click to download winstoperrors.zip (1.7MB)


In Windows NT when your computer crashed with a Blue Screen there was a whole screen
full of information that helped you decipher what might have caused the bug check.
In Windows 2000 (and XP) there is no longer this information. Instead, all you see on a
Blue Screen is a few lines with mostly hexadecimal digits. Sometimes there is some
accompanying text (albeit very brief) that will aid you in figuring out what caused your
computer to crash, but not always.

How do you decipher this?

1.  You can go to the MS TechNet web site or the Knowledge Base web site and do a search on
your bugcheck error code.  The hexadecimal number following the word "STOP" is called the
Bugcheck code or Stop code.  For example, if your Blue Screen displayed this:

STOP: 0x00000079 (0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x00000002, 0x00000000)
Mismatched kernel and hal image.

The Stop code or Bugcheck code would be 0x00000079.  This hex number is what identifies
the souce of the error.  In the search field you would enter STOP: 0x00000079.

2.  Although the KB and TechNet are very helpful, I was looking for an electronic document that
would provide this information and found one in the Microsoft Debugging Tools for Windows.
The tools kit is useful in debugging hardware and software problems in Windows NT to 2003.
The included Help file not only describes how to read the Blue Screens in Windows (NT to 2003),
but gives an (almost) complete list of all the Blue Screen error messages and what they mean.

The download I have here contains the two Help files and a readme.txt file that tells you how
to install them.  Basically, I downloaded the Debugging Tools and installed only the Help
files.  I then zipped up those 2 Help files and made them available here.  For updates to the Help
files you can periodically visit the MS Debugging Tools web site and see if there is a newer
version and install just the help files.  The version here is Version 6.3.17.0, released in May 2004


Microsoft Debugging Tools web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx