Blue Screen of Death New Computer

[ThomasHale]

Hi All,

My old Vaio laptop had repeated blue screen of deaths which seemed to be hardware related. Eventually I bought a new one, which I have been using for a few days. I just transferred some old word documents and photos from an external hard drive to my brand new Vaio. Norton 360 tells me no problem with the files. A few hours later I have a blue screen of death. Something to do with power. Could this be related to the transfer of files? Or the new software - Astrill, Spotify, BBC Iplayer, Google Chrome - that I've recently installed?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thomas

[Blencogo]

Hi Thomas and welcome.

You need to be able to read the full message on the BSOD.  To do this, you need to turn off the automatic restart on system failure so the BSOD stays on your screen until you manually reboot by holding down the power button.

1. Click on the Start button and then on Control Panel.

2. Click on the System and Security link.

   Note: If you're viewing the Small icons or Large icons view of Control Panel, you won't see this link. Simply double-click on the System icon and proceed to Step 4.

3. Click on the System link.

4. In the task pane on the left, click the Advanced system settings link.

5. Locate the Startup and Recovery section near the bottom of the window and click on the Settings button.

6. In the Startup and Recovery window, locate and uncheck the check box next to Automatically restart.

7. Click OK in the Startup and Recovery window.

8. Click OK in the System Properties window.

9. You can now close the System window.

10. From now on, when a problem causes a BSOD or another major  error that halts the system, Windows 7 will not force a reboot. You'll  have to reboot manually when an error appears.  When you have read the screen then you can turn on the automatic restart feature by reversing the instructions above.

If you give the full message someone may be able to help further.

[ThomasHale]

Thanks for this help. I have done this, so next time will post exact details.

As for now, what could potentially cause this kind of problem? All I have done is install very standard software (Astrill VPN, Spotify, BBC Iplayer), transfer word files from my old computer on an external hard drive, and upload some photos from a camera. Can BSOD related problems be transferred through word documents from an external hard drive? What other possible explanations could there be? I deleted all the files I transferred from the external hard drive, as the problem arose a few hours after I imported them, and there were no signs of problems before.

I ran a full Norton scan and 6 problems were found but all were resolved.

Just trying to get a sense of what could possibly have caused this. My personal theory is that it's the transfer from the external hard drive, as those files were taken from my old computer which had repeated BSODs until it died.

Any further thoughts greatly appreciated. Slightly in limbo at the moment waiting apprehensively for another BSOD!

Best,

Thomas Hale

[nikkilim]

BSODs are common caused by RAM or memory. We usually just reseat (unplug replug) it.

I would call the support team and check this if it will void the warranty though. But usually, that fixes the issue.