frequent crashing of my g74sx has recently started happening...

[AQUASTEVAE]

my g74sx has started crashing a lot recently, after a year of running perfectly. the only thing i remember doing differently is upgrading from firefox 15 to 18, and reloading the atk package, when it seemed to stop working. other than that can't think of anything different. any help is really appreciated. it will run fine for about 45 min's, and then freeze up, or give me the blue screen of death.

[dstrakele]

1) What is the a) bugcheck code, b) bugcheck string, c) 4 Parameters, and d) filenames of files that may have caused the problem? BlueScreenView from Nirsoft can help you gather that information.

2) Can you supply more detail of exactly what you're doing when the lockups and BSOD's occur? In other words, if you wanted someone else to reproduce a lockup or BSOD on your machine, what steps would you have them take?

3) Since you report the crashes are a recent phenomenon, Windows System Restore may allow you to resolve the problem by restoring your system to a time just before the problem occurred, then you could pay close attention to any new installations or configuration changes.

[fostert]

How are the CPU temps? Perhaps the heatsink/pipes came loose and are making intermittent or little contact with the die/thermal grease?

[Pitcher@asus]

how is happen when you remove firefox? if you do not mind you can try restore OS.

[AQUASTEVAE]

ok, first i have dl bsv, and have it running. i have not read anything about it though, so i hope it works on its own.
next, yes fos, my temps have been a bit higher. like when idling they are in the low 50's, but when i do something stronger, they run up in the 60's. right now speed fan has most of my cores at 53c while typing this post.
btw, is brodyboy still on here helping people like he use to?

update, for dstrakele, my sys has crashed twice since adding bsv, and it shows no crashes. of course neither crash produced a blue screen, but the system froze all the same, and had to be restarted. any advise?

[dstrakele]

System lockups typically don't provide you with any diagnostic information. The best you can hope for is to examine the Windows System and Application Event Logs for any Warnings or Errors that may point to a troubleshooting direction. For example, Disk Errors in the System Event Log could indicate a failing HDD that may be causing the lockup. Look around startup time (for any processes, apps, or drivers that fail to start) and a couple hours prior to the lockup (which will be identified by by a generic Kernel Power EventID 41 that tells of the unexpected shutdowns).

BlueScreenView should be able to gather information from past BSOD's by reading the mini-dump files created when they occur. Are you not seeing any past BSOD's information displayed when you launch this utility?

Standard troubleshooting for lockups involves confirming the file system and memory are sound by running CHKDSK C: /F /R from an elevated Command Prompt (right-click on the Command Prompt icon and choose "Run as administrator") and running memtest86+, respectively.

Driver conflicts typically can cause lockups. Antivirus, AntiMalware, Firewall, Remote Administration, or Disk Management software are the usual suspects. You can troubleshoot by selectively uninstalling these applications to see if the lockup behavior is eliminated. You mentioned upgrading Firefox at about the time you observed your first lockup. That makes it a definite lockup suspect for selective uninstallation.

Windows System Restore is a quick way of resolving recent lockup issues. Just restore back to the Restore Point closest to the time BEFORE the first lockup was observed and see if it eliminates the problem. You can always UNDO a System Restore if it doesn't help.

If it DOES eliminate the lockup, pay particular attention to any updates (including Windows Updates and Antivirus updates) as well as configuration changes. It is advisable to create a Restore Point prior to any updates you make so they can easily be undone if they turn out to be the culprit.

[AQUASTEVAE]

yeah, the sys locks up most of the time, and i only get the bsd once in a while. but, no, it does not show the old crashes. how can i load tilhem?
check disk will not run while sys is running so it will run when i restart. and the cmd said that memtest86+ was an unrecognized command.
my windows restore doesn't go back far enough to help. but that brings up another question, how can i create a restore point that will not be erased, or over written? can i set it to only manual restore points created?

[dstrakele]

1) BlueScreenView automatically loads information from dump files in the Windows 7 Minidump folder (default is C:\windows\minidump\) when you launch it. It sounds like there are none on your system. Check to see if your system is configured to save minidump files from BSOD's. See http://blog.nirsoft.net/2010/07/27/h...files-on-bsod/.

2) You can increase the amount of disk space devoted to Windows System Restore Points so they last longer, but it is not designed to be a backup utility. If you want to save a snapshot of your system for the long term, you'll want to backup a Windows System Image using "Backup and Restore" or a disk image using a utility like Acronis True Image.

3) memtest86+ is a 3rd party memory diagnostic utility. See http://www.memtest.org/.

[AQUASTEVAE]

well there are a few other things that i didn't mention, as i thought the things i did mention were the important factors. however, just to be complete, here are a few of the other things that have been happening.
first, several times when the sys locks up, i have to shut down completely and restart it. when i have many times, it will not boot into windows. instead it tells me that i need to put in my installation disk, and run it. sometimes this works, when i use startup
repair, other times it says it can't fix it, and ask's me if i want to send a report.
other times it just tells me windows didn't shut down properly, and ask's me how i want to boot back into windows. ie normal startup, or safe mode...etc...
i ran a check disk, and it ran without any errors found until the last stage, where it said that there wasn't enough space to recover bad sectors. but when i run ssdlife, it says that my ssd drive is in perfect health. so i freed as much space as i could on c:, but there seems to be more space being taken up than what i can find in my files and folders. there is like 50gig's that i can't account for. any other idea's?

i do use acronis, but unfortunately, as it always seems to happen, i deleted all of my older images, and the image i kept seems to contain the same problem, as that was the first thing i did.
finally, i just noticed that my avast internet security hasn't updated in a while. and when i try to update the definitions, it gets stuck. so i am thinking about deleting it, and reloading from scratch.

[xeromist]

It's possible that much of the consumed space you can't account for is taken up by the Hibernation and Swap files. The hibernation file is the same size as your installed memory. However, using space on the SSD should not cause crashes. Have you checked to see if there is a newer firmware for your SSD than is currently in use?

Your temps don't seem too high. If you are worried they are higher than when it was new you might just need to blast it out with compressed air.