blue screen of death twice on new computer in 2 weeks

[jmt356]

The blue screen of death twice on new computer in 2 weeks is a pretty bad sign, no? If I send it back to the manufacturer for repair and then they give it back to me reformatted adn all with all my data erased and I then restore the computer using Acronis, then whatever error was causing the death screen will be restored to the computer and continuing bringing the death screen back, no?

[Claude]

Have you tried system restore to the day before your first BSOD ?

[HansV]

I agree with Claude, system restore might solve the problem. Restoring an Acronis image of the corrupt state of the computer will only reproduce the problem.

But do you have any idea what caused the BSODs? Was it the same program both times, or were you doing something in particular both times?

[jmt356]

Yesterday, I clicked a link in an Outlook contact when it happened. The first time, I don't remember what I was doing. But it was something mundane like when yesterday's BSOD appeared. I already spent so much time configuring my laptop that to do a system restore would cause me to lose a lot of time. And I'm also not sure hwo to do a system restore. Can I choose to restore it to any time of my choosing or are there only certain times available? Could the problem be that I started installing the free trial version of Office 2007 but canceled halfway through? Would a scan disk find or fix the problem?

[Claude]

Have you tried trying it ?

[HansV]

There will be a finite number of restore points available. See System Restore - Windows 7 features - Microsoft Windows and follow the links below the screenshot on that page for more info; one of them is a video showing how to use system restore.

[jmt356]

The most recent to this saga: just got this error message:

"Windows detected a hard disk problem.
"Back up your files immediately to prevent information loss, and then contact the computer manufacturer to determine if you need to repair or replace the disk."

See attached image.

I run check disk weekly and the latest check disk was two days ago on 1/9/11 and it said:

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
243200 file records processed. File verification completed.
312 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 0 EA records processed. 60 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
314956 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
243200 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 56 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 56 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 56 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
35879 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
37121728 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
243184 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
48763411 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

298592255 KB total disk space.
103071148 KB in 206517 files.
112412 KB in 35880 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
355047 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
195053648 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
74648063 total allocation units on disk.
48763412 allocation units available on disk.

[HansV]

That sounds ominous. Make sure that you have backups of all essential data.

[viking33]

Have you seen the BSOD since running the chkdsk?
I think the chkdsk found and repaired the junk left from the aborted install of Office. I'd run it again and also make a new copy of Acronis. You could also use TI to have as a Backup of your data files only. ( in addition to having an image of the complete disk )

[jmt356]

I haven’t seen the death screen in a month. It popped up twice during the first two weeks of my new computer and since stopped. I have since been running check disks, which report no errors, and yesterday, I started getting these imminent failure warnings. Then yesterday, I restarted my computer and got this message:

“SMART Hard Disk Error
The SMART hard disk check has detected an imminent failure. To ensure not [sic.] data loss, please backup the content immediately and run the Hard Disk Test in System Diagnostics.
Hard Disk 1 (301)
F2 System Diagnostics
ENTER – Continue Startup
For more information, please visit: http://www.hp.com/go/techcenter/startup" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;”

I pressed enter to continue and then everything ran as normal. I ran scan disks of my C, D, and E drives. All of the scans showed no bad sectors or other errors. How can I be getting these hard disk failure warnings when my Scan Disk reports, for both disks C and D as well as E show no bad sectors or other errors? Can the hard disk failure warnings be wrong?

Bob, when you say “make a new copy of Acronis,” do you mean make a new image using Acronis? I created a complete image of my hard drive using TI and am taking the computer to repair to switch out the hard drive before it crashes.

[StuartR]

Your disk is clearly faulty and you should replace it as soon as possible.
Scandisk will not necessarily show errors as faulty sectors on the disk will already have been remapped to avoid the errors.

[viking33]

Bob, when you say “make a new copy of Acronis,” do you mean make a new image using Acronis? I created a complete image of my hard drive using TI and am taking the computer to repair to switch out the hard drive before it crashes.
------------------------------------------------
Yes, a new image.
You can also use the image to just mount a new copy ( or clone ) of the hard drive and restore only certain files and\or data, instead of restoring the entire disk image itself.

[jmt356]

When I get back the computer from repair in two weeks, do you advise against restoring the image of the computer taken just before I gave it to repair as that image may contain errors that were causing the previous error messages or are these errors due to hardware issues that will be fixed upon receiving the repaired computer, therefore not leading to the error messages if I restore the latest image?

[HansV]

It looks like a hardware failure to me, not a Windows/software problem, so the problems shouldn't return if you restore an image.

[viking33]

When I get back the computer from repair in two weeks, do you advise against restoring the image of the computer taken just before I gave it to repair as that image may contain errors that were causing the previous error messages or are these errors due to hardware issues that will be fixed upon receiving the repaired computer, therefore not leading to the error messages if I restore the latest image?

You can always make a NEW image as it is when you get the computer back. Then do a restore of the older one to try it out. Worse case would be to have to restore the newer image, if there were leftover remaining troubles.
When you do a FULL restore, TI creates a brand new partition in place of the previous one, so there is no semblance of the older one. Like erasing the slate clean, so to speak.