BSoD errors

General Forums Off-topic Chat
#1

Hello everyone,

I’m sorry to have such a dull thread but I need help. I’m not very technically minded and am thus quite confused by all this.

My computer will frequently do one of three things:

  1. Restart for no apparent reason but function without problem after the restart
  2. Freeze to a black screen (I turn of the monitor when I leave the computer; when I return no input such as moving the mouse or hitting keys can make the computer ‘wake up’ although the fans are still running)
  3. Give me a blue screen [of death].

Interestingly, none of these happen when I’m using the computer. They seem to occur either at night or during the day (when I’m at school).

I have so far seen two different BSoD messages:

0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x33520286, 0xAC2D9318, 0x00000000)
and
0x0000000A (0x99CC4FC9, 0x0000001c, 0x00000001, 0x805015C5)

If it matters I have recently installed BOINC (running BURP and PrimeGrid). These problems are not new but have recently become more frequent (I’m not sure if the time correlates to the installation).

Specifications:
AMD Athlon X2 4600+
2GB Corsair DDR2 800 (at one point I had a speaker crackle which I heard could be caused by bad RAM, to be honest I never followed up on it).
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi extreme Music
eVGA nVidia 7950 GX2
Asus M2N-SLI deluxe
Enermax 620W Power supply
160GB OEM Seagate hard drive

Any help with these problems would be greatly appreciated: so far it has been naught but an inconvenience to always have to restart my computer when I get home or wake up, but I’m worried about data loss and the like.

Thank you,
Tarrosion

#2

Well totally independently of any speaker crackling it does sound like it could be a RAM issue. check if they are inserted correctly.

Also try getting a Linux CD with a memory tester on it.

#3

If I remember correctly, BSoD appeared because of stuff related to drivers, shit memory or your good friend Registry is screwed up.

What OS are you using?

If its XP, chances are its not related to drivers at all, your best guesses would be memory or Registry. Assuming you haven’t changed anything in the Registry manually, then its probably memory. Specially since it boots up and freezes…

If its Vista, that’s your problem.

#4

I’m running XP SP2 and haven’t messed with registry keys (except by running CCleaner - not sure if that changes them). The system does boot up fine, but I’ll see about testing the memory. Is there an easy to use memory tester?