Stop Messages

Stop messages report information about Stop errors. The intention of the Stop message is to assist the system administrator in isolating and eventually resolving the problem that caused the Stop error. Stop messages provide a great deal of useful information to administrators who understand how to interpret the information in the Stop message.

When examining a Stop message, you need to have a basic understanding of the problem so that you can plan a course of action. Always review the Stop message and record as much information about the problem as possible before searching through technical sources. Stop messages use a full-screen character mode format.

A Stop message screen has several major sections, which display the following information:
• Bugcheck Information
• Recommended User Action
• Technical Information
• Driver Information (if available)
• Debug Port and Dump Status Information


Bugcheck Information
The Bugcheck Information section lists the Stop error descriptive name. Descriptive names are directly related to the Stop error number listed in the Technical Information section.


Recommended User Action
The Recommended User Action section informs the user that a problem has occurred and that Windows was shut down. It also provides the symbolic name of the Stop error. The symbolic name is BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER. It also attempts to describe the problem and lists suggestions for recovery. In some cases, restarting the computer might be sufficient because the problem is not likely to recur. But if the Stop error persists after you restart the operating system, you must determine the root cause to return the operating system to an operable state. This process might involve undoing recent changes, replacing hardware, or updating drivers to eliminate the source of the problem.


Technical Information
The Technical Information section lists the Stop error number, also known as the bugcheck code, followed by up to four Stop error–specific codes (displayed as hexadecimal numbers enclosed in parentheses), which identify related parameters. Stop error codes contain a 0x prefix, which indicates that the number is in hexadecimal format. For example, the Stop error hexadecimal code is 0x000000FE (often written as 0xFE).


Driver Information
The Driver Information section identifies the driver associated with the Stop error. If a file is specified by name, you can use safe mode to verify that the driver is signed or has a date stamp that coincides with other drivers. If necessary, you can replace the file manually (in Startup Repair or in safe mode) or use Roll Back Driver to revert to a previous version.


Debug Port and Dump Status Information
The Debug Port and Dump Status Information section lists Component Object Model (COM) port parameters that a kernel debugger uses, if enabled. If you have enabled memory dump file saves, this section also indicates whether one was successfully written. As a dump file is being written to the disk, the percentage shown after Dumping physical memory to disk is incremented to 100. A value of 100 indicates that the memory dump was successfully saved.

Source of Information : Windows 7 Resource Kit 2009 Microsoft Press