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Blue Screen

#1 User is offline   brewski13 

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Posted 30 May 2012 - 07:58 PM

What is the absolute best way to determine what is causing the blue screen of death? By best I mean easiest and accurate. In other words is there a program that tells you why your computer crashes or a code you can search? My computer occasionally crashes but I'm almost sure it's not a hardware issue. I have ran several benchmarks, memory test, and hardware diagnostics and always pass with flying colors. However occasionally at the most random times I will just get the blue screen. Any suggestions? I'm not sure if the attached picture will help in any way or not.

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This post has been edited by brewski13: 30 May 2012 - 08:04 PM

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#2 User is offline   LiveBrianD 

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Posted 30 May 2012 - 08:11 PM

What is the error code you got on the BSOD? You can use a tool like BlueScreenView to get that info on previous crashes btw.
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#3 User is offline   brewski13 

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Posted 30 May 2012 - 08:38 PM

I downloaded it, however it shows 0 crashes -- do I have to wait until I get another bsod before I can analyze it since I just installed the program?
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#4 User is offline   LiveBrianD 

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Posted 30 May 2012 - 08:51 PM

That's odd - it looks at the dump files on the machine, and thus should be fine. What are your system specs? (and for the power supply, what's the brand, model, 12V rail, and wattage?) Do you remember what the BSOD said?
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#5 User is offline   waldojim 

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Posted 30 May 2012 - 10:09 PM

Usually, when you get a BSOD, there is a short line with a device name. Like nvidia.sys or bio.vxd. What is that item listed in there?
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#6 User is offline   coastie65 

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Posted 31 May 2012 - 09:00 AM

View Postbrewski13, on 30 May 2012 - 07:58 PM, said:

What is the absolute best way to determine what is causing the blue screen of death? By best I mean easiest and accurate. In other words is there a program that tells you why your computer crashes or a code you can search? My computer occasionally crashes but I'm almost sure it's not a hardware issue. I have ran several benchmarks, memory test, and hardware diagnostics and always pass with flying colors. However occasionally at the most random times I will just get the blue screen. Any suggestions? I'm not sure if the attached picture will help in any way or not.



Hi, this may help: http://www.softpedia...ysis-Tool.shtml
Coolermaster HAF 912 Case....ASUS P8Z68-VPro MOBO.....Intel Core i7 2600k Sandy Bridge ( 4.4 Ghz ).... Gelid Tranquillo cooler.... Samsung 830 256 GB SSD.... Primary HDD- WD 1TB Caviar Black SATA III /6.0 .... SECONDARY HDD - WD 1TB Caviar Black SATA II / 3.0....8Gb GSkill Ripjaws Series X 1600 Mhz Memory....Corsair AX850w PSU....EVGA GTX 680 Super Clocked Signature 2 Gb GDDR5 Video Card....Samsung CD/DVD RW, DL, DVD-Ram, w/ Lightscribe Optical Drive....Samsung SyncMaster 2243BWX 22" Monitor..... Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit OS


http://novabench.com/image/266589.png

______________________________________________________________

Gateway FX6800-01e----Intel Core i7 960 ( 3.2 GHz)---- Seagate Barracuda 750 Gb SATA II / 3.0 Hdd---- 6 Gb Crucial 1066 Mhz memory, running in Tri Channel conf-----Corsair TX650w PSU----- EVGA Nvidia GTX 560Ti 1gb GDDR5 Vram ----DVD +/- RW / CD ,RAM/DL Optical drive w/ Label Flash-----Gateway TBGM-01 Motherboard.... Vista Home Premium 64 bit OS w/ SP2; Samsung Synch Master 2243BWX 22" Monitor.
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#7 User is offline   brewski13 

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Posted 04 June 2012 - 08:49 PM

To be honest I haven't got the BSOD in a while now, thinking maybe since I cleaned up my desktop and dusted it out maybe that helped - also I downloaded the latest driver for my graphics card. And thanks Moderator but I have an HP desktop, will it still work with that software?

My desktop is an HP with several modifications. 2.83gh quad core, 6gb of Mushkin RAm, EVGA 9800GTX+ graphics card, windows 7, 460 W power suply..
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#8 User is offline   LiveBrianD 

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Posted 05 June 2012 - 09:42 AM

If the machine was overheating, I suppose it might have helped (I question that though, since the BSOD info you gave us indicated that it involved the realtek audio drivers). Also, what brand of 460W PSU do you have?
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#9 User is offline   brewski13 

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Posted 05 June 2012 - 10:36 AM

stock HP PS, will have to get the brand next time I take it apart. How could you tell that the bsod was caused by Realtex audio drivers? Seems like a random thing to cause such a catastrophe lol
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#10 User is offline   LiveBrianD 

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Posted 05 June 2012 - 10:48 AM

Damn it! Sorry, I was thinking of a different thread where that was the case. :D

That said, drivers and hardware are the most likely things to cause a BSOD. An unstable power supply can also do that. (I'm guessing your power supply is a LiteON, given the HP ones I've seen. Those are decent, as long as you don't overclock - not that you can with the locked bios anyway.)

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 05 June 2012 - 10:48 AM

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#11 User is offline   brewski13 

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Posted 05 June 2012 - 11:55 AM

Haha you had me excited there for a second, thought maybe I could overclock on my HP :) The problem seems to have gone away, I'm thinking since I have updated my computer maybe that has helped. I guess I was just curious whether or not you cold just download a program that spelled it out for you why your computer was crashing, but thanks for all the help!
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#12 User is offline   LiveBrianD 

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Posted 05 June 2012 - 12:14 PM

Yeah, cleaning out dust and updating the drivers often helps. It's odd that bluescreenview didn't work though, since there should be .dmp files left behind from the BSOD that it can read. Well, at least the problem seems to be gone. :)
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#13 User is offline   StickyMick 

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Posted 21 June 2012 - 02:03 AM

Ooooh, what a pretty BSOD. Is that MS's atttempt at making you go "Aaahhhhhhh, I got a BSOD" *Put feet up and chill out* rather than going "&@%$!! I hate Windows". :P

Doesn't Windows have a crash report tool like XP anymore?
XP tells you where the dump files have been saved to, normally in a hidden folder in My Documents. You can pull those out and find enough info to find out if it was a .vxd or .dll that caused it.

As for the power supply, could be struggling. How old is the machine and have you installed any upgrades or USB devices recently. The problem with pre-built manufacturers is that they will give you a PSU that's just barely suitable to power the stock PC and they don't last very long under heavy use. Start adding extras like upgraded graphics cards, extra drives and dozens of USB devices and it starts groaning under the strain.
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