Fatal errors, Bsods...problems that were gone are now back

[ohgod123]

Wrote this on the msnewsgroups boards:

I installed Vista and it ran fine for about the first 3 weeks. Last week, i
started to get fatal errors in games that I was playing. It would constantly
say 'the memory could not be read'. This weekend, I moved my computer to LAN
with my friends and I started blue screening with the 'PFN bsod'. Before you
guys suggest that it is memory related, I would like to mention that on the
day I received Vista, I also received 2 new sticks of 2 gb ram total. So I
highly doubt it's that.

I'd also like to mention that about a month ago, I was having rapid blue
screen, fatal errors, random errors but at a much higher frequency than I am
now. I formatted many, many times before coming to the Windows boards and
discovering that it might be a dust problem. I alleviated the problem
temporarily by removing a thick layer of dust between the CPU and the fan -
this brought the temperature down from 68C to 35C in my computer.

Now that some of the problems have returned, I'm not sure what to do. Any
suggestions to get rid of these blue screens/fatal errors?

Cliff notes: Problems that i elminated for about 3-4 weeks after adding new RAM and formatting + adding Windows Vista have now returned. I am now blue screening with a PFN error and getting fatal errors in Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Xsorovan]

So to clarrify you were having roughly the same problems in XP w/ sp2 as you are currently having in Vista?

 

[ohgod123]

yes, that is correct. when i installed vista and the new ram, the problems went away for a few weeks. just last week, i started fatal erroring. then when i moved my computer to LAN over the weekend, I started blue screening(which I find odd just for moving a computer). I'd like to point out that when I drove out to LAN, my computer was sliding around in my trunk and hitting things -- dunno if that could be a factor for the blue screen.

 

[Xsorovan]

Wow... blue screens in XP... I rarely see those.
I guess the curious thing about this is the fact that they went away and then came back. Out of curiosity did you maybe reseat some things while you had the box open to install the RAM? (other than the RAM of course) Like the CPU or any of the cards? "Chip-Creep" used to be kind of an "old-school" problem when things would come loose/ not be seated properly. I guess I find myself wondering if this has to do something with everything in your box being "tight" enough. Just a suggestion but you might want to try opening your box up and pulling out cards/ ram and reinserting them/ de-dusting your box.

This is about the only thing I can think of that would actually cause a repeated bsod after a peroid of no bsods. (Especially since the software (windows) is generally pretty good about giving software errors if its a software problem. Typically bsod's these days seem to come from hardware issues. (In my humble experience))

 

[ohgod123]

well, when i went to LAN this weekend, the first thing I did was open my box and reseat the RAM. the computer wouldn't start, so I moved the RAM back. Then I turned my computer on and the blue screens began.

 

[Xsorovan]

I wasn't really thinking of the RAM so much as I was of the other parts in the box. CPU, video, Network, sound, etc. Poorly seated cards can cause faulty instructions from the hardware to the software. It's probably worth a shot at least.

 

[ohgod123]

another note i forgot to mention is that i used system restore when i started blue screening. I restored to a point earlier in the night before i left to LAN(when there were no bsods) and I still ran into blue screen problems.

Also, do you think reseating will remove the fatal error problems I've been having with games?

 

[ohgod123]

some people are suggesting power supply...does anyone have any suggestions ?