Well I really don't know where to start so I'll just start from the beginning. This is for my friend who's been receiving BSOD, making my life enjoyable because he's computer-handicapped. It all started when we were playing a game (Warcraft III) and he received it out of nowhere. This would happen at least 3 times a week for him while he's playing and of course it bought laughter so I didn't care much. He was running on Windows XP at the time. As time passes, we move onto a new game (Heroes of Newerth). He would receive occasional lag that was likely due to the junk in his computer but never a BSOD. He wanted to reformat to get a fresh start but didn't want XP since he knew I had 7. So I gave him 7 a month ago and it was installed without any problems. Of course, not until we started playing games. There would be lag but that had more to do with driver issues and BSOD resurfaces once again. He would get it as often as he did with Warcraft III on XP. He would just cry about how god hates him. Long story short, it's back and it brings back joy. Now flash to the present whereas Black Friday has just passed and he bought a new computer case along with a new power supply. I don't know where he learned that his computer was overheating or not providing enough power but it obviously wasn't from me. It came today and he spent 3 hours setting everything up. He decides to play his first game after the installation and as the game was loading to play... BSOD. That's right. BSOD. Now my friend is just crying so hard about how he spent 90 on a new case and power supply and it gave him a BSOD before he could even play a game. Of course I'm laughing so hard at first but I start feeling sorry for him. Right now he's probably crying himself to sleep. Now the questions are. Are there any solutions to this? Is there anyway to check what the problem is? He's also on a low on cash so I doubt suggesting new parts would work.
Well more info on the BSOD would help. Also have you looked in the event viewer? I would also try a different video driver and see if that helps. Does the BSOD only happen when he plays games?
BSOD can come from so many reasons. Bad ram, HDD, Mobo, OS, add on hardware, drivers, software and so on and so. Being that its coming while playing it could be DX related aswell. I'd do a re install and go barebones. Meaning install OS and ALL new and updated drivers for everything and absolutely nothing else. No other software, just AV and the firewall. From chipset to soundcard, get the latest drivers for every hardware. Then I'd install the games. I wouldnt think of installing nothing else until I figured out whats causing the BSOD. If that doesnt work than it could be hardware issues.... Process of elimination takes time but it's the best way to figure it out. Googling the error msg he gets during the BSOD is helpful aswell.
This thread made me laugh so very hard and for that I hope you get the problem fixed. Info about these things might help others pin-point the problem: - The code of the BSOD. - The game(s) that caused the BSOD. - Does he get BSODs only when playing games? - Whether your friend has the latest DirectX and graphic card driver. - The computer Specs (CPU, Graphic card, amount of ram ...etc) As far as I know, overheating in-game might cause the game run slow, lag, and even crash completely, but I didn't know that it can also cause a BSOD. For that reason I have my doubts that it's an overheating issue.
Agreed. No need for a reinstall...yet. Try to provide us with the above requested info, so we can try to pinpoint the exact cause. Untill we see that information, we can't even determine if the BSOD is hard- or software related.
Sorry for going off-topic but didnt microsoft removed the BSOD screen in vista and 7 ????. I didnt see the BSOD screen since 2006.
Since when OS by MS been fully stable before SP1? BSODs, instability, freezes weird errors etc should be expected. If you want more stable OS go back to vista or XP. Yes they both are a lot more stable than 7 (partially due drivers obviously). OK. Back to original question. As the problem is while playing it's most likely either GFX card overheating or some nice driver incompatibility. E.g. nvidia has had quite "nice" drivers released as whql lately. Especially 19x driver series quality is "try them all and maybe something works for you".
Nah. It's still there. XP and vista just been too stable to notice it lately. I think they made it to quick boot so you didn't have time to see it by default tho
possibly bad RAM...before running out and buying new memory, can he borrow some modules from someone that he can use for a while to see if the BSODs go away?