Blue-Screening, could this be why..?

[southfield]

I'm PRAYING that it's just an over-heating issue. Every time it blue-screens it's been on my lap, so right now I have it on the table and so far so good, 15 minutes and counting. Hopefully this works..

But in the mean time, when my system went down I let it dump the physical memory so..

1- How do I view that log? 'msconfig' in CMD right?

2- What sites or resources are available so I can get my error code(s) analyzed? I'm pretty new to troubleshooting a blue screen, so any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[phucng_10]

What were you doing before you got the BSOD?

 

[southfield]

Nothing really out of the ordinary. I do have a bunch of mods and my screen looks like this...

..but I *HIGHLY* doubt it's a RAM/processing issue because I have 4GBs of RAM and nothing is laggy in the slightest. Everything opens just fine, very smooth despite the vast amount of tweaks, animations and modifications.

That having been said.. it's been about 25 minutes now, a lot longer than it lasted last time, and everything seems to be going fine. It actually makes sense (if it was overheating anyway) because the first time today when it bluescreen'd I shut it down, waited maybe ten seconds then powered it back on. Well it was on my lap again, still warm and lo and behold it BS'd within the first five minutes. I also believe it was heat because every single time I put my hand next to the vent/fan it's pretty **** hot, which is understandable because I'm asking a lot of it and it's using about 35% CPU on average, so yet again, I think it was heat.

Your thoughts fellas?

 

[phucng_10]

It's a laptop right? You didn't clarify that. Well it could be due to overheating if you don't let it have enough air. So nothing is wrong with the laptop right at this moment, correct?

 

[southfield]

It's a laptop right? You didn't clarify that. Well it could be due to overheating if you don't let it have enough air. So nothing is wrong with the laptop right at this moment, correct?

It is a laptop, I'm sorry I didn't clear that up from the beginning. Yep, laptop sitting on my lap.

And as of right now absolutely NOTHING is wrong - smooth animation, no lag, everything opens fast.. it's all good and we're going on about an hour, 50min here. I would like to add two things and maybe you can clear up a question or two:

1- The average CPU usage is right around 35%. I've got 4GB of RAM and 2.5Ghz of CPU power so this shouldn't be an issue AT ALL, correct?

2- It's been pretty warm since it's been on but thankfully no BSoD. My question is: Is a powerful, high-performance laptop that's running quite a few apps and is having a lot demanded of it hot most of, if not, all the time? I only ask because if that IS normal than I'd be willing to bet a good amount of money that it really was a heat issue and nothing more. Also, the blue-screen itself didn't list anything in particular so I'd assume it was a heat issue. From what I read on the various sites I went to before the last crash, usually there will be some info on the blue-screen, a driver issue or a hard-drive failure.. there was nothing.

Hopefully that info helps. Thanks for all the help phucng_10, you really are a life saver, bud!

 

[phucng_10]

A1: Shouldn't be an issue with those specs.

A2: It should have been a heat issue due to the CPU running at 100% full load, and on your laps.

 

[southfield]

A2: It should have been a heat issue due to the CPU running at 100% full load, and on your laps.

How do you figure it was running at full load? I don't exactly remember but I was doing when it crashed the first time today, but it wasn't like I was running three windows of WoW, uTorrent and iTunes..

 

[sadisticmidget]

A laptop that overheats when you put it on your lap.....you should sue, lol. I had a similar issue with my friend's older laptop. He bought this cool tray that is a cushion with a wooden tray on top of it. You can put ur laptop on the wooden tray and it will be on ur lap without blocking the ventilation. ^_^

 

[Wverb0783]

I agree that it is likely a heat issue. and a high performance cpu will create more heat. so this isn't unusual. also have you blown out the system lately? clearing dust alwayts hepls. of course there are a ton of different things you can purchase to keep the laptop cool on your lap, including things with fans built in to cool. not a good practice to continue letting it over heat though. it's hard on components. so stop using it on your lap without finding something to eleviate the heat. Good luck!

 

[southfield]

Thanks for all the help guys! It's been three hours now and no problems at all, thank God!! Sadistic, he had the same problem.. exact same as in it blue-screen'd because it was overheating?

One quick question - Would over-clocking be discouraged? I'm going up north to a cottage for Memorial Day weekend with no internet and nothing to do (well I lied, I'll be able to catch up on my reading) so I was planning on downloading a few articles, some guides and any other help I can find, installing some type of over-clocking software & diagnostic tools and cranking it up. I guess another quick follow up question.. is there a night and day difference between a standard computer and an over-clocked one? I wouldn't go too far because of the heat issue, but now that that's alleviated I'm willing to give it a try.