HELP! Blue Screen of Death!!!!

Disaster hath struck!

I'm in the middle of editing a photo shoot and suddenly, without any warnings/new software/new hardware/dodgy internet trawling/nothing(!), my PC has become unstable and spits out a BSOD every-other time I switch it on.

I'm at work now (not in front of my PC), but if anyone out there is PC-fluent, please give me some hints I can apply when I get home.

btw, my PC is a "local" machine, which means it's all in Japanese!
And I'm not fluent at reading the characters....which doesn't exactly help things.
It's running up-to-date Windows 7, with all the recent patches, etc.

Regards,

Simon

I can't read Japanese so you're mostly out of luck. Post a screenshot of the BSOD and I may be able to interpret the issue.

I am not sure if this will help, but the last time I had that sort of thing happen (multiple BSODs), it was with my previous computer. I was told at the local "geek" store that this was an indicator that my power supply was probably "going" and that I should probably get a new computer...soon.

The fact that this occurs when you switch on your computer, suggest to me, at least, that it may be something with the power supply - not sure, just putting this idea out there based on my experience.

WesternGuy

I agree with Western on power supply, can you borrow a power supply?
If so try that, if not get a higher power and better power supply, we all forget the juice required.
BSOD can read different things and are sometimes are not linked to the failure. it can even be a driver that has gone.
Good Luck with it
PS you could try the hard drive in another machine.

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Thanks guys for the ideas so far....
I'm finishing work in about 4 hours, so I'll log on again tonight and try to post a screen shot, or at the very least, find out which error code is coming up.

Cheers for now,

Simon

Last time I got unexplained BSODs, it was a faulty RAM stick. Maybe look in that direction too if you can?

Hey guys,

I'm home, got the PC up and running....then it crashed again and I pulled off the error code, searched the 'net on an old laptop and it looks like a hardware error!

So, it's going back to the shop tomorrow!

Thanks so much for the ideas.

Regards to all,

Simon

Have you tried taking any ram out and just plugging the mouse/screen and keyboard in?

Download a copy of memtest86, make a bootable floppy or USB, and boot your machine from the floppy. This will test your ram, it may take a while to run so be patient.

might be overheat.
how long u didnt clean up ur pc? :P

Last time I had that happen, my hard drive was on the way out.

As you can see from this thread it can be a lot of things, sometimes Windows is able to narrow down what it might be and give you a specific error code, sometimes it can't. Unless you're familiar with troubleshooting possible hardware failures or want to learn a shop is probably your best bet.

What was the code? If none of the quick fixes suggested work (reconnect and reseat anything like the RAM or addon cards) you may have to start swapping hardware or isolating ram sticks or running programs like the already mentioned memtest.

Try reseating the RAM

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THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Honestly, POTNers are the best!

But all is fixed.

For those interested, it was a "0X000001A" →　"5003" error code, under MACHINE_MEMORY.

And the RAM - some of which the shop had added when I bought the thing - wasn't all from the same manufacturer. It had started having a "fight" amongst itself, which had resulted in the BSOD.

Now, everything matches, the RAM is happy again, and my PC is running better than ever!

Cheers for now,

Simon