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#1 |
post-pre-born
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posts: 22,541
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Blue Screen of Death
I am running Win 10, 64-bit. I am now getting a Blue Screen of Death about once a day.
I downloaded BlueScreenView which shows a lot info in the minidump file. Unfortunately, I don't know how to read the information in order to figure out what is breaking. Anyone here who has experience with dump information? |
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#2 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Blackstone River Valley, MA
Posts: 2,138
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Memory dumps are usually only helpful to the authors of a program. A BSOD is nearly always related to installed drivers or malfunctioning hardware.
This is what I do when troubleshooting BSOD.
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#3 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: In the woods
Posts: 1,797
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If the above doesn't solve the problem, back up all of your files to the cloud or to another physical drive, and replace your hard drive. Over the years, I have seen many blue screens of death, and if running the computer "bare bones" doesn't resolve it, it usually boils down to a hard drive read/write failure.
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#4 |
So far, so good...
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: On the outskirts of Nowhere; the middle was too crowded
Posts: 2,864
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I don't run Windows 10 so I might be talking/writing nonsense here, but could it be run in Safe Mode (does that even exist?), and would that show any useful information?
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Over we go.... |
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#5 |
Gentleman of leisure
Tagger
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Flying around in the sky
Posts: 23,535
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#6 |
Potsing Whiled Runk
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Join Date: Aug 2008
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#7 |
post-pre-born
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posts: 22,541
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Good comments. Give me some time to try these ideas. I installed a new hard drive about 18 months ago so that should be ok. But I have a second physical hard drive that I use for backup that is a lot older so that may be the culprit.
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#8 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Mazes of Menace
Posts: 8,658
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There's little point in replacing parts you merely think might be faulty, unless you've spares available for that purpose and have not other way to test devices.
A live CD/flash drive with memtest86 can be used to check memory for issues, and if it contains the appropriate tools, your hard disk too. System Rescue CD is quite handy for that sort of thing, but there are others. |
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#9 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 1,956
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Memtest caught the error for me last time this happened, but that was back in XP days and the world may well have moved on
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"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" Isaac Asimov Not all cults are bad - I've joined a cult of niceness ![]() |
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#10 |
post-pre-born
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posts: 22,541
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#11 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 8,845
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Another common problem is simple overheating. You may want to check to see if your fans are all working. 1-2 in the case, 1 on the CPU, 1 on the graphics card if you are not using integrated graphics. There is also one it the Power Supply, but it's not always easy to tell if it's running.
you may also want to read the text of the bluescreen. It may give you some clues about what driver/piece of hardware is failing. |
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"Anything's possible, but only a few things actually happen" |
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#12 |
post-pre-born
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posts: 22,541
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The text on the Win 10 BSOD has essentially no content. The meat is in the dump files.
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#13 |
Merchant of Doom
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Somewhere between the central U.S. and Hades
Posts: 12,163
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I haven't had a BSOD on Windows 10 yet, so can't say for sure. In the olden days, there'd be an error code at the top, something like "STOP 0xc0008015", sometimes followed by up to four hexadecimal numbers in parenthesis. That's a failure error code, and that with those four numbers can give some info on the error cause.
Additionally, you can check the system event log (Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Event Viewer). Generally some basic information on the cause of the failure will be recorded there; unless it's a complete failure (system will no longer boot) it should have an entry with some details, either at the time of failure or at the time it was rebooted. Finally, there are built-in troubleshooters that can sometimes be helpful. If you click on your Windows button, then the gear for settings, there should be a "Troubleshoot" option on the left: ![]() In the right, you should fin d an option for troubleshooting Blue Screen errors. |
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#14 |
Begging for Scraps
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: 20 minutes in the future
Posts: 1,785
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“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” - Charles Darwin ...like so many contemporary philosophers he especially enjoyed giving helpful advice to people who were happier than he was. - Tom Lehrer |
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#15 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 8,845
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"Anything's possible, but only a few things actually happen" |
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#16 |
post-pre-born
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posts: 22,541
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An interim denouement, if that's not a contradiction. I ran memtest and I got an all clear except a message that some memory "might be vulnerable" to errors.
But the interesting part of that is that I've had no BSODs since running that. Remember I was having one a day previously. I have no idea if cause -> effect is in operation here, but I'll take it for now. |
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#17 |
Master Poster
Join Date: Mar 2010
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#18 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Cymru
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#19 |
Grammar Resistance Leader
TLA Dictator Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Pattaya, Thailand
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#20 |
Disorder of Kilopi
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: State of Flux
Posts: 7,035
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Depending on your configuration, the latest Tuesday updates can be problematic. I had to update some drivers (NVidia in particular) afterward to get my Win10Pro_x64 stable again after the last one. At any rate, a lot depends on the exact reason for the BSODs, some of which might be available in Event Viewer which, btw, would show any hard disk errors if these are in play.
To test driver stability, check out Verifier, a tool in the OS (menu, run, verifier.exe). Best see here on how to use. |
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Driftwood on an empty shore of the sea of meaninglessness. Irrelevant, weightless, inconsequential moment of existential hubris on the fast track to oblivion. Spends that time videogaming. |
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#21 |
post-pre-born
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posts: 22,541
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Nope, no number or even explanation. What happens is that Windows writes a "mini-dump" file while on screen there's a percent-done widget. I don't know if the dump gets sent to Richmond but I douibt it. But interestingly, if I remember correctly it does post a QR symbol. Maybe that leads to more data.
ETA: You can see the BSOD here. |
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#22 |
post-pre-born
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
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#23 |
Merchant of Doom
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Somewhere between the central U.S. and Hades
Posts: 12,163
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You might find this useful:
https://www.networkworld.com/article...-a-minute.html Gives some info on where memory dumps get stored and how to get information out of them. Also, have you checked the "System" Event Log? It should give an entry in there, something like "The previous system shutdown was unexpected", and it will usually give an error code in that entry. Or look at any system event warnings that occurred right before the crash. |
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