How To Resolve Stop Errors

Sometimes, Windows operating systems will encounter a serious error that compromises the safety of the system and forces it to stop functioning. This error is known by various names including system crash, system fault or stop error. Since this error is usually displayed on a blue screen after which the system stops running, it is also popularly known as a blue screen of death or BSOD error.

Stop errors may occur either at system startup or when your system has been operational for sometime. Stop errors often happen due to problems caused by faulty or missing device drivers, a hardware malfunction, third-party software problems, incompatible BIOS or damage to system files.

One of the first steps towards understanding these fatal errors is to know the error code being displayed. Often these errors cause your PC to restart immediately, giving you very little time to write down the error type. This problem can be surpassed by disabling the automatic restart option. To achieve this, follow these steps:

Start >> Control Panel >> System >> Advanced Settings >> Start Up and Recovery >> Settings >> clear Automatic Restart checkbox.

Some examples of Stop errors that many users may come across are:

Stop: c0000221 error
The stop: c0000221 error occurs when there is either a corruption of a file or disk, or there is damage to a page file or fault in any hardware.

Stop: c000021a error
The stop: c000021a error indicates that the security of the Windows system has been compromised and is often caused by the third-party applications.

Resolving Stop Errors

• 1. The first thing a user should do after encountering a Stop Error is to try and do a System Restore and see if this is able to resolve the error.To do a System Restore select Start>> Program >> Accessories >> SystemTools >> SystemRestore

• 2. Secondly, the user can get the stop error analyzed through an online application provided by the Microsoft Online Crash Analysis Tool by uploading your error report. This tool will analyze and try to identify the potential cause of your Stop Error.

• 3. Scan your system thoroughly by running a reliable Anti-virus and Anti-Spyware software to rule out the possibility of an external malware.

• 4. Inadequate system resources can also lead to stop errors. The two main causes for this are lack of free space on your hard disk and insufficient RAM. The Disk cleanup utility will help you clean your disk of unwanted files. You may also choose to uninstall unwanted programs and utilities. If you suspect that RAM is causing the problem, you may consider upgrading it.

• 5. Clean your Windows Registry, as a corrupt or bloated Windows registry can be causing this fatal error.

• 6. If you notice the name of a device driver in the details of the stop error, chances are that that if you reinstall, disable, delete or downgrade back to the earlier version of the driver, the problem may be resolved.

• 7. Hardware problems that are often overlooked can be the cause of these stop errors. Common among these are: a malfunction in RAM chip, overheated CPU, or hard disk damage. If the error you encounter is occurring frequently and comes up while working on different applications, the reason behind these could be a hardware problem. You should try removing any new device that you may have recently installed to see if problem gets resolved.

• 8. Stop errors that happen at the time of system start-up can be due to problems related to system BIOS. To ensure that this is not the case, try and see if any updates to the BIOS are available by its manufacturer. Alternatively, you can also revert back to default BIOS settings and see if it helps.