The Meaning Behind the Red Screen

We have all heard of the infamous blue screen of death, and have probably experienced one of the many damaging relatives, the red screen or the blank screen. Less popular, but equally as damaging as the blue or blank screen is the Red Screen of Death. It is sometimes referred to as the Red Screen of Doom and it has a codename of “Memphis.” Luckily, not everyone will have the unfortunate experience of seeing their computer screen plastered with complete red. If you never have to experience this consider yourself lucky.

Historically, the red screen is an error message reserved for the beta versions of some of Microsoft’s operating systems, including Windows Vista and Windows 98. The red screen of death does still exist, but is becoming a bad memory because of the changes in Windows operating systems. Basically the red screen is designed simply to let users know that there is a serious system error that has occurred and Windows is informing the user of this error with a big bold red screen. Windows has since reverted back to a black or blue screen for this type of error; however, some users still may be one of the few to experience the red screen.

Much like fixes for a blue screen, the red screen may occur due to software errors, device drivers or bugs in the operating system. If this is the case, it typically requires a technician to diagnose and correct them. On other occasions, the red screen can be caused by something as basic as overheating, faulty or loose power supplies or cords or hardware that is running without enough memory to support it.

The first thing you will want to do is shut down the system. Let it cool for a few minutes and check all of your cables to make sure they are securely plugged into the back of your system. Take note if the system seems to be running loudly or the fan is working overtime, this can be a clue that the system is overheating.

If you have installed any recent software, try uninstalling it and restart your system to see if the screen reappears normally. It may be that there is not enough memory to run the software or it may be something as simple as loose wires causing what Windows thinks is a system error. If you determine it is the memory, you can have new memory installed before you run your new software. To be preventative, run a virus scan on your computer once it is up and running normally.

If the red screen goes away, chances are it was probably one of the simple issues that you were able to fix taking the steps above. If the red screen appears again, even intermittently, you should seek the assistance of a trained technician.