blue screen of death and a little girl who's frustrated with it

[heatherdanger]

ok, so my computer comtinally gets the 'blue screen of death', well to be specific its my mothers computer and i've called the tech guys and they've waked me through fixing it a few times but i want to fix it for once and for all and thats where i need your help

it does it at random times and i've read things where downloagins a debugger helps, or a new hd or what not. do any of these work??

[SnowDog]

What is the STOP code it gives on the blue screen?

And if the tech people fix it, is there anything your mother might be doing which could explain it? Is it whenever she plugs in or installs a certain external device, for example?

You can download RAM and HDD test utilities which will help prove or eliminate those things.

What exactly do the tech people do when they fix it for you?

[heatherdanger]

im not sure what it sais when it goes BSoD, my mother is rather computer illiterate and doesnt pay attnetion to those things, i guess ill have to wait until it does it again to see what it sais exaclty

the tech guys waled me through some type of re booting, but it was a mixed problem when i called them (something to do with the power) and they didnt really address the blue screen of death in a way to fix it permenently, only to power it up and get it working again.

she telle me that it happens at random time, she's installed nothing new either.

ugh

[SnowDog]

That's fair enough - if there was more than one problem then they have to be attacked one at a time once the recovery is done.

I suspect they did a full recovery (as in reinstall back to factory settings), but you implied that it 'fixed' the problem. Did it? Did the problem go away for a while when they talked you through that?

The STOP code is important because it can point you in the direction of what is causing the problem. Just the first part of it, not the big block of stuff that comes after. It'll say something like STOP 0x000000xx.

[efmesch]

I too have been plagued lately by random appearances of the BSOD. My technician tested my DDL memory ( 2 units of 256 rm) and they turned out to be faulty. They were replaced and I even added another unit with 516 mg (so now I have 1 gb of RAM). For a few days I had no problems and today it reappeared. I'd like to test out my RAM memory and would like suggestions as to which program to download.
Does anyone have a suggestion, based on experience?

[caperjack]

membtest86 one of the best free testers .download iso image and burn iso image to disk using nero or if you don't have nero try this program.
http://www.memtest86.com/

no nero then try this ,iso burning info
http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm

burn iso with nero info .
http://www.wizardskeep.org/mainhall/tutor/neroiso.html

[efmesch]

Thanks for a prompt and thorough response.
I have Nero and used it to burn the downloaded iso file (from www.memtest86.com ) to a disk. Now I have it--but as a zip file.
What am I supposed to do: Unzip and put that also on the disk? Or can it run from the disk as an iso zip file (that doesn't seem likely to me).
Can I run the iso file (unzipped) from the disk at any time I insert it or do I run the disk at boot-up?
Thanks!

[caperjack]

Thanks for a prompt and thorough response. I have Nero and used it to burn the downloaded iso file (from www.memtest86.com ) to a disk. Now I have it--but as a zip file. What am I supposed to do: Unzip and put that also on the disk? Or can it run from the disk as an iso zip file (that doesn't seem likely to me). Can I run the iso file (unzipped) from the disk at any time I insert it or do I run the disk at boot-up? Thanks!

no ,unzip the iso on a working computer ,then use nero to burn the iso image to disk ,put the new burnt disk into the troubled computer,and reboot computer ,it will then boot to and run the memtest at startup

[efmesch]

If something can be done wrong, leave it to me...to do wrong.
I tried to be economical and, after extracting the file, I burnt it onto the same disk that had the original zip file on it (after all--there was, and still is, plenty of room available). When I reboot and hope for it to work--it doesn'. When I look at the contents of the disk I get the zip file and "memtest". When I try to activate the program manually (dbl clk) it opens Nero again.
It just occured tome--could it be that I have to finalize the disk before it will operate automatically? Must I dedicate a single disk to the unzipped program and finalize it in order for it to activate automatically when I re-boot?
Thanks for your patience.

[caperjack]

yes you must dedicate a single disk for the program ,yes i would finalize it too.
also you cant just copy the unzipped ISO to the disk ,it has to be done right ,following the nero iso burning instructions in the link i posted above

[efmesch]

yes you must dedicate a single disk for the program ,yes i would finalize it too. also you cant just copy the unzipped ISO to the disk ,it has to be done right ,following the nero iso burning instructions in the link i posted above

I'll try again and let you know the results.
Thanks

[efmesch]

Oh..Kay! I got the ISO program onto a dedicated disk. My version of Nero (7-ultra-enhanced) didn't quite follow the "Recipe" of the link but I managed the job. The program ran nicely when I re-booted and ran for close to 2 hours! Wow!
Bottom line--when all was done, I got a report saying that on Test 2 It encountered 1 error. I got into the menu and ran test 2 a few more times but all the results were flawless.
So where does that leave me. Do errors crop up "on occasion" and can they be treated as acceptable or should I start worrying?

[caperjack]

one error in a stick of ram can cause the blue screen ,so i suggest you try another stick of ram ,to see if computer runs without bsod

[efmesch]

Please tell me if I'm right about this:
I have 2 sticks of 256 and one of 512 for a total of 1gb. The test seems to have run the tests on all of them together--not stating exactly which items had the error. In order to find out which unit is at fault, I would have to remove two at a time and run the test on each stick separately.
Thanks again

[caperjack]

Please tell me if I'm right about this: I would have to remove two at a time and run the test on each stick separately. Thanks again

yes, that is what you need to do .

[efmesch]

My sincere thanks for all your follow-up on my behalf. I'll try to get to it within the next few days (my schedule at the moment is packed).
You've been great!

[efmesch]

My sincere thanks for all your follow-up on my behalf. I'll try to get to it within the next few days (my schedule at the moment is packed). You've been great!

I got to running the tests earlier than I expected---I narrowed it down, isolated and then removed the faulty stick. Now I just hope that I'm finished with blue screens--for good.
I spoke to the store's technician about it and tomorrow he will replace it.
Thanks again!
Fini (for the meanwhile--till the next bug shows up)

[caperjack]

your welcome,hope all goes well