Microsoft Uses IT Crowd Sitcom to Solve CrowdStrike Outage
As the world continues to grapple with what has quickly become the biggest computer outage on the planet, Microsoft’s Blue Screen of Death has been introduced to a new generation of users thanks to the CrowdStrike update fiasco. But what is it and how do you fix it? Microsoft has gotten creative and suggested that the solution is to turn your computer off and on again 15 times.
What is the Blue Screen of Death?
Microsoft first introduced the blue screen of deathalso known as BSOD, for Windows 3.0 users in 1993. To get technical for a moment, the Blue Screen of Death is more formally known as a Stop Error. It is pretty much what its name implies: a critical error that caused the Windows operating system to crash.
The Blue Screen of Death issue “often indicates conflicts or bugs at the kernel level,” said Mike Walters, co-founder of Action1. “Such bugs are particularly difficult to diagnose and fix because they operate at the deepest levels of the operating system, where detailed interactions with hardware occur.” However, these STOP errors have also historically appeared due to issues with faulty memory or overheating, for example.
Microsoft changed the Blue Screen of Death color to black for Windows 11 users in July 2021, though it returned to the familiar blue later that year.
CrowdStrike update victims have to turn it off and on again and again and again…
The Blue Screen of Death is the effect, but a CrowdStrike update was the cause of the global computer outage. CrowdStrike’s official solution is to manually boot each machine into Safe Mode and roll up your sleeves with the Common Line. My colleague Kate O’Flaherty has a great explanation to help you with this. However, Microsoft has also entered the user support fray with a CrowdStrike update. official solution for Azure virtual machine users who were impacted by the CrowdStrike bug.
Turn it off and on again up to 15 times, Microsoft advised
Microsoft said it has “noticed that some Azure virtual machines are successfully updating via the CrowdStrike Falcon agent after multiple manual reboots of the virtual machine.” Customers have been advised to try doing this as follows:
- Using the Azure Portal: Attempting to “reboot” the affected VMs
- Using the Azure Command Line Interface or Azure Shell
- Please note that in some cases multiple restarts may be required.
“There is no need for multiple reboots unless there are additional underlying issues,” Walters warns, adding, “Sometimes, if the system hasn’t been rebooted in years, rebooting can cause specific issues at startup. Other issues can arise with databases that may not work after startup due to an improper reboot.”
Dealing with Blue Screens of Death Outside of CrowdStrike Drama
For anyone experimenting a blue screen of death stop error that is unrelated to the current CrowdStrike issueMicrosoft offers the following advice:
“These errors can be caused by both hardware and software issues. If you added new hardware to your PC before the blue screen error, turn off your PC, remove the hardware, and try restarting. If you have trouble restarting, you can start your PC in Safe Mode. You can also try getting the latest updates with Windows Update, getting help from other sources, or restoring Windows to an earlier point in time.”