wvu80 Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 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? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 not necessarily. need details from the BSOD itself.. should have upgraded to 10 when it was free. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 Any hardware changes recently? Antivirus installs? driver updates? Check your event log to see what details exist. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 Yes, anti-virus change. I like Windows Defender but when I recently changed to Microsoft Security Essentials, it disabled Defender. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtr20 Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 After it blue screens, when Windows comes back up, check the event log. You usually can find some errors in either the application or system events. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 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. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 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> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 Lots of google results for that bolded section. start reading and see if you can find something that applies/fixes your issue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minermark Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 13 hours ago, wvu80 said: "My 5 year-old custom built" 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 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. 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shodrewken Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 I had some issues with my 840 evo drive. It would BSOD on me too from time to time. However I learned Samsung made a ssd software update to that drive specifically and once I had it installed I haven't had any problems since. I'm running Win 7 as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-js- Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 if you can get it back up & running, you can change the auto-reboot settings so that it does not reboot on its own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-js- Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyOwn Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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