Blue Screen of Death in unexpected locations
The infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) probably hasn’t escaped the notice of anyone who has used a computer in the last decade or so. If you haven’t seen it on your own PC, you probably know someone it has happened to.
There is actually a ridiculous amount of BSOD photos to be found around the Web. And not just of PCs. As this post will show you, the blue error screen seems to show up everywhere, and often in highly unexpected locations.
This is a collection of some of the very best ones we could find. Enjoy! 
At a Nine Inch Nails concert
Ok, Trent Reznor, the front man of NiN, has stated that they did this intentionally, but we still had to include it because it’s just plain cool.
Photo by LtRandazzo.
At the Olympic Games
This happened during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It was only visible for about a second before a backup was switched in.
Found at Mac Amour.
In traffic
We’re not sure, but we think this is taken in France somewhere.
Photo by Jakob Fix.
In Las Vegas
Another billboard malfunctioning. Ouch. This one belongs to the Paris Hotel and Casino.
Photo by Raquel Lonas.
On the Strip in Vegas
Las Vegas seems prone to the BSOD.
Photo by Woof.
At a NYC subway entrance
According to the photographer, this problem remained for days before it was finally fixed.
Photo by Mike Goren.
On the bus
Picture taken on a London bus.
Photo by Massimo Banzi.
At the ATM
We included this one just because we all know it happens from time to time. We’ve seen this here in Sweden as well.
Found at Shijaz.com.
At the Heathrow airport
Now, that’s not a very informative flight billboard, is it?
Photo by Graham Anderson.
On a vending machine
Well, we think this is a vending machine. Whatever it is, something is broken…
Photo by Limesik.
At the grocery store
We’re not sure what is supposed to be on this screen, but we’re absolutely sure this isn’t it.
Photo by Hayley.
At a car expo
A not-very-helpful information screen at Nissan’s booth. It remained like that the whole day.
Photo by Francis Roque.
On a Toronto department store
The Bay department store in Toronto has four giant screens. According to the photographer, this was going on for days.
Photo by Sean Galbraith.
And finally, a BSOD cocktail?
We hope you liked this collection of blue screens showing up in unexpected locations. A big thumbs up to all the attentive photographers out there who were able to catch these moments.
Even Microsoft, whose Windows 9x and NT operating systems are among the most famous originators of BSODs, seems to regard the BSOD with some measure of affection. They were even serving a blue cocktail named BSOD at a MSN party somewhere. It has become cult.
We haven’t seen the blue screen in years, though. It’s not a problem in Vista, which we all run here at the Pingdom office.
Did we miss your favorite BSOD picture? Add a link to it in the comments!
Did you like this post?
- Share it and vote
- Get our RSS feed
- Leave a comment (30 Comments)
Google’s 
We have exciting news to share. As you may have noticed, we made some changes to the 
Operating systems on supercomputers used to be custom-made affairs, but this has changed. These days, Linux has become a popular choice for supercomputers. But how popular? You may be surprised.
Mozilla 
This week Google launched a new Web community on 
Microsoft has been drumming up its marketing for Internet Explorer 8 lately, with some interesting results. That marketers can be a bit, shall we say… “creative”… when touting a product is well known, but the question is if Microsoft’s marketing team hasn’t taken it a bit too far with their “Get the Facts” campaign, especially when they start comparing IE8 to other web browsers.
Kajahalan
October 9th, 2008 at 9:40 am
That’s awesome!
I love the subway one. Anyone living in New York must have passed that specific entrance at one time or another.
NoManIsAnIsland
October 9th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I’ve seen that ATM thing happen several times. Once I passed one that had a Windows login screen on it. Not much use to me, that ATM!
Arthur Guy
October 9th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I once came across an ATM with a ActiveX error box sitting on top of the interface, sadly it popped up after I put my card it and wouldn’t return it!
I am fairly sure the London bus blue screen isn’t a failure, its just what the cctv system looks like when it boots up, at least thats what happens on the Brighton buses.
Earl G
October 9th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Nice post there. I laughed out loud at the last one. Holy shit! I wonder if someone got fired over that.
Jordan
October 9th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Saw a blue screen on one of the touch-screen learning devices for kids at the aquarium in Chicago: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkeyes0/2598814977/
Roland
October 9th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
The Blue screens are always entertaining because you are just helpless. There is another cool collection that has some aren’t found here: http://www.walyou.com/blog/2008/08/19/worldwide-places-hit-by-the-blue-screen-of-death/
Beny
October 10th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Honestly? If you’re using Windows of any kind for mission critical stuff like 24 hour advertising, you deserve what happens next.
If all you are doing is showing glorified animated presentations, there are better operating systems that you can use, for much much less.
Ramenos
October 10th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Concerning “In Traffic” Screen : yes, it is in France, I confirm it. This road is near Paris… lol.
Karen
October 10th, 2008 at 9:45 am
It’s not just the BSOD, either.
http://flickr.com/photos/kaisopics/103936627/
That was a big billboard in Times Square. “Please tell Microsoft about this problem.”
M.B.Sjoblom
October 10th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I’ve seen this familiar windows interface also in Helsinki airport. I’m so sorry I don’t have a picture of that. It was spectacular. Like a blue vision!
EduardoE
October 10th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Also in the screen of L4 line of Metro de Santiago, in Chile:
http://flickr.com/photos/pons/2365980925/
bobdole
October 10th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
http://www.truveo.com/Bill-Gates-BSOD-/id/3060518289
bill gates demoing in live conference… BSOD!!
Capissen
October 11th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I’m a contractor for a moderately large digital signage company, and I can tell you that ALL of our products are Windows XP based. That’s what they started with and it’s just stuck, and no one wants to shell out the dollars for *nix developers, even though it would save them money (and embarrassment!) in the long run.
newsoft
October 13th, 2008 at 4:54 am
I guess you might be interested in my personal collection, too
http://flickr.com/photos/news0ft
Alex M.
October 13th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Do ATM`s use Windows ? I think not all of them.
Scott
October 13th, 2008 at 10:14 am
So, how do you make a BSOD drink?
Johannes
October 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Last week on Times Square:
http://jd.aseko.de/mr_peanut.jpg
http://jd.aseko.de/mr_peanut2.jpg
Pingdom
October 14th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Thanks everyone for the comments so far! Lots of great links, too.
@Scott: We have no idea how to make that BSOD cocktail, but it looks kinda tasty, doesn’t it?
Sean Galbraith
October 15th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
The last photo, of The Bay store in Toronto, is NOT by this “Nigel” douche. He stole my photo and uploaded it to his flickr.
See: http://blogto.com/city/2007/11/capture_the_hog_bsod_strikes_the_bay/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smlg/1924698354/
I request that you update your attribution accordingly.
Thanks,
Sean
Pingdom
October 15th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
@Sean: Thanks for pointing that out. As you can see, the attribution has now been changed. Great picture, btw!
La Felipedia
October 25th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Spanis Lottery with a bue screen.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3232/2870178185_67bbd2b92c_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3238/2871004042_dd02371ae0_b.jpg
Froggy
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:42 am
Hello there,
yes i can confirm the third pic was taken in France.
Thanks for this funny (and sad reality) selection
JYJ
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:02 am
“In traffic
We’re not sure, but we think this is taken in France somewhere.”
Yes, you’re right, it is in France, in the north of Paris, in “La Defense” district.
Nice pictures, many thanks to microsoft for its softwares !!!
Geo
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:13 am
Hy, I confirm the photo “in traffic” has been taken in france, its seems to be puteaux in the suburbs of Paris http://maps.google.fr/maps?hl=fr&q=puteaux&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title
regards from france
jordan
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
i love bsod’s especially since i dont have to deal with them since i use a macbook (:(:(: