So, my computer is toast

[Fishboy]

I'm not really sure what is wrong with it. I was playing TF2 the other night and was on an epic demo killstreak on cp_steel and TF2 crashed with the looping sound. Ok nothing the hasnt happened before right? I just held the power button in and rebooted. Well now I randomly get the blue screen of death and the computer restarts itself. Sometimes it dies before it even loads the desktop sometimes it will load and work fine for an hour before crashing again and restarting itself. Its weird. Built the computer about a year ago and never had one problem. Running Vista 64bit Home edition on an AMD 2.7GHz with 4 GB Corsair DDR2 Ram and nVidia 9800GT 512MB. Anyone have any ideas?

Guess no more TF2 for a while :cry: Need to find someone else to help me blame Djinn for everything....wait....its prolly Djinn's fault my comp crashed :evil:

[Devant]

what exactly is the blue screen error? Also take a look to make sure all connections are set and check that your HD is spinning and connected properly.

[Bonemasher]

I have an Nvidia card too and got a bluescreen today in tf2, maybe its a tf2 problem that somehow fried something in your pc.

[StarYoshi]

I can talk to you about it after work today if you want, we can figure something out probably. Also we have a PC hardware forum now :)

[Cosmic_Shame]

sounds like something is failing inside. Go in ur BIOS and look for an irregularities in voltages and stuff, also what i would do is download Hardware Monitor, Ur card might be partially fried, which is causing ur computer to crash, http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

this will give u a temp reading. Go on TF2 with that open, Alt+Tab out after like 5 minutes and see if ur card is reading anything. Anything higher than 70 Degrees F for a graphics card can cause ur PC to crash. THis happened to one of my friends, it was a simple fix, he just needed to use some Canned air on his entire computer, but just see what ur temp readings are for ur entire computer while u play the game and make sure nothing is extreme

[Bonemasher]

Im not a troubleshooting kind of guy, if the problem keeps coming I'm just gonna replace the video card, its the only thing on this pc that I kept from my old one that blue screened every 5 minutes, and I've had nothing but problems with nvidias drivers, you should see my windows event log, filled with "Nvidia drivers stopped responding".

[stewlounse]

Nothing should be fried unless you've pushed an unsafe overclock or unless something wasn't seated correctly....or something rare and freakish lol.

I would check all connections, reseat the memory in the slots (sounds like memory error to me), reseat the video card...possibly run MemTest to check your memory for errors.

EDIT: So is it a video card error or do you know exactly what is causing this?

[stewlounse]

Also try to go into BIOS and see if there are any fluctuations with your voltages.

(Moved thread to Hardware forum.)

[Christian]

Reinstall Windows, shouldn't do more than just screw over your basic setup. If the problem is still there its hardware.

On another note, download Meppis and run the RAM checker. RAM problems are the most screwy and easiest to fix.

[Fishboy]

Sry its been a while, had to break out the laptop to get online now. I cant even read the blue screen of death b/c it flashes up for about 2 seconds and then the computer cuts itself off and then turns itself back on. Its really weird. I doubt I will be able to keep it on long enough to run TF2 and check temps. I am having it looked at tonight by a friend. Said it may be a memory error or a virus. But i also had an old Dell with heat sink probs that cut itself off

[stewlounse]

You could make a bootable cd with memtest to test your memory.

[mullet]

Have you opened the case to see if all the fans are moving and not full of dust? CPU/GPU fans?

[Cosmic_Shame]

that what i had when one of my 9600GT's fried out, even though i was running SLI because one card bugged out and i had it set on SLI i kept getting blue screens that happened so fast, that i could not read them

[Freaky_Angelus]

Sry its been a while, had to break out the laptop to get online now. I cant even read the blue screen of death b/c it flashes up for about 2 seconds and then the computer cuts itself off and then turns itself back on. Its really weird. I doubt I will be able to keep it on long enough to run TF2 and check temps. I am having it looked at tonight by a friend. Said it may be a memory error or a virus. But i also had an old Dell with heat sink probs that cut itself off

In BIOS you can set whether or not to reboot on faults.. You want it to hang and wait for you to reboot so you can read the error ;)

On the second part..

I cleaned out my videocard (old one) a couple a weeks before I replaced it with the new one.. Big chance is that it is filled with dust. You may want to take it out on an afternoon and disassemble it its cooler parts.. It might be clogged with dust! and yes, that will cause BSOD!

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

Seen those blue screens several times... Format and reinstall with fix it I am sure of it.. But most don't want to do that.. you can play around and try to get in safe mode if you make it there then you could uninstall this device its under system devices.. Called PCI bus remove that essentially removes just about everything forcing a complete reinstall of your drivers. So everything you have on your computer is saved but you might need to download drivers for sound, video, and nic cards..

Also if it really is bios related like something is overclocked or set wrong just load defaults and reboot that should take care of that issue.

But I don't think any of that will work I think you will have to format and reload.

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

Oh and stewlouse could be right to hopefully you have 2 sticks of ram if you do take one out and boot up if you get into windows no error then its that stick.. If not boot up with just the other stick in. if neither works then probably not memory problem even tho I have seen both sticks fail before.

[Fishboy]

In BIOS you can set whether or not to reboot on faults.. You want it to hang and wait for you to reboot so you can read the error ;)

On the second part..

I cleaned out my videocard (old one) a couple a weeks before I replaced it with the new one.. Big chance is that it is filled with dust. You may want to take it out on an afternoon and disassemble it its cooler parts.. It might be clogged with dust! and yes, that will cause BSOD!

How do I change my BIOS to show the blue screen for more than 2 seconds? I dont know much about BIOS. I actually have to borrow my friends keyboard to do anything in BIOS b/c my old dell USB keyboard doesnt work until windows starts.

I did burn memtest86 to a CD and ran it and it took almost 2 hours but it said the memory was ok. It was an older version and I do have 4GB of Ram so im not sure if that makes a difference.

[Fishboy]

Have you opened the case to see if all the fans are moving and not full of dust? CPU/GPU fans?

There is dust in there but its not caked on anything. The computer is only 1 year old. The two stock fans and the extra fan are all working fine so I dont think anything overheated since I have been running the same games for the past year without any heat problems.

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

you sometimes if your good can hit the pause key on keyboard and it will stop.. Telling you it isn't your bios.. your bios don't change unless you change it.. so why would it work then just stop.. the only thing that changes often depending on what you do is on the Hard drive so something got configured differently like a driver or something.. can you even bring up the menu for booting into safe mode if so try last known good configuration.. Hitting f8 when the computer starts up with bring up the menu but most likely if it blue screens the menu should come up automatically. The fact you could run a bootable CD and run a memtest would lead me to believe the bios isn't your problem.

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

I would pull the Hard drive out hook it up to another computer. Don't boot up to it boot up that computer and access it like an extra drive. then go to that new drive letter \documents and settings and then find you profile (username) copy it over to that computer.. thats the simple way of backing up everything you might need for all your data so it don't get lost.

[Freaky_Angelus]

Sorry Sucky, you are way off and wrong.. Settings that let BIOS boot and run do not make for a stable pc also the settings in your bios may still be the same, your hardware ages and that does come with changes.

For illustration, if I OC my system back to the settings it ran stable for 2 years now (damn already 2 years on this thing) it will not run since my new videocard required a new BIOS version to simply boot within seconds. The OC on the CPU (and only the cpu btw) will cause an unstability in either of the n or s bridge that shows during loading files.. I can run hours of stable BIOS only, but as soon as I want data to transfer between HDD and MEM if will crash.. Both are actively cooled and have run stable for years.. The closest I came to a boot once, was with the weirdest settings ever (and far from what I had stable going).. Going back to the previous BIOS version will let my perfectly fine hardware run at the settings I want, however.. my pc will not boot within 30 seconds due to my new videocard that causes some weird boot bug.

back to topic:

Whenever you go to your BIOS there are plenty of pages with settings. One is about booting.. In one of those there are boot settings that give option to 'pause on all faults' etc.. Including one that says, reboot on error.. That one needs to be disabled..

I can't tell you precisely where cuz I don't have your mobo ;) so I cant just go and look what page you need to look.

However you want that one to be off so you can write the error down, second option.. Camera next to your pc and simply take a picture when it happens.. (I hope you got a LCD)

On the dust thing.. Looking empty and being empty are different things. Really check if INSIDE the coolers there is no dust clogging it up. My fan was clean, but my sink was clogged on my previous card, so really check for that! It may not be visible (really a problem with todays coolers on GPU's.

I doubt the thermal paste is gone.. 1 year is way to short for that even if you would OC like a madman!

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

you are right that bios does have something to do with things.. But I don't' remember him saying anything about adding ram, video card or any hardware new.. The fact that no hardware changes or Overclocking at all has occurred in the year he said it has been working is the reason I wouldn't jump to the bios as the problem. In your case your system ran good for 2 years but then you added a video card see if he added a hardware device then I would believe that is the problem. Sure hardware ages but then it would fail not make the bios not work with it.

I would set defaults in bios as long as you never adjusted anything in bios sense you got it. and Get compressed air and blow out all fans even power supply fan.. The fact it happens so random much like if you CPU was overheating I would suggest a new Hard drive. To rule out the HD and bios have you ever used win PE or something like it you download a image and it actually allows you to boot up your machine with a OS run off CD and Ram.. It will also get you access to your Hard drive I bet you won't get a blue sreen running that.

I know bios settings can cause things not to work. But I also know the odds if you never have changed a hardware device or setting that it would be rare. Most common reasons for any blue screen is Ram and Hard drive. When I worked for the laptop repair warehouse we used to clone there hard drives and put them in the laptops first to rule out HD thats how common blue screens was hard drive related.

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

Let me rephrase that.. HD is most common for random blue screens if the blue screen happens regularly in same spot then could be ram or a configuration problem which I would format and reload to exclude that.

occasionally the HD would be to bad to clone but most the time not..

[Fishboy]

Yea, like I said. It has run perfect for the past year. No new hardware. Never Oc'd anything just ran it on stock settings. I havent even updated drivers in the past 5 months. Just windows updates. I managed to scan my computer with Malware bytes and Sophos Antivirus and it found nothing. But then it crashed again.

[stewlounse]

Maybe try a new battery for your CMOS, maybe even try resetting your CMOS just in case.

I would recommend always keeping your BIOS version and all drivers up to date.

[mullet]

Yea, like I said. It has run perfect for the past year. No new hardware. Never Oc'd anything just ran it on stock settings. I havent even updated drivers in the past 5 months. Just windows updates. I managed to scan my computer with Malware bytes and Sophos Antivirus and it found nothing. But then it crashed again.

Did you during any windows update install there drivers by mistake?

[Fishboy]

Did you during any windows update install there drivers by mistake?

I doubt it, I usually only download critical updates, none of the extra ones. I didnt even realize you could update your BIOS

[Fishboy]

Maybe try a new battery for your CMOS, maybe even try resetting your CMOS just in case.

I would recommend always keeping your BIOS version and all drivers up to date.

What is a CMOS?, I did buy a new surge protector and tried it on different outlets to make sure the power wasnt the problem, but it wasnt:cry:

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

Basically what he is saying that there is a battery like a watch battery on your motherboard actually there is a jumper that when jumpered a certain way will disable the battery and force your bios to loose time and any changes that weren't built in to the bios chip originally by the manufacture.. So the bios would have to re-detect all the hardware not built-in to the motherboard and then reset time. This is ultimately the best way to reset the bios to original defaults. If you can't find jumper you can take the battery out for about 5min should do it actually 1min will but play it safe.

[stewlounse]

Some boards have batteries and then some don't (bad engineering IMO). I didn't look up your mobo specifically I assume it would have a battery.

[Freaky_Angelus]

Yes, but the suggestion is replacing the batt in case it has gone bad.

Although I doubt that, it could cause a wrong setup in your BIOS that causes the problems.

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

True, technically you could run your computer with a dead battery and it would work fine, just would have to auto detect all your hardware over and over and reset the time. I have operated a couple of computers like that cause I didn't feel like replacing the battery.

[Fishboy]

Some boards have batteries and then some don't (bad engineering IMO). I didn't look up your mobo specifically I assume it would have a battery.

It is a Gigabyte S-Series MA78GM-S2HP that supports AMD and has dual BIOS

I'm not really sure, I might just buy a new HDD and some new RAM which are both cheap and hope that fixes things

[mountaindues]

Everything from viruses to hardware problems can cause a blue screen. To fix the problem you need to find out what is causing the blue screens. By default windows is set to restart after you get a blue screen. To turn this off go to Start right click on Computer and go to properties. On the top left you should see Advanced System Properties. Click that then click on Setting under Startup and Recovery. Under system failure un check automatically restart and click ok. The next time the pc blue screens make sure to write down the error message. If your pc is not blue screening frequently you can go to Start and in the Search field type in "eventvwr" without the quotes. Once event viewer opens look under Summary of Administrative events. There should be errors under Critical click on ones that correspond to the times that the pc had blue screens.

Once you have the error codes from the blue screen then you can just google them to see what is causing the problem. Or you could just post the codes here.

[Freaky_Angelus]

Well yes..

but your mem was fine during the test and original you posted it was a random time period with the crashing..

So either the HDD is indeed bad (does it make weird clicking sounds?)
Something is overheating and crashes your system.. by which I want to like you to do 1 more test before buying new stuff.

Open the side of your pc and clean EVERYTHING, I mean, really use a vacuumcleaner and suck all the dust out of your CPU-fan, GPU-fan, around your mobo ALL! (but be carefull doh!) After that keep the case OPEN! and if you got a blower somewhere, aim it at your mobo..

There is 1 more option that does happen over time and means you have had extreme luck so far.. Your Northbridge and Southbridge are both passive cooled.. They can causes crashes when overheating and depending on how hot they ran the past year, they can now have screwed the, probably bad, thermal paste on the coolblocks.

YES, that does happen and is why I got two cheap ass fans hooked on them (one with a screw winched between some of the fins on 1 passive block.. Hey, it was less work then getting all parts out of the case again and replace the Nb's sink ;) )

Anywho.. if you could try this to make sure this is not a airflow/heat problem, because the only remaining thing after your MEM (which is good), CPU (which is good.. it did the MEM test) and the mobo who did the above as well.. is the HDD or the bridges failing.. because of the random hits I would say the HDD, but to be sure.. this last test.

[Freaky_Angelus]

LOL.. is that also a windows option?

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

I wouldn't use a vacuum anywhere near the motherboard, CDROM, or HD's.. Cause you would really screw yourself if you sucked up a jumper.. blowing everything out should really be efficient and if you run the machine with the case open that would help too.

I would say the north bridge and south bridge should be O.K since you did run a memory test for 2 hours but you never no tho..

You could also use UBCD and do a hard drive test as well..

[Freaky_Angelus]

I wouldn't use a vacuum anywhere near the motherboard, CDROM, or HD's.. Cause you would really screw yourself if you sucked up a jumper.. blowing everything out should really be efficient and if you run the machine with the case open that would help too.

I would say the north bridge and south bridge should be O.K since you did run a memory test for 2 hours but you never no tho..

You could also use UBCD and do a hard drive test as well..

1 a vacuum sucking out a jumper? WTF do you have for vacuum?

2 blowing out more efficient then sucking it out with a vacuum? What pc guru are you? You blow it out and it all is in the air around your pc just waiting to get back in... No.. suck it out, dont use a steel end (static el) and dont force it into your pc.. treat it better then your girlfriend!

3 N and S bridge are fine? Do you have any idea what they are for and what they do? They are for comm between hardware parts, THEY are the parts in question here as his pc runs fine in mem test but crashes when loading files between HDD and CPU/MEM.. If any is in question after his MEM test, it is his S bridge for the loading of data from HDD to CPU and MEM..

4 So instead of doing the obvious and test for either dust and heat, which has still not been done and is prob nr. 1 in all pc's, you go with a HDD test from a CD?

I'm done..

Fishboy, good luck with this guy. I'm just out of my previous clan because of these kind of people and will not go into that again, not now..

Try my solution and post it, it's not helping == HDD, it is helping == active cool N and S bridge.. Good luck!

[Fishboy]

No real need to be hostile about anything anyone said, I'm looking for any help I can get and thanks to eveyone for their advice

Im not really sure what the north and south bridge are other than they connect hardware like the HDD. Im also not sure what the UBCD is that you were talking about, lil more elaboration?

THanks for the help mountain, i will try to look up the errors tomorrow and post them.

As for the vacuum cleaner, from what I have heard in the past that is a big no no. Vacuums produce more static than just about anything other than a static ball machine. And like you said that may be fine with plastic but it still seems kinda bad considering how computer parts react to static:cry: sry if i am misinformed about that.

[Freaky_Angelus]

Turn the pc off but keep the outlet plugged to have it grounded for the static el.

Dont use a steel end on your vacuum and never make any contact.. The reason blowing out is more terrible is because it will spread the dust around so it will get in all other holes.

In any, you need to check if the sinks are not clogged up.

The Northbridge is located just next to your CPU. Considering how it normally is mounted in a pc.. it is just south of the cpu and in your case has Gigabyte stickerd on it.

A bit lower/south and a bit to the right is a second heatsink. That is your southbridge and is located next to your SATA connectors. My personal experience is that both are rarely cooled properly and can cause problems like you describe.. During boot or just random somewhere during usage of the HDD's. A friend had during this summer the same problem when creating movies with Adobe Premiere.. he opened the case and directed a fan on his pc solving the problem completely.. However, this is more a testing method just proving they run to hot.

If it doesnt solve it, a new/other HDD can simply test your problems.

[Fishboy]

So i checked the error log b/c there were no logs for the critical errors and i saw this

The following boot-start or system-start drivers failed to load: i8042prt

[Fishboy]

Found some more info: does this help?

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Files that help describe the problem
Mini012010-01.dmp
sysdata.xml
Version.txt

Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 1e
BCP1: FFFFFFFFC0000005
BCP2: FFFFF8000212921E
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_0_6002
Service Pack: 2_0
Product: 768_1

[Fishboy]

Here are the files in question that windows said caused the crash

C:\Users\Jarrett Barnett\AppData\Local\Temp\WERA0AC.tmp

then inside that folder are 3 files

Mini012010.dmp
sysdata
Version

[Fishboy]

Anyone?

[Zero Hour]

File could just be corrupt, can you clear your temporary files? That might do it.

[Freaky_Angelus]

Sorry, have been looking for it a bit, but my report due today has gotten a bit more priority..

I'll look some later, but the error gave no real clue so far for me :S

Only quick thing to look at was this link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;275678 but uhm.. that might be more for us then for you ;)

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

Log into another account like administrator or something because my bet is that that tmp file won't delete why you are login to that account.. But you can try it. Then also deleting your memory dumps can help.

C:\windows\minidump\ delete everything in those. Or you can open them they are actually the copies of your blue screens should be about as many files as you have had blue screens.

You might actually want to look at them since you might find out that each one is different in some way.

Plus you might try looking into installing service pack 3... That might fix the problem..


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5B33B5A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&displaylang=en

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

Oh and for my defense.. I would have never sucked a jumper with a vacum.. But I have heard of a normal computer use doing it after getting told to use a vacum. Some of those jumpers aren't tight connections all the time..

Second.. Why do you insist that a bridge must be bad and basically ruling out any possibility of the HDD.. Yes I will agree you aren't stupid and you know how a motherboard works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southbridge_%28computing%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northbridge_%28computing%29

I don't know what each bridge does but according to this info doesn't say that southbridge communicates with HDD Sounds to me if the computer is running and doing something that the southbridge might be working either way.. If he would do a HDD test with UBCD it would put to use the southbridge in your terms.. So I haven't been way off on any of my solutions.. But you must have something against them.. All my solutions will eventually get to the cause by narrowing it down.. Not jumping to the most technical aspects of it like what you want to go to..


My hunches on the problem has always been bad HD or something configured wrong. I think either a new HD or Format and reload will fix the problem. I now think that maybe one of those updates caused it but all hunches(based on the info given) not saying I am the smartest tech..

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

Ok let me break this down better since I read it better on his post.. He does say it could be hard drive.

MemTest - Test the memory also uses Northbridge for 2 hours if overheating is problem or northbridge is bad test would have failed or would have locked up or somethign..

Hard Drive test - Test for bad hard drive also test Southbridge should fail if the bridge is bad or overheating....

When either of those fail then you will know where to look for the problem and concentrate on. Then you spend money on a fan for southbridge if that fails or on a new hard drive if that failes

IF neither fails then you concentrate on a configruation or update causing the problem... and no money spent at all

I miss how that makes no sense and I am stupid..

[Freaky_Angelus]

Yes, but my comments are more towards your approach in general..

You do tests that are not part specific.. You want to test with UBCD and as you mention you keep two possible problems, not rulling it out..

It's a fallicy to say, but after years of tinkering, tweaking and building pc's I've grown a very tight method of detection where a problems lies, mainly because it otherwise takes to long to narrow it down. Most of those problems were done on distance.. Nothing as annoying as that.

Your second post is kinda weird to me.. You post info on the N/S bridges that clearly explain the relation to what hardware and then say 'according to this info doesn't say that southbridge communicates with HDD' which is exactly what your links ARE saying, continued by your third post stipulating what I've been saying and now saying that it does connect.

Anywho:

BCCode: 1e

What I find on this is mainly a driver problem which lead to a couple options:

- bad install OS
- bad user load (although you should not get BSOD before login)
- bad files as posted by sucky-player preventing a normal load
- hdd load / original files corrupted
- S-bridge corrupted / overheating

Considering the added OS part now and the chances of M$ screwing up files, you can try two things..

1 Do the UBCD test to check hardware first leaving step two remaining
2 Do (as posted by Sucky-Player) a login through safe boot / DOS or any alternative and remove the bad / corrupted files.

Step 1 crashes => heating / hdd problem test with posted different options
Step 2 does not crash, leaving software problem considering the previous tests..

Step 2 does not solve it.. reinstall
Step 2 does solve it => BACKUP SHIT NOW WHILE IT WORKS

Step 3 painfully consider a reinstall or at least make an image of your OS HDD

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

Seen those blue screens several times... Format and reinstall with fix it I am sure of it.. But most don't want to do that.. you can play around and try to get in safe mode if you make it there then you could uninstall this device its under system devices.. Called PCI bus remove that essentially removes just about everything forcing a complete reinstall of your drivers. So everything you have on your computer is saved but you might need to download drivers for sound, video, and nic cards..

Also if it really is bios related like something is overclocked or set wrong just load defaults and reboot that should take care of that issue.

But I don't think any of that will work I think you will have to format and reload.

Note that this was my very first post to this thread.. Yet after everything is said and done.. Your basically now onboard with this.. Well at least removing the drivers and reinstalling thm.. My approach maybe different but at least you could of posted once that I could be right instead of saying almost every reply that I don't know what I am doing...

anyway I think he is on the way to a fix for sure.. I am hoping no new hardware is needed too.. Good luck.

[Freaky_Angelus]

Your basically now onboard with this..

My approach maybe different but at least you could of posted once that I could be right instead of saying almost every reply that I don't know what I am doing...

No and no.. you don't.

You make the mistake to think a program will tell you what is wrong.. A program will only tell what it can tell and if you want to solve problems you need to solve the puzzle before attempting any fixes or checks.

Using some tools that do not stress the system will prove nothing, hence you still don't understand that only gave him some things to try in order to get some info that I can use. I don't think anything I posted will solve his problem, but if he does what stated above it will eliminate some variables.

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

Troubleshooting is what I call it..

You take his info: Random blue screens and no new hardware added or any settings changed in bios.. O/S updates were installed. This just started happening worked for almost a year no problems..

That was the info I used.

He tried blowing out dust and making sure fans where all working. This in my mind didn't dismiss heating as a possibility. But did tell me not to jump right in to that as the main possibility.

This also didn't make me think the bios needed upgraded since it was working before.. But maybe some changes happened so setting defaults and clearing cmos was good possibility.

Since he did do some updates that might have caused the problem lead me to try to go into safe mode remove all the hardware drivers.( by removing PCI bus) From past experience I thought maybe a bad hard drive or install.

Then you said
Sorry Sucky, you are way off and wrong.. Settings that let BIOS boot and run do not make for a stable pc also the settings in your bios may still be the same, your hardware ages and that does come with changes.

This later you based was a cause do to a new vid card.. Now by then several suggestions kept coming he didn't try my orginal one which maybe cause of they way you worded that post on me being way wrong.. we started going back and forth on how much knowledge I had about bridges and other stuff. I merely commenting on everything you said in our post not really giving him any advice.. SO now we back to the advice..

Remove your hardware in safe mode and you should install SP3 just for shits it installs alot of shit and might somehow fix it not saying that I knwo without a doubt.

[Freaky_Angelus]

My god.. get a life..

YOU ARE AWESOME

ps, vista doesn't have sp3 yet..

[stewlounse]

Did clearing your temp files fix it?

This could also be a bad power supply. If it is just beginning to fail, there will be odd behaviour. Some just die instantly and some die over time while acting funny.

It sounds like it could be a bad result from updates (or lack of updating), or a failing HDD and maybe even PSU.

There's just too many ways to get a BSOD.
We need an update from Fishboy before we make anymore lengthy replies.

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

yep yep... my bad forgot was thinking it was XP ... Everything I did wasn't based on a O/S anyways so kind of forgot what it was.

[Fishboy]

So I have tried looking up the BSOD code in google to no avail but my computer hasnt died in 5 days and I have been playing TF2 and Dragon Age so I know heat/fans are not the problem. Maybe it was just a configuration error, its so weird that the computer is acting fine now

[stewlounse]

...lol

weird.

[$uCkY-p|aYeR]

LOL like those fixes... You know when you say configuration settings.. I don't know why we never thought about going to an earlier restore point(which honestly doesn't usually work but usually the first thing I try just in case).. Oh well fixed for now..

[mullet]

Well anywho I am glad it's working for ya again.