How do I force a Windows Computer to Crash - BSOD?

Posted on September 14th, 2007 by thehabgroup

It may seem strange but there are instances where there is a need to intentionally crash a Windows system to produce a memory dump. Memory dumps are useful when troubleshooting Windows system hangs, performance problems, as well as system problems.

Here are the steps to setup a Windows computer for a bluescreen of death:

Open the registry editor by Start -> Run -> Type regedit or regedt32.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
\i8042prt\Parameters.
Create a REG_DWORD key named CrashOnCtrlScroll.
Give the new key a value of 0×1 (HEX) or 1 decimal.
The system must be rebooted before these changes will take effect.
After this has been done, the keyboard crash can be initiated as follows. Hold down the rightmost CTRL key, and press the SCROLL LOCK key twice.
The CTRL+SCROLL LOCK+SCROLL LOCK will produce a bug check 0xE2 (MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH)
The dump file that is created can be analyzed by Microsoft Support

Operating SystemOperating System