Newsletter Archives
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BSODs point to driver issues with feature releases
PATCH WATCH
By Susan Bradley
Sometimes a BSOD is trying to tell you something
AskWoody subscriber BD reported that every time he upgraded to 20H2 on two of his three computers, the process did not end well. Instead, he was rewarded with a blue screen of death (BSOD). No matter what he tried, the process always ended in failure and rollback.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.21.0 (2021-06-07).
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Dealing with printers
PATCH WATCH
By Susan Bradley
Keeping printers up to dateOnce upon a time, I purchased an HP LaserJet 4L printer that would just keep on printing, year after year, until the plastic door on the top of the printer finally broke off. After my initial installation, the printer driver was never updated.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.11.0 (2021-03-22).
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March madness drives printers to blue screen
PATCH WATCH
By Susan Bradley
The month of March is not starting off well for those of us who patch Windows 10 machines.
Patchers who have installed the March Windows 10 updates are reporting that upon printing to various printers, they receive a blue screen of death (BSOD), thus crashing their machines. While it doesn’t appear to impact every Windows machine/printer combination, it is widespread enough that Microsoft pulled these particular updates while it investigates.
Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.10.0 (2021-03-15).
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BSoDs can be a good thing โ really!
On Security
By Susan Bradley
If your system crashes with an infamous blue screen of death, consider it a cry for help!
BSoDs have always been an ugly side of Windows. Almost invariably, when Windows takes a powder, it’s at a most inopportune moment: right when you’re on deadline, right when you suddenly remember you haven’t hit Save for a while, right when your system is rebooting from an update. I like to joke that computers somehow know when you have to get something done โ and now would be a great time to crash or otherwise malfunction. But blue screens of death are honestly a good thing. They are trying to tell you something is wrong with your computer.
Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.18.0 (2020-05-11).