Windows 7 Blue Screen frequency

[bobekryant]

Hi I was just wondering, if you get the blue screen a higher number of times will it be more and more harmful for your computer each time? Or would it affect chances of getting a blue screen again?
Thanks!

 

[usasma]

After the first BSOD, the system tries to fix itself. This effort was very simple in XP, but as the OS has been improved it's become much more effective. Quite often (at work) we find systems that have had BSOD's that the customers never even mention.

If the system can't fix itself, then the BSOD's are likely to reoccur.
Most (90+%) of BSOD's are due to 3rd party (non-Windows) drivers.
The next most likely cause is hardware problems.
And the least likely is Windows problems (because Windows has built in correction methods to prevent corruptions in drivers)

As for damage to the system, Windows is designed to "fail fast" in order to prevent damage to your system. This is one of the reason's for the BSOD - it's to notify you that there's something going on that could damage your system, and then shut it down.

The biggest problem that I've seen is that the system doesn't completely shut down, so there may be damaging things going on at a level that Windows can't see. But, after having witnessed many BSOD's - I've never seen a case where a computer sitting at a BSOD has received damage.

I have seen systems damaged by overheating - but that isn't all that common with current hardware (as they have sensors that sense the overheating and shut the offending part down automatically).