Windows BSOD - easy fix? « Singletrack Forum

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Windows BSOD - easy fix?

26 posts & 12 voices | Started 5 months ago by stuartie_c | Latest reply from chewkw

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stuartie_c - Member

OK, I know "should have bought a mac..." but I didn't, so let's focus on the facts of the matter.

Desktop PC (Win7, 64 bit) has started to BSOD (new verb for the pedants). It has happened 5 times over the past couple of days so I'm guessing it's not a one-off. Error message points to "atikmpag.sys" which is a graphics card driver file. Suggested solution is to uninstall the current graphics drivers and re-install them but I'm sceptical that the solution is that simple.

Anyone else had the same problem? Did driver refresh solve it or do I really need to get a mac?

Posted 5 months ago #
Cougar - Member

In the time it took to post that, you could've found out. (-:

With that error, updating the video drivers would be my first port of call. How old's the PC? Any changes recently?

Posted 5 months ago #
colande - Member

sorry can't help you,
but here's an image of my mac blue screen of death, just to even things up,

Posted 5 months ago #
leffeboy - Member

System restore back a few days to see if it goes away? Check the reliability monitor to see if anything happened two days ago?

Posted 5 months ago #
footflaps - Member

I have to reboot my Macbook Pro way at least once a week, to fix something or other, whereas my work XP laptop runs for months without needing a reboot.

Posted 5 months ago #
xherbivorex - Member

there's every chance that the solution, reinstalling (or updating) video drivers WILL be that simple...

Posted 5 months ago #
schrickvr6 - Member

Personally the first sign of a BSOD I'd run a hard drive diagnostic such as Seatools, just to be sure.

Posted 5 months ago #
stuartie_c - Member

I know what you're saying, Cougar. It would only take me 5 mins to do the job but that wouldn't necessarily indicate success immediately because the problem only becomes apparent after the PC has been running for a while (switched on at 5pm today, BSOD at 8:30, moderate usage). It's about a year and a half old, no recent changes apart from usual W7 auto-updates. I did update the graphic card drivers about a year ago to work with an HD monitor but they have caused no trouble until now.

Interested to hear if others have found the solution to the same problem is the simple "replace drivers" fix.

Posted 5 months ago #
stuartie_c - Member

Here goes anyway...

Feel free to regale me with stories of unblemished success

[EDIT] Mac BSOD is much more impressive than Windows!

Posted 5 months ago #
Cougar - Member

Hah hah, made you do it.

Posted 5 months ago #
Cougar - Member

(TBH, I'm only joshing. I'd far rather people asked questions before buggering things up completely under their own steam)

Posted 5 months ago #
stuartie_c - Member

I haven't done anything yet...

Posted 5 months ago #
cheez0 - Member

take out (physically) and remount your graphics card and also RAM?

Posted 5 months ago #
Rio - Member

I get that occasionally with my desktop PC. It seems to be related to the graphics card getting hot so I guess it's some sort of software/hardware interaction problem. Best way to minimise it I have found is to uninstall the AMD video drivers and reinstall the latest set from the AMD site. The uninstall is the important bit - don't just install the update! It's also worth checking that the graphics card and fan are clean. I've never managed to completely get rid of the problem - next time maybe I'll get an Nvidia card.

Edit: my mac with ATI graphics doesn't have the problem so maybe that is the answer!

Posted 5 months ago #
cheez0 - Member

graphics card getting hot?

got a power supply big enough to power it?

Posted 5 months ago #
Haze - Member

My money's on drivers...

Posted 5 months ago #
stuartie_c - Member

OK - driver updated and dust hoovered out of back of PC.

I'll see how that goes before re-installing the ATI suite (which is a pain in the tits because of the weird behaviour of the Samsung monitor)

Posted 5 months ago #
razor1548 - Member

There are millions of people all over the world who have working PCs with Microsoft operating systems. Do you think they are all utter idiots who fester in their own sorry hell of having a computer that doesn't work? Do you think they sit in front of a screen filled with a memory dump and cry and cry wishing it just was not so?

I only use Microsoft operating systems for a few particular applications that I cannot do without; I am certainly not a fan of theirs. But to imagine that it is simply 'broken' and therefore you need to overpay someone else to sell you something is a serious misunderstanding of the situation.

Posted 5 months ago #
razor1548 - Member

"Personally the first sign of a BSOD I'd run a hard drive diagnostic such as Seatools, just to be sure."

Seatools? For any hard drive at all?

If there is a reason to suspect that you have a faulty hardrive (nothing in this thread suggests that to me)... then please use this:

http://www.hdtune.com/

Posted 5 months ago #
stuartie_c - Member

There are millions of people all over the world who have working PCs with Microsoft operating systems. Do you think they are all utter idiots who fester in their own sorry hell of having a computer that doesn't work? Do you think they sit in front of a screen filled with a memory dump and cry and cry wishing it just was not so?

I only use Microsoft operating systems for a few particular applications that I cannot do without; I am certainly not a fan of theirs. But to imagine that it is simply 'broken' and therefore you need to overpay someone else to sell you something is a serious misunderstanding of the situation.

Oooooo-K. Do you think you might have over-reacted?

Posted 5 months ago #
stuartie_c - Member

...or mis-understood the situation?

Posted 5 months ago #
schrickvr6 - Member

Yep the basic read features of seatools work on any hard drive. Well in my experience the most common cause of BSODs is bad sectors, but whatever, you could mess around trying everything else first, failing and discovering your hd is knackered or worse still lose your data.

Posted 5 months ago #
stuartie_c - Member

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=atikmpag.sys

Posted 5 months ago #
schrickvr6 - Member

Saying what I just have as I couldn't be bothered to google it does look like a common driver issue, but in most cases I would do as I said.

Posted 5 months ago #
Cougar - Member

Do you think they are all utter idiots blah blah

Quiet, adults are talking.

Posted 5 months ago #
chewkw - Member

BSOD ... only 5 times? I got that almost daily and sometimes it tookd me several hours just to boot up properly.

Here is my account of my BSOD.
My BSOD

I think I sorted the problem now by upgrading to the latest BIOS as the old BIOS was somewhat incompatible with some of the drivers and USB plug-n-play. Mine is ASUS mobo btw.

I think you best bet now is as follows:

1. Check all hardware are working properly.
2. Check your system is not infested by virus.
3. Check you have the right drivers.
4. Get the latest BIOS.

Initially I thought it was my cheapo £30 ATI graphic card with it's poor driver so I uninstalled and reinstalled several times yet the BSOD kept appearing. But once I updated the BIOS to the latest one the problems disappeared and for the last 12 days pooter has been behaving nicely.

Posted 5 months ago #