Diagnosing blue screens

[SanDiegoPC]

I've got a Dell Dimension that is crashing w/blue screens when you're in Windows. Currently I am running Memtest86+ on it. Two passes so far and no problems with RAM found yet. I'll leave it running until I get any suggestions from here.

Last month it was the hard drive ... I installed a new WD SATA drive and so the Windows install is fresh. So suggestions greatly appreciated as to what it's going to take for further diagnosis.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[rudder]

Start by checking the memory dumps to see what is behind the blue screens:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246

It makes it easier if you select the minidump option in windows... that way you dont have to deal with a file that is 600mb.

 

[Blain]

Yo, Click Here dude!

 

[SanDiegoPC]

Start by checking the memory dumps to see what is behind the blue screens:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246

It makes it easier if you select the minidump option in windows... that way you dont have to deal with a file that is 600mb.

That method requires Windows access. I get the blue screen when Windows starts, immediately. Guess I could try it from Safe Mode...it runs fine that way.

 

[muskie32]

Have you overclocked it?

I got that a few times after overclocking, and it was because i was not giving it enough voltage.

 

[SanDiegoPC]

Thanks Muskie no, this is just a three-yr old Dell, that's all. When the HD died a couple months ago, installing & setting up the new one was the only real work this computer's had on it.

The guy was installing Kodak's digital camera software when it failed yesterday. Using the Safe Mode, I uninstalled the Kodak stuff & used REVO uninstaller to get rid of all it's registry tags. Also did registry edits to remove any programs from the startup - but still the same problem. It's loading something in the normal mode that does not get loaded in the safe mode. And unfortunately that covers a lot of stuff if I understand Windows correctly.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Also did registry edits to remove any programs from the startup - but still the same problem. It's loading something in the normal mode that does not get loaded in the safe mode. And unfortunately that covers a lot of stuff if I understand Windows correctly.

Sounds like a driver loading.

 

[SanDiegoPC]

Sounds like a driver loading.

It turned out to be his camera. It worked fine until he installed the Kodak software, which probably installed another camera driver.

Deleted the camera out of his Device Mangler and voila we have Windows!