nature of BSOD's

[Meathead]

If I get a BSOD, do I have to do windows repair with my windows disk? I had a BSOD from a .wmv file and my system primes stable 12+ hours but crashes 2-3 mins into a game or a virus scan but prime and like distributed.net run fine on it with no crashes.

*EDIT* prime95 now crashes after 17 minutes of running. It says ERROR : ILLEGAL SUMOUT and gets 100 errors after 17 minutes flat.

 

[Jimbob7]

Unstable overclock, bump the voltage, or clock down. Could be a software related error, seems unlikely, from what you have said.

Scott.

 

[Meathead]

I hope its not an unstable overclock. This overclock has been rock solid for a couple months now. I went to stock and am testing the ram right now.

 

[SOLID LAD 1]

Unstable overclock, bump the voltage, or clock down. Could be a software related error, seems unlikely, from what you have said.

Scott.

LOL YOU COULD DO THIS BAG OF SLARK. OR YOU COULD jUST ASK MODBOX______ LARK SLARKBOB 7 DOES
WHAT A FREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LLLLLLOLLLLL ;0

 

[Captain Newbie]

LOL YOU COULD DO THIS BAG OF SLARK. OR YOU COULD jUST ASK MODBOX______ LARK SLARKBOB 7 DOES
WHAT A FREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LLLLLLOLLLLL ;0

Normally, I would say welcome to the forums, you may want to read the forum rules. But since I'm having a bad morning I'll say GET OUT.

Edit: Nevermind. Banned. Come back when you grow up.

That said, to actually *answer* the question of the poster.

A blue screen of death happens when the Windows Kernel decides it can't safely continue to run the computer. This can be caused by any piece of software that runs in kernel-land (such as device drivers, some antivirus software, or a lot of other 'priveleged' programs) screwing up and dying horribly, to bugs in Windows itself, to hardware problems (especially memory and unstable overclocks, and bad power), nasty viruses, and random glitches.

User mode programs can also indirectly cause the crash, but you'll almost always have something in kernel-land listed as the file at fault (such as nv4disp.dll, the nvidia display drivers).

Lower your OC a bit, check for new drivers (or roll back if you just installed new ones), check for viruses, and be on the lookout.

If you could tell us just which BSOD you're getting we could probably help you.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

I had a very similar problem, and it turned out to be a faulty stick of RAM. It was working fine for about a month, but just degraded over time. I determined which stick was bad by running 1 at a time and testing using P95. The good stick would run 24+ hours without an issue, while the bad stick caused a P95 failure after 2 hours or so.

 

[Captain Newbie]

I had a very similar problem, and it turned out to be a faulty stick of RAM. It was working fine for about a month, but just degraded over time. I determined which stick was bad by running 1 at a time and testing using P95. The good stick would run 24+ hours without an issue, while the bad stick caused a P95 failure after 2 hours or so.

Firing up Memtest or P95 will help you figure out just what's at fault.