System

[Seasonal]

what is the most effect way to restore the system? I am facing trouble since couple of days, every after 3 hours the screen became blue, with notification to must restart the system. And the troubleshoot saying some hardware problem.

I thought let me check with restoration, may be its works.

[jagabo]

Remove any hardware that you might have installed just before the problem started.

Remove any software you installed just before the system started having problems.

If those don't work:

Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore. Elect to restore. Pick a restore date before you had any problems.

[Marvingj]

Sounds like a Corrupt Device Drivers.....

[Bjs]

Welcome

Down below you will find some tips which may also be of help ... but first .

Right click on my computer on desktop , and sellect properties .
Then click on "hardware" tab .
Click on "device manager" button .

In this new window , do you see anything marked with an question mark in the list ?

Should there be no conflict shown in device manager ignore this part .

If yes ... then

Right click on item
Choose "uninstall"

If asked to reboot , say no for now .

If there is another device under the same main group , repeat the uninstall ... do this till main group contains no items .
Reboot system now .

It would be a good idea to have updated drivers ready should the os ask's for them during the detection of new hardware .

Reboot system .

While here , download all driver updates for your hardware now , and update the system .

Reboot , and re-asess the issue .

I have seen this problem caused by device driver corruption , and this is the quick method ... but not guaranteed , which if it dose not , you have to do a little bit more work .

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Should hardware that is connected not be detected , then theres a problem .

We start to get technical , so if anything might be considered beyond your capabilities from this point on , just do the simpler items to start off with .

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Lets start with a good old fashion clean ... getting the dust out which can cause system instability issues .
Power down , remove power lead , remove cover from pc .
Clean cpu fan and heatsink fins , and any other fans , gently .

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Go down to virus / trojan section first ... then return here if need be

Now remove any add on cards , and memory from motherboard ... refer to manual if not sure .
And reinstall memory ... you may need to support the motherboard when reinstalling the memory modules .
Disconnect cables , and reconnect them ... this helps with connections that might be at fault .
If graphics was from addon card , then reinsert it , firmly .

All other cards should not be installed for now .

Put the cover back on pc , and repower up ... see if the issue returns .

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Should issue not return ... then

Either a pci card was in the wrong slot , or failed ... example

Onboard agp / agp slot / pci1 (under agp slot) = only one slot (agp/pci) may have a device installed physically .
Pci2 / Pci3 = only one slot may have a device installed (shared resources)

Those lucky few with full sized mother boards .

Pci4 / pci5 = only one may have a device installed (shared resources)

Sometimes you may find a pci device needs to be in a prefered pci slot in order to work properly .

I have seen pcs with almost every pci slot having a device installed ... and they wonder why they were having problems .

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Should issue return :

Virus or trojan caused ?

Install avgfree , update it , run scan , quaranteen anything found ... then empty virus vault .
Install adawre se , update , run scan , quaranteen items ... delete backup (click on padlock to access) .
Grab hijackthis : http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

Run scan , save log ... if anything suspicious appears ... then either join

http://www.dslreports.com/forums/all , or http://www.tomcoyote.org/ forums , wait 5 days , then post log there for help ... be patient .

You can even copy the test from it , pm me , paste text ... do not forget to include the link to this post so I know where the original subject came from .

Once system has a clean bill of health , re-asess system ... if persist , we can move on to the next part .

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Check what updates have been installed within this time period .

Some are known to cause problems ... uninstall those that were installed after the date , problem was first noticed .
Reboot .

Reboot twice ... windows has a funny habit sometimes

Retest system .

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Should it still appear , then we need to look at what programs you have installed during this period ... some can cause complete havoc with system .

The issue could also be caused by addon graphics card ... slowly failing .

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There may be a need to investigate overheating cpu .

If your pc motherboard did not come with power / heat monitoring program , you may beable to monitor the heat using http://www.cpuid.org/download/pcw2007_v173.exe

Install , launch it , then once its finished loading and finding the pc components , send it to system tray .

Up in the right hand corner you will see temp display ... monitor the situation ... if temp rise's near cpus maximum range ... and issue reappears ... you will need to remove heatsink and fan from cpu , carefully , and clean both the top of the cpu and the heatsink ... remove all traces of old heatsink compound , then finally apply artic silver 5 , and reconnect the components correctly .

It should run much cooler ... even better if an aftermarket heatsink can be installed to replace the original .

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The easiest out method may be simply :
Download "new install" hard drive tool from hard drive manufacturer .
Use it to wipeout the system , repartition and format .
Reinstall the os .
Install updated drivers .
Reboot

See if issue appears ... if it dose ... its hardware at fault ... so you now go back up and start doing what I listed above to locate the cause ... step by step .