Do you ever get the Blue Screen of Death?

MattinSTL

MattinSTL

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Just wondering. Tonight was the first night that I had a blue-screen crash since installing a totally fresh XP with all the updates.

Fortunately the computer does reboot and everything seems to be fine... but yeah it's a joke.

We just keep payin' out the ass for software and when it works it's great...

Did you know that many airliners are flying by computer and the pilot is really just there to be sure nothing goes wrong? I'd never get on anything that didn't have that pilot there... and honestly I'd feel safer if he was the only thing controlling my fate.
 
MattinSTL?

You've been just crusading on PC's and Microsoft with a vengeance lately? I don't have these problems. In fact; the majority of people I know with PC / XP does not have these problems.

So what's up? Why don't you just hire someone who know's what their doing ?
 
Trust me I feel like the lone ranger sometimes!

That's why I'm wondering if I REALL AM alone on this! I don't know what the hell the problem is but I'm trying to figure it out.

I'll be sure to post a pic of my blue-screen along with a copy of a current newspaper the next time it happens so you know I'm not on a mission.

I've got a system built to the exact compatibility specs on the Canopus site and I had frequent crashes during the zombie thing. I finally decided it was a Premiere issue related to 24p or something... (Premiere 6.0)... so I bought PPRO, but scoured the Vegas/Premiere threads before opening it... finally returned PPRO to order Vegas 6 + DVD.

And as I started off with I did a total system reformat not too long ago (after all the Premiere problems)...

My computer may be set up a little more complex then some people... but it shoudln't be any big deal. The only "unique" thing about it is swappable HD for system and storage plus external firewire storage for additional video volumes. Also dual monitors (+analog monitor)

The system is a 3gig P4 with BFG 6800 GT and 1 gig of HyperX plus Audigy 2... all on an Intel board "for stability".

I wish I didn't have these problems... but I'll stop bitching about it. I was hoping somebody would say "yeah... mine does that too... but just save a lot and reboot when it happens".
 
I feel ya brother'

I just have never had any issues. The only time I ever had any seriosu problems was when I did not use any Anti-Virus of sorts (Norton). Occasionally random conflicts but usually patch updates fix the problem, driver updates fix the problems......

Go Dell! LOL!
 
MattinSTL said:
Trust me I feel like the lone ranger sometimes!

That's why I'm wondering if I REALL AM alone on this! I don't know what the hell the problem is but I'm trying to figure it out.
Click to expand...

One thing no one ever does is read the hardware compatibility list. It's a longass list, but if any of the hardware is not on it, there may be problems.

Me, I've one gotten a blue screen on one of my machines, and that was from a seriously screwed up harddrive...which held the pagefile. Bad sectors are not a good thing. :)

Well, that's on one of the machines at home.

My Dell at work choked on installing XP. Discouraging. I hate OEM OS versions.
 
I used to get Blue screens a lot when playing Games. I also get blue screen at times when using my USB 2.0 Ports.
But the blue screens for playing the games went away after I got a better brand of memory. So alas don't feel alone on the good ole blue screen. It's just Windows Machine allow more options for customization so that opens up "potentially" more issue with different HW/SW
 
my girlfriend's computer has two copies of windows on it and about sixty unused icons on the desktop and occasioanaly when it works through the bad pagefile it runs. then the power goes out or something.
 
I promise I won't ***** any more.

Just so you know I've built 5 computers so far and 3 of them have been totally problem free and 2 of them have caused a little more work to sort out. Unfortunately it's the 2 that I have had that were the most trouble. I built an SFF for my GF and she loves it. I didn't want part with that little bugger! It is a piano black with chrome face... bare-bones board with my old P4 2G and a Radeon 9800. That little thing can run D3 on med res with no problems and so far she's never had a SINGLE problem with it in nearly 1.5 years.

The other two computers have been built for family and I get a call on them every few months because they let their kids run wild on 'em... so they download all sorts of problems for me to fix. I explain to them all the basics about that, as well as the usual speeches about unnecessary stuff slowing the computer down (like the 3D fly through the harbor screen saver and evolving dinosaur pointers).

With my video computers I printed out the hardware compatibility list and used that as my shopping list. Even down to the RAM! If you go to Tom's Hardware they have a chart which shows ram issues by brand. The lowest occurance of problems was Kingston. (My last system, which was actually more stable then my current one used a P4 2 GIG and a gig of Corsair Rambus.) I started off with generic Kingston ram and upgraded to HyperX... I actually had 2 gigs in the board to start with and yes, I too was experiencing crashes in video games. But before you say "hey you dummy that's why you don't put games on the same system with your NLE" please see my opening sentence about swappable system HD. I did that so I could play with a (at the time) high-end computer and then swap over to "work mode" afterward. This way NOTHING was in common between the two. Since I bought a $450 video card I wanted to play around with FarCry, HL2, and D3.

So anyway... I guess I do push my machine a little more then my friends and YES I am the only one I know who has these odd problems. That is a bummer for me.

I'll try to back off on the paranoid rants. Some days I feel like the world of computing is out to get me... especially when I tried to do everything right to an OCD level.

I probably could benefit from a local buddy that knows more about computers then I do... but I'm not exactly "green" either.
 
Dude, you could always like program your own Operating system, something I have promised to do myself in the future.
 
I thought about John's initial reply and took it seriously... maybe I'm not as sharp on the computer as I thought I was. I'm probably going to take some CC classes to pick up where I left off. I was going (CC is a joke, but whatever it's something) for a computer science degree but I couldn't stand the C+ and Cobol... I was ripping my hair out with boredom.

I'm so thankful for all the times that my computer works well that I guess I overreact when it's not. It just bums me out when some friends of mine never seem to have any problems.

The advice about the dll/conflict is probably good... I have no conflicts with irq etc... but I'll have to check the dll registry.

I did get a little bubble pop up and say I should run chkdsk... but it also said that it may take a couple DAYS so I haven't run it yet.

I think the holidays got me cranky... sorry I vented some of that on here.
 
MattinSTL said:
I did get a little bubble pop up and say I should run chkdsk... but it also said that it may take a couple DAYS so I haven't run it yet.
Click to expand...

Oh...you really really should. If it's so bad that it's propting you to do it, you'd better.

Do all the drives with this: chkdsk <drive letter>: /R and tell it to do it at the next reboot.

Then reboot.

I sometimes set the pagefile size to 0 before a reboot chkdsk, then put it back after Windows comes back up. Less checking to be done, and it "defragments" the pagefile, which ain't gonna happen normally.
 
MattinSTL said:
Just wondering. Tonight was the first night that I had a blue-screen crash since installing a totally fresh XP with all the updates.
Click to expand...

How long ago was that? I've found XP can be trouble free for about 3 months, then a total re-install. I think XP is the best MS has done, but it's still squirrelly.
 
I don't think I've had one on my just under a year old PC. I've had maybe one kernel panic on my mac.

In terms of minor crashes, far more on the PC, but some on the mac, too. Blame it on spyware and me not taking care of the computer.
 
Some Helpful Hints

Some Helpful Hints

Here is some computer maintenance one can perform on a regular basis to ensure stress free computer operation.

Registry

What is it?

A central hierarchical database used in Microsoft Windows 9x, Windows CE, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 used to store information necessary to configure the system for one or more users, applications and hardware devices.

(source Microsoft Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition)

Recommended Maintenance

Use any registry Utilities (many software vendors out there)
I would personally recommend using RegScrubXP

Link:
http://www.sofotex.com/RegScrubXP-download_L7528.html

History, temp, old, compressed other files

Over time the hard drive gets "clogged" up with unused and unwanted files, deleting these files regularly is good practice. It can be done with Windows XP or you can use third party software.

I would recommend using CCleaner, it has some additional features such as a registry cleaner much like RegScrubXP, however it does seem to be faster than RegScubXP, although the downside is that it is not as precise as RegScrubXP, my advice would be to run them both, that way you will have everything covered. It also includes a uninstall tool much like windows uninstaller, however it can delete entries that may be broken or corrupted/deleted (very Handy)

link
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Spyware, malware

Surfing the net can result in nasty things being installed on your computer without your awareness. Its like playing in the jungle, sure its fun but you will get bitten by insects. Use anti-spyware to keep your system clean

my recommendations, Adware SE Personal and spybot searh & destroy

link:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

http://www.safer-networking.org/

Virus, Trojans

Self explanatory, use good anti-virus software, if you can not afford it then try PC-Chillin’s excellent Free online HouseCall(tm) scanner:

Note: you will have to install some ActiveX or Applet in order to use this free scanner (you only need to install once)

Link:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Harddrive Defragment

Over time the data stored in the hard-drive becomes dis-organised resulting in slow down in performance, use the Windows built in Defrag tool.

Windows File Protection

If you system becomes unstable due to system files accidentally over written or move/deleted/corrupted, Windows XP has a Windows File Protection utility to use to the following:

Click on Start, then on run then type:

sfc /scannow

Check this site for more detailed explanation:

http://www.compphix.com/windowsfileprotection.html

Thats about it for now, Happy Computing! :)

Anhar
 
I have issues with my job's PC and laptop all the time but never my home pc and laptops... Oh and my mac rules them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehe
 
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