Help with BSOD, Windows 7

hellothere_1975

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Jan 29, 2011
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Hey guys and gals. I built my computer about a year ago, and it's been doing great until the last couple of months. Lately, it crashes, seemingly arbitrarily. I know there is a website where folks will take the information from crashes and discern what the problem is, but I can't recall the name. Any suggestions?
 

therogerwilco

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Dec 22, 2009
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If you've got the time, uninstall all drivers for addin hardware/motherboard stuff, and choose the 'delete this' in the uninstall (right click computer>manage>device manager> right click each and choose uninstall. that's after removing everything from add/remove)
It's easiest to do a fresh install of 7, then use the pc for a day or two doing your normal routines, if you don't bluescreen, install 1 thing, then rinse and repeat. yes it takes a good few days to a week, but to accurately gauge what's going on /shrug

otherwise take all the hardware out of your tower, clean all the dust out and look for hardware abnormalities (bulged caps, residue buildup across pathways, nicks/scratches) then put it all back together. of course it would be best to do all the cleaning/hardware inspection before reinstalling 7 and following the above steps.

also if after cleaning, fresh thermal paste (including taking off the graphics card heatsink and replacing thermal paste there), and putting everything back together, if you install 7 and nothing else and then run windows update fully, you still have a bluescreen, try moving (JUST BARELY) the cpu heatsink, video card, and ram. you could say "just rock them back and forth A LITTLE BIT", we're not trying to break anything, but you want to be sure if any connectors are getting old they make contact when you jostle the components.
I personally have a board that's almost 8 years old?(p7n platinum) and my memory slots metallic connectors are wearing out, so I can jostle the ram a little and it will freeze/bluescreen randomly because the connectors didn't touch on just a couple wires. so I must jostle it a little for them to catch, and move back into the correct position to make contact.

hardware troubleshooting is a pain, but in the end, it's the only thing you can do besides reinstalling Windows, or buying new hardware... good luck!