Hi, Tim.
Your computer is putting up that blue screen in a desperate attempt to TELL
you "where it hurts". But Windows comes set - by default - to simply reboot
when it puts up the BSOD. (It also writes about the problem in its log
file, but I've never learned how to read those.) Trouble is, the reboot
happens so quickly that all you see is the blue flash on the screen, with no
chance to read it. As we all learn early in our computer experience, a
simple reboot does fix many transient glitches, so I suppose this default
setting is good for most users, especially newbies. But to diagnose what
the BSOD is trying to tell you, you need to change the default setting so
that you can read what it's trying to tell you. That's easy to do - after
you mouse-click your way down to that page:
Start | Control Panel | System | Advanced system settings (you'll need to
furnish Administrator credentials to get past here) | Advanced (tab) |
Startup and recovery / Settings button.
Finally, we are at the right page. Under System failure, UNcheck the box
for Automatically restart. Then OK your way out. Done!
Next time the BSOD happens, the blue screen will stay up until YOU push the
hardware Reset button, so you'll have all the time you need to read that
page and write down the important information. About half the page is
"boilerplate" which sounds important but is seldom helpful and often
misleading. But you should see a STOP code and some TEXT (probably
ALL_CAPS) and some long hexadecimal numbers. THOSE are the important codes
that you need. Even if they don't make sense to you, copy them verbatim and
post them here. Some of the gurus who read this newsgroup (not me!) can
read those codes and point you in the right direction. Or, since you built
your own system, you probably can Bingle for the codes and decipher them
yourself. (You might want to start at
http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.htm ;
that page hasn't been updated for a while, but most of the codes haven't
changed in decades.)
But, that might not be the right troubleshooting path, in your case. You
said, "I have a Windows 7 machine that blue screens regularly after about an
hour of use." My immediate suspicion with that symptom is HEAT. Something
in your environment might be causing your computer to overheat to the point
of failure, and it takes about an hour for it to get that hot. Dust bunnies
clogging your computer's fans or vents, perhaps? Maybe a can of compressed
air - judiciously applied - will solve your BSOD problem. ;<}
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3508.1109) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1
"Tim B" wrote in message
Hello,
I have a Windows 7 machine that blue screens regularly after about an hour
of use. As part of the troubleshooting of this issue, I would like to do a
second install on another existing partition, as a dual boot setup. The
version is 64-bit pro OEM. Would MS licensing allow this?
Thanks,
Tim B
