Blue Screen + Memory Dump, Windows 7 64 Bit

[Gusington]

So yesterday after playing Dragon Age: Inquisition for about 90 minutes, I escaped out of the game and walked away from my computer for about an hour. I left it on, not running anything.

Walking back into the room an hour later a blue screen had appeared and the error message showed a '100% memory dump' and told me to restart the computer. So I did and the computer restarted without issue. I then shut down the machine normally and haven't turned it on again.

This is the first time I ever had this happen on this machine. The room was very warm yesterday - about 82 degrees - could that have caused it? Is there anything I should be doing now after it has happened?

Thanks all.

[undercovergeek]

id say theres a million and one things that could be - have you switched it back on yet?

[endfire79]

It happens.  Reboot your pc, chances are you'll succesfully reboot.  Something upset the system enough for  it to stop everything and write some information stored in memory at the time of the crash into a 'dump' file.  During the reboot into the OS, you may get a System Recovery prompt asking to do a system repair - you can let it do it's thing here as well.

For windows (and depending of the generation of the OS), it may write it to: %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP
The %SystemRoot% is a environment variable that is a short for C:\Windows usually. 



If this has been set, you might find you 'dump' file there.  You can use the Windbg from Microsoft to make some sense of it.



You can get Windbg as part the Windows SDK Kit.  Here's the link for the installer (when installing, you can choose to only tick the "Debugging Tools for Windows' and only install this - you don't really need the other tools).

When you get to use Windbg to anylyze the kernel dump, you may find a snippet of a driver name or file.  Sometimes they are obvious names, but if not, you can google the driver file name and find out who it belongs to.

Since I've bought my new PNY GTX 760 TI a few months ago, I've had 1 or two BSOD's in the manner you described.  I checked the dump file with Windbg, and it appeared to be a sort of Nvidia driver.

I'm not sure if it was the problem was heat related (my fan set up is pretty decent), or maybe some airflow (I moved my desktop against the wall in another room since our baby came along).  The driver is another possibility - would have to remember the name of the file mentionned in the crash dump next time (forgot to take it down). 

Gus, let us know if you find the dump or need help.

[Gusington]

Thanks guys - I restarted it yesterday when it told me to and had it on for a minute or two before shutting down. Have not turned it on again today. I'll do some exploring later but my gut says it was heat/humidity. Or perhaps it knows it is being replaced in about 10 days...then it will be my older daughter's problem :) ...which means, still mine.

Will post my findings.

[W8taminute]

Make sure your computer is well ventilated meaning that the fan in back of the rig can blow air out without being butted up against a wall.  The front of the rig or any area that has air holes in the cabinet should also be away from any restrictions. 

Does the CPU have a fan attached to it?  If so is it working?  Any time the main CPU or the graphics CPU exceeds it's temperature limit you get funky behavior like you saw.  I say this because my old Dell laptop would frequently crash like this when it got hot.  It turned out that if I propped the laptop on a stand so that the fan underneath it could properly cool the thing it would not crash.

[Gusington]

^It has decent ventilation, in a cabinet with a door that can be opened up front. Yesterday was really warm and humid and I had played Dragon Age: Inquisition which is pretty graphically intense, so the temperature could have went up quickly. Weird that it didn't happen while I was playing, though.

As I talk about this I am more convinced that it was because of heat/humidity. Haven't had time to turn it on again (Sunday is family insanity day) but I will get up there later this afternoon. But I'm also afraid I will find something I don't want to find :) but I doubt it.

Either way this kind of works in my favor as I can now speed up the purchase of my new rig. I just don't want to pass along a problem machine to my kid. Chances of which are very low...although this is an iBuyPower machine, it has been totally reliable and rock solid for four years. I guess a blue screen kind of rattles you if you never see them.

[Gusington]

On my machine right now...no issues. It's also ten degrees cooler in here today and a lot less humid.

As Endfire mentioned, I did install a new NVidia driver a week or so ago for my GTX 560. Could be either or both.

Downloading Windows SDK right now but it probably won't be necessary.

Should I do a disk cleanup and defrag?

[endfire79]

No, I think it`s as you suspected - heat and/or airflow might have caused the issue.  I'd just keep an eye on it.  Otherwise, a driver roll-back is an option that doesn't usually hurt (if the driver is suspected).

That tool does come in handy when trying to identify hardware conflicts causing BSOD's. 

[Gusington]

Thanks again endfire, that was some quick response time. You should open an online shop :)

[Nefaro]

I've found that if you keep the tower within an enclosed space (such as an enclosed wooden cabinet with a door) that graphically intense programs can cause it to eventually overheat.

The problem, there, is the enclosed space.  The case fans are meant to pull cool air in and push out the heat generated inside the computer.  If the tower is within another enclosed space, it ends up essentially recycling it's own warmer exhaust, with a slow snowballing effect.  Not the type of snowballing you're thinking of, either.  :P

Even cabinets with small holes or areas for wire access usually don't provide enough free airflow.  When you're running processor and GPU intensive games for long periods, in such a circumstance, then you can expect the internal heat to steadily increase if you don't have a lot of ventilation around the tower.



Similar problems can happen with notebook PCs.  I have an Acer Aspire M that has both in & out fan vents on the bottom, to the video card and maybe CPU, as well as the side.  Which is a terrible setup but they obviously did it to save space.  So I use a thin little lap desk with flip-up mounts on the back side to give it the proper space it needs underneath.  I suspect other users of the same model, who don't know about such things, have probably overheated theirs regularly by laying it on flat surfaces and running stuff for long periods.

[Gusington]

^Pretty convinced that's what happened. The fans were roaring yesterday - this machine has always been loud, which is ok because it never crashed in four years like this.

EXCEPT the desk cabinet area where the box sits is backless. But it was so warm and humid that it didn't matter.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

It might be an issue with the new nVidia drivers and Dragon Age.  My friend was complaining about BSOD crashes occurring every 30 minutes or so with the new drivers when playing Dragon Age.  He said he had a look at the forums and it was a pretty common complaint.

[bbmike]

It's all caused by the Windows 10 crap that was secretly downloaded to your computer.  :P

[Gusington]

^Probably.

Well I just played Dragon Age for another hour without issue. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the new drivers combined with the temperature/humidity, but the BSOD happened yesterday after I had left the game. But thankfully it hasn't happened again and I can pass this machine to my older daughter with a clear conscience.

[mirth]

Don't fear the BSOD. It's Microsoft's way of letting you know you are loved.