Everyone fears the blue screen of death, right? Well, why isn't there an option where you can pick a color for your screen of death. Make it a little more happy...
-- friendless-person, Jan 23 2004

BSOD Properties http://www.toastytech.com/files/bsod.html
[spiraliii, Oct 04 2004]

//Make it a little more happy...//

I doubt it.
-- Detly, Jan 23 2004


I thought it was just a bright light.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 24 2004


Actually, I seem to recall that before the Blue Screen of Death, it was the Random Colors Screen of Death (a screen full of gibberish, with some pixel blocks set to random DOS colors, including the blinking ones). Late DOS or early days of Windows, but my memory fails me.
-- DrCurry, Jan 24 2004


[spiraliii]'s link appears to show this idea is baked. How excellent.
-- kropotkin, Jan 24 2004


"Hello, is this the help desk?"
"Yes, Ma'am, how can I help you?"
"Well, I always used to get this really pretty screen with flowers and smiley faces, but today I don't see it."
"Ma'am, that screen means that your computer has an error and you have to restart. If you don't see that screen, then it means your computer is working properly."
"But I liked seeing it. I don't understand. Could you put my computer back the way it was yesterday?"
-- phundug, Mar 24 2004


Was it the Atari ST that put bombs on the screen when it crashed?
-- Mr Burns, Mar 24 2004


It was early Macs that displayed the "bomb" icon, actually, and there would be a dialog box, reading something to the effect of "Sorry, a system error occurred - 'Finder' - <error type/ID>".

The box (helpfully) offered a "Restart" button, but (if the system was FUBAR'd) it wouldn't always do a "restart" - it might hang the system or cause "fireworks" (glitch screen/weird noises).

The problem has since been mitigated by newer OS versions (OS X 10.2/10.3 will display a big transparent panel that says "you need to restart your computer -hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button", in four languages, if it goes into a panic) and better overall memory handling.
-- rudyvalencia, Oct 17 2004


Macs crash? Say it ain't so.
-- half, Oct 17 2004


You have to stand in awe of a software company that can take an OS as solid as Linux/BSD and make it as disaster prone as OS X.
-- Detly, Oct 30 2004


windows 98 still exsists?
-- benfrost, Oct 30 2004


[DrCurry]... that was late DOS, I believe.
-- david_scothern, Oct 30 2004


//The box (helpfully) offered a "Restart" button, but (if the system was FUBAR'd) it wouldn't always do a "restart" - it might hang the system or cause "fireworks" (glitch screen/weird noises).//

Ah yes. I remember on the Mac II, I'd occasionally get "System Error ID=01" which I'd look up in Inside Macintosh to discover "Bus Error--This can never happen on a Macintosh". FYI, the 68000 in the early Macs didn't trap bus errors, but the 68020 does.

I think my favorite "bomb" was one that happened while a program was displaying a countdown timer. The countdown didn't stop, even though the program was crashed, and happened to be positioned right at the ID=" number. So the system was crashed, but couldn't make up its mind why.
-- supercat, Oct 31 2004


I've never had OS X crash.
-- Eugene, Oct 31 2004


I've never had XP crash - but I shouldn't think it's hard to do ;-)
-- wagster, Oct 31 2004



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