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Help! Blue Screen and I don't know why!
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11-05-2016 3:05pm#1Administrators, Business & Finance Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,920 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Join Date:Posts: 16110
I'm hoping somebody can help me, I'm having a problem with my computer and I've no idea what to do, or what's causing it. Apologies in advance if this is a long post, but I want to try and include as much information as possible
Problem started last night, I turned on my computer and for some reason it looked to be in safe mode when it booted up, although when I put in my password and logged in, it wasn't in safe mode, all the icons were just huge and looked the way it does in safe mode. I rebooted, hit F8 to bring up the Boot menu and selected 'Start Normally'. It all seemed to be going well up until I had to put in my password to log in, I did that and then it switched itself off and started up again.
When it started up again I got this message on a black screen:Windows Error Recovery
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.
If Windows files have been damaged or configured incorrectly, Startup Repair can help diagnose and fix the problem. If power was interrupted during startup choose Start Windows Normally.
(Use the arrow keys to highlight your choice)
Launch Startup Repair (Recommended)
Start Windows Normally
So obviously, I selected Startup Repair thinking there must be a problem somewhere, but when I do, the screen just goes black for a second and the same message reappears. After trying that about 10 times, I decided to try 'Start Normally'. The "Starting Windows" screen with the red, green, yellow and blue logo animation appeared and then the computer rebooted.
So at this stage I thought something must have updated in the background and is causing a problem, so I went into the boot menu and tried to boot in Safe mode. It took several tries to get it to successfully boot in safe mode, and my plan was to do a system restore. HOWEVER, when I went in to do it, my computer wasn't detecting any save points or backups to restore from, which it should, because I had to to a system restore before Christmas. It also wouldn't let me create a backup because it said that the drive I boot windows off didn't have 70GB of space free, and it wouldn't let me use my other drive (has about 300GB free) because it needs to use the drive that windows boots from.
I tried to reboot again, and then everything seemed to be normal. I left it for about half an hour in case it was fixing stuff in the background and when it hadn't crashed or done anything else weird, I decided to stick on Fallout 4 (why I'd turned it on in the first place).
I use Steam for my games, so when I launched Fallout 4, the first thing it did was update Steam, then the game launched normally. I did notice it took slightly longer than usual to start up, but nothing major. So I was playing for about 5 mins and suddenly it crashed and I got a blue screen. The screen was only there for about 10 seconds so I didn't even get the chance to read what was on it before it disappeared.
At that point it was about 3am, so I didn't bother trying to restart and I just went to bed.
About an hour ago I thought I'd switch it on again and see what was going on. So to my surprise, it started up normally and seemingly without any issues at all. My first concern was the fact that the computer couldn't find any backup files, so I went in to see what I could do about that. The disc my computer boots from is G so I went and right clicked on it, got up properties, and thought it might be a good idea to scan it for errors. Clicked to start the scan and then...blue screen :mad: luckily I had my wits about me this time, so I managed to take a picture of it before it disappeared:
Admittedly, I understand very little of that, so I tried to reboot in Safe mode and it wouldn't let me. Eventually after a couple of tries, it looked to be starting to boot up, and then I got another blue screen. This one flashed up so quickly I didn't get a chance to photograph it before it disappeared, but I saw that near the top it said
FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA
Another attempt at starting in safe mode brought me back to the black screen I quoted above. And several more attempts to start up have resulted in another blue screen, which I did get a shot of this time:
Next time I tried to boot into safe mode, I've now got a black screen with a white mouse arrow in the middle of it and I don't know where to go from here because I'm afraid of damaging it.
Can anyone help please??
Here's as much info about my system as possible, unfortunately since my computer won't boot up now I can't get any more:
Desktop PC running Windows 7 64 bit
Processor: AMD FX-4300 Sockel AM3+ Quad Core 3.80 GHz
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 AM3+ ATX
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 EX OC 2GB GDDR5 2x DVI HDMI
Ram: 8GB0
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Hi
at the beginning <quote>.....I turned on my computer and for some reason it looked to be in safe mode when it booted up, although when I put in my password and logged in, it wasn't in safe mode, all the icons were just huge and looked the way it does in safe mode.....</quote> it sounds like graphics driver replaced with standard VGA driver (Vga.sys generic video driver). This is the driver that Windows uses in Safe mode. This could be graphics card failure/near miss issue. Would you be capable to replace graphics card if you have spare one (looks like MB don't have one on-board), it might be worth to try?
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The lads over at sevenforums will help you out. Have a look at this http://www.sevenforums.com/bsod-help-support/201437-bsod-windows-7-x64-nvlddmkm-sys-dxgkrnl-sys-dxgmms1-sys.html it seems as if it's your graphics card, have you tried the onboard graphics?I'm hoping somebody can help me, I'm having a problem with my computer and I've no idea what to do, or what's causing it. Apologies in advance if this is a long post, but I want to try and include as much information as possible
Problem started last night, I turned on my computer and for some reason it looked to be in safe mode when it booted up, although when I put in my password and logged in, it wasn't in safe mode, all the icons were just huge and looked the way it does in safe mode. I rebooted, hit F8 to bring up the Boot menu and selected 'Start Normally'. It all seemed to be going well up until I had to put in my password to log in, I did that and then it switched itself off and started up again.
When it started up again I got this message on a black screen:
So obviously, I selected Startup Repair thinking there must be a problem somewhere, but when I do, the screen just goes black for a second and the same message reappears. After trying that about 10 times, I decided to try 'Start Normally'. The "Starting Windows" screen with the red, green, yellow and blue logo animation appeared and then the computer rebooted.
So at this stage I thought something must have updated in the background and is causing a problem, so I went into the boot menu and tried to boot in Safe mode. It took several tries to get it to successfully boot in safe mode, and my plan was to do a system restore. HOWEVER, when I went in to do it, my computer wasn't detecting any save points or backups to restore from, which it should, because I had to to a system restore before Christmas. It also wouldn't let me create a backup because it said that the drive I boot windows off didn't have 70GB of space free, and it wouldn't let me use my other drive (has about 300GB free) because it needs to use the drive that windows boots from.
I tried to reboot again, and then everything seemed to be normal. I left it for about half an hour in case it was fixing stuff in the background and when it hadn't crashed or done anything else weird, I decided to stick on Fallout 4 (why I'd turned it on in the first place).
I use Steam for my games, so when I launched Fallout 4, the first thing it did was update Steam, then the game launched normally. I did notice it took slightly longer than usual to start up, but nothing major. So I was playing for about 5 mins and suddenly it crashed and I got a blue screen. The screen was only there for about 10 seconds so I didn't even get the chance to read what was on it before it disappeared.
At that point it was about 3am, so I didn't bother trying to restart and I just went to bed.
About an hour ago I thought I'd switch it on again and see what was going on. So to my surprise, it started up normally and seemingly without any issues at all. My first concern was the fact that the computer couldn't find any backup files, so I went in to see what I could do about that. The disc my computer boots from is G so I went and right clicked on it, got up properties, and thought it might be a good idea to scan it for errors. Clicked to start the scan and then...blue screen :mad: luckily I had my wits about me this time, so I managed to take a picture of it before it disappeared:
Admittedly, I understand very little of that, so I tried to reboot in Safe mode and it wouldn't let me. Eventually after a couple of tries, it looked to be starting to boot up, and then I got another blue screen. This one flashed up so quickly I didn't get a chance to photograph it before it disappeared, but I saw that near the top it said
FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA
Another attempt at starting in safe mode brought me back to the black screen I quoted above. And several more attempts to start up have resulted in another blue screen, which I did get a shot of this time:
Next time I tried to boot into safe mode, I've now got a black screen with a white mouse arrow in the middle of it and I don't know where to go from here because I'm afraid of damaging it.
Can anyone help please??
Here's as much info about my system as possible, unfortunately since my computer won't boot up now I can't get any more:
Desktop PC running Windows 7 64 bit
Processor: AMD FX-4300 Sockel AM3+ Quad Core 3.80 GHz
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 AM3+ ATX
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 EX OC 2GB GDDR5 2x DVI HDMI
Ram: 8GB
http://www.sevenforums.com/0 -
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I'd be able to take it out of the tower and put a new one in, if that's what you mean. Not sure about any software side though. I haven't got a spare lying around at the minute, although my bro in law might, I'll get the hubby to check. I just pulled out my graphics card there now, and it's absolutely caked in dust, so I'm going to try giving it a good clean and see if that does anything.
Same time check/clean rest of : CPU heatsink and fan, chassis fans, etc. use soft bristle brush, mind : pull power cord out, ESD - ground yourself to chassis. If gonna use hoover be careful as it can generate a lot of ESD.
Good luck
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Administrators, Business & Finance Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,920 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 16110
smuggler.ie wrote: »Same time check/clean rest of : CPU heatsink and fan, chassis fans, etc. use soft bristle brush, mind : pull power cord out, ESD - ground yourself to chassis. If gonna use hoover be careful as it can generate a lot of ESD.
Good luck
I'm in over my head here!! I probably could have cleaned the inside of the tower better, but I was concerned about damaging anything in there. Also didn't want to do too much to the processor because I've no thermal paste in the house if I accidentally move it or something.
I downloaded that Driver Sweeper thing, and cleared off all the NVidia software, but now I'm having trouble unpacking the file with the up-to-date drivers for the card.0 -
I'm in over my head here!! I probably could have cleaned the inside of the tower better, but I was concerned about damaging anything in there. Also didn't want to do too much to the processor because I've no thermal paste in the house if I accidentally move it or something.
I downloaded that Driver Sweeper thing, and cleared off all the NVidia software, but now I'm having trouble unpacking the file with the up-to-date drivers for the card.
Can I assume that after cleaning graphics got back to work?
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Latest driver you can find here: http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/102065 ,as much as know it includes whole bunch,
or you can leave it to windows update:D
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Not quite, it's still displaying as though it's in safe mode. My hubby is going to put Ubuntu on it and try to see if we can download the drivers through that (for some reason we can download that file but I keep getting 7 zip errors when trying to execute)
OK, at least you got PC back with no BSOD's.
See my last post (wont involve .zip) unless you have reason not to go that way.
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Administrators, Business & Finance Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,920 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 16110
Um, no idea at the minute, my hubby has Ubuntu running on it and is trying to check the drives for errors. It's showing up that the ATA output registers are missing (way beyond my comprehension at this stage) He has managed to get the Nvidia drivers installed though. 0 -
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OK, after much working on it by my husband, it's looking like the problem is either the memory, or the hard drive, or both. Unfortunately I haven't got any spare RAM knocking around to swap out and see if that improves anything.
:eek:
What makes you think like this?
What state PC in now?
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Administrators, Business & Finance Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 16,920 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 16110
My husband brought a spare gpu home from his brother's and swapped it out and it kept getting a blue screen when I tried to load up a game. He brought my Gpu over to his brother's and put it in his PC and it worked perfectly so I suppose in a way I'm glad cos the graphics cards are so expensive, but I still don't know what's wrong. 0 -
IMO if you have RAM or drive(c:/)problem you PC wouldn't boot at all.
POST would give some indication on RAM failure.
Do you have any beeps/internal LED light flashes at startup, if yes ..many?Check with AsRock support for meanings .
Back to graphics.
So PC boots with original card and BSOD's with havy load (game) only. Does it run OK without game(resolution ,dual monitor, recognized in Device manager, etc.)?
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If you get PC running do not attempt to do any work on it just let it run , and monitor if fans start spin faster and produce more noise, specifically VGA and CPU( possibility of overheat ). It had happened to me time ago.Fans would run mad and noisy , BSOD for few milliseconds and complete system shutdown ( to prevent possible damage of components).Heatsink was completely clogged with dust so could not went properly.... It sat ok for about half an hour or so, then I got another BSOD, but it appeared so briefly I didn't the chance to get the error code numbers off it. The only thing I did notice was that it didn't give any reason at the top like the others did (System service exception, etc)...
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Have to admit, my statement about RAM was somewhat harsh.RAM is definitely plausible, especially considering that you said you were getting errors when attempting to open the downloaded file. Use MemTest86 or the Windows Memory Diagnostic to test.
A PC can boot with bad RAM, it depends on how bad it is. It could be good enough to allow the system to POST, but corrupts whatever is put in the bad cells. Could cause anything from corrupted downloads to blue screens.
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Thanks for all the help guys! Was at a family party yesterday so didn't get to do any work on the computer, but on the plus side we got some thermal paste off the brother in law!
My PC isn't overclocked, it'd be a bit out of my grasp knowledge wise.
Since we now have thermal paste, we took the whole PC apart and gave everything a thorough cleaning; the heatsink was VERY clogged up with dust, so that was definitely contributing to the problem. Since we put it back together, I haven't had any more BOSDs, and we're able to do things like watch Netflix and stream as normal. I also managed to get Fallout 4 and Skyrim to load up, but if I got into any 'crowded' areas or battle scenes, the computer freezes. My hubby reckons the RAM is probably on the way out - it's the only bit we haven't been able to test. Turns out everyone else we know has DDR2 RAM and we've got DDR3.
1.Once you got so far with re-seating heatsink, you might do the same to GPU.There are some tools to monitor CPU, GPU state ,one of them http://openhardwaremonitor.org/ , might try to see if GPU not run to hot.
2.Run memtest as it was suggested (one stick at the time),memtest86 or http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ie/windows7/diagnosing-memory-problems-on-your-computer. This gonna take long time.DDR3 these days not to expensive.
As usually do one thing at the time and test system if it helped.
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Have a look at this, might be handy(had never used my self)
http://www.piriform.com/speccy
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
Also Event Viewer can give some info
Also in Task Manager watch not performance but processes tab to see what application or process eats the RAM, etc.
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