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I've got it, the Blue Screen of Death, Win 7.

 

My 5 year-old custom built computer is spontaneously shutting down  and re-booting at least twice a day.  I have 8 GB of G.skill gaming quality RAM, a Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB SSD, and a 1 gb IDE Samsung drive D.

 

I'm preparing to do my  diagnostics now.  Are we agreed that it is likely a hardware problem, either the SSD drive C, or RAM?

 

Suggestions?

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1 hour ago, Thaddeus Smith said:

not necessarily. need details from the BSOD itself.. 

 

The BSOD flashes on the screen for literally a second, then reboots before I can capture any information.

 

I just ran chkdsk on the SSD, no errors found.  I think Win 7 has a memory test but I haven't been able to find it.

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16 minutes ago, Marvel said:

How clean is the computer? Can you leave it off for an hour or two to make sure it isn't heat related? Pull the power while off as well.

 

By clean do you mean physically clean?  I do turn it off overnight, but the power cord is always connected.

 

It is in a clean area but it does accumulate dust via the air intake of the fans (large gaming computer mid-size case).  I popped the side off about a month ago and gave it a good cleaning with the vacuum cleaner, I have a narrow nozzle that gets in close.  It was pretty dusty, several areas like the CPU looked pretty clogged. 

 

I don't think I cleaned the video card, which has its own fan. I know I didn't clean the 700 watt power supply.

+++

 

I just checked the Event Log and I get consistent Warnings saying that Startup and Shutdown performance is being monitored.  I know I installed some software that promised to speed up startup, so I'll check to see what I did.

+++

This is from the Event Log, if you look down the list a bit you'll see a note about heavy video resources degrading.  I bolded the text to make it easy to find. 

 

Now that I'm thinking about it, I have heard some fans kicking into higher RPM's for no apparent reason, they run at low RPM and normally never rev up.  Something is producing some heat.

 

Quote

Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance
Date:          1/27/2017 1:04:54 PM
Event ID:      501
Task Category: Desktop Window Manager Monitoring
Level:         Warning
Keywords:      Event Log
User:          LOCAL SERVICE
Computer:      Mancove1
Description:
The Desktop Window Manager is experiencing heavy resource contention.
     Reason    :    Graphics subsystem resources are over-utilized.
     Diagnosis    :    A consistent degradation in frame rate for the Desktop Window Manager was observed over a period of time.

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance" Guid="{CFC18EC0-96B1-4EBA-961B-622CAEE05B0A}" />
    <EventID>501</EventID>
    <Version>1</Version>
    <Level>3</Level>
    <Task>4006</Task>
    <Opcode>42</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000010000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-01-27T18:04:54.939188200Z" />
    <EventRecordID>6634</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation ActivityID="{020B2C40-F800-0000-94D5-92C5B778D201}" />
    <Execution ProcessID="1620" ThreadID="4176" />
    <Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Diagnostics-Performance/Operational</Channel>
    <Computer>Mancove1</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-19" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="Reason">2</Data>
    <Data Name="Diagnosis">1</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

 

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I just realized I ran the Windows Experience so the video would have been overworked during the graphics test.  There was no BSOD event during or after running the Win test.

 

I also ran the Windows Memory test and there were no errors.  It ran like a DOS app at startup, and it looked exactly like the same test from the decades old PC Tools!

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Does the bios have cpu temp monitoring? I've had to pull the fan/heatsink off of some at work, flush the out and put on new thermal grease, remount.

 

Btw, at home i've used an electric leaf blower to get the dust out. A vacuum only goes so far. Canned air or careful use of an air compressor works too.

 

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3 hours ago, Marvel said:

Does the bios have cpu temp monitoring? I've had to pull the fan/heatsink off of some at work, flush the out and put on new thermal grease, remount.

 

Btw, at home i've used an electric leaf blower to get the dust out. A vacuum only goes so far. Canned air or careful use of an air compressor works too.

 

I'm running a full virus check now.  I'll check the temp after the scan is complete.  I haven't checked it for a while but when I checked baseline temps several years ago the case temp didn't even touch 100 F.  I don't remember what the CPU temp was.

 

With the Performance Monitor the CPU is running at 60% all the time, even with no apps running.  I need to investigate further but it looks like it is running nearly 100% in Core 1 of a four-core AMD Phenom™ II X4 Black CPU, the other 3 running at nearly zero.

 

I'm suspicious of a file I found in Services called scvhost.  It's running at least 25% of the CPU all the time and I can't find out what program its running.

+++

Good suggestion on the CPU heatsink.  I was thinking the same thing but I haven't gotten there yet.  That CPU paste dries out over time and I think my PC build is at least 5 years-old.  I initially used Arctic 5, Arctic 10, something like that.  Expensive little goo.

+++

Another good idea on using an air compressor.  You are correct the vacuum has its limitations.  There were some sections I wanted to clean better but I couldn't get to that I'm sure an air compressor would be more effective on.

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30 minutes ago, JJkizak said:

One thing to do just for laughs like all the computer troubleshooters do---pull out all the cards and cables and re-insert them.

JJK

My thought was to pull the two G.skill memory sticks and reinsert each in the other's socket, just for laughs, as you suggested.  They have already passed a rigorous memory test, but if what you are doing isn't working, then you have to try something else even if it seems crazy.

 

Pulling the cards will let me get compressed air to those areas easier.  I just pulled the compressor out of the out-building.  I just need to swap out to a rubber tip.  I think I've got a couple different tips I can use if I can find them.

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4 minutes ago, minermark said:

Well that is just about the time mine acts up, 4 to 5 years tops.

I usualy hit Fry's, 4 to 5 bones gives me a decent Pc.

Don't think I haven't thought of that.  B)

 

If I can't run this down as a software problem then it could be a hardware problem.  I'm more inclined to get a new MB, CPU and RAM.  Probably a new video card as well.  The old vid card is good but its better not have a performance bottle neck.  Everything else is up to date, nice case, quality 700 watt power supply, Samsung EVO 840 SSD for speed and 1T drive for storage, etc.

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also - there used to be a way to debug that memory.dmp memory dump file.  I used to do that if properly motivated.  there was a Windows debugger & instructions somewhere online, probably a Microsoft site/page, with instructions & what to look for.

 

good luck with it.

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This may help you determine what is causing the crash...
See if you have any dump files located in C:\Windows\minidump...
If you do, download and install the BlueScreenView from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html#DownloadLinks
Launch the program. By default the program opens the minidump file and highlights the drivers found in the crash.

Here's an example...

1.jpg

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