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Original poster

Blue Screen of Death, just how bad is it?

21 replies

dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 20:04

have a beloved laptop which facilitates most of my favourite things

shopping
keeping in touch with friends/family and
MNing

BUT I've had this blue scren a couple of times where it all shuts down

asked my dbrother who is highly skilled computer tech and he says basically its fecked

unfortunately said expert brother has no patience for explaining it to the little people i.e me so I'm not sure if my laptop is on its way out or not

if its a year old I'll be lucky and it was bloody pricey too - anyone on that knows about these things thats prepared to dumb it down for me please

OP posts:
ToiletRollCover · 13/02/2009 20:29

Is it still under warranty? If it is fecked maybe your bro could remove the hard drive which should have all your info on it? This was the advice I was given when DS spilled a drink on DP laptop.

Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 20:30

my brother got me one of those hard drive things that I'm supposed to back everything on to already so I got a row for not doing that

shall have to dig out the warranty, I just can't remember WHEN we got it

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onagar · 13/02/2009 20:31

There are plenty of things you can try so I wouldn't give up on it. You may even have the option to restore the drive to as it was when you bought it. (you would have to copy your own files off first)

What operating system does it have? Windows XP would be most likely I guess, but XP doen't suffer from those BSODs very often.

If it is XP it keeps a list of events/errors which might tell us what caused it.

In case it is XP right click My Computer and select 'Manage'

On the top left you should find the event viewer with sections for Applications, System etc. They should be most recent first and you're looking for a a red icon which means a serious error. You can double click them for more info and post what it says.

The other direction to take is to to make sure you have an up to date anti-virus and do a scan with it.

You may also want to try installing and running Spybot in case you have spyware cauing it.

nomoremagnolia · 13/02/2009 20:36

If it's still under warranty then take it back but if not try a system restore (from the windows start menu go to help and type it in the search box). It might only give you a few more months life though, we gave up after system-restoring our old laptop about 20 times (though this gave us another year of life on it)
I'd suggest the next time you get it working properly you back up everything you'd be sad to lose (photos especially) then if/when it dies totally you won't be so cross that you've lost stuff iyswim.

Jux · 13/02/2009 20:37

My beloved laptop was a 'Friday afternoon' machine and after a few months kept on blue screening. Usually I got it booted up again eventually. The thing is to try to get the error number - which is often only up for a few seconds - and then google it. There will be lots of fixes etc. I kept it running for nearly 2 years like that, but eventually got fed up with it and called in the warranty (extended thank god); it got taken away and sent back with no perceptible difference. Then dh rang them and was very firm so they took the m/c away again and gave it a new motherboard. It's worked fine since.

bluebump · 13/02/2009 20:43

I too had the 'blue screen of death' I thought DP was joking around in his term of it but it seems everyone calls it this! I got him to back up everything important on his laptop about a month ago and it seems to be working fine still...touch wood! I'd be very very lost without my laptop! Mine is well outside of its warranty unfortunatley.

Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 20:46

onagar its Vista we have which we got with it but my brother doesn't rate at all so another reason he thinks I'm a pillock

bluebump I also laughed at my brother when he first said it - how little I know!!!

OP posts:
tribpot · 13/02/2009 20:49

It's not permanently dead, your bro is exaggerating. You prob have a driver that needs sorting out (this can be tricky I will say). Dbro needs to shut his trap, or tell you how to engage with your warranty, way too young to just be up the spount.

Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 20:52

tribpot am liking your style!! to be fair the WHOLE family go to him everytime there is something wrong with so much as a plug/light bulb/microwave right up to laptop/PC etc!!

have had a look at the applications thing that onagar suggested and to my untrained eye I can't see anything flagged up in red

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cmotdibbler · 13/02/2009 20:57

How up to date is your virus checker ? There are some that will crash your pc like that

Do you have a lot of photos and stuff on it ? That can cause PCs to fall over too if they just don't have enough space to run properly

Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 20:59

yes, all the photos should have been moved over already so I need to do that tomorrow

we have AVG I think? is that right? DH normally deals with the virus stuff

I'm sitting typing away on it btw, its not died completely its just my dbrother put the heebies up me when he said its probably on its way out as we're getting the blue screen more frequently

then again he used to tell me that about my personal stereos when the batteries ran out so he could take the to pieces to see how they worked my techical skills apparently haven't improved much since the age of 7

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cmotdibbler · 13/02/2009 21:06

Might be worth checking it then - right click on it and check the update date - it should be in the last week

DH's brother styles himself as the PC guru, and I had to keep fixing FIL's PC after he had had a go at it

Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 21:09

unfortunatly dbrother really does know his stuff, I think he's just getting fed up with fixing everything of mine

he's just not very good at explaining things iyswim

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Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 21:10

have right clicked on it but can't see where it tells me last time it was run?

OP posts:
cmotdibbler · 13/02/2009 21:14

There should be something about a virus definition file - I've got Symantec, so can't tell you exactly

Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 21:15

ok will have another look

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Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 21:16

apparently it checks it every day? would that be right?

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cmotdibbler · 13/02/2009 21:28

Thats good, but when was the virus checker itself last updated ? It should be downloading new versions of itself regularly so that it catches new viruses

Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 21:32

ah right, got you now
shall look

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DadOnAHotTinRoof · 13/02/2009 21:39

it's like somebody else said, it's 99% certain a driver you have installed that has a bug in it. Not your fault, and if it only happens at shutdown then it's probably not a huge problem - just inconvenient. Graphics drivers are the usual culprit, and updating them often fixes the issue.

Next time you have one, look at the last line on the screen - it'll show a filename and an address. Something like
"atidrv.dll - Address FBE733DF at base...." and a load of other gumf. It's that filename you're interested in - it'll tell you what the computer was doing when it blew up. Google for that filename, and you'll find what driver it's part of (probably) - almost certainly your graphics card.

Don't stress. Usually not a big issue.

Original poster
dizzydixies · 13/02/2009 21:43

thanks Dad

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