Another computer help with Windows 7 please.

[Sam Layton]

I have an HP computer 4 to 6 months old. It came with Vista. I have had numerous problems with this computer. I do not like Vista, so I installed Windows 7.

I have started having a blue screen pop up every once and a while. After the blue screen appears, the computer re-boots, and everything is ok for a while. I think it says it is a windows problem, or something like that.

Has anyone else experienced this with Windows 7. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Sam

[Chuck Wintle]

I have an HP computer 4 to 6 months old. It came with Vista. I have had numerous problems with this computer. I do not like Vista, so I installed Windows 7.

I have started having a blue screen pop up every once and a while. After the blue screen appears, the computer re-boots, and everything is ok for a while. I think it says it is a windows problem, or something like that.

Has anyone else experienced this with Windows 7. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Sam
a blue screen could indicate a problem with the registry. Did you format the hard d rive before installing windows 7?

[Paul Ryan]

Microsoft has free support for windows 7 owners. I upgraded a laptop to windows seven, and had big problems with my card reader after the upgrade. I called them and after a couple of nights of trying to fix it the driver was determined to be the problem. While trying the fix the problem the driver was removed, installed many times but never resolved the problem. I was told that I had to wait until a new driver came out. About a week ago the card reader manufacturer came out with a new driver and that fixed my troubles. Do a search for windows 7 tech support. It is directly through microsoft, they have phone numbers and chat. But as usual it is with Indian folks.

[paul cottingham]

A BSOD (blue screen of death ) is often driver or ram related. I would check both.

[Eric Franklin]

Did you do an upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista? If you did, you probably brought over the problems you had with Vista.

BSOD are usually a bad device driver or defective hardware.

[paul cottingham]

+1 to what Eric said. The only reliable upgrade of an operating system is from windows to Linux. (sorry I couldn't resist.)

[Dennis McGarry]

First question, did you have the same issues with vista? If so, its hardware related, almost guaranteed.

Second question, If not, did you do a upgrade to windows 7? If so then it is a driver issue.

Third Question if you did a clean full install, have you had any power surges or power outages?

Have you installed any new devices? Verify all drivers are up to date, Run a adware and virus scan..

[Curt Harms]

+1 to what Eric said. The only reliable upgrade of an operating system is from windows to Linux. (sorry I couldn't resist.)

:eek:


:D

Although I'm having Ubuntu Linux problems resuming from suspend on a machine with a replacement Nvidia AGP video card. Usually it will unsuspend, once in a while it won't.

[Sam Layton]

Thanks everyone for your help and input.

Charles, I did not format the hard drive prior to installing W7.

Paul, I will check out tech support.

Paul C, would I check the ram and drivers through, PC help and Tools?

Eric and Dennis, I did an upgrade to W7 from Vista. I have had to reformat Vista 3-4 times per HP support. They finally sent me a new hard drive and I again installed Vista. I finally got tired of Vista and went to W7. I did an upgrade, and not a clean install.

Dennis, No I did not have the same problem with Vista. Never had a blue screen with vista. No clean install, upgrade only. No power problems. No new devices. How do I verify all drivers are up to date? What program do I use for adware. I use trend micro for virus protection.

Thanks again everyone for your help, Sam

[paul cottingham]

Although it is not as helpful as I would like to be, the easiest way to test ram is to replace it with known good ram. There is a great utility called memtest that you can down load, burn to a cd, and boot off the cdrom. We test every pc we build with this tool for at least 3 cycles.
http://www.memtest86.com/

As to the drivers, you could try dropping down to generic drivers and see if that helps.

As to spyware, check out spybot. I would also try another AV like avast, or even clamwin to check.

As an aside, upgrades often have weird little problems that are really tough to track down.

Hope this helps

Paul

[Sam Layton]

Thank you Paul, I will try what you suggested.

Thanks again, Sam

[Chuck Wintle]

Thank you Paul, I will try what you suggested.

Thanks again, Sam

yes Run memtest to check the memory. You can either make a floppy disk or use the ISO for a cd.

[Anthony Scira]

If nothing else works back up your data and do a clean install. It is really not that hard.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/windows_7_install_guide

[Dennis McGarry]

Ok I am going to say its either a driver issue, or memory.

BUT since vista is windows 7 only done right and the problems were not there under vista, and vista really hated bad memory. I am going to say driver issue since it was an upgrade.

Goto hp's site and download any and all drivers for your system for windows 7.

Go under support and enter service tag off the label on the back. if there are not any drivers for windows 7 for it, let me know the service tag number and I will locate the manufactures drivers for it.

BSOD when it comes to drivers are usually video or audio btw...

[paul cottingham]

In device manager, do any of the hardware icons show a bad driver? If you need help with this, let me know, and I'll post a step by step.

[Sam Layton]

Thanks again for all of the input. If I do a clean install, is that different than doing what I did, an upgrade? If I do a clean install, will I loose all of the programs the computer came with? I do have an external hard drive for back up.

Sam

[Chuck Wintle]

Thanks again for all of the input. If I do a clean install, is that different than doing what I did, an upgrade? If I do a clean install, will I loose all of the programs the computer came with? I do have an external hard drive for back up.

Sam
A clean install is different than an upgrade. You must reinstall all programs afterwards. On the external drive back up all files that you will need later. i.e. copy the entire contents of 'my documents" to the external drive. any other downloaded file should be copied over as well.

[Sam Layton]

Paul C, would you please give me the step by step.

Thank you, Sam

[Dennis McGarry]

On the start menu right click on computer, and choose properties.

In the properties window on the upper left side there is a link that says
Device Manager

Once you click on that, the device manager will open and in there it lists all the hardware in the system.
You are looking for anything with a Yellow ! eclmaton mark on it.

[paul cottingham]

What Dennis said.:)

Paul

[Dennis McGarry]

What Dennis said.:)

Paul

Paul I was hoping you were going to follow up with the pics?

LOL

Didnt mean to step on toes there, just I was on...

[Sam Layton]

Thank you Dennis and Paul. I checked it out and nothing wrong. I down loaded and am running Ad-Ware. Earlier today I did a Memory test with the PC tools and Help Diagnostic, and it passed. I they did a test on the entire system, and it stopped working on the Memory test. I will keep trying as the different suggestions.

Thanks again for all of the help, Sam

[paul cottingham]

Paul I was hoping you were going to follow up with the pics?

LOL

Didnt mean to step on toes there, just I was on...

I'm glad you did. I don't run windows 7, but was a 2000 and xp instructor and admin. I was hoping that they hadn't changed that too much....