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When BSOD's Attack: 15 Ridiculous Digital Signage Crashes

Author: Jeremy Zaretzky on 2008-10-22 11:04:19

Digital signs are popping up all over the place, and most of the screens run Windows. Put these together, and you've got a perfect recipe for some very public BSOD's. Here are 15 of the most ridiculous crashes we've seen, plus some tips for making sure your screens aren't next.



Image credit: Mike Goren

Image credit: Christopher Carfi

Image credit: Paul Harrison

Image credit: Justin Watt

Image credit: Salim Fadhley

Image credit: Bill Stilwell

Image credit: Mingo Hagen

Image credit: Pablo BM

Image credit: Marcus Buster

Image credit: deltaMike

Image credit: Peter Kaminski

Image credit: Diegosaurius Rex

Image credit: Gordon Joly

Image credit: Ged Carroll

Image credit: voidStern
Bonus Pictures: Even More Broken Screen Action

Here are 7 more crashed screens that didn't make our main list, either because they have a different type of Windows error or don't fit our normal definition of digital signage. Either way, they're too good to leave out:


Image credit: Mike Goren

Image credit: Paul Holloway

Image credit: badlogik

Image credit: Phil Whitehouse

Image credit: Babele Dunnit

Image credit: Paul Waite

Image credit: Evan Osherow
Don't Let Your Screens Be Next

If you're deploying your own digital signs, here are some tips for keeping them crash-free:

Pay attention to your hardware and software. You want products that are designed for 24x7 usage, not cobbled together from random pieces.

Test every piece of content. Before you schedule a new file, make sure it plays correctly on your test screen. If you don't have an in-house screen for testing, set one up ASAP.

Learn from every mishap. If one of your screens crashes, take detailed notes about what it was playing at the time, which files came before it, etc. By addressing the underlying cause of the crash, you can make your screens a lot more reliable in the future.

After all, you probably don't want to end up on a list like this one :)

Comments (2)

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2009-08-26Kmuzu writes:
When I was in stage production we never trusted any system that ran Windows. Almost all equipment had it's own integrated system. That's why the old systems like the Jumbotron rarely failed.
2010-02-02Yuhong Bao writes:
And if the crash was a Windows BSoD, obtain the crash dump files from the crash! That will help in debugging.

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