BSoD at (almost) regular intervals sign of hardware failure?

The topic is my question. I've been getting BSoDs at almost even consistency for the past week or so. Even after Windows Re-installs. Is this a sign that my laptop is dying? Or am I jumping to conclusions here?

Any help appreciated. Guess I should start looking into building a desktop now *sigh*.

 

Vista or XP?

 

What is BSOD error message?

 

@ Calvin: Vista. It didn't BSoD with XP, but I didn't have my XP on for more than like a day max.

@ JCMS: You mean my BSoD error message? Or what BSoD error message is (in general)?

I can't seem to get enough time to read/capture teh whole error message. Sorry. It says "physical memory dump" and counts from 0 to 100 in multiples of 5 and reboots.

 

oh i had the same problem!!!

update your mcafee if you can. and turn off your zone alarms. thats just some memory dump that goes from 0 to 100 then resets.

dont update your windows vista, just let it auto update it will install all important files, the newest drivers might screw with you.

 

??????????

 

Go to: Mycomputer>properties>advanced>startup and recovery>turn off automatic restart. This will allow you to read the text when it blue screens. Don't forget to turn it back on afterwards.

 

I started reading it when it started counting down, (okay counting up) and it didn't make much sense lol.

Oh and I've been using it on my desk so far and it's been doing some CPU-crushing encoding and it's fine (my internet is acting as if it has some beef with me, but I'll deal with that later. I want my encodes done lawl). I suppose it was because it heated up to critical temps.

Which reminds me, I've been putting off Chaz's notebook cleaning guide for a long while. I should get to it. And clean my notebook's chassis too.

So yeah, me thinks it's teh temps.

 

The stop code is probably the most important thing - and the only thing us mere mortals have the slightest possibility of finding potentially helpful, coupled with a list of what the various stop codes mean.

Find the stop code on the blue screen (or from the logs after a reboot, but they always land in the temp folder which mean they could be lost if you accidentally do one reboot too many before you get around to look at them) and write it down. The code is around halfway down the page if I recall correctly - can't recall if it actually says STOP in big fat latters right before it, but it's usually followed by assorted memory addresses as well.

Once you've got the stop code (or if you want to see what one is supposed to look like), head over to a site like this and locate the code:

http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

It may possibly (only possibly, remotely possibly ) help clue you in on what could be causing the problem - if nothing specific, then at least perhaps tell if it's likely to be failing hardware or just a driver or assorted system calls messing up.

 

You could also try to run a memtest on your RAM. Often these types of problems can be caused by bad RAM. See the memtest86+ guide in my sig.