Blue screen of Death???

Well, it appears that I am getting re-occurrences of what I call the Blue
Screen of Death. My Compaq R4012US notebook gives me some error messages
that say "the system has performed an illegal operation and must shut down"
And shut down it does.

Then it will restart, but will quickly flash a blue screen filled with
commentary by very quickly, and then die again. I've gotten it back up a few
times, but I am afraid to even try now.

My son, who knows more about these things than I will ever know, said there
is an outside chance that Compaq may have given me a "restore Disk" and by
running that, I might be able to save the computer. I surely do not want to
have to buy another computer right now.

I searched and I can find a couple of E-Machines restore disks for another
computer, but not one for this one. The notebook is at least three or so
years old, and I probably tossed the disk out by mistake.

Any ideas; help; or where to get a "vonder" restore
disk? thanks Rich

Recurring BSODs are generally caused by failing or failed hardware. Here are
two possibilities:

The CPU cooling fan and ventilation area are clogged with dust and dirt, and the
CPU overheats, loses its mind and causes the BSOD.

The hard drive has developed some bad sectors, and the system does a BSOD when
it reads in the code for some driver module. Because the driver is corrupted,
an instruction within the driver goes off to never-never land, causing the BSOD.

These are the two most likely causes, but there are others. Can you see the
BSOD screen long enough to read the stop code? That will give us a clue.

I would clean out the cooling fan thoroughly and run diagnostics on the hard
drive before doing anything else. Usually when a computer shows up here needing
work, I clean out the dust and dirt, then run hardware diagnostics before
messing with the software... Ben Myers

On Fri, 4 Apr 2008 15:17:57 -0500, "rich" <> wrote:

>Well, it appears that I am getting re-occurrences of what I call the Blue
>Screen of Death. My Compaq R4012US notebook gives me some error messages
>that say "the system has performed an illegal operation and must shut down"
>And shut down it does.
>
>Then it will restart, but will quickly flash a blue screen filled with
>commentary by very quickly, and then die again. I've gotten it back up a few
>times, but I am afraid to even try now.
>
>My son, who knows more about these things than I will ever know, said there
>is an outside chance that Compaq may have given me a "restore Disk" and by
>running that, I might be able to save the computer. I surely do not want to
>have to buy another computer right now.
>
>I searched and I can find a couple of E-Machines restore disks for another
>computer, but not one for this one. The notebook is at least three or so
>years old, and I probably tossed the disk out by mistake.
>
>Any ideas; help; or where to get a "vonder" restore
> disk? thanks Rich

Ben, thanks very much....No, the blue screen just flashes by very quickly.
However, the over-heating clue might help. I often use the notebook while
it is resting on my lap. Perhaps that is forcing it to over-heat, which
would explain why the BSOD only shows up sporadically. I'll look over the
cooling vents and use a vacuum on them. Then, I'll try to run it sitting on
a table, perhaps with a few small pads under the "feet" to see if additional
cooling might do the trick Thanks very much, rich


"Ben Myers" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Recurring BSODs are generally caused by failing or failed hardware. Here
> are
> two possibilities:
>
> The CPU cooling fan and ventilation area are clogged with dust and dirt,
> and the
> CPU overheats, loses its mind and causes the BSOD.
>
> The hard drive has developed some bad sectors, and the system does a BSOD
> when
> it reads in the code for some driver module. Because the driver is
> corrupted,
> an instruction within the driver goes off to never-never land, causing the
> BSOD.
>
> These are the two most likely causes, but there are others. Can you see
> the
> BSOD screen long enough to read the stop code? That will give us a clue.
>
> I would clean out the cooling fan thoroughly and run diagnostics on the
> hard
> drive before doing anything else. Usually when a computer shows up here
> needing
> work, I clean out the dust and dirt, then run hardware diagnostics before
> messing with the software... Ben Myers
>
> On Fri, 4 Apr 2008 15:17:57 -0500, "rich" <> wrote:
>
>>Well, it appears that I am getting re-occurrences of what I call the Blue
>>Screen of Death. My Compaq R4012US notebook gives me some error messages
>>that say "the system has performed an illegal operation and must shut
>>down"
>>And shut down it does.
>>
>>Then it will restart, but will quickly flash a blue screen filled with
>>commentary by very quickly, and then die again. I've gotten it back up a
>>few
>>times, but I am afraid to even try now.
>>
>>My son, who knows more about these things than I will ever know, said
>>there
>>is an outside chance that Compaq may have given me a "restore Disk" and by
>>running that, I might be able to save the computer. I surely do not want
>>to
>>have to buy another computer right now.
>>
>>I searched and I can find a couple of E-Machines restore disks for another
>>computer, but not one for this one. The notebook is at least three or so
>>years old, and I probably tossed the disk out by mistake.
>>
>>Any ideas; help; or where to get a "vonder" restore
>> disk? thanks Rich

rich wrote:
> Ben, thanks very much....No, the blue screen just flashes by very
> quickly. However, the over-heating clue might help. I often use the
> notebook while it is resting on my lap. Perhaps that is forcing it to
> over-heat, which would explain why the BSOD only shows up sporadically.
> I'll look over the cooling vents and use a vacuum on them. Then, I'll
> try to run it sitting on a table, perhaps with a few small pads under
> the "feet" to see if additional cooling might do the trick Thanks very
> much, rich

<snip>


BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THAT VACUUM!

It's easy -- far easier than you might think -- to bend the
thin metal fins, permanently destroying their cooling efficiency,
and even to wreck a fan by forcing the fan to spin faster than
spec and with weird imbalances from the turbulence.

The safest thing is -- if the fan can be seen through one of the
vents -- keep the fan from spinning, and use some canned air to
gently blow out any dust. But a vacuum? I sure wouldn't!

Well, maybe I made it worse... but I doubt it. After gentle vacuuming (
??? ) I fired her up and she ran slow but OK for about a half hour.

Next time I fire her up, I'll pay particular attention to the fan and see if
I even hear it running at all.

Then, everything locked up solid. Perhaps I have a re-set date back a few
weeks that I can go to and see if it is something that crept into the
software during that time. After it cools for while, I'll try that. I am
just fumbling around here.... So any additional comments or help would be
appreciated. thanks Rich

>So any additional comments or help would be
> appreciated. thanks Rich

Make a Memtest bootdisk and let it run on your computer for several
days.
http://www.memtest.org/

If you get any errors from Memtest then you are having a hardware
problem.

Seems that now the computer simply stops doing anything after it runs for 15
minutes or so. No announcement of troubles; no Blue screen...everything
grinds to halt with the page being displayed. The fan is continuing to run
at this time, though.

I tried to do a restore, but ...even though I went all of the way back to
Jan 2 ( three different tries) it says..."Can't restore, no changes have
been made to this computer??" I don't understand that. Then, I tried to
run a full scan, but it stopped long before it got through that. I ran a
full scan only a week or so ago.

Any other ideas would be very much appreciated. Sounds like over-heated
hardware now, eh? thanks Rich

rich wrote:

> Seems that now the computer simply stops doing anything after it runs for
> 15 minutes or so. No announcement of troubles; no Blue screen...everything
> grinds to halt with the page being displayed. The fan is continuing to run
> at this time, though.
>
> I tried to do a restore, but ...even though I went all of the way back to
> Jan 2 ( three different tries) it says..."Can't restore, no changes have
> been made to this computer??" I don't understand that. Then, I tried to
> run a full scan, but it stopped long before it got through that. I ran a
> full scan only a week or so ago.
>
> Any other ideas would be very much appreciated. Sounds like over-heated
> hardware now, eh? thanks Rich

One way to rule out the software is to boot the computer from a live Linux
disk. ( Ubuntu is an example.) If the computer runs fine, then the hardware
is probably OK.

Joe,, OK I am a 68 year old non-computer guy. How would I get a Linux disk?
thanks rich

"joe" <> wrote in message news:ft834p$2fc$...
> rich wrote:
>
>> Seems that now the computer simply stops doing anything after it runs for
>> 15 minutes or so. No announcement of troubles; no Blue
>> screen...everything
>> grinds to halt with the page being displayed. The fan is continuing to
>> run
>> at this time, though.
>>
>> I tried to do a restore, but ...even though I went all of the way back to
>> Jan 2 ( three different tries) it says..."Can't restore, no changes have
>> been made to this computer??" I don't understand that. Then, I tried to
>> run a full scan, but it stopped long before it got through that. I ran a
>> full scan only a week or so ago.
>>
>> Any other ideas would be very much appreciated. Sounds like
>> over-heated
>> hardware now, eh? thanks Rich
>
> One way to rule out the software is to boot the computer from a live Linux
> disk. ( Ubuntu is an example.) If the computer runs fine, then the
> hardware
> is probably OK.

rich wrote:

> Joe,, OK I am a 68 year old non-computer guy. How would I get a Linux
> disk? thanks rich
>

Download an image from here and burn to a CD
http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download

or,
Have one shipped to you
https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

or,
go to a major bookstore and look for a computer book for Ubuntu (that
includes a disk), or look at computer magazines for one with an Ubuntu
disk.

I suggest Ubuntu vs. others as they generally come as a 'live' CD.

"Live CD" means that you can put it in your drive, and boot the PC from the
CD. It runs without having to install anything to your hard disk.

The first two options are very low cost, the bookstore option will cost
$10 - $50, depending upon what you buy.


> "joe" <> wrote in message news:ft834p$2fc$...
>> rich wrote:
>>
>>> Seems that now the computer simply stops doing anything after it runs
>>> for 15 minutes or so. No announcement of troubles; no Blue
>>> screen...everything
>>> grinds to halt with the page being displayed. The fan is continuing to
>>> run
>>> at this time, though.
>>>
>>> I tried to do a restore, but ...even though I went all of the way back
>>> to Jan 2 ( three different tries) it says..."Can't restore, no changes
>>> have
>>> been made to this computer??" I don't understand that. Then, I tried
>>> to run a full scan, but it stopped long before it got through that. I
>>> ran a full scan only a week or so ago.
>>>
>>> Any other ideas would be very much appreciated. Sounds like
>>> over-heated
>>> hardware now, eh? thanks Rich
>>
>> One way to rule out the software is to boot the computer from a live
>> Linux disk. ( Ubuntu is an example.) If the computer runs fine, then the
>> hardware
>> is probably OK.