Is there a Computer Doctor in the house?

[DizFan101]

My computer is going haywire these past few months with the blue screen of death. Memory Dumps. Sometimes it will be fine one minute and then do crash dumps like 10 minutes later and sometimes 1 after the other and it's very frusterating. Is there something i can do to fix it myself?

 

[HM]

You probably need to wipe out everything and reload all your programs, starting fresh. You should be able to save your content on USB drives, just don't save any programs. But, I'd probably check with the Geek Squad at Best Buy for any other ideas before doing this.

 

[Familycircus]

Try doing a system restore from a date before the trouble started.
Go to Control Panel, choose System Maintenance, then Back up & Restore, then System Restore. It will walk you through it and you should be able to enter any ol' date as a restore point. Your files since that date will not be lost.

I had to do this on my laptop a couple weeks ago. Somehow my son seems to mess it up sometimes playing games online.

 

[bonoriffic]

Go to a restore point before the errors started.

The best solution is to upgrade your OS. Blue screen of death means you aren't on Windows 7. (Not that Windows 7 is 100% perfect, they just don't have the blue screen anymore, it is black) Most computers can upgrade to Windows 7 and will gain the benefits of a modern OS, vastly improved security and stability, and the side benefit that reinstalling any OS will always cure random quirks that aren't there from the beginning.

 

[SandrA9810]

Back up your files that you need, or you can use an online back up program. I purchased one at Office Depot for 80$. It saves the entire harddrive, and it can be reloaded onto the same computer or different computer. Easy way when changing computers.

From there, re-install Windows and start fresh. And Windows 7 still isn't bug free. Windows XP is about as bug free as you can get these days.

 

[bonoriffic]

From there, re-install Windows and start fresh. And Windows 7 still isn't bug free. Windows XP is about as bug free as you can get these days.

Windows XP is "bug free" in the sense that it is no longer capable of receiving technical support from Microsoft, has massive security and performance gaps compared to 7, and is unable to run most new software produced by Microsoft.

No operating system is bug free, but to suggest Windows XP is preferred over Windows 7 is insane advice assuming you have a modern computer that is capable of running 7. (And if your computer runs XP which was released 9 years ago it should run 7 just fine)

 

[FireDancer]

Windows XP is "bug free" in the sense that it is no longer capable of receiving technical support from Microsoft, has massive security and performance gaps compared to 7, and is unable to run most new software produced by Microsoft.

No operating system is bug free, but to suggest Windows XP is preferred over Windows 7 is insane advice assuming you have a modern computer that is capable of running 7. (And if your computer runs XP which was released 9 years ago it should run 7 just fine)

Windows XP is still supported by Microsoft.

Windows Vista and 7 have some additional security which is great but requires the people writing the software take advantage of it. Unfortunately too many developers are lazy and write bad code making it necessary for Windows Vista and 7 to downgrade their security to run them (specifically Address Space Layout Randomization and Data Execution Prevention).

In reality the biggest security threat to any computer is the user. If they don't click on malicious links, don't execute infected programs, and block all unneeded scripts any OS can be safe.

To the OP, If you haven't recently upgraded drivers or added hardware I would just make sure all my files were backed up and reinstall a clean version of Windows. It is much quicker if you slipstream SP3 into your Windows XP disc. If you have upgraded drivers you can roll them back to see if it stops the BSOD. Running a good disc repair utility (SpinRite is the best by far) could fix any errors on the disc that could be causing the BSOD. I run SpinRite monthly to keep the discs performing at their maximum.

 

[jsmith]

more information as to the age of the machine and the type of Windows Operating system you are running would be helpful however-the "blue screen of death" simply means that your Operating system has encoutered a STOP error-which could be caused by anything from adding new hardware to a bad update install to hardware in the system going bad.. if you write down the error code that it gives you on the blue screen and google it-that will give you some insite into what is causing the error. If you added new hardware before the problem started-try removing it and deleting the drivers. If not-as others have said-back up your files and reload your operating system-you could upgrade to a new version of windows or not as you choose-although if perchance you were still running windows ME-i would highly adovate it. Reloading the operating system will resolve most STOP error issues-however-if you have hardware going bad-it wont solve the problem.

 

[bonoriffic]

Windows XP is still supported by Microsoft

XP moved from mainstream to extended support which means no free technical support. Security updates continue until 2014. I was clear that technical support had ended.

I'm aware of all the various caveats you noted about security, having been a Windows developer for many years now. I also realize that people are their own worst enemy as 7 gives you a significantly better chance at preventing disaster, running faster, and getting more down than XP alone.

The inability to install Windows Live Essentials 2011 on XP alone should be reason enough to upgrade. Free automatic cloud backup of your data up to 5 GB. Why that doesn't get more attention I don't know.

 

[golfgal]

Go to a restore point before the errors started.

The best solution is to upgrade your OS. Blue screen of death means you aren't on Windows 7. (Not that Windows 7 is 100% perfect, they just don't have the blue screen anymore, it is black) Most computers can upgrade to Windows 7 and will gain the benefits of a modern OS, vastly improved security and stability, and the side benefit that reinstalling any OS will always cure random quirks that aren't there from the beginning.

That is good to know. I still have XP on this computer and desktop and Vista on 2 other laptops and I was considering getting 7 for them-DS has it on his computer and it has a lot more features. I was worried that since these computers were built for XP/Vista that they might not run as well.

 

[FireDancer]

XP moved from mainstream to extended support which means no free technical support. Security updates continue until 2014. I was clear that technical support had ended.

My bad. I thought you meant they weren't supporting it at all meaning no patches. As long as they patch the OS I consider it supported sincw that is all I really need. Does anyone really call Microsoft for technical support any more? I've never had an issue I wasn't able to find a solution for in the Knowledge base somewhere.

That is good to know. I still have XP on this computer and desktop and Vista on 2 other laptops and I was considering getting 7 for them-DS has it on his computer and it has a lot more features. I was worried that since these computers were built for XP/Vista that they might not run as well.

Just about anything that will run Vista will run 7, and many times much better.