BSOD Vista Ultimate 64...

[Darkbard]

Hi everyone! I'm having a BSOD problem and I was hoping I could get some help from the vista community.

I leave my computer on pretty much all the time, because I often have to access it from work for various reasons. This is great with XP... but I recently decided to dual boot Xp and Vista just to try it out. Vista has been running fairly smoothly, but whenever I leave the computer logged into Vista for any length of time, it blue screens and ends up restarting. Judging by the error legs in the Control Panel, it happens pretty often. I realize the easy way to deal with it is to just run XP all the time because it doesn't crash... but I would really like to justify the $$$ I spent on Vista and have it working as well as possible.

Here are the error codes found under Problem Reports and Solutions in the Control Panel:

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Extra information about the problem
BCCode: 109
BCP1: A3A039D895FB8508
BCP2: B3B7465EE87922B2
BCP3: FFFFF9800035E17C
BCP4: 0000000000000001
OS Version: 6_0_6000
Service Pack: 0_0
Product: 256_1
Server information: d0ff3b26-1b3f-4cce-8b12-813b2aed9c03

I have attempted to run these BC codes and such through Google to try to see what they mean, but haven't found any hits.

I don't know what exactly is crashing Vista... seems like it's Explorer crashing. I used to run Dreamscenes and whenever I would get back to my computer after a blue screen and restart, I would get an error message telling me that Dreamscenes has shut down just in case, due to Explorer failing.

I don't know what else to tell you about the problem, because I really have no idea what exactly is crashing. Maybe someone has an idea based on the above?

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

[Steve]

Hi Darkbard,

welcome aboard

Firstly lets see if your RAM is ok.

Please have a look at this page on how to run the Vista Memory Diagnostic Tool... Test Your Computer's Memory Using Windows Vista Memory Diagnostic Tool :: the How-To Geek

Let us know how it goes,

regards

Steve

[Darkbard]

Hi Steve!

Thanks for the reply. Well, I went ahead and ran a memory test. The one you linked wasn't very thorough and didn't detect anything. Just in case, I ran a more thorough memory test and left it running overnight. The first 4 passes or so didn't detect anything, but the errors started on the 5th pass.

I live with a bunch of computer geeks (of which I am also one), and after some serious research of Vista BSOD threads all over the internet, and some discussion with the geek squad I live with, we thought it might be a heating issue, since that seems a common theme for people with Vista problems. Also, one of the guys reseated my RAM this morning after seeing the errors on the mem test, and he noted that the RAM seemed really, really hot when he took it out.

So we've installed a spot fan over the RAM to see if that will improve the temperature any, and maybe that will stop Vista from BSing (haha!). It will take a few days of observation, I'm sure, to see if the fan helps stop the BSOD any. If it doesn't, I'll come back here and report. Maybe I need new RAM, which is freaking amazing, because this is a brand spanking new system, and it kicks butt... when it's not blue screening. -_-

Thanks for the mem test suggestion.

[Steve]

Hi Darkbard,

loved your post

Good luck with your new system.

There is a more advanced RAM Checker from Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic , you burn it onto a CD and boot up with it for a test.

talk soon,

regards

Steve

[Darkbard]

Thanks, Steve, that's actually the memtest we ran.

Well, reseating the memory didn't work. The computer stopped bluescreening for a couple days, but then it started back up.

I'm out of ideas. Anyone have any other suggestions on handling Vista blue screening?

[Steve]

Hi Darkbard,

first of all get Hardware Monitor and check out the reading against what they sould be, like fan speed, temp...etc.. Hardware sensors monitor for Windows 9x/NT/XP/2000/2003/Vista

Check that the Heatsink is not too thight on the CPU as this can case the motherboard to warp near the RAM

Check out for any loose screws that may be causing a bad ground.

Did the BSOD stop exactly after you reseated the RAM?

Hope these few pointers lead to something.

regards

Steve