Update: If you’re puzzled because you’re getting STOP errors (the Blue Screen of Death) and they scroll off your screen before you can read the details, here’s the solution: Get details about the Blue Screen of Death.
Trying to figure out what’s causing a Windows STOP error (more commonly known as the Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD) can be a challenge. One likely candidate is bad hardware; if the error messages are random and the shutdowns appear unpredictably, you should suspect a faulty power supply or bad RAM.
Another common BSOD cause is a faulty device driver. Typically, you should be suspicious of any installed drivers that are not digitally signed, especially if they were written for an earlier version of Windows.
Windows XP includes a powerful troubleshooting tool called Driver Verifier (Verifier.exe). It’s a terrific way to identify flawed device drivers. It’s also a surefire way to screw up your system if you use it incorrectly. Read on for the details and important cautions.
Driver Verifier works by testing each driver you specify at startup; if it finds a problem, it stops your computer predictably with a BSOD that accurately explains the true problem. Although this doesn’t sound like a huge improvement (your system still won’t work, after all), Driver Verifier performs a critical troubleshooting step: identifying the problem. You can then correct the problem by removing or replacing the offending driver. (If you’re satisfied that the driver really is OK despite Driver Verifier’s warning, you can turn off Driver Verifier for all drivers or for a specific driver. Any driver that Driver Verifier chokes on should be regarded with suspicion, but some legitimate drivers bend the rules without causing problems.)
Driver Verifier works at startup to thoroughly exercise each driver. It performs many of the same tests that are run by the Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs as part of the certification and signing process, such as checking for the way the driver accesses memory.
Beware: If Driver Verifier finds a nonconforming driver – even one that doesn’t seem to be causing any problems – it will prevent your system from starting. If you use the advice in this article and have trouble starting your system, I won’t be able to help you. Use Driver Verifier only if you’re having problems. In other words, if it ain’t broke …
To enable Driver Verifier, click Start, Run. In the Open box, type verifier and press Enter. In the Driver Verifier Manager dialog box (shown here), select Create Standard Settings.
Click Next and select the type of drivers you want to verify. Because unsigned drivers are the most likely cause of problems, I recommend that you choose the default option: Automatically select unsigned drivers.
When you click Next, you get a list of all unsigned drivers on your system. Note that the list will contain some hardware drivers and some file-system filter drivers, such as those used by antivirus programs, CD burning software, and other low-level system utilities.
At this point you have two choices:
- Go through the list and make a note of all drivers identified and then click Cancel. No changes are made to your system configuration; all you’ve done is gather a list of suspicious drivers, which you can then try to remove or disable manually.
- Click Finish to complete the wizard and restart your computer. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS OPTION, for reasons that will become obvious with the remainder of this article. If you choose this option, don’t blame me if things get even messier than they already are.
Did you ignore my advice and choose Option #2 anyway? Fine. If your computer stops with a BSOD when you next log on, you’ve identified a problem driver. The error message includes the name of the offending driver and an error code. To resolve the problem, boot into Safe Mode (press F8 during startup) and disable or uninstall the problem driver. You’ll then want to check with the device vendor to get a working driver that you can install.
To disable Driver Verifier so that it no longer performs verification checks at startup, run Driver Verifier Manager again and select Delete Existing Settings in the initial dialog box.
Alternatively, click Start, then Run, and type verifier /reset in the Open box. (If you haven’t yet solved the driver problem, of course, you’ll be stopped at a BSOD, unable to disable Driver Verifier. In that case, boot into Safe Mode and then disable Driver Verifier.)
You can configure Driver Verifier so that it checks only certain drivers. To do that, open Driver Verifier Manager, select Create Standard Settings, click Next, and select the last option, Select driver names from a list. This option lets you exempt a particular driver from Driver Verifier’s scrutiny – such as one that Driver Verifier flags but you are certain is not the cause of your problem.
For much more detailed information about the Verifier utility, including command-line options and error codes, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 244617, “How to Use Driver Verifier to Troubleshoot Windows Drivers.”
[This material was adapted from Windows XP Inside Out, Second Edition.]
Ed Bott 
Just wanted to say thanks for helping me solve a problem on my Windows XP system. Somehow I started the verifier program not realizing that I created a big headache. Immediately I noticed that my computer performed sluggishly and also noticed that my CPU usage was spiking up to 100 percent at times. I suspected that I created this problem when I starting fooling around with the verifier but I wasn’t sure. I suspected probably a virus or spyware but my system is protected and I run anti-spyware programs frequently.
I went to the Microsoft Knowledge Base and it was no help. All I wanted to know was HOW TO DISABLE
….the DRIVER VERIFIER. I got the answer here at this website. I rebooted the machine and it’s back to normal. Thanks again for this great resource.
Hi there, Can you help, I am at end of my tether. Blue screens mainly occur when opening or moving from one website to the other(CPU peak %100 frequently) with random Stop messages. I have used verifier to try trace problem. I have checked all non-verified drivers and all seem ok. Then checked ALL verified drivers and got ‘BAD_EXHANDLE STOP 0X000000A7 – kenel mode handle table detected an inconsistent handle table entry state’. I traced the driver down to be ntoskrnl.exe. This driver never appears in any blue screen message, but when I analyse some of the memory dumps(Windows debugger) it always says it is “unable to load image ntoskrnl.exe, Win32 error2” I have done complete DELL diagnostics on all system memory, processor, mainboard etc and all checks out OK! Any ideas? Please?
Zorron,
Ntoskrnl is a core Windows component. If you’re getting random error messages and you’ve checked all drivers out, that’
s a strong indicator that you have bad hardware. Could be a short on a motherboard, a bad memory module, or a power supply problem.
I’m constantly getting only one type of blue screen error, 0x0D1, 0xF8368Dc9 IRQL less then equal? Especially when i’m downloading, what does this relate to? Can it be fixed?
please help! my laptop cannot get into Windows in any mode (safe mode or normally)! all i can see is the blue screen and STOP: 0x0000007e 0xc0000005 0x80566dc3 0xf7b9d45c 0xfb9d15c when I try to get into Windows after turning on the laptop so I am at a loss as to how to solve the problem.
Tan, try using Recovery Console to repair your system. Details here.
Hi Ed
My PC has crashed a couple of times now to a BSOD with a stop error I can’t read quick enough. I see nothing in event viwer, is there any other log of what happened? What the stop error was and what the 4nvd.dll(possibly!) or whatever it was that flashed past is?
Thanks in advance
Al,
See the update at the top of this page!
Hi and Help!!!
I got a BSOD š¦ with the error message 0x0000007 KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR which according to ‘microsoft help and support’ is “Because of a Memory Leak in the Daprotim.sys File”. And of course I have no idea of what that means and why exactly my laptop is running extremely slow. Is something very wrong with it? What should I do?
Thank you.
I chose “select all drivers installed on this computer”, clicked finish and rebooted.
At first start-up I obtain the BSODF with the following code:
STOP: 0x000000C4 (0x0000003B, 0x00000002, 0x8AFFCFEC, 0x00000000)
At second start-up I obtain the BSODF with the following code:
STOP: 0x000000C4 (0x0000003B, 0x00000002, 0x8D83CFEC, 0x00000000)
If I dig into the 0XC4 bug code I find:
0x3B
Current IRQL Object to wait on Timeout parameter The driver called KeWaitXxx at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or higher.
Then what?
Louis,
Were you experiencing problems before you ran Verifier? If so, you want to look for the driver that was causing the problems. If you experience problems only when Verifier is running and at no other time, I don’t recommend that you try to do anything.
The C4 bug is associated specifically with Norton AV in some cases. See this KB article, for instance. But it could also be something else, including a number of things that are essentially harmless.
Thanks for your prompt reply.
I was and I still am experiencing random BSOD before running verifier. Usually I get 0xD1 stop code.
I don’t know how to identify the faulty driver. I have checked and updated all possible drivers. I also swapped RAM with a troublefree system without improvement.
Thanks for the information. I ran Verifier.exe before reading your advice and had the “blue screen” panic hit.
I had hoped that with verifier.exe I might find a clue as to why my USB 2.0 ports were suddenly not able recognize my compact flash card inserted into a USB 2.0 reader, but could recognize it if connected to a USB 1.1 reader. I’ll have to find another method to track down the problem.
You’re a life saver (the life of my PC!)
Sometimes in Windows XP most of the problems can be solved very easilly, like for eaxample in the ‘Blue Screen of Death’ (BSOD) some of the original windows components can repair most of the ‘wrong’ moves that we all make. To fix it very easy, you need the Windows xp cd and a boot in the safe mode (press F8 at startup), go to >Start >run, and type ‘sfc scannow’. After that a window with the scanner appears and is going to ask you for the Win XP Cd.
That’s all. Reboot and everything should be just like new!
š Works for cleaning exploited systems too.
I run the Verifier and choose the drivers to be verified; on reboot I get the BSOD. So far so good. If I want to go further, I cannot seem to locate any logfile or error messages (other than what appears on the blue screen). I can reboot with the F8 key and reset the verifier, but without the ability to create a logreport, this utility is pretty much useless to me. Is there any mechanism to write to a logfile?
Chandra,
The basic information you need is in the Windows system logs. Open Event Viewer from Administrative Tools to see those log files.
You can also disable all unsigned drivers and then restart with Verifier running. By selectively adding drivers back in you can tell quickly which one is the culprit.
For more detailed information you would need to install a debugger.
Ed,
That was real quick. Thank you. I will look into the Event Viewer and see whatelse I can find.
I have the problem while trying to install windows xp media center. Sometimes it comes up early in the install, sometimes it comes on almost at the end. What can caus e this problem, and can I fix this? PLeas if possible, can i get the reply emailed to me, as this not a pC i normally use. Thanks.
dump phiscaal memory on bsod, can’t spell ok I found no way out of this. do you know
Jeff
I finaly got enough, started fresh and re-installed Windows XP. It did not solve the problem…
AS there were very few applications installed, I suspected sometihing more basic. It turned out that the NVIDIA firewall/network driver was at fault. I removed all these component and used only the mother board and ethernet drivers. So far so good. NVIDIA acknowledged my trouble but never answered my repeted requests.
Fascinating.
I turned on Verifier and it goes to the BSOD during boot, just as predicted, but it was worth it. For over a month I have had the BSOD every afternoon and each time it gives me a different error message. Each time the solution is supposed to be either unknown or something new and different. Today i got a C5 error. And, I got it more than once. When the verifier comes up it at least tells me that there is a faulty error on the kernel stack. I am searching for that dude. the error when verifier is on is always C4 with 0 for all parameters. Not much help there.
Of course I reset verifier so I could get in and out of Windows easier. I was able to find a program online that lists all drivers. I could see those that were native to Windows and those that were not. I found one that got installed about the time things started to go wrong. But, maybe a little before. So, I kept checking and I think I have a clue. The update, coming from either Windows Update or from me just searching for updates, for the video driver seemed corrupted. When I forced a new installation of the video driver I suddenly got errors saying it was bad. Now I am doing an update, and Windows Update automatically wants to do an update. I can’t guarantee this but what I think happened is that I was fine. Update installed a new one and it isn’t working well. When I forced the new installation I was using the old driver. When I run update it wants to install the updated driver, which may be bad.
I will just have to go back and forth for a few days and see if one of those is the culprit.
Thanks for the information. I was experiencing a 0x0A error, ran verifier, didn’t realise I had to reset it and consequently had to endure an excruciatingly slow system for the last couple of days. My system is now back to normal (well, almost). Thanks once again.
How to solve a blue screen when i start my machine , i only get the blue screen that means i cannot have the chance of running the verifier , so what to do help please
Dieudonne, try using Recovery Console to repair your system. Details here.
How do you boot into safe mode when your keybaord doesnt work to be able to use the arrow key to select safe mode? How do you press F8 during load up to go into safe mode when all it does is take me to boot options…none of which are safe mode…it brings boot devices…I select the cd rom drive with Win XP cd in it, but then it says press any key to boot from cd, but again…I CANT BECAUSE THE KEYBAORD DOESNT WORK! It is a USB keybaord, but I have tried a reg obe and it doesn work either?
Can you help with this, since I hear your so great at fixing comp problems?
Michael,
I don’t know whether my reputation is up to this one!
If both a regular and USB keyboard are failing, you have a hardware problem. The real test is this: Plug in a known good PS2 keyboard, one that you’ve tested on another system and verified as working. Start your computer and as soon as the boot screen appears, press the key that your system uses to enter setup. If you can’t get to that screen, it sounds like you have a fried keyboard controller on the motherboard, and the only way to fix it is by replacing the motherboard.
PS: Are you getting any beep codes at startup?
Hey,
Yes, I am getting beep codes at startup. The error message is this:
IO Driver Verification Error stream.sys (WDM driver error 22e)
This one has turned away a lot of computer techs…I don’t know what to say. I dont think the port on motherboard is fried..because the keyboard worked fine before I ran this driver verifier to test my drivers. Clearly, this is a drivers issue and windows is not allowing me to go further in to it for safty concerns..it thinks.
OK, slow down, Michael.
First, can you boot into the BIOS setup screen? That is at the lowest hardware level, and there is NO way a Windows driver can affect it.
Second, when I say “beep codes” I am not referring to Windows error messages. I am referring to tones that your computer makes at startup. There are specific sequences of beeps that will come out of your PC’s speakers, well before Windows starts up, that indicate hardware problems.
The fact that you ran the Verifier utility is irrelevant to the current problem. If you can’t get to your BIOS startup screen, then you have a hardware problem. Windows is not involved in any way at that point, so Verifier has nothing to do with it.
Problem fixed. I went into BIOS and enabled some external port 2 that was disabled….the went into safe mode, and deleted the driver verification program….and then all is normal again.
So I guess my reputation is intact. š
Hello: I have an unusual request. I am looking for a childhood friend by the name of Victor Ruizdelvizo. I googled his name and the only link was to this site. I’m not a stalker nor am I interested in disrupting your site or the privacy of your contributors.
Victor was a dear friend who I lost touch with many years ago. Our families were very close and my parents asked me to see if I could find him.
I understand the need to protect Victor’s privacy and am not asking for his contact information. I was just wondering if you could forward this e-mail to him. I’m looking for Victor Ruizdelvizo who was born in February 1958 and grew up in San Francisco.
Thank you,
Evelyn Nodal
I’m sorry, Evelyn but I don’t keep contact information for comments beyond more than a week or two, and Victor’s comment was left last November, almost 10 months ago. I have no way of forwarding your message.
If he sees this and responds, I’ll forward his mesage to you. But I’m sure you understand this is a longshot. Wish I could be more helpful.
Thank you. I appreciate your gracious assistance.
First of all, I would like to thank Ed and everyone here, especially Dennis for sharing their knowledge and experience with this pain-in-the-butt matter.
After reading extensively the content on this site, I felt that Dennis and I shared the exact same problem. For over a month now I have been receiving random BSODs, with varying faults. After diagnosing it with verifier as Ed instructed, I also received a consistent C4 error with 0s in all listed parameters. I have also reset verifier and am back where I started.
This is where I stopped. I was hoping that someone would refer a program that would list all the drivers in my system while providing which are native to Windows and when it was installed.
I have a Dell Precision M90 laptop with the NVIDIA 2500M Quadro FX video card. However, unlike Dennis, I have stuck with the Dell stock drivers instead of allowing Windows Update to install their driver. Could this still be the issue?
All in all, is there a way to easily reveal a culprit? Like a driver diagnostics?
Any helps is greatly appreciated.
Alex,
Actually, the Verifier program does almost exactly what you’re asking for. If you choose the “Select driver names form a list” option, it will show you all drivers on your computer along with their provider’s name, and the date the driver was written (not installed). The version numbers will tell you which are native to Windows.
From my very limited research, it appears that C4 stop errors are caused by a program not being compatible with Verifier. If you’re running Norton AV, this is a strong candidate.
need a bootable floppy disk to get rid of exebug any good sites to obtain one?
I am getting BSODs left and right, sporadically may I add, and I am starting to get really irritated with it. Please help it stop!
T.A., you’re the only one who can make it stop. It sounds like you have a bad driver or a failing hardware component. Have you followed the instructions in this article?
Ed
Thank YOU!! My husband has been having problems with blue screens, and I found the article on Microsoft’s website that said to run Verify.exe. He got into an endless loop of blue screens — and I paniced! It was a blessing that I found your article, and worked to bring his computer back to life! I don’t know what we would have done without your article! He’s going to go through your article to try to diagnose his irql stop error… but at least he’s back up-and-running. Why isn’t Microsoft posting helpful information like yours? š Many thanks!
Ed.
Thanks for this weblog. I’ll try running verifier this weekend to determine the cause of by BSOD problems. My computer boots fine and I am able to run numerous program at the same time. It is when I play dvd that I always get BSOD. Any idea on the cause? I did not take note of the error code but I will tonight. I also observed that only one of the cores (amd X2) appears to be very busy when I run the CPU monitor.
I’ll update you of the results.
Thanks.
as you should know..it is not possible to click “start” “run” or anything once the computer stops at the BSOD…
Uh, Rob? Who are you talking to?
You can also get to safe mode and run verifier from there.
Ed- if I restart and select any of the options…I just get the blue screen again error 0x0000007b…..
Rob, you probably have a hardware problem. Remove as many hardware devices as you can, including all but minimal amount of memory and hard drive, to find the problem.
thanx…
Ed
I have a problem when I open Excel, I go into reboot
Word and Power Point work fine
Could this be a problem Verifier could help resolve
Thank you very much for helping me out with this manual. I had the same problem as RuizdelVizo and it turned out Driver Verifier itself was the problem. No more BSODs for me and again thank you!
i have a bluetooth usb dongle which works fine(laptop) until i plug the power lead in,
i then get bsod usb bugcode,would this be the bluetooth driver even though it runs fine on battery supply.
I experienced the BSOD three times in the past couple of weeks. The last one was an 0xC1 error. I heard about Driver Verifier Manager and checked if any drivers were being monitored. When I displayed information about currently verified drivers, it listed brpar.sys, mpfirewall.sys, scsiport.sys, snapman.sys, tifsfilt.sys, timntr.sys, xmasbus.sys and xmasscsi.sys. I didn’t add any of these drivers to the monitored list. In, fact I never added any drivers ever. How did these drivers get into this list? Can just delete the existing settings?
Thanks,
I get blue screens of death all the time. Ed, I have no idea where to start. I don’t understand what the hell I am doing, is there anyway we could do some live for of chatting to fix my computer? I am considering going to Macs, please save me!
Thanks in advance!
Looks like some folks had trouble disabling Verifier. One way to disable Verifier is to:
Boot up in Safe Mode.
Run “verifier.exe /reset”.
Reboot.
Driver Verifier is disabled in Safe Mode.
If you are curious to learn more about Driver Verifier, its documentation is available at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/tools/DrvVerifier.mspx.
Will any of these driver scan or registery clean up sites really get rid of BSOD? I”m getting an error code of OxOOOOOO9c.
Steve, your blue-screen errors are caused by faulty drivers. You need to find the driver and remove or replace it. A registry cleaner will not help, and I know of no driver-scan sites that will be of any assistance either. Sorry.
Thanks for trying, this BSOD is a problem, maybe i’ll try the Verifier.
Hi i have a laptop and i get frequent bluscreens. the code is something like 0x0000008e and it cant even boot in safe mode. i need help urgently.
Hi Ed.
I found this post very helpful since I had turned on verifier and was in a bsod loop. This post got me out of it. Thank you.
I then went in safe mode, turned verifier on, and found only two unsigned drivers, exifs.sys, which is apparently part of Exchange and shouldn’t be an issue, and filedisk.sys, which was part of winimage which I downloaded yesterday to try and make a seagate boot cd to test the hard drives (it didn’t work). Also, the bsod loop comes back even in safe mode if I leave the server running with verifier on.
So, I don’t think these two drivers are my problem. One is too new and the other is apparently part of the program, although I haven’t been using Exchange. Now what?
This all started because of frequent random crashes. I had the server rebuilt, keeping the cpu, the ram (and adding more) and the hard drives. Since the problems continue, and I reinstalled sbs, and the hard drives passed the Western Digital test I found, I guess I’m left with the original RAM being bad. I’m going to try and test that next, unless I’m missing something with the drivers? Could it be one of the signed ones?
Nat, if you are seeing stop errors in safe mode, the cause is almost certainly hardware. When you’re in safe mode, neither of the suspect drivers is being loaded.
I would recommend either (a) running the most comprehensive memory test you can find or (b) remove half the RAM and restart, and if the errors continue then reinsert the RAM and remove the other half and test.
I’ve seen RAM fail in service before. It’s not unusual or unexpected.
Hi Mr. Bott.
Again, thank you. I did swap out the memory, and it boots with either one in place, and recognizes that there is only 512 present. But I continue to have safe mode crashes, most now with no notation as to cause at all, a couple with irql not less or equal. I found a cpu tester at pc world, but while i was transferring it to cd on my laptop, the server, which was in safe and doing nothing else but waiting, crashed again. What now? Do I give up, replace the cpu and hope that solves it? Your insights appreciated.
update. New ram chip put in last night. Server stayed on all night. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Nat, it sure sounds like that was the problem, and it would be consistent with every symptom you described.