Blue Screen of Death amongst issues that plagued Deepwater Horizon
By Darren Murph 
posted July 23rd 2010 10:52PM
posted July 23rd 2010 10:52PM
A recent report in the New York Times details a myriad issues that led up to the eventual explosion that started the mess known as the "BP oil spill," but aside from obvious mishandling of warnings and red flags, one particular issue was troubling those working on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig long before April 20th. Mike Williams, the rig's chief electronics technician, has come forward with a multitude of icky details surrounding the negligence that was involved in the catastrophe, with the one most germane to our discussion being the following: "For months, the computer system had been locking up, producing what the crew called the Blue Screen of Death." Williams continued, noting that "it would just turn blue," with "no data coming through." Of course, it's not as if BSODs are totally uncommon out in the working world -- Microsoft's Windows powers the vast majority of systems that corporations rely on daily -- but this one rubs just a wee bit differently. Hit the source link for the full spill. [Image courtesy of Ultrasaurus]
@HighestRanked2
What on earth is the matter with you? Do you have no human aspect left? Are you purely troll? Do you not get the sense that nobody here enjoys anything that you have to say? You have no good points. You are downvoted not because you're right. You are downvoted because you're annoying, you spam your opinion everywhere, you misrepresent and misunderstand things that people say, then use that flawed understanding to lambaste them.
Your passive-aggressiveness is done. You are a moron, you've been banned repeatedly, and you need to leave. Go back to your mac. Stay in your mom's basement. Just get the fuck out of here. Leave us all be.
Hasn't ANYONE noticed that the screencap is of a SHELL computer, it's their branding above.
Why everyone keeps having a go at BP with false information I'll never know.
@HighestRanked2
You really need to get a life.
Windows its-self is stable, of course this is very hardware and software dependent as is the stability of any OS. I doubt BSODS made the rig blow up, not by what I've heard about it on the news. BSODS happen everywhere in corporations due to the inadequate maintenance of the machines usually. They don't really maintain them rather use them till they brake then buy more.
Having worked for a major supplier of industrial process control systems (ABB) with customers in the petrochemical and nuclear power fields - among others - I can assure you that mission critical control systems are built on (proprietary) real time operating systems with at least dual redundancy in control boards, networking, etc.
It's possible PCs were used for monitoring/reporting but would never be used in the control loop.
Engadget is a consumer electronics blog and doesn't know anything about industrial engineering and shouldn't report on stories like this.
@ajwoodhouse
If you realised, Engadget is not reporting anything... this one is actually a troll post.
I just received BSOD on my 8+yr old printserver running on NT.. but well.. thats not the issue...
Companies should provide provisions lets just say a 3yr refresh period to replace old hardware and software.
Especially since nowadays some electronics in market can be easily gotten off the shelf and are more consumer orientated and anything.
There may be "killswitch", but you don't want to maintain some legacy systems, especially if there is a lack of people who knows how to properly maintain such systems.
So far most MACs users I know understands that "old stuff should go, and new shiney stuff needs to be bought".
And frugal PC users know that their 5+yr old machines are literally running on life-saving devices' and need "pastoral-care" that includes HDD formatting routines, replacing broken PSU.. etc.
Don't think that migrating to *nix could fix the whole maintenance issue, cos *nix actually need more maintenance and planning, and that takes up precious 'sleep-hours' hahaha. Good for hardening tho...
And then...
Only new hardware and software that are rushed to market without thorough testing should be blamed for anything.
It says the screen turned blue. It does not mean it was running a windows operating system.
Oh brother even some countries know if you want a rock solid os you need to go linux. This us reason 10001 why linux blows Windows out ov the water. Yea yea right now linux doesn't really support gamers needs well but hey this is a oil rig not WOW there playing here.
You can say poorly written software did this.
But poorly written software on Mac OS doesn't lock up the whole system.
Microsoft helped create the BP Oil spill. Maybe they should be donating money to clean this up...
@Greg7388
I think the fact that no large corporation will ever let Apple anywhere near anything important says more than any crap you can come up with.
@HKCally Well seeing as how most executives don't know anything about technology, it actually does.
@Greg7388
That's funny my wife's Mac locks up on log out occasionally it's usually Chrome or Photoshop or even Finder sometimes, then I have to hold down the power button to turn it off because the crashing app prevents log out or shut down.
Mac are computers just like the rest, I have found my wife's Macs to be no more or less prone to crashes than my work PCs.
@Greg7388
Yeah, the execs decide which PCs to buy. What planet do you live on where that happens? Execs outsource that decision to their IT people, just like every other decision they make.
Can you name any company outside Apple itself that uses Mac as standard? Wouldn't you think ONE of them would go with Mac's alleged superiority? Funny that, huh?
Strictly for the home users.
this is just because the programs on this computer were written by the same engineers who engineered the bp oil rig which leaked a few months ago
What a bunch of malarkey.
Nowhere in the article does it say what operating system the computers used. While the "Blue Screen of Death" is a term associated with Windows, it's not inconceivable that another OS was used, or that it was a hardware fault. I personally have witnessed hardware and software crashes on UNIX and OS/2 systems cause a BSOD of sorts. In my experience most Windows BSOD's are due to hardware issues, either faulty hardware or buggy drivers.
Since we don't know the OS being used, the software, or even the hardware, your assumption and insinuation that it was Windows, and that it was a contributing factor in the disaster are very unprofessional.
The only reason it "rubs just a wee bit differently" is that you're trying to make something out of nothing.
"but this one rubs just a wee bit differently"
As other have implied/stated, that comment is very much implies that Microsoft is the reason the oil leak happened.
Engadget needs to get it's authors trained in journalism. That comment is wrong, maybe boarderline liable.
Also, with over 20 years in the IT world, I can't count how many times I've ran across a system that was a single point of failure for a critical monitoring point.
Placing the blame on Microsoft would be like placing the blame on Honda because some drunk runs over a pedestrian. If the idiots using and supporting the equipment can't take the time to get the problem resolved, they're to blame.
This might be a new low for the Engadget staff. People died in this disaster, and to use it to pimp your pathological distaste for MSFT is pathetic. Unfortunately, it's par for the course for this increasingly irrelevant blog.
Wow, they just can't do enough blame shifting here can they?
You know in the past 10 months or so I've been using Win7, I have not had ONE bsod? Not even one...
Blue Screen of Death, these days, is usually caused by hardware error. This article is pure fluff, for singling out Microsoft for being involved in this disaster.
@HighestRanked2
Yes but you would have to pay twice as much for gas.
@HighestRanked2
Let me put it in simpler terms that you can actually understand:
If you aren't going to stop trolling, then please go away.
That sure looks like a shell sign to me. Another sensationalist peice of libel posted by ragadget. Aol needs to fire the entire staff and hire real tech enthusiasts.
@Jordus
Oh, you mean MS apologists & blind disdain for anything Apple? Yeah, I am sure AOL is totally interested in slashing it's reader base of Engadget down to 25% or less.
Start a new blog, be the man.
@Joao Cagao
No, we mean real articles that neither like or dislike any one company.
The crap proprietary software causes it....its not windows you idiots.
@HighestRanked2
Oh, and for the record, I do not prefer Coke.
"Hit the source link for the full spill" OUCH
I hope the media runs with this story, and over-blows it like they did with the iPhone antenna issue. Step back & look at that rationally for a moment, and the amount of attention it received.
Instead of having to hand out free cases, I hope MS is pressured into millions of dollars for the clean up efforts.
It's Microsofts turn for the hyped to hell bad publicity! I will do my part in spreading the FUD.
@HighestRanked2
You are downranked for a reason, not because you are right, but because nobody here wishes to listen to your trolling. Please cease to troll this website. You've been banned multiple times. Do you not get the hint?
@HighestRanked2
Or a Commodore 64, Amiga 1200, Ubuntu system or maybe Windows CE? Who knows. Maybe they could have used OSX but the machine would have eventually been unable to be updated due to apple providing no updates without new hardware
Dear Engadget
You have one of the of the nicest and most up to date sites on the net with regards to the tech world, but, it's articles like this one that really do you no justice at all.
On another note, why has your review of the iPhone 4 not been changed to reflect the obvious evidence? The only way I can get my point over to you is to stop visiting your site and to find another page to give my clicks and thoughts.
You either stay professional, or introduce idiotic articles like this one. You could have actually done some journalistic reporting, actually gathered further information....
Thank you and goodbye. You have now been removed from my Opera speed dial. Shame
Wow, the number of MS shills in this thread is astounding. Just like all the WP7 threads.
@HighestRanked2
Hahaha. This coming from the person who has stated on multiple occasions that people were iHaters for simply pointing out a flaw in an Apple product?
If you're so overly happy with your Mac, why defend it constantly? Why not just leave us to stew in our own anti-Apple juices (according to you)? And why come back after being repeatedly banned?
Darren Murph should be fired. Seriously.
That's just desperate. Windows isn't the problem here, it's their software causing the BSoD. Make better software, guys, and stop blaming everyone else for something that was your fault.
This pure FLAME BAIT!!
We wouldn't want those pesky alarms from waking workers, from dying.
you can try this one:
www.registryfix123.com