4 Reasons You Should Monitor for BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)

As N‑able Head Nerds we are continually looking for ways our partners can better support their end-users. So it’s hugely beneficial for us to visit with our partners when we can to see all the different approaches they take in supporting their customers. 

On a recent trip to South Africa, Marc-Andre Tanguay visited First Technology KZN in Durban. Whilst there the team showed Marc-Andre the custom BSOD monitor they had built to detect if a machine had suffered the dreaded Blue Screen of Death.

Terry Prigge, Automation and Analytics Manager at First Technology KZN, provided us with some background on how this monitoring came about:

“The idea was initially proposed by Stephen Yarlett, our manager for the managed services business unit, with the goal of enhancing our proactive approach towards end user experience. Often, users don’t report issues such as Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) incidents because they have already lost valuable time from their busy schedules. To address this, we assigned one of our technicians, Themba Mabika, to work on the project. After a few iterations, we developed a reliable monitoring system, which empowers our MSP team to be proactive and reach out to end-users to offer assistance before they even have to ask for it. Not only does this identify the failed event, but more importantly the trend / frequency of it, thereby giving us valuable insight into end-user experience.  This new approach to support significantly improves the user’s perception of our service.”

I’m sure most of you reading this will know about or have encountered the BSOD. For those of you who are lucky enough to be blissfully unaware of it to this point, BSOD is an infamous error screen that appears on Microsoft Windows operating systems when a fatal system error occurs.  It is a critical issue that can result in data loss and system instability. Therefore, monitoring for BSOD on Windows devices is crucial to maintaining the health and stability of your systems.

Why you should monitor for BSOD

In this blog we are going to look at some reasons why monitoring for BSOD is important, and I’ll tell you how you can monitor for it as well. Let’s start off by looking at the reasons why you should add this monitoring to all your Windows Devices.

1. Identifying hardware and software issues

BSODs can occur due to a variety of reasons, including faulty hardware or software issues. By monitoring for Blue Screen of Death, you can identify the root cause of the problem and take the necessary steps to fix it.  This can prevent future BSODs from occurring and improve the overall stability of your system and minimise disruption to the user.

2. Preventing data loss

A BSOD can cause data loss if the system crashes during a critical operation, such as writing data to the hard drive. You can identify potential issues before they cause a catastrophic failure and take action to prevent data loss when you monitor for BSODs.

3. Saving time and money

BSODs can be time-consuming and expensive to fix, especially if they result in data loss or hardware damage.  By monitoring for BSODs, you can catch potential issues early and address them before they become major problems.  This can save you time and money in the long run.

4. Enhancing system performance

BSODs can also be caused by issues that affect system performance, such as driver conflicts or memory leaks.  By monitoring for BSODs, you can identify these issues and take action to optimize system performance.  This can lead to faster boot times, smoother application performance, and an overall better user experience.

How to Monitor for BSOD

So now that we know why you should monitor for BSODs, I’m sure you want to know how to monitor for them. Every time a BSOD occurs, it writes a dump file to a specific folder on the device. By monitoring this folder for changes you can determine when a BSOD event has occurred. 

But before you go racing off to build this custom monitoring, the good news is that the team at First Technology KZN have kindly shared their custom monitoring service. You can download their automation policy and add it to your N‑central server from the Automation Cookbook, this link is right here:

• BSOD Blue Screen of Death Monitoring for N‑central
• BSOD Blue Screen of Death Monitoring for N‑sight

So, in conclusion, monitoring for BSOD on Windows devices is crucial to maintaining system stability, preventing data loss, saving time and money, and enhancing system performance. By using the automation policy provided in the Cookbook you can take action when necessary, ensuring that your systems are running smoothly and efficiently.

This is just another great example of how N‑central can make you aware of issues before the users you support even notify you.  If you are reading this and have questions about anything here, why not join me on the N-Central office hours at www.n-able.com/events or reach out to me directly.

Paul Kelly is the Head Nerd at N‑able. You can follow him on Twitter at @HeadNerdPaul, LinkedIn and Reddit at u/Paul _Kelly. Alternatively you can email me direct.