BSOD happening 7eral times a day

[Bazman]

Hi there, my PC is giving my the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) with increasing regularity. The PC is only about a year old (but is just out of its warranty naturally) and has been pretty much trouble free in that time. However over the last month or so I have started getting BSOD's with increasing regularity to the point where they now occur daily, and today I have had 3 already!!! I am happy to open the PC up or whatever else you would like me to do but I really need to solve this asap as I rely on my PC (I'm a PhD student). I am running windows7, I can prolly find out the precise hardware details but broadly its a quad-core with 8gb memory and 1TB hard drive. Hope this is at least enough to get you started any questions feel free to ask.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help Bazman.

 

One of the more common reasons for this especially as it is increasing in regularity is overheating due to dust and fluff building up.

Is this computer a desktop or laptop?

Can you also give us some details please, make and model of computer if a bought one, may help later in researching for specifics that may be needed.

 

In the mean time, please download and install Speccy from Piriform, download it from this link:-

 

http://www.piriform.com/speccy

 

Once installed and open, let the computer run keeping Speccy open and keep an eye on temperatures until it goes blue screen, If possible copy and paste into your reply the readings and other information from the main index screen, that will let us know if it is an overheating problem.

 

Nev.

[Bazman]

Hi Nev, it could be that I did open it up recently and vacuumed it but some of the dust is statically charged so I couldn't really get rid of it all. The PC was built by overclockers, I forget the exact name but they change their range pretty much every month plus the names are all kinda samey so I'm not sure it would be much help. Here are the initial results from speccy: Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1

CPU

Intel Core i7 2600K @ 3.40GHz 50 °C

Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology

RAM

16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 800MHz (9-9-9-28)

Motherboard

ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8Z68-V (LGA1155) 25 °C

Graphics

SyncMaster (1920x1200@60Hz)

2048MB AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series (ATI AIB)

Hard Drives

112GB OCZ-AGILITY3 ATA Device (SSD)

932GB Seagate ST31000524AS ATA Device (SATA) 27 °C

Optical Drives

HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30 ATA Device

Audio

Realtek High Definition Audio Will keep it running as you have advised.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, thanks for that.

The CPU running at 50C already from start up may show higher fairly quickly, keep a good eye on that and let us know.

 

I will ask you don't use a vacuum for cleaning out though as they can sometimes create static strong enough to do damage.

 

Much better to use a real haired, not nylon, paint brush and blow the dust out. Compressed air cans from most PC outlets are best for that, use in short bursts as liquid can be ejected on long ones.

 

If the fins of the heat sink are not clogged with dust and we see high temperatures, it may need the heat sink removing, any old thermal paste cleaned off and fresh paste applied.

 

Nev.

[Bazman]

Thanks again. I was monitoring the temperatures, and they were in a stable band around 50 from (49 to 51) for a couple of hours, the PC is almost always on during the day so 50 was not exactly from a cold start. Unfortunately I have had my 4th BSOD of the day I was in the loo at the time so I wasn't able to see if there was a temp spike immediately prior (not to worry though I'm sure it won't be too long till the next one!) On the thermal paste any recommendation on brands? Is one year a reasonable amount of time for the paste to wear out? Will I need anything else to remove the old paste (the equivalent of paint thinner if you like)? I have to say it does strike me as being a design flaw that tower PC's (with ever faster and hence bigger/heavier heat sinks) mean that the heat sink and processor are perpetually having gravity try to rip the processor away from the motherboard rather than use it to help keep it in place if the flat style cabinets that for example used to sit under the monitor were still in vogue but I digress. Just to add I have now restarted from cold and processor temp did go back to 50 almost immediately.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi considering it hasn't gone above the 50C over a longer period, it no longer looks like a heat issue, no need at this point to look at the thermal paste as once applied and done properly which no doubt it was, it should last out the life of the computer if not disturbed.

 

Next thing we need to do is try and see what messages come up when it does blue screen.

Shut down the computer and then re-start it and start tapping the F8 key, that should then get you into the Advanced Boot Options page, using up and down keys move the highlight down to "Disable automatic restart on system failure" and click the enter key.

 

Next time it goes to a blue screen it should stay there and give a fault report, write that down and post here please.

 

Nev.

[Bazman]

OK left it on all night CPU still running CPU temp jumping around a little but low to mid 40s so I guess the CPU temp is looking less and less culpable. The computer sticks on BSOD anyway it does not re-start automatically (so I assume I don't have to make any changes to the bios?), will start to note the errors going forward. (Is there anything in particular I should look for?)

[Plastic Nev]

Until we see the full error reports I can't actually say what to look for at the moment Bazman, so if it is already staying on the blue screen it may already be set to do so, just post the next report or two please.

 

Nev.

[Armageddon]

On a side note here I found the best place for Compressed air is Wilkinsons at just under £4 a tin also this will help us out with the error reports and codes http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html its bluescreen view the link to download is near the bottom of the page if you could run this and then post the log it creates it will give us a idea of whats causing the BSOD's

[Bazman]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1018.vB5-legacyid=1932[/ATTACH]OK here is the file. Will check out the compressed air, how often should I lean inside the PC on average?

[Plastic Nev]

Thanks for that link Armageddon.

 

HI, as for cleaning, it depends on the environment, and what an inspection shows up.

If in a room where pets are and a high chance of pet hair, then obviously it may need cleaning at a more regular interval, however as an indicator, I have a cat which moves around the room, sometimes playing others asleep, yet I haven't needed to clean my computer yet as there is no real visible sign of heavy dust or fluff in the heat sink fins, and I have had this Windows 7 machine for over two years now.

 

So lets get back to these crash reports, they are all operating system problems by the look of it, have you used any form of registry cleaner?

 

Next is considering it was a built for you machine, do you have the original Windows 7 install disk? (Doesn't matter too much if you haven't, but handy if you have.)

 

I think next would be a full system file check.

First click the start orb, then in the search box write CMD

 

At the top of the box will be a black square and CMD, you must right click on that and then select Runs as administrator.

 

Once the DOS like box opens, type or copy and paste this-

 

sfc /scannow

 

then press enter.

 

It may ask for a restart, please do so.

After it has completed it should open a report of any files fixed or cannot be fixed.

 

Nev.

[Bazman]

OK no pets but will do it every few months as a precaution. Not sure about the win7 disk, I think they did supply it but not sure where it might be will look to hunt it out if needed. Not used any form of registry cleaner that I know of, although I do have NOton 360 that does tune ups from time to time not exactly sure what is included when this happens. Will run scannow and report back

[Bazman]

This test seems all clear. "Windows Resource Protection did not fid any integrity violations"

[Bazman]

Don't know if its related but the screen just froze then came back and there was a pop up message in the bottom right saying "display driver stopped and recovered".

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, OK on the sfc /scannow check, at least we know it isn't Windows itself at fault, I have done a bit more research into the main hal.dll errors this seems to be related to hard ware, and as it happens a different site I looked at pointed to OCZ hard drives as one possible cause along with hundreds more, unfortunately these blue screen errors can be caused by many different things.

 

However, considering your hard drive is an OCZ one as the Speccy report showed, next thing is a disk check.

 

Easiest to follow the instructions here:-

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/guide-to-using-check-disk-in-windows-vista/

 

Saves me a lot of writing.:D

 

If you want to see where some of my information came from, do have a look at this Microsoft page, but beware it is long with lots of different suggestions.

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-system/blue-screen-due-to-haldll-code-0x00000124/69e857cb-449b-4276-898e-18d471290de9

 

Nev.

[Bazman]

Scan disk seemed to give the all clear too. Said that my "volume was clear". I was trying to watch the stage by stage progress (some of it moved pretty fast) but as far as I could tell it was completely clear an every stage.

 

Given the note about the driver display let me also note to other problems that I had had thought were unrelated.

 

(Very) Occasionally when I start up the screen seems quite fuzzy with horizontal lines appearing, a but like when the physical connection between PC and monitor is loose. However when I re-start with no adjustment of the physical connection the screen is invariably back to its pristine best? I had not really noticed any correlation between this rather rate problem on start up and the all too common BSOD.

 

Also I tend to run a lot of tabs on my internet explorer (version 10) typically between 30 and 100 quite often windows explorer will freezae and then start working again, some times it will stop and restart itself but it seems a bit unstable. I hadn't really put any link between this instability in IE10 and the BSODs which is why I hadn't mentioned it before but I mention it not in case.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, that graphics problem may be a good place to look next then, is it a separate graphics card in one of the PCIe slots on the motherboard?

 

I ask as the only information I can find is for mobile graphics which is usually a chip fitted to laptop motherboards.

 

However if it is a separate card, turn off the computer and power, remove the lid and ease the card out of its slot, have a look at the contacts and clean off any dirty looking marks then replace it, just in case it is nothing more than a faulty connection.

 

Nev.

[Bazman]

Yes I have a separate graphics card:

 

 

AMD Radeon HD 6900

 

Will clean as advised it was covered in dusk last I looked and I didn't want to be too rough with it when trying to remove the dust.

 

Don't know if I'm putting two + two together and getting 5 but the link you sent suggests that problems with the video driver can cause these BSODs. How can I check if my driver is old and /or corrupted?

[Bazman]

OK wow took the card out as advised somehow there was a lot of dust (more like grey cotton wool) had gotten in there. Cleaned it out and restarted we'll see if that improves the stability. Not a moment too soon either I think just as before I switched the PC off my screen went "haywire" with the display all higgilty piggilty? I really hope this cleaning of the connectors will be sufficient to restore stability.

[Plastic Nev]

Lets hope that was the answer, let us know, but I won't be back on line till late tomorrow evening here.

 

Nev.

[Bazman]

Hi guys, So far so good! Computer generally seems to be running better as well. Got the air spray, I think I was using it at too close range though as it almost seemed to create some moisture on the motherboard first couple of times I spraid it? Luckily seems no harm done (or so it would see,). I have another PC that got progressively sicker and sicker before completely dying, you've given me the confidence to try and resuscitate it as well. Will post here if there are any probs but I'm pretty sure it is overheating in that is the problem there. Thanks again for everything. Let me know what I should pay in way of a donation I'm only a student but do appreciate your help so happy to pay whatever you think is right.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Bazman, glad to hear things seem OK now, see how it goes for a little longer though.

 

As far as a donation goes, entirely up to you. We offer this forum and service entirely for free, so any donation is only to help pay for the server and domain, you don't have to donate anything if in any financial difficulty or cash flow shortage.

 

As for the other computer, if that can't be resurrected as easily, please start another thread rather than returning to this one as it will be a possibly different set of problems.

 

Nev.

[Bazman]

argghh just had another BSOD.

 

Really thought I had cracked it this time, the computer had been running so well!

 

I opened speccy straight after re-booting and the CPU temperature was abnormally high at around 65C, this has been dropping ever since to the normal temp around 50C. So it seems the CPU was exposed to some temperature spike quite possibly above 65C.

 

I assumed I's be able to look up the errors in BlueScreenView so I didn't not them down by hand, but sadly, BlueScreenView doesn't seem to have worked in this case. Indeed looking at this history BlueScreenView seems to see a lot fewer crashed than I think I have actually experienced.

[Armageddon]

65C is hot have you considered having the CPU fan upgraded this is a snapshot from speccy of the system I use all day everyday and the tower is kept in a cupboard too you'll notice the CPU is only 21C.

 

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1

CPU

AMD FX-8100 21 °C

Zambezi 32nm Technology

RAM

16.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 671MHz (9-9-9-24)

Motherboard

Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-78LMT-S2P (Socket M2) 36 °C

Graphics

1943W (1366x768@60Hz)

1943W (1366x768@60Hz)

2048MB GeForce 510 (Undefined) 51 °C

Hard Drives

240GB 2.5-inch Internal SSD

931GB Western Digital WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2 ATA Device (SATA) 32 °C

931GB Western Digital WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B2 ATA Device (SATA) 33 °C

Optical Drives

TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223C ATA Device

Audio

Realtek High Definition Audio

[Bazman]

I'm open to doing it but this seems to have been a spike in temperature? Indeed the spike may well have been higher than 65C not sure any cooling system could deal with such spikes?