Blue screen, freeze ups, etc.

[Voyager]

@Chefguy

Hadn’t thought about heat. This computer isn’t all that old, but I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t opened the case since I bought it, and this is a dusty environment.

I had a laptop which was overheating until I cleaned it out. It never BSOd’d, it just stopped. Check to see if your fan is very loud. It is good to clean the dust anyhow, but that probably isn’t the reason.

Even trivial hardware can cause problems. I had an old trackball mouse which developed a flaky usb connector. It caused freezes and sometimes BSODs, despite driver updates. A new mouse solved the problem.

[Chefguy]

@Voyager

I had a laptop which was overheating until I cleaned it out. It never BSOd’d, it just stopped. Check to see if your fan is very loud. It is good to clean the dust anyhow, but that probably isn’t the reason.

As noted above, it was really packed with debris, so overheating could have been the culprit. If it happens again, I’m back to square numero uno.

[Honey]

@DCnDC

Are all your drivers up to date?

Is it occurring while you are doing something particular, or is it random?

All I do on this laptop is surf the web and I’m usually on the SDMB.

From my little bit of googling I see that it may be a driver issue. Wouldn’t anything Microsoft automatically update? I don’t know how to check that I have the latest drivers.

[Fear_Itself]

@Chefguy

I pulled the CPU out from the cave where it’s been lurking for a couple of years and was shocked by the amount of crud caking the vent ports. I’m surprised this thing has continued to soldier on with that much dirt, fibers and cat hair gumming up the works; good thing the case is well perforated, I guess. I couldn’t figure out how to get the case cover off without a lot of effort (weird: there are four knurled nuts that can be removed, but that doesn’t seem to free up anything), so I vacuumed the vents from the exterior and then blew air into all of them. Hopefully, the fan will help extract the now-loose dust particles.

Hmm, not likely. If you had that much crud on the vents, the CPU heat sink is probably impacted with dust.

Download Speccyand check the CPU temperature. Normal range varies for CPUs, but 120F is a typical normal temp. If it is up around 180, it is definitely overheating.

[Fear_Itself]

Oh, and if you manage to get the case open, don’t vacuum inside, always use canned air to blow it out. Vacuums can create static electricity that can damage components.

[Chefguy]

@Fear_Itself

Oh, and if you manage to get the case open, don’t vacuum inside, always use canned air to blow it out. Vacuums can create static electricity that can damage components.

Thanks; that much I know.

[Chefguy]

@Fear_Itself

Hmm, not likely. If you had that much crud on the vents, the CPU heat sink is probably impacted with dust.

Download Speccyand check the CPU temperature. Normal range varies for CPUs, but 120F is a typical normal temp. If it is up around 180, it is definitely overheating.

Speccy says 105F (41C). Also says 38C for the motherboard.

[Honey]

@Chefguy

Speccy says 105F (41C). Also says 38C for the motherboard.

It’s too bad you didn’t run it beforehand. I’m curious to know what it was before you cleaned it.

“curious to know” that sounds so odd.

[Fear_Itself]

@Chefguy

Speccy says 105F (41C). Also says 38C for the motherboard.

That sounds OK. If you see the blue screen again, try to write down the error code, which be something similar to 0x0000000e

[Chefguy]

@Fear_Itself

That sounds OK. If you see the blue screen again, try to write down the error code, which be something similar to 0x0000000e

Will do.

[Honey]

I downloaded Driver Booster (free version), and it found 4 drivers that needed updating. All drivers are now up to date.

[DCnDC]

@Honey

I downloaded Driver Booster (free version), and it found 4 drivers that needed updating. All drivers are now up to date.

That’s what I use. Otherwise you’d have to go into the Control Panel and check them one by one, AFAIK.

Hopefully that solves your BSOD problem. Is it still doing it? How often was it happening?

[Honey]

@DCnDC

That’s what I use. Otherwise you’d have to go into the Control Panel and check them one by one, AFAIK.

Hopefully that solves your BSOD problem. Is it still doing it? How often was it happening?

Heh. That’s funny because I did check them all one by one, and every one of them said they had the latest driver. Driver Booster still found 4 outdated ones.

I had Driver Booster installed a few months ago, but I uninstalled it when I uninstalled Advanced System Care.

The first time it happened (BSoD) was about a month ago, it’s happened twice since. The last time was 2 days ago.

[OffByOne]

NM

[sweat209]

@Chefguy

I looked in the computer thread, but found no references to the dreaded Blue Screen. I’ve been experiencing this from time to time, and also have been having computer freeze-up recently.

Does this automatically mean that there is a nasty virus on board, or is my hard drive cashing in its chips? Something else entirely? I’m running Windows 7, have Malwarebytes and AVG Anti-Virus that tell me there are no problems, but clearly something is not right.

Before I go through all those steps that Xash recommends, is there something else I should be trying?

I use to get lot of BSODs to I updated IE than it gone away.

But many times bad drivers or video problem can also cause BSODs.

If you get it more playing games or watching movies it could be bad video card or problem with drivers for the video card.