10 BsoD just this month, 2 of which were today in the span of 20 min

Electrum

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Oct 26, 2013
2
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10,510
The last one I received today I didn't let it dump the files because of time sensitive online work.
But in order the messages its given me from the start of the month till now is:

SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
IRQL_GT_ZERO_AT_SYSTEM_SERVICE
APC_INDEX_MISMACH
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

I also had a scare of my hard drive not possibly working about two days ago. When booting it said

Disk boot failure insert system disk and press enter

I have no idea what to do.
 
Solution
Have you installed any new devices in the last couple of months?

Driver conflicts are known to cause such errors so I would be thinking of perhaps something like a wireless device that is connect to a USB port.

The increased frequency of the issue might be due to the fact that Windows improves in performance over time and decides application priorities partly on the basis of frequency of use.

Did you install a wireless mouse recently or perhaps some device that make your games more interactive?

Updating specific drivers or perhaps sacrificing a feature or two on the device that probably aren't necessary anyway might help.

A way to test some of this out might be to disconnect and maybe even uninstall, if it's not too inconvenient...

Electrum

Honorable
Oct 26, 2013
2
0
10,510
They've been happening on and off for a couple months now, this one being the most. Most the times I'm just playing some games like League of Legends or Bioshock. Other times it would be when I'm doing some homework in word.

The two times today were while playing LoL
 

himnextdoor

Honorable
Oct 26, 2013
704
0
11,160
Have you installed any new devices in the last couple of months?

Driver conflicts are known to cause such errors so I would be thinking of perhaps something like a wireless device that is connect to a USB port.

The increased frequency of the issue might be due to the fact that Windows improves in performance over time and decides application priorities partly on the basis of frequency of use.

Did you install a wireless mouse recently or perhaps some device that make your games more interactive?

Updating specific drivers or perhaps sacrificing a feature or two on the device that probably aren't necessary anyway might help.

A way to test some of this out might be to disconnect and maybe even uninstall, if it's not too inconvenient, all peripheral devices from the computer. Go back to basic for a while until you get another BSoD.

Give it a couple of days, work your computer hard and try to get a BSoD to appear.

If one doesn't the start reinstalling your devices and in this way, in a few days, you could narrow down the cause.

If you get a BSoD when the devices are uninstalled then the problem is closer to the computer itself.

Another consideration might be 'codecs'. Sometimes we are duped into downloading players that we don't really need and the often come with codecs that either lag behind the industry standard or me actually be Adware or Spyware and even Malware can be transmitted under the 'You need this player to open this file' banner.

I use the K-Lite codec pack and have associated every type of media format to Media Player Classic so that whatever media I double-click, it opens up in that player. And it opens everything. If MPC can't play it then it is most likely a file that is being used as bait in some kind of scam.

VLC is another decent player but Real Player is simply surplus to requirements. Bad players can introduce bad .dll files onto the system and BSoD's can follow.

I'd routinely uninstall all players and the install the latest K-Lite Codec Pack. It might help.

Also, if you have Windows set to update automatically, Windows may have downloaded and installed a hardware update. A graphics Adapter or W-Lan update are often offered for a range of equipment. And sometimes, the Windows Updater installs drivers that are older than the ones they replace and this can cause conflicts with other drivers that were designed to 'speak' to the newer ones in a language the older ones don't quite understand.

I discovered this when I was having trouble watching the RTE Player. The screen kept flickering and it was impossible to watch.

I have a backed up image of my system so I was prepared to do a little experiment.

I decided to rebuild my system from scratch.

I installed Windows and all the drivers for the laptop and using Internet Explorer 8 I went online and watched an episode of Horizon on the RTE Player.

It was perfect.

So I carried on installing software; drivers for music equipment I can connect to my system, the software I use for recording and editing music/video/picture/documents, Java, FlashPlayer...

...and all the time I'm keeping an eye on the changes and watching the 'Installed Programs' list grow, and every now and the I test the RTE Player.

It's flawless. Every time.

At this stage I've updated to Service Pack 1, I.E. 10 and my system is almost back to where it was when I had the problem.

Then, I went to Windows Update and downloaded and installed about fifty Important Updates and half a dozen or so Optional Updates, one of which was an Intel GMA Graphics Accelerator update.

I let Windows do its thing, the updates downloaded, installed and I restarted the computer and everything seemed cool.

Except RTE was flickering again.

Well, I sighed. After all, I'd narrowed it down to fifty-odd suspects so it was just a matter of time.

A lot of time.

Fortunately, I saved myself all of that time because I noticed that in my installed Programs list, there were two Intel GMA Graphic Accelerators installed, the latest one that I'd downloaded earlier because I'm OCD that way and the older one that windows had recommended.

I uninstalled them both then reinstalled the latest one and replaced the backup image of my system with this one, which, if I may say so, is pristine.

So, there are a few avenues for you to explore but the very first consideration for you should be to look at the thermal situation.

Is the computer located in a confined space, near a radiator perhaps? One that gets used more often as it gets colder?

Is it a laptop? Are you in a dusty environment? Do you have a coal fire?

Over time, a kind of 'fluff' can build up on the blades of the fan which render it ineffective as a cooling device.

Is your system over-clocked at all? This can lead to spurious results as errors can occur due the behaviour of the micro-electronics that are being exposed to excessive voltages and temperatures.

One other useful place to look is Task Manager. I have 29 processes running when I press ctrl-alt-delete and select Task Manager after start up. With virus protection running, Security Centre settings and Running Services set at their defaults you should expect to see no more than forty-five or so. Much higher than this should cause you to wonder where all your processing power is going.

Try to 'End' some of the running processes after start up and see if that solves the problem.

It could be simply a matter of deleting a few items from the Run key that are distributed around the registry.

One last thing...

... GET SOME SLEEP! :)
 
Solution