What happened ?
On 2024-07-18 Approx between 9:00 pm and 9:30 pm we started hearing news that windows computers running Crowdstrike have started showing the infamous "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD). Upon further investigations we identified the Internet at large was experiencing this issue.
Who all are affected ?
As of 2024-07-19 1:00 am PDT this appears to a global event - with numerous computers being affected. We've heard reports of Airplanes grounded/delayed, global companies experiencing major outages.
My Computer keeps booting to a blue screen, what can I do ?
There does appear to be some chance just rebooting your computer will clear the issue, try that first.
Contact the IT Help Desk at [email protected] if you need assistance. Phone and chat responses will be slower due to the extreme volume of calls.
If you are an IT person, you could consider the steps from Crowdstrike.
Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment
- Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory
- Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys”, and delete it.
Note this file will always exist, you only need to delete it if you are having boot problems
if the file has a timestamp of 0409 UTC ( 09:09 PM PDT), it is the problematic version.
if the file has a timestamp of 0527 UTC ( 10:27 PM PDT), is the later good version.
- Boot the host normally.
FAQ
- This issue is not impacting Mac- or Linux-based hosts
- Windows hosts which have not been impacted do not require any action as the problematic channel file has been reverted
- Windows hosts which are brought online after 0527 UTC (10:27 PM PDT) will also not be impacted
- Hosts running Windows7/2008 R2 are not impacted
Technical links
https://www.reddit.com/r/crowdstrike/comments/1e6vmkf/bsod_error_in_latest_crowdstrike_update/
News and sources
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/19/business/global-tech-outage
https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/19/24201717/windows-bsod-crowdstrike-outage-issue
https://www.thestack.technology/crowdstrike-outage-blue-screen-of-death/
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/windows-systems-restarting-throwing-blue-screen-of-death-due-to-crowdstrike-error-6138820
https://www.windowslatest.com/2024/07/19/windows-10-crashes-with-bsod-stuck-at-recovery-due-to-crowdstrike-update/
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/airlines-grounded-companies-experiencing-outages-tied-to-crowdstrike-issue-fc94611d
Link
You can link to this page using https://go.lbl.gov/crowdstrike-issue
