Blue Screen problems

[Poldian]

Hi, I'm having problems with BSOD. I've had 3/4 crashed two weeks ago (22/23 Jan), than everthing smooth till two days ago, with 4 crashes in a row.

Let's start from the PC. it's a Samsung Laptop, 700z3a (if I rememder well). 2nd Gen i5 (2.4 MHz), 6Gb RAM.
I bougth it in February 2014, so it has 4 years. Never used it improperly but yes, I stressed it sometimes. I had no remarkables or great problems until now.

I have downloaded whoCrashed and BlueScreenViewer to analyze the problem, but I have problem to write a dump file (so I'm sorry, no file upload for the moment). I've set to "full memory dump" and checked the "overwrite" function, then set the paging file dimension (for disc C, the system one) to almost 10GB.
The Auto-carsh test of whocrashed worked well, and gave me a dmp of about 256kb, but other real crashes nothing.

Important: ALWAYS before crashing I can clearly hear some strange sounds form the inside. There are some beeps, but mostly some (don't know how to say in words) "claps", as something rotating overlapping on itself, or going out of tracks. Bah, imagination...

Hardware? Really don't know. I play some games (fifa 14 mostly) and never crashed during it, so I suppose it is not overheating or somneting releated to "stress".

So now I'm stuck in this situation. Can't predict when crashing, can't wirte dump files for info, can't fix the problem.

I'll be really gratefull to whoever helps me in any way.
Thanks everybody

(Forgive my bad english, please...)

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Suspect dreaded HEAT DEATH. Have you opened your laptop and cleaned out the dust?

and many others

 

[Poldian]

Well, no. I'm gonna do it sure!
But as I said, when stressing it gaming (fifa is not the most demanding game, but still more than chrome or word I suppose...) it never crashed... So it seems strange to be heat the cause!

But after all it won't take me much to clean it, so let's try!

Thanks a lot!

 

[Poldian]

Ah, and the strange sounds from inside? Can you tell me something? Are them related?

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Ah, and the strange sounds from inside? Can you tell me something? Are them related?

Definite possibility. Like the time I found spiders in a PSU - warm dark place - maybe a bit breezy, but so is Hawaii. Instead of a dust bunny, it could be a dust squirrel - storing nuts. Watch 3 or 4 videos first - there might be one on your specific machine (thought I saw one about repairing a jack). Do your disassembly on a white pillow case over a bath towel - cushion laptop and makes it easier to find dropped screws. I use a bit of card stock and punch holes in the same pattern and I insert screws as I go along. Helps me remember how to put them back. Gently does it - some connections are fragile - especially the foil type which is clamped. When any doubt, search for video. As to video, some folks make a video of the disassembly - it can help when you reassemble.

Might not be the cause, but like changing oil on the car, it would be a real shame not to.

When you get to the fan, look for anything stuck inside the shroud. Also examine fan to see if any blades are warped or 'odd'. Also carefully examine all screw holes - against the possibility that a couple were overlooked in assembly (favorite trick of some car makers - love finding four screw holes and two screws).

Another possibility (no heat issue, clatter inside, crash) is a malfunction in your HDD - can you check SMART for your drive? Any indication of diminishing capability should impel replacement.

 

[Poldian]

Well, thanks a lot for the support!
I've just checked the health of the disk and it seems good. I aupload three picture: the forst is the check function in command prompts (reults: OK). Then I downloaded CrystalDiskInfo and It says GOOD. I can't understend all the parameters meaning, so I upload the picture if somuone could get some useful information out of that. Finally the last picture is the Crystal check on the small SSD (I think it's used on turning on the pc, however, it's not storage). It says good, dut 98%, why ot 100%? Is this a problem?

Now I'm gonna open the machine and kill some dust! Hope that's the problem...

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Your storage looks fine. The stat on the SSD probably related to total lifetime read/write which is the llmiting factor - and not a prediction of failure (at least as long as you have some remaining life). In other words SSD can do a bazillion cycles and you have used up 2% of that bazillion.

 

[Poldian]

Ok thank you! That's a good news.
I didn't opened the pc because I din't managed to take off all the screws, I'll try back when I find a better screwdriver... For the moment, thanks a lot.

Just one more thing. My pc does't dump memory. I enebled it, set the paging file to almost 10GB (I have 6 of ram) and selected "full memory dump", but in the last 3/4 crashed no dump file appeared out...

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Nice article about BSOD... http://www.howtogeek.com/196672/windows-memory-dumps-what-exactly-are-they-for/

 

[Poldian]

Opened end cleaned. I didn't find a huge amount of dust, just every "blade" of the fan had a little cover... However, thank you very much for the moment. And let's hope that was the cause!

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Another plus, you expanded your geek skill set.

How often did you have crashes in the last week? Are the circumstances similar or is it still 'random'? You said "ALWAYS before crashing I can clearly hear some strange sounds form the inside." Please test this in the week ahead - take notes on anything that seems out of place or unexpected - including circumstances just before a crash.

See #9 above for link to nice article - may help you catch the dump.

 

[Poldian]

Hi, I'm coming back on this thread 3 months later with bad news: it seemed to be solved in February, and the pc went smooth for almost 3 months, but during the last two weeks it stared back again with the same problems and symptoms. Strange clicking sounds from the inside, than it freezes on the screen (nothing can be clicked nor the keyboard works, as if it is a monitor with a still image) and it turn completely quiet, completely still, as it was off, but the screen in on... some time after, blue screen an shutting down. This happened very often during last days. Any ideas? Any advice?
From the sound I am driven to think about a physical problem, but I'm an absolute beginner in this field so I'm in your hands!

Thanks a lot for any advice!

 

[Cycloid Torus]

You are no longer a beginner.

Need systematic approach.

Current situation is: noise...then freeze...then quiet...then BSOD.

Change from full memory dump to mini-dump. http://www.howtogeek.com/196672/windows-memory-dumps-what-exactly-are-they-for/

Use whoCrashed and BlueScreenViewer to analyze the problem.

Check SMART status of HDD: http://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to-see-if-your-hard-drive-is-dying/

If SMART is 'AOK', then run chkdsk: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/guide-to-using-check-disk-in-windows-vista/ and review in Event Viewer

Find error / error code and then interpret.

 

[Poldian]

Hi, thanks a lot. I've already changed to mini-dump because full memry dump didn't give me any file. I'm gonna analize it as soon as the first BSOD occurs. HDD check was good in February, whe I first had the issue, but I'll check it again.
Chkdsk? Don't know what it is, but I can ask my good friend Google!!!

Thanks a lot

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Do follow the links that I gave you for valuable insight.