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 Post subject: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 10:05 pm 
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I am still using Windows 7 Pro and recently went to Disney World and I shut down my computer when I left. Upon my return, it failed to boot up. I messed with it for a while and finally it booted up and I chose to start it "Normally". Everything was fine for about an hour and then I got the Blue Screen that said it was shutting it down and it started to dump memory. I then put in the CD that came with the computer and it loaded the Windows files and everything went back to normal again which I thought was kinda crazy because it never went through the full process of installing Windows but it has been working for two days now just as though nothing happened. None of my files or programs were lost during this "Computer Adventure" but I do have a question as to what course to take should it decide to do this again.

When I click on "My Computer", it opens 4 files, "C", "Image Back up D", "System Reservedy W", and "DVD RW Drive E".

I have no idea what is in System Reservedy W. The properties say there is 13MB in use but when it opens, it says the folder is empty.

The image back up D is 33GB and has one readable file in there which says that the CD that came with the computer is used in conjunction with the files in D to take the computer back to Factory Settings.

So in the event that it crashes again, what is the process to go through to get it back to Factory Settings where it would delete everything and start over?


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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 10:27 pm 
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Restore to factory is a pretty drastic move but is sometimes needed. There are things that I'd try before doing a factory restore such as re-seating device cards and memory. You would boot to the CD and follow the prompts. If you do not have a factory recovery CD your system should have an option to burn one. This is NOT the same recovery CD that you can burn through Windows Backup and Recovery.

This is just a guess but it is possible that one of your cards is not quite totally seated and the sitting for a few days allowed the loss of contact. Fiddling with the system brought the card back in contact. Even though you did not open the box just turning it on and off causes temperature changes that can affect the connection of a card.

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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 10:58 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Restore to factory is a pretty drastic move but is sometimes needed. There are things that I'd try before doing a factory restore such as re-seating device cards and memory. You would boot to the CD and follow the prompts. If you do not have a factory recovery CD your system should have an option to burn one. This is NOT the same recovery CD that you can burn through Windows Backup and Recovery.

This is just a guess but it is possible that one of your cards is not quite totally seated and the sitting for a few days allowed the loss of contact. Fiddling with the system brought the card back in contact. Even though you did not open the box just turning it on and off causes temperature changes that can affect the connection of a card.


Thanks Jay. I'm not going to do anything unless it happens again. I never turn that computer off, it runs night and day except for the brief moments when it turns off and back on after updates so it is very possible it was due to temperature change.


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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2018 11:12 pm 
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As long as everything seems fine I would also do nothing. I would though burn a factory recovery CD if you do not have one.

Just in case you did not know you can get rid of the D: and, probably the W: drives if they get in your way in your drive listings. Of course you would not actually get rid of them but you can go to Drive Management and remove the drive letters so they do not show. You can absolutely do this with D: and, most likely, W:.

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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 11:22 am 
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I assume you are imaging your system....


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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:43 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
As long as everything seems fine I would also do nothing. I would though burn a factory recovery CD if you do not have one.

Just in case you did not know you can get rid of the D: and, probably the W: drives if they get in your way in your drive listings. Of course you would not actually get rid of them but you can go to Drive Management and remove the drive letters so they do not show. You can absolutely do this with D: and, most likely, W:.


I removed the drive letters ok and I do have a Factory Disk to get back to ground zero. Thanks Jay.


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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:45 pm 
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Peter2150 wrote:
I assume you are imaging your system....


Not unless it does it automatically. Never did get into that imaging thing.


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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:38 am 
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Allyson wrote:
... Never did get into that imaging thing.

Ouch. Backup/Recovery programs, in my opinion, are even more important than security programs. Security programs cannot save you from everything, recovery can. You don't have to go out and get one, you have a pretty good one already built into Windows 7, and I do NOT mean System Recovery. And if you want a truly superior option, in my opinion, try Macrium Reflect which has a completely FREE version that does all of the important stuff, even Microsoft states that some third-party programs are better than theirs, but theirs is pretty darn good and you won't have to install it, you already have it.

Also, again in my opinion, you should completely shut down your pc every several days, refreshes the RAM or something like that. And as long as you are going to shut it completely down, if you do, keep it turned off all night, save money on your electric bill and save wear and tear on the parts. It would be interesting to hear others opinions about shutting down every so often, many of these folk know more than I do and that is not being falsely humble, they really do.
Good luck,
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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 1:27 pm 
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I'm one that turns off all our computers every night and turn them off at the socket as well. Apart from the saving on electricity bills there is the thought of anything going wrong with the electricity over night and causing any fires through faults developing, I'd rather be safe than sorry. ;-)

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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:55 pm 
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I leave mine on 24/7 but do shut down now and then.

It has been argued for years as to if it is better to leave on or shut down. There has never really been a definitive answer. The hardest time for electronics is when power is first applied. Leaving it on avoids this but has its own negatives.

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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:31 pm 
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Heh. How about this? Every few days turn your system COMPLETELY off for several seconds, then turn it back on. This way your hardware doesn't have a chance to get cold but your RAM gets completely flushed out and refreshed? They call it "the magic of the reboot" for a reason.
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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:39 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
It has been argued for years as to if it is better to leave on or shut down. There has never really been a definitive answer. The hardest time for electronics is when power is first applied. Leaving it on avoids this but has its own negatives.

Leaving aside the expansion and contraction of card contact points, which is where i suspect you may have been going with that ;) :dunno: ... I've always agrued/thought that you never really flush memory until you reboot :dunno: :dance3:

Back to Allyson, i was going all technical in a reply until i realised i might be getting a bit too technical for this thread so suffice to say I'm not convinced what anyone has done or suggested in this instance is the best route forward for her...

Changing her settings so her PC doesn't automatically reboot, and saves a Minidump file, would i suspect be far more productive than any backup might be.... a backup is only useful if it doesn't contain the garbage that caused the BSOD in the first place, stopping at a BSOD would likely give an insight into what caused the crash... one or more Minidumps potentially might paint a picture.

Minidumps are limited to 256KB and write to disc in a blink of an eye and are useful when opened with something like BlueScreenView.

Kernel Memory Dumps are, i believe the size of the system memory and the default option in Windows 7... take forever to write and are mostly always useless.


Last edited by Doddie on Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 5:42 pm 
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Acadia wrote:
...This way your hardware doesn't have a chance to get cold but your RAM gets completely flushed out and refreshed?...

Ah, i see Acadia beat me to it... puts a whole new dimension to the Scots saying of 'There's a moose loose aboot the hoose!' LOL


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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:24 pm 
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Couple of things.

1. I totally agree with Acadia. I am constantly amazed at the number of people who have to pay ransoms for their data because they don't have backups.

2. As to flushing memory, I've found on my new boxes that sometimes even rebooting isn't enough. Need to completely power down and then restart. Sometime a reboot doesn't always clear memory.

3. On the power on all the time. When I had a data center with bigger machines we did leave the machines on 24/7. But the was one of the first questions I asked Velocity Micro. They said there was nothing gained by not turning the machines off. I always power down at night. The said what was more important was air flow though the machines.


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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 10:57 am 
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Peter2150 wrote:

2. As to flushing memory, I've found on my new boxes that sometimes even rebooting isn't enough. Need to completely power down and then restart. Sometime a reboot doesn't always clear memory.


Hey, Peter, what's the difference between rebooting, and powering down and restarting? Aren't they the same thing?
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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:35 am 
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Not Peter Acadia and he'll probably answer differently but my understanding is, rebooting is just starting the machine again but everything is still powered, whereas a power down is a complete shutdown and the power connection is completely disconnected.

I'll do a reboot or restart if I have any problems or when asked after an update but a power down or shutdown at night when I've finished for the day and the machine is then connected and started up again the next morning. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:45 am 
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No they are not Acadia. When you re-boot, or even shut down, much of the system is still under power. The only way to totally shut down the system is to remove all power sources. You have often seen me recommend this to solve an issue and it has often worked.

There is enough of the system that is still under power even turned off that 'events' can cause the system to start. For instance you could set your BIOS to look for a network call. If a network call were to be detected it would cause the system to automatically start up. For this to be possible the system must still be under power even though turned off.

LOL! Don't blame Microsoft for this as it is on a hardware level with nothing to do with the operating system. It is the same with Apple or Linux. :mrgreen:

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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:46 pm 
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ok, if I understand this correctly. So to totally reset and clean out all the garbage that accumulates from of leaving my system on, I even need to unplug my system from the power source, which in my case would mean killing my battery backups? I simply want to flush my RAM every few days, in my opinion extremely important, WHAT AM I MISSING HERE, and how to do it.

Simply on Windows 7 hit the Home button then hit Shut Down then let it sit for an entire night ... is that not enough to get a clean, pristine system back again (assuming that I have the know-how and my security programs were all encompassing enough to protect me).

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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:48 pm 
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My machines, have power switches on the power supplies. I just switch them off. Same as pulling the plug


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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 5:26 pm 
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The shut down is just going to clean out the active memory (RAM) it will not clean out any junk that is already on the disk.


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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 8:23 am 
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Peter2150 wrote:
My machines, have power switches on the power supplies. I just switch them off. Same as pulling the plug

Ahhhh, I see, so you are doing MORE than just turning them completely off, you are removing them from all electricity period!
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 Post subject: Re: Blue Screen of Death
 Post Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:01 pm 
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Yes, If you do not remove power the system is still partially under power even when turned off.

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