Solve Windows 8.1 “Blue Screen On Startup” Error – Basic Remedies

by shan khan on sep 22, 2014 in SOLVED, WINDOWS 8.1

Are you really pss…ed by this error ? Just like my earlier post on Windows 8 and 8.1 slow boot issues, I’m not going to propose unforeseen solutions to “Windows 8.1 blue screen” problem. From the earliest days of Windows 98 release we saw that BSOD errors are common with Microsoft operating systems.

The Windows 8.1 ‘Blue’ is not much different !

You might have already searched the net for this problem and may have found solution to this kind of error on several forums, blogs and microsoft sister sites. But what I’m going to present here is a summary of different solutions that were accepted by forum users facing a similar problem.
Resolution for Windows 8.1 BSOD problems

As I scrolled through different posts on several forms, I found the primary cause for ‘Blue Screen of Death‘ problems is either due to software or hardware. Ya, this is like a quick-fix to your problem and you can stop reading all the articles on those errors.

Blue Screen on Login Screen – Solution

If your password or pin text box is not showing up, instead, if its presented with a BSOD error, you need to use your Recovery Drive. orWindows 8.1 Installation media. You need to create one using another laptop or computer and use “Troubleshoot” to get to Advanced options.

You can try “System Restore” or “Automatic Repair“.

BSOD due to Graphics Card Drivers and PSU

Sometimes you upgrade your graphics card whose PSU (power supply unit) consumes less to a more powerful one. This change can also bring a ‘blue screen of death’ on your Windows 8.1 computer. The solution is to provide a more bigger PSU with higher wattage.

Also its important that you first uninstall your old graphics card driver, display drivers first and then install the new one.  This forum post talks about a typical problem scenario.

so i just upgraded my graphics card form a nvidia gtx 650 ti boost to a msi r9 270x gaming
first i plugged in my card and uninstalled all nvidia drivers and software, and then i installed the newest beta amd drivers ( catalyst 14.1 ) , after playing battlefield 4 for 10 min i got a bsod
when i restarted my pc i tried playing the titanfall beta and again, after only 1 minut i got a bsod again…

His problems were resolved when he updated from 450 Watt PSU to a 650 one.

Bad Hard Disk can cause BSOD

Sometimes due to a bricked hard-drive also you can have a problem. If you don’t have an alternative hard-disk, its better trying changing the SATA ports. Also a SSD drive is more better, if you are thinking to buy a new one.

Ok so my computer’s hard drive has been giving me some problems and the last time I booted it up it had some problem to do with the hard drive, and it wouldn’t boot up. Before the hard drive was working, but I noticed it would get really hot to the touch and occasionally it would stress at 100% usage and Windows would go slower.

Now it boots up and I can access the motherboard’s BIOS, but after that it boots to a blank blue screen. I can’t see the mouse cursor, but both the mouse and keyboard work in the BIOS.

Bad RAM can cause “Blue Screen” Error at Startup

This comes under the hardware cause. Sometimes just removing the RAM from the motherboard and placing it back, can resolve the problems. But if you have 2 or more RAMs, its better to check each one individually if you are having the BSOD error.

Remove one by one and check. Otherwise, you can replace an existing one with a new one.  The following errors are typically displayed if you are having RAM problem.