BSOD help

[maxemo]

I'm trying to troubleshoot a BSOD error but the screen is just on for a second and then the computer reboots.(inspiron 6000) Its very random and the only thing in event viewer shows an error category 102 and event id of 1003. I did a complete reload of XP and downloaded the drivers from Dell. Is there anyway to capture the blue screen before it reboots. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Click Start, Right-click My Computer, choose Properties, choose Advanced, choose Start up and Recovery settings, uncheck Automatically Restart

 

[maxemo]

Thanks. Now lets see if I can't diagnose this thing. Its random but at least now I can search the error message.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Nine times out of ten BSOD's are caused by memory problems. Pull a stick of memory and see if the problems continue. If not, that was your issue, if they do, try with the only the stick you pulled out installed.

 

[Modelworks]

A very good free program :
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

It will allow you to read the dump files a BSOD creates and also give a bit more information about it.

Lots of other great utils on that site
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/index.html

 

[ch33zw1z]

download and run Memtest86+ and run it for 12-24 hours

 

[maxemo]

Thanks for the posts. MEMTEST+86 has been running for a couple of hours with no fails yet. I'll run it overnight and see if it finds anything.

 

[Devilpapaya]

Nine times out of ten BSOD's are caused by memory problems. Pull a stick of memory and see if the problems continue. If not, that was your issue, if they do, try with the only the stick you pulled out installed.

This is a gross over-generalization. I see no more RAM related BSOD than for other hardware failure, virus**, corrupt data/system files, or driver errors. If you could give the Error code it gives you on the blue screen it would help great help in diagnosing the problem. Should look something like:

0x0000007B (0xFFFFFFFF 0xFFFFFFFF 0xFFFFFFFF 0xFFFFFFFF)

Only the first number is really important (if you were a computer engineer you might be able to make sense of the others).

**I actually see the most virus related BSODs but I chalk that up to having to work on retarded college student computers.

 

[maxemo]

The history on this computer is it belongs to a friend. Dell said it was the HDD and sent him another one but its still getting the BSOD randomly. I reformatted it with a fresh install of XP but am still getting blue screen every once in awhile. I am thinking it is a hardware problem. I downloaded the nirsoft software. It does show alot of info but I don't know what half of it means. The error code in event viewer shows error code 1000000a par 1 00000084 etc. Another one this morning shows error code 1000008e. Next time it hangs on the blue screen I will post it. Thanks for the help.

 

[maxemo]

OK here is the latest. I reloaded everything and downloaded all updates last evening except the video drivers and haven't had an error yet. It has the 915gm,910 gml express chipset. Once I download the drivers, and I'm assuming that it will start having problems, how can I tell if its the drivers or motherboard? Should I use the drivers from microsoft update, Intel or Dell or does it make a difference. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Devilpapaya]

OK here is the latest. I reloaded everything and downloaded all updates last evening except the video drivers and haven't had an error yet. It has the 915gm,910 gml express chipset. Once I download the drivers, and I'm assuming that it will start having problems, how can I tell if its the drivers or motherboard? Should I use the drivers from microsoft update, Intel or Dell or does it make a difference. Thanks for all the help.

Check the versions on the drivers for each site. Try the newest ones you can find. If you start seeing the BSOD again try moving back to an older driver and see if it still happens.

The easiest way to check to see if the error is driver or hardware related is to swapout the hardware in question for something else. This is harder to do with a mobo obviously. You can try older/no drivers and see if the problem persists.

 

[maxemo]

I went ahead and did the windows update version. It looks to be an older version then what Dell shows on its update page.It has been four hours and its still plugging away with no BSODs. Everything is updated so we will see what happens. Thanks again for the help.