[-Lee-]

Hi there.

This all started a month ago one day after school when a friend and I were messing around on counter strike. The computer blue screened out of the blue (excuse the awful pun) for the first time since buying it 3 years ago.
Since then it has blue screened and shut down randomly loads of times when playing Rfactor, LFS & of all things rendering videos I make (although the rendering situation may be caused by something else.)

Tried the whole repair/restore thing via O.S Disc. But then it crashed 10 minutes ago (black screen, locked computer up etc so had to power off.) hence me posting here.

It's basically stopping me from doing anything I want bar searching internet and playing music, which is a bit of a bummer when I play games quite regularly.

Any help appreciated, and if at all possible tell me what to do to get the information as im not the best at computers although I have some basic knowledge.

Thanks,
Lee.

Vista Home Basic x64.

 

[usasma]

Desktop or Laptop? Make and model?

Since you've restored the system and it still has problems - it's most likely that this is a hardware problem.

So, let's start with these free diagnostics:

H/W Diagnostics:
Please start by running these bootable hardware diagnostics:
http://www.carrona.org/memdiag.html (read the details at the link)
http://www.carrona.org/hddiag.html (read the details at the link)

Also, please run one of these free, independent online malware scans to ensure that your current protection hasn't been compromised: http://www.carrona.org/malware.html (read the details at the link)

Then, if the above tests pass, I'd try these free stress tests:

FurMark download site: http://www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/
FurMark Setup:
- If you have more than one GPU, select Multi-GPU during setup
- In the Run mode box, select "Stability Test" and "Log GPU Temperature"
Click "Go" to start the test
- Run the test until the GPU temperature maxes out - or until you start having problems (whichever comes first).
- Click "Quit" to exit

Prime95 download site: http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/
Prime95 Setup:
- extract the contents of the zip file to a location of your choice
- double click on the executable file
- select "Just stress testing"
- select the "Blend" test. If you've already run MemTest overnight you may want to run the "Small FFTs" test instead. (run all 3 if you find a problem and note how long it takes to error out with each)
- "Number of torture test threads to run" should equal the number of CPU's times 2 (if you're using hyperthreading).
The easiest way to figure this out is to go to Task Manager...Performance tab - and see the number of boxes under CPU Usage History
Then run the test for 6 to 24 hours - or until you get errors (whichever comes first).
This won't necessarily crash the system - but check the output in the test window for errors.
The Test selection box and the stress.txt file describes what components that the program stresses.

If these tests don't reveal anything, then please provide the information from this post: http://www.techsupportforum.com/f217/blue-screen-of-death-bsod-posting-instructions-452654.html

 

[jcgriff2]

Hi -

The black screen is indicative of hardware failure.

Follow the BSOD Posting Instructions so we can take a look at the memory dumps from the BSODs -

http://www.techsupportforum.com/f217/blue-screen-of-death-bsod-posting-instructions-452654.html

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

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EDIT: @ usasma - Hi John...didn't see you there!

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[-Lee-]

Thanks for the responses guys. Gave the whole computer a checkover on the inside to see if any individual parts were over heating under use and the cpu cooler had managed to stop working. Since the fixing of that everything seems ok.

Thanks for the responses though lads and if it continues will revert back to your diagnostics etc.


Cheers.

 

[usasma]

A malfunctioning cooler would cause those symptoms.
The Prime95 test would have spit out errors related to that - but it wouldn't have told you that the error was due to the cooler. Great detective work!!!