Has anyone else experienced this?

The past few days my machine has blue screened 3 or 4 times, I'll come back to the PC to the login box (sometimes in 800x600 and other times at native res).

This is the blue screen 'error' message

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 3081

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 24
BCP1: 00000000001904FB
BCP2: FFFFF8800AD556E8
BCP3: FFFFF8800AD54F40
BCP4: FFFFF880012E6FEE
OS Version: 6_1_7600
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\121909-18922-01.dmp
C:\Users\heardy\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-604051-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Machine is
Win 7 - 64 bit
E8400 - not overclocked
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3
4gb ram
8800GTX
1tb WD Black drive

As I stay this has randomly just started, nothing new in the machine, it was humming along nicely for the past few months (rarely switched off).

Thoughts?

Do a RAM and HDD test. Fully updated drivers wise? Use WU as it's pretty good for everything WHQL wise.

My First through is a driver or hardware issue.

Have you updated any drivers recently - specifically video drivers etc?

What temp is ur cpu/vid card running at? Is it a normal temp? Not forgetting how how it is this time of year and overheating could be your issue.

Do you have onboard video you can test the machine on that with the video card out?

That is all I can suggest going from the information you have given. It sounds like a hardware or overheating problem. I am guessing memory sticks. Tried replacing? swapping cleaning sticks?

That is all I can think of right now.

As I stay this has randomly just started, nothing new in the machine, it was humming along nicely for the past few months (rarely switched off).

Dust in the heatsinks causing any overheating? Combine the dust with (as Tiny said) the fact that it's summer.

I haven't updated any drivers (unless there is an auto update function in win 7?).

Motherboard has onboard vid, so that's an option.

I do have some other ram so I'll use that.

Any recommended ram/hdd tests to run?

Heat I don't think would be an issue, we run air con as soon as it gets hot and the PC is in a well ventilated area. Having said that I've taken off the sides of the case to install another HDD (temporarily, which is now removed) and I haven't put the sides back on - one of the sides has a fan (CPU I think) blowing air in, might whack them back on and see what happens.

Anyway of seeing what the temps are in Win 7? (such a newb at win7 :/)

It doesn't matter what temp it is outside if your heatsink is covered in dust. One of my heatsinks got so full of dust the AC did nothing and the CPU hit 80 degrees celsius.

If I recall, boot up from your windows 7 DVD and there's a memory test thing in the repair options somewhere otherwise memtest86 I guess.

As for temps, your video card should have utilities to see its temps and try RightMark CPU Clock Utility (RMClock) for your CPU. Alternatively in my BIOS there's a section with hardware temp monitoring & fan speeds so go see if yours has that.

Yes Windows Update can update drivers but I think it's optional and won't update them automatically but can't say for sure because I turn windows update off & check for updates manually after having windows automatically restart my PC while i'm in the middle of a game a number of times.

out of curiosity what is people's favourite way to clean a heatsink?

i have a thermaltake which is absolutely chockablock full of dust. and reckon its about due for a clean.

i would be betting on faulty ram heardy.

When mine hit 80 I took the entire PC to pieces, took the fan off the heatsink (seriously there was no other way to get all that dust out) and had at it with a compressor.

These days I clean my PC more regularly so now I just turn the regulator all the way down on my compressor & blow the small amounts of dust out that way with everything still in the PC unless it's time for more thermal paste in which case the heatsink comes out & gets a clean.

i hate taking my heatsink off. it's a real c*** to get back on. would a vacuum do the trick?

hate taking my heatsink off. it's a real c*** to get back on. would a vacuum do the trick?

buy an air compressor

This is the blue screen 'error' message

your PC is brokeded or you've unintentionally loaded in a 32bit app that Win7 really doesn't like Heardy

last edited by koopz at 18:36:11 19/Dec/09

depends how much dust is on it but yeah if you have a vacuum with a small enough attachment it might work.

\/\/\/ Wouldn't it be doing it from the start if it was a BIOS issue? Since it's just started I'd put it down to
A) heat
B) windows update
C) user error, this is heardy we're talking about :p

last edited by whoop at 05:16:54 20/Dec/09

Is your system BIOS up to date?

my work pc used to bsod once every few days.. ended up cleaning out all the caked on dust and hasn't bsod since..

Hasn't bsod since I posted this (typical) and I've changed nothing and cleaned nothing.

The HSF is clean as it's only a few months old.

Fingers crossed it's fine again :shrugs:

having said that, at home my internet explorer crashes f***ing constantly. I have win7.. never crashed with windows xp, don't get it 0.o

Bugcheck 24 is NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM. For more info, load up the crash dump in windbg, and run !analyze -v (works better if you follow the instructions that display about setting up symbols). Also use the "kb" command to get a call stack, ntfs.sys will be the star of the show.

Highest probability cause is corrupted filesystem, chkdsk /f should do the trick.

Failing that:
- filesystem filter driver could be buggy; antivirus and Sony-style rootkits. Check call stack in crash dump to verify.
- ntfs.sys could be buggy, make sure you've got the latest version
- (unlikely) memory
- (unlikely) disk