How do I read BSOD screens???

V

VeryFrustrated

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Occasionally my windows session will BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) in the virtual machine. Whenever this happens, Parallels will quickly flip back to the VM configuration screen. I can't figure out how to flip back to the BSOD screen, so I can never read the messages about what went wrong.

Can someone please help me find a way to read the message(s)? I'm a pretty sophisticated windows user, so I think that if I can read the message, I can sort out the problem.


Thanks.
 
Easiest way to read that screen in my opinion is to do a format. I wouldnt even bother with its easier I think to let a self install go at night then make a backup of it.
 
VeryFrustrated said:
Occasionally my windows session will BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) in the virtual machine. Whenever this happens, Parallels will quickly flip back to the VM configuration screen. I can't figure out how to flip back to the BSOD screen, so I can never read the messages about what went wrong.

Can someone please help me find a way to read the message(s)? I'm a pretty sophisticated windows user, so I think that if I can read the message, I can sort out the problem.


Thanks.
Click to expand...
Unless you've unchecked the option 'Write an event to the system log' under the System Control Panel (Advanced tab, Settings button), a BSOD (more properly referred to as a STOP error) will result in an Event Log entry (System section). The STOP code will be listed and has the form 0x00000000 (0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000). A Google search often helps turn this first hex number into something more useful like IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL_TO, etc., along with potential reasons for the condition.

Another option is to uncheck the 'Automatically restart' box. That way you can take your time viewing the gory details.
 
I still don't have an answer...

websyndicate: A format will lose any data that wasn't backed up before the BSOD. Not very useful.

mmischke: I'm running Win2000 and Parallels 2. I can only get to the event log if the system will successfully reboot (in one case it wouldn't--see my other thread). I can't find the "restart automatically" setting anywhere in the Parallels options panels. Is this a WinXP setting that you're talking about? BTW, my VM does not restart after BSOD, it just flips back to the Parallels VM config panel--just like it does after a graceful shutdown.


To everyone (anyone) else: Is there a way to keep the screen from flipping back to Parallels VM configuration screeen immediately after BSOD?


Thanks.
 
VeryFrustrated said:
websyndicate: A format will lose any data that wasn't backed up before the BSOD. Not very useful.

mmischke: I'm running Win2000 and Parallels 2. I can only get to the event log if the system will successfully reboot (in one case it wouldn't--see my other thread). I can't find the "restart automatically" setting anywhere in the Parallels options panels. Is this a WinXP setting that you're talking about? BTW, my VM does not restart after BSOD, it just flips back to the Parallels VM config panel--just like it does after a graceful shutdown.


To everyone (anyone) else: Is there a way to keep the screen from flipping back to Parallels VM configuration screeen immediately after BSOD?


Thanks.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I meant to suggest booting up in Safe Mode. You can get to the Event Log then. Are you able to boot into SM, or is that hosed, too? The 'Restart automatically' is an option in the System control panel. It's present in XP as well as 2k. I suppose that might not help you given that Parallels apparently interprets a STOP as the VM having shut down...

What I'd do at this point is boot the VM with a Winternals ERD Commander CD and poke around the broken Windows installation, but not too many people have this tool available.
 
In the most difficult case, Safe Mode BSOD'd as well. What is/was incredibly frustrating (hence my handle on this board) was that I could never read why.

I also see occasional BSOD's on wake up from "pause". I will press the pause button on Parallels (two blue bars, upper right of window), and then sleep the Mac. When I wake up the Mac and press play, occasionally the VM will BSOD. I'll check the event log next time.

FYI: I got past this (no safe mode) by creating another VM (Win2K) and mounting the broken VM's disk on the working VM and doing a disk repair.
 
I figured you were gonna say that, but I was hoping that maybe Safe Mode worked for you. ;-) I agree that it'd be nice if Parallels could trap a STOP message and halt there rather than dropping back to the VM dialog. There's probably nothing (at least in terms of public APIs) in Windows that they can hook since the OS has, well, stopped, but the BSOD has a consistent-enough screen dump format that it'd be simple to screen-scrape a shutdown to determine whether or not it's a BSOD.

I'm glad you were able to get past the problem.
 
Use the Mac's Grab application (in Application/Utilities) to grab a screen shot in the brief moment the BSOD is displayed.
 
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