabertooth 990 FX R2.0 - supposed to be W8 ready
FX8320
Crucial M4 - Samsung 830 SSD's
Radeon 7770
Seasonic PSU

Nothing exotic at all, but something - probably a driver - is causing enough issues that I am back on W7. Kept the W8 install on the M4 - will try 8.1 when it is available but not real hopeful.
 
Chiefcrowe said:
Thank you for posting even though it is a bit off topic.

Did you report these issues to microsoft? I agree that some of these are pretty crazy that they are not working! not sure why RDP is so different now...
Click to expand...

For most of them when searching online for solutions, I ran across others complaining of the same issues, including threads with MS support going nowhere.

For g-mail I filed a bug with the gmail team, and it turns out this is because the user agent is changed in IE11 to appear more like Firefox, since it is supposed to be more standards compliant, and when gmail sends the javascript/css/etc code that it would for Firefox, instead of a special IE version it doesn't render right in IE (including IE11). I kind of wonder if the partner.microsoft.com issue is also because it thinks it's Firefox. I should probably report the RDP crash issue. I saw other complaints of RDP incompatibility, but not other reports of actually managing to crash it using 3rd party RDP clients.
 
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