Posted 08/14/08 at 01:18:21 PM by Paul Lilly

The last thing you want to see while hanging from a wire high above a crowd of spectators is Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death lingering in mid-air, but that's exactly what happened to Li Ning, one of China's sporting greats. The incident took place during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, and as Ning geared up for the torch lighting climax inside the Bird's Nest, stadium projectors beamed the BSOD onto the roof where it was clearly visible for all to see.

The BSOD came as an unfortunate side effect to using specialized theatrical computer controlled lighting equipment to light up the Bird's Nest, making the process not only automated, but susceptible to software failures. But hey, at least Windows was only running the light show and not the high wire act!

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13

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windows, microsoft, Software, BSOD, olympics, beijing, blue screen of death, li ning

Posted 07/28/08 at 03:12:13 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

I’m stuck with a Dell laptop that now fails to boot after just two weeks of normal use. I can accept the fact that I will probably fight with Dell technical support for six months before they do anything to help. What I can’t accept is that I can’t figure out what is wrong with this box.

Quite simply, using the laptop for an extended period results in incredibly slow performance, which leads to a lockup or blue screen, which leads to Windows no longer booting on the next cold restart. The ensuing error messages are varied and too numerous to list. After a clean install of Windows, every single diagnostic from the Dell CD comes back perfect. Memtest86 returns no errors.

I’ve swapped out hard drives and CD drives. But after two weeks, the result is exactly the same: no boot. I’ve tried other “unsupported operating systems” (read: Ubuntu), but they crash and burn just the same. If a Dell technician tells me to reinstall XP Home one more time, I may go postal!

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5

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dell, laptop, BSOD, ask the doctor, overheating

Posted 08/29/07 at 02:04:03 PM by Paul Lilly

Has Windows started singing the blue(s) screen of death? You could have faulty memory, and here's how you can find out for sure.

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9

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Software, ram, Memory, hardware, troubleshoot, BSOD, howtos, memtest, faulty, build-a-pc