Comments on: bsod computer problems

Question: bsod computer problems

|n$eCur3 — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:11:43 -0800

There is something wrong with my computer. Help me diagnose what is causing bsods, random restarts and registry errors.

I believe that this is a hardware related issue. During the past month, it has been getting worse. Started out with a couple of freezes here and there, but now I can't run Firefox without errors.

I ran memtest overnight, it passed. I then tried prime95, and discovered that one core is not stable.

I believe that the problem is the processor. However, the problem might also the motherboard or maybe even the power supply? Which is it? And how would I go about narrowing it down?

Things I've tried unsuccessfully: opened the case, made sure the fans are working. Reseat the heatsink. Clear out dust bunnies. Unplug everything, take pci cards out and then attach them again. What now?

By: |n$eCur3

|n$eCur3 — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:20:33 -0800

That last paragraph is worded poorly... I executed those methods successfully, but they failed to fix the problem.

By: solid-one-love

solid-one-love — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:33:14 -0800

These kinds of problems can often be difficult or impossible to diagnose properly. I had problems similar to yours a couple of years ago and the same problems persisted when I (separately) switched out the power supply, RAM, CPU and motherboard from components in older machines. Only when I switched out all four of the above did my errors cease.

Could be that you have a power surge that your surge protector couldn't handle (this is very common) and more than one component has been fried.

By: Manjusri

Manjusri — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:36:59 -0800

Yeah, power supply can be the likely culprit for a wide array of problems. Or not. Swapping parts is the simple way to isolate the problem. If you don't have a second pc with compatible components, Fry's liberal return policy justifies the brick and mortar premium.

Did you clean and reapply some quality heatsink past when you reseated it?

By: Manjusri

Manjusri — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:37:46 -0800

grrr, past=paste

By: |n$eCur3

|n$eCur3 — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:44:56 -0800

yeah, i put one some new paste when I reseated the heatsink.

By: helios

helios — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:45:22 -0800

What Manjusri said - but also, don't rule out the RAM just because memtest86 passed. Last time I had a computer with faulty RAM, it consistently passed memtest86 overnight, but failed consistently when I ran something memory-intensive and something cpu-intensive at the same time.

By: edgeways

edgeways — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:21:00 -0800

I had some of the same issues with my last computer, turned out the MB wasn't seated correctly and (most likely) was shorting out every once inawhile

By: |n$eCur3

|n$eCur3 — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:51:33 -0800

This seems crazy, but I figured out that it was in fact the ram. Helios, you hit the nail on the head. I gave the ram a tiny bit more volts (it can take a heck of a lot more) and everything is back to normal. Stable as a rock. Go figure, I was about to run down to the local frys.