5.2 – Proprietary crash screens [BSOD = Blue Screen of Death / Pinwheel] Flashcards
BSOD
- Blue Screen of Death
- Could be something with the hardware / OS / app
Hardware issues could be
-
Bad RAM / RAM going bad [most of the time]
—1st thing to check
—Reseat the RAM
—New RAM
—Reinstall OS - Failing HD
-
Wrong video card drivers
—Update / get new video drivers
Software Crashes
o OS is corrupt = reinstall OS
o App generates one error & Windows doesn’t know how to respond
—Uninstall / reinstall app
Black Screen
o NO DISPLAY on the screen
o Check the following
—Monitor is getting power
—Plug in both power & video cable
—Plug into the computer
—Plug into the correct video port on the computer
—Surge is turned on
—Monitor is set to the correct display type such as HDMI
NO Power
o When you press the power button & nothing happens
o Check the following:
—You are pressing the correct power button & NOT the reset button
—Computer is plugged in
—Surge is turned on
—Surge acutally works
—Power supply switch is set to on
—Jumpers are plugged into motherboard correctly
—Ensure the power supply is correctly plugged into the motherboard
—Replace the power supply with known working one
Sluggish Performance
o Computer is running slow
o Can happen for a large number of reasons including:
—NOT enough memory
—Slow hard drive
—Slow processor
—Corrupt app
—Corrupt OS
—Virus / malware on the system
—NOT using the correct drivers
Overheating
o Computer gets too hot & shuts off / reboots
o Generally happens because of poor ventilation
o Check the following:
—All fans in the case are working
—Heatsink on the processor is not working
—May need to remove the processor heatsink & replace the thermal paste
—If overclocking = get liquid cooling
—Clean fans with compressed air
—Use electronic vacuum = suck up dust
Burning Smell
o Something in the case is melting / on fire
o SHUT OFF right away & UNPLUG from wall
o Most likely the power supply has burned out
o Check the following:
—Smell inside to see where it’s coming from, smell power supply
—Look at motherboard – see any black spots
Intermittent Shutdown
o Computer shuts down randomly
o Can happen because of heat issues
o Can happen for a large number of reasons including:
—OS is corrupt
—Memory is failing – put in new RAM
App Crashes
o Apps are stopping / freezing randomly
o Usually can happen because of corruption of app / OS
o Can happen for large number of reasons:
—Realted to hardware = memory problem
—OS is corrupt
—App is corrupt
—Memory is failing
—Event viewer = shows app crashing / working
Grinding Noise
o Only fans / hard drives make noise in computer case
o Could be fan having an issues
o Could be hard drive failing
Capacitor Swelling
o Failing capacitor
o Generally will have to replace the motherboard
o Flat = good
o Bulge = NOT good = replace motherboard [might explode]
Inaccurate System Date / Time
o Generally BIOS battery is dead = need to be replaced
o System timer keeps going back = replace CMOS battery
