blue screen --xp?

g/day all --many thanks

i think i have a dodgy xp sp 3 --as the person who built the comp.-- got it from somewhere
i keep getting a pop up --saying update / out of date--but the xp is not bonafide.--so cant go there

oh dear

brian

gloomy brian
April 2011

Most blue screens (BSOD) are periferal or driver related, and most of the time, it's the video part that have the problem.

First step:
Make sure that there is no dust accumulation on/in the video card. An overheating video card can cause BSOD and some other problems, like freezes and crashes.

Reinstall your video drivers. (if needed, download the newest one available for your card)

Make sure that ALL the cards are properly seated.

Do the same for the audio card.

The proposition about reinstalling is like using a sledge hammer to kill a fly. Keep it as a very last resort. If you do that, be sure to securely backup all your files from the various "my..." folders AND settings before you start.

As brand new computers CAN have BSODs, what you have now is probably not due to a dying computer.
A realy dying computer will occasionaly dont's even get past the post screen once in a while.

Cleaning clutter is interesting as it give you back disk space and make defragmenting and virus scans faster.

Defragmenting is always recomended for normal HDs, NEVER for the solid states ones.

Scanning for virus should be part of your routine maintenance using automated sheduling. Defragmenting should be done before the scan to make it faster.

Your processor is probably not overheating due to poor termal conduction. DON'T remove the heat sink to apply new termal compound. Modern CPUs have termal protection that start by throtling them down, and if that's not enough, by shutting down the whole computer.
If you DO put new compound, be sure to apply it very sparcingly as to much can actualy increase the risks ov overheating: The best compound is always less heat conductive than direct, metal on metal, contact.
Also, as some of those compounds can conduct electricity, to much can cause short circuits, possibly destroying the CPU and some components.

Electro
April 2011

the (blue screen of death) as its called. BSOD" you will need to reinstall xp , from the operating system disk,, if you have it? or you can try tapping on the F8 key as the pc is starting up. and pick safe mode"to get it going again,

m
April 2011

no progs i can think of to diagnose hardware ... but what you could do is clean up your hard drive ... remove all unwanted progs, then run anti virus, spyware, malware progs make sure all clean, then disk defrag, then run msconfig check start up progs ... try and get as little number of processes runnin in task manager ... then if blue screen comes again ya pc is not lookin good ... u could try putting some new paste on ya processor to make sure its not overheatin

Loki
March 2011

thanks loki ??
the computor is perfectly good and fast normally --just these screens sometimes not every day .then couple in a day--more annoying than anything else ?
g/card is separate --i think.

any free programmes to check it out ?

thanks

brian

brian --age pensioner
March 2011

your pc is dying most prob ... hardware failure ... processor, ram ... or even worse a component of motherboard is your graphics card separate or on motherboard? give it a viking burial and smash it with a hammer then burn it ;) sorry

Loki
March 2011