COMPUTER woes :(

EdinburghGary

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Gary
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Topical just now :D.

I'm extremely ****ed off. On my iPhone so short version...

Nothing has changed hardware / software wise, blue screen half way through ANY attempt at windows boot. Fairly new and VERY clean install, top end dell
with a Windows 7 approved sticker etc. No changes to hardware since buying.

Happened a few weeks ago too, blue screen for maybe 30 attempts, a few dats later as I prepared to start a repair, just started working. Power supply has been fully disconnected, still bust.

I officially hate Windows again. My iMac has yet to crash or have any housekeeping done after a hole year. "It just works".

Not kidding, and not trollbait. I have very important work to do and files are on the pc.

Gary.
 
rough jist of the blue screen?

blue screens are normally.. hard disk, memory (or indeed other hardware issue) or driver related. have you let windowsupdate update any drivers?
 
LOL about the iPhone spelling.
Sucks about 7.
Can't offer anything else, don't want to be labeled a fanboy.
 
Can you photo it?
i remember doing that once when some message I needed kept vanishing.
 
this is why i always turn off auto reboot..

hit F8 while booting, see if you get the boot menu and try last known good config. otherwise pop it open and try reseating the ram.
 
LOL about the iPhone spelling.
Sucks about 7.
Can't offer anything else, don't want to be labeled a fanboy.

I love W7 but thus is my typical windows experience in a nutshell. It's extremely frustrating, as I am very keen in running a clean and well maintained windows environment.

Gary.
 
safe mode boot is the way forward
 
Slightly different to your problem but since the last round of updates i've been having windows 7 freezing on me. A bit llike your blue screen eror, it does it a few times in a row then will be fine again? Weird! How old's your power supply?
 
And....breath :D

Removed two sticks of ram (ta neil), and I am running again (on 2GB only though)...

Faulty memory then?

Lets me finishg my work so seriously, thanks for the boot in the arse. Normally I would eventually rip everything out and reseat it, but too tired tonight. The thread fired me up :D

So DELL / GENERIC MEMORY COMPANY / WINDOWS - who can we blame? :D

Gary.
 
The best way to check for duff memory is to use memtest.

Download the iso, burn it to disk and boot the pc from it. Allow it to do a couple of passes, If you get any errors then it's a memory problem. From there you can juggle sticks of ram about to find the dodgy one.

Of course it can also be the memory timings that are causing a problem if you get an error up, especially if you are not using good quality memory. Slackening timings once you find a fault can prove if this is the case.
 
The best way to check for duff memory is to use memtest.

Download the iso, burn it to disk and boot the pc from it. Allow it to do a couple of passes, If you get any errors then it's a memory problem. From there you can juggle sticks of ram about to find the dodgy one.

Of course it can also be the memory timings that are causing a problem if you get an error up, especially if you are not using good quality memory. Slackening timings once you find a fault can prove if this is the case.

It's just whatever DELL put in the machine. I can't see a brand on the sticks...

I will do as you suggest.

G.
 
It's just whatever DELL put in the machine. I can't see a brand on the sticks...

I will do as you suggest.

G.


If it's dell supplied, then it should be fully compatible and good quality memory. If memtest throws up any errors then juggling sticks to find the duff one(s) and contacting Dell for them to fix it, would be my way forward.
 
Sounds like a hardware fail. Therefore a standard Dell Fail.

oh hush, we've got 250-300 dell machines here and the last hardware issue we had was a couple years ago with a power supply in a 24/7/365 server. becides Dell dont make memory, or any hardware for that matter.

:razz:

gary - glad its booting. as said have you tried reseating the memory? give that a whirl first, if youre still having problems see if you can narrow it down to 1 stick.. its a little rare for 2 to go at the same time.

but yeah give dell a shout if its still in warrenty, chances are theyll run their own diags on it including a memory checker (youll need the memory plugged back in) first then if you dont want an engineer they "should" chuck some in the post..
 
does sound like a memory failure I've had similar in the past and even expensive hardware has a % failure, just unlucky I guess
 
Hi,

try dropping your RAM to 4gb or less as my mate was having similar problems and in my hunt for a solution I read in loads of places that it might be the RAM that was causing it, he tried this and did a full re-install and it cured it.

Blue screen problems are almost always due to hardware problems.

I have Win 7 running on both my PC's and so far never had any problems :thumbs:

Mike.
 
Bloody windows.

If they had Windows 7, that didn't break like OSX, I'd be a happy man.

(mine is yet to break, except for graphics card failures during intense processes on Photoshop, which I'm sure is just compatibility issues and never last for more than a second of black screen. Touch wood.)
 
difference between windows and mac isn't it really, mac provide the hardware and software unlike windows, in this case i'd say it's an issue with dell rather than windows and the thread title should be renamed like threads in the past have by mods :/
 
One of your answers here, commented on Windows "Freezing", if you type Windows 7 freezing into a google search box, you will get around sixteen million comments on it, by the time you had read a small percentage of them, Microsoft would have brought out yet another operating system ?

I spend a lot of my spare time recovering files and photos from peoples crashed hard drives, sometimes this involves leaving a recovery computer on for days at a time, in my experience Windows 7 just won't stand up to this, whenever you return to the machine, it has usually crashed, frozen or given up the ghost !!

One item I would like to mension here is that Windows Vista and 7 both have a different approach to formatting than XP did, therefore please make absolutly sure that you don't leave any valuable data or photos on the C:\ if you are running either of the above operating systems, you may and probably will lose it
 
Everyone relax, and chill :) I have changed the thread title, and I apologise for beating on windows too much! Go easy on those who haven't the time to read the whole thread, it's not a crime and they can still have some valid input.

Gary.
 
Everyone relax, and chill :) I have changed the thread title, and I apologise for beating on windows too much! Go easy on those who haven't the time to read the whole thread, it's not a crime and they can still have some valid input.

Gary.

Hi Gary,

thanks for that, I never read whole thread, hence my reply above lol, reading whole threads is boring anyway :p

Your RAM might not be faulty it might be the same problem my mate had, you aren't running the 64bit version are you 'cos he is.

Mike.
 
sometimes this involves leaving a recovery computer on for days at a time, in my experience Windows 7 just won't stand up to this, whenever you return to the machine, it has usually crashed, frozen or given up the ghost !!

Then you have major hardware problems.

My windows 7 machine(s) stay on all day every day and never get rebooted.

The windows 7 machines at work all stay on all day every day and very rarely get rebooted.
 
Hi,

try dropping your RAM to 4gb or less as my mate was having similar problems and in my hunt for a solution I read in loads of places that it might be the RAM that was causing it, he tried this and did a full re-install and it cured it.

Blue screen problems are almost always due to hardware problems.

I have Win 7 running on both my PC's and so far never had any problems :thumbs:

Mike.

there used to be an issue with vista (pre SP1 i think) where it wouldnt install with more than 2GB memory but thats not an issue in 7.. i installed it recently with 8GB installed.
 
there used to be an issue with vista (pre SP1 i think) where it wouldnt install with more than 2GB memory but thats not an issue in 7.. i installed it recently with 8GB installed.

Hi,

yeah that must have been it, I was searching for Windows Vista by mistake :thinking:

Google

Mike.
 
Windows 7 has a built in memory test (somewhere) - only had to use it once, but saves faffing about with iso's and discs :)

my windows 7 runs fine 24/7 so it is pointing at a hardware issue
 
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