Error Name: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR

STOP Code: 0x00000124

What this error looks like on Windows versions before 8. Notice that the error name isn’t displayed.

What this error looks like on Windows 8.

You’ve got a Blue Screen of Death error called WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR, sometimes shown as a code with 124 at the end. So there’s bad news and good news.

The bad news is, WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR means your hardware has encountered an uncorrectable error, just like it says. This is a very serious issue, but before you go and buy a new machine, you may want to try and figure out what you can do. The error is only uncorrectable by Windows itself, however — your work here could correct this error by either replacing the part in question or reverting to a previous driver, if it’s, say, a graphics card causing the issue. That’s the good news.

As always, the first thing you want to do is a driver check, if your system is still somewhat operational. You can, of course, install Driver Reviver to simplify this process — if you do, run it before you enter Safe Mode. If not, try to boot into Safe Mode when you turn on your computer — Shift+F8 on Windows 8, and F8 or another, manufacturer-specific key on earlier versions of Windows. To navigate to Safe Mode on Windows 8, you’ll need to go to Advanced Launch Options, which’ll reboot your computer and give you a list of options to choose from. Pick Safe Mode, of course.

Press 6 to boot into Safe Mode.

After that, open your Start Menu/Screen and search for Device Manager and launch it. Update each one of your drivers or, if a driver update caused this error, roll back the driver of whatever caused this error.

Other probable causes of this issue are a failing hard drive, which can be checked with chkdsk, or failing memory, which can be checked with Windows Memory Diagnostic.

To run chdsk or Windows Memory Diagnostic, open your Start Menu/Start Screen and search for either.

Finding chkdsk in the Start Menu.

This works for Windows Memory Diagnostic as well, and is even simpler in Windows 8 — just open the Start Screen and start typing.

If either of these encounter an error when running, you’ll know which part needs replacing — if they don’t, you shouldn’t encounter any errors upon rebooting your computer, but if you do, that means another aspect of your hardware- — your power supply or, god forbid, your motherboard — has failed.

If either your power supply or motherboard has failed, contact your device manufacturer to find out your options. A motherboard failure means you can still use your parts, but they’ll have to be in another machine (and you may have to purchase Windows again) and a power supply failure means you’ll just need to have it replaced.