Blue screening

[Krynn72]

Ive been running into the good 'ol bluescreen recently. It happens pretty randomly it seems. I had one while just browsing the net, one while watching family guy, and a couple while playing GTA IV. I think it may happen sometimes at night too, because when I wake up after leaving my computer on it had restarted and was showing the "Windows has recovered from an unexpected shut down" message.

And possibly related, when I restart my computer, it wont POST until I actually shut it down and let it sit for a few minutes, then turn it back on. It gets to saying my CPU and stops before actually saying what model CPU it is.

So could it be my motherboard is dying? Or maybe my RAM?

 

[PJ]

what os are you running? any overclocking? sounds like overheating to me. more info is needed for a decent analysis though. good luck

 

[Laivasse]

My guesses would be either bad RAM or a CPU overheat. I had a blue screen epidemic with symptoms similar to yours once, due to dust caked on the heatsink.

 

[No Limit]

What's the stop error?

 

[Krynn72]

what os are you running? any overclocking? sounds like overheating to me. more info is needed for a decent analysis though. good luck

Vista Ultimate x64, no overclocking, and my cpu and gpu temps are well within acceptable bounds. Sustaining sequence.

Nothing really stands out as being overheated. My cpu was encoding video when I took this shot too, so its not quite so hot normally.

I'll see if I can't get the stop code next time it happens.

 

[Adabiviak]

Just yesterday I finally installed the required software for reading the little dump files windows craps out when it dies (which is bizarrely excessive for a binary file if you ask me). It helped tremendously though - especially if it's a driver or something.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

Why is your GPU fan at zero? I have a 4850 and it never goes below 20 which is the lowest it allows.

 

[PJ]

i now know your poblem - vista x64.
i have exactly the same problem as you, so i just use XP 32bit instead.
i never boot into my vista 64 partiotion. i dont feel vista 64 is very stable.
if you have under 3gigs of ram go to vista 32bit - i think it must be more stable.
when i run any game it crashes afetr 30 seconds, but using xp im fine generally

maybe try a reinstall of vista 64 just to try

 

[PimpinPenguin]

i now know your poblem - vista x64.
i have exactly the same problem as you, so i just use XP 32bit instead.
i never boot into my vista 64 partiotion. i dont feel vista 64 is very stable.
if you have under 3gigs of ram go to vista 32bit - i think it must be more stable.
when i run any game it crashes afetr 30 seconds, but using xp im fine generally

maybe try a reinstall of vista 64 just to try

Wrong. I have Vista x64 and it's very stable there is nothing wrong with it. Vista was designed to be a 64bit OS and works very well.

 

[DreamThrall]

And nobody reinstalls their OS "just to try". It's a complete pain in the arse. I can't believe people are *still* so misinformed as to continue calling Vista "unstable" compared to XP.

 

[Escaep]

I got my first blue screen ever and it was not to long ago and it was due to my ATI driver. It happened even after I had been using the driver for pretty long.

 

[PJ]

And nobody reinstalls their OS "just to try". It's a complete pain in the arse. I can't believe people are *still* so misinformed as to continue calling Vista "unstable" compared to XP.

sorry, by 'just to try it', i meant 'to see if it fixes the problem before you try anything more drastic like switching OS completely' i doubt krynn will want to switch OS or reinstall, but he could try the repair option on the vista disc

 

[Krynn72]

@PimpinPenguin: My fan speed is at 0 because I replaced the heatsink that came with the card with a better one, so that fan is no longer even attached to the card.

Arlight it happened again, this time while watching the office in Media Center and browsing hl2.net. I managed to catch the stop error. Its 0x0000001D.

No idea what it means, and I dont understand a lot of the things it brings up in google.

Also, every time I restart my PC, it wont POST past the CPU line. I have to actually power down the system, wait a few seconds, and turn it back on and it works. If I simply power it down, and turn it back on immediately, rather than waiting a few seconds, it gets by the CPU line, but hangs up on the memory test, and wont go past that until I power down and wait.


EDIT: Hrm, I think maybe these are two separate issues. I just remembered that my video driver messed up while watching the office, and I got a windows pop-up message saying that the driver malfunction and restarted. I see that there is a new driver from ATI so I'll get that and see if that helps any. Seems like it might considering this is in their changelog:

Resolves BSOD issues using dual ATI Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFireX configurations.

I only have one radeon HD 4850, but it sounds close enough to my problem to give me hope.

Still no idea why my post isnt working though. I'm thinking its gotta be hardware related.

 

[bodhi]

if the computer often fails to POST i wouldnt worry about finding a problem with your OS and concentrate on testing your ram (and possibly reseating and/or cleaning the contacts) and just checking the capacitors across your motherboard (specifically the ones running along the side of your CPU) for any raising on their tops - they should be flat with a K or Y shape etching, also make sure no fluid is starting to seep out of them (it would be a light rust colour).

last but not least reset the BIOS using the jumper on the motherboard if you cant access it normally.

edit: also might want to try removing any unnessecary add-in cards and see if the situation improves. just the other week my PC would blue screen every 5-10mins, and if it didnt after 10 it woudl definately go within the hour. anyway, point is i reseated/cleaned my gfx and usb 2.0 add-in card and its run absolutely fine since. it turns out in reaching behind my computer and wiggling usb's in id dislodged the card a milimeter out of alignment and m PC decided it didnt like that