How many of you PC users have ever in their lifetime, have gotten a blue freez-up screen or had to click “ok” for your computer to crash?
Unless it’s somebody using a monochrome screen or UNIX, I daresay all of us. 
In my lifetime 
. Seems like the question should ask how many per month. I would estimate 20/month. (not all on one PC)
In my lifetime?
It would make much more sense to ask me how many times I get the BSOD per day.
Bill Gates is going straight to hell. I know there are alternatives, but like many, I’m in too deep already. Plus, I’m too little nerd to figure out Linux and such.
Blech. Is Windows ME any better than 98? 'Cause 98 over 95 can hardly be called an improvement, in terms of stability.
The poster known as broys says it is more stable, but I bet if I installed it I would have a bunch of new problems.
Ah yes, the old “Blue Screen of Death”.
After more than a few of them I resolved that there was a special corner in Hell awaiting Bill Gates where he will perform fluid dynamics calculations* on a frickin’ abacus!
*[sub]FLUID DYNAMICS CALCULATIONS ARE SO COMPLEX THAT AN INDIVIDUAL USING [/sub]
[sup]PEN AND PAPER COULD NOT COMPLETE A SINGLE ONE IN AN ENTIRE LIFETIME.[/sup]
zenster you forgot the randomly changing base system and the tremors to shake up the little beads:)
Mine stopped going blue. I don’t know why.
Now it goes into the old “Color Text” mode from the earliest PC #1.
80 columns by 25 rows of blinking randomly colored letters in Dos font.
I YEARN for the return of the Big Bad Blue Screen of Death.
People please quit cursing the name of BG. call him Billy-Bob. It’s much easier in the eyes and brain.
Wait a minute. What’s all this talk about Billy-Bob roasting in hell and such? I mean isn’t he, after all, the devil himself?
I’m running Windows2K and it does seem to be more stable, but then again, I never really had problems with 98. The only time I’ve gotten a blue screen was when we were trying to install ISDN using the evil software from Deutsches Telekom. Trust me, if you’ve ever had to work with software from the evil DT, you will want to kiss B.G.'s ass for the relative ease and stability of his software.
Oooh, and I got it another time when DT turned off our ISDN (due to an error by the EVIL BANK) and it crashed our computer. So we call them and they’re like “Yeah, we know our software will crash your computer if the ISDN is turned off and we don’t care”. Deutsches Telekom is EVIL. EVIL, I say.
We will not even speak of what their T-Online software did to my baby. 
I got the Super-Deluxe Blue Screen three weeks ago when my computer decided that my hard drive was damamged beyond all repair and refused to function in any mode other than DOS… which wouldn’t have tooooo bad, except that Win98 stole half of the DOS commands, so they don’t work anymore… DEATH TO MICROSOFT WINDOWS… their stupid appropriation of code prevented me from effectively rescuing many files.
I am am engineering student. I have to constantly use two programs (one is calculus graphing software, the other is a CAD program) that ALWAYS freeze up my PC. Not only due I get the BSOD, I will have times where everything on the PC stops. Not even the 'ol three finger shuffle does anything. I have to resort to turning off the power.
Plus, my PC is a laptop, and the power button doesn’t actually cut off the power, it sends a signal to cut off the power. So occasionally it freezes up so bad that not even the power button works, so I must unplug it and take out the battery. How bad is that? Really?
Tatertot,
are you running windowsME, or windows 2000? there is a very large difference. ME is the new version of win98, 2000 is the new version of Windows NT
After playing with both 98, ME, and 2000, I am staying with windows 2000 and am never going back. Windows 2000 is rock solid. I have myself left my computer on for days on end w/o any problems. One friend has left his system on for 3 months w/o ever rebooting it. Try doing that with a 98 or ME system. Also, its very rare for 2000 to crash. If the program that is running has an error, 2000 ends that single program. I have yet to see a “blue screen 'o death” in windows 2000
There are some drawbacks to 2000. many old programs do not work in 2000, and you need specific windows 2000 drivers for your system’s hardware. With that said, again I’m never going back.
I’m running 2000, haven’t tried ME. And yes, some programs don’t work with 2000. The biggest disappointment is that some of TinyTot’s games and our Intel Microscope don’t work…MisterTot is going to reload 98 for TinyTot, but we’ll still have 2000 on, too. I forgot what that is called.
And never believe the EVIL DEUTSCHES TELEKOM when they say their software is W2K compatible.
I’ve had to do the same thing with my old laptop (man, I miss that thing), though I’ve recently “discovered” a bit of lore that makes me wonder if it was necessary. Evidently, most desktop mobo manufacturers have a thing where if the power button is held down for 8 seconds or so, no matter what the computer is doing, or how frozen it is, it’ll shutdown. I have no idea if laptop manufacturers have the same feature, but I’m curious as to whether or not it’d work… I’ll just live vicariously through you for now.
Tater, it’s Deutsche Telekom.
My computer locks up without the BSOD all the time as well! Usually when I’m using a lot of recourses. Typically, I fire up my ISDN connection, which launches IE5 and ICQ. Then, I hit my WinAmp. I can’t even start Eudora before ICQ is fully loaded, or Eudora will crash (yes, other companies make crap software as well). After loading the SDMB and some other screens, I read away, whilst synching my Visor to the computer, refreshing AvantGo pages and whatnot. All the time I’m also chatting on ICQ and downloading large mails (the stuff people SEND me, amazing) and reading them. These days, I also fire up AIM sometimes (most moderators don’t use ICQ, but AIM. Bastards.).
Bill Gates has yet to provide an OS that enables a PIII 550 MHz with 64 MB memory (hardly a gameboy, right?) to do all those tasks above without crashing at least 4 times a week.
What pisses me off as well is the fact that after such an Internet session, I HAVE to reboot the computer in order to play a game. There’s no way the game will NOT crash when I start it straightaway. It’s like some of the memory is still “in use”. And YES, all TSR’s are closed before a game is launched.
Windows. Blech.
I refuse to learn to spell their name right until they reimburse me for the approximately 83.2 hours of my life I have wasted dealing with them and their EVIL SOFTWARE. I will get my revenge, this I swear.
Bill Gates, pah, he has nothing on Telekom!
…the worst of all possible worlds? 
Am I the only one that can regularly run my computer all day without a lockup? I’m using Win98, have damn near replaced every component in my system over the last 2 years, and I’ve only had to do 1 reinstall. I get a BSOD about once a month.
Jman