Fixing Windows XP Crashes And Blue Screen Errors
posted by Mike Tucker
If you are experiencing frequent Windows XP crashes or the dreaded blue screen error here’s a few things you can try before taking a sledgehammer to your PC. Getting a fatal error on your computer can be very annoying. Especially when you’re in the middle of a large project and lose all your work.
In most cases you will have no idea what is causing the errors or crashes. You may have received a general error message, which basically tells you nothing. Unless you work for Microsoft. Some computers may just shut off and reboot on their own for no reason. The first thing you can do is start by doing general maintenance on your computer, which you probably haven’t done in awhile anyways.
Go to my computer and select your hard drive, perform a general clean up to start with.
Then update your anti virus definitions and run a full scan. You want to make sure you don’t have a virus hiding in the background. Next you’ll want to scan and clean your PC of any spyware or other such programs that do not belong on your hard drive. If you do not have a program for this you will have to download one made for getting rid of spyware.
The biggest reason why Windows will crash or get the fatal blue screen is because of registry errors. Repairing the registry manually can be a pretty daunting task even for experienced computer technicians. It’s usually not recommended to do this manually. If you do want to attempt that you can access your registry through rededit in Windows. The biggest problem is scrolling through the thousands of registry keys trying to find the right one. And remember, if you change or edit the wrong file you can do more damage than good. Delete or change the wrong one and your computer may not be able to restart.
The easy way to repair or clean a corrupted registry is with a third-party registry repair program. In my opinion windows should come with one, but it does not. A good registry repair program is a wise investment for any computer owner. With few clicks of your mouse you can begin your scan and automatically find and repair errors safely. Plus you can schedule regular scans to perform maintenance for you automatically in case you forget. Preforming a registry cleaning will find any corrupt or orphaned files which you no longer need and remove or repair them for you. It’s like giving your computer a tuneup. After you reboot you’ll be surprised at the increased speed and performance.
Your Windows operating system needs to reference the registry every time it starts up or loads software. Having files with errors or that try to reference software that is no longer installed on your computer can cause crashes and errors. It will also cause your system to become sluggish, jerky, or run at a snail’s pace.
If none of the above suggestions helped your problem you may have a hardware problem, like bad memory or your hard drive may be failing. Overheating could also be a problem, so make sure your unit is getting enough ventilation.
