BSOD's More Info & Guidance

[MANEMAN]

All hardware and software can be - "guilty" - of causing BSOD's until otherwise proved - "Innocent" - by means of analysis & diagnosis.

A Microsoft MVP put together a whole list of tips, ideas and useful things to use when having to analyse a Bluescreen of Death ( BSOD )
Credit: SpiritX
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~ BSOD ~

Tools that will help with analysis :

Process Explorer - Free - Find out what files, registry keys and other objects processes have open,
which DLLs they have loaded, and more. This uniquely powerful utility will even show you who owns


each process.
http://technet.micro...s/bb896653.aspx

Autoruns - Free - See what programs are configured to startup automatically when your system boots
and you login. Autoruns also shows you the full list of Registry and file locations where applications can
configure auto-start settings.
http://technet.micro...s/bb963902.aspx

Process Monitor - Free - Monitor file system, Registry, process, thread and DLL activity in real-time.
http://technet.micro...s/bb896645.aspx

There are many excellent free tools at Sysinternals
http://technet.micro...ls/default.aspx

WhatsInStartUP - Free - This utility displays the list of all applications that are loaded automatically when Windows starts up. For each application, the following information is displayed: Startup Type (Registry/Startup Folder), Command -Line String, Product Name, File Version, Company Name,

Location in the Registry or file system, and more. It allows you to easily disable or delete unwanted
programs that runs in your Windows startup.
http://www.nirsoft.n...in_startup.html
There are many excellent free tools at NirSoft
http://www.nirsoft.n...tils/index.html

Window Watcher - Free - Do you know what's running on your computer? Maybe not. The Window

Watcher tells all, reporting every window created by every running program, whether the window
is visible or not.
http://www.karenware.../ptwinwatch.asp

Many excellent free tools and an excellent newsletter at Karenware
http://www.karenware.com/

Consider this an absolute must - manually updating your drivers.

This is my generic how to for proper driver updates :

This utility makes it easy to see which versions are loaded :

DriverView - Free - utility displays the list of all device drivers currently loaded on your system.
For each driver in the list, additional useful information is displayed: load address of the driver,
description, version, product name, company that created the driver, and more.
http://www.nirsoft.n...driverview.html

For Drivers check System Maker as fallbacks and Device Maker's which are the most current.
Control Panel - Device Manager - Display Adapter - write down the make and complete model
of your video adapter - double click - Driver's tab - write down the version info. Now click UPdate
Driver (this may not do anything as MS is far behind certifying drivers) - then Right Click -
Uninstall - REBOOT this will refresh the driver stack.

Repeat that for Network - Network Card (NIC), Wifi, Sound, Mouse and Keyboard if 3rd party

with their own software and drivers and any other major device drivers you have.

Now go to System Maker's site (Dell, HP, Toshiba as examples) (as rollback) and then Device

Maker's site (Realtek, Intel, Nvidia, ATI as examples) and get their latest versions. (Look for

BIOS, Chipset and software updates at System Maker's site while there.)

Download - SAVE - go to where you put them - Right Click - RUN AD ADMIN - REBOOT after

each installation.

Always check in Device Manager - Drivers tab to be sure the version you are installing actually

shows up. This is because some drivers rollback before the latest is installed (sound drivers

particularly do this) so install a driver - reboot - check to be sure it is installed and repeat as

needed.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

[MANEMAN]

Repeat at Device Makers - BTW at Device Makers DO NOT RUN THEIR SCANNER - check
manually by model.

Manually look at manufacturer's sites for drivers - and Device Maker's sites.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/driverssupport/ht/driverdlmfgr.htm

Installing and updating drivers in Windows 7/8 (updating drivers manually using the methods above
is preferred to ensure the latest drivers from System maker and Device makers are found)
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/43216-installing-updating-drivers-7-a.html

If you update drivers manually then it is a good idea to disable Driver Installations in Windows
Updates, this leaves Windows Updates ON however it will not install drivers which will usually be
older and cause issues. If Updates suggests a new driver then HIDE it (Right Click on it) and then
go look for new ones manually if you wish.

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Check with these utilities to see if any further information can be gathered :

This is an excellent tool for gaining Blue Screen Error Information

BlueScreenView - Free - scans all your minidump files created during 'blue screen of death'
crashes, and displays the information about all crashes in one table.
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

MyEventViewer can be checked at the time of the BlueScreen (BSOD) to within a second or

so of the time of the BSOD to provide more information as to possible cause - see TIP.

MyEventViewer - Free - a simple alternative to the standard event viewer of Windows.

TIP - Options - Advanced Filter allows you to see a time frame instead of the whole file -

set it to a bit before and after the time of the BSOD.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/my_event_viewer.html

AppCrashView - Free - a small utility for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that displays the

details of all application crashes occurred in your system. The crashes information is extracted

from the .wer files created by the Windows Error Reporting (WER) component of the operating system every time that a crash is occurred. AppCrashView also allows you to easily save the

crashes list to text/csv/html/xml file

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/app_crash_view.html

How to Run the Memory Diagnostics Tool in Windows 7

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/715-memory-diagnostics-tool.html

Credit: SpiritX Microsoft MVP

(and those to whom he linked.)

[MANEMAN]

Another really good diagnostic tool is: SF Diagnostic Tool.

You can read about it here: http://forums.windowsforum.org/index.php?showtopic=50535

John.