[SOLVED] More BSOD Problems

[Prattler]

I continue to get these "things" in spite of doing everything I'm told to do. As in -- update drivers, update bios, check hardware, do sfc scannow, chkdisk, etc. I did one on 1/4 - chk dsk said "fixed" -- last night 1/8 voila!! a BSOD. This morning I did the routine again, (Dell checked all hardware again and everything passed) so we'll see how long I get to go without another one. Can someone tell me what I need to upload to this site for suggestions to fix if it happens again and no doubt, it will. Thanks.
I am on Dell 5570 - windows 21H2. Thank you.

 

[DavidM012]

Precision 5570 or Inspiron 5570?

Don't know why winders 10 ? Update doesn't automatically update to 22h2.

Does the update assistant / media creation tool work for you?

The bsodding problem might hinder any effort to update windows if it is due to a hardware fault.

So you have a laptop, how old be it?

As you might realize it isn't quite as straightforward to troubleshoot a hardware problem on a laptop the DIMMs are a different form factor the Mobo isn't quite as accessible as a PC and the Graphics device may be integrated into the mobo rather than modular and the drives are where? A sata 3 ssd might be accessible while an m2 drive resides on the mobo - teardown to access.

So a fix isn't as simple as unplugging a modular device and trying another.


Possible culprits for bsodding CPU, Memory or driver, even mobo or drive. Laptops you can't simply install a great cooler in it and never worry about thermals ever again. Simply renewing the thermal paste entails a teardown of the entire machine.

If it's bsodding because the cpu has taken thermal dmg you might be in trouble especially if the cpu is soldered to the board rather than in a socket.

What repair/warranty options do you have with Dell? Can they recondition it for a fee? Your only option likely to pay someone like an electronics shop to diagnose and fix it if it is even possible eg. they even have parts.


The only thing you can really do practically unless you are comfortable tearing down your laptop and obtaining different parts to try (doubtful chances of success) is a clean install of windows 10 so if you can manage to complete the windows update assistant process, to windows 22h2, presuming you have registered your windows 10 with a microsoft account to make it simple to reactivate windows, then you can run the media creation tool to create a bootable usb and then perform yet another totally clean install with the 22h2 setup stub then freshly install all the dell drivers specific to your laptop.

If it still bsods after that then it's probably a hardware problem that needs the attention of a repair shop. In other words the only thing you can do is 'attempt to vaguely diagnose the problem' I doubt you have a spare disk or memory to try and you don't want to tear it down to access the mobo and look at the condition of the thermal solution - so off to a shop if you simply aren't comfortable poking around in it's guts. Iif there's a miracle you can do, go for it. Good luck. (Expresses a general loathing of non-user servicable devices).

 

[Prattler]

In the words of Charlie Brown -- "good grief" --
The system is Inspiron. It is 3 years old. I just replaced the hard drive a couple of months ago, At that time, the fan and thermal paste as well. When I run hardware checkup on Dell, it says - "all passed" - doesn't that mean ANYTHING? I dislike this OS intently as I have said in the past - on this forum. I think most pc users just want to do simple everyday pc stuff and when problems occur - such as these BSODs, and the solutions are manifold as you have laid out - it becomes even more dislikable.
Clean Install - I also see users that have gone thru this task only to come back and say - dint work!
All very tiresome. Thanks for your input.

 

[DavidM012]

Hardware passed, Nope it doesn't mean anything. You just replaced the hard drive so the old hard drive did you happen to notice it's make and model, and the new hard drive, what is it's make and model?

Something else you could try is to clean the dimms contacts with isopropyl alcohol. Simply renewing the fan and thermal paste doesn't mean the CPU would be 'fixed' if it had already sustained thermal damage, or if the gpu had a glitch. Try running Memtest86 see if you get any errors. There is now refurbed open source memtest86+ or passmark memtest86 to choose from, or windows memory test.

Another suspect could be the very windows version itself. Something happened to 21h2 and you might also have noticed windows update does not simply automatically update 21h2 to 22h2. My previous installation of 21h2 inexpicably fell apart which I suspect was due to some version of some system files being outdated or something, I don't really know for sure, I simply blatted my partition and ran a clean install.

I don't find a reinstall all that problematical so long as I can remember most of meh passwords could do with a better back up strategy to make it even simpler, and my setup usb drive is 150mb/s usb 3.0 lexar microsd 1000x which is bit faster than a 5.0mb/s usb flash drive from tesco.

Well I don't know why or if windows is falling apart in your case only that it may be suspect. Looking for the problem is like looking for a needle in a haystack sometimes. However if you're going to update to windows 22h2 you need to run the update assistant anyway and if you want to clear out old system files and be absolutely sure all the drivers are correct for the device, the only way to do it is a clean install of 22h2.

It might've been an previous windows update giving you gyp or 21h2 itself causing the problem somehow. I have long since lost track of windows updates and pinning down exactly which windows update might be problematical on their device is difficult for most people, I did not have any problem with windows updates for years until 21h2 and it seemed to be quite a major overhaul which changed something significantly.

Like it, or loathe it, winders is the only operating system you got for your laptop unless you want to learn linux and if it is a hardware problem giving you a bsod then changing the OS won't help either.

Someone skilled and knowledgable could use different operating systems as diagnostics.

You could use prime 95 to stress test your cpu - see overclocking guide. You aren't overclocking but the stress test is the same. You could try and use hwmonitor and hwinfo to look at power usage and monitor thermals but what use is all that info if you don't know what the values should be? You might be able to spot anything obviously abnormal but you still need to know what 'normal' is to spot the difference.

Besides which none of these suggestions is a 'fix' per se more of an attempt to 'diagnose' which is obviously quite a bit of effort, yes.

 

[Prattler]

Thanks again. I'll check out your suggestions. I just did the 22H2 update without any problem -- for a change -- in my pc world.
Drive replacement: Western Digital 500GB WD Blue SA510 SATA Internal Solid State Drive SSD - SATA III 6 Gb/s, 2.5"/7mm, Up to 560 MB/s - WDS500G3B0
I think the older one that failed was an M2 type -- those little flat jobs.

 

[DavidM012]

So probably the drive that failed was this? When Dell says temporarily outta stock, probably means forever. You could get a similar m2 from somewhere, your western digital is inferior which isn't a technical problem to cause a bsod but may impact system performance a little. 2230 form factor.

Some say, you can't tell the difference between sata and nvme in normal usage still, copying files from one area of the disk to another and the windows page file may be slower.

That is much of a muchness, you have the WD blue sata ssd, it works and you haven't noticed a great lag in performance? So going to the expense and hassle of installing another similar 2230 nvme is optional.

You should now probably run the media creation tool now you're on 22h2 and pre-prepare a usb setup disk for 22h2 should you need it in future.

Could do a clean install once you have the 22h2 setup stub if you want to I'd be surprised if simply updating to 22h2 fixed it. A clean install might mop up the remnants of your previous installations. The point of clean install is to refresh everything and dust off old versions of system files that might be floating around.

Oh maybe you could also try wise reg. cleaner it has a system tuneup tab that will optimize various settings for ssd's and assorted system settings for you.

'Cos otherwise you might have to read dozens of articles about optimizing windows to manually set each setting. So you don't have to think about it. Well hey, I just click optimize and don't worry about it.

You could also go through a windows service optimization guide, look at reliability history to see if it has any info about some service crashing - what's happening there you're simply learning about the ins and outs of windows diagnostics and monitoring for the first time.

There's a whole another world of system monitors in windows if you really want to dig into it, network monitors, cpu monitors, memory usage monitors, process monitors, mostly stuff that sysadmins would use for remote monitoring over the network - not things everyday users heed much.

 

[Prattler]

Thanks for all of that. No, that device link doesn't look like the one that failed. It was a Samsung I believe. So, when a clean install is done, are all of my programs saved? I have Photoshop which was resurrected when I did a Macrium restore - thank god for Macrium. If I do a clean install, will I Iose that? Adobe is being bad news about that old version I have. When I give the serial number to reinstall, they don't honor it. Want me to buy a new version I guess. No thanks. I am not a pro but I enjoy using PS and do not need a later version.
I will check out wise reg cleaner. Sounds like registry editor? I am a basic user and kind of hate messing in the underground - which to me is the registry. Thanks again.

 

[DavidM012]

A clean install will wipe the partition so no data will be saved so you can't do it then. Wise reg cleaner isn't a registry editor it's just a liteweight registry cleaner with a system tuneup app. I use it mostly just to tune some system settings conveniently or if I delete a program without uninstalling it to remove the registry entries and file paths.

I simply don't know how you might workaround doing a clean install as opposed to simply imaging the disk with the old windows install and your old adobe photoshop installed. Things fall apart sometimes and you just can't beat the system.

 

[Prattler]

Good sounding info David. I imaged the disk yesterday with the installed app from MS. I also have a Macrium backup ready to roll if need be. You sure got that right - just can't beat the SYSTEM. I marked this as the best answer. I will give the Wise reg app a look. Thanks again.

 

[Prattler]

DavidMO12 "Oh maybe you could also try wise reg. cleaner it has a system tuneup tab that will optimize various settings for ssd's and assorted system settings for you"
I ran this program this morning - it found lots of discrepancies and cleaned them. I hope this takes care of the bsod problems but that's probably wishful thinking. I had another one yesterday and didn't notice the type it was. It probably was the one I always seem to get: unexpected store exception" I looked at Event Viewer to see if I could see it there but did not see anything with that name. I looked in Windows logs I believe. A question regarding the registry cleaner. It put two icons on my desktop -
They have different images but I think they do the same thing. Do I need to keep both? Thanks so much. Fingers crossed that it did a good cleanup of a big mess.

 

[DavidM012]

Wise reg cleaner is unlikely to fix a bsod odd that you got two desktop shortcuts maybe it's another symptom of your windows install falling apart. You want to keep it intact because you have an old photoshop installation.

Your old samsung nvme failed after 3 years which isn't a good sign so I might suspect something is a bit wrong with the system board. Hardware problems may well cause corruption of windows.


Reinstalling windows on another drive may help to diagnose the problems so that you can keep your current data on your western digital sata drive. So basically one possibility you could investigate far as practical options that are available is to move all that out of the way, unplug your wd sata drive, remove it, and simply install windows 22h2 with a 22h2 setup flash drive prepared, on a fresh ssd and see how it holds up.

In the way of solutions I don't know if there's anything simple that you can do. I can't get past the sticking point of your photoshop. An electronics shop may be able to diagnose and fix your laptop for a fee.

Could try running windows setup from within windows and keep all your apps. Could run into problems though since windows setup is sensitive to hardware problems so if it bsods you won't be able to recover windows probably, which would bork your photoshop install.

So you're kind of in the woods with that and the way out might be thatta way. Well I mean it might just all fall apart whatever you try.

 

[Prattler]

Well gee. Sounds like a bad scene no matter what. You know if Adobe was a straight shooter and honored my serial number for installation, I would do things differently. The fact that the Samsung failed after 3 lousy years is really troubling. I think I should stick with my Fire 10 tablet. I will just access the Win10 Dell when I need to do anything with photos. Thanks again for your support. Do appreciate it.

 

[Prattler]

I am quite please with the reg edit program. Cleaned up a lot of stuff and systems seems to run smoother. Fingers crossed. Thanks again.