Dammit! Another BSOD.

[ZiprHead]

I'm getting BSODs on my laptop occasionally. It happens when playing online content such as watching live YT or streaming audio. The video/audio freezes with a loud grrrr-ing sound and the whole system freezes until the BSOD kicks in. It's an HP 6550b business class computer with I5 processor and 8 gigs RAM. The video and audio systems are not great since they weren't a priority when this thing was created. Running windows 7 and all drivers are up to date and Flash is updated.

Thoughts?

I've considered upgrading to Win 10.

 

[Worldtraveller]

I'm getting BSODs on my laptop occasionally. It happens when playing online content such as watching live YT or streaming audio. The video/audio freezes with a loud grrrr-ing sound and the whole system freezes until the BSOD kicks in. It's an HP 6550b business class computer with I5 processor and 8 gigs RAM. The video and audio systems are not great since they weren't a priority when this thing was created. Running windows 7 and all drivers are up to date and Flash is updated.

Thoughts?

I've considered upgrading to Win 10.

Win is arguably one of the worst versions (with Win 8 probably winning that contest) for a lot of reasons. There is a lot to dislike about 10, but for stability and general use, it is much better than 7. I like Linux, but it's so much hassle to get a lot of the games I like to run in Linux. (I could probably do it, I'm just lazy.)

 

[Underseer]

If the BSODs cannot be reproduced by performing a set series of steps, then the problem might be with the hardware, in which case nothing you do with the software is going to make a lick of difference.

When you say "drivers up to date," you got the drivers from the laptop manufacturer, right? The annoying thing about laptops is you never know what proprietary thing was done with this or that part, and it's generally safer to get your drivers from the laptop manufacturer instead of the parts manufacturers.

My suggestion: as a first step, do a full tabula rasa (wipe 'n reinstall) with the disks you got (or made) from the manufacturer. When was the last time you did that?

 

[ZiprHead]

If the BSODs cannot be reproduced by performing a set series of steps, then the problem might be with the hardware, in which case nothing you do with the software is going to make a lick of difference.

When you say "drivers up to date," you got the drivers from the laptop manufacturer, right? The annoying thing about laptops is you never know what proprietary thing was done with this or that part, and it's generally safer to get your drivers from the laptop manufacturer instead of the parts manufacturers.

My suggestion: as a first step, do a full tabula rasa (wipe 'n reinstall) with the disks you got (or made) from the manufacturer. When was the last time you did that?

Actually about six months ago I wiped and re-installed. And yes, the drivers are from HP. I would never trust getting drivers from a secondary source.

 

[Underseer]

Unless the problem is some kind of specific incompatibility between the version of Windows and an application that you use.

 

[ZiprHead]

Unless the problem is some kind of specific incompatibility between the version of Windows and an application that you use.

I'm thinking the video/audio systems are just getting overtaxed. Like I said, they aren't very good quality. Quality isn't needed when when the most stressful thing running might be a large spreadsheet or a bunch of emails.

 

[Underseer]

Core i5 should be pretty decent as long as you don't try to run games at max settings. The integrated GPU is kinda crappy, but that's a decent enough CPU for a laptop. 8GB should be enough as long as you're not playing Civ 6 on a huge map or something crazy.

If you already did a wipe & reinstall recently, then I would be less inclined in doing another one.

If you think it's a result of pushing the hardware too far, try lowering the graphics settings in that game and see if it affects the frequency of BSODs.

A big complicated spreadsheet shouldn't overtax what you have unless the spreadsheet is truly insane.

 

[ZiprHead]

Core i5 should be pretty decent as long as you don't try to run games at max settings. The integrated GPU is kinda crappy, but that's a decent enough CPU for a laptop. 8GB should be enough as long as you're not playing Civ 6 on a huge map or something crazy.

If you already did a wipe & reinstall recently, then I would be less inclined in doing another one.

If you think it's a result of pushing the hardware too far, try lowering the graphics settings in that game and see if it affects the frequency of BSODs.

A big complicated spreadsheet shouldn't overtax what you have unless the spreadsheet is truly insane.

Not running any games. It happens when playing both audio or video streaming content, mostly video. I think it's happened only once when streaming audio.

 

[poster]

Use Linux instead.

 

[Underseer]

Core i5 should be pretty decent as long as you don't try to run games at max settings. The integrated GPU is kinda crappy, but that's a decent enough CPU for a laptop. 8GB should be enough as long as you're not playing Civ 6 on a huge map or something crazy.

If you already did a wipe & reinstall recently, then I would be less inclined in doing another one.

If you think it's a result of pushing the hardware too far, try lowering the graphics settings in that game and see if it affects the frequency of BSODs.

A big complicated spreadsheet shouldn't overtax what you have unless the spreadsheet is truly insane.

Not running any games. It happens when playing both audio or video streaming content, mostly video. I think it's happened only once when streaming audio.

Streaming video really shouldn't strain the hardware you have.

 

[ZiprHead]

Core i5 should be pretty decent as long as you don't try to run games at max settings. The integrated GPU is kinda crappy, but that's a decent enough CPU for a laptop. 8GB should be enough as long as you're not playing Civ 6 on a huge map or something crazy.

If you already did a wipe & reinstall recently, then I would be less inclined in doing another one.

If you think it's a result of pushing the hardware too far, try lowering the graphics settings in that game and see if it affects the frequency of BSODs.

A big complicated spreadsheet shouldn't overtax what you have unless the spreadsheet is truly insane.

Not running any games. It happens when playing both audio or video streaming content, mostly video. I think it's happened only once when streaming audio.

Streaming video really shouldn't strain the hardware you have.

Well, it shouldn't, yes.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

How old is your system? Hard disk? So many hardware possibilities. A few bad sectors on an old hard disk can make your life hell. The old unplug and reseat memory DIMMs may clear up a problem. Reseat the hard disk. A CPU cooler clogged with dust bunnies may be a possibility. A hard disk nearly full to capacity can make a system do funny things. Malware, etc. And many other things. I had hell with my system, it turned out to be the local ATT DHCP server was garbage. I set up a static DNS server and my problems went away.

 

[Underseer]

How old is your system? Hard disk? So many hardware possibilities. A few bad sectors on an old hard disk can make your life hell. The old unplug and reseat memory DIMMs may clear up a problem. Reseat the hard disk. A CPU cooler clogged with dust bunnies may be a possibility. A hard disk nearly full to capacity can make a system do funny things. Malware, etc. And many other things. I had hell with my system, it turned out to be the local ATT DHCP server was garbage. I set up a static DNS server and my problems went away.

Also, shoving peanut butter inside the DVD-ROM tray will lubricate the byte grommets.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I'm old fashioned, but if it generally happens when playing video, I'm going with video driver.

The other idea is trying streaming with different software.

 

[barbos]

How old is your system? Hard disk? So many hardware possibilities. A few bad sectors on an old hard disk can make your life hell.

Maybe on 25 year old hard disk, modern disks don't cause much problems because of bad sectors. Bad sectors get instantly marked and remapped.

I understand BSOD provides some information, I would like to know what it says.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

I'm old fashioned, but if it generally happens when playing video, I'm going with video driver.

The other idea is trying streaming with different software.

Did it ever work well? Seems a lot of people have had problems with video after Windows updates. Perhaps a configuration problem?
Kodibuntu is a live Linux system that can run from a USB flash drive. It is meant to be good for media stuff. Perhaps download it and see if that runs well? If so, you have narrowed it down to a software issue. Kodi has a version for Windows also.

Kodi started as a project to allow XBox users to stream video, and has developed into a full blown multi-OS media center system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodi_(software)

 

[ZiprHead]

How old is your system? Hard disk? So many hardware possibilities. A few bad sectors on an old hard disk can make your life hell.

Maybe on 25 year old hard disk, modern disks don't cause much problems because of bad sectors. Bad sectors get instantly marked and remapped.

I understand BSOD provides some information, I would like to know what it says.

I usually don't wait for it to complete the memory dump because it puts out a godawful loud sound out of the speakers. I will next time (as long as it doesn't happen at night when others are sleeping).

 

[ZiprHead]

Just got another BSOD about a minute after starting a live stream of an audio program. I let the memory dump run but that failed and the computer immediately went to reboot. It went by before I could get the hexadecimal code. I'll try again next time.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Just got another BSOD about a minute after starting a live stream of an audio program. I let the memory dump run but that failed and the computer immediately went to reboot. It went by before I could get the hexadecimal code. I'll try again next time.

Again, I am a Linux guy and we check the dmesg logs to find out why things fail. Windows it seems also has a logging system that helps with finding out where a boot up fails, or a system crashes and BSODs.

https://www.digitalmastersmag.com/magazine/tip-of-the-day-how-to-find-crash-logs-on-windows-10/

Knowing next to nothing about the Windows 10 log file diagnostics, I can't help much more. You will have to look for the official MS manual.