Can u fix a computer that is getting a blue screen periodically w/o knowing the code?

[BBCMember]

A client of mine has gotten a blue screen two times in the past month (Dell desktop). He said with no warning, the screen goes black, and then comes up with the blue screen. He noticed that it said "ready to dump memory," but he didn't get the rest of what it said. He panicked and shut off the computer. When he boots it back up, it says that Windows recovered from a serious error and asks him to click a button to send a report. He does it. Then he gets a Windows Error Reporting window.

It's most likely an OS issue, driver issue, or hardware issue (e.g. RAM), right?

Is it possible to fix it without knowing the error code? It's only happened twice in the past month, but he wants it fixed.

Suggestions?

 

[ImDonly1]

Doesn't it show the error codes (if you know when it happened) in Event Viewer? Just taking a guess.

Otherwise, I would start by running Memtest on each stick of RAM separately.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: BBCMember

It's most likely an OS issue, driver issue, or hardware issue (e.g. RAM), right?

:^D

I'd say that's accurate. That covers everything in the computer. It's probably not the O/S. I'd start by checking the memory with Memtest86+. If that checks out ok, then I'd assume it's a driver. See this page for tips on reading a memory dump...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254649

That might give clues as to what caused the problem.

 

[MrChad]

This guide can help you.

 

[BBCMember]

Thanks for the tips. I'll check them out. Here is the latest.

The blue screen happened again, so he was able to get the error code:

Stop error: 0x000000C5 (0x00000004, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x805yb917)

It was very slow, so I did some cleaning of spyware. Ad-aware found 83 cookies, and Malwarebytes found 7 things. Spybot found nothing. Did a scan for viruses with AVAST. Nothing.

Did three passes with Memtest 86+ with zero errors. I'll be testing the hard drive next.

He said he has not installed anything since I was last here (hardware or software wise). The only thing he has done is Windows Updates.

I did some searching via google and found a guy who said it could be a hardware problem because he changed OS's and it still gave him issues.

The system also just froze, which certainly happens when you have a bad video card or bad HDD. He said it was the first time that it did that. So it seems to be getting worse.

Any way to test the video card without installing a new one?

Any other suggestions with this issue?

I'll let you know how the hard drive test goes.

 

[lxskllr]

Check your temps with some monitoring software. Look at all the caps on the MB to see if any look like they're failing. Update the drivers from the manufacturers website(not Windows update). I'd start with chipset, sound, and gfx. One of the drivers may have gotten corrupted.

 

[BBCMember]

OK. Thanks. Will try that.

The HDD passed the short test. It's a WD. Have you ever had a HDD pass the short test but fail the long test?

He also said to me that about 6 weeks ago, his automatic windows update only showed 1 update. And since then, it has only been one update that installs (or tries to) when he shuts down the computer (he does not do it manually). But since it shuts down, it won't say if it failed or not. And he says when he starts it back up, it never says that the update failed to install. So he is not sure if it is the same one that is trying to install over and over. I'll check it.

The BSOD did not start right after that. It started 3-4 weeks after. And it happened once, and then not again for 2-3 weeks. And then twice in one week, the latest being today. It also froze today for the first time. So it is getting progressively worse.

Thoughts?

 

[Modelworks]

C5 stop error is usually driver related. It happens when two different processes try to read/write the same memory location at the same time.