Review the stop error code that you find in the event logs. To troubleshoot stop error messages, follow these general steps: While a user-mode process (such as Notepad or Slack) may trigger a stop error, it is merely exposing the underlying bug which is always in a driver, hardware, or the OS.

The root cause of stop errors is never a user-mode process. 15% have unknown causes, because the memory is too corrupted to analyze.70% are caused by third-party driver code.

Our analysis of the root causes of crashes indicates that: These drivers include video cards, wireless network cards, security programs, and so on. Instead, these errors are related to malfunctioning hardware drivers or drivers that are installed by third-party software.

However, various studies indicate that stop errors usually aren't caused by Microsoft Windows components. There's no simple explanation for the cause of stop errors (also known as blue screen errors or bug check errors). What causes stop errors?Ī stop error is displayed as a blue screen that contains the name of the faulty driver, such as any of the following example drivers: If you're not a support agent or IT professional, you'll find more helpful information about stop error ('blue screen') messages in Troubleshoot blue screen errors.

Driver power state failure stop code