Computer Help

[S4toSTI]

Ok basically i need a computer problem diagnosed and hopefully fixed. Back story i bought a cheap laptop at best buy about a year ago now and it came with vista. It was working fine and i installed new ram into it and was working fine for about a month after that. I then started getting the blue screen of death anytime the computer was on for more then about 25 mins. I re installed vista no help. I formatted and re installed vista and still no help. I can only assume this is a ram problem but i tried pulling one and trying it and then the other and trying again and i was still have the problem. I don't know what is going on here. The laptop has been sitting forever now. I would like to have a back up so if anyone is will to help that would be awesome.

If anyone is willing to help please feel free to email me as that is the best way to get in touch. If you click on my name then email user thats a good one to get me at. Or pm me if you want.

[97TurboDSM]

someone else was having this problem recently and from reading the thread, i can only assume that its a mobo/cpu problem.

[S4toSTI]

Well if thats the case that suxors alotttttttttttt

[97TurboDSM]

truth. however, you might want to try completely new ram. im not sure if its possible, but maybe all the ram in the computer got corrupted.

[lagos]

The blue screen of death is usually caused by one of two things.
1. bad ram
2. heat.

Try sticking the ram that the laptop came with back in.
If that doesn't work, try opening up the fan area of the laptop and cleaning all the dust out with compressed air. Laptops are like mini vacuum cleaners. You'll be amazed at how much dust gets sucked in there and over heats the laptop.

If the laptop had some kind of motherboard incompatibility, it would have had these problems from the first day you bought it.

[Scapegoat]

Originally Posted by lagos

The blue screen of death is usually caused by one of two things.
1. bad ram
2. heat.

Try sticking the ram that the laptop came with back in.
If that doesn't work, try opening up the fan area of the laptop and cleaning all the dust out with compressed air. Laptops are like mini vacuum cleaners. You'll be amazed at how much dust gets sucked in there and over heats the laptop.

If the laptop had some kind of motherboard incompatibility, it would have had these problems from the first day you bought it.

dust and computers... no one ever realizes how bad it gets... I cleaned out my vent a few months back, and cleaned it out again last week and I'd bet there was no air flow getting in... not to mention all the dust inside the computer... clean that stuff out outside...

[Bizee]

have you checked the event viewer yet to see if any errors are in it?

[Vr-4-Life]

This could be a hardware problem, or a simple software problem.


Its not a cpu problem.
Its not a dust problem.
It could be ram.

in order to analyze the BSOD's you need to install debugging tools from microsoft and read the Minidumps that are reported from the BSOD...


everyone has good ideas but they wont get you far. if you want to.. bring it over and ill fix it.. im in lawrenceville NJ

[grimm]

I assume you made sure you are using the correct ram? Windows operating systems have some funky criteria when it comes to upgrading. I tried to dump 8GB of RAM into my desktop and found out the ax I could install is 4GB in 2GB pairs and even then I needed to install some auxiliary fan for the computer to boot up.

other wise i don't know...

[Ender81]

Originally Posted by Vr-4-Life

This could be a hardware problem, or a simple software problem.


Its not a cpu problem.
Its not a dust problem.
It could be ram.

in order to analyze the BSOD's you need to install debugging tools from microsoft and read the Minidumps that are reported from the BSOD...


everyone has good ideas but they wont get you far. if you want to.. bring it over and ill fix it.. im in lawrenceville NJ

Actually it could be dust depending on whether or not it is making connections between things that shouldn't be (metallic dust I saw it once in a computer that was kept in a garage). On a complete sidenote dust was such a problem with my pc running hot that when I built my new one I got a case with a slide out filter in front of the intake fan. Now once a month I slide it out wipe it down and clean it and slip it back in. Cut the amount of dust going into my pc incredibly.

VR is right the quickest and easiest way to find out the problem isn't guessing it's just checking the dumps using the correct tools. Guessing may get you the right answer at some point but doing it that way will get you the right answer right away (hopefully hahaha).

[lagos]

Dust = Heat = Crash

Looking at the event viewer will probably tell you some hardware fault. Those errors mostly occur from things running too hot. Just like what happens when you overclock your pc too far.

[Vr-4-Life]

Originally Posted by grimm

I assume you made sure you are using the correct ram? Windows operating systems have some funky criteria when it comes to upgrading. I tried to dump 8GB of RAM into my desktop and found out the ax I could install is 4GB in 2GB pairs and even then I needed to install some auxiliary fan for the computer to boot up.

other wise i don't know...

windows xp 32 bit can see 4gb of ram but only use about 3gb of it. you can use VMU's to virtually adress extra memory but eh its better to just go 64 bit.