What is Crash (computing)?
[[File:BSOD Windows 8.svg|thumb|right|250px|{{Center|The 'Blue screen of death' in [[Windows 8]]}}]] A '''Computer crash''' is when a [[computer program]] stops running normally. The program can be either an [[Computer program|application]] or the computer's [[operating system]]. The program may freeze (stop) or may show a [[Crash reporter|crash report]] explaining what happened. One, called the [[Blue Screen of Death]] has a blue screen and means whatever you were working on may have just 'died'.<ref>David A. Karp, ''Windows 7 Annoyances: Tips, Secrets, and Solutions'' (Beijing; Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, 2010), p. 382</ref> Many crashes involving computers are often the result of [[machine]] instructions not running right. Typical causes are if programs' counters are set to incorrect addresses or [[buffer overflow]]s. An application crash can happen if an operation (a set of instructions) is performed that is not allowed by the operation system. If an application crashes, any work in progress may be lost. For this reason it is very important to [[backup]] [[computer file]]s every few minutes.<ref>Amy Solomon; Gwenn Wilson; Terry Taylor, ''100% Information Literacy Success'' (Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012), p. 196</ref> In some (mostly older) operating systems, when one application program crashes, other running programs may crash as a result.<ref>David Linthicum, 'Is NT Crash-Proof?', ''PC Magazine'', Vol. 12, No. 16 (September 28, 1993), p. 225</ref> Operation systems often crash due to [[Computer hardware|hardware]] problems. A [[device driver]] that is poorly written can cause an operating system to crash.<ref>Byron Wright; Leon Plesniarski, ''70-620 MCTS Guide to Microsoft Windows Vista'' (Boston, MA: ThomsonCourse Technology, 2008), p. 11</ref> The solution may be to upgrade the driver. Some operating systems, such as [[Minix]], have ways to recover from driver crashes. == References == {{reflist}} [[Category:Computer terminology]] {{tech-stub}}