Anyone ever experience startup issues with Vista resulting in a blue screen that flashes by saying something about a memory dump?

I've been getting them at random times for the last 4 to 6 weeks and this last week it has been every day.

I allow vista to run through it's repair cycle and after a half an hour, I can boot into the OS - although sometimes it freezes up or crashes while in the OS.

I tried Googling, and the biggest results have been a hardware error - something is conflicting with the boot sequence. Since I have not added any new hardware to this rig in a year, the suggestion of removing recently installed hardware does me no good.

Besides burning this rig in the driveway in a blazing bonfire - any suggestions or ideas on WTF might be causing this? Anyone experience this?

Thanks,

Sounds like it could be a bad memory module. Try removing memory modules one at a time to see if the problem persists.

- J*

get rid of VistaVirus

Actually I had XP give me blue screens last summer when I was running some mp3 ripping software.. (I decided to finally put my 300+ CD's on my computer).. I few months later decided to test Vista and MacOS Leopard as well as settling back on XP.. I never had any issues after any of the reinstalled.. seems it was the software conflicted somewhere with Windows..

Shoozle. I have to go with J on this. Check the RAM.

Thanks guys. I did open up the box and reset the RAM modules as well as took the air compressor and blew the dust out of every nook and craney. It booted up fine tonight - but that's one time. I'll have to see how it goes over the next few days or so.

I'll keep you posted.

BTW, what is the VistaVirus? Was that a crack at Vista or is there really something called that?

Its what we call Vista at work

Upgrade to Windows 7 as soon as the RTM is available. I am running the RC-1 now and it is much more stable than Vista. It even runs programs that I could never get to run stable on Vista. I look at the Windows Versions like this.

3.11 - Start of Windows
4.0 - Server good solid foundation no AD
95 - Better than 3.11
98 - Waste of time
98SE - Better than 95
2000 - Great OS both versions stable and secure
2000 Server - Great Network OS, Active Directory Arrives
Millenium - Sucked Ass - Vista Equivalent
XP Home - Like 2000 with no real networking support
XP Pro - Arguably the best OS Microsoft has put out for the PC
Server 2003 - Awesome Server OS
Server 2008 - Even Better Than 2003 but over secure out of the box
Vista - See Millenium
Windows 7 - Awesome See XP Pro
Server 2010 - Can't wait to try it....

Anyway just my 2 cents on the Microsoft Platforms....

Seriously though upgrade when you can or downgrade back to XP.

I'll definately take a look at it when it's out... thanks.

The system has been much more stable since I reset the ram modules and blew the layer of dust out of the inside... Had one crash the other day but I think that was IE8's fault.... POS....

I'm still not feeling too secure yet....

I haven't been too thrilled with Firefox 3 either. I'm debating the switch to something different again.

Yeah, I've had several of the BS startups again in the last week as well as one crash while in Vista. I actually got some beeps this time out of the bios - 3 beeps at boot.

I again reset the memory modules and it's booted fine the last 3 days since.... of course by saying that, I've just jinxed myself and I'll probably crash for 3 days again....

Have you tried going into Control Panel/Problem Reports and Solutions, and clicking on View Problem History? It keeps a log of all Windows fuckups!

Vista has some performance tool thing that I was checking.... It gave a ton of codes but none of them made any sense when I googled them.

The issue slowed down when I reset the memory and blew a ton of dust out, but then it came back and was worse after about a week. I pulled the memory out and changed the arrangement in the sockets - I (knock on wood here for good luck) have not had a single freeze up or BSD crash at startup in the week since. I'm guessing that was the main cause all along....

Sometimes you have to dig deeper. I bought a new laptop about 5 months ago, it's a top of the line gaming system, except that i don't do any gaming whatsoever, i just needed the power that one provides... i'm running Vista64, the thing was flying, performing beautifully, then it started screwing up, soon afterward, the blue screen, and just shutting down started happening. I checked the Control Panel/Problem Reports and Solutions/Problem History mentioned above, and just like you, i Googled the codes to no avail, however when i rightclicked on the problem listed, and clicked on details, i was able to gather enough data to find out that the problem was a HP wireless Printer s/w updater, everytime it tried to call home, it just hung, and the system crashed. I set it to manual, and didn't have any more problems, till i tried to manually update the s/w, then it crashed again, so i completely removed the whole HP printer s/w, reinstalled it, and everything is fine once again.

Re: Windows 7, i've heard nothing but excellent things said about it...

Everytime I hear the word "windows", I get these sharp headaches from between my eyes right on through the back of my skull....