Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

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InsanityRocks
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Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by InsanityRocks »

Howdy Folks,

I was wondering if anyone knows how to troubleshoot BSODs? My gaming rig has gone mental and Blue Screens a lot here lately. :(

It's been a long time since I had a Windows machine. Does anyone have any advice, tips, tricks, suggestions, Healing Spells, to help me debug/troubleshoot my BSODs?

To answer some initial questions:

* No, it doesn't seem to be related to any recent software updates. I could be wrong, but I haven't made that correlation.
* It seems to happen more frequently when my son's administering his Minecraft Server. He's using GoogleChrome.
* It seems to happen to me when I use Firefox; related/unrelated I'm getting a lot of FF crashes.
* I can't always read the info on the Blue Screen, but it seems to report a few different issues.

Thanks, in advance. :D
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by Jokerle »

Software seldomly causes BSODs, so check hardware first.

* check bios settings if anyone did ninja-overclocking

* check cables (you never know...)

* To some hardware tests (eg with linux live cd). Important: HDD and memory

* Do a stability test people use for overclocking (google it..). You can put load on CPU and memory at the same.


My guess: HDD failures
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by Nix »

In my experience, BSODs are usually random.
But mostly caused by over-working the computer (duh).
There are two types of BSODs:
-The "Normal" BSOD (Several different factors into causing this one.)
-And the "Dumping physical memory to disk" blue screen. (This one is caused by REALLY over-working the computer or bad RAM...)

I really don't know what the f** I'm talking about, really. This is my extent of knowledge on Windows for over the past years.

Tech specs? Screenies? Photos of your smashed computer? Cake?
This all helps.

Fun Fact: There was this .ini file on Windows 3.1 that allowed you to change the BSOD color. RSOD, GSOD, YSOD!

EDIT: Listen to Jokerle, he knows what he's talking about.
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by InsanityRocks »

This is all good information, Guys :thumbup:

And I haven't over clocked anything - all stock settings; some specs:

HDD: WD VelociRaptor 300GB 10K RPM
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1333
CPU: AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz
VID: XFX Double D Raedon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB
OS: Windows 7, 64-bit

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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by A Docile Sloth »

Do you get a pop up next time you launch into windows? I occasionally get a BSOD on my laptop and end up with windows spouting an error code when I log back in. It's of the form: Windows recovered from an unexpected shutdown... I don't know how you boot back in, but I normally just start normally (or w/e it's called) and this appears.

If you do get one, google that and see what turns up, although it may not be much help.
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by Ghoul »

In my 20+ years experience relating to computers I've found that a tired power supply will cause the most random spontaneous reboots, bsod's and hard to diagnose problems. The more random this crash is the more likely it is a hardware failure. Especially if this is something new and out of the blue I would seriously take a look at your power supply. Ram is next, I had a motherboard that called for 1.5v ram but I was running 1.6v ram for 2 years then the motherboard couldn't accommodate it any longer and just wouldn't boot. Popped in some 1.5v ram and everything worked fine once again.

Minecraft is rather intense in the ram department surprisingly. My stepson plays it a lot.

A power supply at best lasts for 5 years, don't skimp on the cheap side when purchasing one. I recommend 500w or more especially if you are running a pci-express video card (not on-board motherboard video). Corsair has power supplies that they guarantee for 8 years, definitely worth the money for the free replacement if it fails. I've been though the gambit with BSOD's and when they start occurring when nothing has changed its always a tired power supply or ram that's default voltage is higher than what the motherboard calls for by default.
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by Necromancer »

I had a BSOD in windows and the reason was an outdated driver.
How to troubleshoot the issue? Not too hard, just head to sevenforums.com or eightforums forums , read the "how to report a BSOD" (as in what logs to include) and someone will examine it and let you know the reason.

I doubt you can find the reason for it by any other means.
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by LoA »

I usually just google the BCCode I get from the popup when i boot up my PC again after the bluescreen. It usually leads to a thread of people having the same problem with a solution to it.
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by InsanityRocks »

Thanks, again, Guys - really good info.

And given there's a Scrim (and if the Server doesn't puke on us all) I think I'll see a BSOD today. I'll pay closer attention to the pop-up when I reboot.

I built the rig last year, around this time. So, if it's a power supply issue (BTW: Capstone 450W) I believe it's still under warranty.
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by matsif »

insanityrocks wrote:Thanks, again, Guys - really good info.

And given there's a Scrim (and if the Server doesn't puke on us all) I think I'll see a BSOD today. I'll pay closer attention to the pop-up when I reboot.

I built the rig last year, around this time. So, if it's a power supply issue (BTW: Capstone 450W) I believe it's still under warranty.
450W might be cutting it a bit close with a 7870 and 6300 since AMD likes to power hog, but I haven't done the math on it, you might be fine there (especially if it ran other things fine until recently). And with the PSU being that new I'm going to lean towards the HDD possibly having some issues.
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by knorren »

I'm amazed no one mentioned dust yet! :o
I can be your cpu or gfx overheating, just check for dust in the heatsinks for cpu and gfx.
If you know what you're doing use a vacuum cleaner (you can burn parts from static electricity if unlucky), if you don't, use compressed air and blow it away. ;)
That is just two tips that can help.
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by LazyJohnwon »

Sounds to me like:

1. Bad ram
2. Extremely bad HDD fragmentation/failure (or if 1. is true Virtualized RAM problems from it)
3. something as simple as a malicious browser extension.

I've had 3 cases of INCREASING BSOD PREDICTABLY in 15 years, and they were all fixed with a wipe/format/repartioning in the end, due to sheer laziness of not wanting to fix the registry and fight literally THOUSANDS of malicious entries (resulting in what looked like 1. and 2. , but all cases were just really, really, REALLY infected systems and corrupted registries)
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by Digz »

LazyJohnwon wrote:Sounds to me like:

1. Bad ram
2. Extremely bad HDD fragmentation/failure (or if 1. is true Virtualized RAM problems from it)
3. something as simple as a malicious browser extension.

I've had 3 cases of INCREASING BSOD PREDICTABLY in 15 years, and they were all fixed with a wipe/format/repartioning in the end, due to sheer laziness of not wanting to fix the registry and fight literally THOUSANDS of malicious entries (resulting in what looked like 1. and 2. , but all cases were just really, really, REALLY infected systems and corrupted registries)
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by knorren »

Well I'm not gonna say much since I haven't had a BSOD in a while now but what Ghoul said except the PSU I can buy, except if this is a prebuilt computer and not parts built and chosen by yourself. I always buy parts I like and put them together myself. (ask wild_card or hitman if they like theirs, then you wll have the answer if I know anything or not ;) )

The most commons things that explains a BSOD are:
- Bad RAM, try doing one stick instead of two and see if things change.
- Heat problem from cpu or graphics card, lots of dust can be a problem on the cooler.
- HDD giving up, if your hard drive is running on the last spins it might hang up on you and cause a BSOD, or if any other driver in your computer does it.
- Bad drivers, not so usual though since if they worked once they will continue to work but with less effeciency (spelling?).
- It can also be corrupted data or bad clusters on your HDD, anyway I would recommend you to get a SSD 120/240GB asap and get your system and games on.
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Re: Increasing Frequency of BSODs...

Post by undrt0w »

You can use BlueScreenView to see the log of your BSOD then google the error code and find potential causes:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
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