Borking all over the world: At home or abroad, you're never more than 6ft from a BSOD
- Reference: 1599033846
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/02/bork/
- Source link:
Spotted by an eagle-eyed Register reader, today's BSOD is casting a baleful eye over commuters using the Bucharest Metro. "I was relieved," our reader told us, "to see that it is not just the Brits who are exposed to the colourful display of the public screen of death."
Likely a passenger information screen, the display now informs weary commuters that their journey is hopelessly borked, a message that can be seen repeated down the platform. Something, somewhere has broken (possibly in hardware, judging by that 0x00000003 STOP ) and Windows has responded in the traditional manner: with all the resilience of a snowball lobbed at a blast furnace.
[1]
While there might be some overscan funnies going on, we reckon the error is A process or thread crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated. A swift driver or BIOS check might be in order, as well as a scan for malware. Or just dump the kit and start again.
The Bucharest Metro is one of the more recent entries into the international catalogue of rapid urban transit systems, having opened its first line back in 1979. Stations were added during the 1980s, although there was a bit of hiatus from 1989, when we imagine the authorities had other things on their minds.
UK public transport users will be intrigued to learn that [2]a pass worth 10 trips on the network currently goes for Lei 20 (about £3.70 at today's rates). While getting around London can be considerably more wallet-emptying, consider that Brits get to rattle along often elderly lines and endure enjoy being wedged armpit to nose in stations built for an altogether less busy era.
Who needs the simple (and distinctly non-Eastern European) design of the Bucharest Metro, when one can be crushed against the wall of the Southbound Victoria Line platform of Oxford Circus by a [3]boiled egg-eating , rucksack-wearing fellow traveller in the UK?
But while transport systems over Europe and, indeed, the world, can be very different beasts, it's comforting to know that wherever one and one's luggage might eventually travel, somewhere and somehow, Windows will always be crashing. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/09/01/rommetro.jpg
[2] http://www.metrorex.ro/travel_tickets_p1382-2
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/11/13/woman_fined_for_rage_over_boiled_eggs_on_train/
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Depth of troubleshooting that ensued ...
... if you call Microsoft support, this is likely to stop at "what's the code, oh, reinstall windows and tell me if it fixes the problem". Really, I've had tons of this recently with Azure AD hybrid workstation joins and identity problems in Office 360 [beeeep] Microsoft 360 caused by broken AD Connect synchronisation between on-prem AD and Azure AD. One hapless support "Ambassador" gave me a link to paid Azure support, at $250/incident. I politely refused, as I've already paid for support in my Microsoft 360 licensing costs. I asked him to stop helping me and find someone else.
It is a world of pain, with remarkably little help from the provider of the software. Maybe I just need to pay for Enterprise Support to get sensible help. YMMV.
with all the resilience of a snowball lobbed at a blast furnace.
That has to be the El Reg 'Quote of the Week'.
It is a perfect way to describe Windows Systems. Oh for the days of Tandems when you could replace a CPU etc and the machine would just keep on chugging along.
Re: with all the resilience of a snowball lobbed at a blast furnace.
... and what us wrong with the standard whelk in a supernova?
Tut tut. Perhaps it's my fault for expecting Reg journos to be more computer literate?
The bug check code is actually 0x000000F4
Which points at a hard disk error. Altogether a much more likely scenario given that hard drives are perhaps the most common point of failure in most machines.