When our PCs or consoles encounter an error, we usually get to know about it in the form of some message or some kind of signal. These error signals or messages are often eye-catching, and ironically, often gain popularity among users, in spite of the trouble they have to go through because of those. Here are the top 13 error messages for consoles and computers. 

1. Blue Screen of Death (Microsoft Windows®) – This is perhaps one of the most famous error screens in the world. The ominous blue screen with white lettering that greeted users every time Windows® encountered a serious error has actually become sort of a fond memory in the minds of many dedicated Windows® users over the years.
2. 404 (Page not found) – While this error simply tells you that the page you tried to visit isn’t there, the message has a much more widespread appeal. So much so, that some users have even composed poetry on it.
3. Sad Mac (Macintosh computers) – When the Mac encountered an error during startup you would receive a Sad Mac error. The image that represented the error was so cute, that most Mac users have still remembered it fondly.
4. Red Ring of Death (XBox) – The popular gaming console from Microsoft has only one fatal error, but getting that usually means that the console needs to be replaced. Its occurrence has ceased somewhat in recent times, but many users are still haunted by memories of this error.
5. Kernel Panic – The answer of UNIX/ Macintosh to the Windows® Blue Screen of Death, the Kernel Panic throws up a “Grey Screen of Death” (so to speak) with the error message in 4 languages printed on it, along with the superimposed image of a power button.
6. RPC Service terminated – This error, indigenous to Windows®, revealed its existence with the emergence of the “blaster” worm in 2003. The worm would shut down Windows® within a few minutes of booting up.
7. Does Not Compute – Possibly one of the most famous fictional errors, the DNC error was first showed in the famous sitcom of 1964 titled “My Living Doll”. The error message simply meant that the unit throwing up the error could not complete a certain task.
8. lp0 on fire – In the earlier versions of Unix, this error was quite prevalent. Whenever Unix could not contact the printer due to some connectivity problem, it would show this error. However, thankfully, no Unix users have been reported as having to douse his printer till date.
9. Failwhale – The image of a blissful white whale being carried away in a net by a group of helpful birds is quite popular, thanks largely to the server overload error flashed by Twitter, the microblogging utility.
10. Power On Self-Test Beep – PCs give off certain sounds when the power is switched on. These noises can be used to detect whether the PC is working properly. The tiny internal system speaker of PCs come alive noises that can be interpreted to understand whether there is something wrong with the RAM, or whether the graphics adapter is unable to work properly.
11. Red Screen of Death – This is similar to the Blue Screen of Death of Windows®, only it showed up on the Longhorn server, during the beta stage of development.
12. Guru Meditation – While having nothing to do with Zen ways of life, this error meant that a Commodore Amiga console had crashed and needed to be restarted.
13. Abort, Retry, Fail – Users of MS-DOS have often been greeted by this error message, whether they were dealing with a defective floppy, or having a power problem on their DOS based PC.

These 13 error messages have received widespread popularity over the years. Many of these are printed on different merchandise, like T-Shirts, coffee mugs, and lots more. In spite of the calamities associated with these, many users still remember these errors fondly, as an indispensable element of the experience associated with the PC or the console concerned.